Bernice's dance recital (a long delayed post)

I was unable to post this before... I guess you could chalk it up to having been too busy before. Now that I'm not too busy, it becomes a matter of recalling an event that happened close to 9 months ago. So this also needs a little recall.

It started with Bernice having her summer vacation, and asking us if she could join a dance workshop - one that I would later find ot be organized and handled by the Power dancers (at least, that is who I think they are). Needless to say, this took the better part of the entire summer, and we were lucky that she had a friend/school mate (Ella) who was attending the same class, so she could go with her friend whenever they went to the practice.

Naturally, as most of these workshops are wont to do, they would have some kind of recital as proof of how their nearly months of practice helped their students. Well here is my assessment of such... at least, form the part of how I saw Bernice.

The recital was held in the RCBC theater, in Ayala avenue. It started about an hour late - not very professional, and we (that is, the audience) was getting antsy - finally, when the show started, it opened with each student doing some moves - giving them a very brief (roughly 5 seconds) spotlight exposure. As Bernice took to the stage, I noticed that her moves were slightly reserved... yes, she was dancing, but she still had some obvious stage fright. Not surprising, after all... this was her first time.

Bernice then participated in three more dances, interspersed across the rest of the show. I still noticed how she would mostly go with the flow... be in the background and be an almost invisible part of the dance numbers. It was nice to watch her, and even two of her friends watched and were elated to see her (and Ella) do their moves. I even got to tape the dances using the iPad... and posted at least one in YouTube. At the end of it all, Bernice said she wanted to do things again come next summer vacation. I believe her, after all... performing on stage can give you a rush (as I used to feel when I was part of the ADB chorale - an experience I did at least twice). So I know she'll do this again, and come next time, I know she'll show a bit more confidence in her performances.

Too bad I had no pictures as I listened to and complied with the message of cameras not being allowed. Hnh... almost half the audience brought cameras... so I know better next time.

A very unexpected Jolibee drive through

Chalk this one up as a brief and wonderful happening. You see, I was driving along Ortigas on an early Sunday evening. With me was my family, and we had just come from Greenhills shopping center, having done some groceries in Unimart. I was not trying to find the most convenient route back home. Barbie also needed to stop by an ATM machine to get some allowance money for Bernice - which meant going in another direction.

I thought that since Ortigas avenue was not allowing cars to do a U-turn (and I though one convenient route was to do a U-turn, I decided to take a right at the next corner (where there is a Jolibee and Cafe France eatery) - the street itself is a sort of dead end... being a closed gate to a subdivision. I had the intent of using this dead end, and making a U-turn in it to allow me ot make a left witht he help of the traffic light, thus being able to go to the other side of Ortigas without having to make the U-turn in Ortigas - from there, I could take a service road leading straight to Wilson street, which was basically my intent as it represents the most convenient way home. Unfortunately, the dead end was busy with some kind of repair, so I went into the car park of  Cafe France to execute my U-turn.

It was at this point that barbie noted the Jolibee drive through menu and candidly mentioned to the kids (technically teens now) of how in years past when they were much younger, there would not pass a weekend without our going to Jolibee because it was what they wanted most. Well... suddenly, this discussion went to barbie realizing (and possibly voicing out what everyone was thinking) that it has been some time that we've had Jolibee - and suddenly, before we knew it, we were asking each other if they wanted Jolibee.

Needless to say, we all agreed and I maneuvered the car into the drive through. Barbie, Bryce and I had the Joli-hotdog, wich Bernice had the Cheese burger. Each of these came with Cokes (regular for the kids and zero for Barbie and me) and fries. And as I was driving home, we were enjoying our food - me whenever I had the chance to grab and bite my sandwich and fries while carefully driving.

Imagine that... just out of nowhere, we were reliving our old days as a family enjoying Jolibee. I guess the memories and experience of enjoying Jolibee as a family has been ingrained into our DNA, deeper than we realize... or it's just the act of wanting to experience the same feeling as before - even if just by a drive through. Needless to say, we weren't really hungry - but we enjoyed our meals. In fact, for some of us, it became dinner (or part one of our dinner).

Maybe this should be a possible plot for Jolibee's next commercial.