Birds, Balls, Bush

Spent late Wednesday afternoon birdwatching at Southwoods’ golf course-bird sanctuary in Cavite. We were accompanied by knowledgeable avian experts, who happily talked about certain species inhabiting the area. I enjoyed some whispered double entendre-ish jokes--about birds in bushes, breeding grounds, stray balls and swallows--by friends and occasional co-workers Lester “Soundfactory” H. and Mark “Markywanna” P. They were pretty hilarious, if you’re into that guttery kinda thing.

Attending that event was fun; I rode a golf cart, met new people, admired some rocking violinists, loved the food, and had a glass of red wine. And not necessarily in that order. Well, there was work too. After the fun trek across the sprawling, refreshing golf course, we had to go to another part of the site to attend a phase launch. I was noticeably giddy at the van, and jokingly told Mark (my bartending friend), “Do we have to? I don’t wanna!”

We had to interview the property developer head, and attend the tree-planting ceremony (above, thanks for the pics, Lester). For the latter part, we just had to plunk those baby trees into pre-dug holes, so it was done with pretty quickly.

Shaira Luna’s a charming, intelligent girl, as expected. She told us that people mention that old TV commercial she did for that kids’ health drink everyday. She’s a photographer-writer now, and she covered the event for another broadsheet. She thought that I was a quiet guy, because she spotted me covering that Taichi event at UP last year, looking serious the whole time. Well, to her surprise (and possibly, dismay, heh) last Wednesday, I proved that I’m far from quiet and serious. That’s because of the company, mostly.

Mark was a quick learner; he took to driving our golf cart in no time at all. He’s still a funny guy, the workaholic insomaniac. It’s great that he’s handing me stuff to do. I’m glad to help out, and glad that he trusts me enough to do the assignments. I kinda owe this fella for another thing too; he was my bartender-babysitter last week. He looked after me when I zonked out after ten beers. Anyway, I think we’re comfortable with mocking each other now. But I like his big ideas. He’s just that kind of person. And it’s always nice to hear him speak lovingly of his son, Noah.

Lester, meanwhile, is very knowledgeable when it comes to music. He’s making me a mix CD, a compilation of songs drawn from, well, other mix CDs and some of my old albums. It’s so strange and cool to discover months back that we went to the same university and graduated at the same time. He was in the old yearbook all along! We were just in different colleges. We eventually became Pulp and MTV Ink contributors (he did CD reviews; I did my initial Lexy run and a few music and comics reviews). That was about six years ago. I only met him last June, after he messaged me that he’s “a fan” of “my fab series.” I blush.

Had a blast, guys! And yeah, love the free binoculars! Wow, it works.