fiesta filipina

it has been crazy since yesterday.

i left my office with a friend a little past 4 pm to san diego to catch the 9th leg of the 'return of the champions' concert. yes, the one i missed last june 11 because i covered the independence day ball at the sheraton.

traffic on the 5 was kinda bad. we reached the san diego civic theatre a little past 7. strangely, the concert started right on the dot, at 8 pm. and it ended exactly three hours later. it was a good concert over-all. (details soon.)


the seven champions belted their way to the audience's hearts.

traffic was a breeze on the way home, except for the five miles near artesia, close to the 605, where they closed 2 out of the 3 lanes. bottomline, i got home around 2:00 in the morning.

that left me with three hours: to watch my soaps, to pack my stuff for my sf trip and to catch an hour of sleep. i tried. the super shuttle guy in charge of the reservations said that my shuttle will pick me up between 5:40 to 5:55 (that's what he said). so i set my alarm - 5:20, 20 minutes to take a shower and prepare.

but that was not gonna happen. i woke up 5:15 and lingered for a bit. at 5:20, i heard someone buzzing from the gate. i went down to see the shuttle guy there, waiting. i told him to give me five minutes. 5 minutes to get prepared. i don't know how i did it but apparently i did. with a massive headache as a bonus.


san francisco international airport, a really nice, nice airport.

plane touched down around 9ish and i called my michael, my co-worker. he was buying stuff and he was on his way to the civic center. minutes later, they arrived at athe airport and picked me up.


this was taken on saturday, the sunday crowd was more than three times bigger, thanks to wowowee


okay, so this one was taken on sunday. it was, well, very crowded.

went to our booth and stayed there the whole day. sometimes, i went around to see other folks' booths. i found some interesting ones, including this:



and this one, which sells 'bamboo plant.' bamboo? plant?



when i got hungry, i went around and looked for food. there was a lot of restos with food booths, but almost all of them were selling the same thing: pancit (either malabon or bihon) and barbeque (chicken or pork) for $6 or $7, depending on the resto. i've heard so much about kadok's, so i went there.


sige, paramihan ng mali. hehehe.

then, i strolled around and found this:


cassava padding, anyone?