Thanks to America’s wireless companies, not a few Filipinos can be seen waving their cell phones when we do songs such as When I Met You, or Batang-Bata Ka Pa, or Ewan! It’s probably because the phone companies offer unlimited calls during weekends and lots of Pinoys call friends during our concerts to share what they’re watching!
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Since leaving Manila, each member of the APO entourage has taken at least 15 plane rides until NYC. We still have Jacksonville and MacAllen in Texas! Then it’s back to Manila. If you sum up everything, it’s a minimum of 25 plane rides till we return home. Some of us exceeded that since we visited relatives and friends in between shows!
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Chances are, if you carry a Philippine passport you are bound to be “randomly selected” for full security screening. Eighty percent of the time, each of us was selected for complete body inspection. It means you are isolated from the line and ALL your bags and pockets and everything you have on you are thoroughly checked!
Paul Simon’s song entitled Have A Good Time with the line “Paranoia strikes deep in the heartland” plays in my head!
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I am already a tired and weary traveler after three months of touring. In fact, I am so exhausted at times I have become forgetful. Upon arriving in Miami two weeks ago, I was so surprised to see so few clothes inside my maleta until I realized that I had left around 5 shirts, some boxer shorts and socks in Tampa. Must have been super sleepy that I did not bother to open the drawers where I left my clothes. Luckily, our producers had stayed behind and so I retrieved them two cities later.
Today, we left Jacksonville, Florida at 4::30 AM to catch our 7AM plane for MacAllen. With hardly any sleep, I packed my bags confident that I had NOT left anything in my room. In the airport, I suddenly freaked out since I knew I had left behind a carton tube of posters. Ugh!!! I immediately called Ed Sevilla, our classmate and producer and he has forwarded it to me here in MacAllen.
If you think that touring is a very glamorous endeavor, well…not always! We took FOUR airplane rides yesterday to get to MacAllen, Texas from Florida. We were either on a plane or an airport for almost 10 hours. I was suffering from a serious sleep deficit as I typed this last night. Luckily, I had good sleep last night and so was able to do a little shopping and some promo work. I will sleep tonight, and hopefully wake up refreshed tomorrow to meet more of our kababayans.
Limang tulog nalang….and then I see ANANDA and my family!