After much thinking about whether we should or not, we have finally taken the plunge and acquired a lady friend for Sisa. She is called Cassie, also a Golden Retriever, but of the American strain, so smaller and lighter than Sisa. She is 2 years old, the idea being we can have puppies!!!!!
She joined us on Friday and is still settling in. Sisa likes her but she hasn't yet learned how to play, sticks close to humans while being walked.
I have posted some photos of her here:-
http://picasaweb.google.com/JPD.Britt/Dogs#
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Just So Stories
I have always remebered these fondly from my childhood so couldn't wait to read them to Mary, my great-niece who lives with us. Having finished both original Pooh book and the new Pooh book not having arrived, we embarked on these a few weeks ago.
They are as wonderful as I remember with the proviso that in places they are totally non-PC. "The Ethiopian was a n****r and so his name was Sa**o". "Your children will be so lazy they will be known as the Mal**y people" that was last night's offering.
Perhaps life was just simpler then?
They are as wonderful as I remember with the proviso that in places they are totally non-PC. "The Ethiopian was a n****r and so his name was Sa**o". "Your children will be so lazy they will be known as the Mal**y people" that was last night's offering.
Perhaps life was just simpler then?
A Tale of Three Typhoons
This is Typhoon season in the Philippines, but the ones we have just had are much worse than normal.
The first, which shot across central Luzon caused widespread flooding. The biggest town nearest us, Santa Cruz has its centre under water still and the only way to go any further than the main church into the centre is by boat!
The second typhoon brought winds more than rain, it ran over the north
of Luzon, then met up with a mate, another typhoon, turned round and
came back to Luzon and headed to central Luzon bringing rain and
winds.
But the worst was last weekend, Friday night, for us because it passed directly overhead with winds in excess of 150 mph. All night we just heard the terrible noise of the wind and rain except for an hour when the eye was passing overhead when there was a deathly silence.
Next day we had little damage, some banana plants damged, leaves torn off coconut trees, one mahogany tree uprooted but it fell onto a concrete post rather than the fence so didn't do any more damage. And, of course, our Internet access module blown down. However around and about, there was much more damage, driving down to Pagsanhan we saw houses blown away, big trees down, there had been a flash flood depositing tons of mud into peoples homes in Pagsanhan, rooves ripped up etc. So we got off lightly.
I have posted 3 photos taken after the first 2 typhoons at
http://tinyurl.com/yzsbknb
One is of a school completely surrounded by water, what looks like a river to the school's right is actually supposed to be a road.
The second is of rice fields now completely subnmerged in water, as Laguna de Bay, the huge inland lake has risen.
The third is a panorama showing Laguna de bay. The water in the background is supposed to be water, but that in the foreground is supposed to be land.
All were taken from way up our mountain, and it was misty so apolgies for the haziness of the pictures.
The position now is worse, there is even less land visible and the town of Lumban has all but disappeared!
Lets hope we don't get any more like that.
The first, which shot across central Luzon caused widespread flooding. The biggest town nearest us, Santa Cruz has its centre under water still and the only way to go any further than the main church into the centre is by boat!
The second typhoon brought winds more than rain, it ran over the north
of Luzon, then met up with a mate, another typhoon, turned round and
came back to Luzon and headed to central Luzon bringing rain and
winds.
But the worst was last weekend, Friday night, for us because it passed directly overhead with winds in excess of 150 mph. All night we just heard the terrible noise of the wind and rain except for an hour when the eye was passing overhead when there was a deathly silence.
Next day we had little damage, some banana plants damged, leaves torn off coconut trees, one mahogany tree uprooted but it fell onto a concrete post rather than the fence so didn't do any more damage. And, of course, our Internet access module blown down. However around and about, there was much more damage, driving down to Pagsanhan we saw houses blown away, big trees down, there had been a flash flood depositing tons of mud into peoples homes in Pagsanhan, rooves ripped up etc. So we got off lightly.
I have posted 3 photos taken after the first 2 typhoons at
http://tinyurl.com/yzsbknb
One is of a school completely surrounded by water, what looks like a river to the school's right is actually supposed to be a road.
The second is of rice fields now completely subnmerged in water, as Laguna de Bay, the huge inland lake has risen.
The third is a panorama showing Laguna de bay. The water in the background is supposed to be water, but that in the foreground is supposed to be land.
All were taken from way up our mountain, and it was misty so apolgies for the haziness of the pictures.
The position now is worse, there is even less land visible and the town of Lumban has all but disappeared!
Lets hope we don't get any more like that.
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Tree Planting
On Thursday Grace and I went tree planting, in conjunction with Isuzu Philippines. There were about 60 people and between us we planted 1500 saplings on the Caliraya-Lumot watershed.
This is part of a concerted effort to reverse global warming and reforest the Philipines where illegal logging is still a big problem.
The people here just cut down trees to turn them into charcoal which they can then sell, possibly the only way they can earn some money. The government is too weak to enforce the legislation it has passed and so the problem continues bringing in its wake, land slides and disasters.
This is part of a concerted effort to reverse global warming and reforest the Philipines where illegal logging is still a big problem.
The people here just cut down trees to turn them into charcoal which they can then sell, possibly the only way they can earn some money. The government is too weak to enforce the legislation it has passed and so the problem continues bringing in its wake, land slides and disasters.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Fighting Entropy
I seem to spend an awful lot of time holding back entropy, far more than I ever did in the UK.
For example, we have recently had the following electrical goods, all from the UK, fail on us:- toaster, microwave, DVD player, Hard Disk recorder.
The toaster fell foul of a cockroach. It took up residence inside the machine and wouldn't come out, despite shaking turning it this way and that and finally poking it with a stick. Partial disassembly followed and finally it made a bid for freedom, only to meet the business end of a shoe! However afterwards the toaster would only toast on one side. No I haven't actually put any bread in it, just tried it to see!
The microwave, who knows, it just gave up the ghost but has been repaired now.
The DVD player exhibited fascinating behaviour, it suddenly wouldn't switch from standby to on. Jiggling a few buttons got it to turn on, then it was fine. But eventually button jiggling just didn't cut it any more. So it went off to a repair shop who got it going again within 24 hours. Good going I think.
The hard disk recorder made clickking noises then showed an error code of 7061 and won't load its software. Extensive reseach on the web reveals that no-one knows what a 7061 error actually is, thouigh many have had it. Maybe a new disk will cure it, but maybe not. I have to get a new disk, IDE, so not so easy these days and try it. I'll keep you informed!!!
For example, we have recently had the following electrical goods, all from the UK, fail on us:- toaster, microwave, DVD player, Hard Disk recorder.
The toaster fell foul of a cockroach. It took up residence inside the machine and wouldn't come out, despite shaking turning it this way and that and finally poking it with a stick. Partial disassembly followed and finally it made a bid for freedom, only to meet the business end of a shoe! However afterwards the toaster would only toast on one side. No I haven't actually put any bread in it, just tried it to see!
The microwave, who knows, it just gave up the ghost but has been repaired now.
The DVD player exhibited fascinating behaviour, it suddenly wouldn't switch from standby to on. Jiggling a few buttons got it to turn on, then it was fine. But eventually button jiggling just didn't cut it any more. So it went off to a repair shop who got it going again within 24 hours. Good going I think.
The hard disk recorder made clickking noises then showed an error code of 7061 and won't load its software. Extensive reseach on the web reveals that no-one knows what a 7061 error actually is, thouigh many have had it. Maybe a new disk will cure it, but maybe not. I have to get a new disk, IDE, so not so easy these days and try it. I'll keep you informed!!!
The NHS - not so bad!
Those of you living in the UK will sometimes take part in the age old pastime of NHS bashing, I am sure!
However, two weeks ago, the wife of one of our workers was having difficulties breathing, he took her to hospital, where they put her on Oxygen, kept her in for 2 nights, diagnosed a highly irregular heartbeat, told her she couldn't do any strenuous work (including washing clothes) and let her go.
The bill for all this was came to more than 4 months wages for the guy.
How can people here afford health care?
The answer is they can't. They often wait and hope and get worse.
So be grateful for Nye Bevin and the NHS!!
However, two weeks ago, the wife of one of our workers was having difficulties breathing, he took her to hospital, where they put her on Oxygen, kept her in for 2 nights, diagnosed a highly irregular heartbeat, told her she couldn't do any strenuous work (including washing clothes) and let her go.
The bill for all this was came to more than 4 months wages for the guy.
How can people here afford health care?
The answer is they can't. They often wait and hope and get worse.
So be grateful for Nye Bevin and the NHS!!
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
JC's First birthday
If you look back to a post I made a year ago, you will see the story of JC being born in our garage.
Well last Thursday was his First Birthday. So a big party was held. As there was a severe tropical storm heading across the Philippines at the time, it was raining heavily, so the party was held, you guessed it, in the garage.
Some pictures follow, but more can be found at:-
http://picasaweb.google.com/JPD.Britt/JCSFirstBirthday#
Well last Thursday was his First Birthday. So a big party was held. As there was a severe tropical storm heading across the Philippines at the time, it was raining heavily, so the party was held, you guessed it, in the garage.
Some pictures follow, but more can be found at:-
http://picasaweb.google.com/JPD.Britt/JCSFirstBirthday#
Harry Potter and the 0.5 Blood prince
Okay, if you are an avid JK Rowling fan, skip this entry now.
I make a practive of reading the HP book about 1 week before I go to see the film. So a week ago I settled down and read the book.
I felt her writing style had deteriorated and the book itself seemed to go nowhere. The only interesting part was the big battle scene at the end encompassing Dumbledore's death.
I thought there is no way you can make a film of this, so awaited seeing the film with interest.
Firstly, the film is very good. As with the last film, the writers have stripped away the (incredibly large) amount of unnecessary detail in the book and managed to actually produce a coherent story from it. I was surprised that the battle scene was removed, but on reflection, I can see that it would have been out of charcter with the rest of the film. No Dudley and his parents, no silly ghosts or talking pictures and all those tedious vists to the Pensieve reduced to the only 3 important ones. Good story writing. The only bit left, which needs removing, but I can't see how to do it, is all reference to the half blood prince. At least we were spared all the various theories as to who he might be, touted in the book. But actually, it doesn't seem to me to matter. Still then you would need a new title!
Actually, someone should write a book of the film, that would be so much better than JKR's sloppy version!
I make a practive of reading the HP book about 1 week before I go to see the film. So a week ago I settled down and read the book.
I felt her writing style had deteriorated and the book itself seemed to go nowhere. The only interesting part was the big battle scene at the end encompassing Dumbledore's death.
I thought there is no way you can make a film of this, so awaited seeing the film with interest.
Firstly, the film is very good. As with the last film, the writers have stripped away the (incredibly large) amount of unnecessary detail in the book and managed to actually produce a coherent story from it. I was surprised that the battle scene was removed, but on reflection, I can see that it would have been out of charcter with the rest of the film. No Dudley and his parents, no silly ghosts or talking pictures and all those tedious vists to the Pensieve reduced to the only 3 important ones. Good story writing. The only bit left, which needs removing, but I can't see how to do it, is all reference to the half blood prince. At least we were spared all the various theories as to who he might be, touted in the book. But actually, it doesn't seem to me to matter. Still then you would need a new title!
Actually, someone should write a book of the film, that would be so much better than JKR's sloppy version!
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Holidays - always fun
Having had 3 chilly weeks in the UK in April and May, (my first visit back for over 2 years and it was cold!), we decided to use some of our air miles and have a 10 day break in Phuket and Singapore.
Phuket was for relaxation and Singapore was for some serious shopping!
I hadn't realised how diffciult it is to use air miles to book a "free" flight. Firstly, the flight maybe free but you have to pay taxes and fuel surcharges,so the flights ended up costing about $100 each (US$). Then you have to scour the flight database to find which flight will take your type of free ticket. This meant that we had to fly to Singapore one day, stay overnight then fly onto Phuket the next day, thus further increasing the cost. By now it is only a tiny bit cheaper than using the low cost carriers!
However, all would have been well but when we arrived at our hotel in Phuket, we were told that our reservations had been cancelled the previous day. Not only that they had already rebooked our rooms.
After a lot of protests from us, we found out that the firm we had used, Asiativ aka asia Online aka Asia Trails Thailand, claimed it had gone into liquidation. They sent me an e-mail timed one minute before my check in time to tell me this , hence our voucher was worthless. So we had to spend 2 nights at anew hotel acrosss the road from the one we had booked and then moved to that one. And of course paid again.
I am currently giving information to Barclaycard about this, and from the website it looks as if the firm is still trading, though they are not answering any e-mails!!
After that, it got better. We went to Phang Nga (James Bond island - from man with the Golden Gun), and did generally relax.
Then Singapore, we saw some friends, ex-Informatics people in my case, and Filipinas in grace's and did a lot of shopping.
I mostly bought stuff for the camera, actually for the flash system and today I actually spent 45 minutes playing with it all and taking some pictures to see how the various toys work!!
Now I must get on with getting my photos onto the web.
Next project!!
And I shall try very hard to blog more frequently!!
Bye for now.
Phuket was for relaxation and Singapore was for some serious shopping!
I hadn't realised how diffciult it is to use air miles to book a "free" flight. Firstly, the flight maybe free but you have to pay taxes and fuel surcharges,so the flights ended up costing about $100 each (US$). Then you have to scour the flight database to find which flight will take your type of free ticket. This meant that we had to fly to Singapore one day, stay overnight then fly onto Phuket the next day, thus further increasing the cost. By now it is only a tiny bit cheaper than using the low cost carriers!
However, all would have been well but when we arrived at our hotel in Phuket, we were told that our reservations had been cancelled the previous day. Not only that they had already rebooked our rooms.
After a lot of protests from us, we found out that the firm we had used, Asiativ aka asia Online aka Asia Trails Thailand, claimed it had gone into liquidation. They sent me an e-mail timed one minute before my check in time to tell me this , hence our voucher was worthless. So we had to spend 2 nights at anew hotel acrosss the road from the one we had booked and then moved to that one. And of course paid again.
I am currently giving information to Barclaycard about this, and from the website it looks as if the firm is still trading, though they are not answering any e-mails!!
After that, it got better. We went to Phang Nga (James Bond island - from man with the Golden Gun), and did generally relax.
Then Singapore, we saw some friends, ex-Informatics people in my case, and Filipinas in grace's and did a lot of shopping.
I mostly bought stuff for the camera, actually for the flash system and today I actually spent 45 minutes playing with it all and taking some pictures to see how the various toys work!!
Now I must get on with getting my photos onto the web.
Next project!!
And I shall try very hard to blog more frequently!!
Bye for now.
Another Birthday, another year
Well folks, here I am again. I have no proper excuse for the long gap in blogging except that, being retired, I seem to have less time than I did when I was working!!
Last Sunday was my 61st birthday. Catherine and Alex and Louisa, who were here last year for my 60th, sent me a flag (England = St. George) and here it is flying above my Byzantine Empire flag.
It was just a quiet celebration, a few friends from the village, including the Parish Priest, and a few of Grace's family. A nice Bar-B-Q with Australian sparkling wine.
A pleasant day, and it stayed (mostly) dry!!
Last Sunday was my 61st birthday. Catherine and Alex and Louisa, who were here last year for my 60th, sent me a flag (England = St. George) and here it is flying above my Byzantine Empire flag.
It was just a quiet celebration, a few friends from the village, including the Parish Priest, and a few of Grace's family. A nice Bar-B-Q with Australian sparkling wine.
A pleasant day, and it stayed (mostly) dry!!
Monday, March 23, 2009
Learning Tagalog
I am still struggling with trying to learn Tagalog. So I thought I would share some of my thoughts with the world!
I have been using a book which i thought was quite good and am (strongly?) motivated by the fact that we go to a Tagalog Mass every Sunday.
In order to help me understand, I have the Ordinary of the Mass in Tagalog, with English translations of some parts, and the reading and prayers for the Sunday in both languages in a loose leaf folder.
All this has done is confirm my deep suspicion that it is impossible to translate from one language to another.
For example, the Tagalog word for "Lord" is "Panginoon" pronounced "pang - in - no- on" (Tagalog has no dipthongs, double vowels are sounded as two vowels) except in all the Psalms where "Lord" is rendered "Poon" - what happened to the "angin"?
Understanding spoken Tagalog is made more difficult by the fact that Filipinos speak it very fast, so it sounds like a machine gun. But I now have a theory as to why they do this.
My theory is two fold:
1) Tagalog has a lot of multi syllabled wiords, by which I mean words with 4 or more syllables, so they have to rush through those words; and
2)Tagalog takes a lot more words than English to say anything.
Again an example:
The doxology from the Eucharistic parayer in English goes:
"Through him, with him and in him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honour is yours, almighty Father, for ever and ever." 26 words, 37 syllables
The Tagalog reads thus:
"Sa pamamagitan ni Kristo, kasama niya, at sa kanya ang lahat ng parangal at papuri ay sa iyo, Diyos Amang makapangyarihan, kasama ng Espiritu Santo magpasawalang hanggan."
27 words, 59 syllables
One more example, I won't bother with the count this time:-
"May all of us who share in the body and blood of Christ be brought together in unity by the Holy Spirit"
"Isinasamo naming kaming magsasalu-salo sa Katawan at Dugo ni Kristo ay mabuklod sa pagkakaisa sa pamamagitan ng Espiritu Santo"
Then there are the words that don't actually mean anything, ng, na for example. If you leave them out it is bad Tagalog and the Filipinos will have difficulty understanding you, but they don't actually have any meaning.
You may gather from all this that my language skills have not progressed very far!!!!
I have been using a book which i thought was quite good and am (strongly?) motivated by the fact that we go to a Tagalog Mass every Sunday.
In order to help me understand, I have the Ordinary of the Mass in Tagalog, with English translations of some parts, and the reading and prayers for the Sunday in both languages in a loose leaf folder.
All this has done is confirm my deep suspicion that it is impossible to translate from one language to another.
For example, the Tagalog word for "Lord" is "Panginoon" pronounced "pang - in - no- on" (Tagalog has no dipthongs, double vowels are sounded as two vowels) except in all the Psalms where "Lord" is rendered "Poon" - what happened to the "angin"?
Understanding spoken Tagalog is made more difficult by the fact that Filipinos speak it very fast, so it sounds like a machine gun. But I now have a theory as to why they do this.
My theory is two fold:
1) Tagalog has a lot of multi syllabled wiords, by which I mean words with 4 or more syllables, so they have to rush through those words; and
2)Tagalog takes a lot more words than English to say anything.
Again an example:
The doxology from the Eucharistic parayer in English goes:
"Through him, with him and in him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honour is yours, almighty Father, for ever and ever." 26 words, 37 syllables
The Tagalog reads thus:
"Sa pamamagitan ni Kristo, kasama niya, at sa kanya ang lahat ng parangal at papuri ay sa iyo, Diyos Amang makapangyarihan, kasama ng Espiritu Santo magpasawalang hanggan."
27 words, 59 syllables
One more example, I won't bother with the count this time:-
"May all of us who share in the body and blood of Christ be brought together in unity by the Holy Spirit"
"Isinasamo naming kaming magsasalu-salo sa Katawan at Dugo ni Kristo ay mabuklod sa pagkakaisa sa pamamagitan ng Espiritu Santo"
Then there are the words that don't actually mean anything, ng, na for example. If you leave them out it is bad Tagalog and the Filipinos will have difficulty understanding you, but they don't actually have any meaning.
You may gather from all this that my language skills have not progressed very far!!!!
Dog Show
In February, or possibly very late Jan, I can't remember now, they had a dog show at the local mall.
So we went along and entered Sisa.
He didn't mange to win anything but here are some pictures showing Grace in Kennel maid mode!
Coming in:
Trying to steer him:
Getting his attention:
Surely its time to go:
What again?:
Judge, what judge?:
Round again:
This is getting dull:
Going now?:
The Opposition (who won) - looks more like a Red Setter to me!!:
So we went along and entered Sisa.
He didn't mange to win anything but here are some pictures showing Grace in Kennel maid mode!
Coming in:
 |
| From Dog Show |
Trying to steer him:
 |
| From Dog Show |
Getting his attention:
 |
| From Dog Show |
Surely its time to go:
 |
| From Dog Show |
What again?:
 |
| From Dog Show |
Judge, what judge?:
 |
| From Dog Show |
Round again:
 |
| From Dog Show |
This is getting dull:
 |
| From Dog Show |
Going now?:
 |
| From Dog Show |
The Opposition (who won) - looks more like a Red Setter to me!!:
 |
| From Dog Show |
Beauty Pageant
In January I was staying for a copuple of days at a hotel in Cavite, just south of Manila. Imagine my surprise to wake up to find a dozen or so pretty girls draping themselves around the swimming pool. It was a local College, organising their annual beauty pageant.
Why didn't we ever have anything like this at Portsmouth?
Anyway, a few pictures for you all to enjoy.
Why didn't we ever have anything like this at Portsmouth?
Anyway, a few pictures for you all to enjoy.
 |
| From Pageant |
 |
| From Pageant |
 |
| From Pageant |
 |
| From Pageant |
 |
| From Pageant |
Apologies
I haven't been posting anything for ages, not because nothing has happened but because things have been somewhat fraught and busy here. So I am going to make up for it now with several posts!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)