FULFILLED PROMISE OF GOOD LIFE FOR YOU AT ONE SERENDRA

By TANYA T. LARA

AT HOME WITH FRANKIE & CANDY VARONA

Travels around the world: Jar from Jerusalem, glass-blown Tulip from Sweden, and
stone figurine from the Easter Island brought home by the Varonas’son Franco.

Empty nesters with a full world: At home in One Serendra are Frankie and Candy
Varona with their son Franco who’s visiting. “The best thing about living here is that I don’t need a car to enjoy going around,” says Franco, who loves the restaurants at Serendra and Fully Booked at Bonifacio High Street.How does your garden grow? The U-shaped Phase One of One Serendra features gardens planted with tropical trees and plants, walking paths, and a swimming pool.Loving the space: The spacious lobby of One Serendra. “We’ve had guests from Canada and they love the whole development,” says Frankie. “We eat out and then we bring them through the gate and suddenly it’s serene. That’s the first question they ask, isn’t it noisy
here? Not at all!”

The dining room with its Restoration furniture “handed down”by their daughter elizza when she left for Tokyo with her family.“It helps that the kids are global, they have good taste. Kami nagmamana.”

Home at last: After 20 years in Canada , Frankie and Candy Varona came home 12 years ago and last year moved into One Serendra.Every Friday the couple still goes out on a date — and once he took her to watch a Pacquiao fight at a movie house in Market! Market!

Living space: The Varonas’ living room opens up to a balcony, one of two in the unit.
Majority of the units in One Serendra have balconies; in the East Tower section, all units will have balconies.Picture perfect: Franco Varona’s photos of
Turkey, Jerusalem, Brazil and Peru are displayed along the corridor-cum-mini gallery of the Varona home.Fish be with you: Each fighting fish has its own bowl to survive.
Red room:The powder room with its bold paint and matching red toilet paper. The
lighting fixture under the sink is by artist Shoku Matsumoto. They lived in Canada for 20 years and raised their two children there,at first in Vancouver and then in Toronto.There was a time when they would move houses every year. So, when Filipino
couple Frankie and Candy Varona came back to the Philippines 12 years ago, Candy says she prayed all the novenas that this would be the last move, that this time “home” would finally be right here in the country.

Like many baby boomers today,Frankie and Candy are empty nesters. The couple was then living in a townhouse in Palm Village. “I tried to interest her in Alabang because the villages there are very North American except in a tropical setting. Then One Serendra came. At first, she wasn’t interested and I didn’t push it.”
“I still wanted a townhouse or a duplex,and I was afraid of living in a high-rise,”
explains Candy.

But One Serendra is unique in many ways. It is a high-end development by Ayala Land Premier (ALP), but it is not strictly a high-rise; while it is surrounded
by commercial establishments and office buildings, it is “protected” by vast greenery
— 65 percent of the six-hectare development is devoted to open space and only
35 percent to buildings. Its masterplan calls for low-, mid- and high-rise phases.
The low-density development also means serenity in the surroundings and not just
in one’s unit — and fewer people in the common areas such as the lobbies, gym
and gardens.So the more the couple studied their options, the more enthusiastic Candy became about One Serendra. Bonifacio Global City, “the home of passionate minds,”answered all the couple’s needs — security,accessibility to Frankie’s office in Makati, world-class architecture, gardens,and amenities. Plus, it is home to a growing community of like minded individuals — people who have achieved success and
are enjoying its fruits.

According to Joel Cruz, ALP marketing officer, many of the buyers of One Serendra are empty nesters or down-sizers like the Varonas. “They deliberately choose to live in a condo for the security and size because they no longer want to maintain
a big house, but would still like to enjoy the warmth and comfort of a suburban home.”

Downsizing is nothing new to Candy. “I gave away a lot of things, I sold a bit and I donated. It was so liberating!” she says of the move to a condo. “I kept very few things, including my clothes. I just kept throwing and I would never look back at the piles.”“She forced me to throw away my books from grade school and high school,” adds Frankie with a laugh.In fact, their 170-square-meter, three-bedroom unit is designed along Zen lines — a quiet space with only select pieces from their
children’s travels occupying the living and dining rooms.Life at One Serendra is as it was promised when it was a master plan still: You just need to go down to the restaurants to meet up with friends, you just need to cross the street to get to Bonifacio High Street for some shopping, or the other side for Market! Market! for value shopping,movies and groceries.“I used to do my groceries in Makati,but then I discovered Metro Supermarketin Market! Market!, which has complete choices and also carries a lot of Canadian
products.”

As for their favorite stores, both are partial to Fully Booked and A Different
Bookstore. Frankie jokes that whenever Candy has her friends over (she is an
alumna of four schools and is rebonding with childhood friends after years of being
away), he is banished to the bookstore so “he wouldn’t hear the chismis.” One thing that the couple truly enjoys about life at One Serendra is the restaurant selection. Every Friday night they go out on a date, which they have been doing for the past 30 years and is still a “nonnegotiable”arrangement. Their favorite dating places? Mamou, Aubergine and Le Souffle for Candy; Abe for Frankie.It’s a far cry from their life in Canada,where their days were occupied by work and meals were cooked once a week and frozen. Frankie says he is thankful that the first part of their life together was spent in Canada because there they raised children who are at home in the world and can survive anywhere. “We became close to our family since everybody else was busy,” Frankie says. “When you’re in your 30s and living here, there are a lot of distractions that you lose your balance when it comes to career and family. You tend to spend a lot more time in the office and can get really lost building your career,and when you’re trying to rebuild your family bonds, it is too late.”

Today, they are living the second part of their life together — the children have
left home, the three grandchildren are growing, the world is becoming a more
interesting place to travel around — this time for leisure.

And they are back home.
Candy describes life at One Serendra as having “the best of both worlds.”
And obviously still the best of times.

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