coffee

Because we fountain-pen enthusiasts can’t get enough of pen pron, here are more images of pens at the racetrack. These were taken at various times last year, some with a Nikon D-60, others with a Nokia cellphone camera, hence the disparity in image quality. Still, they will at least give a look at the context in which I usually play with my pens – when I’m commentating the Santa Ana Park races every other weekend.

The pink pen is a Sheaffer Agio from TAO, who saw it at a shop or flea market somewhere around this time last year. It’s got an F nib, and is perfect fit for me all around (thanks again, TAO!). It’s a reliable daily warrior. The blue is a Pilot Vanishing Point with a Binderized crisp italic nib from Leigh. A fascinating pen, it will have its own blog post later on. The same goes for the two urushi Nakaya Piccolos – the black from TAO, the reddish-black from Leigh.

The older models of the Pilot VP were called “capless” since this model doesn’t have a cap; the nib retracts in and out like some ballpoint pens.

A closer look shows where the nib emerges from. Since it is a crisp italic, it takes some getting used to, with the sharp edges snagging on paper. But with care and practice, wonderful calligraphic effects can be coaxed from the nib.

The black Nakaya and the Sheaffer Agio on a racing program.

The sharp, gold nibs of the Nakayas: the black on top has a medium nib, the kuro-tamenuri below carries a stock flexible fine.

A writing sample by Ik. The Vista she refers to is the Microsoft OS, not the Lamy!

My workhorses are the Lamys – a Raspberry AL-Star (top) and a Vista.

A close-up of the Lamy Raspberry AL-Star’s F nib.

From the top: Aluminum AL-Star, Pink Safari, Vista, and Raspberry. The latter is showing up orange in this image; its true color is reddish.

Pens and writing samples.

Holding the pens up in front of the TV monitor displaying the races. Behind the TV are a broadcast camera and Kino-flo lights. On the left side of the picture is a Starbucks “Philippines” tumbler, most likely drained of coffee by the time this picture was taken.

taste more:

After a hiatus of a year and four months, I’m back on air doing the live horseracing coverage for Viva-Prime Channel at the Philippine Racing Club’s Santa Ana Park in Naic, Cavite.

With sports writer Barry Pascua last 22 March 2009, on standby to do the opening of the day’s live coverage of the races half an hour before the parade for Race 1. This was my first weekend back. Barry and I are at the grandstand.

The last two horses cross the finish line after Race 1.

Racing fans pack the grandstand at Santa Ana Park on Sundays.

I started my broadcast career in racing in 2002, when I was tapped by PRC’s then-vice president of administration Fulton Su to be a panelist for PRC’s coverage, then handled by production outfit Creative Station for Pro-Ads Marketing, the actual contractor.

Boss Fulton took a leap of faith with me, as I had no experience at all doing live racing coverage. Despite being a jockey’s wife, I didn’t have much knowledge of betting or how to do race analysis.

I did have prior on-camera experience as a segment presenter and later co-host of “Karera 2000″, a horseracing show that aired over the government station, PTV (People’s Television) in 1997. For that show, I also wrote the script for my own segment, “Karera 101″, occasionally did the script for the entire show, and directed my own segment and others like the “Jockey’s Tips” presented by rider Dhunoy Raquel.

That’s where I learned to work under intense pressure – imagine showing up at on location at a ranch, only to be told by the scriptwriter/director that he had not written a script for that day’s shooting, and having to scribble the spiels for that episode right there and then while the hosts Jackie Castillejo andYeng Guiao (professional basketball coach and current vice governor of Pampanga province) waited.

But taped shows are easy because you can do over with takes. Live coverage is fast-paced with no room for errors.

Over time, and again under pressure, I learned to analyze races and and discuss the betting with the help of my fellow panelists during the early days at PRC – racecallers Ricardo “Carding” de Zuñiga, Ernie Enriquez (brother of GMA Network’s famed newscaster Mike Enriquez), Ira Herrera (racecaller and now a panelist for MJC’s new in-house production team, San Lazaro Broadcast Network), and former star jockey and current Philracom commissioner Eduardo “Boboc” Domingo Jr. (also now the anchor for SLBN).

I stayed with PRC from March 2002 to January 2005, then I hosted for Winner’s Circle Productions at the Manila Jockey Club’s San Lazaro Leisure Park from August 2005 until August 2007, when Makisig Network took over MJC’s production and I was dropped from the roster of talents as they had their own.

The break of almost a year and a half was a welcome development as I got to rest, return to graduate school, put up my website, become a fountain pen and ink collector, and do other things that interested me.

Now I’m back, refreshed, with new ideas, and ready to resume active broadcasting again.

View from my seat at the studio: on the table are racecards, pens, favorite purple Fino pencase from Leigh, Nokia Xpress Music mobile phone, Denman hairbrush, and Starbucks “Philippines” tumbler filled with coffee. (“No coffee, no workee!”) The larger monitor displays the actual cable TV broadcast feed; the smaller one, the pool totals and odds.

Coverage essentials: racecards (Winning Time for past performances, useful for race analysis, and Dividendazo for the schedule and for marking the horses on parade, winner, time, order of arrival, and other information that I relay to viewers) and pens (Preppy ED highlighter filled with Noodler’s Year of the Golden Pig, Waterman Hemisphere, Lamy Safari 1.1 italic, Taccia Ta-ke).

As a mass communication practitioner, I’m fortunate to have the opportunities I do, in that I am doing both broadcast and print (I write a Wednesday column on racing, “The Hoarse Whisperer” for Manila Standard-Today).

Broadcasting has always been a significant part of my life because of my father’s influence.

My father, Valentino Araneta Ortuoste, started his career as a disc jockey in the 1960s in Bacolod City, playing The Beatles and The Ventures. (He didn’t like pop music, though, preferring classical, Frank Sinatra, and Nat King Cole).

Later he became a newscaster for ABS-CBN network in Manila; I was a toddler then, and he would sometimes take me with him to the studio. I don’t remember that, of course, but I have pictures, in black-and-white, me looking up at him almost adoringly, he with a smile and looking dapper in high-necked Vonnel shirts.

Pops also did commercials (a series for Palmolive shampoo with the characters “Sonia” and “Ana”) and bit parts in movies (in the 1990 film Anak ni Baby Ama, he played the wealthy businessman who gets ambushed in his car at the beginning of the film). He also performed voice-overs for radio commercials and even cut a spoken record in the late ’70s, “Happy Birthday, Love”.

I was ten or eleven when he encouraged my sister Aileen and I to do radio commercials. I remember one of them was an English cough syrup plug where I had to cough on cue. I got paid extra for doing the Cebuano version when the kid who was hired couldn’t do what the director wanted and wouldn’t stop crying. I don’t understand Cebuano very well, but was able to mimic a native speaker who read my lines to me. After that I was given more work doing dialects.

When I was in college, in the mid- to late-’80s, Pops was the anchor of “The UN Hour”, a television show broadcast on the government channel, PTV (People’s Television), during the administration of Pres. Corazon Aquino. He asked me and one of my friends from school to act as student interviewers. We met with the ambassador of Namibia; my friend was so nervous, he stuttered over his lines (“Nami-Nami-Namibia?”) but it turned out quite charming and was not edited out from the final version.

I owe my father for giving me the knowledge for this kind of work; it prepared me for when fate gave me the chance to do this. I never thought I would follow in his footsteps. But I look back now and feel grateful for the coaching he gave on how to modulate our voices and act in front of a camera, things we didn’t really understand back then, but proved useful when we needed it.

However, I’d say the most valuable lesson he taught me about broadcasting was this: “Be confident. You can do it. It seems hard at first, but it’s really not – it’s just like talking to a friend.” That’s become my broadcasting philosophy and overall approach to media work.

Another lesson is: information of any kind is welcome, because you’ll never know what might be useful to you later on. So I’m passing on the lessons learned to my daughters, knowing that they don’t appreciate or fully understand these things now, but which perhaps may serve them later on in life.

It’s important, though, to be prepared with data. Oh, and coffee helps too.

taste more:

As a Starbucks fan, I “collect” stores wherever I go. This one’s at the corner of Nathan Road, in Hong Kong.

There was a branch inside The Venetian hotel in Macau.

At New Town Mall in the New Territories, Hong Kong, I took a picture of the Starbucks signage as I spotted it from afar. I went inside and had a Raspberry Mocha (skim, no whip) while waiting for friends to finish looking around the mall.

I didn’t take a shot of the interior because Starbucks stores look the same inside wherever you go – Hong Kong, Manila, Dubai, New York, Pasadena. They all have the brown tables and tan, chocolate, or olive sofas, the warm orange lights over the bar, the same smell of roasted coffee, the same subdued chatter.

The consistency is boring, but it is also comforting. I know that wherever in the world I go, hearing a cacophony of languages I don’t understand, brushing past tall men in robes or fashionable women in knee-high boots, once I enter a Starbucks it’s like coming home. It’s something familiar, something I understand. Being in a different city, you can go adrift, cast loose from the moorings of your own place and culture.

Starbucks, transcending culture, having created its own, is a pocket of home wherever it is.

taste more:

Are there still fountain pens to be found in the wild – in Manila?

Fountain Pen Network-Philippines members went to find that out last February 21, with a field trip to Escolta.

Escolta is part of “old Manila” and used to be the main shopping district from pre-war times until around the 1960s. Luis Store, a fountain pen sales-and-repair shop, has been located there since the 1940s. The plan was to meet up at Savory Restaurant at the corner of Escolta – another local landmark – then visit Luis and any other places that happened to catch our fancy.

On my way there in a cab, I saw many things. The sight of a Philippine flag flying in the warm breeze stirred me to near-tears. It was so beautiful.

A monument to heroes, near Manila City Hall.

It was, I felt, a good start to the day.

When I got to Savory, quite a few FPN-P’ers were already there, scribbling away. While waiting for the others – and for lunch – to arrive, we celebrated our passions of pen, ink, and paper.

The entrance to the FPN-P function room.

Early birds play with pens, paper, and ink – the triumvirate of our obsession.

A peek at some of writer-University of the Philippines professor Dr. Butch Dalisay’s Parker Vacumatics.

Lunch was another celebration, this time of gastronomic delights not often relished. The Savory  flavor is like no other. It is Chinese cuisine, yes. But it is also has a unique identity that sets it apart. Especially the fried chicken, which is famous.

Bird’s nest soup, pansit Canton, Yang Chow fried rice, pork something, fried chicken, and lumpiang Shanghai.

After lunch, it was back to pens.

Raffle items – pens, nibs, a loupe (for peering closely at nibs), and ink.

A leaf from Leigh’s notebook.

The attendance sheet – for pens, not humans.

Spot the Sailor, Danitrio, Pelikan, and Bossert and Erhard.

From Savory, the next stop was Luis Store. The fifteen or so of us crammed into the tiny piece of paradise, ogling the beautiful pens on display. Many of them are NOS (new old stock), some dating back to the 1950s, if not earlier.

Carretelas are still a common form of transportation within the area.

Walking down Escolta to Luis Store. The dome of Sta. Cruz Church can be seen in the distance.

FPN-P’ers crowd into Luis Store.

Dr. Butch Dalisay, Mrs. Pua, and Terrie Pua, who runs the pen store.

Pens on parade.

Plates for the engraving machine.

Class picture!

The Puas pressed boxes of warm and delicious chicken empanada on us, and we ate as we walked. Our next stop was Binondo.

The Starbucks – and the Pancake House beside it, and most other establishments in the area – have signage in Chinese.

Leigh holds up the Frankensnork representing TAO, fellow FPN member. In the background, life in Binondo continues its busy hustle, oblivious to the posse of pen collectors chatting and drinking coffee.

Binondo Square still sports the red and gold lanterns left over from the Lunar New Year celebration.

The penmeets celebrate not only the shared interest in pens and ink, but also friendship, love, life – as do all gatherings. That which binds is important and significant, but when people get together and interact, there is so much more that is shared. Enjoy that. Enjoy each other. Let life be a series of celebrations!

taste more:

If there’s one principle that Starbucks as a corporation has become famous for, it’s their tenet of giving the customer utter and complete service satisfaction. It’s what built their fortune. People had gotten tired of surly counterpeople at quick service restaurants, and Starbucks made up for its overpriced coffee by pampering and cossetting customers to an unusual degree, in surroundings that were genteel, warm, and relaxing.

Here in Manila, I’ve generally had a good experience with Starbucks. If you don’t like the way the barista made your drink, or if they made a mistake with your order, they’ll do it over. If you were inconvenienced in some way, you get a free beverage coupon. They hand you your drink with a smile, and if you happen to visit certain locations often, the baristas there make an effort to remember your name and call you by that next time you come in. Depending on the barista, they also remember your favorite drink and ask if you’ll be having “your usual”. (“Hi, Miss Jenny, going to work? Tall Raspberry Mocha for you today?”)

Some weeks ago, I was at the Yupangco branch waiting for my sister when I happened to fill out a customer satisfaction survey form. In it I deplored the lack of Christmas Bearista bears and Peppermint syrup, seasonal offerings we had gotten used to and looked forward to through the years.

I didn’t expect an answer. I suspect such survey forms are displayed only to make customers feel happy that their feedback is being solicited, and I’m not sure if the replies are fed into a CRM database. So I was surprised to receive an email from Rustan Coffee Corporation’s Operations Services Manager Carlo R. Lopez, thanking me for my feedback on the bears and the syrup (he mentioned it in detail, meaning they had actually read the form I filled out), and asking for my postal address so they could send me coupons.

Today the coupons arrived the mail. Not just the one I was expecting, but two.

Letter from Rustan Coffee with two free beverage coupons.

RCC is “an authorized licensee of Starbucks Coffee International”, it says right there on their stationery. RCC is also a “member of the Rustan group of companies”, which is well-known in the Philippines for their Rustan’s department store, which is the most upscale establishment of its kind in the country. They’ve taken their retail expertise and merged it with the Starbucks way to run their operations profitably. I haven’t heard that they are closing locations in the Philippines; in fact, they seem to be expanding, putting stores in newly-opened malls and beside 24/7 call centers.

Here’s another thing – the 2009 planner promotion was such a hit that they ran out of stock. The campaign started maybe five or six years ago, where customers are given a card every November that they fill up with stickers corresponding to a certain number of drinks. Half of the drinks required are the seasonal offerings like Peppermint, Toffee Nut, Dark Cherry, Praline, whatever. At the end of the promo period, the first week of January, there were no planners to be had. Customers were asked to wait until January 16.

The date rolled around. I went the next day – the 17th – with my promo card. I was told that there were no more planners to be had, again. In just 24 hours all the planners were snapped up! I was asked to leave my name with the branch nearest me – which is Rockwell. So I did, and I was given a free beverage coupon to make up for the inconvenience.

I used it the other day at Starbucks Rufino to get a Grande Ice-Shaken Raspberry Mocha. I handed the cashier my coupon. She asked, in a low voice, ”Planner”? I nodded. My order was rung up as a “service recovery”. The machine spit out my receipt. The cashier handed it to me with a smile and pointed out some text at the bottom. “You have another free drink with the “Customer Voice” promo. Just go online to get the code.” The baristas chattered excitedly. A free drink with another free drink? That was rare!

To cap it all, yesterday I got this text message: ”Thank you for making this year’s planner promotion a success. Due to the overwhelming response, we have unexpectedly experienced a shortage of planners. We have placed another order to arrive by March 20. We apologize for the delay & as a token of our appreciation & your understanding we will be including a Starbucks bag with your reserved planner. We sincerely apologize & thank you for your continued patronage and understanding. – strbks r0ckwell”

To sum up, I’ve received coupons for four free drinks, and will be given another freebie, the bag.

Is Starbucks great, or what? This is why I love this place. Not so much for the coffee, which is more milk than espresso anyhow, and frankly I’ve had better. But I keep coming back to Starbucks as a loyal customer for the experience, the ambiance, and the service which is second to none.

Fountain pens, ink, and coffee at Starbucks Rockwell.

taste more:

Last January 17, Fountain Pen Network-Philippines had a mini-meet at the Bonifacio High Street Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf at The Fort, to hook up with Baguio-based FPN-P member, businessman and penmeister Butch Palma (known as TOB or “The Other Butch”), who breezed into Manila that same afternoon.

As usual, the hours spent together were devoted to discussing and trying out each other’s fountain pens and inks.

Jenny’s PR Shell Pink, Leigh’s CdA Caribbean Sea, and TOB’s PR DC Supershow Blue, with Jenny’s Wahl, Pelikan M150, and Moore vest pen.

Leigh tries out the Wahl and the Moore.

Group picture – this is what they live for! Leigh’s three Wahls, Jay’s Mabie Todd Swan, and Jenny’s Wahl.

Chito and TOB try out a polishing wax for plastic pen bodies.

If TOB uses it, it must be good! This little tin, he says, can last years.

Chito, TOB, and Jenny’s doodles on Chito’s pad. The brown sample on the bottom right (“Butch”) was written with UP professor Dr. Butch Dalisay’s (“D’OB” or D’Original Butch) vintage Parker Vacumatic with a rare flexible nib. He says it was made in Canada, and that the Canadian issues tend to be more flexible. The black sample in the center (“Chito”) is made with Chito’s modern Pelikan M1000 which also has a deliciously flexible fine nib.

Leigh also tries out Chito’s Peli M1000. The orange sample is made with Johannes’s Peli M1000 with a broad nib. D’OB says that in the Peli models below M1000 – M800, M400, and so on – the nibs aren’t flexible at all.

Jay holds up one of TOB’s pencases. This is a good design. Elastics and sleeves keep the pens secure.

Leigh’s Frankensnork – a Sheaffer Snorkel put together with parts from different pens.

One of Leigh’s Nakayas with a writing sample in green Pilot Iroshizuku “Syo-ro” (Pine Dew). Lovely pen, beautiful ink, graceful calligraphy! The paper is Rhodia fax paper.

taste more:

No, that’s not a misspelling. That’s a new word coined by my friend Mona Caccam – “penzy”, a portmanteau combining “pen” and “frenzy”.

It best describes the “pen”demonium unleashed at Shangri-La Plaza’s Dome Cafe in Manila last December 29 at a meeting of Fountain Network Philippines (FPN-P), the only organized group of fountain pen collectors in the country. It was so frantic that existing words were inadequate to portray it, hence the need to invent a new one that was most apt.

FPN-P had its first penmeet in July, at the home of University of the Philippines professor Dr. Jose “Butch” Y. Dalisay Jr. At that time, around ten people showed up, not counting hosts Butch and his wife, artist June “Beng” Poticar-Dalisay. Soon after that, the group was featured on national television. Then, to keep everyone in touch, a Yahoo! Groups list was formed and the group took the name FPN-P, since all were members of the online forum Fountain Pen Network.

Today FPN-P has 44 members, some of whom, like artist Pep Manalang and photographer Dominique James, are based abroad. All are grateful to Dr. Dalisay (also known as “D’OB” or “D’ Original Butch”, while another member, businessman Butch Palma, is “TOB” or “The Other Butch”) for organizing the group and keeping a motley crew of different personalities bonded by the common love of pens, ink, and writing.

This year-end penmeet was the most well-attended so far, with twenty people. D’OB had just returned from Shanghai and had promised a surprise for the first ten people who showed up. The meet was set for 11:30 AM. The early birds were journalists Alcuin Papa (Philippine Daily Inquirer) and Boojie Basilio (GMA Network) who arrived at 10 AM. “We wanted to be among the first ten for the freebies,” they whispered. It was Alcuin’s first time to attend a penmeet, while this was Boojie’s second – he was part of the first one in July.

Mona Caccam, a writer and mining industry executive, was also early. We were good friends in college, both members of the UP Journalism Club, and we hadn’t seen each other in years. It was great to welcome her to the group and catch up on each other’s news. She used to take classroom notes with a fountain pen; this was back in the late ’80s, and she was one of the very few people I knew who used FPs on a regular basis.

D’OB handed round the prizes to the first ten attended – Chinese-made Hero 616 pens that were Parker 51 look-alikes. We gathered around a long table in a small private room and the penzy started. D’OB gave a short talk on Parker Vacumatics as writer Clement Dionglay, entomologist Lourdes Taylo, Cindy Trinidad, law student Raffy Abrina, Ateneo de Manila university chemistry professor Nestor Valero, Mona, and I inspected his vast Vac collection. Corporate czar Chito Limson showed us his colorful pens.

At the other end of the table, research don Caloy Abad Santos, high-schooler John Raymond Lim, creative guy Iñigo de Paula, chef/musician/stockbroker Jay Ignacio, advertising guy Vic Icasas, and new member Kurt were doodling and talking about latest acquisitions.

Dr. Butch Dalisay (standing, dark shirt, left) gave a lecture on Parker Vacumatics; John (standing, black shirt, right) is a teenager who is very knowledgeable on his chosen hobby; Chito (standing, orange shirt, right) smiles as he listens to Cindy (sitting, orange shirt, right) describe a pen she’s holding; while Clem (back to camera), Nestor (sitting, right) and others look on.

Some of Chito’s candylicious pens. Generally, he matches the color of the pen barrel to the ink.

FPN-P members spread across several tables to have lunch. I had mocha coffee, served elegantly in a goblet with a handle. At our table (foreground), talk revolved around pens, how one’s favorites were acquired, where to acquire one’s “holy grails”, mining, explosives, social conditions in the Philippines, and ink.

Mona shows off a huge pen that Boojie acquired at an antique store for only P500 (around US$11). Yes, it’s in working condition. No, it’s not just a display item, it actually writes.

After lunch, the penzy continued. More people had arrived, among them chef Johannes Sia and advertising executive and calligraphy expert Leigh Reyes. Carl Cunanan, C! magazine editor and pen enthusiast (though not yet an FPN-P member) also dropped by to check out the action.

Waving, smiling, doodling, inking, talking, sharing, writing, ogling – all these and more at FPN-P meets.

Generosity is a mark of FPN-P’ers. Leigh shared her recently-acquired Pilot Iroshizuku inks, potent potions in beautiful bottles, and let everyone try out her lovely pens – Nakaya, Danitrio, Visconti, and Omas, to name some. She also gave out vintage plastic pen holders and steel Esterbrook dip nibs. Cindy handed round colorful rubber ice cube trays perfect for holding pens. Baguio-based TOB, who was unable to attend, sent a couple of vintage pens for raffling off, which were won by Boojie and Lourdes.

Leave it to the Japanese to package ink so that it looks like perfume. Wonderful. A “dip” or “well” (the triangle at the center) allows all the ink to be sucked up sans waste.

More pens, ink, nibs, and good-for-the-heart dark chocolate. Can’t have a successful penmeet without chocolate!

Mona, me, Jay, Lourdes, and Raffy. The orange tray holding pens is actually an ice cube tray. Photo by Dr. Butch Dalisay.

Seeing each other’s pens and inks renewed everyone’s desires to keep on collecting and using beautiful writing instruments. The enthusiasm is contagious, and the cult is growing. With all looking forward to the next penmeet – the first for 2009 – it’s sure to be another huge success!

taste more:

I spent a couple of hours at Starbucks (Yupangco Makati branch) waiting for my sister to finish lunch with friends. It was her last day in Manila; I was to take her to the airport in the late afternoon so she could catch a flight back to Dubai, where she has been based for the past ten years.

I had some of my favorite things with me to pass the time productively.

The coffee is a Double Tall Dark Cherry Mocha nonfat, no whip, one Splenda. (“Are you sure you still want the Splenda, ma’am? The syrup is very sweet…” I always add one Splenda when I take an extra espresso shot.) The caffeine jolt is necessary to jump-start my brain.

The book is the ninth edition of Theories of Human Communication by Stephen Littlejohn and Karen Foss. It is one of the bibles of the University of the Philippines College of Mass Communication. It explains around 126 theories, give or take a few. I read and re-read chapters when I have free time.

The mobile phone is a year-old Nokia 5310 XpressMusic. They didn’t have the pink one when I got this one, which I would have bought for the color. I prefer skinny candy-bar phones, which I can easily hold in one hand for texting. I dislike clamshell and slider types, because the more moving parts there are in a gadget, the more parts there are that are likely to break.

The fountain pens are my daily road warriors. Lacking a proper pen case that can accommodate the six or eight pens that I rotate on a monthly basis, I use a plastic Waterman case that the red Hemisphere came in. Yes, I know, it’s not the best thing for the pens, they’ll scratch each other, but it’s only temporary, I promise.

The purple leather two-pen case is a Christmas gift from my friend Leigh.It’s adorable, just as she is.

Armed with these things and in between downing gulps of coffee, I wrote entries in my ”communication diary”, a large Scribe (Moleskine knock-off) notebook covered with olive silk. The diary is homework for our Communication Research 201 class with Dr. Joey Lacson and must be entirely handwritten. I used a different pen for each entry, so the words pop off the pages in a whirl of colorful inks – Private Reserve Naples Blue, Caran d’Ache Sunset, J. Herbin Cyclamen Rose, Pilot Iroshizuku asa-gao (morning glory blue).

I also texted the entire Board of Directors of the company I work for, telling them that it was a year since they hired me and thanking them for giving me the opportunity to work with them. After that I cleared my messages and deleted unnecessary files, freeing up valuable storage space for data.

I snapped photos of my pens using my mobile phone camera to use as my phone screen wallpaper.

From time to time I would jot down meetings and other reminders in my planner, while at the same time listening to too-loud conversations of other patrons rather than tuning them out. It’s not eavesdropping because they are talking loud enough for others to hear. As a communication student, it’s one way of observing communication behavior in the field.

One young woman, a self-proclaimed frequent traveler, complained to her friend in the colegiala accent of privileged female private Catholic high school students about losing her baggage on a flight to Paris. “It was the first time, and I never though such a thing would happen to me,” she said. “Don’t take anything for granted.”

At another table, an elderly man sitting with eight friends was telling them about a recent golf tournament he played in. “I played eight holes then almost collapsed,” he said. “I wasn’t feeling ill or anything. It just shows that anything can happen, even the least expected.”

My two hours at the coffee shop were well-spent. I completed several important tasks, relaxed in soothing surroundings, and was reminded by others of an important bit of wisdom – “Never take anything for granted.”

Multi-tasking with things that are chosen carefully with functionality foremost in mind helps you be more productive. Find out what things work best for you given your own particular way of doing things. What’s good for someone else might not be what’s right for you.

Once you’ve found out what kind of tools you’re comfortable with and make you more effective, stick with them, while still keeping an open mind on new things. It’s not a case of old dog, old tricks, but rather old dog, best tricks.

When my sister texted that her lunch was over and she was on her way to meet me, I packed up my favorite things, drained my coffee cup, and walked out the door with a sense of accomplishment. Now that felt good.

taste more:

The Philippines, according to Wikipedia, is said to observe the longest Christmas season in the world.

This is true. Malls put up Christmas trees and play carols as early as September. Homes are festooned with lights in November. I was aghast to learn that a cousin in the US bought her tree only a week ago; I had ours up and flashing by November 3, right after hundas or the local Dia del Muerte observances.

By the first week of December, restaurants and bars are fully booked for the seemingly endless rounds of parties. For the average employed Filipino adult, there are at least two that one can count on being invited to – the office party and the barkada get-together. The entire month is one big party, and everyone’s invited!

Work and office planning is hardly done around this time – “Magpa-Pasko na (Christmas is coming), you should’ve done that in October or November,” is something heard frequently. Most activities are postponed. “After Christmas na ‘yan, ha.” Work slows. Shopping speeds up. Stores are full of people, pockets bulging with their thirteenth-month pay and bonuses, eager to spend it all on gifts for family and friends. Employers nod indulgently as employees take two-hour lunches and return laden with shopping bags. They themselves leave early for corporate holiday affairs, golf tournaments in Baguio, and out-of-the-country vacations.

With pressure easing  on all sides, a sense of relaxation pervades. This makes the holidays a perfect time for renewing friendships. Last Friday, I met up with one of my best friends, Adelle Chua, opinion editor of Manila Standard-Today, where I am a horseracing columnist. We see each other perhaps three to four times a  year. We eat, catch up on the latest, eat, share feminist philosophies, eat. We did all our eating at the Racks’ in El Pueblo (Ortigas), where the succulent and tender sweet baby back ribs and side dishes keep us coming back for more.

After dinner, we went for dessert and coffee next door, to San Francisco Coffee Co. Die-hard Starbucks habitues, we were thinking of walking to the one at Emerald Avenue. But SFCC had an interesting sign – “Free WiFi.” We swung the glass doors open and walked in.

Not that we were able to try out the wi-fi. A delicious smell of syrup and coffee wafted us into our seats. Comfortably ensconced with coffee in mugs and an oatmeal bar in front of us, we chatted the night away. We must have covered a dozen topics, ranging from parents and parenting, DNA testing, and religion to fountain pens, the effects of aging on interpersonal relationships, and inner-spring mattresses.

Adelle and I are both writers. Bound by our common love of language, we deplored the declining standards of grammar, spelling, and technical proficiency. We drowned our sorrows over the fall of belles lettres in large mugs of our favorite brew.

I love San Francisco Coffee’s Raspberry Mocha. The best talaga, ever!

This is a nice, quiet place with very good coffee and pleasant, accommodating baristas who let us stay a little past closing and said not a word, letting us leave when we were ready. I wish they had more branches around the city.

After Adelle and I exchanged goodbyes and promises to meet again soon, I trekked to Metrowalk for another reunion – this time with batchmates from the Ateneo de Manila University Regis MBA program. The invitation came from Atty. Natus Rodriguez, Atty. Noel de Leon, and Major Edmar de la Torre. How could I say no to two lawyers and a cop?

The venue was Aruba, a trendy bar-cum-dance club part-owned by Natus. It’s a terrific place that plays ’80s music, both live and canned.  The crowd is upscale. Meaning they can headbang and respect personal space at the same time.

Natus ordered our party of ten his favorite drink. I forget what it’s called, but it’s served in shot glasses. A brown fluid lurks at the bottom while a milky liquid floats on top. Then it’s set on fire. Straws are handed round, the drink is sucked up, everyone applauds. It goes straight to your brain.

This time around, there isn’t much conversation, what with the loud music, dancing, and flaming drinks. Yet just seeing each other there was enough. Communication was achieved, the message being, “I cared enough to invite you/ I cared enough to come. We’re still friends.” We whisper into each other’s ears, catch up a bit, exchange phone numbers, find out how we can help each other.

But don’t wait until the holidays to refresh your relationships with your friends. Just like a plant, friendships can wither and die if not fed often with communication. Stay in touch. Make that your New Year’s resolution.

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