July 17th, 2011

DALIM3: Waiting on Our World to Change

Exclusive Inside Peek of Arrival

We keep on waiting
Waiting on “our” world to change…

Every time he visits, the last few days of an Archie is a hazy, blurry, toxic period. Most of you should know what am talking about. It is like holding your breath for what’s to come. It is both exhilarating & unnerving. For some strange reason, the very prospect of meeting David sends shiver and confusion to this otherwise always-logical mom.

And when the day finally arrives, you still hold your breath. Half believing that that sweet wonderful event is here – front & center. Then you realize you have one million & one more things still to prepare! LOL

That Sweet Ol’ Pinoy Hospitality

By now you know the drill – Team Airport… Team Hotel… and all the crazy coordination attendant to these seemingly trivial but oh-so-critical endeavors.

Once again yours truly was called upon to coordinate for Team Airport. But this time I dealt with more Archies, more nuances, more surprises, some disappointments – always the adventure

A little trivia: When I called NAIA for our permit, I wasn’t sure if I will still be dealing with the same set of people I negotiated with during DALIM 1 & 2. So I gingerly informed them that I coordinated with their Office before, for the same purpose. She asked for my name. The reaction? Oh yes mam, we definitely remember you! Oh my, LOL

Six Vans & a Car

Yup! You got that right. About a hundred Manila Archies trooped to NAIA to welcome its adopted son from Murray, Utah. Decked with David banners, it was indeed a lovely convoy which started from MegaMall, leaving at about 11:30am. – but not before the Archies got their DVDs for the M&G later that afternoon.

Dom of Pinoy Archies & Kricket of Archuleta Philippines coordinated to get the group going.

Here’s the little army arranging themselves in their respective posts

Media Mileage Galore

Meanwhile, I was inside NAIA coordinating with security. I asked Naree to come with me. So while waiting for David, I took the chance to talk to media just to have that added assurance that the fans’ welcome will be included in the much deserved mileage for TheArchuletor.

By late afternoon, two of the biggest channels featured the arrival during primetime broadcasting. See the videos below

Airport Arrival feat @ TV Patrol ABS-CBN News

Airport Arrival feat @ 24Oras GMA News

An Inside Peek

So true – good things come to those who wait. Without even dreaming of it, someone surprised me with a special pass for NAIA which allowed me to enter the “inner sanctum”. So Batman & Robin (that’s me & Naree) went into the “batcave”, joyous that we could capture exclusive footage for all Archies to share. Note to self: Next time, bring cams that you are already familiar with!

In fairness, I practiced. Promise! All that waiting time, I had time. I reviewed all the practice video and they came out really good. But then that gorgeous little ninja suddenly emerged from the horizon (enter music here) – WTH! And this was what happened to me:

Never mind: I won’t post anymore. As Trace, a Malaysian Archie described it, “it’s like JR was crawling the floor!” I was literally shaking I could not find the dang button in the video cam. Naree was also having problems with her other cam. Batman & Robin – big fail at inner sanctum

You see, from going back & forth between the inner sanctum and the Archies outside (had to give the last pep talk & reminder about security issues), texting Team Airport for the updates, answering numerous calls and figuring out our video cams, you can just imagine how frazzled Naree & I could get, LOL.

BUT hey, we regained our composure after a couple of minutes & got these beauties:

Combined pix of Naree & JR (or what we could manage, tee-hee)

DA & Company to NAIA’s VIP Room (17 July 2011)

DA’s Band Getting the Baggages/Meeting the Band

TO BE CONTINUED….

Have to go now. Have tons of pix and I got gorgeous SO UPCLOSE M&G vids – yay!

Got to talk to the band which meant the cameras stopped rolling — especially when Mr. Bodyguard said he cannot be included. LOL, understandable. Actually I like Mr. Bodyguard. He is a looming figure and has this eagle-eyes demeanor. But he was never brash or harsh with anyone. Even during commotions inside the airport.

Back to the band, here’s an outline of what we talked about –

• We informed them of the large crowd waiting outside for them and I swear – the smile that they showed after hearing that piece of news was something else. Like, they beamed from inside. Like, really appreciate fan’s PDA. Like, yeah-can-you expect-anything-less-for-the-bossman look but still in awe that that much people took the time just to welcome him. No smugness, no air with this band. I am officially in love with his band.
• I requested if they could share that piece of info with David. I felt that was something he needed to know in advance…
• I also remembered (head still functioning at this point) to tell them that they were SO good at Jakarta. This elicited HUGE smiles from them, immediately followed by quizzical looks. Naree & I blurted – Ustream! That made us all laugh!

Then they headed back to the VIP Room. After about 15 minutes, they re-emerged and like antlers, the airport peeps stood in attention for what’s to come

DA & Band Leaving VIP Room, credit to Doc Naree

DA Leaving the VIP Room; Out to the Jubilation of his Adoring Fans

Some NAIA musings

Naree & I were the only non-airport staff in the inner sanctum. We had some quiet time to savor the experience. Especially since David & company were the last to embark the plane. That made it less complicated for Security to control the situation.

David strode through the conveyor area into the VIP Room with such an unassuming grace. No air, no strutting, no star projection. If you don’t know him, you would never guess he is the celebrated star that he is. Of course the number of security surrounding him is a dead give away.

But having this chance to observe him and his team, he totally doesn’t act a star. Yet, still exude that star-glow quality about him.

Ammmaazzing….

David stepping-up the car to give that huge wave to his adoring and jubilant crowd was a joy to watch. If you review the footage above, you can see that he knew there was a crowd but was still surprised to see how big it was. They wanted to roll down the car windows but Mr. Bodyguard cautioned them. Understandable…

For me, seeing how dance-happy the fans were after David left the airport makes this whole experience worth it. Just proves, it doesn’t take much to make some people happy

NEXT: Off to the Meet&Greet

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