Our Condo "Sing and Gogh" Party

Posted by Robert M F September 09, 2023

Our Condo "Sing and Gogh" Party

OUR CONDO “SING AND GOGH" PARTY

By Ms. Chit Fernandez

From March 2020 to the present, the COVID-19 pandemic has drastically changed our day-to-day existence, in order to adapt & survive this highly infectious disease. Apart from negatively affecting our economy, our social life suffered because of the WHO/ DOH mandatory social distancing and avoidance of crowds. We had to stop celebrating our regular condo parties - the piano nights, Valentine’s Party, Easter Egg Hunt (for kids at the Eastwood Mall ), Eastwood City Parish Fiesta, Halloween (for Kids), Christmas Party & New Year “Salubong” Fireworks after-party. This is apart from the birthday celebrations of unit owners in our function room or condo roof deck where their close friends get invited to eat, drink and be merry.

This year, after many have completed their COVID vaccinations & booster shots, & affordable oral medications are now readily available, wearing of masks is no longer mandatory. People took advantage of this opportunity to travel to our island resorts, and tourist spots abroad. Millennials and Baby Boomers were happy to go out with friends to bars in Poblacion, BGC, or just the nearby Barcino in Eastwood.

The surge in travel is called “REVENGE TRAVEL”. To resume our bonding activities that foster friendship & camaraderie among our condo neighbors, our Association President, Robert Francisco had an idea for our condo’s “REVENGE PARTY”.

Robert, a Mapua Computer Engineering graduate, loves to search for creative ideas using his computer, and has an inherent talent for the visual arts - drawing, creating & hand-crafting artistic decor items for our lobby to celebrate special events.

Robert thought of adopting the concept of the “ Sip & Gogh Paint Studio: Unleash Your Inner Van Gogh”. This is an innovation of some bars & cafes, where people can get-together, drink wine or enjoy a cup of coffee or tea, while painting an artwork together. To encourage more attendees who are not exactly into art, Robert modified it to include Karaoke singing. He called the event “Sing and Gogh”- Let’s Sip, Sing & Gogh ( Paint-by-the-Numbers + Karaoke).”

You choose the artwork you like from 21 kits which include the numbered paints & tools. I was initially skeptical that this idea might not be a hit, so when I went down to the Lobby to join the party at past 8PM, I was happy to see many of my condo friends, and even more new ones! Seniors, the GoldenAgers & Baby Boomers, the Millennials, even some GenZs, were there.

Some were from nearby condos too - Christina Yumul, a UK Retiree of One Orchard, and our good friend Ariel Domingo of Lafayette 1, who joined our party with his Lafayette 3 unit owner cousin Allan de la Fuente and a couple of their friends. When his friend Alvin proved to be an awesome balladeer, Ariel volunteered to sing his Karaoke masterpiece “One in a Million”, claiming that his daughter is a Choir Member at Miriam, so she must have inherited her singing talent from him! This elicited a lot of laughter, when someone remarked that it was inherited from her mother! In fairness, Ariel has a good singing voice! Even our condo longtime unit owner & resident Liza Granada, who we often see walking with her Shitzu “Baby James”, never attended our previous parties, but came to socialize and was a revelation too, when she sang several Karaoke ballads.

My verdict : last night was truly a memorable evening! We had lots of fun - joking, laughing, singing , painting, and enjoying the company of old and new friends, F2F! I still have to find out though, if my friends completed their “Van Gogh masterpieces”. They might post it soon, when it gets framed and hung on their condo walls…

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Sing and Gogh Activity Photo Gallery

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