43,200 seconds in Manila

Last Sunday (September 21, 2014), I went to an adventure with my partner-in-crime Kuya Jhunie to Manila to go to the Manila International Book Fair in Pasay and Positively Pinoy's Volunteer Gathering in Makati.

A week before, we were planning to go to these events in different days para makapag-ikot sa MIBF nang mas matagal at para hindi kami mukhang haggard pagdating ng hapon for the gathering but God intervened, bumagyo ng Friday at bumaha kaya hindi kami nakaluwas for MIBF and OMF's book launching. huhuhuhu. Kaya ayun, all in on a Sunday!

I scheduled what we'll do for the day. Morning-Noon = MOA, Afternoon-Evening = Makati. Our travel would have been smooth sailing if we only knew where to ride the jeepneys and buses! We were completely confused by  Buendia. We were looking for Mcdonald's where the orange jeepneys load its passengers but we went back and forth, up and down the stairs and streets. It's an adventure when you are not familiar with the place and you have to find out for yourself where to go.

It's already around 10AM that time, so imagine the heat! Ang init pa sa loob ng orange jeepneys! Buti nalang mabilis yung biyahe at mahangin rin naman. Pagbaba namin ng jeep, hinanap naman namin yung SMX Convention Center. Mga 20 minutes rin kami ng nag ikot-ikot kasi hindi namin alam kung saan! Oweh!  So picture picture muna kami sa daan and appreciate the surroundings. It's not everyday na nakakakita kami ng ganung view. Malinis, green, magandang structures, clear skies at preskong hangin. Haaaays... ^_^

Manila International Book Fair 2014

The doors of the keys to limitless adventures

Nang mahanap namin ang SMX, pumasok agad kami. Present tickets courtesy of OMF Lit, then boom. Ayan na! Nandito na talaga ko sa MIBF. Books. Books everywhere. *drools*

OMF Literature's booth

First stop: OMF Literature booth. If I have a list of my favorite local publisher, OMF gets the top spot. Hindi lang dahil quality ang books nila, kundi dahil sobrang generous pa and very approachable ang staff online and in person.  The first thing we did when we arrived at the booth was nagpicture kami holding our dedication books to join their promo. Then Kuya Jhunie purchased Lovestruck Sakit Edition and #SuperEpic while I bought Who Is Jesus According to the New Testament?. We browsed afterwards and looked at all the books. LOOKED. It's a struggle to look at the books na naka-bundle sale (5 books for P500; 12 books for P1000 & 30 books for P2000) tapos kalahati lang ng sweldo ang binigay sa iyo in MIBF week. I only have P800 that day! All I can do is stare at those Joshua Harris, Dallas Willard and James Smith books. huhubels. 

Huge pile of books at OMF

On the brighter side, I claimed my prizes from OMF's promos prior to MIBF. I was only supposed to get 2 books, Pinoy Big Values and Your Career Roadmap, but OMF is too generous to give me a copy of Boring Ba Ang Bible Mo?, and it was signed by the author (and Pinoy Big Values was signed too.)! It made my day. I also get to see author and illustrator Robert Magnuson in a story-telling session of a new release written by Dr Luis Gatmaitan,  Signal #3. I never had somebody read a children's book to me in that way when I was young so it's nice to see an actual story-telling in the flesh. Too bad I can't join the toddlers. LOL.

Now, we have 6 books in our loot and we're not done yet. Next booth: CSM Publishing!

If you are my friend in FB, you would notice I'm online most of the time. I lurk at the social media accounts of my favorite publishers and CSM is one of them. Of course, to promote their participation in MIBF, they had contests. Guess who joined--and won? Yep.

Raffle at CSM's booth

The moment I set foot at the booth, I asked about my prizes. I was excited. Haha. I got When Sorry Isn't Enough and The Best of PROTips from 2 different promos. I already made a list of the books I will buy at MIBF. I only bought 3 books at CSM--The Lego Principle,  Guarding Your Heart and Mind and The Five Love Languages Singles Edition (for Kuya Jhunie). All their books are worth P100.

Kuya Jhunie and his wall clock

There was a raffle at the booth and all you have to do is buy a book to get a raffle stub. Of course, being an active participant in promos and contests, I think fast. I bought the three books separately. So I get 3 raffle entries. 1 for me and 2 for Kuya Jhunie. I didn't get picked at the raffle but I won at their Bring Me game. I got a VeggieTales pin (LOL) while Kuya Jhunie won a huge wall clock from the raffle which he had to carry the whole day because it wouldn't fit in the bag.

Chinkee Tan arrived shortly for his book signing and all I got was awkward eye-to-eye contacts with him because I wasn't brave enough to ask and have a picture with him without buying his book; but I get to have a photo with Samuel Alibrando, author of  Nature is Always Talking  which is nice. We stayed there, waiting for the eat-all-you-can raffle but we left after a while because we were already really hungry.

Loot count: 11 books.

with Samuel Alibrado, author of Nature is Always Talking

We passed by Viva Psicom's booth because Kuya Jhunie wanted to buy the hard-to-find book of Marcelo Santos III, Para sa Hopeless Romantic Extended Edition. He was able to get a copy for only P155. He was tempted to buy the sequel, Para sa Broken Hearted but our budget was as broke as our hearts (just kidding). I also get to see the wattpad author's Q&A at the stage area but I don't know them but it's nice to see them.

There are still other publishers that I wanted to buy books in like CLC, they have P100 book piles too but our budget can't make it anymore. They have really good titles but I'll just buy from them when they (hopefully) come to the Global Leadership Summit.

Final loot count: 12 books

After that, we headed to MOA to eat lunch and have some rest before heading to Makati.

P99 lunch. Solb!

To be continued...