Traveling with friends

I have just been back from a weekend adventure with my sorority sisters: Debbie Villagonzalo-Palao and Baby Osmeña-Madrid. We were into a lot of activities when we were still students at the University of San Carlos but we managed to keep our academics intact to graduate with honors when we marched up to get our diplomas. Baby was Most Exalted Sister of our Kappa Lambda Sigma, after her was the late Pet Escano-Misa, then it was my turn.  Debbie and I graduated in the same year — she is from Accountancy and I from Ph.B. (Bachelor of Philosophy w/a double major in English). Like Debbie, I found my college years as the most enjoyable time of my life.  It was the time I blossomed to hone all the potentials in me: debate, student politics, writing, theater, religious organizations, voted to head the Dramatics Guild and then, my sorority, also becoming the Corps Sponsor in my senior year. It was challenging and fun!

Yet, all three of us moved on to the varying spheres of our lives: Baby married and had children, then moved to Manila when her husband became Manulife President & CEO. At that time, she was about to finish a Fine Arts degree at UP Cebu.  She paints well and is into artistic photography. Debbie, for her part, got out of numbers and gave vent to her prodigious creativity. She started Design Ventures that became a byword in Cebu furniture design, earning not only national but also international recognitions. For me, I ended up being Lifestyle Editor of this paper in the last 11 years.

Then Debbie retired last year when she sold her factory; I retired from my full time job starting this month. So, what better way to celebrate our well-earned freedom than a reunion of tested true friends who have remain so over decades?

Hosted by Baby in her Ayala-Alabang manse (I'll get a kick from her for this!), Debbie & I arrived on a Thursday afternoon. Poor well-dressed Baby had to wait long as someone took my luggage by mistake and we were tracing her by the contact number on her luggage tag.  We had similar red cabin luggage, but not the same brand.  Mine is a hard-case Samsonite while hers is a soft type. But we both had a prominent "Fragile" sticker on the upper part of the luggage. She was not the one who got her luggage as she was on a wheelchair. Good thing, they were waiting for their pick up outside, so we were able to exchange bags. Lesson 1: Always have a complete updated contact number, your name and complete address on each of your luggage.

Using Baby's van and driver, we went on our merry way to Taal for our half day Villa Tortuga heritage tour (a separate article on this in the lifestyle section). All the while, Debbie and I were amused at how nurturing and in command our host was even before we arrived.  Our breakfast "demands" were noted by email, even our sleeping preferences. Being the cantankerous characters we evolve to be when together, Debbie and I would be boisterous in our disagreements and personal wants — like kids you would want to tie up in sacks. Baby would always end up pacifying us. Well, we enjoyed it to the last minute. It was fun!

Debbie and I  — we are night creatures, while demure Baby is up by 5 am. Good thing we were so tired so we were not able to make true our threat to talk throughout the night, pinching her (Baby) if she would doze off. Hah! The glasses of cabernet over dinner at Fire Grill also made us hit the pillow in no time.

We were on our best behavior when we got back to Alabang, as Bobby (who just arrived from Hong Kong) was waiting to take us to dinner in Solaire.  My handsome godson JV came along as my escort (I should like to think!) The steak dinner at The Strip Steakhouse was superb, along with my glass of Beringer grand cru cabernet. Debbie could hardly stand from the table after all the food we had been eating since Thursday night.

After a sumptuous Sunday dinner at the Madrids' welcoming abode, we spent time updating Bobby about Cebu and before we knew it, we were due for the airport by 3 pm for our 5:30 flt. home  (delayed to 5:45 pm per emailed PAL notice).  When we checked in, we found out that our flight was further delayed to 7 pm.  That was not acceptable, as I had a family dinner to catch up! We were requested to be on waitlist for the 5:45 departure (which was the 4 pm flight's new schedule).  We made it! Only to find out that both our luggage were not loaded in our flight! We finally got our luggage delivered to our homes towards midnight. Despite the delay at the airport, I was still able to catch up with my family and enjoyed the four Lilliputians at play — all became right with my world. Lesson 2: If possible, do not check in your luggage if you are on waitlist with cascading delays.  In our case, there were 2 subsequent flights after ours.

Travel safely!