Milton Keynes Filipino Festival

A few weekends ago we braved the traffic strewn expanse of the M1 motorway to trek to Milton Keynes for a Filipino festival. Yes people, the thought of eating (what else?) halo-halo, bopis, dinuguan, pork barbecue, among others, is enough incentive for us to endure more than an hour’s drive to there. We thought after hurdling the M1 and once inside Milton Keynes it would be a cinch to find the festival park. How wrong we were! After going round and round endless roundabouts and avenues that look eeriely the same, we had to call for SOS from a Filipina friend who lived nearby. While shouting down at her mobile phone, she directed us (husband was driving) by pointing out landmarks –

'Pagnakita nyo yung estatwa ng taong baligtad kumanan kayo. Tapos pag nakita nyo yung building na yung bubong parang baked beans can na nakatumba malapit na kayo!'

Her instructions were colourfully descriptive ;) it did not take long for us to find the place.

First time I saw it, I liked it. The park was built like an amphitheatre with the stage located down low in the centre of concentric graduated grassy levels where people can sit picnic-style. At the upper level are some fairground rides plus lots of space where kids took advantage of the lovely sunshine and biked around or flew kites. (Next year we’ll make sure to bring kites). On stage, the regular mainstay of Filipino festivals – Europhil – did their singing and dancing although they stuck to an all-Filipino repertoire here. There were other performers like the group of teeners who did an excellent street dance – very very good!, several kids who sang, a kids beauty pageant, a beauty pageant for married ladies, and another one for gays which only had 2 contestants and judging from the looks of the 2nd gal/guy there who looked like he/she just entered for a laugh, essentially there was only 1 contestant – who would automatically of course is the winner. Why do we have these inane beauty contest in festivals?

  

There are the usual food and goods stall. But most of all there were none of the hoards of people we encountered in Hounslow. The crowd size was mercifully just allright. Not too much not too thin. I hate crowds … really. I go out of my way to avoid them. That’s why when we went to Disneyland Paris in a Christmas weekend it was like a holiday from hell for me. But I digress…

There was also this photogenic colourful jeepney that kids and adults alike loved to see and board.

The food was the typical festival fare but we spied several that we don’t normally see in these festivals. The likes of – itlog na pula, green mangoes, daing na bangus, among other things. Needless to say, we enjoyed our brief stay there so we’ll definitely be back next year !

One Year Ago I Started Blogging

It’s been a year now since I discovered the world of blogs and started blogging myself. I’ve been surfing the internet for years but found very few personal websites. Must be due to the daunting task of coding the site yourself and the dearth of free webspaces around.

Around 2003, features in several online newspapers led me to being a regular reader of several political/news blogs. It was only when the Sassy Lawyer was featured in the online version of the Philippine Inquirer did I learned of this whole new world of Pinoy blogosphere. When I combed thru Sassy’s links, I realized that a lot of the tech savvy Pinoys are knee-deep into it – since then they became my daily read. Then in Tito Rolly’s blog, I tried commenting but anonymous commenting was turned off. So I was forced to create a login in Blogger.com, and consequently create a blog. Sassy is the one I credit in ‘introducing’ me to pinoy blogs but Tito Rolly led me to that extra step in creating one. The fact that there are a number of sites offering free webspace for bloggers plus free online blogging tools also helped convince me to give it a go.

At first I really don’t know what I would do with it much less what to put in. But a peek at Sassy’s Pinoy Cook (previously Radical Chef) food blog fired up that passion in food in me. I have always longed for somekind of a ‘scrapbook’ for the recipes of dishes I cook – both the tried and tested and the experiments. A food blog would just be perfect and that’s how I started blogging with English Patis.

We travel around and visit places during weekends and I wanted to record and show friends and relatives of where we’ve been, what we’ve been up to. But I don’t want to mix it up with my recipes in the food blog, thus born this Desarapen Tales. I couldn’t come up with a better title so I just got a word from a Filipino children’s nonsensical song. When I was young we used it to figure out who is ‘it’ in a game, just something different from the usual ‘pompiyang’ and ‘jack en poy’ (paper scissors stones) – but I digress.

I’ve enjoyed blogging since day one starting with trepidation, even in just commenting in other blogs I was quite nervous. It’s a good thing the blogs I frequented early on answered even the most mundane hi or hello I put in their comment section. I have to thank also Batjay for encouraging me and emphasising that the most important this in a blog is content. I agree wholeheartedly.

Blogging has improved my writing skills immensely (if ever I have one). Why I haven’t written anything ‘creative’ or essay-like since I was in high school. College writing was just a series of technical jargon blurbs after another so I really can’t count that. But other than letters and long emails to friends, it’s only now that I got to crunch down and pour my mind’s content into the pensieve of blogs. It has also heightened my awareness of the food I’m cooking and eating, of the places where we go, of the people I meet, of the situations I’m in. It also introduced me to the technical side of web design and programming. I’ve been a constant user of PCs and web browsers but the magic behind it is much covered in haze for me. And with the limited time I have as a working mom I couldn't really cover much in terms of learning webpublishing and design unless it's needed at work.

The best best best of all rewards of blogging for me are the warm, friendly, funny, helpful online people I met. Some of whom I have met in person, some of them already phone pals. Yet still a lot are regular email buddies. They come from different backgrounds, ages, genders, professions, persuations, and what have you. I can tell you they made my life so much richer. Thank you my dear online friends and here’s to more years of blogging. Cheers!

Red is for Valentine ... or Bull's Eye

An unforgettable Valentine's Day happened to me eons ago. I was attending a local primary school which was within walking distance from my grandma's house where I was staying. That day I decided to do the full monty and dress up for the occassion. I put on my reddest dress and proudly walked to school. I was imagining in my 8-year-old mind the looks of approval or envy from my classmates.

As I was walking, I noticed there weren't many people or kids on the road and I realised I was already late. So I hurried on hoping I won't miss the flag ceremony so everyone could see my nice dress in all its red glory. I was just outside the school fence I did not notice that there was a bull (note: big bad cow with big horns) tied to the other side of the road. In the corner of my eye, I saw that it looked up from eating its breakfast. Stared at me. Saw my red dress and then charged me at full speed! It probably thought I was a matador's rag. I was pinned against the wire fence with the bull breathing down on me, its horns about a foot from my chest. Horrors of horrors!

cartoon courtesy of my BIL - Roland Mikey Ilagan

So there I was on my Valentine dress ready to be gored by a bull not exactly admiring my red confection. Knees shaking, tears were about to fall from my eyes. But I willed it not to, someone might see and I was more concerned with my street cred than my fear. I was rooted on the spot not daring to move at all lest the friggin' beast charge again and break free from its ropes. Luckily I noticed that the wire fence was broken at the base precisely where I was standing. I was able to wiggle in and make my escape to the other side. Whew! What a relief. You might understand now why no matter what incentive anyone give me I never want to wear red again on Valentine's Day. Even if it meant getting extra points from professors when I was in college. Who knows there might be a tethered bull just round the corner.

Popularity Contests and Reminiscing

The recent web “squabble” in the current popularity awardfest in a medical blog caused me reminisce about the last time I was involved in a popularity contest. Think think think. (I’m beginning to feel like Pooh Bear). Well whaddaya know, it was in my 2nd year high school circa mid-70s! It was one of those beauty contest between class sections wherein each section chooses its “muse” and pits her against the others’. Unlike previous years it was not judged by a parade of bored teachers but by the amount of old printed matters (newpapers, magazines, phone directories, etc.) that each section can gather for recycling. Of course the one with the most will win, with the proceeds of the sale of the recyclables going to good causes in school. That was all well and good.

Our muse was very very pretty. She was Marivic Arguelles (Vicky wherever you are pls. contact me), with brains to boot, too. If it were just by those measures, she would have surely won. But still we all have to work for it and work hard the whole class did. Our high school building was along Buendia Ave. in Makati almost right beside the railroad tracks and the Southsuper highway overpass. Fortunately, we were in the midst of an office district so there were no shortage of office receptionists to harrass to ask for old yellow pages. We trudged thru Ayala Ave., Buendia, Paseo de Roxas, even as far as Pasong Tamo. We had to move fast because other class sections were trawling thru the same strips as we were. Imagine that skinny 13 year olds (yes I have been skinny before) walking with enormous heavy bags of yellow pages and old papers. We didn’t have any chaffeured cars or protective parents to help us, we were too skint to take buses besides there were no buses in the ‘village’ areas of Makati, so we walked for miles while lugging these heavy stuff.

Side note: While going up and down the tall buildings of Makati we obviously have to take the lift (elevator) and since I was a promdi – I actually got motion sickness from it! Hahaha! Nahilo ako!

After a day we thought we were doing well until we caught a glimpse of the other section’s haul. Man, their mountain of newspapers were really something. Either they have parents working in a printing press or they were really that good in sniffing out big stacks ready for the taking. One look at that and we became depressed knowing that no matter how hard we try we were not going to win. :sigh: But we were not a poor people’s school for nothing, all of us were street smart and someone had a brilliant idea. ::Ting!:: This time we were more zealous than before. We dragged everything we collected to a “bote dyaryo” (recycling) dealer. Sold everything at a good price. We then went to the Quad (do you still remember ?) and the whole class saw a movie! Hahaha! When we realised it was a lost cause we thought we might as well benefit from our own sweat. How’s that for ‘gulang’ (smarts)? Of course our class adviser (tutor) was furious when she found out our collection was zero, nada, buta! Worse came when she found out the truth. We got a right dressing down, the mother of all sermons which made us all feel guilty but well at least we had a good time. ;) And I didn’t even remember what movie we saw … Hahaha!
Let's have a little song now:


Reminiscing
[Little River Band]

Friday night, it was late, I was walking you home
We got down to the gate and I was dreaming of the night
Would it turn out right
How to tell you girlI wanna build my world around you
Tell you that it's true
I wanna make you understand I'm talkin' about a lifetime plan

That's the way it began, we were hand in hand
Glenn Miller's Band was better than before
We yelled and screamed for more
And the Porter tunes (Night and Day)
Made us dance across the room
It ended all too soon
And on the way back home I promised you'd never be alone

Hurry, don't be late,I can hardly wait
I said to myself when we're old
We'll go dancing in the dark
Walking through the park and reminiscing

Friday night, it was late, I was walking you home
We got down to the gate, and I was dreaming of the night.
Would it turn out right.
Now as the years roll on,
Each time we hear our favorite song,
The memories come along.
Older times we're missing
Spending the hours reminiscing

Hurry, don't be late. I can hardly wait
I said to myself when we're old
We'll go dancing in the dark
Walking through the park and reminiscing