Various

Last night Hangad had a post-Valentine concert in Eastwood. My son had a surprise for us: he sang solo while accompanying himself on the guitar with the rest of the Hangad members providing the background vocals. Initially I thought he would just accompany the female Hangad member (and he did) when he and she stepped up front towards the latter part of the show. All the time he had been behind the group with the musical arranger/keyboardist and the drummer. The other guy on keyboard joined the other members up front when they sang a capella. My son stayed behind all the time so the video his dad took showed him between two members occasionally.

I was dumbfounded to hear him sing solo on stage, very confidently and smiling! I couldn't believe it was he. Night before his school org also had a post-Valentine show and he told me later that he sang High and Dry solo, in fact volunteered to do so aside from accompanying a fellow org member on the guitar as she sang solo, because the program had so few numbers lined up.

He never ceases to spring happy surprises and I know his smile right before he began to sing was somehow a "taunt" to his unknowing parents and tita -- he had this surprise up his sleeve. Oh possibly, the surprise also came for the family of Joey: his dad, mom, sister and younger brother who all showed up because they read my son's announcement re the concert in his blog. That certainly touched us -- that they came. For moral support, they said, the way Joey also always came for my son's performances as a member of the high school theater group.

After the show, the musical arranger excitedly congratulated us, recounting how during the audition, our son's voice had so stunned them and how when they swooned he told them "I don't sing solo." In high school, he never did. But over the past few months he has been a Hangad member, he'd always say "I might sing solo" only to tell us later on, "no more na."

At any rate, his maiden solo as a Hangad member was All I Need Is Love, a good and light enough number that suited his age and temperament, I think. It was an enlightened choice by the musical director, a good start for a parvenu of sorts.

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After the show my husband and I went in search of a place to eat. Our first choice was Cafe Adriatico except that it was closed, I hope not permanently but only to mourn the death of its founder, Larry Cruz. May he rest in peace.

We ended up in Something Fishy which I had read about only last week, where a friend had eaten years ago, and for which I received an enticing flyer before the show began.

Possibly, if we weren't hungry, we'd have changed restaurants because while the staff was friendly and efficient, the place was not well lit and the table and chair kept slipping/sliding. Guess why? Husband said the floor was oily. uh oh. Then our orders came, my husband's was tuna sisig and mine was inihaw na baboy. Two cups of steamed white rice arrived with our order when in fact we had asked for seafood rice. It was replaced before long.

Presentation wise: the tuna sisig came in a fish-shaped hot plate; the inihaw na baboyw was in a boat-shaped porcelain (ceramic) dish with two compartments. In the bigger compartment lay cuts of pork that looked very dry, while on the smaller compartment, my eyes could see nothing. No color, I thought, just empty space. It occurred to me that they should at least have put parsley or tomato or cucumber to brighten the dish, but no, it was Noah's ark, okay the bottom of Noah's ark with one miserable pig in it. Then I looked: some clear sea water had seeped into the boat and I hadn't seen it: vinegar, clear as water. No sili to add spice or color to it. Okay, simple living. The rice was orange with some green onions and a few chunks of I couldn't see what. Remember the place wasn't brightly lit.

Now to the taste. The appearance of the food being rather uninviting, I wasn't too enthused to try it. I got a slice of the pork and it was okay, something that tasted like it was cooked at home. Husband put some of the tuna sisig on my plate but I asked him to take them back. I wasn't too enticed to even try it. When I asked how it tasted, he said The Barn's was much better. So that's it for Something Fishy and us. Oh behind my husband was a post that showed a man with his huge catch of fish. In another picture was Richard Gomez with another man also with a huge fish. Tuna, possibly?