Crashing Waves

Last Saturday wasn’t exactly the perfect day to have a night out with friends because of the slightly gloomy weather – not to mention that it was raining sporadically. But that still didn’t stop my friends and I from having a great time. It was actually a reunion of sorts as my friends from my previous work and I decided to meet up last Saturday for dinner.

My friends and I agreed to meet at Shangri-La Plaza early evening. We were really excited to see each other again after last year’s reunion. Except for one, almost all of my friends were there. We had dinner at Krokodile Grille and spent the early hours of the evening chatting and reminiscing the good times we had at the editorial department of the magazine where we used to work. However, our al fresco dining was interrupted by the sudden pouring of rain. It was a good thing that the restaurant had big umbrellas to shelter us from the rain. So we finished our dinner amidst the rain and chilly wind.

Our original plan of just dining out turned into a fun, riotous night as we decided at the last minute to go to a karaoke bar after dinner for a drink or two. Since all of us had limited knowledge of cheap karaoke bars, we ended up going to Synder Karaoke Bar in Pioneer, Mandaluyong – the nearest karaoke bar we could think of. The place was not exactly great in terms of space and cleanliness but it’s all right. The service was quite good anyway.

Another former coworker of ours, Cox, came at the bar just in time to join us. We had a blast belting out (off-key) songs we love including the ones we love to hate. After three rounds of Tanduay Ice and a pack or two of cigarettes (for the three girls anyway), we decided we had enough.

It was a night of (mis)adventure as we proceeded from the bar to Blue Wave along Roxas Boulevard (?) to grab a cup of coffee at Starbucks. But we had to wait for Racky because she got tipsy and had to puke in the bathroom. By the time we got to Starbucks (around 3:00 AM), the coffee shop was already closed so we took another cab and headed to Mall of Asia. We went around the area a bit looking for a 24-hour coffee shop. By then, the rain was pouring hard and most of us were already wet. We were so grateful when we spotted a Starbucks at San Miguel by the Bay. And what do you know, they’re open 24 hours! So we dashed inside and ordered cups of piping hot coffee courtesy of Xien who was celebrating her birthday this week.

We spent the wee hours of the morning there and talked about “substantial” stuff (which was an inside joke). It was already 6:00 AM when we left the coffee shop and parted ways. I finally came home at 7:00 AM feeling sleepy but satisfied. I really had fun that night and realized how much I missed the gang.