BA-DEE-YA, SANA YOU REMEMBER...

...dancing (and some other cultural stuff) in September

* On Dads' day down under, and we get the hero adulation we deserve.  This is the way.

ba-dee-ya, never was a cloud (city) daaay

* At a Lady of Peñafrancia fiesta, the sunglow comes into the church perfectly, the dancers perform passionately, and a singing priest has coins magically appear at his feet

ba-dee-ya, golden dreams were shiny daaays

* At the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the whole consulate visits a Filipino's big, beautiful provocative painting...

...which as it turns out is the gallery's remaining Philippine showpiece, as the other Fil-artworks that were there have already finished their run, and new fan favorites have since taken their place

bunny-ya, nee-ya, nee-ya...

JUNE, GONE TOO SOON

So many things happen during indie month, you might miss a few gems:

EJ Obiena, call me

For that matter, Olympic committee, call them

We got you sorted too, half-time show producer

This month's Herald's gourmet food magazine confirms: the hostile Fil-food takeover is happening

There's Chair of the Standing Entertainment Committee, then there's Entertainer Standing on the Chair Committee

This gentleman's Philippine company just built Australia's largest solar farm, that is all.

A "secret" Knighting ceremony held deep beneath an old hidden dwelling gives Da Vinci Code vibes but for the cool owner, yummy sponge cake and truly huge personal lobster tank in the basement

Them: you can't wear barongs for winter.  Fil-com creatives: challenge accepted

Finally, a painter -- within the span of an accompanying theme song -- creates a multi-piece landscape that somehow works both pulled apart and put together

Voltes V legacy, so to speak

INDE-DENTIST DAY

Weekend after Independence Day usually sees the Consulate officers flying off to different exotic regions to take part and enjoy fun colorful local Fil-com celebrations, like those in... 

Wagga Wagga...

Dubbo...

Penrith...

...and, ah, my neighborhood dental association 

Yes, as you can see from the back of my head POV, my honor this June was to deliver a leadership talk at the symposium of a newly-formed group of dentists which...sure.  I mean, ok, the program called for talks on diversity and arts and even protocol and litigation, but for the life of me I wasn't sure how I could open up about periodontics, endodontics or anything else dontic. 

it was like pulling teeth

But I was a brave little boy and respectfully faced the good doctors and spoke the best that I could and, honestly, the whole event was pretty cool and interesting and everyone was fun and friendly

although I could still feel them silently judging my oral hygiene

And at the end of every speech, they gave each speaker a special commemorative souvenir. 

And do you know why the commemorative souvenir was a necklace?

BECAUSE DENTISTS WOULDN'T GIVE A SPEAKER..PLAQUE!

Thank you, thank you very much.  I'm here every six months.

trust me, Sydney dental dad-jokes don't get any better than this

YAM OFFICER

The Consulate recently welcomed Vice-Consul FC as the numerical replacement for batchmate ONE IDEAL MAIN and while her arrival put an end to me calling myself post's "Junior Officer" (which I shouldn't have been doing but I want to feel young dammit) s'all good now because VCFC immediately proved efficient and proficient at all facets of the profession particularly the cultural and public diplomacy side where this month the Consulate staged...

...some fine Filipino community recognition awards...   

...slick Fil-food socmed campaigns...

...training on our 'fits and regimens...

...and, of course, the annual purple passion project 

so no padawan in need of training, but I remain this post's 

Ube Wan Kenobi 

I ALWAYS WANTED PORCELAIN SKIN, BUT NOT LIKE THIS

I love them and they're beautiful but to be crystal clear it should be us at the Consulate who honor and acknowledge and give tokens of appreciation to the esteemed pillars of the Filipino community and not them who have to gift us with anything much less commemorative plates picturing all the recent Consul Generals and I was never even a ConGen just an AHOP and I'm blushing now

sir naman...platonic lang relationship natin

SO YOU APPARENTLY REALLY CAN'T HAVE O.V. WITHOUT COVID. OR FOR THAT MATTER V.A.R.

Y'all will recall that I got COVID last April just as our Overseas Voting was kicking off.  What I failed to mention then was that also kicking off was our World Cup-bound Women's National Football Team's training/friendlies in Sydney which I of course had to miss for everyone's health and well-being and all

reports from the field suggest the team indeed stayed fit

Fast forward to this month, and I just complete the latest regional OV training and help get the Consulate ready for the launch of the new Voter Registration campaign and, hey, look at that the Filipinas are also back in Sydney for some more training and friendlies I can't wait to see them in pers-

not the brace of positive results I was hoping for

Ok, so I have to miss out on the start of OV and the National Team's matches because of COVID again, but if that means the Filipinas will score as many goals as new voters registered, I will gladly take two for the team

in football, as in life and voter registration, the key is to score early and often