SOME MIND BLOWING "ADJUSTMENT BUREAU"-LIKE STUFF JUST WENT DOWN

(alternate title: "It's Been A While Since I Last Linked Myself to Matt Damon")

Follow me down this rabbit hole, if you dare.

1) Out of the blue, a London daily publishes an article singing the praises of a spa resort in Palawan.

2) By complete coincidence, the night before that paper came out, the Embassy hosted the launch of a children's fantasy book that was set in and inspired by the author's stay at the very same island featured in the article.

3) Unbeknownst to us, one of the visitors at the book launch that night was a Filipina-British actress . . .

4) . . . famous for playing a Filipina-British nurse on a popular drama series . . .

5) . . . whose first 0:15 seconds of dialogue might sound familiar, because a certain blogger wrote the following over a year ago:

DAY TWO* getting several media inquiries about the events, but nothing matches a bbc call from a while back. the producers of the drama "holby city" phoned me to ask what's tagalog for "lots of love". apparently a pinoy character was calling home and that was her goodbye. i struggled for a minute (you try it!) and just said the closest thing we got was "ingat" or "mahal ko kayo". it was either that or the jologs "love lots".

6) . . . a blogger that in his dreams bears a striking resemblance to the star of a just-released fate/coincidence/cause/effect-themed movie described as " 'Bourne' meets 'Inception' "

I just "Bureau"-ed your mind.

SECOND ANNIVERSARY NA NAMIN 'TO CHONG

For those of you keeping track, you know that the LLDD-Hyphen-L and I mark the 2nd year of our wedded bliss right about this time of the year. (actually, if you've been keeping track of that....Stop it! Stop it right NOW! IT'S CREEPY!!!) So what's the secret to enduring happiness? Well, if you get the 80s reference in this post's title, you'll get that marriage is all about compromise -- especially come anniversary time. For our own weekend celebrations, for instance, the LLDD-Hyphen-L and I....

Watched something that only the Husband could possibly have enjoyed:

more than qualifies

Did some things both the Husband and Wife thoroughly liked:

To wit, dinner at Jamie Oliver's Italian restaurant. . .

note: compromise doesn't include the wife sharing the Jamie Oliver dessert with you

. . . then the award winning and critically acclaimed play Clybourne Park, a squirm-in-your-seat comedy of the highest "Oh no, s/he did NOT just say THAT!" order. (particularly watch out for the devastating "How is a [certain demographic] like a [certain hygiene product]" line.

for added fun, look around you as that line is delivered and observe which groups seem deeply offended and which groups appear to be wetting their pants in laughter.

And lastly, tried something that in a MILLION years only the Wife would have thought of:

how can something so wrong feel so.....WRONG

As if to affirm the trials the LLDD-Hyphen-L went through, the BBC soon reported that playing footsie with Nemo might not be the best thing out there. Did I mention the place offers similar therapies for the whole body? Um, yeah, they do.

Needless to state, for next year's anniversary weekend, we won't be ordering the fish at Jamie's.