Tuesday, March 1st

Jamie has the urge to sort out all the photographs we've gathered over the years and which now live in various boxes in our two homes.  Of course, the novelty wore off and he has realised what a mammoth task it is. "You're not busy at the moment, Dad.  Maybe you could do a few."

A few?  I have a plastic box full and have hardly scratched the surface.  The really old photos are great fun and I've realised that there are faces in them that I've never identified or have forgotten.  There are also the gems like the school photo of me when I was 6 years old and the one probably taken in 1944 with me sitting on Mum's knee, showing off my curls.

I did some more mowing but the effect I'm looking for is marred by the scraggy weeds that grow around the edges of the yard and the rockeries (that's our polite way of referring to the many piles of unruly rocks we have).  Jamie has a whipper-snipper and will come and have a go when we ask him.  I know I could do it myself but I hate the thing.  I've realised that I hate small petrol engines altogether.  I've had difficult relationships over the years with small mowers, chainsaws and whipper-snippers so I've developed an aversion.  Somebody should invent garden machines that don't need small petrol engines. And, of course, they have.

We already have a Ryobi drill and it's possible now to buy 39 other gadgets which use the same battery!  So, a quick trip to Bunnings and I have a Ryobi whipper snipper which won't whinge and complain when I try to use it.  I also have a list of the other tools that Ryobi is encouraging me to collect.  The sky is the limit although I'll be hard-pressed to find a use for an Air Strike Brad Nailer, for example.

Sunday, February 28

In the week or so after we came home from our holiday, I caught a few large Hunstsman spiders in the house.  I know that we co-exist with these creatures but, normally they keep out of sight behind the pictures or other isolated spots, Perhaps while we were away they got used to having the run of the place and forgot about what might happen when we got back.  In any case, they were easy to spot on the cream walls and I had the task of removing them.

Marilyn was all for wholesale murder but I am more inclined to catch them and gently chuck them into the garden. I use a small brush and dustpan or, occasionally, a feather duster, hoping to catch their hairy legs in the fronds.  I don't always have much success and Marilyn throws her hands in the air, thinking of the finality of wholesale slaughter.  It doesn't always pay to be kind.

A couple of weeks ago, I spotted a couple of the monsters in the car.  Clearly, they were quicker than me and scurried out of sight.  One hopped out when Jamie opened the back seat a few days later but the other one didn't surface until today when I folded down the back seat to fit in a long parcel.  I didn't catch it, of course, and it escaped under the driver's seat where it might still be.  I haven't the heart to tell Marilyn in case she refuses to get back in the car, and I'll have to make a real effort tomorrow to seek and destroy.  Maybe some kind of insecticide bomb might be a good idea.

What amazes me is that large spiders can find enough to eat in the small world of a car.  It just makes you think about what food sources it finds.  What other creepy crawlies have made their home there?  There could be a whole eco-system driving around on those four wheels.

Friday, February 26

What a disappointment our PM has turned out to be.  Having started with great promise and an extraordinary level of goodwill, he has squandered it all in just a few months.  With all the talk of Government for the 21st century and Tax Reform, he has achieved nothing.  His motley crew of backbenchers are more concerned about their own jobs and won't allow the hard decisions to be made.  If a decision might be mildly unpopular with some of the community, it's off the table.  It's no good blaming the Senate. Julia Gillard, with a similarly hostile Senate managed to get through over 600 pieces of significant legislation; Malcolm has passed almost none.

I wonder whether Australia is becoming ungovernable, like America.  No matter how worthy the President's ambitions, the Congress blocks everything.  In Australia, it's the Liberal backbench, at the moment, who are blocking progress.  But nobody on either side seems to have any vision.  Whoever, we elect is unlikely to have the will to face up to the hard decisions so what's the point of re-electing this mob.  Selection Committees on both sides of politics need to look for some better talent, and not just career-oriented time-servers. Maybe we should have some performance criteria for politicians like in other jobs, some measureable outcomes that have to be met before they can stand again.  

Well, our X-Files set has arrived and we've started to watch them.  The first episodes were made in late 1993, and it shows.  Big hair and shoulder pads are the order of the day.  Come to think of it, big hair is still the big thing in America.

Wednesday, 24 February

The rains are here at last so my plans for today have been put on hold.  Marilyn went out early to take Madeleine for some tests and I had intended to spend some more time mowing.  Jamie must think I have too much time on my hands as he has sent me an advertisement for a job as Executive Director of an Arts Festival in Launceston.  I've directed the Craft Fair four times now, and that's a much bigger event than the Junction Arts Festival.  Interesting, but do I still have the drive? I'll have to think about it.

I have to say that I'm enjoying retirement.  The travelling is a big part of that but it's really the pleasure of getting up in the morning knowing that I have the whole day to enjoy without any commitments and no responsibility.  I can spend the whole day on the computer, or with a book or watching shows and not feel guilty.  Do I want to give that up?  

An email came through yesterday from an American crowd called Vacations to go.  They specialise in last-minute cruise bargains, mostly in the US but some in Oz as well. One deal was part of a world cruise, between Sydney and Dubai.  It's a Costa ship (not the Concordia!), 23 days duration, calling in to Fremantle, Colombo, 3 ports in India, through the Suez Canal and then Dubai.  Just over $2000 each for an Ocean-view cabin.  It leaves on March 14th so a bit close to the PNG cruise, but seems a bargain, nevertheless.

I'm watching Game of Thrones as I type this.  I can't understand the hype but it's well-made and must have a huge budget.  The early episodes are almost pornographic but it settles down and the story becomes more important than the sex scenes.  It was great to see the mash-up on Insiders on Sunday morning: scenes from Game of Thrones with Donald Trump's head superimposed on some of the characters.  The words are his own direct quotes, highlighting his shallow view of life.  It's had over 2-million views since then and was featured on the Whoopy Goldberg show.

Island-hopping

Nera's sister, Kisia May, Kit and me.

Tuesday, February 23

This Summer seems to be never-ending.  Normally, we would be seeing the cooler weather coming in by now but today is to be another 31 degrees.  I'm fed up with shorts and yearn for  the days when I have to scrape the ice from the windscreen in the morning.  (Well, maybe that's not quite true.)

Jamie and Nera came around on Sunday for a barbecue.  We're an odd lot, we humans.  We strive for millions of years to evolve to the point where we have some of the most comfortable houses on the planet, with air-conditioning, modern cooking appliances, hygiene, recliner chairs, etc but, at any opportunity, we leave it behind and head for the great outdoors.  We pretend to enjoy uncomfortable chairs on uneven ground, flies, ants, warm drinks out of plastic beakers, paper napkins which fly away.  We happily eat under- or over-cooked sausages and and $30 a kilo Scotch Fillet which tastes like leather.

I remember Eric Bogle's great song, The Aussie Barbecue.

    .... solemn bands,

Of glum Australians watching their lunch go up in flames.

But, it's an institution, up there with the Hawaiian habit of cooking their food in holes in the ground or the Japanese penchant for raw fish.

Thinking about the great outdoors, I noticed someone on Gumtree trying to sell Outdoor Pantries.  Yes, can you imagine the conversation.  'Let's go camping, love.'  'OK, but only if we can take a zip-up canvas pantry so that I can remind myself of home.'

Jamie gave us a couple of episodes of the new X-Files to watch.  Never having seen the original series, we were flummoxed by what was happening so we decided that we needed to go back to the beginning.  Too much to download but I found a complete boxed set on eBay: 9 series, 59 DVDs, 202 episodes and 2 movies.  It should arrive next week, just in time for the cold weather to start so we will have an excuse to stay home to watch it.

Saturday, February 20

There's a bit of a to-do about the latest song from Tim Minchin, having a shot at Cardinal Pell.  Tim is an absolute musical genius and some of his previous work has been outstanding.  There's no doubt that this latest offering is on par with the rest: musically, it is great and his lyrics are very clever.  Whether he has gone too far, in calling the Cardinal, for example, 'scum', is debatable but I have to admit I enjoyed it when I heard it for the first time the other day.

It's a mowing day today.  I picked Jamie up early and he came out to do the whipper-snipping while Nera was at work and I've had the ride-on travelling in circles for the past hour or so.  It's at the point where I'm just knocking the heads off the dandelions but the yard certainly looks a whole lot better.

Tonight is Symphony Under the Stars in Launceston so Marilyn and I will likely go along to see what is on offer.  I bet it's not Tim Minchin!

I made the final flight bookings yesterday for our cruise to PNG.  We chase the bargains when choosing a cruise but are always caught out by the cost of getting to and from Sydney.  This time we've spent $700 on domestic flights: another penalty for living in Tasmania.

Vision Cruises sent me an email this morning offering a cruise to the Mexican Riviera: flight to US, three nights in LA, cruise, three nights in Las Vegas and flight home for $1699.  Sounds too good to be true and when I investigated, the cheapest fare seemed to be $3199.  I don't think we'll bother. 

Wednesday, February 17

I've put a few kilometres on the car over the past few days, with three trips to Deloraine already, and another one tonight.  This tends to happen once a month when various meetings coincide and it's not a conjunction that I look forward to.  A round trip to Deloraine is about 140 Km and, although I can do it one way in about 45 minutes, it's still a pain.

Next month will be my last meeting as Probus chairman.  I've been in the chair for two years and it's someone else's turn now.  If I'm honest, I will say that I have enjoyed the job and we've had some very interesting guest speakers.  For some reason, we seem to get more than our share of people talking about health issues or aged care but that seems to be what interests our members.  Yesterday, we celebrated the birthday of a 90-year old and I read out a letter from a 99-year old who doesn't come to meetings any more (maybe because he lives in NSW now).

Bemused to hear that Barnaby is now our Deputy PM, a heartbeat away from being our  Dear Leader.  I certainly hope Malcolm continues to enjoy good health.  

I watched a very interesting film the other day: Kingsman, Secret Service.  It's a spoof on James Bond and celebrates the Gentleman Spy, with a focus on the gadgets which were a feature of the early-Bond.  Great escapism.  

We're still planning our holidays for later this year.  We'll certainly be in the Philippines for a month or two but haven't pinned down when that will be and whether we tie it in with a cruise as we did in August.  Japan is also calling with pretty good fares being offered but accommodation is always the killer there.  This morning I'm going to investigate whether we can use our timeshare points as we did once before.  There are a few few options in Nagoya which would suit us well.

Marilyn's having a lie-in.  She's finding the baby-sitting tiring but she doesn't have to show up till about 12 today so she's taking the chance to have a late start.  The children's grandmother arrives from the Philippines today so that will take the pressure off.  

Sunday, February 14

There's a lot of smoke around this morning and the Tas Fire Service has warned us that there will be three large water-bombers around to try and get the fires under control.  One of the hydrants for the local Rural Fire Brigade is on the corner of our property so we often see the tankers filling up when an alert is on.  At first I thought they were pinching the water from our supply but it seems it is a dedicated outlet.

I'm writing this while watching Insiders and the current screen view has the Sydney Harbour Bridge in it with an enormous ship in the background tied up at Circular Quay.  I assume it's the Anthem of the Seas preparing for its departure this afternoon.   I notice that Royal Caribbean is advertising cruises from $72 per day on its other ships.  The catch, of course, is that they have increased on-board costs.  On the Rhapsody last year, we were paying $12 US for a glass of ordinary wine.  That's about twice the price of Princess.  Many of the activities also came at a cost: Learn to Mix a martini $20, wine-tasting $40, and so on.  It's hard to find a bargain nowadays.

From time to time, we meet people on cruises who chase the bargains and are satisfied with the cheapest cabin and water with meals.  The bonus is that you can travel more and I suppose that's worth considering.  

Saturday, February 13 (2)

Another lazy day today.  Marilyn's not very well and has spent the day in bed so I've taken the chance to watch a couple of movies.  I'm watching Everest at the moment, based on the true story of 2 expeditions which got into difficulties in 1996.  Great photography and almost like a documentary.

I also watched Pan, a recent movie putting a twist on the old story and starring Hugh Jackman.. It was good to see an Aboriginal actor taking the part of the Native chief.  His name is Jack but I can't remember his surname - mass of white curly hair and an overgrown beard.  The movie is worth a look.

Back in the Philippines, we took the car to the other side of the island to the Palms Resort owned by our friend, Kit for the annual gift-giving to the local school children  Great fun but the highlight for me was the island-hopping on a traditional outrigger boat.  The boat was purchased by the Calamba Rotary Club to give the local fishermen the chance to earn some tourist dollars to supplement their diminishing income from fishing.  There are some spectacular islands to visit but, sadly, some of the best of them have been bought by wealthy foreigners who demand their privacy.  However, others are open to all-comers.  One tiny island is famous for its populations of fruit bats, wild pigs and cobras, so we kept our eyes open when we were there.

Saturday, February 13

It's only been two days and already I'm falling behind. My excuse is that yesterday was a busy day and we didn't get home until late.  I did find time to pick some blackberries but that was the extent of my day's labour.

Back to the Philippines. Jamie and Nera also have a car in Balatan. A couple of family members can drive so the car is used by the family but is also available for locals to hire for trips to the nearby big towns.  It's a small Toyota people mover which can take 8 passengers so every time we went out we had a couple of family members for company - quite different to our usual solitary existence.  There are a couple of buses which do the trip regularly but the cheaper option is a jeepney.  Supposedly, they are limited to 22 passengers but it is not unusual to see a dozen on the roof and two or three others hanging on the back.  The unofficial rule seems to be that no potential passenger will be left behind.  Certainly having a car avoids taking chances on public transport.

The drive from the airport into Balatan is quite spectacular - down a winding mountain road with fabulous views.  The typhoon brought down some debris from the slopes but it was cleared away within 24 hours.

We used the car often, mainly for shopping but took one longer trip down to Legazpi in the next province to meet up with the Rotary District Governor.  The main attraction of this city is the Mayon Volcano, famous for its almost perfect shape.  It last erupted in 2009 so it could blow its top again at any time.  At a couple of spots on the side of the mountain, they have drilled in to the core for power generation - not a great job to have if the volcano starts to rumble.

Thursday, February 11 (2)

I've been mowing this morning but it's getting too hot so I'll leave the rest until this evening.  Usually, mowing is a full-time job during the summer but this year has been different.  When we came back from our holidays I expected the grass to be waist-high but, with the lack of serious rain in Spring, the grass had dried.  In fact, I've only mowed for one two-hour session until this week.  Today is the third day of this stint and I've just about finished.  

Today I saw a quoll for the first time on our block.  They're relatively plentiful in Tasmania but usually in more remote areas.  Last night, we saw a bandicoot on the way home from my birthday dinner.  Of course, the evidence of bandicoots is easily seen in the number of small holes they leave behind, but seeing one in the flesh is more difficult.  The wallabies are back and our resident echidna showed himself, swaggering across the lawn one day last week.  We're certainly outnumbered here and we're pleased that animals and birds can still make their homes without too much interference from human invaders.

It's one thing we notice in the Philippines: no road-kill, few large flocks of birds, no rabbits and such like.  One of our filipino friends told us that, if anything dared to lift its head, somebody would eat it.  It's understandable in a community where much of the population live on a handful of rice a day, but it's sad nevertheless.

Thursday, February 11

After visiting our friends in Manila and Calamba, we planned to fly down to Naga to stay with Jamie and Nera and to have Christmas with Nera's family.  As often happens, a typhoon loomed off the coast and our flight was postponed.  Jamie and Nera, it appeared, were right in the path of the storm but went to bed anyway hoping that it would blow itself out before it reached them.  Not so!  The wind and rain came in across the water and drove into the house.  Luckily, Jamie and Nera had spent extra money to ensure the house was typhoon-proof so it is still standing.

Overnight, a flood of water poured in across the balcony into their bedroom, down the stairs, through the downstairs rooms and out the back door.  There was no damage.  The floor mats were sodden but could be lifted up and dried out easily.  By the time we arrived, the next day, there was no sign of the crisis.  It's a great house, two storeys high and built right on the edge of the beach.  Years ago, Nera's father squeezed a traditional filipino house between Jamie and Nera and the sand and rented it out to a family with 14 children.  It would be great if that house weren't there but how can you evict 14 kids?

The town, Balatan, is a working fishing port and everything revolves around that industry.  There is a beach but it is more likely to be used for careening a fishing boat to scrape the hull than for swimming.  Bamboo platforms along the beach are used for drying fish and there is always activity.  

It's not a little village as we expected:  there are over 30000 people in the area.  The houses are small and built close together. Nobody closes windows so there is constant noise.  Karaoke is popular and everybody in the area can hear the tortured attempts at singing.  Whitney Houston songs are the ultimate torture.

Christmas was interesting.  Christmas dinner is taken at midnight on Christmas Eve and the leftover food stays on the table for next morning's visitors.  Nera's family are very well-regarded in the town so there was a constant stream of visitors on Christmas morning.  No doubt, some came just for the chance of a good feed, but that is encouraged.  Generosity is very much a feature of filipino life.

I was coaxed into hiring a videoke machine for Christmas Eve, $15 for 24 hours, and we sang all night, with hordes of locals hanging about outside, joining in.  The Philippines has a different idea of privacy!

On Christmas Day we drove Jamie and Nera to the airport to fly home, and then popped in to the shopping centre in Naga for a couple of things.  All the shops opened at noon, on Christmas Day!  We couldn't move for the crowds.  It was like David Jones on Boxing Day but with twice the crowd.  I'm not sure how much people were buying but going to the Mall is one of the Philippines' favourite activities, even on Christmas Day.

Wednesday, February 10 (2)

The first week or two of our trip to the Philippines fell in to its usual pattern: a few days with Geoff and Chit in Manila followed by some time with Kit in Calamba.  Each host tries hard to find something interesting for us to do and this time was no different.  Chit flew out on our first night there on an inaugural PAL flight to New Zealand so it was left to Geoff to plan our visit.

We had a number of meals out, a Xmas party with an Expat group he belongs to and a trip to the movies, but the highlight was a visit to a relatively new enterprise being set up in an area called Bataan.  Bataan is almost a sacred site in the Philippines as it is where a forced march took place during WW2.  It's called the Bataan Death March and has the same significance for filipinos and Americans as the marches we commemorate, like Sandakan or the Burma Railway.

A wealthy businessman has taken upon himself the task of obtaining, dismantling and re-building some of the most historic houses from Old Manila.  He has a huge expanse of land and, it seems, unlimited funds.  The houses are wonderful and his plans are monumental (that sounds suspiciously like a pun).  You can stay in a re-built hotel or book a complete house with room for 16, including a grand piano and a butler.  

Because we had arrived in December, there was a lot of Christmas activities to enjoy.  One of the best was an end-of-year performance by students of the University of the Philippines.  It was based on traditional filipino cultural dances and blew us away.  We were fortunate that Kit was also hosting an exchange student from France and she was keen to show him as much filipino culture as possible.  We were happy to tag along.

I've become a little obsessed with my weight since losing so much and have got into the habit of weighing myself before bed and again in the morning.  I'm amazed that I can lose up to 2Kg overnight.  Even though I'm also prone to get up in the middle of the night for a trip to the bathroom, it;s hard to explain.  I'm told that, when we lose weight, it removes itself from the body in the form of carbon dioxide but 2Kg is an awful lot of gas.  No wonder we're struggling with climate change if all the people on diets are generating 2 Kg of ozone-layer-attacking gas, every night!

Wednesday, February 10

It’s my birthday so that seems an appropriate day to have another attempt to get my blog back on track.  I’ve realised that, without the blog to refer to, my memories of what we’ve been doing are becoming hazy so, in the interests of historical accuracy, I’m having another go.

Another reason for writing today is to launch my ‘new’ computer.  I’ve wanted another iMac since I gave up my ‘jelly-bean’ model more than ten years ago and it’s a pleasure to get back to a computer with a bit of class and a touch of elegance.

Jamie saw this one on Gumtree and convinced the seller that he was asking too much for it.  A quick trip to Legana on the other side of the river and I am now the proud owner of a classic.  It’s a little difficult getting used to the tiny keyboard and the little quirks of OS X but it’s worth it.

Celebrations for my birthday are low-key.  We’ll have dinner this evening with Jamie and Nera but no presents and no fuss.  We’ll celebrate Marilyn’s birthday in three weeks with a little more pizzazz and that will be more than enough.  We made the decision years ago that we don’t need any more ‘stuff’ so our presents to each other consist of a shared trip.  In April we are booked on a cruise to Papua-New Guinea and later in the year, we will be away for at least two months and that will give us more pleasure than a new tie or pair of socks.

Over the next few weeks I want to record some of the experiences we enjoyed while we were in the Philippines at the end of last year.  I’ll start with a not-so-enjoyable one: my bout of dysentery.  I think it started with a dodgy omelette I had at a Spanish restaurant and it laid me low for at least a week.  The silver lining is that I lost about 7 kilos and I have managed to keep the weight off.  I’m now travelling about 2 kilos below my preferred weight and I feel great.

Marilyn’s out today, baby-sitting for one of our Filipino friends.  She has a three-year old and a baby so it’s a busy time.  We hope that the children’s grandmother will arrive from the Philippines soon so that she can take over the responsibility but the Immigration Department is dragging its heels on the visa so we have no idea when things will get back to normal.  It’s ten weeks until our cruise so we hope everything is resolved before then.