I am contemplating what would be the best title for this post, from “Farewell, Sir Gary” (too mushy), to “Pre – holiday Get Together” (not quite!). I ended up with this pathetic title.

Last July 1st, the team under the Controller’s Group, as spearheaded by Ms. Tintin Velasquez and Ms. Irene Gevela, planned some sort of send – off party/dinner for our outgoing boss, Gary Manotoc. The venue is Saisaki restaurant at Megamall. All of us have finished the tasks for the day, or at least pretended to have finished everything before the 6 o’clock buzzer. Me, as always, had nothing productive to do by four so I was basically slacking the remaining two hours. To look like there’s nothing going on and so that Sir Gary won’t suspect a thing, we decided to go out in intervals. Some probably had taken this too seriously that Gary arrived at Saisaki ahead of them (Rona, Tine B. and company).

Dinner was good. I never had so much Japanese food in my entire life, so much that I decided to ignore those chopsticks for a month.

Some of the highlights (?), booboos and funniest moments last Thursday are:

1. Grace and Tine B’s supposed production number didn’t push through, to everyone’s disappointment. Too bad, they had their costumes with them.
2. A very unforgettable speech from Sir Gary, who had nothing to say but “I’m speechless!” (Duh?)
3. Tine G. had to forego her dietary regimens and Slimmer’s World classes because of the sumptuous, delicious and finger – licking Japanese cuisine in front of us. Can’t blame her really. I just wish I also had the tummy to wolf down that multi – scoops of ice cream.
4. One scene – stealer for the night was the Saki drink, which tastes very, very, very yucky! I promise not to drink this beverage again my entire life. I had to control myself from throwing up as the first drops of this forbidden drink touched my taste buds. What is the grossest thing I ever tasted? Definitely, this one.
5. Unveiling of (drum rolls!!!!!!!!) the so – called token for our beloved superior, a caricature with Sir’s ever-quotable quotes.



6. Can somebody tell Tine B. to give up that dream of hers of being a professional photographer? This Sandara look – alike is camera happy and has penchant for capturing stolen shots with our mouths wide open eating those maki, sushi and sashimi! Good thing I am naturally photogenic.
7. The best that happened that was that Grace had found the guy of his dreams, Eric. I can only look at her with envy. Some girls have all the luck!


Too bad I had to go ahead of them for prior commitments I had to attend to. But all in all, we will surely miss Sir Gary. We’ll surely miss pretending to be working when he’s around, hehehe! That eternal “What are you doing?” line every morning, and that titanic water jug of his!