PRES-CRED MEETS STREET CRED

You know it's not another typical day at work when the morning's office memo reads, "Buy five pounds of carrots. For the horses."

Ok then. Horses at the Embassy can only mean two things: 1) it must be Presentation of Credentials day; and 2) for the love of your Guccis, watch where you step out front!

Every country, of course, has its own ceremony for formally accepting another country's Ambassador, and I'm sure each is lovely and meaningful in its own right. But it's seriously hard to imagine that any place can top the pomp and pageantry of a UK press cred. I mean, you get "collected" by a Marshal in a pointy hat (with feathers!). You get to go to the Palace. You get to go meet the Queen.

Plus, this is how you roll.

It was such a spectacle, tourists from Trafalgar Square flocked to the Embassy and surrounded the carriages (ha! nagpi-picture picture rin kayo!). And as the Philippine Embassy officials boarded the carriages and were driven down the streets of London, one of the tourists insightfully remarked "but, they don't look British!"

Um, yeah. Quite.

This has nothing to do with the Press Cred. This is really how we dress for work everyday.

Yep, nothing but the finest Filipiniana for everyone. Even if it was freezing cold outside, nobody would be caught wearing western dark business suits on a day like toda...

What the hell, guys?!!



"...Rollin' in my deuce deuce 5. Convertible top down so I can see the honeys passin' me by..."




Funnily enough, this woman's husband name is "Bobby".

(Get it? Bobby? Ah, what do you know, tourists)

You could spend a whole day coming up with "Craptions" for these photos. Let's try a few:

• "Horse vs. Man staring contest, who ya got?"
• "No, no, no....you're NOT supposed to look the gift horse in the mouth"
• "I've been waiting here for hours. Where have you been? Look at me when I'm talking to you! LOOK AT ME!!!"
• "Look, if you're gonna be a horse whisperer, you're gonna have to come much closer."

I served as emcee at the subsequent Vin D'Honneur, although it took a while before anyone noticed I was at the podium talking.

Still waiting, people.




But all in all, a truly memorable day. We even gathered the entire Embassy to capture the moment for posterity. The problem with these things, though, there are so many cameras going off at the same time, it's impossible to keep track of who's still shooting, and whether or not you're still part of anyone's frame. The result . . .

...is captured for posterity.
Jeez, the horses look better than I do.