HAVE A DAY, DFA!

The Department's anniversary used to be celebrated with an all-hands gathering of personnel at our huge auditorium, a long program of speeches/awards/performances, and - if we were lucky - a huge-ass delivery from Jollibee Libertad. Now you'd think with the current community quarantine and everything, the DFA wouldn't be able to stage anything this year -- but they did! Virtually! With all of the ceremony and significance, just none of the Jollibee. Understandable! And very well done! Plus, the thing was livestreamed to all the Foreign Service Posts around the world.

 leading to "do we wear filipiniana while we watch" discussions around the world

Highlights!

1:45 - The music beat dropping in time with the countdown clock then breaking into a hype reel is some NBA playoffs starting-five intro video level. That's also some 1917-level tracking shot of my old parking lot-to-auditorium path.   

4:18 - Speaking of the auditorium, they used its trippy ceiling light fixture as image placeholder. As well they should.  

7:15 - Group shot of the Department's senior officials. They take online direction well.

36:18 - Recognition of Loyalty Awardees, i.e., those who've been in the foreign service for many, many years. Included in the 40-years of service group is a batchmate who became an officer well into his career, which leaves the rest of the batch teeming with pride as well as apprehension everyone will think we're all the same age. 

  

50:28 - Speaking of being proud, one of the cited Outstanding Employees of the department is a former staff of mine at my old office.  I take no credit for her skills and success, but do wish to point out that our unit also had personnel named Grace, Hope and Star and it was my idea to have our office Christmas card just be a picture of all of them with the caption "Get it? Get it?" 

57:58 - First intermission number! Brought to you by the latest batch of FSOs, Batch...(checks program)... XXVII?!?. Good Lord, there have been over a dozen batches of officers since mine already?!!! I feel so old. Not 40-years of service batchmate old, but still, old.  Anyhoo, out of this latest batch, a crowd favorite emerges online

1:03:09 - Second intermission number! An original composition by our Regional Consular Office in Tacloban! This joint slaps!

1:18:10 - Special Citation to Foreign Service Posts for their repatriation efforts. Whassup, Sydney! And everyone else!

1:26:27 -  Essay reading from an accomplished/awarded FSO writer. She speaks her truths on the paradoxes of foreign service life.  The Constant Gardener and Office Concierge shout-outs speak to me.

    

1:34:02 - Next intermission number! A cool music video from members of the more senior and experienced Batch IX. Where other FSO batches are still notetakers, this batch is already Point-To-and-Hit-the-High-Note breakers.     

 

1:40:50 - Whoa. The Special Awards for Achievements in Other Fields section features some truly prolific writers and authors, as well as a freakin' gold-medal winning fencer!

And here I sit, on my couch, blogging about Star Wars and Fantasy Sports. 

Anyway, great job, production crew.  I'd edit me for time, too.

BATCH PICTURE-PICTURE 2017: WE'RE NOT EVEN TRYING ANYMORE

So I wanted to get gassed up after lunch...sorry, let me try that again. One lunchbreak, I wanted to eat out and afterwards re-fuel my automobile. So I sent a casual invite to any batchmates straggling at the home-office who wanted to join me. A grand total of four were available which, workload and foreign assignments considered, was about all we could hope for. Anyway, as we were driving, one of us remarked "'di ba ngayon tayo nagba-batch picture-picture?"

And so it came to pass at a Macapagal intersection:

No theme, no backdrop, no nothing. And the batch at half-strength.

And yet...not bad. 

Still, I'm sure it would have been an even better picture if everyone based in the home-office was around.

there you go

PICS OR IT DIDN'T CONFIRM

As any lame law student can tell you, appointments to certain government positions also require congressional confirmation. So when our batch got the call to be confirmed after our last promotion, we duly readied ourselves as best we could -- but also acknowledged we never went through anything like this in our careers before and didn't quite know what to expect. Some lessons learned:

1) Not everyone gets to go right away -- The confirmation documentary requirements are substantial, and the rules and timelines are tight. While all of us in the batch worked hard to comply, a few got held up in technicalities and unfortunately weren't included in the initial list of confirmees. This led one batchmate to poignantly post in real-time something along the lines of "I'm watching your confirmation on TV while I'm back here at the office working, I'm happy for you" 

#confirmationhugot

2) Yet there will still be a LOT of people at the hearing -- People up for confirmation can span the entire government system, and while the hearings are done en masse, everyone in attendance will still get their names called and be individually asked to stand up. If your hearing happens to include the military branch, prepare to wait behind hundreds of newly-promoted officers from the backbenches.

as in, waaaay back

3) It's hard to get a decent picture out of it -- Let's start with the fact that as newbies to the confirmation ceremony, my batch didn't realize that we would regularly get caught on-camera/in-frame gazing at the more senior officers called ahead of us, leading to some inadvertent dopey facial expression photobombs on our part...like "mmm, I wonder where sir got his barong?"...

or, "I'm hungry, what's for lunch?"...

or "zzzzzz."

I wasn't asleep of course, the photo just goofily caught me mid-blink. But even when it was my turn to be called up, I was so overwhelmed by the significance of the moment I couldn't come up with a better look.

Yes, there was still a chance for a group photo-op at the end, but those military-types move quick and don't let anything stand in their way.

So you just have to be patient, and soon enough there'll be a nice, clear, unobstructed shot of you.

or not

A CHOIR TASTE

So the Batch was approaching the 10th anniversary of its group picture-picture, but rather than it feel like some unmissable momentous occasion, we found ourselves having a hard time agreeing on a time and a place, coming up with a suitable theme, or otherwise motivating ourselves to show up for the thing.

Meanwhile, the Department PA system crackled with the following: "The Loboc Children's Choir will be performing at 3:30 this afternoon at the Department auditorium.  This show is brought to you by Oishi. Snacks will be served."

Well, then.

Time / place /  theme / motivation?  All solved by snacks!

And by a freakin' awesome choir.

O wow, talaga!

PREVIOUSLY, ON ADMIN . . . (JANUARY)

ADMIN HIGHLIGHT-OF-THE-MONTH

After video review, the III has been ruled a II.

my foot was on the line

Yep yep, me and my batchmates were all duly promoted last January by the Department to the next higher rank, enabling us to knock one roman numeral off our FSO titles, call ourselves "Second Secretaries" rather than "the Third Secs", and make all the obligatory "Wala na akong Vice!" jokes with respect to our "Consul" tags. The pun implications of the promotion were truly significant.

It should have been a more joyous occasion for me, except at the time the promotion only served to reinforce my office concierge role, which in turn kept me so busy I wasn't even able to join the scheduled batch annual picture-picture.  Fortunately (or unfortunately), most everyone else in the Batch was also swamped with work, with only one guy able to take part, and behold his contribution to this year's chosen theme "Celebrate our Promotion - Jump Shot!"

we're getting old

LLDD-HYPHEN-L / LLDD-BABY / LONDON LIVING HIGHLIGHT-OF-THE-MONTH

Never too young to be a fashionista, the LLDD-Hyphen-L always says.  So despite the freezing cold, the LLDD-Baby and I were bundled off to the Royal V & A Museum to see a special exhibition of some world famous dresses and ball gowns.  

Hm..? No, wala namam akong atraso sa LLDD-Hyphen-L when we went.  Why do you ask?

I have the same smile whenever I choose pizza toppings

The joke was on the LLDD-Hyphen-L, however, as the LLDD-Baby slept through the entire exhibit, and then woke up to, of all things, a strange flash-mob of people in full pirate regalia.  The LLDD-Baby probably now thinks the LLDD-Hyphen-L's fashion taste skews towards heavy eyeliner, skin-tight corsets and other apparatuses that push things "up"

No, baby.  That's what Dada wants Mama's wardrobe to skew towards.  

Wench, please.

         

MEME-ORIES, LIGHT THE CORNERS OF MY MIND. MESSY WATER COOLER MEME-ORIES....

While I've long advocated that the batch's annual around-the-world picture-picture should take place outdoors so that we can actually see what things look like, you know, around the world, I won't complain about this year's office mess meme-theme. It warmed my heart to see rooms were shambolic everywhere, and the corresponding crossfire comments on Facebook were sufficiently sarcastic and/or self-loathing to make me feel much better about my own squalor. Thanks, Batch!

Madrid

"My desk looks 'busy' because I haven't filed anything since 2011"
"Malamig? No heater?"

Singapore

"It is not my fault that IKEA had a pink-and-purple color theme going on the last time I went shopping for office decor."
"Ask your staff to give you folders only in purple"

San Francisco

"how does he get into his desk?"

"Pareho kami ng tanong. The answer: MAGIC!"

‎"With style. Always with style."

"Nagpose lang"

"I have to say - ang payat mo na. Nakakainis ka. Wag ka tatabi sa akin."

"I was more concerned about my pimple rather than what my desk looks like"

Canberra

"he looks serious"

"I've found that babies in the office are very useful for stamp and envelope moistening"

"With him at work, I have mastered how to type with one hand. Next time I rapporteur, I can bring him along."

"He hasn't aged a day (damn him)"

Islamabad

"Plantsadong plantsadong si mister. Wacky shot naman dyan!"

"Mahirap nang magpakuha ng wacky shot. Baka di na ako igalang ng local hire namin"

Vancouver

(no comments posted yet, but I would say that blue folder just plain gave up and burst its guts out)

Agana

"anlinis o!"

"totoo ba yan?"

"Maximalist painting! I remembered something from cadetship!"

Hong Kong

"I can understand the masks and the Palawan pic but a chicken on your desk??? what the.."

Dubai

"I am scarred by the thought that he actually has a Jacuzzi in his bathroom"

"I thought you were going to pose IN the jacuzzi"

"It's a picture of a bathtub, yet i feel so...dirty"

Athens (newly assigned batchmate first reporting for duty that day)

"Amoy pintura pa ba?"

London

"Because my desk's too messy to Plank, and because I want to see our Dubai batchmate Leisure Dive into his office jacuzzi"

O, 'di-Bow? Sa uulitin batch!