Blue night

The 30th Coral Invitational opened yesterday and as I have done for almost 20 years now, I went to the club to catch some of the action and meet old friends.

I did catch plenty of them at the veranda yesterday and expect to see more in the next three days.

The Coral Invitational is an annual gathering of old friends, just like the PAL Interclub, which I haven’t missed for the past 17 years.

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Some of the closest friends I made are from the golf community and many of them are Ateneans even if I don the green colors of La Salle during the annual golf event between the alumni of the two schools.

This is the reason why I am writing about the Blue Night set on the 14th, which is tomorrow at Café Georg along Banilad Road. The activity starts at 7 p.m.

I was informed that this is the first time that the Ateneo Alumni Association Cebu Chapter will get-together during the Sinulog week. This will also serve as a tribute to the special guest for the night – Fr. Bienvenido Nebres, S.J., father president of the Ateneo de Manila University.

Fr. Nebres is due to retire this March after 18 years of service to the Ateneo community.

The event is also meant to launch the project of the local chapter of the alumni association to support the Ateneo Resident Students’ Scholarship Fund.

Registration fee for the event on Thursday is only Php350 and this comes with a buffet plus entertainment from Serendipity and Sinulog dancers.

Those who are interested can contact Leric Sotelo at 0918-9204877 or Hedda Samson at 0917-5034433.

By the way, there will also be raffles during the event.

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This afternoon, the best of the CESAFI and the best of the GUV Cup will clash in two exhibition games at the University of San Carlos Gymnasium.

The CESAFI is the Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation Inc., which is the premiere inter-school league here.

The GUV Cup, in case you don’t know, is the Gov. Gwendolyn F. Garcia Unity Volleyball Cup, which is the richest volleyball event in terms of prizes for the whole Philippines.

The matches will be for the men and women’s divisions.

The games will start at 5 p.m.

If you intend to take your car when you go downtown, there’s a pay parking area at corner Junquera and Colon Sts., which is relatively safe as we always park there when we go to the USC Gym.

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MILESTONES: Happy birthday greetings go to Bernard Ricablanca and Dyan Tagiumacruz, who are celebrating today.

Advance greetings go to tomorrow’s celebrants – my buddy since back our college days Atty. Vicente E. Fernandez II, Quinito Moras, Madonna Ponce, and Michael Vincent Gambito.

More power to all of you! - THE FREEMAN