Walk this Way: A Walking Manila Tour by Carlos Celdran

It was definitely different from the other walking tours I have taken. The tour guide was like no other. The encounter with Carlos Celdran himself was a unique experience. He was so passionate and could get really intense on some topics particularly on the part when Manila was caught between the war of United States and Japan and thousands of Filipinos were killed and Manila was bombed, destroying the beautiful city. The 30+ mix of Filipinos and foreigners laughed and cried with him as he shared facts and events in the past that affected the way we are today in Manila (and Philippines in general).

Thank you, Carlos Celdran, for such an amazing experience. It was not only an informational tour but an eye opener even for us Filipinos. I will never look at certain things the same way again.

Loved the calesa ride! Definitely an experience for our Canadian guest

San Agustin Church. The oldest church in the Philippines. The only one of the 7 churches and 1 cathedral in Intramuros that survived the bombing in WWII.

Last stop was a Barbara’s where halo-halo was served while Carlos was wrapping up the tour. Amazing tour! Carlos got a big applause from everyone.

We walked a few meters a way to take a look at the Manila Cathedral which was under renovation.

Love this poster! I will definitely take another Walk This Way tour

For tour schedules, visit http://www.carlosceldran.com.

To reserve, text (63) 920 9092021.

Meeting place is at Fort Santiago, Santa Clara Street, Intramuros.

The Script : #3 Concert in Manila (March 31, 2013)

These Irish boys are so talented and wonderful. Did I ever mention I like Irish guys? Lol

It was an awesome concert. Danny loved the crowd! He literally jumped to the crowd on the second song. There were bunnies and boxing and beer on stage… and a call to someone’s ex-boyfriend. And double encore, baby! Confetti to end the show.

From @thescript

credit to Faye Swinney on Facebook

From someone on Facebook

Sold out crowd

Here are some of the videos I took from my nosebleed seat

Jasmine Curtis-Smith was there, too, and posted this nice shot. I wish I was that close!

Vertical Horizon and Live’s Ed Kowalczyk in Manila

Was surprised to hear these rock alternative artists were headed to Manila for a concert. I was kinda worried, though, since I don’t they are that popular now compared to the ’90s.

Cr philippineconcerts.com

I knew I wanted to watch the concert, but I wasn’t sure if I could get my sister to watch it with me. (If my old friend Raymond Rueda was here, it would have been a no-brainer decision and we might have gotten Lower Box tickets and watched together LOL). Anyway, at the last minute, the morning before the concert, I got us General Admission tickets. My sister is only familiar with Vertical Horizon from their album that I usually play in the car.  And I only have 1 album of each.

Vertical Horizon’s Everything You Want

Li've's Throwing Copper

Since we only had Gen Admission tickets, we lined up early so we could choose a better location in the middle. At around 8:00 PM, there were still a lot of empty seats in all sections. Only, the Gen Ad sections seemed to be filling up quickly.

The concert started at 8:30 PM with Vertical Horizon in the first set.

(I think I saw Steve Fekete in the poster, but I did not see him on stage. Yeah, I know him because he played for David Archuleta for David’s AOL Sessions and Jingle Ball appearances in 2008). I really enjoyed Vertical Horizon’s set. They sang a lot of familiar music from Everything You Want – You’re A God, Everything You Want, Best I Ever Had, Send It Up, Miracle. They also introduced some new songs from their new record (I forgot the title). He also sang a song called The Lucky One, but there was no mention if it was at all related to the movie of the same title (which I did not watch, and have no plans of watching). The lead singer, Matt Scannell, said that he hated himself for writing that song because its not his usual type of music and theme LOL. Matt charmed the crowd with some of the Tagalog words he learned (‘Magandang gabi po!’ ‘Maraming salamat po!’ ‘Gusto niyo ba kaming bumalik?’) and some Filipino food they’ve tried (pork and chicken adobe…which he later corrected to adobo). The crowd sang along to many of the songs. I almost lost my voice towards the end of their set for so much singing and screaming. I didn’t plan on taking videos so I did not bring a camera. In the end, I decided to record portions of 2 songs:

Live’s Ed Kowalczyk played on the second set. They opened their set with a rockin’ version of All Over You. The crowd came alive, many stood up dancing and singing to the song. He sang a lot of new songs from his solo album which were not familiar to me.  But I am glad that Ed still sang a few songs from Live such as Selling the Drama, White Discussion, I Alone and Shit Towne. When Ed came out for the Encore, it is a given that he will sing Lightning Crashes. It was already the third song for the encore but still no Lightning Crashes. I started to feel some disappointment. I was surprised to hear a fourth song and, yes, it was Lightning Crashes. The bad part was, my iphone ran out of battery. I used my blackberry to record it, but it also ran out after the first chorus. It was okay, though, since I was able to concentrate on enjoying the song. It was awesome!

I feel bad that not a lot of people came out to watch them. There was a lot of open spaces, especially in the lower sections. I hope Ovation Productions made a call to get the people to move to the lower sections so the artists as well as the crowd could enjoy. I felt bad for the artists seeing so many open spaces in the arena. Maybe, next time, for artists not as well known as the contemporary artists, they’ll use smaller venues such as Ultra. There was probably only 5,000 – 6,000 in the audience last night.

The Story So Far: TV5's ‘Nandito Ako’

Reblogged from jules explains it all:

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I may be a hardcore Kapamilya, but for the past week or so I’ve been watching Nandito Ako, the TV5 miniserye starring American Idol season seven runner-up David Archuleta (aka Archie) who plays singer Josh Bradley. I’ve been a fan since I watched a video of him singing the Jennifer Holliday hit “And I Am Telling You” on YouTube months before he first auditioned for the show.

Read more… 3,360 more words

Great commentary on Nandito Ako :)

Jasmine, proud of David Archuleta (English Translation)

Read the original post here Abante Tonite.

Jasmine David Eula

Anne Curtis is so sweet to her younger sister, Jasmine Curtis Smith.

Even if Anne is with another network (Kapamilya), she is fully supportive of Jas especially with her new mini-series at TV5  with David Archuleta.

Every night before Nandito Ako starts, Anne would tweet her Twitter followers to remind them to watch the show.

“Nandito Ako to support you no matter what J I love you forever and forever!!!!” was Anne’s tweet to Jas before Nandito Ako premiered on Monday night.

She happily said on Twitter, “Yahoo! Nandito Ako is trending. It hasn’t even aired yet!! Go, baby go!! Please excuse me, I’m a proud Ate (older sister)!”

Apart from the Philippines and worldwide, Nandito Ako also trended on its pilot episode in Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and US.

Anne congratulated the cast and crew of the show especially Direk Mac Alejandre for the [success of the show as indicated by the] many advertisements placed during the show.

Last Tuesday, Anne tweeted her younger sister saying “Anya, you’re so pretty in your ponytail!! Your Tagalog is very good!!!”

Anya is the name of Jas’ character in Nandito Ako. David is Josh. Anne can’t wait for Anya and Josh to meet.

Ogie Alcasid who originally sang the hit OPM ballad was happy that [the song] trended [on Twitter].

He tweeted on Monday. “Thank you, Mr. David Archuleta and to his legions of followers for making Nandito Ako trend after 23 years. Aaron Paul del Rosario, congrats!”

David responded, “So cool it trended! Thank you and Mr. Aaron Paul for letting me sing a great classic OPM song, and for your kindness.”

David (who is now back in the States) was happy that a lot of people enjoyed watching his first mini-series.

“Glad to see that you guys enjoyed the pilot episode of Nandito Ako! Thanks for all of your support!” Archuleta said in his tweet.

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Jasmine Curtis Smith and Eula Caballero felt lucky and honored to be working with David Archuleta in Nandito Ako.

“I am thankful for the opportunity to work as one of the leading ladies for David Archuleta in the show. I am overwhelmed.”

“Until now, I wake up each day wondering, ‘Is this true? Am I in a dream?’”

“I never imagined that this will happen to me. Especially since I am quite new in the industry.”

“Working with David is such a pleasure. He’s so light and easy to work with. And he’s really willing to listen and to grow and to adjust to whatever needs to be done.

“He is willing to do anything. He won’t stop shooting a scene until he has given it his best.”

“We are all proud of him. We saw his progress in the 3 weeks that we worked with him,” shared by 17-year old Jas, who went back to Melbourne, Australia to continue with her studies.

What would you remember most in working with the American Idol alumnus?

“Everything. All of us enjoyed working with him, his singing on the set, his jolly mood.”

“He is so much fun to be with. As a person, as a friend, as a co-actor, we really won’t forget him,” shared smilingly by the pretty lass.

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1^st Star Factor winner Eula Caballero is thankful that she was chosen to star [the show] with David Archuleta, especially since a lot of people have been asking when TV5 will give her a break. Ritz Azul, the runner up of the reality show, already had her break.

“I’m very happy that TV5 allowed me to grow first before they gave me this [opportunity]. They have been so good to me. They allowed me to go through other things first before giving this to me.”

“And now, Jas and I were given this chance to work with David Archuleta. I am very happy. And David was such a good actor.”

“This is his first time to act in a mini-series. I must say he is a natural.”

“When we do a scene and he felt that he was not able to give it his all, he would request for another take.”

“He wants to give his best in every scene. I am so impressed with him,” shared the 16-year old Kapatid star.

Eula will not forget David’s singing on the set of Nandito Ako. It is among the things she will miss now that David is back in the States.

Nandito Ako is shown every night after Wil Time Bigtime.

Eula Caballero sheds tears as David Archuleta says goodbye – English translation

Read original post on PEP.Ph

 

It was a touching goodbye for Eula Caballero and David Archuleta at the set of TV5 mini-series Nandito Ako.

Eula relayed to PEP.ph (Philippine Entertainment Portal), “What I appreciate most was the depth of his character.”

“It started with light conversations. ‘How are you, have you slept well?’

“‘Then we started talking about family… then you find out the kind of person he is.

“I also asked him about his mission.”

Eula was referring to David’s two-year mission with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

The young Kapatid actress continued, “He said, ‘I’m happy to do this for my religion.’ [He said] It makes him whole.”

“He also said, ‘It’s just making me sad because I’m afraid that everyone might move on with their lives without me.’

“And that we should get used to not having him around since two years is a long time.”

“Especially for his sisters, one of his sister is turning sixteen, the other one will join junior high, he said, ‘I wish I could be there with them when that happens.’

“I said, ‘Oh, my God!’”

“I was in tears when he said that coz he, too, got teary-eyed.”

Eula added, “He has such a deep personality, he has so much on his mind… his family.”

“‘He said he has one more month before he goes on his mission and he wanted to spend it in Philippines since he has come to love the country.

“I said, ‘Yeah, of course! We would be happy.’”

“I also told him, ‘TV5 would love that you can do guestings in other shows.’

“‘He said, ‘I’d love to but I just want to spend it with my family in Utah.’”

Eula said she will miss David.

“So much!” she added.

“Then on our first night in Batangas, he again got teary eyed and said, ‘I’m gonna miss this, guys.’”

“‘We’ve been like taping every day, we’re filming every day and we’re together every day, we’ve been together lunch break and dinner break and all that.’

 “‘He said, ‘I’m gonna miss this because I know you guys have other projects to do after this…’ and  he said eventually our attention will be diverted to other things.

 “He continued, ‘But me, I’m just gonna miss this and I hope I can see you guys again.’

 ”I said, ‘Oh David, you’ll be very missed by us.”

BTS: The Dream Sequence

January 26 - Naree and I went to meet JR for a trip to the Nandito Ako set. We went with @Amee_and_Sam and her daughter who came all the way from Bicol to see David (LOL, I think she was sent for work).

We couldn’t decide what to buy for the staff and crew, so we bought:

• Mamon from Pan de Manila for the crew
• Mango Bravo cake from Contis for David
• Cupcakes by Sonja for David, Eula, Direk and Kari

JR also brought special siopao for the group. It was the BEST SIOPAO I ever tasted. (And I heard MyDearWriter liked it a lot!)

What the cupcakes looked like (cr google images)

 

The cake that we ended up eating instead (cr google images)

 

Not your usual siopao

 

Found out that in the set the previous day, a lot of fans brought Mango Bravo for David. So we decided to eat the cake instead! LOL Yes, we ate the cake in the car on the way to the set somewhere in a village in Marikina.

 

When we got to the location, they were shooting a scene of Josh and Holly’s date. They were walking, talking. We heard the part where Josh asked Holly if she sings, then she laughed saying ‘hwag baka umulan’.

 

Then, in preparation for the next scene, Direk Mac showed David how to eat balut. There are no words to describe the look on David’s face when Direk showed him what’s inside the shell. Thanks Kari for this pic right before Direk actually opened the balut

 

How to eat balut

 

While waiting to shoot their next scene, Eula and David sat talking on the set. At one point, David looked our way and smiled recognizing us.

 

While shooting the next scene, we got to stand behind Direk Mac and watch the scene from the monitors. Gosh, Josh and Holly looked so good together! I was late in going back to where Naree and JR were since I had to wait for someone in the crew who helped get me a cup of water. Dang, David briefly talked to Naree and JR while I was away asking them how they got to the set.

 

On one side of the location, we noticed that the swing was decorated with flowers. Someone in the set told us that it was for the dream sequence. What?! We  got excited. It would be Holly’s dream, they said.

 

Preparing for the dream sequence

David and Eula left the set to change. Yes, for the dream sequence.

 

Unfortunately, we were not able to watch the scene up close since David requested to have everyone leave the scene except the cast and crew. LOL David didn’t want us to see them shoot the next scene. Someone in the crew told us that David did not want to do the scene originally. So some negotiations were done – they will let David have the scene he requested (my guess – inviting the fans to the concert scene) if he did the dream sequence. We all know David got what he wanted

 

We had to move far back. But we still had a good view of the set

 

Discussing the dream sequence

They shot the scene several times from different angles. And everytime the scene is cut, David would burst into laughter.  Ha ha! It was as if he was caught doing something naughty LOL

 

 After the dream sequence, we decided to call it a night. We briefly talked to Eula and had some pictures taken. I’m still waiting for Naree to share me a copy of our picture with Eula

 

And here’s Eula having late dinner from that night :)

 

Late dinner for Eula

DAVID ARCHULETA in Manila 2012 Day 38 (02-19-2012) – Send off for David Archuleta and Kari Sellards

I can’t believe it’s been 5 weeks since David and Kari arrived in the Philippines.

Unlike Team Airport when David arrived, there was no coordinated planned effort to do a sendoff for David. Fans mostly from Archuleta Philippines just wanted to bade David and Kari good-bye as they travel back to the United States. As if it was the most natural thing to do, fans arrived one by one at Edsa Shangri-La Hotel as early as 1:00 PM. No one knew the exact time of his flight. Everyone just went with their gut feel.

At around 4:00 PM, news broke that David’s great grandmother passed away. We thought that David might have taken an earlier flight. Just when the group was almost ready to leave, David and Kari arrived and passed by the area where the group was.

The group organized themselves and agreed to sing the chorus of Nandito Kami as a parting message for David when he leaves the hotel. It did not matter if the group had to stand and wait another 2 hours. Kudos to the Security at the hotel for being patient with the fans and for allowing the group to wait around They even told us when David was on his way down the elevator.  That cue gave us the chance to get ready

As the elevator door opened, the group started singing. David was smiling the entire time, while Kari was unable to control her tears. I wanted to hug her <3 He was so happy and you could see the look of appreciation on his face :) He gave @nareejo a hug as he passed by her – a well-deserved hug for all the hard work she did for David and the fans.

@jackryan4DA, as expected, did the video coverage. She almost fell at one point and it was David who readily gave her a helping hand.

After David left, everyone was on tears. We hugged each other and promised to get together in the next few months.

Archuleta Philippines Sendoff crew

Thank you, David!

Thank you, Kari!

Thank you, TV5, Sir Percy, Rissa, Joan, Sheena, Myk!

Thank you, Close up! Thank you, Sony/Ivory! Thank you Bench and Mr Ben Chan!

Thank you to the crew of Nandito Ako for being so welcoming and caring whenever we visit the set during taping!

Thank you Archuleta Philippines for the undying support for David! Especially to the force behind this amazing group – @Kricket_rc234, @nareejo, @jackryan4DA, @ascphil, @carlacharisse, @cmaecy, @nettekulet, @ferjiperj, @karissacortez, @uriel, @kiwikia and so many more!!!

To cap the night off, @nareejo, @jackryan4DA and I had some cheese and drinks at the hotel lounge while waiting for David to perform on Talentadong Pinoy.

Cheers, ladies!

@lorms @jackryan4DA @nareejo

What a Grand Day!

It was the most anticipated day of David Archuleta’s 3-week stay in the Philippines – the culmination of all the hard work David has put into making his first real acting project and the day fans get to show David how much they love and support him.

My Kind of Perfect

David performed this well-loved song much to the delight of the fans (video taken by @jackryan4DA)

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Interview with Eula and Jasmine

Eula and Jasmine joined David onstage for a mini-Q&A.

Another view of the interview that shows David doing the dougie at the end

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Nandito Ako Trailer

We did not expect it and neither did David, Jasmine and Eula, but TV5 premiered the Nandito Ako trailer during the Grand Fans Day.  It was a real treat to share the excitement of watching the trailer the first time with David, Jasmine and Eula <3

I love this version from Ustream as it showed David’s reaction while watching the trailer. I also tried to watch David from my seat and I could see him laughing and giggling at times… some during the romantic scenes, some when David is crying.  Gosh, what a mess I was! My tears kept flowing uncontrollably not only because of the story that slowly unfolded before our eyes, I was SO PROUD OF DAVID! Who knew David would be SOOOOO GOOD in acting. He was such a natural, like what Mac Alejandre kept on saying about David on Twitter. None of his acting in his scenes looked forced. DAVID THE ACTOR HAS ARRIVED! And I wasn’t alone in that sentiment. All the fans in the cinema squeed in unison and everywhere I looked, I saw misty eyes

Here’s a clearer view taken by @ascphil:

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Archuleta Philippines’ Tribute and Pledge

For weeks, Archuleta Philippines has been planning a sendoff tribute for David. We did not know how we are going to present it to David at that time. We just went on planning and preparing for it. We knew somehow we’ll find a way to show our tribute to him.

Our initial plan was to sing a medley of David’s songs plus an adaptation of Nandito Ako to tell him how we will always be here even if he’s gone for two years. A week before Grand Fans Day, TV5 graciously gave us 4 minutes to perform for David. Since we only had limited time, we decided to just sing an adaptation of the whole Nandito Ako song. As we practiced the full song for the first time after the mall tour in MOA, emotions ran high knowing that this will be our only chance to let David know how much we support and love him before he leaves for his mission.

I am so glad Ustream captured our performance and David’s reaction while watching us.

David got teary-eyed which made us even more emotional during the song. We could hardly sing, but it did not matter. David heard our message <3

David watching our presentation (cr @madelasuncion)

Here’s a video from another angle where you see more of Archuleta Philippines performing. At the 5:00 mark, @kricket_rc234 handed over to David the Certificate for the adoption of 21 trees planted  in his name and a CD copy of our tribute video showing how Archuleta Philippines celebrated his 21st birthday last December 28, 2011 – we planted 21 trees, we packed relief goods for typhoon victims and we had a mini birthday celebration for him! (cr. seceew)

Here’s a copy of the tribute video :

The lyrics that were given to David

Nandito Kami

It was such an emotionally fulfilling experience for all of us. Thank you, David!

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Talentadong Pinoy Taping

Right after Grand Fans Day in Megamall, we rushed to Skydome in SM North Edsa where David was to tape a performance at Talentadong Pinoy.

David first sang Nandito Ako (to be aired on February 5). He looked so handsome in his suit.

The performance as aired on TV5.

He next sang Wherever You Are (to be aired on February 19).

This was a first time for many of us, to join the audience during the taping of a show. Only for David. Ha ha!

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Press Launch

We tried to go to Meralco Fitness Center to hopefully watch the Press Launch live. However, it was a by invitation event so the group decided to watch it via livestream instead.

Along with @nareejo, @jackryan4DA, @kricket_rc234, @KarissaCortez, @carlacharisse, @feeshda and @cmaecy, we went to Persiana for dinner. We watched the Press Launch from @jackryan4DA’s laptop and from our iPhones.

David sang Nandito Ako flawlessly for the press. We also got to see the cast sing Nandito Ako at the start. What a lovely cast!

Thank you again, Mr. Preci Intalan and the TV5 management for believing in David and for engaging the fans throughout the entire process.

Can’t wait to watch Nandito Ako. It will be a big hit. I know it for sure

Archuleta Philippines cr. Marion Chong

DAVID ARCHULETA in Manila 2012 – Day 11 (1-23-2012)

January 23, Chinese New Year. It was a special non-working holiday in Manila. We took advantage of the day to try to visit David at the set. The problem was we did not know where the location was. As early as 6:00 AM, I started looking for clues on Twitter. I wasn’t disappointed.

1st clue – Scenes w/ Gelli means Marikina

2nd clue – An address

3rd Clue – Dragon Dance – see the background?

4th Clue – Looking for Chinese food in Libis

Using the ever reliable Google maps, we found our way to Dela Pena. The challenge now is finding the right street. We just knew that it was near Riverbanks. After several wrong turns, we took one last chance in a narrow street leading to what we thought was a dead end. We even had to fold one of the side mirrors for fear that we might hit one of the cars parked in the very narrow street. When we got to an intersection, we decided to ask some of the guys sitting by the road where to turn to go back to the main road. Little did we know that they will give us the last clue we needed. They told us to turn left since we might not be able to pass through if we went straight. Before we could ask why, the guy went on to tell us that the road was possibly blocked because of a shooting that was ongoing. We got excited. ‘Who were the actors involved?’ , we asked. They answered, ‘Jasmine Curtis’. TUMPAK! THANK YOU! Who would have thought that narrow, almost-impossible-to-pass-through road will lead us to our destination!

Blue dot marks the location that we chanced upon by luck

We went straight and expected to be blocked off, but nah, the security guy that was by the road even helped us park. We walked to the set holding bags of Chinese food, Spanish bread and Krispy Kreme for the cast and crew. No one stopped us as we approach the house where they were filming. Instead we were told to sit on the bench in front of the house while we wait for David because he was still on dinner break.

We did not sit on the bench, though. We decided to stand across the house and just observe everything that was going on. The crew, upon noticing how we’ve been standing there for over an hour, offered us monobloc chairs so we’re comfortable while we were watching! Wow, such good treatment to fans!

View from where we stood the entire time

We gave some of the food to Direk Mac. We then decided to just have the food brought by the TV5 people to David’s tent so he could eat what we brought since they were already having dinner.

After a few minutes, Ana Feleo tweeted

Chinese food for dinner!

Shortly after that, David came to the set wearing purple long sleeves and gray trousers. He stood there for several minutes talking to a few people including Jasmine’s mom. Then, he left the set. While he was away, we got to watch scenes of Anya, mom and brother (Let’s Volt in, slap scene between mom and Anya). We could also see some of it on the monitor that Direk was watching. That’s when I realized how difficult the job was both for the actors and the director to get the scenes right. For one single scene, they had to do several takes from different points of view. By the time Gelli, Jasmine and little boy they were done with their scenes, it was already 3 hours since we arrived.

We were hopeful that David would be back (our clue, the MIB guys were still there). Our only goal by then was to see/hear David act. That was answered shortly. David came back in gray shirt and black jeans. Jasmine came back wearing brown blouse and shorts. And aren’t we lucky? We got to see Gelli, David and Jasmine rehearse their scene right in front of us! Gelli shouted “Magananakaw!” and then David answered “I’m not a thief!” Then Gelli said, “Are you Josh Bradley? You are Josh Bradley! Did I scare you? Are you okay?” (not the actual words, but something along those lines) And David answered “I’m alright”. Then off they went inside the house for another round of rehearsals. Then, a very familiar voice filled the house – someone was singing loudly. LOL! It was David! I couldn’t remember what the song was but I remember Direk singing along with him when he came out of the house

During the take, we could hear Gelli and David shouting. We tried to watch the scene from the monitor outside. After the scene, Direk Mac turned to us and asked, “Nakita nyo?” Haha, Direk, you should have asked us to watch beside you! But nah, we could only see portions of it, mostly of David’s face which we could easily recognize from afar. After the take, the cast came out and watched a replay of the scene. They talked a bit about it and then we could hear everyone telling David to get some rest.

On his way to his van, he waved at us, said hi , asked if we had fun and if we enjoyed watching. Gosh, we got so tongue-tied that we just said we did and hoped he gets some good rest. He actually looked as if wanted to talk some more but there were security guards around him. We did not even attempt to approach him, we just sat there and talked to him timidly. Ha ha, cowards! But that’s okay, it was already late. He was tired. At least we knew he got to eat the food we brought , we saw/hear him act and we got to talk to him for a few minutes

Pic the cast took in front of us