Last August 31, the Company's SVP for Brand Marketing visited us and our Division President decided to treat him to dinner together with the entire Marketing team, heads of our Agency partners and our Bottler's President at La Cocina de Tita Moning located at San Rafael Street , Manila near Malacanang Palace. Kandy chose La Cocina not only for the Filipino-Spanish dishes it served but also for the turn of the century dining experience that the Legarda ancestral home provided its guests.
The evening started with cocktails as we waited for our party to be completed. During cocktails, ladies in uniform served vegetable sticks with a creamy sauce, some kind of butter and cheese spread mildly toasted on soft bread and a gingery tasting juice (failed to ask what it was). The servers constantly, albeit graciously, kept going around offering us the snacks as we chatted about the evening's traffic incident.
After a few minutes of waiting, we were then led by our guide, Edel, to the entrance of the main house. She told us about the Legardas who lived there and how San Rafael Street was like when the house was built. First room to your left as you enter the house is the Train Room. Dr. Legarda had bought a collection of model train set in 1970 which was originally from the late 1930s but never opened it. I think it was in 2001 when the granchildren decided to build the train set. It continues to be a work-in-progress. The room across the Train Room was turned into a selling area for their recipe sauces and dips. Next to this room is the Library. Musty smell of old medical books and Life magazines from the time filled the room. Across the Library entrance is a small hallway that led to Dr. Legarda's Clinic and Camera room. To this day, the Clinic still had his examination table, x-ray machine and actual human skeleton. We were told that at the time, medical students had to source their own cadavers thus the skeleton in his clinic. It also still had several bottles which had unborn fetuses of unsuccessful pregnancies but you could hardly see them as these were at the top of high shelves. Meanwhile the Camera room boasted of antique and different types of cameras. And pictures of the family were displayed all over the house as a manifesto to this lifelong hobby of Don Legarda.
Following this was the tour of the upstairs of the house. The living room area had original Juan Luna and Felix Hidalgo paintings. The house also featured a bedroom and a dressing room. The dressing room featured a designer's body form that wore a wedding gown with a long intricately embroidered veil and other wedding accessories around the room. I would have appreciated the lovely dressed but since the body form was made to face the wardrobe mirror had a really creepy effect matched with the old musty smell of the room. It's really quite an elegant spaceous house.
Finally it was time for the meal.
As there were about twenty of us, we were seated in two long tables at the main dining area. It was a sit down dinner with complete table settings. I've lost the copy of the menu that evening but needless to say it was satisfying. Not great but satisfying enough. Personally I think one really pays more for the experience of being waited on, having a bell to ring to call the "help", using the antique table settings and being in an almost majestic old house in Manila.
It was indeed a different dining experience but only if you have the cash to spare.
I always heard people say that the best time of their lives was during High School. I beg to disagree. I preferred college. Maybe more because of the sense of liberty: being able to choose my class schedule, being able to absent myself from classes without a need for a letter from my parents or even leaving the university grounds anytime I wanted like if I wanted to watch a movie in between long breaks or just eating lunch that's not canteen food.
But when talking about reunions or get togethers, I think High School reunions are the best. Mostly because these are people I've known longer, owe to the fact that we've been together since Grade School and for some since Kindergarten. We've seen each other grow up literally. We saw each other when we were tiny and scrawny; when we were awkward as we went through puberty and sometimes envy at how others developed earlier than some. As we entered High School, different cliques started forming as most of us moved from a set of friends in Grade School to a different group in High School, which is really but natural as we grow up in different and sometimes separate ways.
I recently attended a batch get together with approximately 25 in attendance. This is a far cry from the 250 students of our class but it was a great mix of people. And it's so much fun to see how much people have changed and haven't changed at all, how barriers are broken down and what used to be cliques are no more but just girls we've known for so long or that what we used to know about them are no longer true at this point in time.
The get together was held in Katips, a pinoy grille restaurant along Katipunan avenue. We tried to say hello to everyone who was there stealing a few minutes to cram the
last 17 years into snippets to answer the questions, "kamusta na?" and "ano na ginagawa mo ngayon?". Moms shared pictures of their kids. Joanne Duque, once known to be snobbish and would only stick with her own friends, was quite friendly and played the role of photographer and making sure she caught everyone in her camera. You would have never thought you'd see certain individuals in a picture together! Chinky Antonio (who btw won class president during the evening's election) reluctantly played host to the trivia game with questions like: "Which teacher got pregnant every year?" or "What was the favorite expression of Jean Romero?"
It was truly fun to reminisce old times.
This brings me back to my best memories of high school, one of which would be our very organized lunch periods. In our senior year, there were seven of us who ate together: Me, Auey, Chix, Zet, Tikoy, Lynette and Gina. The canteen I remember was still open air. A covered walkway led from the HS building to the canteen area. If my memory serves me right, there were aprroximately 20 tables which could seat 6 each table. We "owned" a table that was four rows from the food selling counter and was on the column which looked out into the garden between the HS building and the covered canteen area. I say we "owned" the table because nobody would dare use the table during recess and lunch as we were always expected to take our place there especially in our junior-senior years. One time, a couple of students one batch lower sat in our places and Zet arrived early which Chix, I think. She waited a few moments but when it didn't seem they were moving, she directively asked them, "hindi pa ba kayo aalis? andito na kami." Other times, it was as simple as moving lunch boxes meant to save the table to other tables. (But I don't think you can call us bullies yet as there have been others who were involved in fights almost every other week. Our group has never really been in a fight with anyone.)
I mentioned that our lunches were very organized. Let me demonstrate why: we expected high student traffic during lunch so we assigned everyone different tasks. I just don't remember the assignments now but someone would be lined up to get our pooled money exchanged for chits, someone else would be lined up to buy the food, another would be checking out the food and telling the person in line what to order and a couple others would be lined up to get the drinks. Hence, we're normally one of the first few students who got served right away and were finished eating within 10minutes from the time the lunch bell rang. The remaining time was spent chatting and playing Tracy Chapman songs on the guitar or whatever fancied the guitar player. We all tried to learn a song or two. I usually played "The One I love" by REM or "Father & Son" by Cat Stevens mainly for their easy chords. hehe.
And so, unlike Romy and Michelle who dreaded going to their High School reunion and with the need to impress, I look forward to the 20th Anniversary Batch Reunion which will hopefully happen in 2010 and expect to meet old familiar faces and possibly renew friendships with those I've lost communication with in recent years.
