And Back Again

Some people leave Manila to avoid New Year's Eve and the fireworks. Not us. We deliberately headed back for the fireworks. We figured that as we were going to be bombarded by noise anyway we might as well get the visual show over the city too.

We weren't sure how bad traffic would be or whether catching a ferry would be a problem - there was still a backlog of foot passengers coming from Manila. Some friends of ours arrived in Batangas at 12 noon and didn't get onto a boat until 10 p.m. They have 2 young children so I bet that was not fun.

So we decided we would go for the 6 a.m. ferry but as Rose was awake and woke us both up, we made the decision at 4:20 to try for the 5 o'clock ferry instead! Unfortunately it had already left when we reached the pier at 4:45 (it's just down the road from the guest house) so it must have been full. So we ended up on the 6 o'clock ferry anyway. We had very comfortable seats - a horseshoe affair with proper cushioning and a table. It wasn't very full - even when the foot passengers got on. We left about 6:15 and made good time, arriving in Batangas about 2 hours later. We breakfasted at McD's and made it home super fast as there was no traffic on the road. Rose didn't even sleep in the car.

Rose was very glad to see Candy and Floss, Naomi went straight to her doll's house and Josh was pleased to get back to his "moon sand".

We left to go up to Faith about 9:30 p.m. as the fireworks round here were getting so loud we couldn't hear the film we were watching very well. We watched some of the volleyball games. Rose played with her cronies.

At 11 we went outside to begin watching the displays. These are not organised or co-ordinated affairs but everybody sets off their own fireworks and they are pretty cheap here. Josh fell asleep almost as soon as we settled into place. Naomi was asleep by 11:30! Rose was off playing with her friends, but Steve and I - and the crowd of others there - enjoyed the display. It was a very clear night and a faint wind was blowing the smoke away from us. i think it was our best ever display.

It's an amazing scene. You can see right over the city towards Makati and from one side of the horizon to the other there were fireworks going off. They had been going off since about 6, and it gradually builds up until we hit 12 for the climax. It was so cool to have a varied perspective from far away to the really close fireworks. My favourites were some new ones that seemed to flatten out as they exploded. The rich people in the valley below school put on an amazing show between them! The other good thing about watching it from the top of the hill rather than at home is it is more muted!

Just after 12 as the displays were waning we left. On the way home we passed all the paper strewn across the roads from the numerous firecrackers set off everywhere. We could smell the aftermath as we entered Brookside. The kids went straight to bed. We waited till about 1 when the majority seemed done!

Chewing Gum

I had arranged for me and the girls to have our hair cut while at Calapan - there's a sister of one of the helpers who comes to the house and does it. Just as well because while on the beach Rose got her hair in her mouth and wrapped up in her chewing gum. Steve was pretty peeved - he hates the stuff anyway so I was in the doghouse for a while! Hard to get it out when you're on the beach and don't have a pair of scissors! Thankfully we were having our hair cut in the afternoon so Rose's hair is a bit shorter but tidy!

Guinea Pigs

Steve said I had to do a blog on Rose's Christmas present from Granny Taylor and Aunty Jenny. You can tell how excited I am by the guinea pigs in that I haven't even mentioned them yet! When Steve went to buy them on the Tuesday before Christmas they were offering 'buy one, get one' so she actually got 2. She was so pleased when he brought them home.

The reason Steve wanted me to do a special blog was because I have always been against us having pets and he wants to delight in my reluctant acquiesence! Steve told Bonnie he was going to mark down her evaluation as he held her partly responsible! She was teaching persuasive letters and used her childhood guinea pig as a model for writing. In actual fact, Rose has wanted some kind of rodent for a while and I decided it was a safer option than some other pets we could be arguing about!

They're actually pretty cute. We named them candy and floss - although we had to remind Rose that it is the English name for cotton candy and therefore more appropriate! I am seriously considering making a vocabulary chart for this kids this year to prepare them for returning to England as they are becoming much more fluent in American English than British English.

Out of Manila

We left at our usual time of 5 a.m. Actually, we left a little bit earlier than that but the Starbucks on the way was open when we got to it so that made it OK! As we drove up to it, Steve was pushing me out of the car because a full van load was about to get out and go in! I beat them to it.

We drove on to the ferry about 6:45. There were 2 basic toilets for all the female passengers. I took the kids, they got dressed, used the loo and then I told them they couldn't drink very much on the boat because they were not coming back to the toilet until we reached Calapan! (To their credit they did it too!!)

As we sat down, there was a newspaper vendor walking past and his headline read "Another ferry sinks.." Very uplifting. It explained the backlog of foot passengers and lorries and jeepnies loaded with freight trying to get across. I'm not sure how we managed to get onto the boat so easily. When we arrived our managers told us bodies had been found on the beach below the guest house this morning.

Our kids were excited to have 2 other families staying here as well as other guests. We have heard them more than seen them!

Christmas Day

We had a lovely day today. It started auspiciously as the kids did not come to get us up till 7. They had got up earlier but gone to play downstairs and were very good.

Not so auspiciously I blew the lights in the kids' bedrooms when I had a shower upstairs with the heater and the lights on! Steve says it's a fairly complicated procedure to get them fixed as we have to get someone in to get up in the roofspace.

We had our now traditional Christmas breakfast of bacon with pancakes. Then we tidied up the kitchen a bit before letting the kids open the first round of presents. I started the dinner then helped Rose make some plaster farm animals, Steve built Josh's lego present and Naomi pottered around with her toys. We decided to let Naomi open her big present as she didn't really have anything she could settle with by herself. She was so delighted with her doll's house. We had to banish Rose to the other room while Naomi opened the boxes which held furniture for each room because she was trying to organise where everything would go and we said it was Naomi's decision.

Our friend Karen came over to eat dinner with us, so we told the children to get dressed before she came! Our lunch was lovely but we were having beef instead of turkey - being rather "turkeyed out" - but it wasn't cooked enough so I left it in the oven and we ate it on sandwiches for tea. Thankfully, I had made a nut loaf so all was not lost! Naomi was so desperate to play with her doll's house that she barely ate anything (unusual for her) and asked if she could get down. We agreed it was going to achieve anything by making her sit there so off she went.

After lunch we let the kids open more presents. I liked splitting the present opening up as it felt like it wasn't so many, the children actually looked at what they had opened and even got to enjoy some of them before moving onto the next lot. We cleared out some of our old toys to make room for the new ones.

We let the kids stay up later so they could chat to Steve's family and, of course, we had a parade of the new toys and books.

Christmas Eve

When we got up this morning, Josh said, "This is the tooth day." I had no clue what he was on about but then Rose said, "No, this is not the tooth day, it's the oneth day." Oh, now I get it! It was funny that they were completely on the same wavelength on something that made no sense to me!!

This morning we spent time up at school to let the kids run off steam and this afternoon we watched "The Muppet's Christmas Carol" together.

Rose has been so excited today, not necessarily because it is Christmas Eve but because we were having dinner with Molly (her friend) and her family after Church tonight! We ended up at Wendy's because nothing else was open. Everything closes early on Christmas Eve because it is when Filipinos celebrate together.

We enjoyed the lights in Makati as we drove home.

Love-Hate Relationship

I have decided this week that I have a love-hate relationship with Christmas in this country. I love that we celebrate Christmas in this country - there are friends of ours who live in Thailand where they don't even give Christmas Day as a holiday. I love that it still has the birth of Jesus at its core. I love that Filipinos love Christmas and that is seen in the decorations, the music, the atmosphere. However, I hate the extra traffic, the extra people in the malls (where are they the rest of the year?!), the association of Christmas with "give me money", the carol singers who come every night. (One Tagalog word we know very well is 'Patawad'! which sends them away.)

We had a much calmer day with the kids today, though, so that was a relief. Rose and I spent a lot of one on one time this morning making a face for her bedroom door, playing "Go Fish" and then she played on Steve's computer while I sewed.

Countdown

This week Rose and Joshua have cottoned on to counting down to Christmas. I don't think it's a good thing!! They have been super hyper and Joshua came downstairs from bed last night and saw Steve and I wrapping presents. Today he was running round saying "where are the presents you wrapped last night? I saw a big one. I'm going to find them". I told him it was automatic banishment to the bedroom if he went hunting. He subsided a bit, but he can be pretty sneaky!

I had a cool experience with some of my friends - "Omelette in a bag". We mixed all the ingredients in a freezer bag and boiled them in a pan of water. Very tasty.

Wrapping Books

This evening we wrapped books for the kids from the Scholastic Book Fair. They had a great choice this year (maybe I am more aware of what I am looking for!!) and they are much better quality than what is available in the bookstores here. We skyped mum and dad to remind them who got what presents we had sent back with them. I love Skype. It would be so expensive to ring home without it.

Saturday

We went up to school to play touch rugby after the Alumni breakfast but I didn't get to play much as Rose and Naomi wanted me to help them dig a big pit in the sand! I wasn't too sad about it as we played six of us against 4 of the alumni who completely battered us, being fitter and more agile - certainly than me!! I think my team did better without me, actually!

I took Wendy to the airport in the afternoon. She had caught the bug so wasn't feeling too great but we got there in good time despite Christmas traffic. It is sad that she isn't coming back till March but it's not as long as a year away or more!

End of the week, end of the semester

This morning was the Elem. Christmas Concert. It was fab. The kids have spent hours practising this week yet it had lost none of its freshness and enthusiasm (especially from Rose!!).

The line that stuck out to me was 'because of a baby, the world was changed'. How profound.

We also had "Christmas Dinner" with Kate, Bonnie and Wendy as they are all flying tomorrow. It was special to celebrate with them, especially as Wendy is back in South Africa until March on a short home assignment. However, Kate has been struggling this week with illness so she couldn't fully enjoy the food. Bonnie got to make the crackers from a kit we had. Rose had coloured them for me. The kids loved their presents from the three of them.

More sick!

Josh was sick this morning but seemed OK afterwards. He had an extra hour's sleep but when we were out at the mall he began running a temperature. He held out until he was heading upstairs to bed when he suddenly stopped on the landing and threw up all over his quilt and the landing. He then turned, faced me, and threw up again splattering all down the stairs and me! Lovely. Eau de Vomit. Especially as our shower burnt out yesterday night so to have a hot shower I have to boil a kettle and use the bucket.

Love it!

Sickness

Naomi was sick Sunday night and after changing the sheets three times, I gave up as we were out of clean ones!! We lost about 2 hours sleep. When I went shopping this morning, I came back to find her fast asleep behind the settee on the old mattress we keep there for building dens.

I woke her up then but she slept from 3:30 till Steve got home about 4:30. Then she dropped off on his knee, slept till the other two were ready to go to bed; got changed and went to bed too and slept through - apart for one request for water in the middle of the night - till morning.

Football Photos

Cycles of Life

It was the last Saturday football for Josh today. He is kind of sad about that. He has enjoyed it so much that last week he had got his strip out Friday and had it ready for the next day - unheard of!

While Josh and Steve went to football I took Rose and Naomi to the mall to get Rose's eyes tested as the doctor said they had deteriorated since her last medical. Before we got that far, though, Rose trapped Naomi's hand in the car door. Naomi was understandably distraught, her poor little hand was bruised and swollen and she refused to speak to Rose for about half an hour!

We returned from the mall with new glasses for Rose. They do this digital test first and then the assistant took Rose into a little cubicle and did the lens thing. We were told some glasses were on promo for P795 or we could get the 1500 version or the "really nice" ones for 3000+ just for a frame. We took one of the promo pairs! They suit Rose and she has been fiddling with them ever since. She's kind of proud of them but also a little nervous what her classmates will think.

We also had a despedida for our field director and his wife tonight. It is the end of an era. It was cool to hear the affirmation of them as a couple. I will miss them. They have been in that role our whole 8 years here and have done such a great job but I am also looking forward to our new field director who will be different again and bring new things.

Fright

I was upstairs with Naomi - finding clothes, she is very particular about what she wears! Josh was downstairs shouting "Is it snack time?"

"Yes".

"Mum, is it snack time?"

I'm on my way downstairs, "Yes, I already told you that". I can't see him as I'm walking into the kitchen. "Josh?".

I go to open the big cupboard to get out the snack box and have the fright of my life as Josh is hiding in the bottom part of the cupboard! Of course my reaction was perfect for him and he had a good laugh at my expense. But I am convinced I lost years off my life!

Banking - the art of Bureaucracy

You may remember the last time I went inside a bank - there's a very good reason to only use the ATMs in this country! Well, I had a cheque to deposit so I HAD to go inside. I decided I would also withdraw money over the counter as I needed a fairly large amount and figured I could kill two birds with one stone - what was I thinking?

I get there shortly after it had opened so there were no queues. I think it gave me false hope. I ask the lady behind the desk if I can deposit the cheque (it's been waiting for over a week because the first time I tried they asked me where Mr Stephen was - it was made out to him - and I said at work and they said, he needs to sign the back - twice!! Even though it's a joint account). So, he had signed it and I'm back. First she says - "deposit over there". Waving in the vague direction of 3 desks with no-one sitting at them. So I ask for the withdrawal. She disappears off and is taking a very long time. I know something's going on. She comes back with 2 cards and says I have to re-sign them. "Why?" I ask innocently. "You haven't re-signed since 2001", "So?" "You need to re-sign every two years" (Steve says this is only for corporate accounts). So I sign four times and she asks where Mr Stephen is. "At work". "He needs to come in and re-sign too. And bring ID for both of you"! Then she gives me this application for an account form to sign. "Why am I doing this?" "Because you need to re-sign" "But I'm not changing anything". Smile, grit teeth, fill in. Eventually she gives me the money. But in the process of filling in this redundant form she realises we are connected to Faith. "Oh, you work at Faith?" "My husband is Elementary Principal" (I have found it's useful to throw titles around here!) "Oh". Suddenly that changes everything. I do not have to take the deposit to another desk, it can be done by her and instead of the 22 days clearance she has just informed me of, it can be deposited as cash. Useful to know for next time.

Snail Pace

It's kind of funny that when places are not so busy it takes them longer to do everything. I guess it's a lack of momentum or something.

I went out with Wendy to eat at a restaurant last night and there were very few people eating there and despite our "server" standing near my elbow the entire night it seemed to take a long time to be served and when Wendy asked for a water he brought lemonade! I had it as I was drinking it anyway and she asked for another water! Then we waited for ages for the change to come back from the bill. I left Wendy to go to the CR and she said she didn't know why we bothered waiting anyway as it was all of 10 pesos when it finally arrived! So we go to the coffee shop and not only do they take for ever to make the order, Wendy ordered peppermint mocha and got chocolate mocha so we replaced it. Then I ordered Chai tea latte double strength and realised as I took my first mouthful they had put COFFEE in the Chai tea! What?! So I go back and say "This has coffee in".

"Yes Ma'am, two shots!"

"I don't want coffee. I wanted Chai Tea Latte double strength"

"Yes, ma'am. Two shots."

I'm getting mad now so I spell it out. "Chai Tea. Double strength".

The penny drops. "Oh, sorry ma'am". Another replacement.

Go to bookstore. Wrong card. Change card. No bar code.

And then, to cap it all, when I get home and tell Steve where we went he says "Oh, there's one of those restaurants at Eastwood!!" (Much closer)

Apart from that, it was a good evening. I did get to make my first proper foray into Greenhills market and I am definitely going back.

Amazed

It's actually here! 1st Dec has arrived and with it Christmas comes. We started a Christmas theme at pre-school. The key idea being "A Saviour is born to us". It's so easy to become jaded about the reason we celebrate Christmas but perhaps we get a glimpse of what Christmas meant to those involved in the momentous events when we think about the literal 'out of this world' wonder and amazement of the birth of Jesus. I was caught by the phrase "and everyone was amazed..". It is AMAZING. I look at my friend's new baby and am amazed that the Almighty, all-Powerful God came to earth in such fragility and restraint. I am amazed that God chose to come in such humble, poor, scandalous circumstances. I am amazed that 'A Saviour was born to us'.