As I have said before, I’m not the type of person who attends EB’s. But lo and behold, there I was, handing out candy goodie bags and Kutitots bookmark/calendars to everyone who attended the Manila bloggers’ Christmas party last night.

Considering the date, I was really surprised to find quite a lot of people there. Although I didn’t fall off my chair in shock to see Abe there (he was, after all, the one who organized it), the party actually had a good turnout. Marc and I have thought of just giving the goodie bags to street kids in case there weren’t enough people attending the event, but as it turned out, we even ran out of goodie bags to hand out.

It took Marc and me around two hours just to get to Mall of Asia (where the party was held). The traffic was just so horrible (talk about holiday rush!), I thought I’d go blind in hunger. I was working on last-minute design jobs before the holidays during the day, and I totally forgot that it was Marc’s day off and that I should prepare some food for us. My dad thought we already ate so he didn’t offer us lunch. And since we were running a bit late already, Marc and I left the house with empty stomachs. We had no idea that the traffic would be that bad.

We entered Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf totally dazed in hunger. We wanted decent food—coffee and pastry weren’t enough to fill our growling stomachs—so we said a quick hello to everyone and just excused ourselves for a quick bite at a nearby restaurant. I didn’t want people to think I was being a total snob for doing that, but I was beside myself in hunger.

It was a good thing that I was back to my usual noisy self when we returned to the coffee shop after a very late and quick dinner. I was able to talk to bloggers I have never met before (as well as those I’ve already met with often heh). Although it was quite a big group, I can see that everyone there seemed to have fun. Even Marc, who’s too lazy to update his blog 😛

After everyone left, Marc and I joined Abe, Markku and Noel for coffee at Starbucks Blue Wave. I used to go home around 5am after a night of partying and getting drunk during my early years in college, and this was the first time I went home at 5am due to a prolonged and enjoyable coffee conversation.

There really is something about taking the world of blogging offline into the real world. I’m not the type of person to blog-hop, but somehow, every time I meet new bloggers offline, my blogroll seems to grow. Although I’m still not a big fan of pink blogs, personal blogs seem to be a lot more interesting after I’ve met the author in person. Their entries become more real to me, much more personal in a sense.

Meet-ups like this one isn’t as geeky as it sounds (trust me, blogging isn’t always the topic in these gatherings). On the contrary, the people Marc and I have met through blogging were interesting personalities and very passionate about what they do. Marc himself enjoyed talking about fishes with Juned, the guy who owns Baratillo and a fish blog. What else could drive you to dedicate an entire blog on fishes? Passion, baby. Simple, unadulterated passion.

Anyway, just to share a bit of link-loving for bloggers who attended the event:

For the nth time, I forgot to bring a camera. Just take a look at photos that Abe and Noemi took. Hopefully, more people will be posting photos soon (I really want to know I how I look in those shots hehe).