The brown bag contained a shirt with a Philippine map embroidery, a Philippine flag jacket, and a statuette of Mary, Help of Christians. I had a big smile on my face. My brother took notice of my remarks with the jacket (it was intentional). Thank you for the gifts!!!
Last May, I watched my first concert of Lea Salonga with a friend in Las Vegas. I have watched her in a musical before with "Baby: The Musical" in Manila. Well, my friend is more of the fanatic and it was just right for me to accompany her in this trip (as she kept me company with two of mine). She has watched a lot of her concerts that she already knows some of Lea's small talks after a song. She's heard it all before but she was still very happy to witness the concert. The song "Taylor, the Latte Boy" was sung for days after she heard it.
Concert tickets, plane tickets and hotel accommodations were bought at least 6 months before the date. We were well prepared. What we were not aware of was the fight of Manny Pacquiao and Ricky Hatton that will be held in Vegas a day after the concert. We really tried very hard to secure some tickets but the only available ones were $1K and up. I do watch boxing from time to time, and I have hosted a couple of boxing parties during a Pacquiao fight but, I will not spend one grand to watch the match live. We went over to MGM Grand an hour before the fight. We saw some celebrities with their entourage, and Filipino politicians with their goons spending taxpayers money that night (Objection to strike the statement from the records.. it's just speculation). The MGM Arena was packed, so we headed our way back to Caesars Palace where I had earlier reserved for dinner at Iron Chef Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill. News on Pacquiao's win after two rounds was flashing at the casino screen while I was enjoying my coffee crusted filet mignon. Hatton hit the floor during the second round, I had no regrets not watching the game live.
It was very noticable that a lot of Filipinos were wearing a Philippine flag jacket by Adidas during the fight. I just came to know that those were banned in the Philippines and Adidas has to pull them out of the stores because wearing the flag was illegal and unconstitutional. Martin Nievera's version of the Philippine National Anthem was criticized too. Oh well, I guess I won't be serving 20 years in New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa for wearing my jacket. I'll push my luck.
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