Baguio Traffic Blues

Following the excesses of the three day festive period, we thought a stroll around 'Burnham Park' and a visit to 'Mansion House' would be great to blow the cobwebs except we couldn't. Or rather the crazy traffic prevented us from doing so!

It took 2 HOURS to move approximately 3 miles so after a pitstop of a mango smoothie we returned home. Ridiculous but apparently because most of Manila seems to be here in the cooler uplands for the Christmas period and there is limited road access here, it was no big surprise. Just very frustrating!

Christmas Eve, Christmas Day & Boxing Day 2014

Aside from when I was very small and still believed in Santa Claus, I've never really been one for Christmas and all its related commercialness. It all seems a bit too much and forced jollity to me although I do appreciate the tinsel and baubles or bubbles in my case.

What I do love about it is the chance to catch up with family and friends over good food, drink & general merriment which we certainly got to do these last three days.

The main event chez my Filipino family during this festive period is Christmas Eve where a big party took place full of said good food & drink & general merriment.

Most of the day was spent welcoming various guests and helping prepare for the evening meal. Well, I say 'helping' but it was probably more getting in the way!

No expectation or pressure of major Christmas gifts either. Everyone is asked to contribute a small unisex gift as part of a 'secret Santa' type gift exchange & games are played afterwards. What brilliant fun! We had such a laugh & got to make ridiculously strong mojitos for all. The wifi also wasn't working at this point so everyone was forced to interact with each other and not just sit there staring at a small screen social media-ing.

Christmas Day was more of the same with an added visit to 'Camp John Hay', essentially a large park with various entertainment facilities. It was full to bursting with people & at one point as a result of overcrowding, confusion & general d*ckhead behaviour from one entitled other customer in a posh cake shop we were in, there was nearly a full blown Christmas Day argument! You can take the girl out of Essex... Honestly, it would have made a good film scene!!
Christmas Day evening was spent playing cards ('Shithead') & consuming vast amounts of booze till the early hours. Good times!

Boxing Day was again more of the same but this time, Mat and I treated everyone to his legendary coconut curry for dinner (made by us whilst listening to the Bee Gees) followed by a visit to 'Baguio Craft Beer' to yet again corrupt my cousins, this time with strange tasting beer. Of all the places, in all the world, a craft beer place!

Headed east and it's not Upminster

Tues 23rd Dec

So as mentioned previously, we've headed to the far east for Christmas and New Year to visit the mothership that is the Philippines. Previously, heading east would have meant Essex although Philippines isn't so different what with the prevalence of dressed up good looking people, big houses and the liking of bling here.

The flight over on Asiana Air was fairly non-eventful helped by the use of business lounges which made the whole experience *that* bit more civilised. The highlight for me was the self cleaning heated toilet at Incheon Airport in Seoul which as cultural highlights go is up there.

Having left our lively hotel (another word for noisy) in Manila, we've ventured north to Baguio to get over jet lag, celebrate Christmas and meet and greet about 50 relatives of varying degrees of cousins. It's lovely up here but wifi is patchy and telephone signal even patchier so blog posts is problematic.

Current highlight seen so far is  giant statues of superheroes such as the Hulk, Superman, Spiderman, Shrek etc and many more next to a giant statue of the Virgin Mary. It was all very odd but really well done! We were going too fast in the car for me to take a photo but will definitely get one. Seeing is believing.

Black Friday

Last Friday, while everyone else was fighting over a television and/or debating what colour shoes to get, I was told my cancer is back.

Obviously, as bad news go I would have preferred being told "the 50% off promo code is no longer valid for your purchase" but the shoe range at UCH is none existent so this wasn't to be.

It turns out that the rib pain I have been experiencing on my left side recently is a small tumour and there are spots on my thigh bones, sternum and lower back. Oh the wonders of an MRI scan! Lots of tests still to be done but my treatment is likely to start in January.

Because this time around the tumour isn't on anything major such as my spine like last time (consultant's words not mine) my treatment isn't so immediate. I therefore have December off from major medical procedures so life at least continues as normal for now. I'm still going to work and Mat and I are currently planning some R&R in the Philippines sun for New Year as it will be some time before I can go anywhere tropical again.

I'm a little nervous and scared of my upcoming treatments but only because I now know about the unpleasantness that is to come. I have even cut my hair short again in anticipation!

Mostly however, I'm very pissed off, truly vexed in fact. F-ck you cancer. Battle lines are drawn and I'm ready for another fight. Rocky did beat Apollo Creed in the re-match after all.

See you at ringside.

California - Happy Birthday To Me

I left my heart in San Francisco and we saw and did so many amazing things in this great city, I'm going to write a separate blog post on it to remind/cheer me up when we return to the UK.

And separate posts also on what we have been doing since leaving San Francisco which included:

Driving down Highway 1 listening to Pink Floyd and Jimi Hendrix.

Visiting Monterey and its aquarium and taking a boat out to Monterey Bay whale watching and actually seeing humpbacks up close feeding, along with dolphins, seals, sealions and porpoises.

Our blink and you'll miss visit to Carmel.

Hearst Castle and the magnificent ridiculousness of its grandeur being recounted by our Donald Trump lookalike guide.

Elephant seals arf! arfing away.

Seeing and photographing hummingbirds.

Cambria and its scarecrow festival.

Beautiful Santa Barbara.

And celebrating yet another birthday today where every Essex girl should...Malibu!

Older, none the wiser, feeling luckier and most importantly glad to be alive.

California - San Francisco

It's all very well going to San Francisco & wearing flowers in your hair but it would also be useful to know where you can park your car for more than 2 hours!?!

We arrived in the great city yesterday excited but due to mis-information from our Air BNB hosts, ended up getting abit pissed off as we spent a good hour plus finding long term parking space for our car! To cut a long story short, we did find somewhere but all abit unneccessary. Not a good start to our San Francisco visit but all sorted in the end.

Anyway, we are in a very stylish apartment somewhere in the Haight Ashbury / Castro area so right in the middle of it all. I would say the London equivalent would be Shoreditch/Hoxton crossed with Old Compton Street. Lots of bohemian & interesting characters around & there's a tram stop just outside our building! Mat and I are possibly too straitlaced to fit in with the impossibly trendy folk here but it's just like living in London I'm guessing.

I'm loving all the architecture in the city already & there's a definite European feel to the place. The hills are interesting too - not just for driving but also walking. I haven't seen a lot of high heels being worn yet! The Castro district is as you would expect & it was only a Tuesday night. I would have loved to have been here in my early 20s!

We had a 'gentle' night out taking in a tasty Thai in Castro & drinks in the Market Place & soaking up the whole San Franciso vibe. Along the way we met a man in a dress looking very stylish, a couple skateboarding down a hill & SO many buff men. Standard San Franciscan night I'm guessing.

California - Sonoma & Santa Rosa

Mon 29th Sept

Most of my Mondays are not usually spent with the intention of getting sh&t faced but as today was wine tasting day, it ended up that way. Having consumed wine since this afternoon , I've started to sober up!

Our day began with a strange bacon & pancakes combo for breakfast which I wasn't entirely sure about. Our Inn is lovely but this breakfast wasn't up there. What is it about Americans and bacon and pancakes?!

Anyway because 'the best beer in the world' is in Santa Rosa, we headed over there to the Russian Brewing company to get some bottles. We also had a little explore and stumbled upon the most beautiful art deco building in the form of the Barnes & Noble outlet in the middle of Santa Rosa. Gorgeous!

We also visited the Charles M Schulz museum. Having grown up with Snoopy, Charlie Brown, Lucy, Linus & the whole Peanuts gang, I thought it would be a commercial homage but a fun one anyway. How wrong was I!

I will devote a whole blog post on it at a later date as I took enough photos but I found the Charles M Schulz museum to be one of the best museums I have ever visited. Yes even better than the Slate Museum in north Wales!!!! Interesting pieces, well laid out & fascinating & insightful information. I left knowing more about the Peanuts gang but most of all liking the great man more. I had no idea he was such a humanitarian. I actually felt humbled & moved by him.

The rest of the day was then spent vineyard hopping. Our Inn is affiliated with several vineyards to enable us to take part in free tastings & as I wasn't driving I definitely swallowed!!

So sobering up & with a rapidly growing headache, I need to go. Sonoma has charmed me into submission.

A couple of pics below from today as I've been accused of having blogs too text heavy. Wifi signal becomes an issue when I'm loading pics so will upload more when I get home.