PAMWE GALA

Outgoing PAMWE President, Hilda Gigioli presenting the certificate of membership to yours truly with the incoming President, Carl Layno in the background.

On August 9, 2014 I attended my first PAMWE Gala together with my lady, Ms. Aida Hulen. It was a night full of fun and surprises. For those of you who are not familiar with PAMWE, it's an acronym which stands for Philippine Association of Metropolitan Washington Engineers. It's a non-profit, non-partisan, professional organization whose three (3) main goals are:

       1) To support engineering students with scholarships in Philippine colleges and universities

       2) To provide engineering expertise and funding for community development projects in the Philippines

       3) To assist members in job placement and professional licensing as well as improving their technical knowledge

To learn more about PAMWE, please visit our website: http://pamwe.org. Being new to this organization, I feel honored by the warm welcome extended to us by its officers and fellow members most especially by Engr. Rafael Discipulo and Engr. William Mendoza with whom we had a lively conversation. We had fun on the dance floor although occasionally we got hit by "flying" enthusiastic dancers. We truly enjoyed the evening which was topped off with winning one of the raffle prizes.

The 2014 PAMWE GALA IN PICTURES 

With Pablito Alarcon, Founder & President of Feed the Hungry & Ms. Cora 

With Consul General Ariel Penaranda, a fellow Marinduqueno

With Con-Gen Ariel Penaranda and his wife, Rowena Dayanghirang Penaranda

Engr. & Mrs. Rafael Discipulo, Engr. William Mendoza & daughter and my lady, Ms. Aida Hulen

 More photos from our table...

With Sonny and Ceres Busa & Mrs. Rowena Dayanghirang Penaranda

With Engr. Alex Miravite

The engineers and guests showing their dancing prowess

The famous line dancing, the evening is not complete without it

More dancing...

With my lady and inspiration to all my poems, Ms. Aida Pastoral Hulen

To all PAMWE officers and fellow members, I really appreciate the memorable evening with you on our 34th anniversary dinner dance gala. I consider it an honor to be a part of such wonderful and caring organization. Congratulations to Carl Layno and other officers for a job well done!  

PS. Please check out my Algebra and poetry books at: http://www.amazon.com/author/engr.vv. Discover how an engineer like me was able to weave out poetic words of love and wisdom. I would appreciate any feedbacks/comments. Thank you!

Engr.VV - D' Poetic Engineer

Wine Tasting

At Berrywine Plantations, Mt. Airy, Maryland

It was Labor Day week-end and there was nothing much to do, so we decided to go to Berrywine Plantations in Mt. Airy, Maryland for wine tasting. I maybe not a wine connoisseur, but it doesn't hurt to pretend like one. You don’t need to make any reservation except for special events and other personal arrangements. We just walked-in and paid five dollars per head for a choice of 12-wine, tasting only.

First on our list under the Dry White Wines category was Chardonnay - a lightly oaked, crisp, dry white dinner wine which is $18.35 per bottle. Next on our list was Terrapin White - a semi-dry, fruity, Sauvignon Blanc style white wine which is $11.01 per bottle.

There were three more under the Dry White Wine category, but we opted to go ahead and try the Dry Red Wines: Black Raven - light bodied, soft red, Bacione - Italian style dinner wine, Cabernet Sauvignon - velvety, dry red dinner wine with rich fruit background, Merlot - soft, dry, red dinner wine, Chambourcin 2007 - oak-aged, rich, full-bodied red wine and 2007 Red Skins - estate bottled, oak-aged, full-bodied, dry red. The price range for these wines are from $12.84 - $20.18 per bottle. We tasted all of them except the Bacione and the Chambourcin.

Next on our category list are the Semi-Sweet Dessert & Picnic Wines. There were six wines under this list but only one caught our attention--Skipjack, at $12.84 per bottle. Maybe it was because of it’s name, or because we have tasted similar German Reisling style, which we usually buy from the nearby Fort Detrick commissary. 

We had tasted seven wines at this point, and Aida was already throwing the wine back into the bowl. I had no idea if she didn’t like the taste, or the spirit of the wine was getting into her. I asked her to give me her wine instead, so I can drink it. We have a local saying that goes, “Matapon na ang bigas, huwag lang ang alak.” It means, “It doesn’t matter that you spill the rice, but not the wine.”

The next category are the Semi-Sweet Pure Fruit Wines: Peach - good with ice cream, cheese and fruit, Plum - great with Asian foods and dessert, Raspberry - serve with chocolate desserts, Blueberry - serve over ice cream, Strawberry - medium bodied, great with cheesecake and Blackberry - medium bodied, luscious fruit. The bartender said that these wines were concocted from fresh pure fruits and without any mixture of grapes, with the price ranging from $12.84 - $14.68 per bottle. We tasted the first four wines only and reserved the last wine for the next category.

The twelfth and last wine that we tasted was the Indulgence - estate bottled, semi-sweet red wine with chocolate at $14.68 per bottle, under the Specialty and Dessert Wines category. There were eight more wines in this category, but we can only go as far as twelve, which was what we paid for.

We decided to buy a bottle each of Red Skins, Peach, Raspberry and Indulgence. We had to buy two bottles of Skipjacks to avail ourselves of the 7% discount on 6 bottles. There is a 15% discount on purchases of 12 or more bottles. 

Berrywine Plantations, Inc. Linganore WineCellars at Mt. Airy, Maryland

After we secured the wines in the car, we took some pictures and enjoyed the scenery. Afterwards, we bought some steamed crabs on our way back home and enjoyed the rest of the evening with soft music and candle lights, and of course the wine.

Sealed By Fate

Aida and I at Fisherman's Wharf, San Francisco, CA

Who would have thought that after 42 years, my childhood sweetheart Aida, and I would meet once again. Thanks to Facebook and a mutual friend.  After that, we spent time together either chatting on Facebook and Skype, or just merely whispering sweet nothings on the phone on a daily basis.

Aida was alone with her cat, Stitch in her condo that night of August 2011 when Hurricane Irene struck Maryland and the whole Eastern Seaboard. I called her earlier than usual to check up on her, and to lessen her worries. We sang praises to God and recited verses from the Bible, especially Psalm 91.

1He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.(a) 2I will say (b) of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”3Surely he will save you from the fowler’s snare and from the deadly pestilence. 4He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart. 5You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day, 6nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday. 7A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you. 8You will only observe with your eyes and see the punishment of the wicked. 9If you make the Most High your dwelling—even the Lord, who is my refuge—10then no harm will befall you, no disaster will come near your tent. 11For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; 12they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone. 13You will tread upon the lion and the cobra; you will trample the great lion and the serpent. 14“Because he loves me,” says the Lord, “I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name. 15He will call upon me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him. 16With long life will I satisfy him and show him my salvation.”

Footnotes:

a 1 Hebrew Shaddai

b 2 Or He says

I stayed with Aida on the phone from 8:00 PM until break of dawn…that’s when Hurricane Irene started to subside. After that fateful night, we realized that we became closer with each other, although we were approximately 2,750 miles apart. Our love for each other became stronger, as if we were bonded and sealed together that no external forces, may it be natural disasters or man-made can take us apart.

Aida @ SFO Int'l. Airport on Sept. 10, 2011

Aida already made a flight reservation to come and see me on my birthday, twelve more days following that disastrous event. We were so anxious to see each other that we became worried every time we hear of a bad weather forecast. We prayed and kept our fingers crossed that our forthcoming rendezvous be a pleasant one. Finally, on September 10th  last year, our lips sealed every loving words that supposedly to come out from our hearts forty-three years after our first innocent kiss. Back then we loved each other with a love incomparable with any other love, for we had loved each other long before we knew the real meaning of love.

I wrote a poem entitled, “A September To Remember” to commemorate that memorable event, and more poems were written after that, celebrating our love for each other. Honestly, I have never written a poem in my life until now that I found my first and true love, Aida, whom I later called “Adelaide” in my poems. I guess if you write from the heart, nothing could go wrong, so they say.

After we met, our lives were never been the same.