Cherry Ann's story
May 2001
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Everything
happened so fast. I still can’t imagine that I’ve accomplished a lot of
things in just two days. Here’s my Westlife report. I hope that nobody gets
annoyed with me ‘cause of this report. I just want to share my experience to
all of you.
12:00
I, together with my cousin, went to the Mtv office to get my tickets which I’ve won. When Pam, an Mtv staff, handed me the tickets, I asked her if I would meet the guys. She told me “No” with a sarcastic face. Not wanting to let her feel that I’m expecting too much, I smiled and left after I said “Thanks… Bye”.
1:00
We went straight to Megamall to have lunch. I saw the setup for Christian Wunderlich’s fans’ day. I planned to stay there ‘cause I’ve heard that Westlife will be there, but not that sure; so I decided to go to Manila Galleria Suites instead, the hotel where Westlife stayed, and meet my chat mate.
2:35
We arrived at the hotel. I was shocked to see Westlife’s crew going down the violet coaster. They were all so busy with the luggage. I went straight inside and saw Anto Byrne. I also saw Paul and Fran. I met Joan, my chat mate, and we headed to our hotel room which is in the 26th floor. But when we were in the elevator, I got a call from Mtv. The girl whom I talked to said that I must come back to their office tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. I asked her why she was asking me to come back but she hanged up. I called her up, but she refused to tell me. I was left completely wondering why.
3:00
I’ve decided to stay overnight at the hotel. Who knows, I might bump onto one of the gorgeous guys! We roamed around the hotel to gather infos. Only then I learned that they’re going to stay at the 16th floor, while Christian Wunderlich stayed at the 17th floor. The entourage stayed at the 12th floor. The security was extremely tight, especially on the 16th floor. Nobody except the crew members, securities, BMG staffs are allowed to enter the said floor since they used all the rooms there.
5:00
My other roommate Christine, with her three-year-old daughter and Christine’s mom, went up and down the elevator hoping that they would see Westlife. Luckily, when the elevator door opened on the 29th floor, which is the penthouse where security was also very tight, she saw Nicky. She said, “Hi Nicky, this is Naygel.” Nicky went near them and pinched Naygel and told her “Hi Naygel!” To her excitement, she didn’t notice Shane who’s standing at the back of Nicky. She only realized it when her mom told her that Shane was also there.
7:00
We went to Robinson’s Galleria to buy food for dinner. After eating, we roamed around the hotel again; but still we saw no Westlife.
9:50
My mom and my two aunts, together with my little cousins visited us at the hotel and brought our clothes.
10:30
They headed towards the elevator to leave. When the elevator door opened, my little cousins were so shocked to see Bryan standing there with a security guard. They screamed to their excitement. Bryan said “Hi guys!” and left. It seems that he got the wrong floor. Poor me, I still didn’t see any of the Westlife guys.
12:30
We’re still at the elevator lobby on our floor and hoping that we’ll see even just one of them. By the way, we’re expecting that they were still awake since Mark is celebrating his birthday at the penthouse.
1:30
We decided to sleep without seeing Westlife.
6:00
I woke up and took a bath. Then I waited for my mom to pick me up and bring me to the Mtv office.
10:00
The girl whom I talked to told me to come back on 11:30. She strictly told me that I mustn’t be late.
10:20
I went back to the hotel and took my things down from our room. We ate at Robinson’s Galleria, and went straight to look for our lost driver.
11:30
I was almost crying ‘cause I don’t want to miss my chance. Who knows, they’re probably asking me to come back at the Mtv office ‘cause they’re going make me meet Westlife.
11:40
We found our driver and went straight to the Mtv office. There I met VJ Belinda Panelo, and the crew who’s assigned to shoot a Westlife interview for Mtv. Belinda’s really a nice girl. She’s so friendly, and the crew too. Then I only learned that I was actually going with them to the shoot. They asked me if I want to ride with them or I’ll just ask my mom to bring me to the venue. They convinced me to go there separately since the van they’re using is not that good.
12:00
We met at the hotel lobby. We headed towards the back elevator which was only used by hotel staff, special visitors, like Mtv. We didn’t see so much of Westlife yesterday probably because they were using the back elevator.
1:00
We waited for Christian Wunderlich up there in the penthouse. Fans are banned there, so some of the security kept on asking them why I’m there. Good thing the lights man of Mtv informed them about me, winning in the Mtv contest. I thought that the BMG staff were so cruel since they were really strict; but when they knew that we’re allowed there and they saw that we’re behaving well, they opened up conversations with us.
2:10
Christian Wunderlich entered the room. They shoot the interview, and after, we asked him to pose with me and my cousin for a picture. He was so nice too.
3:00
I think Westlife is scheduled to go up on 3:00 p.m. but they’re late. So we just sat there and talked to the Mtv crew and VJ Belinda. Francis, the lights man, told me and my cousin to stand up to pose for a picture with Belinda; and so we did.
4:00
Westlife came to the room. Mark came out first, and the rest followed. I was completely shocked; my jaw dropped! They hurriedly sat on the sofa to have the Mtv interview. We were asked to turn off our cell phones, not to make any noise, and not to take pictures during the shoot. So I just sat on the couch opposite to theirs, probably 4 meters away from them, and waited the shoot to finish. During the interview, Bryan and Mark kept on staring at me and my cousin, but I didn’t look at them most of the time since I was so shy! They’re probably wondering why we were allowed to be there, since we were the only fans out there. They kept on joking around, especially in between shoots. The shoot took almost 30 minutes long. When they stood, they went straight to the ASAP set to shoot an interview for ASAP. When Nicky passed by me, I handed him my gift. I almost fainted when we had an eye contact! He said, “Thank you!” as I nearly held his hand. As they prepare for the ASAP shoot, I took a pic of Nicky. When he saw me doing that, he faced towards me and said “Go on, it’s ok.” I’m so shocked that I didn’t even know what particular pose I got from him. I don’t know if I took the pic before he posed.
5:15
Everything was finished. They went straight to the elevator. As far as I remember, I took a pic of Kian and Bryan as they were leaving. When I looked to my right, Nicky waved at me holding my gift and said, “Bye!”
5:30
Me and my cousin headed towards the MRT station to go to Cubao. As we were walking down the road, she told me that Nicky actually left my gift, but he returned to get it. I was so touched ‘cause he’s so sweet. My cousin also told me that As the crew of ASAP were preparing for the interview, Nicky opened my gift and held it up. Shane smiled when he saw my gift that Nicky was holding. By the way, the gift I’m talking about is a name plate made with wood which I bought at Glorietta. It caught my attention ‘cause during that time, I was looking for a gift that I’m going to give Nicky. I was extremely glad I got the chance to hand it to him.
6:50
There were lots of people lining up outside the coliseum. They were screaming once in a while thinking that Westlife is already there.
Ok,
that’s it. I guess I have to end my long story now. The next thing that
happened is we watched the concert like most of you did! By the way, I know most
of you think that I’m very lucky to win at Mtv. I just wanna let you guys know
that I’m not that lucky at all… The only difference is I saw them up close,
I got a pic wth Nicky, and I get to watch the Mtv shoot.. and nothing more. I
don’t wanna sound like a hypocrite pretending that I didn’t have a good
time; I’m happy about everything that happened. But please don’t feel sorry
for yourself or whatever that feeling is, coz I’m not the luckiest person in
the whole world. I mean, I didn’t even get the chance to have a conversation
with them. How I wish I have an autograph too…
***Note: The time that was indicated is not that accurate since I’m not looking at my watch all the time!