It's 5:30 am when i start this (probably much later when I publish/post) and Squish's family have gone to a special memorial mass for her mum (deceased). I will join them for the visit to the cemetery plot. More rains predicted today so I thought I'd a a few more misc pics.... read more

OK - this should bring me up to date. Yesterday, Squish had to be confirmed (a Catholic thing) before the locals would agree to marry us in the church. Won't bore you with the details as it's really just a personal thing. Today has been raining again and so I've been stuck in our little 6x7 drinking SML and trying to get up to date with the blog. Since there's no travels to record, I thought I'd go through the squillion pics I've taken and jujst show some random stuff i thought was interesting, unusual or simply a little different. Over to the pics and see you next time when i'll try and show some video snippets. Promise to keep them short to minimise download times and bandwidth requirements. Hope MPL haven't blocked youTube again. . ... read more

Another beautiful day and this time a trip from Legaspi City to Donsol, Sorsogon - home of the Butanding or Whale Shark. . . . see link for the kml file. As much fun as it was looking for and then watching these gentle creatures, the picture taking opportunities were not that flash. At best you can see a shadow in the water you can pretend is a whale shark .. . . :-? The locals, with the help of WWF ( you know - that dopey looking Koala bear that walks Chapel St Prahran shaking a tin) have developed a haven for this creature and built a tousist industry around it. They're kinda like dalmatians of the sea . . . but in reverse, dark skin with white spots - don't believe I got a ... read more

Yesterday was another garbage day on the weather front, but a couple of things happened which were worthy of note - well in my mind anyway. First we had brekkie in Guinobatan CBD, just Squish, myself and her brother and sister (Arthur and Annie). This is the very first time we've had a meal with an entourage of ess than 8. Also the first brekkie I've had that wasn't western based fast food, Pancit Lapad, flat tagliatelle type noodles with a very strong egg flavour mixed with some shredded noodles - pretty nice actually despite its simplicity. The Filipinos really need to learn what bread is about though. The dread rolls resemble scones rather than bread - sweet and stodgy. ZTM a business opportunity perhaps???? ;-) We then went shopping in the local 'wet market'. I ... read more

Happy New Year. Well the Filipinos certainly know how to celebrate NYE. You certainly can't miss midnight here - collectively I reckon as many fireworks went off around the place as a the fireworks display in a major Oz capital city. Then there's the food - tables and tables groaning under the weight of all sort of delicious stuff - lots of it deep fried unfortunately. One food item I couldn't resist taking a pic of was Ube - for Dr Holloway and Dunnie - it was YUM (remember Margie Carcallas offering you some when I was still on lvl 16????) - for the rest of you it's YAM - and yes the colour in the pic is real - no added food colourings. The locals have a novel approach to disposable plates too; a woven ... read more