Puncak Tanawan

Thanks, in part to two different  Facebook pages, a hiking trail in Sibulan, which ends in an area called Puncak Tanawan, is becoming very popular. About a week ago, my wife first mentioned the hiking area to me, and a day later an employee at the bank I use, told me the area was "trending on Facebook".

The result of this talk was a Sunday afternoon hike after church this past weekend involving my wife and myself, along with a brother-in-law and my wife's three sisters.

According to a sign at the beginning of the hiking area, the trail is 3.3 kilometers long. I would dispute that number, although I have no way of measuring the distance. Be that as it may, the hike is all uphill and not for the faint of heart. The first 300 meters or so can only be done by foot, but at one point along the way, habal habal are available. Believing I couldn't make it, my wife insisted that I take a habal habal, but when the driver fell over twice before we had gone 250 meters, I insisted that I walk.

Local residents have set up small concession stands along the hike, so getting fruit or water isn't a problem. At one such concession I saw cigarettes by the stick for sale, although I can't imagine anyone wanting a cigarette after hiking this mountain.

The view of Dumaguete, Sibulan, and the islands of Cebu, Siquijor and Apo Apo is impressive. When we first arrived at the mountain plateau, however, Pancuk Tanawan was covered with clouds and, for a time the view was disappointing. The clouds did burn away, and I was able to get a few nice photos.

I made a point of taking my iPhone with me so that I could get the latitude and longitude in order to put the location onto Google Maps. For those interested, finding the trail is not that difficult. Taking the National Highway to Sibulan, you turn onto Bulago Rd. and follow it until the road dead ends at the trail entrance - about 5 or 6 kilometers from the National Highway. There is a small fee to park your vehicle at the entrance.

Although I found the climb difficult, I'd like to make the hike a regular thing. It's obvious in the photo that I'm short of breathe. I suppose it is because of the difficulty I experienced that I want to return in order to increase my stamina. We'll see how that works out.

Grits For Breakfast

In spite of the fact that I was born and raised in the Southern United States, and that I have one branch of ancestors who were Georgia when it was still a British colony, I am not particularly fond of grits. Sure, they're ok - I'll eat grits, but I'd prefer oatmeal or farina. Many Southerners frown upon my preference to put sugar on grits when I do eat them.

Oddly enough, besides fried chicken and okra, grits are one of the few Southern foods readily available in the markets here in Philippines. My wife tells me the name for grits here is lugaw mais; lugaw being porridge and mais, of course is corn.

My wife purchased a bit yesterday and we ate grits for breakfast this morning. It was a nice change.

A Quiet, Peaceful New Year's Day

I spent New Year's eve in much the same way as I spent Christmas eve. My wife, my son and myself attended late Mass at San Antonio de Padua parish church in Sibulan, followed by a visit to the home of my wife's parents. Normally, we attend Mass at Our Mother of Perpetual Help Redemptorist Church in Dumaguete. Although the church in Sibulan is within walking distance of our apartment, three of the priests at "Perpetual" are from Ireland and we can attend Mass given by a native speaker of English. We will, however, attend Mass in Sibulan on very special occasions - such as Christmas and New Year's. By attending last night's Mass, we were able to fulfill our Holy Day of Obligation (Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God). I haven't been feeling well for a couple of days and it was nice sleeping in this morning.

It's normally quiet in our neighborhood on Sunday morning, but today is especially nice - last night's drunken revelers are still asleep. At some time within the last few months, the owners of the sari-sari store across the street from my in-laws purchased a pay for play videoke machine. Needless to say, it was going full tilt last night. I've been accused of being a "KJ" (kill joy) and someone who doesn't appreciate Filipino tradition because of my hatred of drunken karaoke. Has it already been (nearly) a year since I posted that karaoke is audio waterboarding?

Upcoming Events

The porker seen on the right side in the photo - nearest the lock - is named George. George does not have much longer in this world.

We have several special events happening in November. My son, my wife, one nephew and the son of our dear friends have birthdays this month. Not only that, but there will be a fiesta in Dumaguete, a wedding anniversary for our friends and Thanksgiving Day. Most, if not all of these special events call for a party and George will make up a significant portion of these celebrations.

This coming Monday is my son's birthday - his cousin's birthday is Tuesday. We'll slaughter the pig on Saturday. There will be a combined birthday party on Sunday. Those parts of the pig which we won't eat - the blood, the head, feet and offal will go to the man butchering the pig. The meat that isn't cooked for Saturday's party will go into the freezer for use later in the month.

I won't be cooking the pork; I'll be making desserts for the party and will leave the main dishes to someone else.

Of course, it's expected that I will take photos of Sunday's soirée but I may take a few photos Saturday as well. If I do, I can't say how many of these photos will make their way to the blog. We'll wait and see.

Dumaguete's Best Pizza

I noted in a blog post from Saturday that the fee for my application for conversion from probationary resident to permanent resident at the Philippine Immigration office turned out to be 2000 pesos less that I had expected. I stashed away a portion of that windfall for a rainy day. That rainy day came today when I decided to spend the money on a nice Sunday lunch for my wife, my son and myself.

On of the good things about waking before 5:00 AM every day (even on Sunday) is that lunch can come relatively early, and pizza at 10:30 AM isn't out of the question. When I told the family about my money stash and my plan for lunch, we unanimously choose Yellow Cab Pizza.

Located on the boulevard in Dumaguete, Yellow Cab has the best pizza in the city. Shown in these photos is the large New York's Finest  that we ordered for lunch. While I wouldn't go so far as to say this pizza would actually be the finest you could find in New York, there's no question that it's the best you'll find in Dumaguete. It's the closest to American style pizza I've eaten in Philippines.

Of course, with it's American taste it comes with an American price. This pizza and three canned soft drinks cost me 785 pesos. At the current rate of exchange, that comes to about $17.00. Minus the $3 for the three drinks, that's $14.00 for a large pizza. Not outlandish for Rome, GA. but really pricey for Dumaguete.

We weren't disappointed, however. This really is the best pizza in town.

The Lechon Baboy

Today, June 13 is the feast day of St Anthony of Padua and like everyone else in Sibulan, we will have Lechon Baboy for the celebration.

For us, however, there will be two pigs instead of one. The additional pig is in celebration of the baptism of my brother-in-law's infant daughter.

Update: Here is a photo of one of the baboy hours later.

The Thanksgiving Rooster

In a recent blog post, a friend wrote of two roosters owned by his nephew and niece, and the roosters' ultimate demise. Spoiler alert! The roosters are eventually cooked and eaten.

Dom's mentioning of the roosters being eaten reminded me of something from my childhhood. I can't recall the exact year. It was so long ago, that I am the only person in this story still living. My youngest brother and sister weren't even born yet, so that gives some of you an idea of just how long ago that was.

It wasn't my first Thanksgiving, but it's the first Thanksgiving I can remember, and I'm not 100% confident of the reliability of this memory. We - my parents, my brother Rod and myself - lived on what was then called Bankhead Highway in Atlanta. My parents didn't have a lot of money. We were so poor, in fact, that we could not afford a turkey for Thanksgiving dinner. Through the magic of movies and television, this five or six year-old knew one was supposed to have turkey on Thanksgiving, and I was surprised to learn that my mother had cooked a rooster. The story was, we were given the rooster by a friend of my Mother.

Looking back, this seems so odd to me. Not that we couldn't afford a turkey, but why we would have to eat a rooster rather than a hen. We had often eaten chicken.......why should this time be different?

At any rate, my mother prepared the rooster and put it in the oven for roasting. When the time came for carving the rooster, it was discovered that my mother had neglected to remove the innards before cooking the bird. The liver, gizzard, heart - the whole shebang were cooked inside the bird.

Thinking it might be, uh, foul, the entire rooster was thrown out.

After all these many years, I have to wonder how much of this story happened the way I remember. As I said earlier, it seems strange to me that we would have had to resort to rooster rather than chicken. Knowing my Dad, it's within the realm of possibility that he may have told my brother and me that it was a rooster. It could have very well have been a turkey, as far I know.

Road Trip to Tanjay

Saturday morning, after being cooped up all week, my wife and I really wanted to get out and about. My wife had found a photo of the Mangrove Boardwalk in Tanjay and suggested we go there. Suits me.

We thought it would be nice to have another kid along to keep our son company. A phone call was made to one of his aunts to check if a cousin could come. Since we had room in the car, the aunt and two of my son's cousins would ride along with us.

The Mangrove Boardwalk in Tanjay is a mangrove swamp that has been made into a park for tourists. According to britannica.com:

"Mangrove swamps are found along tropical and subtropical coastlines throughout the world, usually between 25° N and 25° S latitude. The mangrove swamp is an association of halophytic trees, shrubs, and other plants growing in brackish to saline tidal waters of tropical and subtropical coastlines. This coastal forested wetland (called a “mangal” by some researchers) is infamous for its impenetrable maze of woody vegetation, unconsolidated peat, and many adaptations to the double stresses of flooding and salinity. Approximately 68 species of mangrove trees exist in the world. Their uneven distribution is thought to be related to continental drift and possibly to transport by primitive humans. Mangrove swamps are dominant particularly in the Indo-West Pacific region, where they have the greatest diversity of species—30 to 40 species of mangroves, compared with about 10 species in the Americas".

While everyone was getting ready, I searched online to find directions. Getting to Tanjay would be easy. As a matter of fact, we have driven to Tanjay a few weeks ago when Sibulan was having an electric brown out. We'd just hit the highway and go north.

Locating the Mangrove Boardwalk would be a different matter. I was able (yesterday) to find the location on Google maps, although using the map for directions might be tricky. The roads leading in were not named, and I wasn't certain that we might not come across other unnamed roads not shown on Google maps and be lead off into areas we didn't want to go.

As an aside - I wanted to include a screen shot of the Google map I looked at yesterday, but I was unable to find a map today showing the location of the Mangrove Boardwalk......not even with my browser's history.

We decided to simply drive to Tanjay and ask for directions to the Boardwalk when we arrived in the city. In Tanjay, we stopped at an eatery and my wife and sister-in-law talked to a couple having lunch. The conversation was in Bisaya, so I would have to rely on the two women.

Soon, we were back on the highway, going north. It became clear that whatever direction we received were of very little use to us. We noticed a road sign for Luca Boardwalk. This didn't jibe with our directions, but I had seen a road on Google maps going to Luca pier which was north of the boardwalk.

Taking this road lead us to a dead end with no mention of the Mangrove Boardwalk. The road at the dead end was a bit cramp, but I was able (just barely) to turn around. Fortunately, at the dead end, there was a tricycle picking up a family to take them to a funeral or wedding, or some special event. The driver said he'd be driving right past the road that would take us where we wanted to go, so we could follow him.

Thanks to the driver, we found our road. He would not accept a tip from us.

We arrived at the Boardwalk, no worse for wear. Leaving, we had absolutely no problem finding the highway, but don't ask me for directions.

My Haunted PC

Today is my 64th birthday, and to celebrate, my son and I went to the gym. In addition to our workout, I wanted photos.

I brought along the Canon; J.P. took photos of me and I took photos of him. The store owner took two photos of J.P. and I together.

I have a USB thingamajig which holds the memory card of my Canon which allows me to download the photos onto my PC. There, I'll edit the photos and store them away. After the photos are transfered, I'll delete the folder from the camera. That's where the problem arose this morning.

I guess it comes down to dust. When we were in the U.S., I would regularly purchase canned air from Wally World and blow out the PC. I haven't done such a good job of that since arriving in Philippines. The cans of compressed air are difficult to find and are very expensive when you do find them. As a consequence, I've allowed the dust to build up more than I should.

Dust has accumulated inside the USB terminals. I'm not connected via cable or wire to the Internet - I use another USB thingamajig to connect via wifi. When I connect my camera's USB thingamajig to transfer the photos, somehow this additional USB device will cause the wifi USB to disconnect from the Internet. It doesn't happen every time, but often enough.

I've often suspected that the problem is due to the dust build up.

After transfering this morning's gym photos to the PC, I did a wee bit of image scaling with GIMP and set about to upload a few of the photos to Facebook. You know where this is headed. I had lost Internet connection. This reoccuring problem is fixed by removing the camera USB and rebooting the PC. That's when the spooks attacked the PC.

The PC would not restart. I was getting a message that a start up repair was required. Unfortunately, when doing this, the system created a restore point which was before this morning's photos were put onto the PC. So, when the PC finally started, the photos had disappeared. As far as Windows was concerned, the photos had never been on my PC.

I had deleted the photos earlier from the camera's memory card and now it was as if the photos had never existed. Gone.

After this disaster, I decided that enough was enough. I unplugged everything from the PC and carried it to a computer repair place in Sibulan where they used a small air compressor to blow out the dust. The dust looked thick on top of the PC innards, but I was really surprised at the amount that was blown out.

Total cost: 150 peso (roughly three bucks and change). That's a lot cheaper than the elusive cans of air - when they can be found. I'll definitely be going back regularly.

When I plugged everything back in and rebooted the PC, there was another sytem restore point message. This time, when the PC restarted, the gym photos had magically returned.

The thing is haunted.....that's all there is to it.

The Butternut Squash

Late yesterday afternoon, we took our butternut squash plants out to our property in Magatas where we had recently cleared alway some of the growth.

I'm not at all certain that the plants will survive. We are currently experiencing a drought in Philippines and it maybe too much for the squash to survive. There is a natural spring nearby and water can be toted to the plants......but I'm still doubtful.

We can only wait and see.

Before and After Shots

The top photo was originally posted on April, 07. The lower photo shows the results of a minor clean-up done on the 8th.

Obviously, we have a long way to go, but I promised to post before and after pics.

This spot is where the house will eventually be built - in the mean time, however, I'll plant a little butternut squash.

A section also shown in the April, 07 photos, although not shown here, will be put to use as a piggery after my next payday. Of course, there will be photos of that project as well.

An Early Thought on "Amoris Laetitia".

I mentioned in an earlier post that, in addition to Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's, The Gulag Archipelago, I was simultaneously reading other books. I'm still in the Gulag, so to speak, but I'm also alternating it with The Son of Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs and Studies In Wives by Marie Adelaide Belloc Lowndes.

Now, as if I don't have enough to read, Pope Francis has released an apostolic exhortation, Amoris Laetitia ,which I've already downloaded, converted to mobi and begun reading on Kindle.

Like Catholic blogger, LarryD, I will most definitely follow paragraph 7 of the exhortation :

"Given the rich fruits of the two-year Synod process, this Exhortation will treat, in different ways, a wide variety of questions. This explains its inevitable length. Consequently, I do not recommend a rushed reading of the text. The greatest benefit, for families themselves and for those engaged in the family apostolate, will come if each part is read patiently and carefully, or if at­tention is paid to the parts dealing with their spe­cific needs. It is likely, for example, that married couples will be more concerned with Chapters Four and Five, and pastoral ministers with Chap­ter Six, while everyone should feel challenged by Chapter Eight. It is my hope that, in reading this text, all will feel called to love and cherish family life, for 'families are not a problem; they are first and foremost an opportunity' ".

This work does need to be read carefully, yet already there are many on both sides of the cultural battleground firing shots at Amoris Laetitia. There has not been nearly enough time, since the release of the document, for anyone to have read it carefully and objectively. I've read portions of it and have yet to come upon anything that warrants the criticism leveled against it.

I'm not going to link to any of these negative articles. They can be found easily enough without my help.

The only comment I will make at this time is that the more I see of this Pope, the more I like and admire him.

Summer Vacation

Due to changes being made in the Filipino school year, this past Wednesday was the start of J.P.'s summer vacation. He doesn't return to school until sometime in August. He deserves a long vacation. When we arrived here from the U.S., his year in the 2nd grade had just ended and his start of 3rd grade in Philippines was almost immediate. His vacation between 2nd and 3rd grades was less than 2 weeks.

Even though he has an extra long vacation this year, I don't plan on his time being idle.

He's typical of many kids growing up in the digital age. His reading is below par. I've told him that the number of books he'll read this year WILL increase. No more spending so much time on the phone or PC. Less TV. More Harry Potter.

Another change planned for this summer is to increase his physical activity. The amount of weight he's put on since we purchased the Wii disturbs me and his mother.

This morning brought in a change in his exercise routine. At 7:00 AM, he and I walked the kilometer from the apartment to the gym where I work out. Together, he and I did 45 minutes of weight training. Of course, my routine was modified for him. Naturally, the weights he used were considerably less than what I'd normally use. We want him to exercise, not hurt himself. Not only were the weights lower for him, but I did fewer "sets" for each of the exercises. Where I would have normally done four sets of a particular exercise, I reduced the number of sets this time to two. We'll increase the number of sets as time goes on.

I have to be careful that I maintain a good workout for me. The lower number of sets will still allow me to tone the muscles. I can always increase my weights if I sense I'm falling behind.

After the weight training, we headed back toward the apartment, taking a detour to the beach for twenty or thirty minutes in the ocean.

From the beach, it was the final walk home. We left the apartment at 7:00 and arrived back at 9:20. It was quite a pleasant morning for father and son.

Nanner Puddin'

It's been a long time since I've made a nanner puddin'. To those of you who do not speak Southern, that's a banana pudding.

When we first arrived, we did not have an oven, so it wasn't possible to cook the meringue. I have made one with a whipped cream topping instead, but then you're left with unused egg whites. We have an oven now, but vanilla wafers are not available in Dumaguete. My decision to make this nanner puddin' was brought on by my discovery of a Marie biscuit made by Monde Nissin. The cookie does not taste exactly like a Nabisco vanilla wafer, but when I tasted one for the first time, I thought they would be a reasonable substitute.

I've included the recipe.

The recipe:

3/4 cup sugar, divided
1/3 cup flour
dash salt
4 eggs, separated
2 cups milk
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
vanilla wafers
5 bananas, sliced

MIX 1/2 cup sugar, flour and salt in top of double boiler. Blend in 4 egg yolks and milk. Cook, uncovered, over boiling water 10 to 12 min. or until thickened, stirring constantly. Remove from heat; stir in vanilla.

RESERVE 12 wafers for garnish. Spread small amount of custard onto bottom of 1-1/2-qt. baking dish. Cover with layers of 1/3 each of the remaining wafers, bananas and remaining custard. Repeat layers 2 times.

BEAT egg whites on high speed of mixer until soft peaks form. Gradually beat in remaining sugar until stiff peaks form. Spread over custard, sealing well to edge of dish.

BAKE 15 to 20 min. or until lightly browned. Cool slightly. Top with reserved wafers just before serving

You Still Can't Pick Your Relatives.

There is a small part of me that can empathize with Ben Affleck, who discovered, via his participation in the PBS documentary series “Finding Your Roots”, he had at least one ancestor who owned slaves. As I wrote in a post from 2009,you can't pick your relatives. It can be disheartening to learn that one might be related - no matter how distantly - to a less than admirable person.

To say that I was upset to learn that I shared a common ancestor with former President Jimmy Carter would be an understatement.

I can't say, however, that I agree with Affleck's response to the genealogical data. While I wasn't exactly overjoyed to find out that I was distantly related to one of the worst President in American history, I didn't hide from that fact. I owned up to our distant kinship in a blog post. Affleck, on the other hand, asked that the slave owning ancestor not be included in the documentary. His fans were to be left in the dark.

I am not at all bothered by the fact that Ben Affleck had an ancestor who owned slaves. That has absolutely no relationship to who Affleck is as a human being. I am bothered, however, that Affleck would ask PBS to leave out the information about the "bad" ancestor, while highlighting that Affleck was descended from someone who fought in the American Revolution. Affleck can neither take the credit nor receive the blame for things his ancestors did.

Affleck wouldn't be the first Progressive in recent years to fudge a bit when bringing up his or her genealogy. Hillary Clinton was recently called out for "exaggerating" the number of immigrant grandparents she had. She had claimed that all four of her grandparents had emigrated to the US, although it turns out that census data and draft cards from the 1920′s and 1930′s revealed that her paternal grandmother was born in Pennsylvania, and both of her maternal grandparents were born in Illinois.

Elizabeth Warren, beloved favorite of Progressives, was once promoted by Harvard Law School as a Native American faculty member even though she has no proven Native American ancestry.

Bottom line - be who you are. You are not your own grandpa. You cannot take credit for the good they may have done or be blamed for their transgressions.

Although I can understand Ben Affleck not wanting to claim this relative.

Bananas and Dreams of Cantaloupes

Back in the United States, during a limited time frame, I was able to go outside beside the house and pick from plums off one of the two plum trees I had planted there. One of the trees produced fruit in June; both trees blossomed every spring, but one had not produced any plums before we sold the house.

The trees are different varieties and are barely years old, so I suppose it's possible that the tree that hadn't produced fruit will one day.




Here in Sibulan, I can still go out into the back yard and fetch fresh fruit; only, here, instead of picking plums, we can pick bananas.

The particular bunch pictured here was harvested a few days ago. I wasn't the one who picked them - I'm not exactly sure which family member did. That doesn't stop me, however, from eating what I can.

This bunch is out back, on a table in an area referred to as the "dirty kitchen". The dirty kitchen is what the Filipinos call an area behind the house where foods can be cooked with firewood or charcoal. A sort of BBQ area, if you will.

These particular bananas aren't vey large; they're only slightly longer than my longest finger. They're still very sweet and I'm quite fond of them. My sister in-law pan fries them for breakfast (then sprinkled with sugar) I like the bananas cooked that way, but eating the fruit raw is good enough for me.

I have one or two relatives back home who will not be jealous of me because of this. There are actually folks out there who don't like bananas. I know, strange huh, but true.

In an earlier post , I mentioned that I've planted cantaloupe seeds. With luck, I should have cantaloupes in about 90 days or so. I can hear some of my friends from Georgia now, "Big deal. We grow cantaloupes here." Maybe so, but here, there will be cantaloupes pretty much year around. I won't ever have to worry about frost killing the plants. The only problem might be too much rain at certain times of the year. Not having lived here for a year yet, I'm not too sure about that.

I promised "before and after" photos. Still no seedlings to photograph. The cantaloupe seed packet says to expect 5 to 10 days for the seeds to sprout. It's only been two. Next week, when I have cantaloupe seedlings, I'll take my camera outside for the first shots.

Until then,I see little reason to photograph dirt.

A Slight Change In Plans.

According to the shipping company's website, we have balikbayan boxes in Manila waiting to be shipped here to us in Sibulan. No word, as yet, on the shipment coming from the second company. When we were in the U.S., my wife and I used two different companies to ship the balikbayan boxes, and the old adage about getting what you pay for is certainly holding up in this particular case.

One company, LBC Express, is a bit higher priced. $105 per box verses $75 per box with Continental, however, I'm convinced now that the difference in price is worth it.

Even though the LBC shipment was sent after the Continental, the LBC shipments are arriving ahead of the other. We cannot even track the Continental shipment. A friend in the States, who shipped her boxes via Continental the same time we did,says her boxes are in Manila. We're assuming ours are as well, though I can't understand why they haven't been delivered.

Inside one of the LBC boxes, placed inside a steel-toed boot, are garden seeds. We've been anxiously awaiting their arrival. But now, as it turns out, we might not have a location to plant the seeds. I dug up a little area beside the house where I can plant a few bell pepper and tomato plants, but we no longer have access to the larger plot where we had hoped to plant the cantaloupe, watermelons and the assorted varieties of squash.

My wife's father has been a caretaker of sorts on a piece of property belonging to a Filipino who had immigrated to the United States years ago. Unfortunately, the property has finally been sold and it will only be a matter of time before he and my wife's mother will have to vacate.

Not only will we not have the larger plot for our vegetable garden, but we'll have to find a new home for the pigs. Most of the piglets will be sold off before they have to leave the property, but the sow and the piglet my wife and I wanted to slaughter when it was big enough, will have to be relocated.

There is a small piece of land behind our house which belongs to my wife's cousin. This particular parcel is vacant and we're hoping the cousin will allow us to put a garden there. Unfortunately, it isn't a suitable location for raising pigs.

So, it appears that the LBC shipped boxes will arrive relatively soon. Once I begin in earnest on the gardening, I'll take photos. I'm sure everyone is excited about that.

Pancakes for Breakfast

Here in Sibulan, we don't really have what one would call a grocery store. We do have a farmer's market where one can buy fresh fruit and vegetables, fish, chicken and pork, but there is nothing here like Krogers or Publix in Sibulan. For certain items -coffee, tea,cereals and canned goods- you have to go into Dumaguete.

When I first started visiting Dumaguete 14 years ago, the only place that could compare to a grocery store back home was located at Super Lee Plaza. Honestly, you can find everything at Super Lee, from groceries to clothing to electronics. You name it, it's at Super Lee.

Within the last few years, competitors have arrived. Cang's department store has relocated and expanded into the grocery market and with the coming of Robinson's Mall, the Robinson's company now has two grocery locations in Dumaguete.

For me, however, these new guys can't beat the prices at Super Lees.

Two of the things we miss most in Philippines are pancakes and home made biscuits. As for the biscuits, we'll be buying an oven, but unfortunately, not right away; at least not until we knocked a major dent into our house renovation projects. The pancakes, on the other hand, are do-able.

My first stop for flour and baking soda was, naturally, Super Lee. This was before our first visits to Cang's and Robinson's. There wasn't the wide selection of all purpose flour like I'm accustomed to in the States. There was only one brand, and it was PHP 95 a kilo; a little more than $2.00. I wanted to do a bit of price checking before buying this flour, but as it turned out, the other grocery stores were higher.

I promised JP that I'd fix pancakes Sunday, so I bought the flour at Super Lees, along with the baking powder, margarine and pancake syrup. On a later visit to Lees, I went over one aisle from where I found the flour, and found bulk items. On that aisle, I found all purpose wheat flour for just 45 a kilo. I bought a bag and I'll compare the two. I'm pretty sure I'll be getting the cheaper flour from here on out.

It's Sunday now....Pancake Day, but it's just 6:30 AM and the only one awake now, besides me, is JP's five year old cousin, Karl. Karl has yet to discover the wonders of pancakes. He'll have to wait until JP's up and about. Karl doesn't know what's in store for him.

It's a Small World......But I Wouldn't Want to Have to Paint It.

They say, "Old habits die hard", and I can certainly attest to that.

During the last two years of my nineteen year stint with Mohawk Industries, I was working at the company's distribution center - a 35 minute commute from my home. During the last year of that commute, the ride was shared with my friend, Mark B. On our way to work each morning, we would tune the car radio to a local Rome, GA radio station, WRGA and listen to Home Town Headlines, the Radio Edition, hosted by another friend, John Druckenmiller.

Now that I'm retired and living with my wife and son in Sibulan, Philippines, I still find myself occasionally listening the radio program over the Internet via the TuneInRadio app on my Android. John and my sister once worked for the same company; he and I knew each other from church (St Mary's Catholic Church) and his son and mine attended the same school - but in different grades- and I consider him a friend. His friendship is not, however, the only reason I listen to his program; it's really the best place to keep up with events in my old stomping ground.

When the U.S. is following Daylight Saving Time, Sibulan is 12 hours ahead of Rome, GA. (it's 13 hours ahead in the winter when GA goes back to EST). I had just finished supper last night around 7:00 PM when I decided to tune into the program. I wanted to let John know that I was listening to the program and I sent a message to him via Facebook. I had no idea that he would give a shout-out to us over the radio. Very nice.

I learned from another former co-worker via Facebook, that my buddy Mark B. was listening to the program on his way to work. Old habits die hard for him as well, I guess.

We've all grown accustomed to the wonders of technology and we often forget just how amazing these times are. It's not so long ago that communicating with friends and family on the other side of the planet, as easily as we do today, would have been unthinkable.

Now, if only traveling back and forth could be as easy.

Sunday Evening Mass at St. Catherine's Cathedral.

This being Philippines, and not the South Eastern United States, we’re not limited in our choices of Catholic Churches where we can attend Mass on Sunday. There may not be one on every street corner like the Baptist churches are in Rome, GA., but, still, we are well blessed with a wide selection here.

 Usually, when we were in Sibulan, we would attend the Mass at St Anthony of Padua located within walking distance from the house. We have occasionally chosen instead, to travel the 20 minute tricycle ride to St. Catherine’s Cathedral in Dumaguete.

This Sunday was one of those occasions when our choice would be St. Catherine’s. We had promised J.P. we'd go out for pizza Sunday and going to Robinson’s Mall made the Cathedral the more convenient option.

Going to Mass in Dumaguete is very different than it is at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Rome. Dumaguete and Rome, GA are similar in size; St. Catherine’s is larger than St. Mary’s, though not greatly. On Sunday, in Rome, we were limited to three English Masses and two in Spanish compared to the hourly Masses at St. Catherine’s. Never the less, the randomly selected Mass we attended was standing room only; the likes of which, St. Mary’s might experience only on Ash Wednesday.

Of course, finding a Mass in English at St. Catherine’s is more difficult. I’m not at all certain that there are any. Knowing the Mass would be in Cebuano, I went online to the USCCB website to listen to the daily reading in English.

The priest was assisted by several altar boys with nary a female altar server in sight. There was a woman, wearing a mantilla, assisting with the readings, and women were taking the collections, but there were no female Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion. The men who helped with Holy Communion had been seated with the altar boys, and from their attire, I’m assuming they may have been acolytes. Needless to say, there was no mass confusion, so common in Catholic Churches in the U.S., as substitute EMHC scramble to fill in for the assigned EMHC who chose not to attend Mass.

After Mass, we met up at the church with two of my wife’s sisters and two nephews for pizza. We all rode in one tricycle to the Mall and in spite of the fact that the pizzas were not at all like American pizzas, a good time was had by all.