Cat on a Cold Concrete Roof

Between the dogs yelping and barking and whining I could hear a cat meowing.  Not just a regular meow but clearly a cat in distress.  Having made, or rather in the process of making friends with the feral cats that live in our garden (see here for video: New Feline Friends ), I'd noticed that of the 3 kittens one was missing.  The meowing seemed to be coming from the neighbouring house (not the barking dog neighbours but the other side) so I had a look in that direction.  

The sound was definitely coming from there but I just couldn't see where from and so I wondered if it had become trapped in a box or a drain or something like that.  But the meowing was just too loud and too clear.  Then I clocked it - the kitten was on the roof of the house.  I have no idea how it managed to climb up there - it's a two storey house and the nearby tree branches look far too flimsy for a cat, even a very small one, to climb along and onto the roof.

I called my driver over and pointed out the cat on the roof.  He spoke to my the caretaker of my neighbour (my house is a semi detached house) and he casually mentioned that he knew about it because he'd seen it last Friday.  Today is Monday so the poor little kitten had been trapped on the roof for at least 3 to 4 days - if not longer, but the caretaker seemed quite happy to just sit and watch it starve to death.  I told my driver to see if he could find some long lengths of wood to lay against the roof to allow the kitten to climb down, whilst I went to see if I could find a ladder as the timber idea seemed like a non-starter.  

However, I couldn't locate one but by the time I'd arrived back the kitten was safely down on the ground.  Very skinny and a bit wobbly on its legs but down and safe.

Police & Dogs

Well I tried the nice approach.  I asked the neighbours to control the barking dogs three times but to no avail.  So, at the end of last week, when the barking started at 5:00am and continued on and on I called the police.  Normally, anywhere else in the Philippines I'd be laughed at as barking dogs are the norm but in Subic, in an attempt to retain some semblance of civilization following the departure of the Yanks, there are some very strict rules in place to maintain the harmony and peace.  They just need to be implemented.

I called the number and firstly had to deal with a guy who explained at length that it was the end of his shift but he would write the complaint in the log and pass it onto the day shift.  Uh-oh, I thought, this is just going to be forgotten about but sure enough, at just after 7:00am the door bell rang and there was a tiny policeman in a US naval baseball cap at the door who introduced himself as the guy I'd spoken to on the phone and whose shift had ended.  He then introduced me to his colleague from the day shift and asked me whereabouts the barking dogs were.

I did a double take because we were shouting at each other over the noise of the barking dogs.  See what I mean? I'm sure Filipinos have something in their genetic make-up that means the sound of barking dogs doesn't register in their brain.

I led them over to the garden fence and pointed out the dogs in cages.  I could see that they were thinking that the barking just wasn't that bad and why was I troubling them with a complaint.  Anyway, they said that they would go and speak with the owners and issue them with a warning.  No doubt I'm now public enemy No. 1 in their eyes.

I made a light-hearted comment to the end-of-shift copper that he should hand over to his colleague and go home and get some sleep.  He looked at me and said that he'd sleep much better if he had a couple of cans of beer to drink and threw me an expectant glance - which I ignored.  

Perhaps he can't sleep because it too quiet where he lives?

Barking Mad

Just when I thought it was safe to go back into the water my peace and tranquility has been smashed again.  I don't know what it is about Asians and their dogs?  I was going to call them pets but who keeps a dog in a tiny cage and never lets it out or never takes it for a walk?  What's the point?  I really don't get it.  Except when it comes to the Koreans perhaps (and there is a large contingent of them living in Subic) who may be contemplating eating the wretched beast at some stage but even then, don't they understand the concept of free range hounds?

And now my neighbours, who already have two caged dogs that are never let out, have decided to get another one.  I mean come on, why would you decide to get a third one?  And being as it's a puppy it kept in the tiniest wire cage and yaps and whines continuously.

Early this morning it was just too much and I (almost) snapped.  Jumping out of bed and donning a pair of shorts and a tee shirt I bounded downstairs and marched over to the fence.

Just about holding it together and remaining good mannered I gestured to the guy wandering around the neighbour's yard.  I tried to explain to him that if he didn't stop the dogs from barking I would report him to the SBMA (Subic Bay Municipal Authority), who allegedly have very strict rules on the issue of noise and pet keeping.  

Unfortunately, I couldn't make myself heard over the cacophony of barking and the guy was obviously some domestic helper or gardener and didn't understand English, so I hauled my driver over to explain.  The guy said said he would tell the owner of the house but clearly from the look on his face he couldn't understand what my problem was.  

So it seems that the owner, who is hardly ever there, likes to keep barking dogs in cages because he doesn't have to bleeding well listen to them.

Priceless.

The Art of Avoiding Schmutzengään

What to do for Christmas and the New Year?  I had it in mind to go back to the UK as I haven't had a Christmas there since 2003 but then the snow started falling and the country started falling apart.  There was more snow predicted, even a white Christmas, and I wasn't going to substitute one third world country for another.  The thought of being stranded at the airport and/or the collapse of the public transport system and being subjected to that particularly offensive clipboard officialdom that pervades in the UK, I decided to look at alternatives.

I haven't been to Australia for a couple of years and so it seemed like an ideal time to catch up with some friends of mine down-under so I booked a flight to Oz, which wasn't as easy as you might think.  There were no direct flights from Manila and the flights from Hong Kong were ridiculously expensive so I ended flying with Thai Airways via Bangkok.  Yup, it was far cheaper to travel 3½  hours in the opposite direction than to go an hour north and fly from HK.  I ceased long ago trying to understand airfare structuring and it kind of make a mockery of all those stupid, and exorbitant green taxes you now pay if you end up longer in the air for a cheaper flight.

Sunny Manila From the Air

I flew in to Brisbane to visit my Brit mate Luis (I say Brit but he's actually half Spanish, half Scottish), who emigrated to Oz several years ago and went from being a civil engineer, to a gym instructor/owner to a police officer.  On arrival in Brisbane it was raining. And it continued to rain, constantly, consistently for a week which curbed our activities somewhat, particularly my intent to undertake some photography.  Which was particularly disappointing as I'd lugged my rather bulky and heavy Bronica and lenses along with me for that purpose.

On Christmas day, and with it still raining, we travelled to Noosa to visit Luis' girlfriend (Julie) and her brother (Steve) but ended up spending 3 hours in a car park in the rain due to some confusion over the rendezvous venue.  However, this wasn't a problem for Luis and me because we just sat and chin wagged, which is what we seem to do best.  We once went on holiday in Spain with the intent of hiking in the Pyrenees but all we did was drink coffee, eat pastries and talk lots.  As it was still raining in Noosa there wasn't much we could do there either but we had Christmas dinner that was a salad.  Very nice it was too, but I was rather hoping for turkey and all the trimmings, especially as it was a damp, dreary day just like a Christmas in England.

Christmas Dinner - Turkey It Ain't

On Boxing Day we went for a walk along Noosa beach in the drizzle and did some window shopping in the horrendously expensive shops there.  Australia has become very, very expensive since my last visit, not only due to the crash of sterling but also the prices seemed to have increased considerably.  I think long gone are the days of a cheap cost of living in the Land of Oz and combined punitive taxation Australia doesn't seem to be the promised land it used to be.

A Grey Day in Noosa

On the 29th December Luis, Julie and Luis' daughter Dani and me all went to Woodford Folk Festival, a sort of Aussie Glastonbury.  We were expecting mud induced carnage and the car park confirmed our fears as motorists without 4-wheel drive were slip-sliding all over the place.  However, once inside the venue things improved and were no where near as bad as you might have imagined after weeks of constant rainfall and this was already several days into the event.  Full marks to the event organisers who seemed to manage to keep everything relatively clean and operational.  We split up as Luis' taste in music aren't quite my cup of tea and besides, he was going to be looking for some venue where he could practice his fancy samba/rumba/salsa (or whatever it's called) steps.  He did try to convince me to join him at the menstruation symposium tent but I declined.

Woodford Hippies

As it was a folk festival I imagined it would be all Bob Dylan types and new age hippies but by chance I ended up in a tent where there was a band called Kooii playing (click here for a Youtube clip: Kooii at Woodford) and they were brilliant, playing a reggae/funk/soul/jazz mix of music that was right up my street.  I could have listen them all day.  After that I had a wander round and had a brief look at some hare krishna types banging drums and bashing those little cymbals but quickly moved on.  I saw the end of an acoustic performance by a guy called Geoffrey Williams and wished I'd seen the whole set.  However, having Googled him (he's a Brit) and watching some of his stuff on Youtube I found it rather disappointing.  Perhaps he should stick with the live performances.  Then I wandered into the tiny Pineapple Tent and there was some of the Kooii band doing a jam with another band (whose name escapes me) and this was even better than the first gig.  Brilliant stuff.

Woodford Hippie Wannabes

New Year's eve we flew down to Sydney to see the fireworks.  All of Sydney city centre seemed to have an alcohol lock-down with whole areas being designated as alcohol free areas.  The (other) brother of Luis' girlfriend has an apartment in a prime location with excellent views of the harbour bridge so that's where we welcomed in the New Year, on the roof top watching the fireworks.

Fireworks - No Booze Allowed

We spent 3 days in Sydney.  For me, one of the most rewarding parts were wandering around the city taking photographs.  I was up at 6:00am New Year's day (one of the advantages of not drinking I suppose) and spent the morning wandering over and around the Harbour Bridge taking snaps and having a very pleasant breakfast in a little cafe by Sydney North station.

Sydney Harbour Bridge

Sydney Harbour Bridge Approach Viaduct

In Brisbane I'd bought an old Nikon camera to add to my burgeoning collection and used it in Sydney as it was lighter and easier to carry around and I wasn't going to get hassle on the domestic flight for my hand luggage being too heavy.

On the Bridge

SHB and Lunar Park Fun Fair

We also had a pleasant, if uneventful day at Bondi Beach.  We didn't acutally go for a swim or lay on the beach, despite it being the sunniest day so far but went for a walk along the coast.  Australia might be rated as one of the countries with the lowest population densities but when all the population is squeezed in around the coast it feels as crowded as anywhere else in the world.

The Beach

The Graffiti 

The Cemetery

Checking in at Sydney airport there was a large queue, not unsurprisingly for the busy time of the year.  It would appear that there is no need to turn up early and queue because those that turned up at the last minute were allowed to jump the queue - and I'm not talking about just one or two.  Now to me this seemed likely to create queue anarchy and somewhat defeats the whole point of a queue.  If you can't organise your life and get to the airport on time (isolated, exceptional cases notwithstanding) then why should anyone be given preferential treatment and allowed to jump the queue?  Like I said, if everyone did that and waited until the last minute, knowing they wouldn't have to queue, then the whole system would collapse. Blame the airlines.  And why is it, whenever I check in I'm at the counter for no more than a minute whereas so many people seem to be there for ages.  What can possibly be the problem?  Ticket. Passport. Booking confirmation.  Boarding pass.  Go.  It's a mystery to me.

Gold Coast

Once we were back in Brisbane the sun started to shine briefly so we were up early and went walking in the hills around Brisbane in the hope of actually taking some photos and making use of the Bronica.  There wasn't that much to photograph but it was a very pleasant and enjoyable walk nevertheless.

Brisbane City at Dawn

I had hoped to get to Tassie and Melbourne to see my other friends but the travel and time constraints didn't really permit it.  Never mind, it's a damned good excuse to go again later in the year.

The Big Build Up

Sept/Oct/Nov/Dec

One thing I forgot to mention was that no sooner I'd arrived back in the Philippines I was off again the next weekend at short notice to visit Singapore on business.  No complaints there though as it was the usual excuse to indulge in a bit of quality living.

Also mid September I was in KL for the weekend visiting my sister and her friends.

Bodyguard for a Minor Celeb Gets Aggressive

It was a good opportunity to catch up with her as I'd had limited time to see her whilst I was in England.  I really like KL.  It's cheaper than Singapore and considerably more relaxed.  Hand in hand with that, the people are very friendly also.  I went to the KL Bird Park, leaving early to make sure I arrived there before the crowd and sure enough, I was one of the first through the gate.  It really is a fabulous place with plenty of exotic bird life to see and it's very well maintained.  I had nasi lemak in great restaurant that overlooks the park and had various birds watching me eat and hoping to steal a morsel.

I still had a considerable amount of stuff in the apartment in Iloilo so I had a choice of either allowing my trusted staff to place it in the hands of some courier company, or pay for a business class ticket so I could collect it myself and fly it back to Subic.  The last option was to drive there and collect it myself and this seemed to be the best solution.

Rolly volunteered to do the driving so we set off early in the morning at the beginning of October to drive the 150 miles from Subic down to Batangas, south of Manila.  From here we took a ferry to Calapan on the island of Mindoro.  As the ferry left Batangas there were kid swimming precariously close to the ferry.  Rolly told me if I threw coins into the water the kids would dive for them.  Sure enough, each coin was pursued and every one of them retrieved from the depths.  As the ferry came into the port at Calapan there were even more money diving kids in the water and with a fair wash and turbulence in the water as the ferry manoeuvred to the mooring I was sure one of the kids would be sucked under or chopped to bits in the propeller, hence I was reluctant to encourage their recklessness and so didn't partake in the money throwing.

Diving for Money

Once ashore we then started on the 75 mile drive to Roxas, travelling down the grandly named Strong Republic Nautical Highway with the Mindoro mountain range to our right.  The Strong Republic Nautical Highway might have been grand in name but it's in a pretty poor in condition hence it was slow going (combined with numerous roadworks with no discernible traffic management) so the drive took quite some time and longer than anticipated.  It would have been good to have had the time to stop and take some photos but time was pressing.  Roxas is about two-thirds of the way down the south-east coast of Mindoro and by the time we arrived in Roxas it was dark.  We were at the mercy of the ferry timings so we had time to eat and rest for a while before taking the midnight ferry to Caticlan on the island of Panay.

Colourful Travellers

It's a longer journey from Roxas to Caticlan and so it was dawn and we passed by the island of Boracay as we approached Caticlan.  The ferry was chock-a-block and all the best seating and areas had already been bagged.  Rolly and me tried sleeping in the car but I just couldn't get comfortable and so spent most of the night on the top deck peering over the railings as the moonlight shimmering on the sea and the distant lights on passing islands.  How I envied those that had brought their own hammocks and looked so comfortable gently swaying in time to the ferry's rolling.

As I hadn't slept I know it wasn't going to be able to stay awake for the rest of the journey.   The last leg, after some breakfast and a coffee, was the 4 hour drive to Iloilo and so in a total covered around 430 miles.  All my stuff had been removed out of the accommodation and into our office.  I had some business to clear up there but that evening we loaded the car up with all my gear, with my bike on the roof rack.  I stayed overnight in a hotel in Iloilo and whilst the room was spacious it was dreadfully bland and somewhat threadbare.  Thankfully, I was there only for a few hours as we were leaving at 4:00am to be sure to catch the first ferry out of Caticlan.  Going back was much the same as going there so nothing really much more to write about, although we didn't make it to Subic so I spent the night in Balanga (near to where the site is) before heading back to Subic the following day.

Route Taken (Shown in Red)

Late October saw the arrival of "Super" typhoon Megi.  Subic was only on the fringes of the storm so we didn't get the battering from the wind but there was a huge amount of rainfall.  Really, I find it amazing that so much water can drop out of the sky over such and extended period.  Still at the home-stay there was no flooding but on the way to Bataan and the site the extent of the flooding was truly shocking - and I don't think I'm easily shocked.  All the agricultural land, principally rice paddies and to a lessor extent corn fields, was totally inundated. Farms, fields and crops that local people depend on to feed themselves and their families totally submerged.  Houses too.

People try to walk a road between two rice paddies, totally inundated.

Late October I was off to Bangkok for a friend's wedding, which was at the same venue as my sister's 50th.  As I flew into Thailand it was evident that there was widespread flooding there too - from the aeroplane I could see that vast tracts of the countryside was underwater, such was the size and influence of the typhoon.  The wedding ceremony was in a church on the opposite side to the river to the reception and the church had been sandbagged to protect it from flooding.  At the Chakrabongse Villas the gardens were being protected by a flood wall that was only under construction during my last visit there and the pier was totally submerged and an improvised system of gangplanks had been constructed in order to access the venue and not get wet feet.  The wedding was great and the weekend fantastic.

The Happy Couple

I had plenty of time to indulge myself and visit the big second-hand camera market and treated myself to a new macro lens and pushed the boat out and bought a Konica Hexar AF, which has an almost cult status among camera aficionados.

My Konica Hexar AF

I'd read about a village near Mt. Pinatubo that had become submerged during the eruption when a lahar flow had blocked a river forming a new lake (Lake Mampaen) and drowning the village, leaving the only visible remains the church steeple poking out of the lake waters.  During the last weekend in October I took a drive up to the location.  There are no road signs and no one we asked in the towns and villages along the route had heard of such a place so we were heavily reliant on the GPS that I had programmed with what I thought were the co-ordinates for the location.  It took us a while to get there and the drive along the flood embankments containing the lahar to the west of Mt. Pinatuno was impressive.  It's hard to capture the size and extent of the the valleys and plains created by the flows and equally, the fact that 20 years on from the event they are still largely void of vegetation gives you an indication of the power and volume of the flows.  

Lahar Plain

We found the relocated village on the shores of the lake and sure enough, there was the church spire sticking out of the waters.  Not a spire in the tradition sense but more of a modern church spire but quite interesting nonetheless.

Church Spire in Lake Mampaen

November saw my 49th birthday and I spent it in Singapore, working but also visiting my good friend Tall Kev (Tall Kev) who like me is a keen photographer and camera enthusiast.  Between myself, Kev and Dave in Taiwan I think we have enough cameras and gear to start our own dealership up.

Singapore is always a very refreshing change to my existence in the Philippines.  It's such a contrast.  It is hellishly expensive though.  A beer in the pubs is S$12, which works out at current exchange rates to be a tad under £6.  Go to the clubs and prestige bars and you'll end up paying even more.

Over £6 Worth

Now that I'm properly ensconced in the house in Subic I can concentrate on setting up for the next project.  This can't really come quickly enough but it's extremely frustrating moving the project out of the train yard and heading on the right track, only to have others come along and move the points so we end up travelling down a branch line. Sometimes even towards the buffers.

In December I went to my favourite city, Kaohsiung, to visit Dave.  There's new airline called Spirit of Manila that has very cheap flights from Clark to Taipei, although the plane was so empty (around 10 passengers going there, even less coming back) I don't think they'll be in business for much longer unless they can drum up more trade.  The problem seems to be a lack of awareness.  I hadn't heard about them until the Australian home-stay people told me and no one else I've spoken to has ever heard of them so I think some advertising wouldn't go amiss.

Dave (With Newly Acquired Olympus) & Some Beardy Bloke

Unfortunately the flight goes into the international airport in the north of Taiwan so a train journey is necessary to get to Kaohsiung, and a short bus ride from the airport to the station is also required.  I can't understand why the Taiwanese didn't route the railway alongside the airport.  That seems to be a lost opportunity and a major mistake to me.  Having said that, the bus ride is easy enough and cheap and it's all very well organised - unlike the bus ride I took from Heathrow to Gatwick a couple of years back that was astonishingly expensive at £25 one way and that had a very rude, unhelpful and abrupt driver.

The train journey on the relatively new high speed railway was fantastic and reasonably priced at just under £30 each way (and there's no need to book weeks in advance, you can just pitch up)  for the 200 mile journey and which only took 1 hour & 40 minutes on a comfortable, spotlessly clean and graffiti free carriage.  In the UK, the shorter distance from King's Cross to York is nearly £90 and takes 2 hours.  The 15 mile journey from Heathrow to Paddington Station starts at £16.50 provided you book it on-line in advance. Buy a ticket on the train and it'll cost you £23.  How can that be right for a 15 mile journey?

Kaohsiung in Bloom

My time in Kaohsiung was spent drinking and eating the wonderful food available and as the weather is particularly agreeable at this time of year, plenty of walking visiting camera shops (I bought a Zeiss Ikonta 532/16 on a whim).  Too much temptation.

Zeiss Ikonta 532/16

A Rolling Stone . . . .

August/Sept 2010

Just before I'd gone back to the UK I'd moved out of my rented accommodation in Iloilo (and happy to leave the incessant barking dogs) into more temporary (and cheaper) digs, so my whole life was back in boxes again.

Once back from my trip the priority was to find a new place to live near to the new project, although in the interim I did have the chance to visit a conservation project about 2 hours north-west from Iloilo.

Mari-it Conservation Park, linked to the nearby college, concentrates on the conservation of indigenous hornbills, deer and pigs.

Entrance to the Park

It wasn't a bad place either.  Plenty to see and being shown around was done on a one-to-one basis with one of the park's volunteers who gave the run-down on the species, reason for their decline (too many people of course) and background to the park.  What I found particularly depressing is when I asked about programmes of reintroduction I was told there were none as all the species kept there were either in too smaller numbers to breed successfully, had an acute lack of habitat and the due to the uncontrollable problem of poaching.  So the rarest animals were destined to spend the rest of their existence in zoo in a cage.  Sad.  Terribly sad.

Hornbill

Endangered (Apparently) Warty Pig

Insofar as the relocation of my accommodation and project office were concerned, the initial intention was to go and set up in Manila.  With the new project being in Bataan it seemed like the ideal place (dire traffic and high crime not withstanding) with the nearby international and domestic airport, communications and facilities available.  Areas such as Makati are relatively safe too.  However, the key to this was the fast ferry connection from Manila to Bataan that would allow me to travel across Manila Bay to the project in an hour or so.

Having contacted a few letting agencies I spent a long weekend in Manila looking at apartments to rent.  It was during this laborious and tedious process that I learnt that the ferries had been permanently discontinued (they were an on/off event anyway) and so I had to come up with a Plan B.

The obvious choice seemed to be either Angeles City or Subic Bay, both are only 45 minutes drive from the project in Bataan, have good infrastructure (a legacy of the Americans) and generally good security.  However, there had been a few fatal shootings in down town Angeles hence I decided that perhaps Subic Bay would be better.

I arranged to spend a week in Subic looking for somewhere more permanent to rent.  Not wanting to particularly stay in a hotel I found a home-stay and so arranged to stop there for a couple of weeks.  It wasn't what I'd call a home-stay in the true sense of the meaning - i.e. I wasn't living with a family - as they had converted the ground level of their former US military staff home into a separate, self contained unit with its own small kitchen and bathroom.  The home-stay was owned by an Australian family and they were friendly and helpful, keen to advise and assist where necessary.  The service was good and the atmosphere relaxed.  They own a diving school in Subic Bay so I'm already signed up to do my diving course early in the New Year.  

The only minor problem with the place was they seemed to have a rat living in the partition wall that made a horrendous sound as it chomped at the timber studwork at night and kept me awake on a couple of occasions.  Several times in the night I had to get up and bang the wall which seemed to quieten it down for a while but it was soon back at work, chewing and gnawing away.  I reported it to the owners, much to their embarrassment, and I don't know what they did but least they manage to get rid of it by the time I returned.  On more upbeat note regarding the wildlife, because the US base had a forestry protection policy and was free from poachers, there seems to be a healthy population of bird life.  Monkeys are frequent visitors, pulling over dustbins and generally making mischief.  Also, there are hornbills in the canopy so I needn't have gone to the trouble of visiting the Mari-it Park to see them in cages.

Wild Subic Hornbills

Them Cheeky Monkeys

I signed up with a couple of letting agencies and started doing the tour of potential property rentals.  It was disappointing.  I asked to see furnished and gave them a budget but if it was in budget, it was unfurnished and if it was furnished, it was out of budget.  I did see quite a nice apartment in town but when I discovered that there was a 24 hour cafe/bar almost outside the bedroom window I decided not to take it.

As time went by and nothing suitable came along I decided to look at a semi detached house a couple of doors up from the home-stay.  It was unfurnished but the price was reasonable so I figured that I could afford to use some of the rental allowance on buying furniture.  If it was a short term proposition it wouldn't be worth it but as the intention is to remain and operate from Subic for the next couple of years I convinced myself that it was a viable option.  The house has been recently refurbished, is spacious with two bedrooms, lounge and kitchen upstairs and a self contained  2 room unit downstairs.  It also has a rather splendid first floor timber verandah at the rear that I could envisage myself lounging on, knocking back G&Ts, so I signed up.

The landlord provided an ancient TV and salsa set (sofa and stool) which has to be the most uncomfortable sofa I've ever sat on.  The Aussies from the homestay gave me two single beds, a rather worn out three-piece suite and a dining table with more than enough chairs.  This has been enough to keep me going for the time being but I still need to buy a decent sofa and bed.

In addition, I've discovered that a former colleague of mine from my days working on the casino in Singapore lives but 300 yards down the road and another former colleague from my days in Iraq and Taiwan is also renovating a house and planning to move to Subic, so I won't be a Billy-no-mates the whole time I'm here.

During the first weekend here I went to the war memorial at Mt. Samat.  Mt. Samat is a the site of some of the fiercest fighting between the Japanese and US/Philippines troops and which culminated in the Bataan Marches atrocity.  The memorial is a huge cross so large that you can travel up in an elevator and there is a viewing gallery in the horizontal cross arm.  We were rather hoping to go to the very top but we were told we couldn't.  We weren't told why we couldn't, we just couldn't.  Which rather hacked me off because we weren't told this before we paid to go up.  However, I doubt if there is anything more to be seen by going to the very top than can be seen at the cross arms.  From there the refinery at our next project was visible.  If the weather had been clearer, Manila across the bay would have also been clearly visible as well.  And there was a good view of the surrounding Bataan peninsular.

The Cross on Mt. Samat

Reliefs at the Base of the Cross

Viewing Gallery Inside the Cross's Arms

A Measure of True Friendship & a Busman's Holiday

After I'd left Yorkshire the plan was to meet up with a couple of friends - one in Rugby and the other in Clacton.

Unfortunately, due to a mix up in text messages and voice mail I missed the meet up in Rugby and so headed to Clacton to see Steve.  Steve is a dead ringer for Tony Hadley but likes to consider himself looking more like Steven Seagal, although I can't imagine why anyone would want to emulate that moron.  

I arrived at Steve's fairly late and although I haven't seen him for going on 7 years it was like picking up where we left off.  We had a few drinks in his house and chatted and reminisced about our working time together on the railway and the many, many good times and great laughs we had.  As the booze took hold Steve showed me his second most prized possession, which for legal reasons it's probably best if I don't mention what it is and the fact he wanted to demonstrate its operation.  Despite being a drunk as I was, I knew it would be rather reckless to do so and I managed to convince him otherwise.  In the end, he settled for letting off a flare in his back garden that went off with such a bang I went to bed with my ears still ringing.

The following morning and feeling somewhat rough from the previous night and with my ears still ringing we had breakfast and then Steve showed me his most prized possession, his Porsche 996.  He needed to take his work car to the garage so asked if I could follow him in the Porsche to pick him up.  Would I?  Now that really is a measure of true friendship: you don't see a mate for going on 7 years and the day he turns up you let him drive your Porsche.  Fair play to him.

Off we went, with me pootleling along like a little old lady through the town.  We dropped his car off then, still allowing me to drive, we went for a wee burn up on the bypass.  It was tremendous.  For me it's not the top end speed but how it gets there.  The acceleration.  It's having the power on tap and the seemingly endless surge when you put your foot down.  It makes for a very intoxicating mix and I WANT ONE (hence the need to build up my insurance NCB)!  When we arrived back at Steve's house there was a terrible smell of a burning clutch.  I was mortified.  Steve seemed to take it in good humour but he hasn't let me forget about it since.  Okay, so I'm not used to driving a manual.  The clutch pedal was awfully light.  And in an odd position.  My balance was affected by the flare and the ringing in my ears.  I was hungover. Or perhaps I'm just a crap driver?

After leaving Steve I headed back to my place and had the joy sitting in a massive traffic jam at the Dartford crossing.

I still had many other people I wanted to meet up with but first there were chores and urgent tasks that needed doing around the house.  Some obvious, others not so obvious.  

The drains had been blocked, with solidified fat as it turned out, and was forming a stream past the back door every time someone had a shower or did the washing up.  I'd cleaned them the week before but in the process a chunk fat had been washed down the drain and blocked it further down in the "dirty" section so out came the drain rods.  That's a job I love doing on my holiday.

Attempts to Purge the Moles!

The outside tap was leaking and water was leaching into the brickwork causing the exterior paint to peel off and become unsightly.  Without a doubt, the leak had occurred when the tap had frozen in the winter so it had been leaking for quite some time and probably explained the infestation of slugs and snails in the kitchen.  In order to do a proper repair I would have had to chop out the rendering to get to the offending connection and that seemed like too much of a task to undertake, which had the potential to turn into a major project so I just turned the tap off at the isolating valve.

Leaky Tap

I needed to create some space in the garage so I could park my car in there, which meant hiring a skip and filling it up with rubbish left by the tenants.  This included a huge amount of carpet off cuts (I tried burning most of it - probably not the most environmentally friendly thing to do), some of which were nothing to do with the carpet that had been fitted in the house but clearly the carpet fitter had taken advantage of the opportunity to off-load all his rubbish on someone else.  I'd made an attempt to tidy the overgrown garden somewhat and so there was also a fair amount of garden waste too.  The two rolls of insulation I'd stored in the shed had become a favourite nesting spot for the rats that infested the place when the previous tenants decided (unbeknown to me) to keep chickens.  

Barely Room for the Car

Following this, I had to treat the wood of the garage/workshop with preservative.  I'd managed to do half of it the last time I was home but nothing more had been done in the time since and it was in urgent need of completing, especially with the winter looming.  This meant doing a fair amount of clearing of the trees and bushes around the building so it wasn't a 5 minute job.  Whilst doing so, I noticed that some of the tree branches had damaged the the roof sheets so that led to another job, and the need to temporarily repair the roof.  It would be wonderful to just pay someone to do all this for me but it just doesn't seem to happen.  In addition, the garage/workshop doors hadn't been painted and were in dire need for repainting.  But stripping the paint is hugely time consuming (despite buying a propane stripper masquerading as a WWII flame thrower) so I managed only to do one small door.

Door Painting

The wood of the conservatory hadn't been treated since it was built 8 years ago and was in desperate need for a fresh coating (it was entirely stripped off at the eaves), again before the winter set in, so that was another task to undertake.

Al-Fresco Breakfast Between Tasks

Not to mention the perpetually leaking taps in the kitchen, the leaking toilet pipe and the ongoing battle with the moles destroying the lawn (with considerable assistance from the dog digging holes in it) as well as a myriad of other jobs.  If people think that living in an old house in the country is easy living then they should stay living in the towns.  Especially if you have a large garden, the work involved is huge (unless you take joy in sitting in a tangle of brambles and lawn looking like the Somme).

What with these jobs and various other bits and pieces my holiday just slipped through my fingers and I seemed to end up doing more work than if I'd stayed at work.  On leaving and going back to the Philippines I was feeling somewhat frustrated that I hadn't been able to meet up with everyone I had wanted to meet up with, that I hadn't had the time to properly enjoy my photography and review and process the photos I wanted to digitise and I hadn't completely done all that I thought was necessary to the house.  I did manage a day trip to Beachy Head and Rye but it was small compensation.

Beachy Head - One of My Favourite Locations

So I left the UK with a dark cloud hanging over me and ongoing concerns over the maintenance of the house.

Once back in the reclined, wide seat of the aeroplane, with a glass of champagne in my hand I closed my eyes and just tried to think of the wonderful friends I have: those who I did meet with and who were incredibly generous and wonderfully hospitable and those I was unfortunate not to be able to meet and who were so understanding.  

Next time.