While the highlight of our Mario’s holiday brunch buffet was definitely the food, I also highly enjoyed meeting up with fellow bloggers. Let me introduce you to some of them!
That’s Ganns, me, sweethearts Jerome (a.k.a Bridget) and Jher.
Ganns helped organize this highly successful brunch buffet. He welcomed everyone with his trademark bright smile, perkiness and high energy. He took good care of his guests. Thanks Ganns! 😉 In this pic, he had just welcomed Jher and Bridget into the restaurant, and quickly drew us towards Mario’s Christmas tree… which you don’t end up seeing as we were all just too excited to have our picture taken together to figure out the blocking.Oh, I’ve known Ganns since we were college freshmen. So we knew each other when we were 50 pounds lighter, 14 years younger and all that. 😀
And oooh! Another highlight of that Sunday was finally meeting Jher and Bridget. I’ve been a longtime reader of both their blogs and was ecstatic to meet them. Para akong na-starstruck, hehehe.
And can I just say, malakas kaming tumawa.
Never a dull moment with this sweet and funny couple! They’re a perfect match. Promise.
Let me tell you how sweet they are with each other. Over coffee, Bridget reaches into his bag and pulls out this package. Jher opens it and ta-da! It’s a framed picture of Jher that Bridget took! The frame was vintage pretty and the photograph even lovelier. O diba, may sweet surprise pa. 😀 Parang GMA Supershow!
This is Cathy, Ganns’ wife! She was a proud and ever-supportive wifey as Ganns went around making sure everyone was enjoying.
This is Ganns with the gorgeous diva Ajay. Ajay is a blogger and a writer as well for Manila Bulletin. She’s also my fellow Berk. It was great finally getting to see her again after a looong time.
The bloggers pose with Mario’s Media Publicist, the bubbly and very friendly Claire Agbayani.
It was also really wonderful to meet Dine Racoma a.k.a Sexy Mom of The D Spot and her husband. Dine is a brilliant writer and blogger so wow, meeting her was awesome!I also got to see Noemi again with her family, but we didn’t have a picture together. Anton of Our Awesome Planet also celebrated the Mario’s brunch with his family.
The most gwapo of all attendees of course was this gentleman, though he’s not a blogger.
That’s my H. ?
? He wasn’t able to join the buffet due to a schedule conflict, but we promised each other we’d go on a Mario’s holiday brunch date soon!
What I love about blogger meet-ups is that it could be more than just an EB (eyeball). When you’re meeting people whose writings have made you laugh and have touched your heart many times, it’s as if you’re reconnecting with old friends. This is how I felt with the bloggers, especially Jher, Bridget and Ajay as we have been readers of one another’s blogs for ages now. It’s really wonderful when you build a friendship with someone online and then nurture it even more when you meet up. Some personalities online can be bogus, so when you find those nuggets of genuine friendship and camaraderie, take them! They’re really such joys to have!
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Read Part 1 of the Mario’s Early Christmas Get-together here.
Hi! I'm Toni Tiu,
and I've been blogging at
at Wifely Steps since 2003. This started as a blog to help newly weds adjust to married life. It has evolved into a home and parenting blog. I write about things close to my heart -- good eats, good reads, family, marriage, and the little things that make everyday happy.
Rach (Heart of Rachel)
December 11, 2007 at 11:44 pm (16 years ago)Hi Toni. Glad you had a wonderful meet up with fellow bloggers. It’s nice to see familiar faces. Thanks for sharing your photos.
Mike
December 12, 2007 at 5:19 am (16 years ago)I found my way here via cyberpunks blog.
Seriously, I’m going to make my way to the Phillipines. And then I’m going to crash one of these buffets. A whole pig? Are you serious? Awesome.
The food looked just fantastic. Well worth the flight. So anyways, if you see a big Canadian guy you don’t know at one of these buffets, that’s me ok?
dhey
December 12, 2007 at 9:14 am (16 years ago)waaaah… i would’ve loved to meet Ganns! he has my (current) dream car — the Hyundai Getz — and blogs about it on Life With Gina. and Sexy Mom?!?! oooohhh… *kneel, worship* LOL
jher
December 12, 2007 at 11:44 am (16 years ago)it was sooooooo wonderful meeting you guys. especially si h, crush ko kasi ang mga chinitos na chubby (lagot ako kay bridget nito). hahahahaha. sa uulitin ha. over coffee, and more food. 😛
ajay
December 12, 2007 at 3:27 pm (16 years ago)Great seeing you Toni. Looking lovely as ever. You guys called me the diva, but am not. The real diva is Bridget…she was more beautiful than me, nyahaha.
P.S. Burberry fans unite! That’s the cutie Mrs. Deen and me.
watson
December 13, 2007 at 8:45 am (16 years ago)Ang ganda nung Christmas tree! hehehe
Lissa
December 14, 2007 at 2:51 am (16 years ago)You look so cute Toni!! I don’t know if you remember but you sent me a picture of your Sweet 16 birthday party and you had a picture with all guys and ikaw lang ang babae. You looked so cute then and you still do now.
kaoko
December 17, 2007 at 10:10 am (16 years ago)Inggit ako! *sobs* *sobs* *sobs*