Operation "Manong"

And just when I thought I'd escaped my birthday unscathed... 


My friends are unbelievably sneaky. Instead of fixing a surprise for me on Tuesday, my real birthday, they arranged for it to be a good four days after. Under the guise of assembling at a friend's house and deciding where to have dinner from there, they let me walk through a dark spooky room and met me outside on the terrace with about 50 lit candles! Who was there? My great friends from college, high school friends I haven't seen in a while, and the main conspirators, Yumi, who's a teacher at IS Manila, Sheryl (who is probably my oldest friend ever - imagine, we knew each other since we were in our pastel preschool pajama uniforms!) and Kelvin!

Yumi and Sheryl, best friends and partners in mischief. 


I must say, they enjoyed the expression on my face immensely... 


They'd arranged everything - handwritten messages on the 25 candles (every one of which I had to blow out - paano na yan pag 50 na ako?!), great food, flowers, chocolate, and even a surprise visit by Kuya and guess what - the beagles! - who had fun sniffing around Sheryl's place and annoying her black labrador puppy, Jack.

Obviously Yumi and Kelvin did much of the planning - like how to get me to free up my Saturday night (answer: by pretending to need me as a translator for a Japanese student who couldn't speak English!), contacting people, and buying the food. I was especially surprised when they told me Kelvin did a lot of the work (hindi kasi mahilig sa mga surprise kaya hindi na ako umaasa, hehe!) That was a pretty marvelous evening - though it did leave me in shock for a little while!

Cheeky bastard! He never gave a clue. 


I am simply humbled and thankful for friends and for love. :)

P.S. Why the title? Because Yumi, thinking I might accidentally chance upon her messages to Kelvin, asked him to change her name in his phonebook to "Manong" so I wouldn't suspect anything!