• mate - their version of friend or pal
• way out- exit
• to let- for sale
• pram- baby’s stroller
• lorry-truck
• booze- alcohol drink
• crisps- chips

to be continued…

Last Friday, 21st October, although it’s cold and raining, we packed our bags and headed off to the south of England, in Somerset, for a weekend break at a holiday family resort called Butlins.  The town is actually called Minehead ( which is in Somerset), a beautiful countryside with a spectacular coastline. However before we got to our destination, I have to tell you some nice and amazing things I have seen on our way there (it’s a 4-hour trip from our place).

• train moving backwards. or so in my perception, you know why because we have to board like three trains to get there and one train we got in has seats facing backwards.  It’s not very comfortable because you feel like riding a car that goes on reverse!

• sheep,sheep,and a lot more sheep! every now and then you see them, like white cotton balls scattered on the green fields. 
• caravan parks. we’ve seen like 6 caravan parks on our way there. These are large trailer carts converted to houses.  Some are gypsy communities, others are being used by families on tour or on holidays to park their caravans on.

• yellow-orange trees-oh,the first hint of autumn!quite lovely, leaves bursting in full color before they finally drop dead on the ground.sad, but they carpet the ground with a bit of color before snow finally set in.
• brown coastline- compared to our grey and white beaches, here the coastline appears a muddy shade of brown.  At first, I do not know if I was looking out at sea or was it just a wide,wide river.
• steam engine rail- this trains(they call it rail) date back from I do not know when.  They are old and are still powered by steam.  It is like a train from old movies.  We saw it pass by on Minehead.  I threw a coin and made a wish!

So much for that, I have to tell you now what’s up at Butlins.  It’s a resort, much like Camp John Hay in Baguio City with the Enchanted Kingdom placed in the center of it.  It has facilities for outdoor and indoor sports, for entertainment, and a lots of rides for kids and adults.  It has a skyline pavilion which you can see from afar.  It houses many restaurants, arcades, disco and pubs, and the Centerstage.  We watched 911 perform live, me and my sister in front just standing in front of the stage.  Lee is still cute but a lot older. I have new tatoo (air-sprayed only) on my back just below my nape. Christer had his face painted with a skeleton.  He enjoyed the halloween show and parade, and performed his sexy dance at the disco (even teenagers were giggling at him!).  We just can’t miss going to ths splashworld, the indoor pool and we cued for every tube slide there is!Two days was not enough, we still missed on a lot of fun and activities.  Hopefully, we’ll be back there next summer.  I dream of actually buying a house there on the top of the cliff - very nice!  We will be back; we have not even been to the town center of Minehead yet!    

the poem

THE INTERVIEW WITH GOD I dreamed I had an interview with God. “So you would like to interview me?” God asked. “If you have the time” I said. God smiled. “My time is eternity.” “What questions do you have in mind for me?” “What surprises you most about humankind?” God answered… “That they get bored with childhood, they rush to grow up, and then long to be children again.” “That they lose their health to make money… and then lose their money to restore their health.” “That by thinking anxiously about the future, they forget the present, such that they live in neither the present nor the future.” "That they live as if they will never die, and die as though they had never lived.” God’s hand took mine and we were silent for a while. And then I asked… “As a parent, what are some of life’s lessons you want your children to learn?” “To learn they cannot make anyone love them. All they can do is let themselves be loved.” “To learn that it is not good to compare themselves to others.” “To learn to forgive by practicing forgiveness.” “To learn that it only takes a few seconds to open profound wounds in those they love, and it can take many years to heal them.” “To learn that a rich person is not one who has the most, but is one who needs the least.” “To learn that there are people who love them dearly, but simply have not yet learned how to express or show their feelings.” “To learn that two people can look at the same thing and see it differently.” “To learn that it is not enough that they forgive one another, but they must also forgive themselves.” "Thank you for your time," I said humbly. "Is there anything else you would like your children to know?" God smiled and said, “Just know that I am here… always.” -author unknown

this poem has a beautiful presentation you can watch by clicking the link here:interview with God

interesting things only in the UK (or so I think):

• this is a right hand-drive country. meaning for people like me, who came from a left hand-drive country, you are likely to be hit by a car while crossing the street when you check for vehicles passing on your left side instead of your right!
• queue please. that is their term for "fall in line". everyone queue in here even in the streets, on the bus stop. hindi po gaya sa atin sa ‘pinas na tulakan dito-unahan don-mauna na ako bahala kayo sa buhay nyo!-style.
• ask for the toilet not the CR as we are used to, when call of nature attacks!
• also it is a lift, not elevator; and a coach, rather than a bus; the tube, not a subway:at marami pa pong iba na i di-discover ko pa lang.
• closing time 5pm. can you believe that shops here closes down around 5pm everyday? pano kaya umunlad mga taong to? tapos pilipino daw ang tamad. most of the stores open around 9am, di gaya sa atin na madaling araw pa lang me palengke na di ba?yung balintawak nga 24 hours pa yata. furthermore, pag weekends lalo na 3pm pa lang wala ng bukas!aside from their pubs (parang mga bar at disco sa atin), where their nightlife takes place.
• lack of crews in fastfood chains. alam nyo ba na sariling tapon mo dito pinagkanan mo sa mga ff chains like KFC, etc.?!appalled nga ko nung kakain na ako as in di man lang nalinis yung mga droppings ng sauce nung unang kumain sa table. wala talaga maglilinis kung di ikaw, pwera na lang siguro pag nagkusa na yung crew nila na nasa cash register!
• greetings,compliments and apologies: manners and more manners. They say that Filipinos are hospitable right?!yeah, right!but that only extends so much to foreigners. People here on the other hand are not afraid to greet you and smile at you on the streets, they offer more compliments than Pinoys offer more reklamo and pang aasar, and they just do not tire of saying they are sorry ( a trait very rare to Filipinos,sorry!pero totoo di ba kasi we often just think that it’s forgiven and forgotten agad agad).
• more historical, more stylish.di po uso ang pataasan ng building dito. gulat nga ako para bang nasa 19th or 18th century ka, kahit pa sa London. Marami pa pong matataas and modern buildings sa atin.  Dito po palumaan sila.

more next time…

anyway, here’s a pic of me with my sis trying on some wigs inside Topshop,London

Hello everyone! I’ve been in the UK for the past week and I want to apologize to everyone that I’ve lost contact with. Sorry I can not reply through text messages yet ( kasi po naka roaming ang fon ko which means to say kailangan ko pa pong mgpaload sa server ko sa pinas), and i am afraid this is the only way you can hear from me and vice versa (unless you call me at home, which is going to cost you a lot of money; OR I’ll be the one to call each one of you which is practically impossible at the moment because I don’t have a job yet, tsk,tsk,tsk,… So what have I been doing here so far? I have to tell you first how I got here. Ohh, this is going to be long one.

I arrived at the Heathrow airport in London on the 27th of September after much ado and query at both immigration departments here and in the Philippines. As some of you know, I brought along my three-year old son,Christer, with me. So much of the questions put upon me was why I am travelling along and not with my husband ( they think I was, maybe, kidnapping the child). Anyway, we board the Cathay Pacific at about 11am on September 27 at the NAIA. We had an hour stop at Hong Kong, then from Hong Kong it was a long straight flight to London. It was a smooth take off and landing for both of my trips so the story about bringing chewing gums, etc, and the temporary deafness you’ll experience, is such an exagerrated cliche.

Anyway, it was past 9pm, London time, when we arrived, and it was such a nice view that we had on the plane of the light-dotted London skyline. My mama, and my sister, together with another Filipina friend of theirs, picked me up. We were the last to come out from that flight because we were left behind because my son was having tantrums. We slept the first night at a friend’s house in Toothing Broadway. The first tube (as they call the railway they have underground) I got into was in the same place the following morning as we went to Earl’s Court to check in the hotel my mother rented for us to stay for another four days we are going to spend in London. When Christer learned to say " hi, mate!", he was doing that to everyone we passed by and most often Britons would say hi to him also and tell us that he is "such a charming kid". That’s the first thing I’ve noticed of the people here, they do not hesitate to say hi to you when you greet them or when you look at them they’ll smile at you and say hi. And it is true, that they apologize everytime, even unnecessarily. You can often hear them say "oh, i’m sorry, so sorry". The first time I rode the tube I was completely clueless on how you can reach your destination ( it is not like MRT or LRT which is a single lane train). It has intersections and connecting tubes and it is underground. You can use a map which has lines of different colors indicating circle lines or district lines. In short, the first trip we had I completely depended upon my sis and mom to choose the routes. Toothing Broadway,where we came from, is located at zone 3 and we had to go to Earl’s court which is in zone 1 ( London is divided into different zones. zone 1 as the center and as you go farther from the center the zone number goes up). After 3 changes of stations, we finally arrived at Earl’s court and before checking in we ate at KFC. Not only is the price much higher, but also all the fastfoods here do not have rice, they’ll give you chips instead (fried potatoes). After checking in at Lord Jim Hotel, we made our first tour of London by a double decker bus. The one we got was called "The Original London Sightseeing Tour" bus which we boarded at the Marble Arch.

We sat at the top floor where we can have a better view. We stopped at Madam Tussaud’s which is a wax museum featuring famous people and other historical figures. Of course I had my photo taken embracing Prince Will’s figure, hehehe kilig!!! There was also a planetarium inside where we watched the show about how the universe is infinite.   

After that, we went to the London eye, wherein we saw much of London’s skyline. It is like a Ferris wheel only you go inside a small glass room and it goes up slowly to show you the rest of London. We missed the cruise which we are supposed to have that day because we finished late.

Our second day in London, as usual, started late. We rode a coach (bus) from London to Windsor. We went to Legoland which is located in Windsor (also in England but outside London). We passed by Windsor Castle ( a huge one, the very first castle I saw). The castle is located on a hill and around it is a lively little town very much like guarding it. Before it lay acres of field, I even saw an old railway atop some kind of an old brick bridge reminding me of Harry Potter. Before reaching Windsor we passed the town of Eton where Princes Will and Harry went to Highschool. Anyway, we reached Legoland around 2:30 pm and it closes up at 5pm. We still managed to get through all the rides. The most exciting is the jungle coaster which me and my sister gaygay got to ride on. My son got a driving lesson together white kids, and I am proud to say that he maybe the youngest and shortest of them all but he beat them in driving!We even got to watch a puppet show inside the Duplo theatre. After Legoland, we had to catch another coach at Windsor so we had some little time to explore and look at Windsor Castle.

Third day, I sort all my papers and mailed them to the Health Professions Council in UK for my registration as a Dietitian (hopefully to work here and have a work permit). Afterwhich, we went to Oxford Street (the one that’s been bombed, yes) one of the major shopping centers in London. It is not like in the Philippines where we have malls that houses all the shops. Here, the shops are lined along the streets and are house inside buildings that are like old-styled houses. My sister and I even tried on some blonde wigs at Top Shop.

The following day was still about shopping. We went to Highstreet Kensington and Bridgewater, I think. This time we were with my mama’s friend,Tita Pearl. Her daughter, a friend of my sister, who won last year’s Miss Young Philippines UK pageant. Anyway, we went to Harvey Nichols where I brought some lipsticks and foundation, and Harrod’s ( where most designer clothes are housed). The first time I saw real Marc Jacobs apparell I touched them talaga to feel them, wow! Even the Louis Vuitton bags I have to touch them to know how they are different from the fake ones. I even tried one Prada shoe on, only my size here is pambata yata kasi the smallest size for the ladies is 3 and it’s still slightly bigger. So the first shop I purchased clothes from here is H&M (Swedish label where Karl Lagerfeld from Chanel also designs). I bought a dress and corset to put on top of it (something I’ll wear at the party we will be having in a hotel in Wales). I also bought a choco brown bucket hut from Accessorize and a pair of gloves and bonnet for Christer (c/o Tita Pearl).

After that, we boarded a train at the Paddington station to take us to Wales. The first train got us far as Swansea and we boarded another one to take us to Llanelli, where my mother and sister lives. That is where I had my first shock. We had with us on the train many guys ( highschool or college guys) who are drunk (my mom said probably form their night out from the pub). They were so noisy with a very much different accent (Welsh) and making some laud comments and green jokes. Some guys were even licking each others faces. And then they came near us and wowed at the louis vuitton fake luggage bags i had. They asked us if it was real and my mom said no. The even smelled it! But they were only having fun, because when we got off the train some of them were kind enough and helped us take our baggage off.

Anyway, so I am now inWales. Last October 4, my mother threw out a welcoming party for me together with the celebration of her 50th birthday (yes, 50!). I met most of the Filipinos here and her British friends. In short, I like being here except for the nosy neighbor we’ve got who is always complaining of the noise here in our house (kahit wala naman papatawag daw sya ng pulis nek-nek nya)!

I would post some of the pictures as soon as we got the scanner ready and as soon as mama’s friend send us the photos we had on our tour the first day. I have to tell you one more thing I notice about them, they like taking photos of the scenery. You seldom see them taking pictures of themselves or of people, unlike us na laging kasama sa posing.