old friend

It was a pleasant surprise to have dinner with an old friend from Cebu. Benjie Ordonez is now a kickass photographer with magazine cred as well as international exposure (yes, I took a look at his camera and was consumed with intense object lust as well as unhealthy envy).

He sat in on the LitCritters panel at the RODCon last Sunday (which was a lot of fun; the organizers refused to let anyone else in the full capacity room), then we were off to Lasa at The Podium for a much-needed wolfing down of good food.

It's been two years since we last saw each other (he took the shot that I use for this blog, up there on the upper left side) and had a lot of catching up to do.

"You overshot Cebu - again," he said with a frown, referring to my recent trips to Dumaguete.

I told him we'd try to visit Cebu, but how much we loved Dumaguete's charm and low prices for hotels and food.

"We have those too!" he protested.

Indeed. I remembered that one of our favorite hotels is there - the Montbello.

We talked about family and kids and friends and work, and how we've grown and aged. I'm really delighted at his skill with the camera (he's also an independent filmmaker). It's something I aspire to be decent at.

Okay, Benj. I will visit Cebu sometime...as long as the food is on you haha!