Ah, June. When in the spring a young Philippine FSO's fancy desk job lightly turns to thoughts of a British dry cleaner ruining the barongs he brought for all the Independence Month cultural activites.
And there were a lot of them.
Salo-Salo Together
June kicks off with a simple but meaningful Thanksgiving Mass and Salo-Salo with the London FilCom. It's a chance to reflect and to stop and smell the roses after such an eventful year in our history.
The LLDD-Hyphen-L is caught being unironic again
Let's Have Some More Vin!
I've made enough posts about Vin d'Honneurs and Receptions in the past that you should have a good feel for them by now. What I think I've under-reported is the impact of the Filipiniana everyone wears to the occasions - they quite simply steal the show. They are just so elegant and beautiful that it's impossible to take a bad picture in them.
And believe me, we tried.
By the way, when I said it's impossible to take a bad picture in Filipiniana, I didn't mean...oh never mind
A newly formed theatre group made up of UK-based Pinoys staged an award-winning play about living abroad. Highlights included one character bursting out of a Balikbayan Box holding a can of Spam, another one walking around in a leather catsuit, and a couple of others playing married diplomats who affectionately call each other Milky Way and Big Dipper. My question: how did the writer know what the LLDD-Hyphen-L and I do on weekends?
Launch One! Launch Two!
In quick succession, there were two London book launchings by Filipino authors. The first launch (above) had a weighty, intellectual feel to it. The book itself was positively reviewed by the British media, but its socio-economic-political commentary was something I already dealt with at work everyday. No, my personal Fil-Brit lit-fix was met by a different set of criteria:
One - Was the book launched in the Children's section of a bookstore with a fun, catchy sing-along?
Check.
Two - Did the book's front cover feature an 8-ft. tall Filipino basketball-loving boy, and the word "Philippines" on the back cover?
Check.
Three - Did the book have a catchphrase that I wish I used as my high school yearbook quote?
"So many armpits, so little deodorant". Major check.
Art-eh Mo
In what now has become an annual event, several young artists were brought over from the Philippines to tour Europe, showcase their talent, and maybe even sell a few of their works. Now, as I've mentioned several times before, I'm not really an artsy person, but I do know what I like.
Mainly, what the artist and the LLDD-Hyphen-L tell me I should like. They had to take turns explaining to me why the painting we bought above is called "Plaza Mayor."
The LLDD-Hyphen-L attended a fashion show featuring a young Filipina designer who incorporates a lot of native materials into her pieces.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!", every husband out there who just read the foregoing cries out. "You don't take your wife to any event where there are fashion models, you just don't!! Are you insane?! Nothing good can possibly come of this!!!"
Pish-posh, my good men. You underestimate the innate hotness of the LLDD-Hyphen-L. She more than held her own in the presence of the walking mannequins. If anything, I couldn't keep my eyes off her.
Not the least because her dress was slinky and had our baselines law embroidered on it.
Because - ooooh, baby - nothing is sexier to a Philippine diplomat than a cocktail dress that extols the archipelagic doctrine.
Filipiniana gowns whose skirts suddenly unfurl into "Mabuhay" banners come in a close second
Ang Magandang Laro
My idols at Philippine Generations (the Fil-Brit youth organization that I like because, you know, I'm so youth) outdid themselves again by holding a great Philippine Independence Day World Cup. The tournament featured 16 teams named after Philippine geographic locations (Manila Ice! Inter-Laguna!), and had all the trappings of a quality competition, such as high-intensity football (above)...
...heated arguments with the ref...
...players from England missing penalties...
...a former Miss Saigon singing Bayan Ko during the awarding ceremonies (ok, maybe not all football tournaments have this)...
...a total dork of a bureaucrat who can never get right when he should be hanging the medal and when he should be shaking the player's hand...
...and, of course, a WAG who immediately seeks out the best player.
And Finally...We Put the "Bad" in Badminton
Members of the Embassy had the audacity to join happily took part in an ASEAN badminton tournament. We fought gamely (and looked damn cool in our archipelagic doctrine shirts) and actually won all of our first round matches against Singapore, before most of us had our asses whipped by the teams from Thailand and Malaysia.
The look of poor technique
"Most of you?" the LLDD-Hyphen-L asks. "So there was actually one Philippine entry that did well? One ladies-doubles team that went undefeated throughout the tournament?"
Lemme check.
(Oh, no)
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It's gonna be like this all the way 'til next June
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