PNB's Christmas Party

Left home late finishing 2 flash movies and a powerpoint I plan to disseminate today.

Boss Boy asked Jeng yesterday to make an invitation for Monday's lunch in the dealing room - the Treasury Group's party. He wants to invite the directors and senior officers to our party. Being the helpful friend who enjoys doing anything that borders on dabbling in the artistic side of me, I volunteered to do it in powerpoint since my home PC has more clipart than the one in the office.

I decided to create a powerpoint version that she can print and a flash movie version. I also created another flash christmas card everyone in the dealing room could send out to our clients or counterparties. That's why I was late.

Jeng loved the flash invitation and didn't use the powerpoint one. The others liked the christmas card i made which used the pictures I took during the adopt-a-child event. Those who didn't have a picture in the card complained - I told them I couldn't do anything since they didn't pose for me when I was taking pictures. Had a feeling they'd be on the lookout for my camera just for the probability of being in my next flash movie.

Bought two tickets from Cristy for the advanced screening of the Return of the King. Each cost PHP350. She got the tickets from Bernard. The movie's already being shown in other parts of the world but because of the Metro Manila Filmfest, it will be shown locally January 2004. Every LOTR fan in the country hates the filmfest because of that. We were joking Cristy about the fact that she turned down a date when she said no when Bernard asked her if she wants to watch an advanced screening of Return of the King. It was after saying no that she remembered Bernard once telling her he couldn't wait to watch the movie. We all have moments of stupidity, don't we?

Our free dinner came late ... the caterers the bank hired miscalculated and we had to wait for them to finish cooking a second batch.

We went to the banking hall around 7pm. The bank hired two bands tonight - Acapella and Friends. The Acapella was a group of around 5 young men - maybe some are teens - who sang a capella. I enjoyed listening, but I sensed that the crowd was bored and raring to dance.

Dennis brought a bottle of wine and a cup. By the middle of the Acapella's session, Dennis and a couple of others in our group were drunk and noisy that those sitting near us can't help but notice. I feared we were getting more notice than the band on stage. When the Acapella sung "Bongga ka day", which had a danceable beat inspite of being sung a capella, I stood up and urged the others in the treasury group to stand and sway to the music. Mainly because I was feeling pity on the band for not getting any response from the audience, and also because I wanted the attention being drawn by the noisy treasury group to be reflected back to the the singing band.

After a few songs, we got tired of being the only ones in the audience swaying to Acapella so we sat down. The next group was better. They played dance music. Unfortunately, when they started playing, no one stood up to dance - maybe because they were shy. Boss Mon told us to start the dancing but we were hesitant. Finally, I had to initiate it by running to the front telling the treasury group to follow me and dance. Boss Mon told me to ask the chairman to dance. Heh? I balked and told Jan that Mon wants her to pull the chairman to the dancefloor. When we had the directors and senior officers dancing, everyone who wanted to dance follwed suit.

I started kicking the balloons on the floor and the others did the same. Jan mistakenly stepped on a balloon and everyone thought it was a game. All through the night, it was like New Year's eve because people were popping balloons.

Left before 10p.m. because the last bus trip home was 10:00. Had fun, and didn't mind having to initiate things tonight. Man, if I didn't start the ball rolling, we'd have a boring bank party!