Blu in Cebu
Every time I fly to Cebu, I indulge in a little private fantasy that it’s a homecoming of sorts. My late mother was a Cebuana. While we grew up in Manila and don’t speak the language as she did, as kids, we would fly down there quite often, as she had relatives and properties. For some reason, nowadays, each time I fly down, I feel a little bit closer to her, and am flooded by memories of the times I’d accompany her. As for the city itself, I’ve witnessed it grow by leaps and bounds, and now have realized that my mom may have been on to something when she spoke of moving back there, before she got sick.
In a short span of a year, a true ‘blu’ must-stay place in Cebu has been established, and that’s the Radisson Blu Hotel. Situated at the corner of Sergio Osmeña Blvd. and Juan Luna Ave., it’s a stone’s throw away from the upmarket North Wing of SM Cebu and is a veritable oasis. One of the cornerstones of the SM Hotels and Coventions Corp., there’s much the mother company, and the Carlson Hotels group, can be proud about with the Radisson Blu Cebu. The buffet at its Feria is a steal, given the quality and variety of the spread! The suite I occupied was well-appointed more than comfortable - and the service was all one could hope for to make one’s stay memorable. They have a 100 percent Guest Satisfaction Guarantee policy going on and it looks like that’s not in much risk of being contested.
The night festivities celebrating its first anniversary kicked off with Elizabeth Sy and Hans Sy’s lighting the 20-ft. blue and white Christmas tree that’s found at the hotel lobby. What followed as we trooped up to the main ballroom was a 1920s Cotton Club-inspired night of music, great food, fantastic raffle prizes and wonderful company.
Tessa Prieto-Valdes hosted the event while entertainment was provided by crooner Richard Poon, chanteuse Lynn Sherman, and the funky Brass Munkeys. I was enticed to go clubbing after the party but an early flight the next morning had me heading to bed after midnight.
Thanks are in order to Radisson GM Lyle Lewis and MARCOMM head Mina Gervacio. Flying to and back from Cebu with me were SM Hotels’ VP for sales and marketing Lourdes Macalindong and MARCOMM director Treena Cueva-Tecson. Because of them, I feel like I now have a new second home in Cebu.
Three ‘time-ly’ novels that help us remember that fate always has tricks up its sleeve. Photo by Butchie Pena Memories of the past and future
The three novels today play on our notion of memory and its psychological impact. The Watson novel has an unusual amnesiac as its main character while the Birch story brings us back to Victorian London, with a deep sea mishap thrown in for good measure. As for Mullen’s new novel, time travel and the tricks it plays on the mind of said travelers, are on full display.
Before I Go to Sleep by SJ Watson (available at National Bookstore). Accepted in 2009 to the first Faber Academy Writing a Novel course, this novel was the result of that immersion. For a debut novel, it’s an exceedingly polished psychological thriller. Christine suffers from a peculiar form of amnesia. Each night as she sleeps, her name, identity, her past and the people she loves are erased, and the next day is a painful reconstructing of who she is. Into this neat premise, Watson injects the element of Ben, who Christine wakes up next to each morning. But what if Ben cannot be trusted, may not even be the husband he says he is? This is what drives this gripping, Memento-like mystery.
Jamrach’s Menagerie by Carol Birch (available at National Bookstore). Shortlisted for this year’s Booker Prize, this latest from Birch will delight fans of Victorian London and those who relish seafaring adventures from that era, when sailing was a gamble and an act of tempting Fate. Charles Jamrach is an importer of exotic animals, birds and shells, and when urchin Jaffy Brown stumbles into his life by literally being captured in the jaws of an escaped tiger, Jaffy’s life is turned forever. The sea adventure that follows, when Jaffy travels to the Indies to capture what seems to be a komodo dragon, ends in cannibalistic disaster. But it may be not what you presume, and there lies the magic of this engrossing misadventure.
The Revisionists by Thomas Mullen (available at National Bookstore). A multi-strand narrative that has themes of time travel, with its psychological impact and debunking our notions of History, Mullen’s novel lays serious questions about progress. Z is an agent from the future, sent to our present day to stop ‘hags’ history agitators out to change the course of history. But is Z a pawn himself, being used to preserve the status quo of a future that while seemingly picture-perfect, may be rotten to its core? Along the way, Mullen fascinates by taking on various unique voices, including a North Korean woman living in Washington, an Indonesian nanny, and a young black lady lawyer.
