24 October 2021
Alice Kalaw-Fernandez, fondly called Alice by her friends and relatives, is married to a career diplomat, Emmanuel. She has two (2) lovely daughters, Katz and Patty, married to loving and caring husbands. She has a beautiful and brilliant grandchild, Sandra.
By profession, she is a banker. She was an Assistant Vice-President of the Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation where she happily spent her entire working life. She held several positions and was also part of the bank's training and development department. Through the positions she held, the seminars she conducted and the lectures she delivered as a trainer, she espoused the importance of striving for excellence in one's job and in all facets of one's life.
She is also an artist who specializes in acrylic painting. But, she also does paintings in oil and watercolor. Her artworks have been exhibited along with the other Filipino artists here and abroad. In 2018, her works formed part of a group exhibit entitled "Litrato: A Glimpse of the Filipino Soul in Spain," which was held at the Centro Cultural Eduardo Urculo in Madrid, Spain.
As a natural chef, she attributes her passion for cooking to her mother, Mommy Fely. She promoted the appreciation of Filipino cuisine by conducting Filipino cooking classes to expats and her fellow diplomatic spouses in Jordan and in Spain. In 2016, she hosted a live cooking show for a Spanish audience featuring our best-loved Filipino dish, the Adobo, at the Navideña Feria Internactional de Culturas, an International Christmas fair participated in by the various foreign embassies accredited to Spain.
Her background as a banker will always bring her back to the world of finance. While posted abroad, she served as Treasurer of the Association of ASEAN Ladies in Amman, Jordan from 2012-2014 and Treasurer of the Asociación International de Diplomáticos en España in Madrid from 2015-2017.
She has been a Toastmaster since 2006 but had to stop for about a decade because of work and their postings abroad. Last June 2020, she went back to Sultan Toastmaster Club (based in the Philippines). She started her Motivational Strategies Pathway and successfully completed it in August 2021, something which she considers another milestone in her life. Currently, she serves as the President of Sultan Toastmasters Club.
As a Toastmaster, she invites everyone to join. Toastmasters International is an educational organization based in the U.S.A. that operates clubs worldwide for the purpose of promoting communication, public speaking, and leadership. It is known for its tagline, "where leaders are made."
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After 31 fruitful years of working with one of the top commercial banks in my country, I told myself that there is no better time to pursue my other dreams in life but now. And so, I resigned from work and started doing what I have been wanting to do and being where I have been wanting to be. For this is finally my chance to discover How Beautiful Life Is.
Travelling to America, Canada, and visiting many places in Europe (Amsterdam, France, Greece, Italy and London, Monaco, Spain and Switzerland) has once again awakened my love for many things, including food and my passion for cooking.
In the next days to come, I shall be sharing with you some of my personal jottings, short essays I have written, recipes of food I love to cook, photographs I took during my travels here and abroad and, likewise, photographs of very happy memories with my loved ones and my beloved friends.
I invite you to come journey with me as I walk down memory lane and as I embark on a new chapter in my life.
