I’m guilty of failing to update my blog for almost a year now, while I have time best to record things before I forget. “ The moment when it hit me on what I had done, was when I was standing at central court of the arena (Araneta coliseum) I grew up watching games in this venue (TV and live) as a boy. I never thought I would ever be standing on central court. Both teams me representing the NZ Saints and my friend from Gilas (Dex their physio) were at central court overseeing the team’s warm-ups. I said to Dex, this is a dream, this is the 1st time I’ve been at central court in Araneta, he laughed , sir- ikaw na lang mag tayo ditto.
One of the things fans were most anticipating was the New Zealand team doing the haka, coach Tab prior to game asked , are you guys doing the Haka? I nodded yes. I never really appreciated the Haka prior to this, but when my team did the haka a sense of realisation hit me, that these guys on this team really wanted to be here, and were pulling for one another (Forming this team took a lot , but I’ll leave that story for another day). Then after the Haka the Philippine national anthem was played and then we met for the traditional hand shake at the middle of the court. This was weird , I met and shook Tab’s hand at central court and we both laughed at how ironic this was, cause here was I a Filipino representing a New Zealand team and here was Tab a Kiwi representing the Philippines.
The day before prior to our game yesterday I was approached by the TV courtside reporter for an interview, in the back of mind I was thinking is this really happening? Then sometime during the 2nd and 3rd quarter a camera man focuses on me and follows me all over. (you take these things for granted when you watch TV) but it's so uncomfortable when a camera is a foot away from your face. I didn't know if I should smile and pose or wave of the camera man not to follow me.
The whole experience was like a dream
So many more stories to tell , hope i find time to write stuff
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