Wednesday 27 July, 2005 - a bit sad

I have had a request to change the template of this as a certain somebody (who I will refrain from naming!) has said that white on black is too difficult for her old eyes! So I will go play with the other templates and change it over in the next day or so. Pity - I like the black and white - thought it was simple and neat. Anyway...

Well - I am sad today because one of the other AYADs, Anita, from Perth, is going home tomorrow. She arrived in September last year (is from the intake prior to mine) so has been here 9-10 months. She works very near me so we have lunch together quite a bit and have discovered that we have quite a bit in common, especially taste in music (was very excited to hear that her boyfriend was the guitarist in a band I really like, although no Nancy, I didn't do a repeat of my Maine histrionics of 1999!!) She was the person who introduced me to Cafe Saguijo - my favourite place to hang out - a live music club that specialises in promoting independent and alternative music in Manila. We are starting to discover some of the great indie music around Manila and this club has helped with that a lot - starting to have some faves and see some trends. You can check it out if you want at http://www.saguijo.com/index.php

So we had a long weekend here, courtesy of the President's State of the Nation Address (which I didn't watch but apparently was pretty uninteresting and interrupted 43 times for massive appluause - she certainly had the room stacked with her rent-a-crowd). There were supposed to be huge rallies - I am not actually sure how many people turned out. I must confess, I just can't be bothered following it at the moment (evil girl!) One of the biggest things that GMA (the president) is pushing for is Charter Change (called Cha Cha - which is very confusing to a Philippines political novice - they seem to keep talking about a dance!) There is a big move around to try to solve the Philippines endless political crises by switching to a constitutional assembly (I think!) with a parliamentary system that, from what I can gather, would more closely represent the Westiminster system than the current, more American style system. Anyway - GMA kept pushing this in her SONA as well as talking about the two Philippines!! (I think if you are not with her, you are against her!!)

Anyway - off politics because I am a bit sick of it all. Other long weekend stuff. Ange and I sat through Ray, which we both decided had been overhyped and massively overstretched (I was getting annoyed with it because I just couldn't understand half of what they were saying and the wretched thing just kept going and going and going - it was like the Neverending Story, except incomprehensible! (and if anyone is tempted to make the inevitable comparison to my blog entries...just don't go there, okay!) We also went to the ballet, which was an eye opener. There is a world of difference between ballet in Oz (and other Western countries) and ballet here. I remember reading an article on the artistic director of the Philippines National Ballet who returned here earlier this year after 20 years abroad. He was talking about the challenges of ballet here, and how the dancers make so little that they have to work - and he loses his best dancers to Disneyland Hong Kong!! Sadly, it showed as well - we saw Swan Lake and I was thinking that Odile/Odette possibly would have made it in the Corps de Ballet at the Australian Ballet, but that was all. And the choreography was so simple - I almost broke out laughing once when they started running through their arm positions - it looked like they were doing a barre drill!! And then they all held hands in a line and sort of skipped forward together, occasionally leaping off the stage. It honestly felt like a dance school recital. I was telling Mum about it on the phone and I said "I felt like such a ballet snob" and she said "you sound like one too"! But I thought of you Mrs Johnstone - ever since you said you counted the 32 fouettes, I have done that as well now (and she got through them all!)

We also went to Cafe Saguijo for it's one year anniversary concert. There were over 25 bands in the line up for a one-night show!!! Unfortunately the a/c was not working terribly well, so after arriving at 7.00p.m. a few of us flaked by 12.30 a.m. - we were just dripping sweat and not enjoying ourselves any more. Not sure what time the others packed it in? Much more stamina in the heat...

Okay - I am trying hard to respect those who are calling for shorter blog entries, so I won't bore you with a blow by blow of my entire weekend. Suffice to say, it was fun and full of Philippino moments! Tonight we are going out to a great vegetarian restaurant for Anita's farewell, which will be fun. Very good food at this place - it is yummy. I have had a roll of film developed and put onto CD (no - am not yet willing to sacrifice my SLR for a digital) and so will post some piccies very soon as well, hopefully.

Hope you are all well - was oodles of fun to talk to those of you I chatted to over the weekend (missing you all heaps).

Toodles
Kate