au.was.here.

last sunday, i got the chance to meet old friends again. it was the celebration of the 25th year since we graduated from highschool. our batch was called Corals 82. and boy, what an exhilarating experience to see old acquaintances and teachers again! there were even batchmates who flew in from across the globe: Jude Gonzales from Sydney, Athena Te and now husband Peter Yuin from New York and Emmanuel Yung from Pasadena. there were also local "imports", Antonio Ong and Wison de Guzman from Quezon who went all the way to Manila. Antonio, by the way, beat me in having the most number of kids -- he has 6 and i only have 5 :-D

i wanted to just enjoy the moment taking in all the faces and trading stories but that was not to be for me. all i could manage was short albeit warm hellos and little stories because i had to mind one more thing -- the trivia game which i was to supposed to play emcee to and which made me very nervous prior to it. and with so many people i just wanted to say hello to, i think i spread myself too thin. still, getting the chance to at least see a lot of old yet new friendly faces in one place was a super treat for me. I'm sure Nita felt the same way beacause she looked so happy too.

Nita, oh yes! i must definitely blog here for posterity's sake, was looking extra pretty that day...see here, this picture is precious kasi bihira lang mag make-up ang friend kong ito. in the 29 years i knew her, my fingers wouldn't run out if i counted the times i see her with makeup and eyebrows fixed...hahaha... and that includes her wedding day!

with camera in hand, i shot pictures away like mad hoping to record the too few 3 hours with friends i haven't seen in 25 years. i don't think i got enough pictures as i would have liked though. i had to pick between taking pics or mingling so i did a balance of both. most of my batchmates were looking so good--sexy ladies and handsome men--like they were not yet my own age...hahaha...if i didn't know better, they'll have me fooled for sure.

before this reunion, i was actually stressing over some video presentations the organizing commitee requested of me. it was my task, being part of the Programs Committee together with Marian Lim, Henry Armada, Edward Ong and Nita. to be honest, i wasn't happily looking forward to doing these tasks but seeing that the rest of the reunion committee(s) involved giving so generously of their time, effort and funds to ensure the success of this gathering, i felt it was only justified that i do it to the best of my abilities. especially since i do not have much of the "funds" to share, effort was something i could expend.

they initially wanted a powerpoint-type of presentation but in the MS Office Suite, other than Word, i am not acquainted any other including Powerpoint. i thought some other slide software would do a better job too. so i set about learning this other software already installed in my computer but haven't used yet called Roxio Slideshow Assistant. i'm now glad i learned how to use it because it was relatively easy to manipulate and i think i could use this to archive our other pictures that i cannot scrapbook.

many loooooong nights doing the slideshows were spent (along with some bribery for my eldest son Kiko to do picture cropping and downloading pictures from the net at night) and organizing them before i could even start the compiling the slideshow. i also had to do some research on 80s songs for these 2 slideshows: Blast from the Past: a compilation of school and classroom pictures supplied by Kenneth Tan and Now & Then: a collage of old pictures from the school yearbook and new pictures submitted by batchmates. music was something of a "thing" for me and it knew it would help a lot in livening up the video.

it was all worth it in the end because i think my friends enjoyed it. now, looking back, i think i enjoyed creating it too. looking at those old faces in black and white was sentimental for me too (sniff!) and seeing them now was really wonderful. i've uploaded the 19min video to Daily Motion (You Tube only allows 10 mins) and it is linked here so watch below:



i would also like to upload the Blast from the Past video but that one is 30mins long...i have to find a way to segment it first. will post here as soon as done.

i hope it will not take another 25 years before we all meet again. i salute the organizers who all thought of and made this event happen. it was a humongous task. really challenging. herculean! and i would gladly help them out again if they need me...ok, not so gladly...hahaha...but i would be there if they need me and i'll do all that i can. just don't ask me to attend meetings because i can't understand half of what they say when they fall into speaking in chinese...i am the odd one in this setting, being Pinay, who has very little in my Chinese vocabulary storehouse despite studying for 4 years at Hope and being married to a Chinese guy (and his family) for 19 years. yeah, at Hope is where i met 2 of the most important people in my life: my bestfriend Nita and my hubby Erwin (who was in CKSC).

congratulations again to the organizers of this event. i dare not specify each because i might neglect to include someone important, but you guys know who you are. Jude--who gave me great big bear hugs that simply bridged the 25 year gap and the thousands of miles between us--is right. that day was one that will be kept with the treasure trove of memories of our lifetimes. till we meet again, friends!