incessant rambling

my dad's a joker. i am guessing he timed his death just before his birthday. and what a way to celebrate, his birthday falls on november 1 or otherwise known to most catholics as all saints day. not that my dad is anything close to a saint. my lola's favorite expression when dealing with papi is an exasperated "santa santisimo!". nevertheless, dad is well loved by everyone - his siblings, nephews, nieces, kids, grandkids, apo sa tuhod, sa siko, sa buko-buko and the "unknowns". you see, i am the youngest - legally that is. so i really don't know if there's more that got some of papi's loving. so here's a spread of some pics that i got during the celebration. if i were to sum it up, i can classify the people as follows: people i know, people i think i know and people i really don't know - there's just too many in the family. the oldies and the goodies. cousins, siblings, uncles and aunts in one mash up pic group picture again. i need a ...

i hope that didn't mean you're an ugly ha g in korean. you see, i was looking for the right words to greet my friend kim young sil a happy birthday. together with some friends, we went to marco polo hotel where we were given a semi-private area near the buffet area - good thing that franco and tonette are good friends of hans hauri, the current general manager of marco polo. -picture from left, sitting: glenn, tonette, marie. standing from left: me, franco, yvette, nam soo, eduardo, sameer, ron in any case, dinner was like a united nations convention with a swiss-german, iranian-filipino, koreans and pinoys sharing an evening of laughter and good cheer. interestingly, the marco polo christmas tree is up and we didn't miss getting the chance to get our pics snapped. the firing squad. mr. park looked a bit funny he he he. great food, great company, great place. perfect birthday!

dearest Kitty*, i keep knocking my head over the fact that i totally didn't call or send you a message on your birthday amiga! darn. no excuses (well... i was out of town over the weekend due to the loooong weekend... but that's not an excuse hmmmm?) for this one. but anyways, better late than NEVER. so here goes.... Merry Christmas . err... that's a Happy Birthday dear amiga! okay. hopefully you'll forgive your sweet, thoughtful(?) amigo with this totally public greeting. Biggest of hugs! Cacho (click on read.more) PS did i forget to add that my phone ran out of batt? hmmmm? wink wink . that's not an excuse ha?! *you know who you are luv!

my memories of the last time i "celebrated" my birthday was on top of a table belting out a song entertaining the guests that are mostly my mom and dad's friends. then again i was around 8 or 10 that time. since then, birthday celebrations have been private time with family sharing a more than the usual dinner minus the balloons, cake and presents. my parents weren't that big on giving gifts - six kids and you'd understand that it is like celebrating a town fiesta six times a year. except for the debut of my two sisters, i can't remember any other berday celebration in the family. my concept of a birthday celebration is peace and quiet away from distractions. i've seen celebrants ready to bust an artery preparing for a party or faced with the prospect of having to treat people to dinners and lunches and what-have-you. berdays should be days where you don't have to worry about anything or have your friends pamper you. i don't relish the thought of r...