leerenah

The day that Bench announced that Didi was the newest ambassador for Bench, I knew that sooner or later he would be coming. Months have passed, he was busy filming Ever Night 2, endorsements, photoshoots, Super Penguin, plus a new drama again. Didn’t think he would come anytime soon.

I was in the middle of my Eurotrip, in Amsterdam, specifically, when Bench dropped the bomb of Didi coming. Holy mother of surprises! This was it! It was morning when I checked the news, and I was literally floating the whole day! I had to be a VIP!

The VIP had 100 seats only, and it included a meet and greet! To become a VIP, I had to buy 20k worth of Bench products at their BGC flagship store for just 3 days, July 5-7. It was too sudden, the scheduled fanmeet would be July 20. I would be returning the night of July 6, and for sure good seats were already taken by then. So I asked my sister to shop for me on the first hours of the first day, so I could get a good seat.

I also booked a stay at Novotel Araneta, as I wasn’t sure if my baby would still breastfeed when I get back. Plus, I knew that parking at Araneta during concerts could get crazy, I did not want to waste too much time and energy. I’d rather waste it on the fanmeet.🤪

I was both nervous and excited on D-day! The last time I went to a fanmeet was 2012, and thought at that time I wouldn’t have another energy to fangirl that way again. But here I was again, fangirling to the best of my aging ability!😆

It was a 1 hour fanmeet, which included Q&A, games for lucky fans, and the poster signing for VIPs. I was a little dismayed with how the meet & greet turned out. I thought it would be after the show, where the VIPs stay behind, just like any other meet & greet. But it was included in the program, we all had to line up on stage to get our posters signed by Didi himself.

Oh Didi, if I was not entranced by his presence, our eyes connected as he smiled while he gave me the poster that he signed in front of me, which btw, I was caught in photo smiling from ear to ear I would not forgive the organizers of this fanmeet. Sigh.

Bench failed to disclose the mechanics of the meet & greet, so a lot of expectations were not met. We were expecting a proper meet & greet, have photo ops one by one, maybe some hi’s and hello’s. The bouncers and other security persons on stage were very strict about no phones and always almost pushed us to leave after getting the posters. The seating arrangement of the VIPs were bad too. Two bouncers were in the way of my vantage point my sister picked a bad seat, darn it. And the lucky fans who got to play with Didi on stage were not picked from VIPs as well.

Overall, though I was not fully satisfied with how it went, I honestly did enjoy. Not sure when I would be seeing him again, so its more than enough for me, really. Btw, Didi had a suprise rap while his song played over the coliseum, which was totally not part of the program, the host said. I was also expecting just 1 song from him I also met a nice youngster, my seatmate, and we’re already friends on FB. Also met several people on Viber group, who shared the same fangirling sentiments as mine.

Thank you Bench for bringing Didi to us! I hope its better next time Fangirl dream unlocked! Until your next fanmeet Didi! Or see you again somewhere in China 🥰