WHERE'S COTSWOLD?

We got a chance last weekend to take a day trip outside London to the Cotswolds, an area so quintessentially English, you get an accent just by passing through it. Heck, most of the town and village names either sound like they're straight out of Middle Earth or else follow that unique "Name-Preposition-Geographic Feature" style that so stiff upper lipped-cool: Bourton-on-the-Water, Moreton-in-Marsh, Wotton-under-Edge, Stow-on-the-Wold, Shipton-under-Wychwood, Scotch-on-the-Rocks, Home-on-the-Range, Lovers-in-Paris, LLDD-Hyphen-L...

OK, I made some of those up.

Anyway, here's a sampling. The full gallery can be seen at free-account-upon-the-flickr

Bibury

The sign on the left reads "Historic Church & Toilets". Umm, I'm up for visiting a historic church, but that other one...

Bourton-on-the-Water

I'm happy for Janine and Sandra.

Stow-on-the-Wold

The local council did not take kindly to all my preposition-hyphen town name jokes

Broadway

Cotswolds, you're beautiful, but your tourism authority really needs to rethink its souvenirs.

AWESOME, STUDES!

For the past five years or so, the Embassy has been hosting a Christmas/New Year's party for Filipino students, yuppies and second generation Fil-Brits in the UK. It's a happy gathering, made depressing only by the fact you often find yourself to be the oldest/least attractive one in the room. Still, you can't help but be impressed by the staggering talent and educational accomplishment assembled. It was freezing outside, but there were a thousand degrees inside the embassy!

No, your eyes do not deceive you -- that is the King Azkal himself, Neil Etheridge, making an appearance at the end of the video. He was a really nice guy who made time for the party despite, he said, having to fly out of the UK shortly to play a national team match in Bacolod.

To which the LLDD-Hyphen-L replied, "Uuwi ka pa lang Pilipinas, Neil? Pwedeng may pasalubong?"

And with all the PhDs and sopranos and stud athletes present, it was only proper that the Embassy gave me a role at the party truly befitting my own professional, artistic and physical capacity.

mike stand!