....the long journey to molino ~ part one

~~it's quite untimely to write this blog as it involves a very close person whom i have considered to be my "second mother".  she's very ill at the moment.  i wouldn't like to discuss about how the nature of her illness came to be but it's quite surprising as she doesn't complain - she keeps her heartaches, pain, hunger all to herself.  that's my tita tess...

~~she's my mother's namesake, she being godmother to the youngest of the sanchez brood, jun.   we grew up together in mandaluyong.  how their friendship started, it now skipped my mind but we were close - very close.  they lived in a compound in lopez rizal while we rented an apartment along  antipolo avenue.  tita tess (sanchez), tita angeling (estabillo) -as we call her tita angie now & my mother.  their friendship inter-twined by this "kumare" thing, mama being godmother to jun (sanchez) & randy (estabillo).  by the way, tita tess & tita angie are sisters.  siblings & me grew up together - tita tess had lewy, jojie, jenny & jun.  tita angie had cynthia, may, arlene, rolly, jun, randy & dondon.  i am close to cynthia or "girlie" as we called her in our younger days.  we went to the same school together (elementary), the same closeness i had for lewy as we grew up together.  the estabillos moved out of mandaluyong eventually.  later on, migrated to the US where everyone including their respected families reside.  

~~lewy married ahead of me.  now it's my turn to be godmother to her eldest, ansie kaian.  in every celebration, our families were always present.  our faces were a permanent fixture on birthdays, fiestas, baptisms, christmas, or simply a get together celebrating nothing.   tita tess was always "punong abala" or the gracious host to even let us eat ahead because mama was already hungry & couldn't wait for the party to get started.  she was always there, always making us feel special, even making time to wrap extra food to take home.  she would give little nothings for christmas, one time giving honeybun some cash because she didn't have time to buy her gift.  she would give me something i need in the kitchen, little things that she knew i'd surely appreciate.  she marvels on the things i buy for the house.  she appreciates everything i buy - from the cheap trivet to a not-so-expensive pickle jar.  she would always tell me she'd tell jojie to check the items out.  that's tita tess, always appreciative about everything...we complement each other.

~~in 1985 when my husband chito & i decided to formalize our relationship, my mother resented the fact that i was marrying an old, "balding" man.  it was the week of my wedding.  we were fighting.  i thought of going to tita tess to find consolation - that was the time i felt the need for a "second mother".  she didn't say much, she just listened & let me cried my heart out.  she didn't lash a word at my mother.  she showed compassion, nothing more.

~~as our kids grew up, tita tess & brood found a home in faraway molino, cavite.  our get-togethers were far & few.  time went quickly.  lewy & i had some misunderstandings. but this didn't prevent tita tess to make contact with us.  her respect for mama was always there.  she didn't take sides.  she listened to lewy & my side of the story.  there wasn't any pressure from her.  i maintained friendship with jojie, jun and jenny, though.  until lewy and family left for the US in 2006.  

~~jenny (the youngest among the girls), left for abu dhabi to work, leaving only child cookie who has already entered college at the university of santo tomas.  the distance from cavite to UST and back was too much for cookie to travel everyday.  so we decided to have the last door unit of our property to have it rented out to tita tess & cookie.

~~thus begins my relationship with tita tess, as my second mother..... part 2

BLAKE - Meet & Greet 23 March 2012

---i haven't been to any meet & greets except those of libera's. and based from my 3 M & Gs, all have been held at the malls - podium, SM da block and concert venues. a long table is set (well, to accommodate 23 boys, divided into 2 parts). one is needed to get the artist's CD - usually a poster to go along with. in libera's case, during their last x'mas concert, a souvenir program was sold together with the CD & posters to have them later autographed (except the programme). and lala segismundo was very gracious to have bought my programme & poster which i had them signed - and andy winter, of course!!

---yesterday at blake's promo mini-concert, i decided to get their CD after a voice over announcement that a meet & greet will be held after the program. the mini-concert was over in about an hour & we queued to have our CDs signed. a staff member of the event brushed us aside & announced that ONLY those holding orange or purple M & G tickets will be allowed to have their pictures taken with the fab 4. mine was yellow & so was emma's (the girl i met earlier ). we inquired where the hell did those lucky people get their M & G tickets?! most of them didn't have any CDs at all. they just held on to the orange & purple stubs. so i decided to get the gentleman's attention to inquire about how this M & G will go about. my mind went in circles - this was absolutely the most 'out of this world' M & G i have ever attended.

1) yes, i bought the CD but i can only go as far as having it signed; no cameras or

celfone cameras allowed;

2) so where did those orange & purple stubs come from? according to the

staff, DISTRIBUTION OF THOSE TICKETS WERE NOT ANNOUNCED.

WHAT??? the lucky ones got them from the concierge. this was so unfair!

we bought our CDs for 400 pesos & yet we didn't have the opportunity to

have our pictures taken - all because of that color-coded stubs which were

only given to selected people- maybe friends & families of universal records

or members of the media.

3) there were so may posters lying around, ready for distribution but for some

reasons, were just given after we had our CDs signed. the posters were only

given on our way out of the activity center.

anyway, it was a fun mini-concert. and i gained another friend in emma bernardo, all the way from bulacan. the CD is worth listening to. and if blake will come around to have a concert this time, i'll go & listen to them sing & serenade their audience with their beautiful songs & wonderful blending of voices. bocelli? libera? yes, i'm now a fan of blake!

"BLAKE" Mini-Concert at Trinoma, 23 March 2012

---hello!! been a while since i visited my blogspot. last entry was still november of 2011. and all the hype & excitement of libera's visit/concert at the PICC. and it was indeed a very memorable one, having met the boys once again for the 3rd time and so were the staff/crew/parents.

---i really can't recall now who mentioned this british vocal group "BLAKE" to me. could it be one of my libera friends from abroad? MJ from canada? tita malvar-milne from UK? beverly shaver-johnson from the US? terry chubb or tom bowman, both from the US, too. i reckon it could be tita, as she's very familiar with these kind of singers esp that they come from the UK (my golly, why are these brits so good in singing - be they pop, contemporary or choir songs?!)

---anyhow, as i was watching TV yesterday, it made mention about BLAKE having a mini-concert at trinoma. trinoma is right across SM north (where libera also held their meet & greet last year). i didn't catch the date nor time of the performance as i was preoccupied with something else. today, i tried to contact trinoma - they were very kind to have returned my call with a text message informing me that blake's performance would be at 7pm, tickets for availability of seats are to be given before 7pm. i requested the lady at the concierge to reserve a ticket for me which i'd pick up around 5pm.

---i got to trinoma around 5:10. the lady (weena lim) was out on break but her other co-workers were gracious to have given me my ticket since i came alone. i browsed around the record bar where the screen was showing/playing blake's new song "start over". i checked on their CD - nice familiar songs - "bring him home" from les miserables; "bridge over troubled water"; puccini's "nessun dorma"; "ave maria"; "she was beautiful"; "she"; "when a child is born" and of course songs by libera "abide with me" & "i vow to thee my country". very british, hah hah

---there were a few people mostly in their 40's & of course my age who started to fall in line & that's when i decided to buy their CD (as the voice over stated an autograph signing after the show). hah, goodbye 400 pesos!! but thanks to the generosity of my encoding bosses (trevor & andromeda roberts in wales), i made quite a big pay out last week. and i made friends with emma bernardo who came all the way from sta. maria, bulacan with her nephew & niece, sister & husband. we were seated together. she was fun to have started a conversation with and surprisingly single! she knew libera, too & acquainted me with this group whom i didn't even have any idea who they were. we waited about 45 mins. before 4 men in black - errrr, 4 good-looking men stepped out on stage - and this guy belted out "nessun dorma" (an aria from the final act of puccini's opera 'turandot'). and truly, with that opening number, i knew instantly blake will be an instant favorite...next to andrea bocelli & libera, of course!

---then came "bridge over troubled water" which i know all the crowd are familiar with, then "she" ... and so on.

---they introduced to us their special song, specifically written for prince william & his bride, kate middleton during their wedding in april last year - "all of me". 2 of the members being close to the prince during their college years.

---audience participation was rated poorly as always - filipinos are too shy to clap, sway or dance around during performances of this kind. maybe the younger generation will, depending who the performers are, hah hah of course, who could be the noisiest ones - the gay crowd, who else! and they just had their eyes on this guy - jules knight! depending on how i categorize their faces, i think jules is the youngest in the group. and he was familiar because he was in the news yesterday being mentioned as having an "eye" for KC concepcion. and why not? they look good together, in my opinion.

---i got home straight to listening to their CD. wonderful voices. one of the members casually mentioned "we're not il divo"! oh brother, they all sound good! il divo or not, blake is worth listening to. it's early morning now of the 24th, and "ave maria" soothes my tired feet, lazy, sleepy eyes. if libera's voices come close to angels, blakes voices are those of their "big bros" angels - beautiful blending & harmonies.....

---tomorrow, i will write about their meet & greet. it was an organized one because we (the fans) all behaved - but it was poorly organized & whoever thought about that style of M & G should be thrown to the sea. had that happened during libera's M & G, aha, i could have unleashed the annabel rama & miriam defensor-santiago inside me...

CARMELA'S BLOG.... well, about LIBERA.....

tonight, as i write errr type this blog, i'm shifting sites from blogspot to lexi's mini angels site. i'm viewing yuki's video of the after-concert signing. awww, brings back good memories. only, during the credits towards the last part of the video, i noticed sammy moriarty's name misspelled - moriaty. that's big deal considering mr. moriarty suffered a lot of mispronounciation of his name (thanks to the female host who partly didn't do her homework), as she pronounced 'moriarty' as mo-ra-yar-ty.

little did i know, my daughter, carmela, also created her blog and as i peeped from where i was, i thought i saw pictures of libera! right this very moment, i'm using my netbook (lilli) while she's busy with her laptop (bibi). off i went to read it - it was funny... i would have wanted her to edit it again but i gave her the go signal to just leave it as is.

she writes well, having a degree of mass communication major in broadcast journalism from the st. paul university at gilmore, quezon city. i wished i'd write the way she would but i'm just stuck with my 'elementary english' - oh well, at least my readers understand me perfectly well.

carmela has never been a fan of libera (sorry about that). of course, as she grew up she adored the music of the 90s - Nsync, backstreet boys, 98 degrees, spice girls, britney spears, christina aguilera and a lot more. she was not into choir-type music/songs. so in 2009, when i was first introduced to libera music & we played eternal's CD in the car, she would request to just turn on the radio instead, hah hah but never complained if i played my libera CDs inside the house.

my love for choir-type music dates back to the early 80s when during sunday mass, my husband & i would take our seats just across to where the choirboys were - they were called the "tiples de santo domingo". and this was at the santo domingo church, which is just near our place. their voices were heavenly! i would be honest to tell you i'd always look forward to sunday masses just to listen to them - the mass was pretty boring (sorry again for this) but tiples made it alive for the churchgoers to savor sunday masses. their rendition of songs i was familiar with in my school (sta. catalina college) during my elementary & highschool years made it even more special.

in 2009, carmela was still with businessworld (a business newspaper). she gave us our tickets for the first libera concert at the PICC, BW being a major sponsor of said concert. thus started my "rock & roll" experience with libera. she has been with me through my ups & downs - even reminding me to 'slow down' on being a fan, esp during those times in november last year when i was duped into believing i was in actual conversation with the boys.

but gladly & thankfully, she has been with me during the 2 M & G's . april 2010 & 2 weeks back at the SM d'block. she may not like some of my libera friends whom i met on the internet/facebook. she gamely went up the stage to take photos on my behalf and volunteered to look after our things (bag, CDs, posters, etc.) which were left on the empty seats while i walked around to take more pictures & look for AW. and thoughtfully reminded me to turn on the "record button" of my corby before i focused it on the boys. in my excitement, i did not.. :(

and just as i end this blog early morning today, i realized how she has also shown support for my love with my favorite choirboys. she likes cassius so much!! she has openly expressed her fondness for little cassius during last april's concert when this munchkin went on meowing to the delight of everyone - from television to meet & greet.

i need not say more. just go visit her blog thisisimagined.blogspot.com

LIBERA X'MAS CD, PROGRAMME & POSTER

my libera x'mas CD, a gift from my daughter carmela (for x'mas).

this is the second time i had a dedication from josh madine. thank you, josh for taking the time to spell my name. adorable cassius "ca$$"!!!

my libera programme signed by andy winter - he made it even more special by drawing a "CAT" - ORANGECAT, he says. thank you, andy.

GIFTS FROM MY LIBERA FRIENDS...

this is a murano glass from sofia rodriguez.

pili nut wrapped in gabi leaves.

i think this is a a butanding.

jack evasco's pasalubong from sorsogon city.

during the meet & greet, jack evasco gave me this beautifully-wrapped native box with some bicol goodies inside. thank you, jack. the pili nuts were good (was it wrapped in gabi leaves?) & so were the salted & roasted pili nuts. as for the decor (is that a "butanding"?), i always use it to scare my baby dog, finn! LOL!!

apart from the libera tickets for me & carmela, lala segismundo had a bag of goodies for us, too. she also bought our programme and poster (the reason why she left during the intermission). thank you so much again, lala for everything!!

EXTRAS WORTH REMEMBERING....(2)

this is the bus where the boys rode after the concert enroute back to AIM , parked at the executive prkg area at the back of PICC - just a few meters away from where our car was parked, too. funny thing, our vehicles were the only ones left (while we were hoping to catch a last glimpse of them). this bus wouldn't start at first, hah hah but it went on to fetch the boys & crew, nevertheless -

by the way, this bus was escorted by 2 motorcycle-riding cops.

---thank you to the security detailed at the PICC for letting us in.