Bloggers Awards: Bloggys 2015 Gala Night

My daughter and her boyfriend wanted to wear jeans to the bloggys 2015 awards night but I forced them to wear something more formal because it says GALA NIGHT. Although there was no specific dress code because according to the organizers they didn’t want to impose, but for me, when you say gala night then it must be formal or at least a little bit formal, or cocktail dress.

Derrick was in his best suit, Oyen wore a dress. I wore a short cocktail dress I was supposed to wear at the Ford EDSA launching but it needed some major alterations.

We got to the SMX Convention Center on time, just a little bit past 6 pm.
Oyen—–“Are you sure this is the venue?”
Me——-“It says SM Aura”.
Oyen—–“Bakit walang tao?”
Me——-“Wala ring pangalan”.

I asked the guard, yes indeed, duon nga. The bloggys event occupied a third of the convention hall. The other 2/3 was occupied by Harvard.

Me—–“Anak, it’s here”.
There was a short registration counter and bloggers waiting in line.

The minute I saw the handwritten sign “finalists”, I knew already that I made a mistake in choosing what to wear. I apologized to my daughter that I didn’t let her wear maong. “Sorry anak, informal pala”.

I registered under Finalists and wrote down my son and his friend’s name even if they haven’t arrived yet.

Exhibition booths of sponsors, including a big booth of news network ABS CBN occupied the front half of the hall. I apologized again to my daughter, “anak sorry, informal pala”. What could she do but to follow her mother’s wishes. Kaya naka high heels pa sya instead of flat sandals lang.

There was a small stage and around 120 chairs set up for the awarding. It was still half full so I immediately secured our seats.

There were people at the back getting food and drinks. I didn’t go there, my kids said there were chips. I asked for coke.

Some bloggers were dressed to the nines while some were in their comfortable outfits. I secretly wished I did the same, wear casual clothes. Ang sikip nung sleeves ng dress ko, wala sa proportion although it had already been altered. Very uncomfortable to move my arms.

Mela gave me a gift, an OMB hanger.

I didn’t know who the emcee was. He’s American but speaks quite good Tagalog although minsan parang I found it hard to listen to him kasi nga sometimes he grapples with words. He is a Youtube star pala with his maputing cooking series. I appreciate foreigners who love our being Pinoys. For that alone, I like him already.

There were supposed to be 17 judges, the best in the blogging and news industry like Maria Ressa of Rappler, Abe Olandres of Yugatech and many others. But most of them were not around. There was a guy who came a little later and my daughter told me that’s Anton Diaz of Awesome Planet. I wonder if all the judges took time out to meticulously visit all the blog sites of the finalists and read many of the posts to really get a sense of the person’s thoughts.

The finalists from the food bloggers category were mostly absent. Someone commented, big time na daw kasi ang mga food bloggers.

The awards ceremony started with letter A so it took more than an  hour before it  reached the Personal category.

Thank you to bloggys. I really do appreciate this.

Antok na ako.