My first few weeks in my new home

I arrived here in the Philippines around 3 weeks ago and have spent the intervening time with Kat getting sorted out and buying stuff for the house. The first major purchase was a refrigerator/freezer, which has now been installed in the kitchen. At the same time it was decided that we needed to get a bit more exercise than we are currently getting, so we have also bought a couple of  bicycles, which we collected earlier this week, our first bike ride is going to be this coming weekend.

Regarding the drive to get fit, there has been some suggestion that Kat and I could well be eating too much, especially rice and some fried foods. With this in mind I was talking with her about portion control and the need to measure the quantity of rice, I suggested either weighing it or using some form of volumetric measure (a cup) this was met with stony silence, clearly not a popular idea. I then offered to introduce some oatmeal to our diets, this was even less popular and even gave rise to teary eyes; I guess that Filipino oatmeal is not to be recommended.

Kat and I also had our pre-wedding photo shoot with some friends of Kat's from Purple Duck Photography http://purpleduckphoto.com/ at a resort hotel in Batangas. I have to confess, when we arrived I could only really see a few areas which would be good locations for taking pictures, however the locations chosen and the photos I have already seen were amazing, the creative flair of Inna, RJ and Choi spotted so many opportunities; I am looking forward to being able to share some of them in the near future.

As another part of my integration to like locally, Kat has asked me to help her getting around between clinics and hospitals by driving her in her car. I was initially quite nervous, having a little experience being driven here and having driven myself on previous business trips in countries where they drive on the right. She introduced me gently on a Sunday where there was less traffic on the roads; it was not as bad as I had anticipated, although caution is required for pedestrians, tricycle drivers and jeepneys, all of whom seem to stop and start and change direction with little or no warning....

I have also made some observations about my new country of residence and the inhabitants there of, I am aware that this might get me into a little trouble, but it is meant with affection and purely as an observation and not a criticism:-

• Filipinos are very hospitable, I have been welcomed into Kat's family and aslo by her friends, or at least those of them I have met. This is greatly encouraging and has made my transition much easier.
• There are a whole variety of truly amazing places to visit and sights to see, and that is only in Luzon (the main island where I am living), Busuanga, Mindoro Oriental Boracay and Negros Oriental. I am looking forward to exploring the remainder of the 7000 islands I haven't been to yet.
• Life here can be frustrating, certainly for a westerner, with many activities requiring forms to be completed in duplicate or worse, triplicate. Bureaucracy here has been developed into a fine art, but you just have to accept it and go with the flow, it will get done eventually.....
• The drivers here are insane, despite being a nation of easy going folk, put them behind the wheel of a vehicle and all that equanimity goes straight out of the window, any opportunity to get ahead will be taken, swapping lanes, driving down the wrong side of the road, jumping red lights, all sorts of craziness.....
• Similar to the driving, Filipinos are not great lovers of queues, many shops and offices have introduced a take a number system to maintain control of who gets served first.
• There are a number of European style bars dotted around Manila, Makati and Alabang, I am not sure whether this is a good thing or not, but I guess something I am familiar with may be worth a visit occasionally. Either way it has to be better than Karaoke TV bars, doesn't it??

There are likely to be further observations and tales of my new life over the subsequent months. Watch this space for updates.

A new life and a very worrying trend developing....

Well, I have only gone and done it.... I had my farewell drinks at the local pub near the end of March 2013, said goodbye to a lot of friends and completed the packing. On the 29th March, I boarded the Hong Kong bound flight from London Heathrow. I was fortunate that having travelled extensively for a previous job I was in possession of a lot of airmiles, which I used to purchase a one way First Class ticket, something that I could not justify for myself if I were to have purchased it with cash.

The seat was very comfortable, with plenty of leg room
and an added bonus of two windows, which I couldn't
see out of as they were too far forward, isn't life a
b*@#h at the front of the plane??

You can just see the window above, the blind is down
something allowed throughout the flight including
takeoff and landing.

The Cathay Pacific Business Class seat, not so big, but a nice size monitor

After a long flight, a traumatic transfer in Hong Kong from BA to Cathay, where I lost my unused Zeneca umbrella with a wooden handle, a rare beast which was liberated from a publicity store many years earlier (it got left behind at one of the check-in desks) I arrived in Manila late in the afternoon, Kat was waiting to greet me outside arrivals (the public are not allowed into the terminal to greet arriving passengers), it was really good to see her again, after all we hadn't been together for 18 months or so.

Night view out of our hotel window

After dumping my bags in a nearby hotel, we went out for a brief walk to a local bar to have a beer and chat about all the gossip and stuff. This was a great time to reacquaint ourselves with each other with no pressure, the bar had a band playing later in the evening, which made talking a bit difficult, so we went back to the hotel. 

The day time view

 The next day, we went shopping for a few essentials, wedding rings, made to measure suit for me and a couple of bicycles for us to get fit. The proximity of the hotel to SM Mall of Asia (MoA) made all this an absolute doddle. It was around this time that the temperature in April in Manila began to hit me, it was about 30 degrees C hotter here than back in Haslemere, Surrey. This by the way is an observation, not a complaint!!

Once the shopping was done, we met up with one of Kat's friends at the same bar as the night before, I had not had the privilege of meeting Armin before, so this was really good.

On the Monday we departed the hotel to drive down to Laguna and start our new life together in a small rented house in Bel Air a short distance from Santa Rosa Techno Park and close to a main arterial route running south from Manila (South Luxon EXpressway or SLEX). On the way we stopped off at Alabang to collect my new bank card and other bits for a proper Filipino bank account. We arrived at the house around lunch time to find Kat's parents had opened up and prepared us some lunch. After we had exchanged greetings, they left us to settle in.

Sadly shopping was far from over, Kat and I went off to a nearby mall to explore the options of refrigerators and washing machines now that we had the opportunity to measure up the available space. Budget constraints meant that we had to get the essentials first and worry about comfort later, so we got a frige first, leaving the air con and washing machine till later. Fortunately Kat had already purchased some items, a rice cooker, toaster oven, coffee machine and a turbo broiler, no I had never heard of it either.
The gates to the subdivision are guarded 24/7, just outside there is a Maccie D and 7-Eleven, just in case we run out of anything, which can include pancakes for breakfast....Also at the gate are innumerable "Tricycles" which function as short distance taxis, but more about these later, as that is a whole other story.