Gary,


I think you have made a great suggestion there, the Forum members should try and meet and exchange a few stories, I have personally spoken to some members, for example, Rob and I know each other quite well on the phone, although as yet we have not met, Keith and I have spoken on various occasions, again to date we have not met, I have spoken to others on the phone, such as Paul Thomas, who is on holiday at present, (called your office Paul, they said youre on holiday, hope you see this when you get back), however Gary, I did try and arrange a group meeting for the FilipinoUK Forum at the Barrio Fiesta over the weekend of 16/17th July 2005, this was held at Lampton Park, Hounslow Middlesex, it was attended by over 30,000 UK Filipinos and their families, there was Pete with all these pledges from interested ones who would atttend, I did take one or two mobile numbers, (Rob did say he would not be going as did Keith) but I tried to make contact with people, and I ended up being there on my own.

I have to say, sadly it was not a great success, however I am happy to try and coordinate something for the future, if people are generally interested in your suggestion, I find though that generally, by the time the idea is getting close, work commitments, and other things tend to louse up the plan, the FilipinoUK community seems to work better as an online get together, due to distances etc, Coventry isnt a problem for us, however people are spread so far away, its unlikely that members will consent to travelling to a central location to meet what are actually perfect strangers, trust me, we have tried it, its different when you humanize online contacts, but Gary its worth a try, see who is interested, and watch the feedback, My wife and I have our close freinds in Scotland, Lorna and Steve anotheer Brit-Fil couple, I met Steve in 2004 around November, when we both met at the Philippine Embassy in London, we both tried to get visitor visas for extended periods, that was the 6 month 59 day visa, thats how Steve and I met, by having a few coffees one afternoon in Kensington High Street, Steve and I stayed in contact ever since, and actually arranged to fly to the Philippines during May of this year, we become best freinds, and are wifes are freinds too, so freindships can be developed in this way of getting to know people, I also met a nice guy and his Filipina GF at the Barrio Fiesta, Will Cousins Hardy, and became good freind with him also, although have only seen Will a couple of times after the Barrio Fiesta, but we talk every week, about different things, so..I am all for meeting up with forum members, lets see what develops.


P.S. Rob...Gina says, when we are in Wales next, we will drive up to Aberystwyth, and meet you and Elsa, so thats a start, but we hope to do that this year, we have a freind in the valleys, so we will want to drop by, and see you and Elsa.

Pete