If you take a look at a map of the world, you’ll see how vulnerable is our archipelago — an island of more than 7,100 islands.

Into the capital of our archipelago breezed Cecile Licad, as monsoon rains fell and winds blew, dramatized by no less than an earthquake of 6.9 magnitude. Imagine our archipelago as a string of beads, broken in places and as vulnerable as a necklace being tossed about by waves hither and thither. No wonder, we have earned the dubious reputation of being “the most disaster-prone country in the world.”

In the midst of the “habagat” Cecile arrived to play — you have to watch her in person to see how she enjoys performing on the piano, no better word than “play” is good enough, or precise enough.

At dinner time after her Oct. 1 recital — four encores! — I grabbed the chair directly opposite hers at MiraNila Gallery. Lin Bildner’s guests didn’t have time to object because immediately I grabbed Cecile’s hands to see what a busy, in-demand pianist’s fingers look like. They are long and strong, manicure-less: “I do my own laundry, don’t worry, I have a washing machine.”

She remembered that once upon a time I had asked if her hands were insured. Then as now, they’re not. Maybe what she needs to insure are her shoes, of which she has quite a collection. She showed me a picture on her cellphone of her Jimmy Choo sandals in gold leather, with strippy straps and a squarish Cuban heel (no stilettos because they would not withstand her punishing footwork on the pedals, or so I imagine).

As we settled down waiting for the food, Cecile took sips from her goblet of red wine. We didn’t have long to wait — not with Joanne de Asis Benitez and Petty Benitez Johannot looking after us – and there it was, Filipino food at its best for our New Yorker visitor! Cecile enjoyed the mixed green salad, kalabasa with french beans, beef sinigang, gising-gising, chicken inasal, and cake with the light perfume of calamansi.

Cecile is 5’4” and has no weight problems – not with eight hours of practice every day on one or the other of her two pianos at home.