Halfway through (eep!)

Well – I have a rotten cold (again!) and am feeling very sorry for myself. I have lost count but this must be the sixth or seventh cold I have had in about four months. I am so tired of this. I think it is due to a few factors – I am really run down and tired and the heat still tires me, which doesn’t help. In addition, in the rainy season, you get wet so often and then sit in the wet clothes – also doesn’t help. And finally outside is so hot and inside is so cold – our office is just arctic and it is ridiculous – I go from the heat outside to shivering and rugging up like I am in Mongolia inside. I have started to be pro-active about it now – I keep subtly adjusting the thermostat, but even then it is not great. (and I have to keep going back and turning it back up when someone turns it down - we have a little thermostat war - the latest in Kate's campaign to 'fit into her host country!!) So am feeling sorry for myself and freaking everyone one with my hacking cough and constant nose-blowing (I think they are used to it now – it’s more a case of “Again?” rather than “oh no – you are sick”!!

I read this on bbcnews.com the other day and my mind just boggled:
DJ Fatboy Slim and Talking Heads singer David Byrne are writing a musical about former Philippine first lady Imelda Marcos, to be shown next March. Here Lies Love will examine Mrs Marcos' passion for music and night clubs.
The whole story is here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4346938.stm

Hmmmmm…

Speaking of things musical, we had the welcome party for the new intake of AYADs last Thursday night. There are only four of them this time so I think their orientation was much quicker and smoother – hence getting to go to Smokey Mountain etc. Anyway – as we did, they also had karaoke at their welcome party. I am not sure if I have told you but the Philippinos are absolutely mad for Karaoke – it was apparently actually a Philippino who invented the concept – the Japanese just then took the idea and ran with it. But there are karaoke halls/parlours/stands absolutely everywhere and the Pinoys will take any opportunity to get a microphone into their hands and croon out a ballad. It is the preferred means of celebrating a birthday, promotion or any other event of varying level of significance. I have done it on a few occasions before and not really enjoyed it overly.

So anyway – we had the party at this club/lounge place with our own private room so we could karaoke to our heart’s content. Initially there were the AYADs (maybe ten to twelve of us, including Neil – Emily’s partner and an honourary AYAD), plus a bunch of people from the Embassy and Sagric (our organising agency which actually does a lot of work besides organise the AYAD program – they manage a bunch of AusAID contracts here) and a few others. We started out the evening with a few typical ballads etc (I sang “The Way You Look Tonight” which I always love because it reminds me so much of Grandad) and I made the mistake of not checking that the vegetarian food had no meat in it (you think I would have learned after six months, hey!) Then I took Cho, one of the new AYADs, so my naughty-DVD place which was just next door to stock her up for time in the provinces (and to add 24 seasons two and three to my already-purchased seasons one and four *evil grin*). When we returned (about ten o’clock) it was to find that most of the Philippinos had cleared out and we basically had the room to ourselves – the Aussies, Lynette (our ICM and still possibly my absolutely favourite Philippino – such a perfect mix of being the loveliest person and very cool and extremely professional), Lalay (admin assistant to the AYAD program and a lot of fun) and Lalay’s boyfriend (also works at Sagric). There may have been one or two others there – can’t remember.

So we set about having some fun with that karaoke machine and started programming hilarious anthemic songs in like Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody (which we, quite impressively I think, managed to sing mostly without the words when the video spazzed), Toto’s Africa, Michael Jackson, Bon Jovi, the song from Flashdance etc. We put on “Smells like Teen Spirit” and jumped around head banging and giving ourselves headaches (how did we ever survive high school?) and for a bit of a laugh, an Eminem song (got to the end, having managed about one word in three, and wondered how he manages to take a breath while performing – I don’t think I did while we were attempting. Nat’s suggestion was circular breathing, like digeridoo players?) Occasionally a Philippino would program a song and some ballad would come on, which killed the mood, but on the whole it was absolutely brilliant – we wound up karaoke-ing (?) for five hours and I had a blast and have not laughed so much in ages. The only sad thing (apart from me having no voice the next day) was that, we later discovered, Lalay had a video camera :-( We were watching clips of our performances at a Sagric meeting on Tuesday – alternately hilarious (when someone else was doing something embarrassing) or hide-head-in-hands-worthy (when I was doing something embarrassing!!)

Quickly – Tuesday marked our six-month anniversary here! I cannot believe it. I am now over half way through the year. It has gone by so fast, yet it also feels like I have been here forever. I keep wanting to tell you more about what I am doing here, but am not getting enough time to post (or making enough time to post, depending upon your POV). I have been shamed by reading Brett and Belinda’s blog from Germany (for those of you who know them – go read it, it is excellent. Hang on: http://brushandbel.blogspot.com/ ) They are posting their little hearts out. Hey guys – stop showing me up….

Oh and, we have a new flat mate. Reggie moved into our other room (maybe I should have checked the lease agreement before that?!?!) He is one of the new AYADs who arrived last week. Was actually born in the Philippines (in the Visayas somewhere) and migrated to Brisbane at eleven. So speaks fluent Visayan (local dialect down there) and some Tagalog as well. He is working at an environmental center in Manila. Ange returns from her two weeks back in Melbourne tonight, so she will get to meet him them!!

Toodles