Eavesdropping in the playground

"I can blink with my eyes closed."

"I promise my lips will be as closed as a mouse."

"Mrs. Smith hurt me."
"Don't be silly. How?"
"By telling me off. She hurt my life."

"My mum is gonna name my baby brother Toby."
"Really?! My invisible friend is called Toby. He's a donkey."

"Why do they call the small chocolate bars 'fun size'? I think it would be more fun to eat a big one."

Mabuhay!

So, I'm finally back from the Philippines after a long and rather stressful plane journey. I flew with Singapore Airlines, which meant that I had to change planes in Singapore. Unfortunately, it stated on my itinery that I would only have 45 minutes stopover time to make the connecting flight to London. Even more unfortunate was the fact that the computer system crashed in Manila, so my plane was delayed by an hour. Assuming I'd missed my flight (and a little disappointed I wouldn't get to ride in one of those beepy car things between the terminals) I sauntered off the plane in a leisurely fashion, only to be greeted by a man at the gate shouting at me, 'Are you London? Then GO! GATE 4! They are all waiting for you!' I ran onto the plane, at which point I realised that a whole cabin of English people (I hadn't seen an English person for two weeks) were glaring at me, as they had been waiting over half an hour. Of course, I wasn't the only person they were waiting for- there were about 15 of us- but still...

And while I'm on the subject of airports, does anyone else have a silent competition with the guy standing next to them at Baggage Reclaim? I do it without even realising. You know what it's like- everyone else seems to always get their luggage first, until there's only a few of you left. It feels like you've been standing there forever and know the people standing next to you really well, even though you haven't actually said a word to them. And the whole time you're thinking, 'I really hope my bag comes first... please be first.... come on...' I don't know why I bother, I always lose.

Anyway, this post was supposed to be about my holiday. I had a fantastic time, although it was rather different to last time as part of the holiday was spent in a province called Bicol, which is in a really remote part of the country with no internet access, phone signal or even proper roads! This was because every Holy Week my mum's family travel there (it was where they grew up) to take part in a town procession on Good Friday, as it's a Catholic tradition for them. It was a world away from the luxury I was used to in Manila, where all my aunties and uncles have lovely big houses with air conditioning and maids. By the time we reached the town it was very dark, and the house was literally in the middle of nowhere, near a tropical forest. Once I'd got used to the cockroaches and frogs (which seemed to be hopping about everywhere- I can't stand frogs!) I realised that I needed to relax and stop being so high maintenance. And once I did that, I had the experience of a lifetime. There aren't many places where you can drive around and see wild monkeys by the side of the road, and bats high up in the trees. I also got to see some amazing sights... here are a few photos from Bicol:

This is Mayon Volcano, the largest and most active volcano in the Philippines. Although you can't really see it here, it's in the shape of a near-perfect cone. And looks pretty impressive at sunset.

We visited some nearby natural hot springs, where the clear water flows straight from the volcano itself. It was a beautiful place and very refreshing!

When my uncle told me he was taking us on a boat trip to a desert island, I assumed he meant a modern motor boat. Oh, how wrong I was... It was a pretty cool way to travel though. Even though the boat owner laughed at me when I asked if he had any life jackets.

There was literally no-one else on this beach apart from us, not even any locals! And I saw some little sword fish when I was swimming. Very cool.

So that was the province of Bicol. Here are a few more photos from the main part of my holiday, which was spent in Manila:

Villa Escudero- where you eat lunch next to a man-made waterfall, with your legs dangling in the water. Fact: Filipinos love to eat. (Every meal is a feast, and during the meal they discuss the what they're going to cook for the next meal...)

Rafting. This was very hard work. And we couldn't work out how to turn the raft around, so in the end we just stood up and turned ourselves around to face the other way. Much easier.

My cousin Mikee and I at Camayan Beach Resort, in Subic Bay. Another stunning beach.

AQUA PARK!!!

There's so much more I could write about, but I feel this is a long enough blog post. Here is a photo of the whole family- these are my first cousins, aunties and uncles on my mum's side of the family. It was fantastic seeing my Auntie Linda again and her daughter Trisha, who I'd never met before as my auntie moved to Canada years ago. I was also reunited with two of my uncles, who hadn't seen me since I was 14 (they're usually abroad as they're both ship captains).

They're not a bad bunch, really.