Tuesday night I headed down to 'Forbes Park' darling to the Ambassador's Residence for a 'Get Together of the Australian Community in Manila'. We were the youngest people at the party but we took advantage of the free wine, nibbles and ear of the Ambassador.

Wednesday evening I headed down to Makati with a bunch of people from NCRFW to watch a Spanish movie marking 100 years of the woman's movement in the Philippines. The movie was about domestic violence, but I appreciated it as it gave an interesting view of how domestic violence is affected by the women and men involved.

Thursday at work I went to Malacanang Palace for the first time. I walk past the Malacanang buildings everyday, but it is fenced off so I never get a chance to enter. We went to Mabini Hall for an orientation on the CEDAW convention and committee (Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women). There were some lively discussions with the Ambassador to the UN CEDAW committee who was a Filipina with some frank advice for NCRFW (NCRFW is due to present its report to the CEDAW committee next year). That evening I went back down to Makati to meet up with Neil and his friend Francisco to watch another Spanish movie, this time one sponsored by the Mexican Embassy. I went to get tickets an hour before the movie and the women told me that it had sold out! I went to meet Neil and Franc at Franc's hotel room and he called the Mexican Ambassador (whom he knew of course) to see if he could get in to see the movie. We went back just before 7 and they were giving out free tickets to the movie! Very Filipino! Because Franc knew some of the staff from the Embassy we got into their free wine and free food pre-movie type function. So much for our planned post-movie Japanese dinner! The movie was a satirical type look of corruption at the local level in Mexico. It was set in a tiny Mexican village. I didn't enjoy it as much as the movie the other night - I think I had gotten my fill of corruption type issues here in the Philippines and perhaps didn't understand the context particularly well.

Friday was Octoberfest at the Australian Embassy. I had a pretty full week so wasn't too keen on going - Neil eventually called and said that I didn't have to make the 1 and 1/2 hour trip down to Makati because it wasn't the most exciting Octoberfest that he had been to. After paying some bills and getting takeaway Chinese I got home to relax and Neil called. He was on his way home too!

Saturday Neil made a big new purchase and both of us drank McDonalds ice tea. That night we went over to see Franc again and Neil started to feel a little ill. They played around with their toys for a while and then we went for yummy Japanese dinner. Neil had an interesting run in with the CR and we went home pretty early as we were pretty tired.

Sally, Robert (our builiding lobby-man), Natalie and me before heading out on the town.