Dear Loved Ones,
Pleasant Greetings to everyone! We praise and thank God for the wonderful blessings – safe travel to Pinas and back, reuniting with loved ones, cooler climate, campaign for election advocacies, wonderful celebration of Thanksgiving in Pinas, joyful anticipation of the Christmas season, among others!
On our Catholic Breakfast Club meeting for November, the invited speaker was Ms. Barbara Nicolosi, founding director of Act One Inc., which train youg people for careers as Hollywood writers and executives. She spoke on the topic ‘Why Hollywood Matters’ – the profound influence on the value formation of its wide audience, especially the children; thus, the need to be concerned on the types of movies being churned out from the industry which are composed mostly of pagans. She strongly admonished the audience to be actively vigilant and suggested ideas on ways to influence the industry: PRAY for the conversion of people in the industry, especially the activists like Sean Penn, Spielberg, etc. A former nun of St. Paul’s order for 9 years, Ms. Nicolosi is now working on the project on the Virgin Mary, ‘The Mother of the Christ’ set for release early 2010, so she asked for more prayers on the success of this project.
Dateline Pinas: I am in Pinas Nov 17- 30, 2008. I arrived via NW 27/001 in Manila at 11:00p. The 1st two days was spent on pre-appointed meetings with clients, officers and staff in the Q.C. area. Thursday was my 1st day at the office to update on office staff concerns and review of overall employee performance, then I had lunch with Ms. CORA I at D’Block SM North EDSA which we had to squeeze in since she was leaving for Bangladesh the following day to observe election activities there. She is a key officer of NAMFREL (the Pinas election watchdog) and seemed to have focused on her role as election professional being an expert on election matters, traveling around Asian countries on election time.
The following day Friday, I had more meetings and business updates and in the evening, we had dinner with Fr. Art, O.P., now having more responsibilities at U.S.T. – in the hospital, education, admin – doing oversight work, maximizing the learnings he got from his graduate studies at AIM. Saturday dinner was with my CFC couples – Gammy and Grace, Jack and Maritess at Abe’s (Trinoma, QC) enjoying family updates and life stories, Pinas politics and environment.
The 2nd week was spent catching up on household matters – packing and moving essential things from our Fairview household to our El Jardin condo unit, especially my valuable collection of mini ships – I am always in a journey so my vessels take me from place to places. This is in preparation for our Fairview nest to be turned over to a potential buyer soon. Wednesday was spent visiting with Msgr. Fidelis Limcaco and his Emmanuel Servants seminarians at his convent, where we reiterated our monthly commitment of support to their studies. It was good to see that Monsi was still looking fine and healthy. On Thursday, I had lunch with my good friend and kumare Tess S. at the Via Mare (Trinoma) where we binged on all the native food they had from dinuguan, palabok, lumpia, salabat, puto maya with mangoes, with updates on many developments. We share similar experiences on relationships (children, husbands, work, friends, etc.) since our friendship spans 30 years since during our NPC days. It was nice to get in phone touch with classmate Sally V. and Dr. T. T. De Lara, due to time constraint face-to-face meeting was not feasible. The must do appointments of every Pinas visit were accomplished – dental check-up and my lawyer!
The culmination of my visit was Saturday pm for the wedding of my loyal assistant Jessica Antiquera and C/O Clark Cris Corpus at the San Felipe Church in Mandaluyong, with reception at the Phil. Stock Exchange Tektite Tower auditorium with 200 guests. Officiating priest was Fr. Bobot Clemen, parish priest of Lagro and a neighbor in Panglao, so he fetched us from our Fairview home and back with his car - also served as our driver. The entire wedding and reception was so impressive – well organized, ceremonies, the food, program, etc, - fabulous, as Filipinos can do! Both Gerry and I were principal sponsors, gave speeches – highlighting Jess’ excellent 11 years service with our company, while Clark also started as crew in our shipping where they met; we empathized and shared with heir happiness, achievement and success!.
Nov. 30: It’s wonderful to be back in Sacramento with it’s nice foggy weather – the flight back was smooth, we arrived 1 hour ahead of the scheduled 7:40a time so I had to wait for my Sean and Russel who came past 9:00a. I have to rest for several days to recuperate from severe cough and colds due to hectic activities in Pinas.
Attached are photos of: 1) at FSAC office with Agnes; 2) with CFC couples; and 3) at Jessica’s wedding. Let us continue to pray for our country and people. We look forward to Christmas with the entire family in Sacramento. Peace and Joy to You and God Bless Us All!
Much love and Best Regards!!!
SUSAN BG
On our Catholic Breakfast Club meeting for November, the invited speaker was Ms. Barbara Nicolosi, founding director of Act One Inc., which train youg people for careers as 
Dateline Pinas: I am in Pinas Nov 17- 30, 2008. I arrived via NW 27/001 in 
The culmination of my visit was Saturday pm for the wedding of my loyal assistant Jessica Antiquera and C/O Clark Cris Corpus at the San Felipe Church in Mandaluyong, with reception at the Phil. Stock Exchange Tektite Tower auditorium with 200 guests. Officiating priest was Fr. Bobot Clemen, parish priest of Lagro and a neighbor in Panglao, so he fetched us from our 