May 7, 2019
Our farewell dinner in Helsinki was in a simple Chinese restaurant called Mei Lin located several blocks away from the hotel.
It was cold as in grrrr cold.
We got sawa of fine dining so all of us were craving for hot steaming rice, maybe hototay soup, etc. Basta yung masarap.
Susan Dimacali and Cynthia Nakpil did the ordering.
I ate mostly rice and fried pork spareribs.
This dish was a 6 over 10. Plating was an 8.
Left to right: Aigina, Nadine, Mon Dimacali, Susan Dimacali, Cynthia Nakpil, daughter Iya, Beth, Edmund, OMB, Bryan,and Salve.
In the past, Mon Dimacali would stand up, offer a toast and make a short speech during the farewell dinners. This night, the mood was sober. We all looked sleepy and tired. And konti lang kasi kami ngayon. Usually, we were around 20 persons.
I did, however, take this as an opportunity to thank him and his team from Federal Phoenix Insurance. We valued the friendship more than the business. We appreciated Mon Dimacali’s kindness to me and my family. This is our tenth year of doing business with them. This is my tenth year of joining in their annual travels. 1. Honolulu (by myself) 2. Las Vegas (Edmund and I) 3. Sydney (We were given two seats but I brought along my kids, I paid extra for their travel), 4. Turkey (We were given two seats but I paid extra so Oyen and Nyke could join), 5. Paris and Milan (Me, Oyen, Nyke), 6. Budapest, Slovakia, Vienna (Oyen, Nyke, Aileen, Me), 7. Manhattan and Buffalo, NY (Oyen, Derrick, Me), 8. Barcelona (Me, Len, Bong), 9. Portugal (Edmund, Me, Len, Bong, Oyen. We paid for extra nights and for one extra px.), 10. Tallinn and Helsinki (Edmund and I). My son and I joined in their Singapore trip many years ago.
I actually didn’t realize it’s been ten years. Parang kailan lang.
Sadly, this could be our last travel with them. FPG and our companies are focusing on different directions as far as our core businesses are concerned. This doesn’t mean we are ending our friendships. They are all nice to us most especially Mon, Susan, Beth, Francis.
All the best to Federal Phoenix. Our sincere thanks to their president, Ramon Dimacali.
