My two schoolmates and business partners, Nick Celino and Atty. Gerry Paras,  jointly celebrated their birthdays last friday with a cozy small group from college at the Old Manila of the infamous Peninsula Hotel in Makati.

For a while I thought the venue would change at the last minute due to the last makati standoff which destroyed the lobby’s hotel after a tank barged in.  I was informed however that it will push through at the Pen.

There was just a dozen of us namely:  Willy Ocier, Boy Abunda (the star of the night almost eclipsing the two hosts), our very successful entrepreneur Nini Santos-Borja who owns a chain of Intermatrix shops, Elma Planas-Tetangco, ex EBC now BDO execs Ed Wenceslao and Jun Naranjilla, another struggling entrep like me Lella Santiago, Winnie Jimenez, and the latest to arrive, Rene Estandarte, who we kidded as the promoter of micro financing when Elma asked what he was doing for a living.  The BSP would love him we thought

It is truly enjoyable to have a small group gathering rather than large impersonal ones. Of course with Boy being there, we were able to catch the latest Buzz not only in the showbiz arena but also in the world of business and high society. 

We all learned later that Willy had an important dinner that night with a business tycoon and Boy had an equally important interview with a controversial figure but they all decided to stay and be with old friends. 

Being with your former schoolmates makes you feel nostalgic and warm because you go back to a different world, far different from the corporate rigmarole and pretences.

I uploaded all  the photos in my multiply site for I made a mistake of setting the photo size to large, which made it so difficult for me to upload here unless I resize all of them which takes up too much time.

I managed to upload only three of them with different sizes…oh well.  First photo below are the girls (me, Elma and Winnie without Lella) with Boy:

The complete photo of the group before we ended the night (or midnight).

and of course I cant help it but I insisted on a photo with the giant Pen christmas tree.  The lobby at midnight was teeming with people and when some of them saw Boy, they all requested for a photo with him.

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