Hi everyone!

It was an absurd concept to begin with - David Cook shopping in a mall minutes before he went to the meet and greet at the SM Ampitheater, while the world watches...

I was lucky my husband loves me so much to indulge my request to take me there , you know, just to see what is going to happen. After promising him I won't leave him for David (LOL), he gamely prepared his camera and really sweated it out to take photos in a very crazy and absurd situation. People screaming his name; people freak out for every move he makes. All ages were there - teen-agers are the majority, both male and female ; young children being carried by their parents so that they won't get crushed. There was a father- daughter behind me (5 year old), dad was reassuring daughter that she will see him. Awww!

As much as 50 or more security people guarded him. Wherever he enters a shop, a dozen guards block the entrance while people watch him from outside while the other guards try to manuever the crowds to create a pathway to the next store by linking their arms.

First, he went to the Filipino souviner shop "Kultura Filipino." The sales ladies were dancing a bastardized version of a Filipino dance in their mall uniforms while he looks at various arts and crafts. Think of the king in the King and I where attendants dance while he does mundane things - it was surreal. Then he went to a clothing store Aldo where he had to cross the lobby inside the cordon of security. His final stop was the Guess store. If he bought anything, nobody knows. Unless he just pointed out what he items he liked and the mall will just deliver it to him later on.

Then he had to cross the bridge that will take him to the ampitheater for the M&G. In this very hot bridge waits around 500-800 people waiting for an hour for him to cross in less than a minute. This part was very funny, there so many false alarms of him coming, it was really exhausting!

Was it worth the trouble? An emphatic YES from a fan who has no assurance of seeing him up close on Saturday! (Full disclosure: my family has the nosebleed tickets for Saturday because money is tight these days.We will hear him and only see him in the jumbotron.) For a few seconds, you are assured he is real. I distinctly remember him looking up to the floors above the lobby where people gather just to see him, even from a distance. I don't know what went on in his mind but I suspect this day must ranked up with his list of absurd things in his life.

Photos here: http://s640.photobucket.com/albums/uu127/ladypeace67/