(Epilogue: Straight from the U.P. gathering, we all head across the city to watch an original musical based on Rizal's Cabesang Tales. Now, because of the play's late start time, length, and serious subject matter, I wondered whether the LLDD-Baby would be able to appreciate the whole performance. Hah! By the climactic end, the kid was standing on her chair and tearing up and throwing the cedula that came with the program. And on the ride home, she was all "Dada, it wasn't right that they took his land because they weren't the ones who worked on it!")
Just attended the Australian foreign office's "Consular State of Play" briefing (which is their awesome way of calling the year-end report of all consular cases handled by Aussie foreign service posts around the world). There's a lot of sound advice to be had in the report for tourists of any country (get travel insurance! follow local laws!), as well as interesting data on the amount and kind of cases embassies and consulates have to face. For this briefing, they presented a couple of case studies from Thailand to serve as cautionary tales for the travelling instagrammin' throngs (I repeat: GET TRAVEL INSURANCE. FOLLOW LOCAL LAWS). All of this info later led me to stumble upon a recent online article describing some of the "many bizarre, and often serious requests our (Australian) consular officials contend with (in Thailand) every day."
Go on then.
Not bad. And that's just from one country. Oi, didn't the British foreign office also keep a list of this sort of thing? Yes, they did! I wonder if the Aussies also have a global greatest hits compilation? Yes they do!
Palm Beach of Sydney is not to be confused with Palm Beach of Gold Coast which is not to be confused with Palm Beach of Florida. Indeed, Palm Beach (of Sydney) is actually more than an hour's drive from the city (of Sydney), has fewer tourist facilities, shops and restos than other featured beachwatches (of Sydney), and is better enjoyed as part of an gorgeous day trip (from Sydney) rather than as a final glam destination (of Florida).
So you can get your road trip on and sightsee via...um...somewhere (around Sydney)
we had been failed by GPS and were lost at this point
...arrive (eventually) at Palm Beach (of Sydney) and chill
dabbing still a thing in these parts
...cross over to the other beach of Palm Beach (of Sydney) and make the trek up Barrenjoey Head...
tip: it's a long, slow walk up and down the steep rocky paths until you realize you've put in too little in the parking meter back at the beach parking lot at which point the round trip suddenly becomes a brisk scamper
...and, finally, explore Barrenjoey Lighthouse up top
where the view - as the Lighthouse Family joke - was gold
Oi, how time flies! It's already been a year since the last Philippine Pasko Festival in Sydney, and 2018's version is now upon us! Ang saya! Now I won't anymore get into the barriometric ratings of this year's festival - suffice it to say it still ticked all the boxes - and I'll just head straight into the highlight reel
(bago mahanap pa ako ng mga inaanak)
* the Pinoy avant garde dance group that kicked off the official ceremonies was 🔥
* a kid band with a three-song repertoire rocked out the morning program playing said three-song repertoire over and over and over...and it too was 🔥
* for the first time in the festival's history, they staged: a parol-making contest (made up of recycled materials); a Filipiniana fashion show (featuring "Golden" models); and a chorale competition (that literally made passers-by stop in their tracks and head to the stage and feel the birit)
* the lechon food stalls and their funny names came out in force
* and they all served well into the evening which was a good thing because that same night there was a concert at the adjoining theater by a band whose fans, shall we say, had a constant hankering for stuff to munch
* it's a Christmas tradition at this point: for the third year in a row, tributes just showed up, hung around and performed off-schedule.
* the LLDD-baby won a prize at a kiddie on-the-spot drawing contest and it had nothing to do with the fact that it was the Consulate that organized and staged the contest I swear
* ONE MAIN IDEAL and I inadvertently get into a "Who wore the modern Filipiniana Better?" face-off (shout out Anthill)
* and finally...I do my part in advancing Philippine-Australian-German Christmas relations
so on the day #UPwins, kid got #woke
