Trends, Fads and the "In" thing

Its 10pm on a Saturday night and I'm at home, typing a blog entry. How's that for a Saturday night gimmik? Actually, I'm supposed to meet up with some friends over at Eastwood right now, but I really am too tired to do so since I just got back home from Greenbelt, and before that, Pampanga. You see, this afternoon was the 1st annual HCPG badminton tournament for the customers. Of course I had to make an appearance even if I do not know anything about badminton (tried it once, and I always ended up jumping at the shuttlecock and hitting it with a death defying flying attack). I really didn't expect many people to participate, but I obviously failed to take into account that badminton has become quite the rave nowadays. I never should have been worried about participant turnout. In fact, HR had to turn down requests to get in the tournament! Dozens of pairs participated. Brandishing their brand rackets, their elbow and knee braces, their head and wristbands as well as their very own coolers and cheering squads, Honda customers did battle in the courts. It really seemed to be quite exciting for the players. On my part though, I was just glad I decided to bring my current book (Mister God, this is Anna. Try it!) since I coudn't wait to get out of there. I'm not sure if badminton is just a fad or a lasting trend, but I don't see myself getting into it as much as most people. But hey, this coming from a guy who still thinks that folding your pant legs outwards is cool.

Anyway, after the tourney, I was in a dash towards Manila and made Makati in a record time of one hour(North expressway rules!)! Upon reaching Makati, I found myself in Greenbelt, staring at a plasma TV in Avant Abenson's which costs P1.3M! Ha! If I had that much money, buying such a TV would be the last thing on my mind. There are much more important things to spend money on... like comic books! But yeah, nowadays, you aren't "in" if you plan to settle for a normal 15 inch TV set. Hooboy. Anyway, had dinner in Cascada, and now, here I am!

Actually, I was also in Greenbelt last night. Hehe. This is quite a funny story. Yesterday, I received a text message from steph, saying that she wanted to meet with us for dinner. She also added that she had an important announcement to make and that she would be treating us to dinner. Of course, this sent bells ringing in my head as I tried to figure out what the announcement would be. So, as Kit and I stopped by CityBank makati to pick up Eunice, ideas were already floating around, ranging from she's getting married to she's migrating to the US. Upon getting to Greenbelt, we were met by Steph and Pepper and were introduced to Steph's mom and some other relatives of hers. This of course made us a bit more intrigued by the announcement. However, we were also introduced to some really gorgeous girls who turned out to be models! Ramp models with ramp model names like Sasha! We were the envy of all the guys in Greenbelt! Hehe. Anyway, Since Joy was going to be late, we decided to have dinner already. Halfway through dinner already and Steph still did not tell us anything or even give any clue as to what she was going to say. So, we simply did what came naturally: we ate our hearts out! Libre e! And kudos to Pepper who out-ate us all! Anyway, when Joy arrived, curiosity was already killing us so we asked Steph about the announcement. She simply said that that we were still waiting for Larry. Hmm... Did Larry have something to do with the announcement? However, as we waited for the unveiling of the big secret, Steph made mention of a modelling agency they were putting up. Aha! So that was it! And that explained the pretty girls! I figured it out!

Wrong.

A few minutes later, Steph introduced us all to a guy with a laptop. Laptop? To dinner? I still didn't get it. Then he greeted us and, with a big smile, he opened the laptop... and began with the presentation. Then it hit me. We were in a networking presentation! Hehe. Steph was recruiting us to join their networking group. That was the big announcement! The presentation was quite good, very convincing and very well...umm... presented. Actually, it was more than just good. It was quite impressive. And Marvin Agustin even made an appearance to add some color to the presentation. Kit said it all when he pointed to the actor and said "Mukhang pamiliar ka. San kita nakita?"

So there. That was the announcement. A networking seminar. Networking realy seems to be another popular trend in the Philippines today. I'm not sure why Filipinos see networking to be so appealing when there is quite some risk involved there. Is it the propspect of fast money? Is it the fact that we are easily persuaded by people who talk well? I really don't know.But networking sure is popular in any case.

Ayun. Wait. I said this was a rather funny story here. So where is the clincher? Well, maybe its the fact that I am also a member of the same networking group and have been one way before Steph even joined up.

Oh. And by the way. The dinner was greeeeeat! Iba talaga pag libre! hehe.