Pirate Christmas party

The Card Smart Christmas Party this year was held on a boat that cruised around the harbour. The theme for our Kris Kringle was pirates, so we carried that theme all throughout the party. We had barbeque and salads with lots of wine and beer. The boat also featured laser pigeorn shooting. It felt really fake trying to shoot these "pigeons" with a laser beam.

City 2 Surf

City to Surf is an annual fun run held in Sydney. It is a 14 km walk/run from the centre of the city to Bondi Beach. It is for both serious runners and strollers. I organized a group from work to do it this year, since our workplace has initiated a fitness program. It was great fun, but very tiring at the same time. The winning time for the event was 41.12 minutes. Jeanette from work finished the course in 77 minutes, which was excellent. I walked together with Peter, Wendy, Doreen and Kenny. Our time? 162.58 minutes. We placed 53,296, out of approximately 58,000 participants.

Abu Dhabi Nights

Peter was commissioned to create outfits for Liz and Roderick, who were having a farewell party before they move to Abu Dhabi. It was going to be a grand affair, so Peter wanted to create something special. I assisted him by accompanying him to Cabramatta to pick out cloth materials and stitching beads onto the belt of the Liz's dress.

They were kind enough to invite us to the party at the Museum of Contemporary Arts. It was a theme party, so Peter and I wore these harem pants that he made originally for Mardi Gras. He wrapped this silver material around our heads as turbans. I thought we looked like Norma Desmond from "Sunset Boulevard". The party was indeed grand with the museum decked out like a harem, complete with camels and belly dancers. French champagne was flowing all night. What a fun and decadent night.

Wet in Seaworld

The Card Smart AGM for 2008 was held in Sea World on the Gold Coast. Highlights were a gala dinner with sea lions as guests, a private dolphin show just for Card Smart, and a soccer challenge in the rain. Sadly, the weather was not good as you can see from the pictures. Inspite it being cold and wet, we persisted with enjoying the various rides in the theme park.

Handog Nang Pilipino Sa Mundo

Twenty-two years ago, I was working as a computer programmer at the National Computer Center in the Philippines. Our center was given the important task of tabulating the results of the 1986 Marcos-Aquino presidential elections. On February 6, 1986, a couple of days into the tabulation, 30 of us walked out of the PICC building in protest of the fraud that was going on.

Our small act of defiance is now recognized as one of a series of events that led to the EDSA revolution and the people power that eventually overthrew President Marcos.

Here is a video of that historic time. The title of this post and the title of the song in the video means "The Filipinos' Gift to the World". 3 minutes 12 seconds into the video, you will find the clip of our group walking out of the tabulation center. Do not blink as you may miss it.