Steve Murphy Photography

Play video It's been an eventful past week. We have moved from the planning stages on our house to actual construction start. Backstory: We bought 2 lots here in our subdivision, 120 square meters each. We engaged a contractor/foreman recommended highly by Joelet's dad and brother. Now, non-Filipino foreigners (i.e., me) cannot own land here. Period. But I need something to protect myself from unforeseen circumstances so we will consult an attorney to study options. I have heard of some doing a 90-year lease, for example, but also heard that might not be allowed. We shall see, Joelet is fully on board with this.                  Cement work begins                                        Bucket brigade So construction begins on Joelet's birthday, 1/8, and good progress is being made. I would like to tell you about Padugo . It is a concept that essentially helps ensure good fortune, the safety of the workers, appeasement of the spirits, whatever. You can read up on it at the l

Joelet's sister Joy Ann lives with us. We have cared for her daughter for 2.5 years now while she worked in Manila. Her daughter's name is Jann Zxavier, Zxandy (ZAHN-day) for short. A good kid, normal intelligence - perhaps a bit higher than average. But she is introverted, does not talk much. None of us are trained in such things but we try to give her opportunities to branch out without being overly pressuring. This Christmas Eve, we pooled our money together and bought a bunch of cheeseburgers from a Jollibee franchise here in Balayan. For my US folks, I put Jollibee a step and a half below McDonalds or Burger King, but the people here like it. We negotiated a bit of a discount and also procured fruity drinks and candy. At the barangay across town, preparing. Balayan is not a well-to-do town, to put it politely. And being sequestered during this covid period does not help. Kids who go to public school do not have the opportunity for online distance learning. The moms have to

Click to watch video April 22-24, 2019 End of the school year, good report cards again so it must be time for another fun beach trip! We booked on Agoda, the resort does not have its own website yet. We picked the Casita cabin, a step up from the bargain cabin - 7,810PHP/$153 per night, two queen beds. They want you to pre-pay for food, I've not encountered that before, I don't think. 1,750PHP/$35 per person, per day.  Locate on Google Maps . So a quick review:  The cabin was adequate, at least it had A/C! No WiFi anywhere on the premises except at the restaurant so we burned through some data charges. But the resort is nice, quiet, beach and water are clean and enjoyable: There are activities available such as jet ski, banana boat and snorkeling (of which we partook). But the first order of business was to get the Phantom 4 up: I had the same issues with EM interference and the aircraft disconnecting when getting a thousand or so me