THERE’S this skybridge that connects SM City CDO Uptown to SM Northwing. Its construction went on and on for the longest time — about a year I guess — but it was finally opened on Thursday last week, thus, shortening the distance between the gym and the main mall’s second-floor restos.
Eating out after gym is the yummiest hard habit to break, and that’s what I and gym friend Netz Baleta did from Monday to Friday last week. We had other gym friends with us but it was the two of us who were able to have perfect attendance at the daily lunches. And it’s us who always have lunch waiting at our respective homes, so, why eat out? Hmmm. If there’s recovery after running, eating out could be recovery after gym. Hehe.
And staying home on Sundays is my recovery after gyming from Monday to Saturday.
There are times when I’d rather stay home on Saturday, too. Upon waking up on Saturday, there I was again, weighing the pros and cons of joining Instructor Bryan Yañez’s Strong Nation group exercise class. The pros always win, of course. Since I prepare my gym OOTD — outfit of the day — the night before, deciding whether to go to the gym or not the morning after becomes a no-brainer, anyway.
And good thing I decided to gym on Saturday because Tony Labrusca arrived right after the Strong Nation class.
Tony who? I watched his 2017 film “Glorious” which also starred Angel Aquino, so, I know who he is. No need for introductions.
Most of the time, though, I don’t recognize showbiz celebrities. It was my sister Joan who watched Pinoy teleseryes and noontime shows, she was more familiar with the latest who’s who in Pinoy showbiz. While there I was, aimlessly looking around as she pointed out to me, say, Beauty Gonzalez, while we were all windowshopping inside an Ayala Center Cebu store. I was like, Beauty who?
At Greenbelt 5 in Makati, I saw Marjorie Barretto with two yayas in white uniform walking behind her, one of them pushing a baby stroller, and I asked them, whose baby is that? They answered that Marjorie is the mom. And I was like, Who’s the baby’s father? Because she and Dennis Padilla had separated by then. See? I also know some showbiz chismis. That time, it was Joan who tried to stop me from approaching Marjorie. Haha.
There was that day when I saw Cagayan de Oro social media influencer Berns J at Laguindingan Airport. I asked Joan to take a picture of me and Berns J, and she said, No! Please don’t! But I was insistent. Berns’s videos during the pandemic were part of my daily entertainment, and to finally see him had me starstruck.
In Manhattan, I saw Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon outside a subway station and asked them for autographs. Also saw Billy Crystal on his way out of the magazine shop where I was also a suki. Its owner told me that John F. Kennedy Jr., who lived nearby, was a suki, too, but by the time I was in Manhattan, he and his wife Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy had already died in a plane crash where he was the pilot.
Seeing JFK Jr. walking, biking, or rollerblading around Tribeca could have been a celebrity sighting, but it wasn’t meant to be.
