It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

When you are in Manila in December, it usually comes with the frills associated with the Christmas holiday. That includes the lights, the music, the monstrous traffic, and yes, the back-to-back-to-back meet-ups with friends.

Today I went out with friends from my former company, those who I call my "super friends". We trooped over to a newly-opened branch of Romulo Cafe along Jupiter St. The food was good, not great, but I totally fell in love with the interior decoration. It had an old-school, vintage feel to it. And I was told that the second floor housed several years' worth of memorabilia and photographs from the time of Carlos P. Romulo (the Philippine diplomat who lived in the early 1900s, for whom the restaurant was named after). I of course never made it to the second floor, but I took my friend's word for it.

Even though I had just seen this set of friends only two weeks earlier, I was happy to see them again, to regale and be regaled with the latest stories about relationships, professions, views on the expatriate first wives' club, and stupid people in general. And since I've only been around for four days, there are sure to be more gatherings like this in the pipeline. December is truly the best time of the year.