About our Noche Buena...

Our Noche Buena was held at the home of Richie and Mon in the East.

It's not that difficult to guess what the theme was. You have a crown, a sceptre, a mirror, diamonds on the table. Haha! Obviously, it was the Miss Universe.

As usual, the duo hosted a wonderful gathering. The food was simple but extremely yummy. We have Richie's Mom to thank for making the lasagna and buco salad, which was more than enough to give the dinner a Filipino feel.

I can't believe the year is almost over.

It's another memorable year. I'm really grateful.

Pasko na...

The first of a few Christmas dinners for 2015 took place last night.

A bunch of fellow Filipinos at work organised a gathering to celebrate Christmas as well as the birthday of our colleague, JM.

The whole day was spent at the museum and as soon as I was done with my assignment, I took the bus to head to Redhill.

As expected, it was a feast! Everyone brought something - liempo, chicharong bulaklak, spaghetti, ham, hipon, siewmai and hakao, and two super yum homemade cakes!

Fun, fun evening!

Christmas Eve dindin....

How was your Noche Buena? :)

PG Boy and I spent ours at the place of very good friend Mon and Richie. Hmm, I think it is PG Boy's first Noche Buena.

Last year, we missed the Noche Buena at Mon and Richie's because I planned a Christmas eve din for both of us.

This year, I was glad that we were able to go to this dinner.

It was really great to be with good friends and loved ones to welcome Christmas 2012.

How was your Christmas Eve?

Christmas dinner no. 1...

Last night was the dinner gathering with some of my good fellow OFWs in the island. :P

It was probably the only opportunity to have everyone gather together before we all get (a bit) busy for Christmas. MkSurf8 will be flying back to Phils this Thursday. Tipz has his plans with CP. I have my own plans with PG Boy. The others most probably have their own plans for Chrissie as well.

And so we decided to have the gathering on a Tuesday night. The venue selection however took a lot longer. Hehe! Initially, I suggested a Filipino place so that we can have a feast of sorts that would be similar to the ones we would have if we were in the Phils. Unfortunately, the restau I had in mind was already closed. Tipz suggested a place. Ian suggested a place. Coly suggested a place.

No one wanted to decide. Haha!

It was only a few hours before dinner that it was decided that dinner will be at Serenity Spanish Bar & Restaurant at VivoCity.

I've never tried the place, but almost everyone seemed excited about the cochinillo. Hehe!

We all met up at the restau around 730ish. Unfortunately, some of the guys couldn't make it. A few were feeling under the weather. Some were busy with work. Some didn't reply at all to the group chat. Lol!

The gang decided to order the Whole Roasted Suckling Pig and Paella Valenciana. Coly ordered a few tapas so we had some appetizers before the main event. Hehe!

I thought that the whole cochinilo also came with Roasted Turkey and the Honey Baked Ham, but it didn't. (It was the 1/4 Suckling Pig Platter and the 1/2 Suckling Pig Platter that came with the turkey and ham.)

It was a good dinner. We all enjoyed the cochinillo very much. It was prolly the closest thing we can have to lechon. Hehe! I also enjoyed the paella. If there's one thing I'm grateful for for being a colony of Spain, it's the sinful Spanish dishes. Hehe!

More importantly, it was a good opportunity to celebrate the holiday season with good friends. Really grateful for these guys!

Pasko na! :)

Chrissy din...

In Manila, one of the highlights of the Christmas season is the annual Christmas party with the gang, which we have called Queersmas party (Hehe!).

The first ever I can recall was in 2003, I think, at the place Xoch and Jigs were renting. Since then, it has been a yearly thing. Sometimes, the venue would be at a restau. Sometimes, it would be at someone's home.

Wherever it was, the gathering is always meaningful, full of laughter and happiness. For me, it's a time to be with friends who have made the year that is about to come to an end very memorable and special.

I'm really glad that that tradition was carried on here in Singapore.

Despite our busy schedules, Ian, Chris, MkSurf8 and I were able to plan a Chrissy dinner for friends. Hehe.

Thanks to MkSurf8 for agreeing to have the dinner party at his place.

Thanks to Chris' contact, we were able to have Filipino dishes - chicken adobo, lumpiang shanghai, sisig, and rice. Hehe! Guests also brought food and booze. Ray Conniff music played. The TFC was on. Hehe.

It was the OFW version of the Queersmas dinner party. :) Definitely a good first Queersmas dindin away from home for me.

Happy Christmas!

Energizer bunny weekend... Part 2

From a night of partying in Malate to a 10K run + breakfast at the Fort to a couple of hours of sleep, I headed to Gateway on Sunday afternoon to get some items for the Christmas dinner with UP friends Ella, Gino, Tey, John and Ela.

Gateway was crowded with shoppers. I didn't like the crowd at all but I had to go there to buy gifts for the gang for me and Tey. Plus roasted chicken for the Christmas potluck. I headed to Rustan's to get gifts for the gang. I didn't bother to ask for the nice Rustan's wrapper because I knew how long the giftwrapping line gets around this time.

Then I went to the supermarket to get the roasted chicken of Rustan's. When I got there, surprise, surprise. No chicken. There was one left but it was the saddest looking. So I leave Gateway and head to the nearby Shopwise. That's where I found my newly roasted chicken.

There was another customer who was also getting roasted chicken. I let the person order first. I was so wrong to have done that. The person started asking all these stupid questions to the guy behind the counter, "Which chicken is bigger?" "Are those newly cooked?" Hello! Teh, magbebenta ba sila ng hindi sariwa? Kainis! Hehe! Thankfully, the guy replied in the most boring manner. Haha!

When I'm finally done with my errands, I waited for Tey to pass by for me and then we headed to Ella and Gino's house near ABS-CBN.

It's always a joy to see this group of friends. We always have a good time reminiscing about our college days, talking about work, issues in life. Hehe! That night, the topics ranged from the presidentiables to work stuff to Kuya Ef to Ondoy experiences to Ela's access to fantastic SSI sales. As in super fantastic.

The food was super. Roasted chicken from Shopwise. There was frozen brazo which John and Ela got from a store I forget. Hehe! Gino cooked a super yum mechado. There was nachos with good salsa and spicy cheese dip. Ella did a really cute table setting. The choco balls on shotglasses were nice.

After stuffing ourselves (eeep!), we just spent the next few hours chatting. Mel was supposed to join us but she got stuck at a family reunion. Tsin, on the other hand, had a very hectic sched. Oh well, next time.

We bid each other goodbye a little before midnight. From QC, I hitched a ride with Tey to Makati. Jimmy was leaving for Ilocos and I had to give him his gift and my gift for Noel. We just hung out at the hotel lobby talking about vaca plans and looking for flight and bus schedules to Ilocos. Hehehe!

I went home around 2AM. Had to get up for work in a couple of hours.

It was a really tiring weekend, but I didn't feel the fatigue because I had such a good time with people I love.