October 18, 2019, Friday
I was invited to attend an exclusive lunch for our group hosted by the South China Morning Post. When I read the venue’s name, Canton Road, I thought I would have to travel to Hongkong for this special lunch. My initial reaction was ayy ang layo naman. Yun pala Canton Road is the name of the restaurant in Shangrila The Fort.
Call time was at 12:30 pm but I arrived at 12:10 pm. I thought I would be the very first one there but when I entered the room Tonyboy and Wilson were there already. They beat me in the early bird category. RP Manhit arrived after 2 minutes.
Formal and elegant, that’s what this restaurant is about.
I didn’t want to wear a suit kasi ewan ba, naiinitan ako. I tried several outfits but all were tight around the waistline so I just wore an old loose chiffon dress and I matched it with a scarf just in case the aircon got cold. On the contrary, it was warm in the room I was sweating. I asked the waiter if they could adjust the controls kasi ang init.
SGV’s Vice Chairman Wilson Tan
While waiting for the rest, me, Wilson, Tonyboy, Rp, decided to take our seats.
Me, Ambassador Babe Romualdez, Gary Liu (CEO of South China Morning Post), Tonyboy Cojuangco
Serge Ortiz-Luis noticed I got dark, “Oy umitim ka!” I got my tan from Greece. Ang init kasi talaga in Athens, Mykonos, and Santorini. Most of them have been to Greece so we talked about it briefly.
Seriously eating– Tonyboy, Susing Pineda, Tony Lopa
Our host pre-ordered the dishes and they were all good.
Felix Ang, Sergio Ortiz-Luis, Wilson Tan
Prof. Dindo Manhit, Razlan Manjaji (Events Director of South China Morning Post), RP Manhit
Ambassador Romualdez, our host Gary Liu (Chief Executive Officer of South China Morning Post), Tonyboy, Susing, Tony Lopa. SCMP is holding a big conference in New York on December 11 and another one here in Manila sometime in February 2020. I won’t be in Manila in February. I will be in the US preparing for Oyen’s wedding.
The table was so large and the lazy susan made of glass was ridiculously heavy. It was so hard to make it rotate. After getting tired of having to stand up to rotate the lazy susan and reach for the food, we asked the waiter to just portion and distribute the food.
I lost the menu card given to me by the waiter so I don’t know the name of this dessert.
Rupert Paul Manhit, Sergio Ortiz-Luis, Wilson Tan, Annie Tan-Yee, Ambassador Babe Romualdez,
Gary Liu, Antonio Cojuangco, Jesus “Susing” Pineda, Antonio Lopa, Razlan Manjaji, Felix Ang
Gary Liu and Razlan were catching a 5 pm flight back to Hongkong after our lunch. We were lucky to have Ambassador Babe with us. He was in town for a meeting with the Philippine diplomats and was going back to Washington D.C. a few days after.
Gary Liu was the last to arrive at the lunch. We were all expecting someone a lot older for the position of a CEO of the oldest newspaper in Hongkong. The minute he walked into the room, we were all in awe at how young the CEO was. The moment he opened his mouth, he got all our eyes and ears.
He is extremely articulate and very knowledgeable about current events. His analytical thoughts are very clear and is able to articulate them in superb fluidity. In just a few minutes, he already got our utmost respect. He graduated from Harvard while his wife is from Brown University. He was doing consultancy jobs in New York and had founded digg, before Alibaba offered him the job of CEO which he couldn’t refuse, even if it meant uprooting from the East Coast to be based in Hongkong.
