114th Philippine Independence Day

Since the holiday economics got dissolved, all Philippine holidays are celebrated on their exact dates. That means long weekends for everyone are non-existent if the holiday doesn't fall on a Friday or Monday. June 12 is Philippine Independence Day and it's on a Tuesday. This leaves Monday on a difficult stinky position - should you hate it or should you really really hate it? It's the only boundary between a long weekend after all!

Is this how you celebrate Independence Day? Wearing costumes? Well, it would be fun but it won't work. It's too warm anyway and even if it rains, a muddy dress is not pleasant. We don't want any corpse bride walking around, do we?

This version looks nice, though.

It was a good Monday. The streets were clear and my initial uncontrollable factors for ditching a friend, who's already at Tiendesitas for the Monday gig, were "rain," "traffic," and if Barbie Almalbis or Kitchie Nadal starts playing before I get to the venue. Well, neither existed in any way. The weather was fine, I even really took my time in the carpark as I left work but the two artists were not yet playing as there was a "break time" and finally, C5 was so clear it would be a crime not to proceed to Tiendesitas! I was also able to park immediately as well. Hmm, the odds were in my favor!

First off was Kitchie Nadal who had sun-kissed skin and still uses her signature guitar from way back. The event had no entrance fee (oh I get it, since it's for Independence Day). All you have to do is pick your spot (if there were still free areas) and order from the stalls nearby while you enjoy free music for the entire week as Tiendesitas' Independence Week Celebration.

Hello, Kitchie!

Final act for the night is Barbie Almalbis. Ah, the very skillful guitarist who sings wonderful melodies.

Hello, Barbie!

I missed Lougee and Color It Red since they performed earlier. And the musical performances are just the start of this crazy day! I think my friend drank a little too much (or it's just the weather) so we went to Mini-Stop for Gatorade. That's where we saw a black phone pouch, just near the cashier. It was surprising no one noticed it, since there were a lot of people in the store. It's a brand new spanking Blackberry Torch!

Whoever left you must hit himself.

The owner unknowingly left it near the cashier and there were 18 text messages while we were waiting for the owner to call his/her phone. So the problem with having your phone locked with a combination, is that when you text it, the kind soul who found your phone won't be able to answer you. Unless you try to call it a hundred million times and hope that someone answers it. So we removed the simcard and placed it in another phone. Checking the contacts...nopes. There were no sim contacts! I checked the usual hit-spots of phones, clean as Zonrox - the phone is really brand new!

We were killing time at Filinvest 2 and thought that maybe it's true love on the other side of the line. Around 430am, True Love called. We tried so hard not to reprimand him (dude-voice on the other line) how stupid he was to leave his phone at Mini-Stop, but we just told him to pick his phone up where he left it (he was able to answer where he left his phone, that's enough identity check for us). So away we zoomed back to Tiendesitas where my car is and then the heavens poured really really hard. We saw True Love, no one budged and called dibs on the dude. It was raining cats and dogs so he rushed to the car and we gave him his phone right away, rolled up the windows, and waited for the rain to be calm so I can get the heck out and go home. The rain was unforgiving! We used the windshield/dashboard shield/cover as an umbrella as we went to the car. And there, we waited forever for the guard to open the gates. Overnight parking never felt this exciting. And oh, happy Independence Day, Philippines!