We went to the ice rink at SM South Mall here in Las Pinas, Manila. Its only a few minutes from my house.
We had a great time, Tom and Bea were anxious to get on the ice, but Zac changed his mind and decided to watch instead. Within minutes he had changed his mind and was on the ice too.
Here is a short video I made of us all on the ice and the kids with an instructor.
I have been checking my camera to see if I can do a timelapse video recording, but there is no automatic feature. Instead, I will be recording normally and then speeding up the video when editing it.
I love timelapse videos of clouds forming and I can not help but stare out my bedroom window as I have a lovely view of the sky where most of the large clouds in the area form over the sea.
As a test to see how and if I can make a timelapse video, I have made one of the sun rising this morning. I set up the camera at just after 5am and started recording. An hour later at 6pm I stopped recording and started processing the video. My initial idea is to take approximately 60 minutes of video and compress it to approximately 60 seconds.
Here are a few stats of the video for those who are interested:
Total length: 63 minutes
Aspect Ratio: 720 x 1280
Video Format: MTS
Raw Video File Size: 4.2 GB
I converted the video from MTS format to Avi format using the Divx 4 encoder maintaining the quality and aspect ratio. This was mainly so that my video editor could read the file. MTS format files are high definition videos recorded by my camera. Converting it to an avi allowed me to load it into my video editor.
Final Video Details
Total Length: 48 seconds
Video Speed: Approximately 13x
Aspect Ratio: 400 x 720
Ian told me that a tropical storm was heading our way. This was about a week ago. I checked the weather and it was reporting that it would hit land around 9pm that night with wind speeds of 78-95 mph. I was told this was a weak one.
At around 7pm, the rain hit manila and the sky covered with clouds. Over time the clouds changed diection as the storm dragged over manila.
At 9pm the electricity went off. It had already been off before for twenty minutes, but this time it did not come back on. With no air conditioning, I jammed the door open. I didn’t want to open the windows as they could have been ripped off or smahed.
I managed to fall asleep sweating. I woke up at around 1am to a very loud sound. I went out onto the balcony to see what the noise was. To my supprise, there was a tin roof blowing down the street.
The only recording I got was before the storm really hit. Once it had hit, I did not want to take my camea outside in case it was hit with some flying debris.
The next morning, the streets were filled with parts of trees. The entire outside of my house was splattered with pieces of leaves from the trees. I have never seen anything like it, but with around 22 storms hitting Manila every year, I expect to see much worse storms.
I have a beautiful, intelligent and highly successful girlfriend. I am living in the sun, getting a tan and really enjoying the fact that I never have to wear more than a tshirt and shorts, even when it’s raining! I have a beautiful daughter and two handsome boys. I have enough money coming in to support myself and my family.
However I already had all this. But it’s just been topped by ian searching for a shop that sells Wild Turkey which is a Bourbon whickey that I love. Ian has even found a european resturant, but I don’t like it too much cause there are too many white assholes in there on most days. However, they serve wild turkey, so the white fuckers are almost bareable.
Ian my sweet, you have topped yourself. Just when I wondered if I could love you any more, you answer my own question.
I have always loved Abecrombie and Fitch clothing. It rarely fades, looks new every time I wear it and looks great on me.
In the uk I was buying seconds so that I could get them for £19.99 per shirt instead of closer to £50.
I was stunned today when I saw a range of Abecrombie and Fitch shirts in the local SM hypermarket for just 249.75 PHP which is just £3.52 each!!! What the fuck? These are real too, not fakes or copies. They are seconds and the label has been unstitiched, but it is still there.
I tried on the large as it was the biggest size they had. When it fit, I bought one of every colour that they had. I was half tempted to buy all their stock and sell it on.
To hell with the “developed” world, I can look more stylish here for less. Woo hoo!
So many of my friends have said that they can not believe that I moved so far, so quickly. Life on the other side of the world seems a world away to the life I knew in the uk, or even in europe for that matter.
Over the space of 6 months, I had sold off my stuff and downsized until everything I owned could be taken on a plane. However, I had originally planned to move to Spain, much closer to the UK than the Philippines. But things always change and I was lucky enough to be in the right position to do what I wanted.
Life in the UK had begun to feel like slow motion suicide and I had had more than I could take. I needed a change, I needed to plan my escape.
When I left the uk, 3 months ago today, I was ready to live away. What I mean is that I had sorted everything at home so that all I had was what was in my 
suitcase and carry on bag. Should things work out in the Philippines, I can stay there as long as I can. The longest flight I had been on before I came to the Philippines had been just 4 hours, so facing 3 flights totalling 19 hours and 45 minutes was daunting. Not to mention the 28’000 km distance or the fact that I was flying over almost all of Russia as I headed east over Europe, Russia and then just after Moscow, heading south through china and landing at Hong Kong. A quick cigarette at the airport and back onto a plane for the final leg of the journey, a short 1hour 30 minute flight into Manila, Philippines.
To this day, everytime I see a plane coming in to land, I think about that day, as I was sat on the plane nervously waiting, full of hopes and fears. It feels so long ago now as I look back.
I have setup roots here in the Philippines and am working hard to secure a future. 
I am doing more than I have ever done in the uk. We were at the Philippine fashion week (where the earthquake was).
During the same week we were interviewed on 99.5RT radio about a website we have been working on covering undiscovered restaurants, hotels, resorts and other Philippine local delicacies. All very exciting stuff. Not to mention getting to hand feed tigers!
The other week Nick asked me “is there anything you miss that would make you come back?”. I had never thought about it, but in the the light of day, the only things that I miss are my parents, my friends and Spain. I could not think of anything that I had in the uk which I do not here or miss. There are many really nice things about the uk, but not many of them were where I lived. Seeing yorkshire villages with rolling hills. Finding hidden coves on the beach in summer. I will miss all of these things, but I never had them in the first place.
The whole purpose of this post was a result of people saying that they can not believe that I went half way around the world. I can not believe it either. Not a single day goes by when I do not think about how amazed I am at it and how different things seem now. After all, if something is worth fighting for, you should fight to the death for it. Without risking all, you can never win.
So here I am risking it all every day, fighting for that dream and buying as many building blocks as I can afford. If you spend your whole life sitting on your hands, when you finally do fight, your hands will be numb and you will likely loose the only fight that ever mattered.
At around 7:50pm local time, we were in the SMX Convention Centre at Mall of Asia for Philippine Fashion week.
As we stood next to the cat walk, the ground started to shake side to side. Slowly at first, but then more vigorously. It stopped after a few seconds, but then started again with more force. After around 45 seconds, it changed to a bouncing wave like motion before finishing.
The last time I was at SMX Convention Centre was the last time there was an earthquake in Manila (see post). What are the odds?
Unlike last time, when I was outside, this time I was deep inside the building on the second floor and it would have taken a while to get out of the building. So, I stayed put, watching for any signs of an increase in strength and planning the route we would take to get out of the building.
Later, after I had got home and slept, I checked online to see the details of the earthquake, but it was nowhere to be found on the USGS website or local Philippine earthquake sites.
Here are a few videos taken from the trike that I take from my house to the mall. Enjoy!
I moved to a new apartment yesterday. It’s actually more of a townhouse with an open plan lounge, kitchen and dining area. Upstairs it has two bedrooms, the smaller one has a balcony.
It is unfurinshed, so we plan to add items as and when we can afford them.
The first thing on my list is an air conditioning unit. It gets close to 40C during the day and 36C at night. I’m not used to these temperatures and drop with sweat whenever I am not infront of the fan. Sometimes during the day it gets so hot, I stop wiping the sweat off because by the time I finish, I am covered in sweat again. This is supposed to be one of the hottest summers that they have had in the philippines and if that’s so, I am confidant I could survive comfortably during the other summers here.
Earlier tonight, I was sat in front of the fan, but it just kept blowing the sweat onto my back. I seriously need to lose some weight and get fit! I made a cool drink, but within a minute of sitting down, the ice had melted! They’re not kidding when they call the philippines the gateway to hell. It certainly is hot enough!
Onto the good news, I am now a lot closer to Ian and the kids, so I can get there to see them and they can easily get over to see me.
For now I will signoff, its unbearably hot and humid tonight and I am leaking sweat so much I feel like a sponge!
Photos will come soon, I promise. (of the apartment, not me sweating!)
We drove to Pangasinan for the day over easter. It took around 2 hours to get there and ian had warned me “you thought you got funny looks in the city, in the province, most people have never seen a caucasian in person”. Personally I hate the term “caucasian”.
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