Welcome Back

It didn't take long to fall back into the usual routine on my arrival back in The Philippines from my holiday in the UK. After all, what else is there to do?

There is the new project that's due to start at the end of November to look forward to. In some ways it'll be good to get out of Toledo and go to somewhere different. Reading various guide books there seems to be plenty of interesting things to do in Iloilo and on the island of Panay - including the fact that Boracay is a mere 4 hour drive away. On the other hand, it means more upheaval and the prospect of packing everything up and moving again is not something I relish.

What I like about the job that I do is you're never in one place for longer than a year or so and then you're on the move to see/do something different. A whole new location, different people and varying conditions grab the attention and prevents boredom setting in. However, in equal measures what I really dislike about this process is never being able to settle or become established in any sort of routine. No sooner you've found a place you like to live in, a gym to use, a route to ride your bicycle on, a place to shop, a place to eat then you're off again. And having to be endlessly mobile means never properly having the comforts of home - only what you can pack into a suitcase.

Mountain Biking

I've been up the mountains a couple of times for the down hill cycling, although I think I'm starting to lose my nerve.   Every time I go out I'm trying to beat my previous highest speed and the last time I managed to top 44mph. I can see that this is going to end in tears and combined with a certain paranoia that the front forks on my bike are wobbly, or the brake pads are failing, or the frame is going to snap in half (the last one is borne from seeing it happen to a on TV a guy trying to race a bike down the side of a mountain and ending up with half the hillside embedded in his face). Admittedly he was going much faster but also consider that his bike wasn't a £100 special from down-town Cebu, so I reckon that puts me at the same level of risk and as a consequence I've started to shy away from the mountain.

So the weekend after arriving back I had my driver take me 18 miles out of town along the coast road and dump me there to cycle my own way back to the house. And this is in some ways far more enjoyable than the white-knuckle ride down the mountain as I can take my time, take in the views and it's easier to stop to take photos. The next time I go out I intend to go in the opposite direction and cycle back in again.

Locals in the Rice Fields

On the Sunday afternoon I cycled to the town of Balamban, which again is on the coast. It has an interesting market full of local produce and a prevalence of dried fish of all shapes and sizes. Cycling along the road there are frequent and friendly calls of "Hey Joe". Why it's always Joe I've no idea. Stopping to photograph a rice paddy I was approached by local lady and as the conversation invariably does it turned to asking if I could employ her husband.

In the market and along the road there are some great photo opportunities but I lack the confidence to approach people and photograph them. I don't like surreptitiously photographing people as I do feel that it's an invasion of their privacy and I'm embarrassed to do this. A friend of mine in Singapore has a great solution to this: go and have half a dozen pints beforehand and lose all your photographic inhibitions. However, it's not to be recommended when cycling!