I’d like to congratulate Bukas Palad for a well executed Choir Convention yesterday. A pat on the back for everyone is very much deserved.

The facts:

• Easily over a thousand participants. 700 pre-registered, and 600 or more additional registrants showed up on the day itself.
• We started promptly at 12 noon, and the “convention” part ended at 8:30pm, then we had a mini-concert with special guests, which ended 10-ish. I hope Les (our photographer) was able to get a picture of the people at the the very end of everything because I kid you not that there were still a lot of people who stuck with us till the very end.

What does this imply? It’s obviously a successful 10-hour event! What are the other “extremely long” Catholic gatherings one can think of? World Youth Day would be one of them hahaha. Which is why we’re so proud of pulling it off.

A couple of shouts are in order:

• Nono Felipe for lending me his 20D and wide L lens. I can imagine how hard it was to part with your baby, and that you trust a few people with it – so I made it a point to be the one to hold on to and use it most of the time when I wasn’t on stage.
• Lester for being our official event photographer, who even got to borrow a 580EX flash and 70-300 L and for taking care of all the equipment.
• All the volunteers from different choirs and organizations.
• That Hail Mary something choir early on in the program (I forget their name). You girls (I think it was an all girl choir) were AWESOME to say the least. I can honestly say, that aside from Noel Cabangon, you were the best sounding performers of the event.
• Soulsearch members from Hangad (Chrise, Elaine and Joy) for awesome performances of their respective “tasks.”
• BPOCC, for finally getting to perform in an official Bukas Palad event (unless I’m forgetting something that is). Your group’s presence in that event is extremely significant as it was a perfect example of how dedication and purpose can bring people together… which was basically one of the very reasons why there was a convention in the first place.
• Noel Cabangon… IDOL!
• Fr. Manoling, who never ceases to amaze us. Even in his lecture on the day itself, we still learned something new (even if we have been planning this convention with him)
• And of course the BP committee(s) which spearheaded the convention Kenneth, Jowi, Erwin, Oliver, etc. You know who you are and we are all proud of you.

I also got to experience another “first” in my life: A couple of fans stole kisses (on the cheek). Now the group and its members has had its share of “admirers,” but never had I expected anything more than being asked for an autograph, or for my email, cell number, etc. etc. Those girls really took me by surprise. If I were a girl, I’d probably freak out, but since I’m a guy, it’s flattering… and any form of flattery is of course, appreciated. Besides, I was all sweaty and stuff, I should be honored that people even considered taking a shot at me hahaha.

I’m just relieved that it wasn’t guys who did it hahahaha.

Also got to hang-out with Soulsearch people after the concert. Chrise was kind enough to wait for me till the end so I could hitch with her as we went to GP‘s house where the rest of the soulsearch people followed (well actually only Elaine, followed). Enjoyed GP‘s famous tapa and deadly chicharon-smothered-in-it’s-own-fat-oil

As much as yesterday was fun for the most part, I had my share of horrible moments. First of is that I lost my Powerbook’s powerblock/adaptor. I visited the apple center today and it cost 8.5k! It’s normally 80USD though, but still, it doesn’t make things easier at all. I just lost an expensive component which I’ve taken for granted all this time.

Which is why now, I’m once again posting though the web interface of my site… and which would be the reason if you should find more than the usual grammatical/spelling errors.