october '23 wrap: TWICE fanmeet, Eras tour at the cinemas, The Last Five Years on stage, etc.
A bit late for the October write-up, so I’m wrapping this up with first-half November things, before we head into the requisite yearenders—oh wow, is 2023 truly wrapping up now?! At the risk of getting ahead of myself: What a ride! Anyway—still, we’re looking back at October-November here, so thanks for indulging as always. Photos to compensate for the lack of words + take advantage of the fact that I now know how to use Substack’s gallery feature. -K
Some just highlights for October:
The Grand Lason: We looked at some keyboards at The Grand Lason event at SMX—for a time during the pandemic, and right before we got into TWICE, we got into mechanical keyboards haha and I’m glad to finally be able to join an event and look at all those beautiful keyboards my god. There was also a speedtyping event and it was a pleasantly surreal experience to be part of a wild hooting crowd cheering on someone onstage while they were trying to beat word-per-second record on Monkeytype.
Bestie Meet: Met up with the college besties for some much needed catch-up over food! It was also my first time in S Maison haha. College hoops! Chika! Nono’s must-order pasta. Hehe! This photo was taken before our orders were served completely so don’t be fooled :)))
PLDT-Smart Excellence Awards: Our teammate got recognized at the PSEA for Leadership Excellence and we couldn’t be prouder! Thea taught me everything I knew about being in telco and corporate public affairs and being a good manager on the whole (and I am still learning from her to this day!), so this recognition—the first time that the company gave them out, actually—is very well deserved.
TWICE 8th anniversary fanmeet: OK so this should be our last international trip for the year (haha)—we were in Seoul for the fanmeet, and I was so, so bone-tired haha. It had been a busy sleepless week and we went straight from airport to anniversary pop-up, and GOD I had to nap while we were queueing on the first day. The fanmeet itself was the following day at the Olympic Park—a Y2K-themed mini-concert that featured old and new beloved hits, a handful of games, and some unexpected unit performances. During this Korea trip, we also met with Ana to hand off some stuff and have dinner and coffee—should be a regular enough occurrence whenever we happen to be in town :)
Halloween at the office: We decked our office floor with chocolate to transform it into a bonkers Wonka World—and won a special prize for the impromptu Dancing Oompa Loompa Stage that my officemates debuted specially for the occasion. What a sweetly riotous way to end this month.
November highlights
All Souls Long Weekend: Sibs and I were able to drop by quickly to visit mom at the cemetery ahead of the crowds the weekend before All Souls/All Saints. Just thought I’d take note of that.
Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour at the cinemas: We managed to catch the last weekend of this show at the cinemas—and here I was, thinking we don’t have a concert slated for November haha. I was worried this would be a “spoiler” ahead of our actual TS concert next year, but in truth, it hyped us even more! This would really, really be great live. I could feel it. Can’t wait.
The Last Five Years: Speaking of final weekends—we caught this play on its last weekend too! We were worried we had totally missed it, because we were busy with TWICE in general during the play’s other schedules, but thank god for extensions! Gab Pangilinan is amazing in this! Also: live band! What a great show to catch live, and in such an intimate venue, too (Power Mac Center Spotlight Blackbox Theater).
A brief note on other things:
We lost Conrado de Quiros and Rina Jimenez-David, stalwarts of Inquirer’s opinion section, this month. Their voices would be missed. I wonder about the conversations they’re likely having with Mr Doronila up there.
And in case this isn’t clear: What is happening in Gaza is genocide.
Anyway, I’ve been told that this newsletter is already too long for email and will be truncated by most email providers, so if you’ve reached this far, it must mean you clicked through for the rest of it, so. Thank you, for indulging the meandering recollections. It’s always great to have you here.
I’m putting together the yearender—if you’re looking to read more of something I may have mentioned this year in passing, hit me up! Let’s see if we have more from where that came from.
Til next time, be well!
XO,
K