marvaninmanila: November 2011

Mum and Papa visited us in October and we had a number of adventures with them. The first was going to Boracay! It's the most famous Filipino island and it's due to the white sand - which is beautiful. The sand is raked everyday by all the resort owners - and at night the local children do beautiful patterns in the sand with candles. We had a great holiday, making most of the cocktails at Happy Hour and the sunset sailing. Martin even got into scuba diving again!

After we got back M,P and me spent one day driving up to Batabgus to collect Maritess's daughter, Charmaine, to bring her back for our Halloween Party. I also wanted to check out Martiess's house to see if I can help her set up a Sari sari store before we leave. She has to travel 3 hours to work for us - including walking up a long flight of stairs - mostly in the dark to reach her house. Her husband prepared the local specialty noodle dish for us when we visited - (it was cold when we got there and a bit claggy!). Anyway it was interesting to see how she lives with no running water, no fridge, wood stove, one room hut all sleeping in the same bed. The contrast between our 4 bedroom , 5 bathroom, 300sqm condo is massive!

The Filipinos love to celebrate Halloween - and every other Christian event - so we are finding out! The boys loved having Charmaine staying with us - even though they don't speak the same language.

It was sad to see Mum and Papa leave - but they had the best time - even surviving the Qantas strike! Getting a bed in a hotel instead of trying to sleep in the plane!