IT'S SATURDAY, I MUST BE IN PETERBOROUGH

And we're back. And off again. Briefly.

No sooner had the LLDD-Hyphen-L and I come back to the UK from our all-too-short visit to Manila did we immediately get sent off on a Valentine's Day trip to beautiful Peterborough for a FilCom event. Now Peterborough may be best known pop-culturally as the hometown of the Erasure lead singer as well as X-Factor runners-up JLS, but my loyalties will always lie with Spandau Ballet, regardless of city I'm visiting. So, Kemp and company...play us IN!

I bought a ticket to Peterborough...but then I came back again

The FilCom Event

The good fil-people of Peterborough were throwing an Induction of Officers/Valentine's Day party, and guess who was invited? That's right, me! (only after they invited the other senior embassy officers, but still). This wasn't the first time I represented the Embassy at a Filcom activity, but it was the first time the LLDD-Hyphen-L and I were ever guests of honor. Seats at the head table, big-ass lapel-ribbons, the whole shebang. I also was asked to give a welcome address, and I thought it'd be more heartfelt and sincere if I spoke extemporaneously and without notes. Why do I find it hard to write the next line, I want the truth to be said, baga. I didn't do too bad, but I still had more mmms... and aaahs... than, well, True

.

If you squint, I look as awkward on stage as Tony Hadley. And as fat.

The Town

The LLDD-Hyphen-L and I didn't get to stay in town long as we had to catch a train back to London. What little we did see was very nice, although the cold wind and rain drove us immediately into a local mall whose feel, layout and wear-and-tear made us swear we were in Harrison Plaza.

Although the DVD vendors at HP are more welcoming

The Cathedral

The undoubted star of the town center (apart from the LLDD-Hyphen-L) was Peterborough Cathedral. Perhaps not as large as others of its kind around Europe, but certainly no less stunning or historic (just like the LLDD-Hyphen-L. Har!). I was particularly thrilled to see . . .

. . . the famous and incredibly beautiful interior designs above (that gave us both vertigo and stiff necks) (which makes me wonder: if ceilings are particularly stunning, can you be floored by them? Har!) . . .

. . . and the burial sites of both Mary Queen of Scots and Katherine of Aragon (which now soorrrtttaaaaa gives me a talking point for when my dream dinner party of the LLDD-Hyphen-L, Scarlett Johansson and Natalie Portman - all wearing "The Other Boleyn Girl" costumes - finally happens.)

Hey, if just standing in front of the cathedral with can make me look like a student at Hogwarts, anything can happen, right?

Anyway, thanks for everything Peterborough. Spandau! Play us out!

With a thrill in my head, Natalie Port-uh-man

Dissolve the nerves that Johansson

Listening to Bo-leyn (all night long)

This is the sound of my soul,

This is the sound

THE FULL BALIKBAYAN

Oh no no no, we're NOT bagong bayanis by any means. The LLDD-Hyphen-L and I did, however, go "Full Balikbayan" during our quick trip back to the Philippines, and ticked off a lot of things that presumably appear on every visiting OFW's to-do list. Specifically:

TAKE CARE OF PERSONAL BIDNESS

In particular, I have to attend a continuing legal education program every three years in Manila, or else I lose the lawyer from "lame lawyer" (the lame, of course, will always remain). The session I went to was interesting, if not particularly exciting. Even the open fora saw few grandstanding panyeros, and my only source of entertainment was a lawyer seated next to me who kept on grabbing my elbow and telling me "I have 50 years of experience!" and showing me his Roll Number to prove it.

Pictured: the number of lawyers it takes to change a lightbulb

EAT!

For an ego trip, nothing beats coming home after months of being away and have everyone tell you "pumayat ka". The polite answer to that, of course, is "hindi naman" (with hand wave). The more accurate response, however, is "eh paano, ang mahal mahal ng pagkain sa London!!" It was no surprise then that literally every day during our stay in Manila, the LLDD-Hyphen-L and I gorged on food in amounts unseen in the UK, and immediately gained back all the weight previously lost.

In our defense, there was no such thing as Sisig Carbonara the last time we were here.

HAVE FAMILY REUNIONS

You may think, "ang arte mo naman, wala ka pang isang taon nawala, pa-family family reunion ka pa". Actually, the reunions were significant, as there were family members who weren't even born yet while I was away. This was therefore my first time to see them and joyfully hold them in my arms.

Not that the feeling was mutual

VISIT A DENTIST

Well score one for medical tourism! The thing about Philippine dentists is - not only are they good, not only are they (substantially) less expensive - they are everywhere! So when I needed to go to a dentist for my...um...five year check-up, and the LLDD-Hyphen-L needed to see one for an emergency filling, it was literally a walk in the mall for us. We saw a practice's sign in Glorietta, strolled right in and sat right down. The ease of it all made us actually welcome the high-pitched wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiyyyeeeeeeeeeee sound of the dentist's drill.

BRING IT!!!

SHOP! SHOP! SHOP!

By my estimate, we pumped in over P100,000,000 into the Philippine economy during our short visit here (and that was just on the LLDD-Hyphen-L's shoes! haaaaaaaaaahahahahahaha!). But seriously, with all the great bargains and climate-controlled malls, there were just a lot of shopping sprees to be made. You name it, we bought it: clothes, bags, ties, toiletries, clocks, snacks, accessories, filipiniana, even a high-definition camera.

You know those stories of people buying cameras or phones online and finding pictures of classified documents in them? Not sure why, but ours came pre-loaded with Showee and Metro Manila Filmfest parade pics.

AND FINALLY....DATE A HOT COLEGIALA

Kidding! Actually, not date -- be married to. And not just to a colegiala, but a newly minted MBA (Master of Bad Assery). Yes folks, the LLDD-Hyphen-L completed her grad studies, received her diploma, and is now certified at Moira MacTaggert-level. That is to say hot, smart and married to a mutant.

If only her not-as-smart-husband could figure out how to set the exposure on their new camera

IT'S LIKE WE NEVER LEFT

Yes kiddies, it's that time of the year again when the batch tries to gather everyone for a group picture, a.k.a, cat herding. We've had some success in the past years, especially when many of us were still at the home office, but now that 90% of the batch is at post -- fuhgeddaboutit. This myfacester craze on the interweb that the kids are talking about has helped us come together somewhat, and every year there still seems to be a healthy debate within the batch as to what the "theme" of the photos should be. Trouble is, everyone now appears to be so engrossed with Farmvi...er, busy at work that the pictures sent in from supposedly far-off and exotic posts - how shall we put this - LOOK LIKE THEY WERE JUST TAKEN AT OUR PASAY OFFICES FIVE YEARS YEARS AGO!

(AND NO, I'M NOT SAYING WE LOOK LIKE WE HAVEN'T AGED!!!)

Thus:

Where the Picture was Supposedly Taken - San Francisco

Where I Think it was Actually Taken -

A model unit for condominuim development along Roxas Boulevard (complete with overly-aggressive saleslady)

Where the Picture was Supposedly Taken - Vancouver

Where I Think it was Actually Taken -

The Home Office Passport section (when you need the right shade of royal blue background)

Where the Picture was Supposedly Taken - Madrid
Where I Think It was Actually Taken -

With affidavit in hand and enticing look in the eye, like at one of the "mixer" places along Libertad.

Where the Photo was Supposedly Taken - Dubai

Where I think it was Actually Taken -

The home office roof deck, the one that overlooks Ms. Universal (if you know my batchmate above, you know this to be probably true)



Where the Photo was Supposedly Taken - Singapore

Where I think the Photo was Actually Taken -

That...ahem...drive-in...um..."establishment" across the "mixers" along Libertad.

I mean, where's the effort?! Where's the imagination?! Where are the freakin' landmarks!!!! Did anyone even bother to step outside?!? Must it be left to me again to show you how a location shoot is done!?!

Where the Picture was Supposedly Taken - London

Where the Picture was Actually Taken -

...er....the conference room at my old office in Pasay, together with the only remaining un-posted batchmates.

(did I fail to mention I'm in Manila right now? I thought the foreshadowing alert from the previous blogpost took care of that.)

So...um...yeah!! Great work, batch! Wonderful pics once more! Let's do this again next year! And let our theme then be "office pantries", or something exotic like that.