When my mother–in-law celebrated her birthday earlier this month, we had dinner at a Chinese restaurant in San Juan. We arrived at the same time as Speedy’s older sister who came straight from her office. Speedy’s other sister who works in a boutique hotel in Mimosa was still somewhere in NLEX and the birthday girl was waiting for her at home from where they were supposed to proceed together to the restaurant along with the rest of the Veneracion brood. We knew we would have to wait for about an hour and a half so we went ahead and ordered appetizers. Good conversation over great appetizers and time flew by. Everyone, including the birthday girl, arrived before we had a chance to get bored.