We have the longest Christmas in the World

So runs a commercial here on Philippine TV.  But it is actually true!!

I am just about to finish Simbang gabi, the traditional Filipino religious custom of celebrating 9 masses before Christmas.  The parish priest talked me into going.  The masses started on Monday Dec 15th.  Fr Rico said to me I had a choice of 2 masses, one at 4.00 in the morning, one at 8.00 in the evening.  

Not surprising I opted for the evening 8 o'clock!!

So I turned up on the Monday evening, and to my surprise, the priest was wearing white not purple and we sang the Gloria.  I couldn't work out what mass he was saying.

By the next day, I had realised he was anticiapting the mass for the following day.  But we were definitely in white and singing the Gloria.

On seeing Fr Rico in the shopping mall, I asked about this and apparently, only here in the Philippines, for the special designated Simbang gabi masses (they are at a different time to "normal" weekday masses), they are regarded as Christmas masses, white is the colour and the Gloria is to be sung, this according to the local Ordo.  Except (oddly enough) the mass on Saturday night, which was the 4th Sunday of Advent Mass, in purple - no Gloria.  (So fulfilled Sunday obligation)

This tradition goes back almost 500 years.  It seems strange (to me) to have Christmas masses in Advent, with the readings from 17th to 24th December masses, but Christmas preface etc.etc, interspersed with Advent masses at normal time, but mostly people here concentrate on the Simbang gabi masses rather than any others, so I guess it doesn't phase them.

The church was packed to capacity and more for the first couple of masses.  Difficult to find a seat.  After that numbers went down a bit, but still the church is full.  The whole town of Cavinti seems to turn out.

The last couple of days we have had mass in the 2 village churches, Sunday afternoon in West Talaongan, yesterday in East Talaongan, so these were added in as designated Simbang gabi masses too.  After the mass everyone goes round wishing everyone else a Happy Christmas.  Part of this is due to the fact that the parish church is a long way away and for many people they simply cannot get there.  There is nothing like a bus service.  there are jeepneys, but on Christmas day I suspect they will be conspicuous by their absence, so the village mass is their one and only Christmas mass.

By the way, Merry Christmas to all my readers!

Termites 3

For those of you wondering how our little white ant friends are doing:.......

The exterminators came back last week.  Of the 8 or so cylinders placed around the perimeter of the house only one had termites in it.  And they had really enjoyed the eucalyptus wood panels.  So that cylinder was packed with the cellulose bait.  The box attached to our skirting board was empty, the greedy little termites had eaten all the bait, so it was refilled.  The box by the bahay cubo was untouched , because they had sprayed that cubo as it had other pests as well and that had dealt with the termites there.

So now they should be feeling their mandibles getting soft, then their exoskeletons and then termites terminated!!

Serendipity

There are two routes from here to Manila.  Okay, in order to fully appreciate this you have to know that Manila lies to the north west of us and in between us and Manila lies Laguna de Bay, an enormous inland sea.  So basically to get to Manila you have to go round Laguna de Bay.

Route 1, favoured by most Filipinos, involves driving from here to Calamba allong the south shore of Laguna then onto the Southern Luzon Expressway (known as SLEX).  SLEX is being upgraded, and hence is in turmoil, so it is not a fast road yet, and as for the road from here to Calamba it goes through lots of towns and one's fastest speed is frequently that of the tricycles, about 15 m.p.h!!

But if you are going to the southeren part of Manila, the airport for example, or Alabang where we do our European shopping, you really have no choice.

Route 2 is to travel via Antipolo, along the eastern and northern shores of Laguna and that brings you to north Manila, Quezon City as it is known.  Although no expressway is involved, the road is good, not that heavily trafficed and so it is a fastish route.  Also the scenery is much nicer, less towns more mountains.

On the weekend of the funeral, see previous blog, we travelled up to Moncarda by Route 1 as it was 11 p.m. and by then all good Filipnos (and probably the bad ones too) are tucked up in bed and the roads everywhere are almost empty.

Coming back on a Monday afternoon, I decided we would go the Antipolo way, Route 2.  Anyway we made a wrong turn or didn't make a turn we should have, and instead of a 90 minute drive we were driving for over a couple of hours.  But we didn't realise we had gone wrong because we were driving in nthe most spectacular scenery I have ever seen here in the Philippines.  Mountains and valleys, a really beautiful road.  We only realsised we had gone wrong when our road turned into a goat track!  Then was then a lot of backtracking and saking before we found the road we should have been on!

Now I know that road is there, I will go back, it is not that far from here, with camera and try to take some pictures and post them here.  Probably in the New Year.

A Life that never was

We have had a sad couple of days.  One of Grace's sisters was pregnant and nearly due.

Unfortunately the baby was stillborn on Sunday.  So we all drove up to Moncada, where her sister lives for the burial which took place on Monday.

To me it was very strange.  The baby was buried , in the good old English phrase, without benefit of clergy.  I don't know why.  The father is catholic, mother methodist but there never semed any idea of getting the local priest or methodist minister to come.  On asking Grace she didn't seem to show any surprise at this.

I am told they said the rosary before the burial procession set out.  A group of about a dozen people carrying the small decorated coffin walked the couple of miles to the cemetary.  

Don't imagine a cemetary like an English churchyard - this is nothing like that.  The tradition here is for above ground tombs, mostly made of hollow blocks and cement.  In this cemetary the graves are adjoing each other with virtually no space between them.  So to get from the outside of the cemetary to anywhere inside you actually have to walk on the tombs themselves.  Somewhere between 2 of these tombs enough space had been found to dig  a small hole for the baby's coffin.  The coffin was placed on an adjacent tomb, the lid taken off for a final look at her and then placed in the hole and covered with earth.

Yes, I know that is essentially what a burial is, but this is the very first time I have been to one without some form of minister present to say the "official" words.  I felt desperately sad and that something important was missing.

Pray for the repose of the soul of Bless Angela Pascua.

Memoirs

No, not mine!!

I have recently been reading the memoirs of Hans Kung.

I have finished Volume 1 and am reading Vol 2 at the moment.

They are fascinating.  The first volume paints an intriguing picture of the church before and during Vatican 2.  Following all the twists and turns and meeting the people involved is interesting in itself but Kung goes much further.  He is also tracing the history of his own theology and to do that, he briefly summarises his theological arguments for his major works.  I have always admired his work and this behind the scenes insight I find gives a powerful extra dimension to the original books.

Volume 2 is very different.  Writtem after Ratzinger becomes Pope, the early part concentrates as much on Ratzinger as it does on Kung himself.  Not surprisingly as they were both professors together in the same university, in fact it was Kung who got Ratzinger into Turbingen.  A critical comparison of Kung's theology and theological appraoch with that of Ratzinger is given.  It makes it easier to see why B16 has taken some of his post papal stances.

Kung denies the charge that Ratzinger has changed, in fact he argues strongly that Ratzinger has not changed, that he still maintains the viewpoint inculcated in him as a Bavarian Catholic.  On the other hand, Kung says that he, Kung has changed, influenced by his observations, his researches and his insights, he has moved from a neo-scholastic training to a historo-critical exegesis position.  I can't do it justice here, but for anyone wanting to understand the theological arguments and crises of the last 50 years which so shape the church today, these 2 books are an excellent read.

Update on the Termites

I am getting behind on these blogs!!

The termite guys came almost 2 weeks ago, that is how behind I am!!

They placed 8 cylinders in the ground all around the house.   Each cylinder contains eucalyptuswood strips  and the idea is that when the team returns they will see which cylinders have been attacked.  Those attacked cylinders then get filled by this special cellulose bait.  Meanwhile the 2 places they observed direct termite activity, skirting board by the front door and a bench in our "bahay kubo", (a thatch covered seating area  some 20 yards from the house), were fitted with a closed box (small holes for termites only, filled with the bait.

Apparently eating the bait and taking it back to the nest for all other termites in the nest to eat, has the result of making their mandibles soft, then they can no longer attack wood, only eat the bait.  Finally the bait turns their entire exoskeletons soft and they die.  (No I dont feel guilty)

While the team were here they found 2 above ground termite nests which they destroyed.  They opened up the mound and then one guy reached in and pulled masses and masses of the little white perishers  and eggs out until finally he found the core: this is a hard mud construction about six inches by four by two.  Chopping that open we find the king , a black termite about half an inch long and the queen, a hideous worm like creature, two inches long and half an inch in diameter, greyish white, she lays egs, about 500 a day.  Then there was general spraying of the area to destroy them all.

Unfortunately there are 9 different species of termites in the Philippines and only 1 builds a mound.  The other 8 have underground nests you cannt easily find.  Hence the bait method.  And they can travel up to 50 metres in search of food.

I'll keep you posted after the team return!!

Teeth and Termites

You may have noticed a "T" theme in the last couple of blogs.  This is quite accidental I assure you.

At the end of last week, we realised we have termites.  They have munched their way through several inches of skirting board near the front door.

We called out an exteminator firm linked to the University of the Philippines, and they are going to place cylinders containing a poison (for termites) in the ground all around the house plus a unit where the infestation occurs and keep the cylinders topped up and monitor the process for 12 months.  The whole thing will cost about £400.  It seems quite a lot, until you think about the amount of damage the little critters could do.  All our doors and doorframes are wood, we have wood furniture, including speaker cases.  The damage could be enormous.

The night before last, while cleaning my teeth, I realised that one tooth had a bit missing, close to the gum line.  Well I haven't been to the dentist for 18 months, possibly 2 years, so my fault.  Anyway off both Grace and I went for an inspection, clean and whatever.  It is always, for me, a very nervous time going to a new dentist - you never know what you are going to get.  But the practice we went to was excellent.  They gave us an appointment the same day.  For me, the dentist cleaned my teeth, using ultrasonic cleaning, and removed the decay and restored the tooth that had the bit missing.  She also identified two or three others that are likely to go the same way so I am going back on Thursday to have those restored.  

Meanwhile, for Grace, they have identified a problem at the back of her jaw where she had 2 teeth removed 15 years ago.  So now they are going to give her a fixed bridge there.  The temporary crowns for her go in on Thursday too.

The cost was very reasonable.  For both inspections, cleanings, my restoration and the temporary crown for Grace, I paid  3000 peso, about £39 in total.

The only thing that phased me was in the dental surgery, you had the chair/recliner, the bright light, the device that gives you the rinsing liquid, all standard, plus a TV tuned into some local drama series.  While the dentist was cleaning my teeth she kept looking at the TV to keep abreast of the plot!  Apparently the other dentist, who was treating Grace, had the same set up!

Its just something I am going to have to get used to, I know!!!

Toussaint

The weekend before last was All Saints Day (Saturday) followed by All Souls (Sunday).

Other than the attempt to introduce trick or treating into the UK recently, All Saints always seemed a bit of a non-event in England.  But here it is very different.  

On All Saints day, the Filipinos go to the cemetaries en masse.  Grace, Richard, Nell and Mary went off to Tarlac to visit cemetaries there, leaving me on my own.    So I decided to go for  a day out.

Predictably I headed for a shopping mall south of Manila.  The roads were empty, where normally you would be crawling along behind jeepnies and tricycles, I could bowl along at a steady 50 or 60 mph.  Until, that is, I came to a cemetary.  At every cemetary, traffic slowed to below walking pace.  Every jeepney, tricycle for muiles around seemed to parked outside.  There were market stalls set up and hundreds of people in and around.  This was the case at 8.30 in the morning and still at 8.30 at night when I drove back home.

In the evening the cemetaries were all lit up.  There seems to be electric lights in every tomb and there was a real party atmosphere.    The day is used for tidying up the graves, placing and planting fresh flowers as well as giving a chance just to be with their dead relatives and friends.

As I was siting having a coffee, someone asked me why I hadn't visited a cemetary and I replied that the cemtary I would want to visit was thousands of miles away, and I thought of Ipswich cemetary and my Dad's (and maternal grandfather's) grave and my grandmother's grave.  Both of which are still not properly marked.  I must get headstones for both of them.

Predictably the next day Mass was packed, so much so that Fr. Rico delayed starting the 8.00 mass until 8.30 to allow everyone to get there!

Our Parish Church

I am acutely aware that I have kept mentioning that I will post some pictures of our parish church and have not done so.

Well yesterday, I took my camera with me, but unfortunately there was a funeral following upon Mass and so I couldn't get to take all the pictures I wanted. Anyway here are 3. One of a long view up the church from the door, one of the sanctuary and one of the water feature I have mentioned.

I will try and take some better ones!!

A Week in Chiang Mai

Having spent the month of September here in the Philippines, Grace and I had to return to Malaysia to pack all our stuff, with the movers of course, clean and hand back the house. As a sort of present to ourselves for doing this, we then went for 6 days in Chiang Mai.

I have been to Phuket and Bangkok before, Grace to Bangkok, but this was our first visit to the north of Thailand.

We were booked into a hotel called Karenthip Village, named after the winged elephant that stands in the front of the hotel. Here is the winged elephant with Grace:-



Chiang Mai is totally unlike the other Thai tourist spots I have visited. Much more relaxed, easy going, slow pace of life, a very pleasant place indeed. It is an old walled and moated city although it now spralls outside the old city too. Lots of good restaurants, although we did find one poor one(!!) and lots to see and do.

We only went on 2 trips. First was to Doi Suthep the temple on the hill, from where you get a magnificent view over Chiang Mai itself. Here are some pictures from there:-



These are the steps, some 200 of them we had to climb to the temple (there is a cable car for the faint of heart)



This shows the view you get of Chiang Mai from the hill.



And this was Grace getting a good luck woven charm bracelet in the temple. Women cannot get the charms from a monk, only men are allowed to do that so there is a non-monk sitting there especially to give the bracelets to women!!!


Our second trip, the next day, was to an elephant farm, where we got to see the elephants up close and watch them performing their various tasks. From what one gathers, the elephants in this farm are amongst the best looked after in Thailand. Included in the display is elephant painting and the photos below show some of the stages of the picture being painted by one elephant near us. They do actually do this!!






Not bad eh?

Grace fed one elephant and then climbed onto another:





And finally we had an ox-cart ride and a ride back on an elephant:-




The rest of our time was spent wandering, shopping in the various markets and eating and drinking!!

One of the occurrences that amused me, is that everyone we met took Grace for Thai. This meant they immediately starting chatting to her in Thai, and though she does know a few words, she is not really at conversational level. So she just smiled and nodded. The poor person talking to her would then continue until finally, unable to contain myself any more, I would say " My wife is not Thai" upon which they would say " But she looks like Thai!" We are thinking of designing a t-shirt for Grace for our next visit saying something like "I may look like Thai but I am NOT Thai"

Just to finish up with here is a picture of a 600 year old pagoda in the centre of Chiang Mai and then the jade Buddhas in the Temple of the same name.

Its been some time.....

since my last blog. So I feel I should post some updates.

We arrived here in Philippines on September 1st for a 4 week stay. The main object of which was to sort out my visa.

I am happy to report that the visa was approved, my passport stamped and my Alien Registration Card issued in just over two and a half weeks. Many thanks goto the people in the Bureau of Immigration in Manila who helped enormously.

So now I have a probationary 1 year residence visa, I have to report annually in January to prove I am still alive(??) and next August I can apply for the final Permanent Residence visa.

We had several trips into Manila to submit documents, submit passport, collect documents collect card etc. but it was well worth it.

Also we have had remarkable success with our internet connection. A temporary pole has been attached to our tower so the receiver module is now 85 feet in the air and we are getting a good signal, even in torrential rain conditions.

Actually the first full day we had this installed, the rain came and the internet vanished, but this was because the installers had placed a suppressor box upside down on the tower so it filled with water and hey presto - no internet. Since then, fingers crossed, no problems.

Last Monday (15th Sept) was our parish priest's birthday (49) and there was a big celebration and party. We were invited and got seated at the (equivalent of) the top table. The food was very good, but they don't have the wine drinking tradition here, locals either drink beer or Spanish (or local) brandy. So it was an alcohol free party!! But none the worse for that.

Once I get my camera here (currently it is still in Malaysia), I shall take and post some photos of the church. It has a really nice running water set piece with a pitcher at the top feeding water into two bowls below and which ends with a "bath" about the size of the ones we had in St M's and B's, but I don't know if it is used for Baptisms as I haven't seen any yet. But I think Fr. Ray would like it!

The most exciting news for me (so sad), is that we have discovered an English Grocery. It is in the Festival Mall in Alabang, which is about 2 hours drive away. It is attached to an English style pub, serving steak and kidney pies, fish and chips, apple crumble and other English delicacies. But it means I can buy Marmite, cider, Guinness, sausages, Jaffa cakes, gravy browning, horseradish sauce, and of course mint and apple sauce. Lots of other things too, but it makes for a nice grocery trip.

That is about it for the present.

John Carlos

I shall never forget Wednesday 16th July 2008.

It was the last full day for my family in the Philippines and we hadn't finally decided what we were going to do, find a sea side, go to a water theme park or what.

Just after breakfast grace told me that May, who lived just outside our gate and was (very) pregnant was about to give birth. The midwife was there and didn't think that the house was suitable for a birth as it had mud floors and more holes than walls (this was because it was being rebuilt)

So it was decided to move May to our garage. This is a big double garage bigger than the house May was living in and with good solid walls , roof and floor. And so we waited. All day there was a procession of people in and out of the garage. I looked in a few times and saw May walking about as the labour proceeded. Once it got to a more serious stage, Catherine was in there holding May's hand and helping. I had thought it was the kind of event where men weren't wanted/needed but on one visit I saw one of the friends leaning across May's head and pushing down on her tummy to help persuade the baby to come out!!

Finally in the early evening a little boy, John Carlos, was born. Both Alex and myself rushed in with our cameras to take photos. All the local children were there as well, including Louisa, getting biology lessons at first hand.

I think that being born in a garage is something to be proud of, after all wasn't another JC born in a stable and isn't a garage just the modern equivalent?

Here he is.........




That's Mum's knees in the foreground!!!!

Holiday in Philippines

This posting continues those made in my other blog, Letter from Malaysia, about my daughter's, son-in-law's and granddaughter's holiday with us.

Having arrived in the Philippines, on day one, while Grace was running around with final preparations for the Birthday party, we spent the morning on a boat trip around Lake Caliraya. I had been on one of these before and really enjoyed it. That was in a covered banca boat. However when we arrived at the lake shore it was obvious there was a problem with that boat's engine, which was in pieces on the ground.

We were switched to another boat, a smaller one with no cover and guess who had forgotten his sun screen? Yes, me of course! It was an overcast day so I didn't worry too much but of course the sun came out later on!! And a smaller boat is more uncomfortable, less to sit on and hard planks can be tough after a couple of hours!!

Nevertheless, it was an enjoyable experience.

In the afternoon, Louisa started collecting coconuts...

Then the guys from Smartbro came to repair the internet connection, knocked down during the recent tornado....

and up the mast they had to go.........


Next day was the party, covered in earlier blogs and the next day after that was recovery day!

And Alex had a go at climbing the mast!!




That's as high as he got. Quite high enough for me!
Then on the Monday we went to Lake Taal to look at the volcano.

and take some pictures......





In the afternoon it rained so much the lake disappeared from view completely!!

Tuesday was adventure day for Catherine and Alex. The Mayoress of Cavinti had been at the party and had invited/persuaded/arranged that the two of them would go down to Pagsanhan falls by climbing down the vertical ladders of the gorge wall. We decided Richard, should go with them.

Here they are being put into the safety harness


On picking them up after the descent, going through and behind the waterfall and then rafting back down river, they were soaked!!! But had had a wonderful time.

Here are some pictures of the minor waterfalls just to finish the posting....








Wednesday gets a post to itself!!!

My 60th Birthday - The Party

It was great!!

Lots of people there and all had a good time.

Unfortunately we had rain, but the marquees gave us shelter. The only real casualty was me, when half way through the afternoon I sat on a chair. leaned back, over balanced and fell into the mud, necessitating a change of clothes - and I wasn't even drunk!!

Here come the pictures............

Early arrivals.....

The family march up from the garage..

Grace and her Dad

The Cake!!!

Lighting the candles

Blowing them out!!

Cutting the cake

And lastly, Mary and friend measured against Alex's knees!!

My 60th Birthday - Final Preparations

Well it had to come, you can't remain 21 for ever!!!

Grace, my wife, had been planning this big celebration for months and my eldest daughter, husband and granddaughter had all flown over from the UK to help celebrate, as well as having a holiday.

So on the morning of the 12th July there was enormous hustle and bustle........


Putting up the welcoming banner

Getting into our party frocks!!

Laying out all the tables under the marquees

And assembling the waitresses and waiters

Did you just catch a glimpse of that pig? Well here you can see her in all her glory......

And yes it was delicious!!!!!