BP‘s trip to Legaspi has proved to be a very fun-filled, yet extremely tiring weekend.

The group had a concert there… and we took an 11-hour bus ride from Ateneo to Legaspi. We left about 8:00pm from the admi, then arrived 7:00am the next morning.

11 hours of gas and break pedals, overtaking, zigzaging (can you say “lousy bus drivers”?) is enough to drive anyone crazy – but as my sister would say: if there’s a group that would make any kind of grueling trip enjoyable, it would be BP.

I’m glad to confirm that that is so true ;)

We got to the place, had breakfast and decided what to do before lunch. Then we all took a nap. All the plans before lunch went to the crapper since we all slept like logs.

The concert was a success – but I was dead tired. I didn’t sing with the group this time. I was busy being the sound engineer, video coordinator, lights person, and not to mention photographer.

The typical routine is to go to the booth, read the script queue up the minus one (if needed), play it go to the video people and make sure the video for the next song (if applicable) is queued. Go back to the booth and tell what lighting would be preferred. Once those are done, I go make my rounds during the song and try to get some decent shots.

Go back when the songs are finishing, and double check if everythings still in order (or make ready the next portions), go back to the stage and shoot away… a vicious cycle. And believe me, running around a gymnasium to make good time to do everything isn’t my idea of fun.

Next time, I better have someone do the techincals so I can get better shots. Or better yet, I should just sing… but it so much fun to take pictures (take note, take pictures ONLY)!

What I regret is that being the technical person, I had to be in the venue early on with Palan (the instrumentalist) to tweak the soundsystem – while everyone else was touring, which was the reason I brought my camera with me. Oh well, can’t have everything. The plus side however was I didn’t have to bring any costume with me, that was a big thing for me since I had my laptop, camera, and monopod on me all the time.

The food was awesome. They are a gata loving province I would say since all courses had some dish with gata, not that I’m complaining, I just gobbled up everything I could see.

Also saw a batchmate of mine, apparently he was the boyfriend of our contact person, and was stationed there for work (that’s where they met I’m guessing)

After a “night cap” in some coffee place, we returned to our foster houses and slept. No kwentuhan, no nothing – we were all tired. And knowing we had to wake up early the next day to not miss breakfast and our flights didn’t help one bit.

The next day (this morning) was pretty quick: everyone woke up, got ready, left for breakfast, went to airport and got home safely.

This has got to be one of the most tiring local “gigs” I’ve been on. In the USA there were a lot of those, but you really make it a point to psyche yourself for it. Nothing had prepared us (particularly me) for the Legaspi trip.

But, it’s BP after all, and somehow, that made the whole thing fun.

Pictures are at the Gallery.