Hosts


Various Rotarians in our sister club of Las Pinas Camino Real took turns hosting our group. Tonight Ruben, the club's charter president, is inviting us all to his ultra-sleek and gorgeous high rise condo with pool, hot tub, spa, and all the amenities. (By the way, Alethea, his condo cost roughly what yours did).



We're scheduled to be there at 4:30 for a light dinner and swim, but the bumper to bumper traffic made that impossible. Traffic lights are infrequent and yet, the traffic does ebb and flow in a rhythmic grid, albeit slowly.

Meanwhile, there's a constant flow of texting going on via cellphone asking where are you, we're here, what's up, etc. Since traffic is often comnpletely stalled it's easy to text since you're not actually moving. It's certainly handy and Alethea, I'm going to have to get a new phone and have you show me how it's done.

By the time we reached Ruben's condo, it was too windy to swim. In fact, I could actually have used a shawl. There's a large entertainment room set up with karaoke so the ladies, all of whom like to sing, got right into it. Our Three Amigos also took the opportunity to belt out another rendition of Pretty Woman.

To our great surprise, Thad, our GSE guest from 3 years ago, showed up at Ruben's. We had spoken with Thad a few days earlier but didn't know he was scheduled to show up so unfortunately, we didn't have our cookbook and CD with. Thad, of course, came laden with lovely gifts for us. It was so fun to see him again after 3 year. He looks the same, though he lost th 15 pounds he gained during his GSE trip to Alberta.

Jacquie, who was Neil and Margo's guest, also showed up and amazed us with her truly professional singing voice as she sang Memories, a song whose range taxes even the best voices. She did an outstanding job and while we didn't know her well, it was great to see both of them.



It turns out that Thad will be demonstrating at a cooking show in the same venue that is hosting the Discon on the weekend, so we'll get another chance to see him. And maybe give him our District's cookbook.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Summer Palace

Image
Wow. Our days are full of strange sights and long hours. In the bus every morning at 7:00, and never home before 5:00. The summer palace was built by Rama V to commemorate the village where he met his wife. How romantic is that! Lo hiding between the antlers The gardens are gorgeous, with topiary herds of elephants, deer and rabbits. Sounds of peacocks echo through the gardens but they remained frustratingly elusive. Their cries were augmented by the screech of other unseen birds in faraway branches. But we did see an amazing variety of bougainvillea in all colours. Hans standing by the elephant's trunk. From the walls in the Reception Hall, yellowing faded faces of Ramas I to IX gazed out from acestral photos. Each Rama is believed to be an incarnation of Vishnu. Other rooms held lacquered furniture inlaid with mother-of-pearl and stunning teak carvings. As with all Buddhist buildings, we have to remove our shoes and in some cases, we were asked the night before to dress respectfu
Read more

The trouble with winter is…

The trouble with winters here is that they can be incredibly brutal. This is especially true when your driveway is 400' long, oriented east-west, and invitingly open to the howling north wind. Last night the afore-mentioned wind was an unwelcome escort on my drive home late in the evening. All the way home I contemplated whether or not I should risk driving my car down the driveway and into the garage, where it might get trapped overnight. I decided not to risk it. From the head of the driveway I phoned Hans to say I was leaving the car on the road, loaded up my stuff, wound my scarf around my head to ward off the wind, and opened the door. Like a spinnaker, it caught the wind and creaked alarmingly before I wrestled it closed again. I proceeded more cautiously. The driveway was already starting to bulk up with mogul-like drifts and Hans had opened the gate for me – a precaution when drifts in the drive are a possibility. After a soak in the hot tub to fight the chill,
Read more

"The Party"

If you've seen the movie "The Party" with Peter Sellers, you'll be able to visualize the scene at dinner this evening. We had Rock Cornish Game Hens. Just as I was critizing someone else for their bad table manners, my cornish hen flew off my plate and skittered across the table. Bits of chicken went flying in all directions. "You have a piece of chicken hanging from your eyebrow", said Teddy, nodding at Hans. "He's just keeping an eye on it", said Vern.
Read more