Songs and Parties

The Christmas Party last Friday was both fun and unnerving. Why, we had the annual Pamaskong Koryo Awards (where I won the best new recipe of the year for my sinigang na hotdog with okra)! As expected, there were the not-so-surprise winners—like Jonathan Chua (for Quotably Quotable of the Year, which I will not quote here) and Gary Devilles (for the Most Missed Award, besting Rolando Tinio, among others)—but we laughed all the same. Then we had some videoke session in the afternoon, thanks to Bong who brought her Magic Mic (with its 10,000-peso chip) with her. Four got 100 (excellent singing!): Morny (a “Bakit Ngayon Ka Lang” duet with himself, a la Doble Kara), Vim (I forgot, but probably a boyband song), Jayson (back to back diva classics), and Sir Mike (an immemorial Ric Manrique). The highest I could get (and this was already performance level) was a 95 (still an A, hah!) for Rivermaya’s “Kisapmata.” The real videoke party began at eight p.m. in the Taverna Marquina (but Vim, Jema and I arrived at 9 p.m. because we wouldn’t want to miss an episode of Spirits). No scores, but more fun. Of course, we ended with Sir Je’s undying “Punch and Judy.”