Starry Evening

It's two in the morning that time, yet somehow I couldn't seem to shut my eyes to sleep after what became an INDEED star-studded night, as SMART held its corporate Christmas party with the theme "SMART @ 15.beyond" in World Trade Center last December 19, 2008. It was one huge event with literally huge crowd of almost 5,000 SMARTees coming in from the rest of the country to celebrate SMART's 15th anniversary and to usher in some major initiative come 2009. (Ok, at this point I'm done with all the corporatespeak.)

We originally planned to ride the designated bus that was supposed to pick-up Tower-based employees going to the venue. Good thing we were able to hitch a ride with one of the committee members, and by some ten minutes before six we were already making our way inside the main hall. Being the pasaway that I am, I left my badge at home and had to fall in queue, which took quite a while since they still had to verify some details. After what seemed like 15 minutes, I got my tix for the event and went inside - to eat! I eventually catched up with Irene and Cristy, and after finishing our plate we went inside for the program proper.

Did I just say star-studded? Hell yeah! Let me see... well, there was Ai-Ai delas Alas as one of the main hosts, boxing pros like David Diaz, Edwin Valerio, Onyok Velasco, and Harry Tañabor; PBA cagers from the Talk n' Text squad, including former Green Archer Mac Cardona (Who happens to be one of Ryh's major crushes!); performances from Kapamilya stars Billy Crawford, Sam Milby, Angel Locsin, Piolo Pascual, Toni Gonzaga, and Christine Reyes. There were also a handful of Kapuso celebs like Ruffa Mae Quinto, Posh (Who did quite a number of song-and-dance numbers as part of the opening act.), and The Angelos. (They performed SMART's new theme song entitled SMART: Tranforming Lives.) It's just too bad that Papa Lloydie wasn't there!

Cristy, Me, and Ireney

Although we did enjoy the night, it would have been more perfect if more from our team went to the event. As it turned out, there was only me, Cristy, Irene, and Bodjie from QPM who participated in the event. In my case, attending the event was my way of being thankful that, despite the economic recession making its presence felt within the country, SMART came up with such an effort for its employees to come together and celebrate. Other companies, as I've heard from friends and colleagues, were not so generous to do so. That's one good thing to be thankful for, right? Oh, and another really good reason to attend SMART Christmas party is the announcement from PLDT chairman himself - tito Manny Pangilinan - on the current status of the 'B-word' for all SMARTees. What's it gonna be for this year? Well, let's just say there will be room for savings in the coming days. Haha!

I haven't had the time to post pixies yet... coming up REALLY soon in my Multiply site.