Larry Memmott's Blog

Today Florsheim gave us copies of some of Aliciya’s posters that they are using to decorate their stores. They gave us five different posters, and three of them in digital form. Though you have seen some of these photos in much lower quality in my photos of the stores, I figured you might be interested […]

I went to the Fall Out Boy concert last night. It was great! Honestly, I liked the opening act, Hey Monday, perhaps even better than Fall Out Boy, but they were both a lot of fun. And it was great to see so many young Filipinos rocking out. Unfortunately, I had to go alone, as […]

We really did have a great time (again, this is our forth time in Baguio). We visited the Bell Chinese Church and the Tam Awan Village and wandered around Camp John Hay. However, in the end, the best thing about Baguio is the incredible Ambassador’s Residence and its grounds. It is just sooo relaxing there. […]

We went to Baguio for the weekend of February 7. As always, it was lovely. We took our friends, Anya and Sasha, and their cute little daughter Masha, and stayed at the cottage on the incredible grounds of the Ambassador’s residence there. The residence dates from before World War II. In fact, all of Baguio […]

The Embassy held an Inaugural Ball to celebrate the transition to a new President. Tatyana had a dress made for the occasion. Unfortunately, the photos leave something to be desired, but they give an idea, anyway.

We had a very nice Christmas.  Our Christmas Eve celebration was short, given Aliciya’s attention span.  We read a few stories, sang a few Christmas carols (Aliciya proposed, “Mary Had a Little Lamb”), read the Christmas story from the bible, and hung our stockings, that was about it. Christmas day we unwrapped presents.  Most of […]

Florsheim Kids opened a new store in the Mall of Asia, the forth largest mall in the world (and second largest in the Philippines).  We went to see it tonight, and I shot a few photos of Aliciya in front of her new poster, which is the centerpiece of the store.  That makes three stores […]

We took Aliciya to “Breakfast with Santa,” organized by the Embassy Employees Association.  She had a great time.  Here are a few pics. At a birthday party that same afternoon for one of her friends, Aliciya got to try out being put into a soap bubble – she did it with her friend James.

Continuing the theme of balls, here is a photo from the Marine Corps Ball.  The Marine Corps Ball is an important embassy tradition.  Almost all U.S. embassies worldwide are protected by a detachment of Marine Security Guards.  Every November U.S. embassies around the world hold Marine Corps Birthday Balls to celebrate the founding of the […]

We had a really nice Thanksgiving.  It started when I was asked to give the “Thanksgiving Message” at the annual Thanksgiving Ball put on by the American Chamber of Commerce Foundation (a charitable organization).  They asked me, I expect, because neither the Ambassador nor the Deputy Chief of Mission were available.  Still, it seemed very […]