‘A party to remember’
He did it again! My good friend Dr Ver Lacson gave me a pleasant surprise by throwing an advance birthday party at his sprawling gorgeous residence recently. He told me he was giving a dinner for the Australian Sports Ambassadors Basketball team from Perth, who were in town for a series of friendly basketball matches. Unbeknownst to me, he secretly plotted with our friends that this was an advance celebration of my birthday!
And so, I was delightfully flabbergasted when I arrived that evening and was met with a loud chorus of Happy Birthday from all the guests. The widest grins were from my son Pastor Gary and the towering handsome Aussies (mostly over 6 ft tall!), who were also in on the plot. It was such an indescribable feeling of happiness seeing my good friends there to greet me. Pastor Gary expressed it all when he thanked these good people who have shown their friendship and love all these years. Of course my BFFs were present – they were the first ones invited by Dr Ver. Everyone enjoyed the hors d’oeuvre with glasses of properly chilled excellent wines sent earlier by Inday Pefianco (thank you, my friend).
The dinner that Dr Ver prepared was superb. We were spoiled with yummy dishes, so delicious that we all went back for seconds (even thirds, for some!). The Aussies simply loved Joanne Visitacion’s pasta, chocolate cake (from John Orola) and the Sans Rival (brought by dear Elsa Leonardia), which is the local version of their own Pavlova dessert. Then, everyone gathered around the birthday cake (a gift from the Aussies), to sing me Happy Birthday. What a lovely evening.” My cup runneth over”…* |