A Gathering of Dreamlings and Nightmares

The dork in me had kicked in the night before when I decided to be a good girl and be back at the hotel by midnight. I stopped at two drinks and called it a day.

Neil Gaiman awaits in the morrow and I'll kill myself if I missed his book signing. My friends and I lined up around 7 and were mildly surprised to see a queu already. Person number 38 to be in the line. Hey, that ain't bad at all.

I had some books signed by him two years ago but this time, I felt giddier. I think it's because we also get signed copies of Beowulf manuscript. Woohoo! (I still haven't gotten around to seeing the film though.. sigh..) Anyway, this event was more subdued..The last time, the crowd was rowdier than Brazilians in a football match! I thought Neil was pretty overwhelmed by the welcome. Haha!



I had Coraline signed this time. It was a toss up between 1602 and that actually. But Coraline was my favorite children's story of his. The idea of an impostor mother with buttons for eyes was particularly creepy. I had dreams about it for a week.







Write. I like that. Everytime I feel tired and lazy to write even a few sentences, I'll be sure to open this page and remind myself to just write.. Even if didn't made sense, for now.


Oh, and the coolest thing was I met (well.. sorta, if you consider a 60 second encounter thing) had my picture taken with Mike, Neil's son. I wonder what he thought of all of these.. being in Manila, and all..



I think I told him I'd be sure to maybe someday read that Catch The Red Bus book his dad said he used to read to him when he was small.. I'm sure my godson would like that..

Ad Congress Volume I (Stirrings of a Bacchanalian Junket)

I haven't slept in days.


Not since the Ad Congress started last Wednesday, no. We all went full throttle, drank and danced away into the night, then up at 8am for the early morning sessions. I've never seen so much free booze poured and consumed. Imagine five days of that. You'd think the country's best and most creative minds' saturnalian vacation had finally arrived. Hahaha!



Day 1: November 21, Wednesday



The first day usually meant getting your kits and lecture schedules. Schmoozing with clients and seeing your old office mates who've gone on ahead to become hotshots in other agencies.. It's a sort of industry reunion when you think about it..



But the best thing were the bags and bags of freebies. I love that everyone's just shamelessly demanding free things from the supplier booths! Hahaha! I felt like a grocery lotto winner when I opened all the stuff I got -- from flints, bundles of notepads, new magazine issues, pens, 700 sachets of shampoo.. Sure! Give me more!



The Opening Ceremonies that night was a blast but before we all head out into the night for the first of many drinking parties.. we had to present a tv commercial storyboard to Client. For approval. At 11:00pm. Nice, huh? Anyway, we sold a story before midnight.. so high fives to everyone.



Time to seriously party.



Day 2: November 22, Thursday



My favorite writer in the world was the day's first speaker. Neil Gaiman gave such an inspiring talk.. I wonder how one person could be so brilliant. Mr. Gaiman, may we borrow your brain for a bit?

One of the ushers handed me a paper and said I could ask Neil any question I wanted. I wrote whether he preferred gryphons to unicorns.. Went unread. I suppose the hosts wanted a more "sensible question." Sigh..

Things were quite looking up when we got invites to the GMA party. We met up with some of our clients and it was fun seeing them in casual clothes and not looking like stiffs. Hahaha! They were more plastered than we were! What a mighty fine thing it is when Clients start to act crazy and stupidly drunk. For a change, we were the sensible ones! ;-) I've got pictures to prove things best left and forgotten and which I'm not afraid to use to blackmail them into approving my creatives! (I may be kidding, of course ;-))