......a lot of the emails I received suggested that I should change the " How’s My ESL?" article to something more informative than educational....I agree with those suggestions as there are some kababayans who are not very active in the community, hence, are not familiar with what’s going-on around them....sometime in March, Ambassador BRILLANTES invited Filipinos for a merienda-cena at the residence..there was JOHN TANCHANGCO, from the Department of Tourism, who gave a presentation about " a package trip to the islands which would include Boracay, Cebu, etc." for a mere $2000, inclusive....the annual PABASA was held in the basement of St.Brigid’s in April...initiator FLOR MARCELO and co-founder NORA CERDA led the group of ":singers" ..lots of donated food from community members..a large kawali of pancit from GLORIA PIOL....and champurado from BEN DAVID....as always, our disciplinarian, HELEN BELDA, was there to make sure everything was proper and "in order."... the month of May saw the annual Flores de Mayo/ SANTACRUZAN, presented by the Phillipine Pastoral Committee..coordinator was our relentless FLOR MARCELO, and Pastoral people the likes of ART CUENCO, PROCY BELDA,TINA KUCHCIAK...of course, our Parish priest, Fr. PEDRO ARANA, and Deacon RUDY DE CASTRO...our Hermana Mayor this year is none other than EDNA RODRIGUEZ...our friend NORMA CRUZ accepted a Directorship position in Manila. .she will be away for two years ....naku, RON,ang tagal naman....Amb. BRILLANTES was guest at a birthday party held at BERKS LOUNGE.. he crooned to the tune of OLD MAN RIVER..what a voice..reminded me of the late TENESSEE ERNIE FORD with Sixteen Tons....machong-macho....the showing of the fiction THE DA VINCI CODE was banned in Manila... because it makes a mockery of the core of the Christian faith..to impugn the divinity of JESUS is to malign Christianity... to say that CHRIST had carnal relations with MARY MAGDALENE is to excite the imagination of the curious and the peripheral Christians...the fictitious thesis should have never been a cause for alarm because he who believes that JESUS CHRIST is both human and divine, that he is the SAVIOUR, the one who rose from the dead and ascended to Heaven to be with the FATHER, can never be lured away from his faith...to him who believes, no proof is needed...to him who doubts, no proof is sufficient...Independence party was held at the residence of Amb. BRILLANTES on June 11th...special guest was La Union Gov. VICTOR ORTEGA, former classmate of Amb. BRILLANTES at Ateneo de Manila...I met him through our busybody ROMEO MERJUDIO of the Phil. embassy....the PAMANA dancers, led by their graceful choreographer PETE TORIBIO, performed and entertained the more than 300 guests at the residence..dancers from Montreal couldn’t compete with our local ones even though most of them are seniors and without shoes...don’t they sell ADIDAS or REEBOK in the provinces?...Mayor Chiarelli, a no show at the flag raising ceremony at the city hall June 12th will be at the Independence picnic at the Vincent Massey Park on June 18th..be sure to bring your umbrellas as it always rains in the afternoon.. hopefully not this time...finals of KARAOKE IDOL to be held at BERKS LOUNGE before the end of June..owners BARUT BROTHERS say there are no PINOY contestants..they say PINOYS are ....shy??? ngekk!!! ... ever noticed those Pinoys who work as store clerks or cashiers at WalMart or Home Depot as snobbish?...they don’t smile nor say thank you...observe the Pinay cashier at Home Depot on Bank St. at Walkley..or the Pinay cashier at Shoppers Drug Mart in Kanata... boy, they are lucky as I am not a HOWARD HUGHES...he had argument with a cashier one time... so he bought the department store just to fire that cashier... lawyer ALICIA NATIVIDAD was tasked to look at the property on Cummings Avenue and Donald street in the east end...if everything goes well, we can rejoice for we will eventually have our own community centre...and it would be close to ASSUMPTION CHURCH, in Vanier, where Fr. ARANA will be celebrating Mass starting August 21st... and close to KAWAYAN restaurant...hmmm! not bad!!....Flavio Gomez