Cool Carabana night

Had fun last night (last Saturday evening or was it early morning already?) - connecting with old friends, meeting new ones and listening to cool music while drinking ice cold beer.
Met up with good friends Jeng, Bombi & Roence at Kaffe Carabana. Roence staged Saturday's event at the bar (owned by actress Judy Ann Santos; the bar has good food, ice-cold beer, reasonable prices and good-mannered staff); Jeng and Bombi invited me around for some downtime.
The two were with the Bacolod indie mafia - direk Lau and his sweet girlfriend (Lau has an entry in the Cinemalaya shorts, a piece titled "Cultado"; Bombi promised to let me watch a tape about it since its run in UP Diliman ended yesterday).
Kaffe Carabana looked really chic & cool, cozy yet classy & with understated elegance. It was jamming night that night; caught the ending wails of the lead of Sundown Muse just as I reached the bar (had to wrap up a meeting with some friends first re Monday's SONA).
Jeng and Bombi are my good friends from way back in our RJTV 29 days ten years ago. God was it really that long ago now guys? Who would have thought we'd go this far in our lives huh?
I met Roence when the RJ TV 29 group had already dispersed and were working for different productions across the media industry. At one point, she was my researcher for a documentary that I segment produced.
Now, both Jeng and Roence are mothers to pretty little carbon copies of themselves. Jeng teaches pre-school in her home-cum-preschool while Roence dabbles in acting in tv & stage and staging events for bars & restos, among others. Bombi also dabbles in acting in tv and stage and does commercials on the side; he is also an accomplished stage and tv director...
It was just a good time tro catch up with the gang, as well as talking about the others in the group who were not with us (just about everybody for that matter. The roll call now (don't kill me guys if I forget someone) - Mike, Blanche, Eliza, Ervin, Dennis, Cocoy, Dan, Alvin and of course Hannah). As usual, Roence and Bombi jammed it up with the great house band... Roence still has that vocals that would give local recording artists a run for their money.
Bombi jammed it up until the next band, which blew my mind away. The group was named "The Brew" and its lead singer - the one with the Jamiroquai-looking hat, had a deep voice belying his thin & small frame (catch this group every Saturday at Kaffe Carabana). Now I know what band to recommend to Cara my friend, who owns a bar and resto over in Taytay.
At least I'll have good memories and melodies to last me this week, just as I go into another round of bad news that has been quite normal in our daily, pathetic, Filipino life...
It's nights like these that break the monotony in working for the news. Thanks guys and until next time...