E. Phillips Oppenheim

After finishing the complete short stories of Guy De Maupassant, I decided to skip Marcel Proust until at least after the first of the New Year, and I choose instead, to read something by E. Phillips Oppenheim. I can't recall exactly how I discovered Oppenheim, but I found his information on Wikipedia interesting enough to look into his novels.

The question was, which of his more than 100 novels do I start with. The obvious choice would be his first novel, published in 1887, Expiation. Unfortunately for me, Oppenheim's first novel isn't available at Project Gutenberg. However, his second novel, A Monk of Cruta can be found there. After beginning A Monk of Cruta, I discovered that more of Oppenheim's novels, including his first, can be downloaded from Project Gutenberg Australia.

As a strange coincidence, in the library of one of the main characters of the novel, Paul de Vaux, can be found the works of Guy de Maupassant (whom I had just finished reading) and Algernon Charles Swinburne of whom de Maupassant had written.

I've finished reading Oppenheim's 2nd novel and I've begun reading Expiation. Just how far I'll get into Oppenheim's work is anybody's guess at this point.

Rain Delay

After a day of rest, the men working on the foundation of the house returned to work. Having too many other things taking up our time, my wife and I did not visit the property in Magatas on Monday.

I drove out to the site a little after 4:00 PM Tuesday. I wasn't expecting to see anyone there. It had rained earlier in the afternoon. It had rained quite hard, in fact. The rain was heavy enough to put a halt to today's work.

As can be seen in the photos, the re-bar has been set for the four corner posts. Re-bar for the two middle posts have been set on the southern side. One can also see, along the southern side, that a trench has been dug to place the beginning blocks for the foundation. Of course, the trench is full of rain water.

I'm assuming that if the rain stays away, the work will resume on Wednesday.

Merry Christmas from Sibulan

December 13, and the Municipal Building in Sibulan is decorated with "poinsettia" and the manger is ready for the Nativity scene. That's a far cry from the government buildings in my former hometown in the U.S.. In small town America, many would be upset with the innocuous displaying of the artificial poinsettia, while a Nativity scene on a government building would bring about weeping and gnashing of teeth with cries for a separation of Church and State.

I'm not sure when the decorations were put on display here in Sibulan. I drive by the Municipal Building a number of times a day, but at speeds which preclude my noticing. This morning, I walked by the building during my daily walk and I took this photo en passant.

A Blue Beetle

This Volkswagen photo was taken as I was driving past the Shell gas station near the Dumaguete airport. I've taken a couple of photos of blue VWs and I'm not at all certain that I haven't photographed this one before; most of the VWs I've seen have been in the area near the airport.

Sunday

Sunday was a day of rest for the men working on the foundation. My wife had returned to the property that Saturday evening to pay the workers, but I had not seen the progress made since Saturday morning. Although there was no work going on, I drove out to the site to see for myself.

It had begun to rain as I arrived. I stayed inside the car for the rain's 5 minute duration. The on again - off again rains had turned the soil, removed from the holes, to mud.

The four corner posts have been set with additional concrete left to pour. There will be a total of 12 posts.

The men worked three days last week - Thursday, Friday and Saturday. It's my understanding that they will work five or six days this week with no other days scheduled this month.