By Ronald Constantino
FRIENDS, FRIENDS – The wide circle of Triple A’s friends in Los Angeles and nearby cities made our recent short US visit such a joy. Oh, before anything else, Triple A is no other than Aster Amosco Amoyo, Tita Aster or Ma’am Aster in showbiz.
Triple A and this columnist enjoyed the hospitality of the Chu family led by Tito Al. We stayed at his Anaheim home for nearly two weeks.
The wide circle of friends of Aster Amoyo included Dr. Alvin Cadalin (a nephew from Borongan, Eastern Samar), Dr. and Mrs. Cesar Jimenez (nee Chato Sugay, noted dancer-choreographer in the ‘70s and early ‘80s), Eugene Supnet (accountant). They treated us to lunch and dinner, brought us all over the LA area, and showered us with gifts.
Alvin and Aster haven’t seen each other for more than 30 years, but thanks to social media (Facebook in particular) they were able to trace each other. Aster was delighted when Alvin brought her to a nursing home where his 95 year old mother lives. Alvin recalled that he stayed at Aster’s Cubao condo when he was finishing medicine at the University of Santo Tomas.
Other friends, Aster calls them “anak-anakan,” offered to take us out but there was no more time. Maybe next time.
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PEACHY VG – It happened that while we were in Anaheim, dear Peachy Vibel Guioguio was in nearby Sta. Ana, staying with her childhood friend Marie Ramos. They picked us up at Anaheim for lunch at the hugely popular Cuban restaurant Porto’s in Buena Park. Peachy told us beforehand that joining us were Ricky Lo’s nephew Raymond (he covers Hollywood for Philippine Star aside from his regular office job) and Bert Jaurigue (nurse and professional photographer).
What made the “platos Cubanos” even more memorable was meeting by chance Ricky’s other LA-based nephew, Sonny, with his wife Gem.
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SHOPPING, SHOPPING – Triple A is a “compulsive shopper,” her favorite being Ross (Dress for Less). She bought so many (dresses, shoes, decor, accessories for “pasalubong”) that she would have surely paid for overweight baggage at our China Southern Airlines flight. But Chato Sugay came to her “rescue,” offering to include Aster’s excess weight in her balikbayan box.
By the way, Aster and I travelled cheap, only P25,000 each for roundtrip fare. But the Southern China service was good, the staff charming and attentive… even if their English was hard to understand. Stopover was at Guangzhou’s huge airport where we nearly lost our way.
