Manila

Let me start with an apology or two or three. One for not posting for while. The second to Laura for taking ages to moderate her comments. And three, to all of you for posting a picture of my legs. That said, they aren't that bad!

This was taken on the Friday afternoon after we had finally finished our week of training. It was great to relax by the pool for a bit and do a spot of reading (thanks to Dermo of the book!).

The work we had to do there was interesting. I enjoyed the various sessions (even Campaign Management - that is for Katya) and had great craic getting to know people from various parts of the world.

It was an eventful week. There had been a typhoon on the island before we arrived. Then on Tuesday I felt the earth move - literally. Apparently there was a 6.0 earthquake a few hundred miles north of where we were. The building rocked and we decided to evacuate. We were the only ones. As we left the building it was clear that it was business as usual for everyone else. Unused to such tremors we had obviously worried more than we needed to.

Later in the week several gents who were on trial for an attempted military coup back in 2003 managed to escape and hold up a few people in the Peninsular Hotel. Basically they wanted to try again but the army weren't having any of it and barged through the lobby doors in a tank thus ending the protests rather quickly. At this point I should probably mention I was not staying at the Peninsular Hotel - we were in the Edsa Shangri-La.

The hotel was definitely in festive mood judging by the music and the huge tree in the lobby.


Just when we thought all the excitement was over it transpired that seven of us were hit with food poisoning. On the last night I was encouraged to try an oyster - something I had never tried before and based on what I experienced over the subsequent days something I should never ever try again.

I'll just say that the flight from Hong Kong to London was unpleasant for me. Actually it probably wasn't much fun for those queued outside the loo when I finally resurfaced!

Things didn't begin to clear up until Tuesday - that was when I returned to work to discover the wide spread effects of the contaminated oysters.

Sorry I don't have many pictures. I may have a few on my other phone so I may publish more in due course. None of them are of my illness - so you can relax.