The Barrio Fiesta.

From my part, I would like to thank all the members, that came to Birmingham for a great meet.

It was an absolute pleasure to meet people in person and chat amiably, exchange views, have a drink together and see that the respictive Asawas were getting on like old friends themselves, with chika-chika galore and every one of them wanting a turn at holding the babies.

It was a bit of a pity, that on the saturday, at the Fiesta, the weather turned a bit cold and damp, so we were forced to return back to the hotel, but the Sunday, it was glorious sunshine, with a gentle breeze that managed to kidnap my beach umrella quite a few times... But no worries, plenty of volunteers there for retrieval.

It seemed to me, that apart from the usual hawkers of totally uninteresting and unwanted wares like Lyca mobile, Lebara, unbuilt condos, never heard of remittance companies and dubious raffles, it was quite entertaining.
Obviously the comperes were plugging the various sponsors, balikbayan boxes companies and food sellers more often than not, but on the whole some good singing, strange dancing and wailing by I thought were ladyboys, and a young girl with a marvellous voice, The "London rapper" rapping in Tagalog was like trying to make sense of a herd of pregnant camels braying in pain..... Pathetic....... but hey, if one likes that sort of stuff.............

We left satisfied, in the knowledge that the wives enjoyed meeting up strenghten old friendhip and making new ones.
I can see a fair amount of facebook activity in future........

Just looking around for somewhere else interesting for the future.