A fun evening for them was a sleepless night one fine Thursday as they attempted to put to bed in cyberspace the third edition of Baile. Tinette Samala-Pudda writes

They are the SOD (pronounced SAD: acronym for Singing, Orating, Dancing) motley crew of the Baile Editorial Board who are at their best when they are WEL (Writing, Editing. Lay-outing)

A fun evening for them was a sleepless night one fine Thursday as they attempted to put to bed in cyberspace the third edition of Baile.

Brought together by Baile Editor, Cookie Villanueva, some of the board members, comprising of Patrick Masahud, Ana Moncado, Alexis Valino, Jeff Jover and self, are convening for the first time.  Surprisingly, the meeting was a rather congenial get-together, as the group joked and chatted away like long lost friends. 

One of them, (I wouldn’t want to mention Ana’s name ….. ooooppssy), in fact got kind of lost.  To cut the long lost story short, a kind Samaritan literally brought Ana in from the cold as it was a brrrrr evening that time.  Ana, if I may say so, is truly a helpful kind of person who in between writing, editing and constantly self-deliberating her editing, disappeared regularly in the kitchen with the very endearing excuse of washing the dishes …. or could it be an ingenious  ploy to stay away from editing?

Alexis, or Alex (even Al for that matter), is just one person with a multitude of nicknames, including P.A. “Palaging Ako” (Always Me).  For someone who is rather petite in stature, she has a rather thick American accent and a powerhouse of a singing voice, in the likes of Karen Carpenter.

Alex works in perfect tandem with Ana, as she is also so much into self-deliberation on the merits and demerits of a particular word, phrase, sentence, paragraph ……. Perhaps the letter A in Alex and Ana’s names has something to do with the similarity in character traits?

Moving on to the letter ‘ C ‘ is Cookie. Having to deal with a seemingly adult group of professionals, Cookie was unprepared for the comic and kindergarten mentality of her editorial members.  Don’t worry Cookie we will keep in stock migraine relievers next time ‘round.

Jeff, who unfortunately was unable to attend the “paper chase” cum “burning the midnight oil” meeting, personifies SOD to a T.  An accountant by profession who happens to be a champion Singer, Dancer and Orator (a member of Toastmasters International) on the side, Jeff is truly an exception as mathematical figures/statistics and literary/creative skills do not usually go hand-in-hand.

Patrick, whom I have worked with in several editorial projects, was a revelation that evening.  Usually reticent, he broke, every now and then, the monotonous click-clacking of our keyboards with speeches of famous leaders.  On top of that, he has a talent for singing, and his baritone voice did justice to a wide repertoire of songs.
 
And then there was myself, Tinette, who usually does not react until the word “Deadline”, is literally staring me in the face!  And when it does, there’s just no stopping the sudden acquired impetus to type away, more so as Cookie was seated right next to me!

But at the end of it all, despite the pale-faced, gravity defying hair-style (aftermath of our own, please note our own, hair pulling to massage the brain cells to function) and our over all state of “mind willing, body reeling” it was a truly gratifying experience.  We managed to beat the odds and will have something to present during the graduation cum induction ceremony of the new batch of FDC-D officers for the year 2007 – 2008.

The re-launch of the FDC-D website and the on-line publication of the Baile Newsletter, are our way of saying thank you to all the hard working and dedicated officers, dance instructors, members and students of FDC-D.  We will endeavour to photograph, write and record your noble deeds of sharing and bringing cheers to our compatriots in the UAE.

In the meantime, it is time to Baile!