December 16 - 31, 1964

December 16 - Wednesday


Ditto above.



December 17 - Thursday

Cocktails at Tita Lol’s house. Cliff was invited and he was there. Saw Joe’s mother at Mass. Joey brought Lita and me home. Had a fairly nice evening. Honey at hospital this evening. (Another evening I recall very well. I remember Tito Ramon advising me to stop pining for the guys around me and concentrate on Cliff. I also remember Honey’s getting sick and that upsetting me a lot.)



December 19 - Saturday

Went to the hospital to visit Honey. I think I would die if something happened to him. (A bit overdramatic of me, wasn't I?!)


December 20 - Sunday

Ramos home with Cliff. Went to the circus later.



December 23 - Wednesday

Went shopping this afternoon.



December 24 - Thursday

Mercy’s house this evening.



December 25 - Friday

Cliff ate dinner with us this evening.



December 26 - Saturday

Went to Valley Golf Club with Cliff. This evening to Jai-Alai with Mercy, George and Cliff. Saw Joe, Monica, Lita and Anthony. Had a nice evening.



December 27 - Sunday

Birthday party at Muscat house. I got bugged at Mercy and Honey. How stupid can I get!



December 29 - Tuesday

Cliff sent me desk diary this morning. Talked to him this afternoon over the phone. He asked me out for tomorrow night but I declined.



December 31 - Thursday

New Year’s Eve with Joe Vincent. Although, it almost didn’t happen. I was at Mercy’s house this afternoon, chatting with Honey. I was feeling a bit sad as it seemed everyone was going out that night with someone. Mercy had a date (was it with George? Or Diego?), but Joe, I thought, was in Baguio, as was Monica and his other fans - all hoping they would spend New Years Eve with him. I was feeling slightly sorry for myself when the phone rang and Mercy excitedly tells me and it was Joe asking for me! He asked me if I had a date for the evening and I said no so he asked me if I would like to spend NYE with him and Pepito Vera Perez. They had just arrived from Baguio. For a moment, all I could think of was how disappointed Monica and the rest would be. Needless to say, I had the best New Year’s Eve I’ve ever had in a long time! First we went to the Jai-Alai were we were treated like royalty - natch. And then to the Polo Club where Pearly and her group of prima dona friends found themselves staring open mouthed at Joe with me and Pepito. They called us to join their table but Joe declined and we sat the three of us at our own table and proceeded to have a ball!!! We drank a lot of champagne between us. Sometime in the evening Pepito went his own way and Joe dropped me home in the early morning of January 1, 1965. He later told me he passed out in the car. Albeit practically last minute, but I did get to “go to the ball” tonight. It made up for the many balls and proms I never got invited to.



(Little did I know that that New Year’s Eve would be the last one I would spend in Manila until 1996 (32 years later) where I would again start the evening talking to Honey Muniosguren. My life changed in January 1965. I accepted Cliff Harkness’s proposal of marriage and married him in April of that year. We left Manila, never to live there again. I left my homeland, my parents, my friends and a way of life that I thought I could return to at will. I was too young and too naive to appreciate the good man I had married, and the life he wanted to make for his new family in New York. I thought I was going to prance around New York City like Jane Fonda in “Sunday In New York” (or was that “Barefoot in the Park?”) or be like Audrey Hepburn in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” (I never realized until many years later that Audrey's character plays a lady of easy virtue in that enchanting movie.) My fantasy continued - after a brief stay in the Big City, we would live in a house like “Father Knows Best” and I would have three perfect little blond haired kids and somehow manage to maintain the life I had in Manila too. What a bubble I lived in! And when that bubble burst, I broke my husband’s heart, my parents’ heart, and my dream. Later I would move to Barcelona and make another life for myself, but that's a story for another time.)



I finished transcribing these diaries in 2005/2006 and brought them to Manila and gave them to many of the friends who featured within - from Margotin Ubago Ripoll, to Mercy, Nena Marti, and many others including our dear, recently departed Leo Kahn, who had a good time re-living and remembering our lives in the early sixties. 

Today is New Year's Day 2010 - and light years away from the events of the years I faithfully chronicled.  I hope all who read my original hard copies and who read this blog are all well and had a good time reading this.  I hope this year is good to us.  Health being the main good wish and then for us who still have to hold on to our jobs - that we can do so!  I will keep posting other thoughts in here and when I get a scanner, I will post pictures of our past and present.  God bless and keep you all safe and happy - HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!