the little drummer boy

monday. finally it's monday... i thought i woudn't reach monday awake. man, i was so tired! i was at jewell's (my niece) birthday party at max's in puente hills mall yesterday and i think what kept me awake was max's delicious chicken :) - i need to charge max's for this plug. lol...

i had a hectic schedule last week. apart from my usual load at work (we are again scrambling for another july deadline - 70 hour weeks again!), i had to attend to two events with filipina megastar sharon cuneta and her gorgeous daughter kc -- good thing both events were scheduled after 7pm. and, on top of that, there was another event organized by the philippine consulate held at the westin bonaventure hotel in downtown LA saturday evening - i had to rush from work as well that day, whew! :) the event was in celebration of the 111th independence day of the philippines.

seated: Nita Jazmines, Nora Guerrero and Darna Umayam

standing: Irwin Jazmines, Sid Guerrero, Chiz Escudero, Anthony Castillo and Boby Saddul.

the anniversary of the philippines independence was also the reason why i was in a semi-patriotic mood last week. i even posted my thoughts (however irrelevant - hahaha) on the current (actually, it is beyond current. do you consider a situation that hasn't changed in years... no, decades, still current?) state of my beloved homeland.

so i went to the event courtesy of tony v. and his pretty friend sheila ferrari (picture) in my barong tagalog (the only one i own! - lol) and i was mightily surprised by the huge turnout. the california ballroom of the hotel was completely filled. it must have been a huge logistical nightmare to the organizers but somehow they were able to pull it through - except for one, that is.

please don't get me wrong, i don't wanna sound like am mocking the event or something, i just thought it would be interesting for my readers to know the night's biggest booboo. when you have presidential contender chiz escudero and energy secretary angelo reyes in attendance, you would want to ensure a smooth and clean program, right?

here's what happened: at the beginning of the program, the flags of the philippine revolution are supposed to be presented through a grand march. it was a great sight. the sound of drums announcing the entrance of the flags to the hall filled the entire ballroom and the crowd was in complete awe of the pageantry when the unthinkable happened. the christmas song "little drummer boy" started playing! the hall instantly erupted with laughter - typically filipino i suppose. it was corrected immediately and the march proceeded smoothly. the drumming sound apparently was from the first chords of that chrismas song. whoever was in charge of looping that is probably not gonna get invited again next year. :)

oh, i finally saw raymond bagatsing's wife. she didn't look so old. they were actually a lovely pair that night.

and don't ask me about the speeches... please