Naromal childrens tennis tournament

Mum met Nathan when she was here, Nathan is (i think, and am sure so does he.....) Davao's best tennis coach. I have been having lessons from Nathan weekly, they are a great work out and also great fun. We discussed what we wanted to do and we settled on NOT trying to re-construct my game.....good decision that but to concentrate on hitting balls and trying to improve things on my game. Its certainly working for me.

I was challenged last week to a set of singles by a guy called Joel who told me he was a class C player. I could have lost but at 3-1 down i tightened up, he started making mistakes and i won 6-3. Joel wanted a replay but i was tired after an hour with Nathan and so declined.

Nathan told me that Joel was the best class C player in the club (GSIS heights) and therefore i was a class B player. I think Nathan may have been being kind but anyway i will take that.

No chance of being class A, you need talent and class for that, so, will settle for class B.

I would say its like golf....club players are handicap 30 and above. Class C are between 20-30. Class B are 10-20 (yeah i am a tennis 20 handicapper) and class A is 0-10, no chance of me getting there, no way.

We play at GSIS because Nathan has had a falling out with "the committee" at Ecoland but anyway GSIS s closer for me and i enjoy to play there. As usual in the Philippnes, everyone is friendly.

Nathan runs 4 times yearly a childrens age event open tournament. It s well run, i would say has a mixed level of participants but at the finals stage the kids dsplay a very high level of talent.

I have been part sponsor (minor sponsor) of the last 2 tournaments and i went for a couple of hours last Saturday morning to watch some finals. One of the under 14's boys is a fantastically talented attacking player, sorry can't remember his name but from the backhand and forehand he was striking the ball wth amazing power and control for someone his age. I felt sorry for the boy playing him who was also a talented player but he got worn down and wilted under the bombardment. Most players would have i can assure you.

Nathan as Mum knows is the chap with a microphone in his hand on one of the pictures...he is announcing the order of play etc

I took a few pictures from the event but also post a cute one of Annika in a wash basin as well just for...well for no reason at all........

Agusan Del Sur, Trento

We were invited by Richard and Jessa to their house blessing and house warming party for saturday 28th Feb 09 and went with a car full....Mats and Cora invited....2 maids, Germaine and Lizelle and Lorenz and Annika as well of course, dropped off Joy (who had been staying with us) in Tagum on the way through to Trento.

It was a pleasant 3 hour drive and the road was good, we missed the turning but quickly corrected ourselves and turned left for the Tansley place...i knew it was big and on a hill...seen some pictures and Paul had also described the place for us and we spotted it through the trees, approach was through a set of gates and past the guardhouse, yes guardhouse, over the river and sharp left up a steep incline, felt like about 60deg in one place but sure it would get easier after a few goes, made that with a deep breath and first gear.

As you can see with the pictures Richard and Jessa took on a big project with land clearing, building and maintenance...sort of 3 hectares of land but then there are adjacent rice fields, stream and pond and woods, Richard is a bit of an estate management person and he now has his own to manange and beautiful it is too.

Party was great, food and drinks and all the normal philippine hospitality and the only monkey there was the rain...not exactly true actually coz they have a monkey, birds, guinea pigs and other wildlife...back to the rain, yes it rained for nearly all the time we were there. Richard and Jessa are used to it and we have rain too in Davao but not quite like this and it went on for a long time, probably still raining now.

Lovely party and great fun, off we went home next day and had a funy incident when we were dropping off Lizelle in Monkayo on the way home to visit her family. We stopped and drove to within say 1 metre of Lizelle's house people started gather...who was this....rich foreigners turning up in the local Baranguay. Ann wound down her window and asked her Mum, where is Lizelle? (she was in the back seat behind tinted window) panicky relatives explained that lizelle was working away, which turned to laughs and smiles as Lizelle clambered out of the car....don't know if it comes across funny but it was and smiles and Cige Salamat (thanks goodbye) all round.

Had an uneventful trip home and went with Mats for a few cold beers what more can you ask for on a sunday............well there was one more incident worth mentioning about 6:30 pm there was an explosion in the kitchen, flying glass everywhere, fortunately nobody was near, me and lorenz on the computer were nearest....what happened we think was this...there was a glass "safety top" over the cooker...one of the kids (keisha stand up) must have twizzled the knob to full and under the glass the thing heated till it exploded, wow was there glass everywhere...nobody hurt phew...we don't even use that cooker (we use our outside kitchen all the time) and we didn't even know it was switched on, so, it was our fault we left it on for little fingers to twizzle.

Strange end to a great weekend

orphanage sewing machine

At Christmas i asked Lisa what she really needed for the orphanage and she told me a sewing machine would be very handy.

The "friends of Mindanao" group collected funds for a christmas party and very generously Paul Salvidge's family (Paul is an English friend of mine living here in davao) sent over funds for the party but with collection exceeding spends, we had funds over. After discussion with Paul and the "friends" group i contacted lisa about the sewing machine, funds looked ok but how much would it cost and where do we get it from and which one?

Me and Lisa by e mail had dialogue and after some confusion (not surprising seeing the subject the language issues and the "one off" task) Lisa cleared things up by shopping for the item. she gave us price (funds were ok...just...), location and model number.

Paul went to collect yesterday but i had a few texts and phone calls, it wouldn't fit in his car. I was a bit surprised, but see picture, Lisa chose an old fashioned (practical) model with stand so, i arranged to collect this morning. I met Paul after tennis this morning and we went and loaded it into my vehicle, it was inspected, packed, and ready for us, typical Philippine efficiency....wait i thought they were supposed to be the opposite here....this is the subject of further discussion.

Persuaded Ann, Annika and Germaine to come with me to the orphanage and some pictures attached of the event.

Disturbed the kids for their lunch (older kids at school) but it was nice to see something of their routine and good for Ann to see the orphanage for the first time too...............

Generous of Paul and his family and glad to assist...more of the orphanage to come

Puppies end Feb 09

Visited Nilda on Thursday 26th Feb 09 to visit the Daschound (sp?) puppies and take a few photos, one had died last night, don't know why and so there are 3 left, 2 boys and 1 girl, think we are having one of the boys, will wait for a decision from Nilda, lets see.

Annika does "like" them of course she does, me do i like them, well they are ok, seem to be a good dog, not too big, good at catching mice and rats...(cats lets see) and bark at strangers but not at people they know. The 2 dogs at Rene and Nildas seem very contented running around their big garden and so walking the dog will not be needed as our garden is even bigger and he will have the run of the garden except the swimming pool area. Not being too lazy here just practical because there aren't many dog walks here in Davao.

Small dog in a big garden, should work out fine i think......always someone at home, except on an odd sunday lunch...sunday is Germaine and Lizelle's day off, and so the dog should not get too bored and lonely, i think it will be fine i really do, hope we don't regret it......... A sausage dog for our little gorgeous sausage.

pool repair and change of water feb 09

The chemical balance in the pool went haywire, pool changed water colour from luminous red tinged glow (too much acid) to murky green (too much chlorine) and then back to blue again but we had already decided to change the water and take the chance to get a bit of maintenance done...namely,.......re-grout the tiles and to replace one of the lights wall bracket that "mysteriously" (kids using it as an unofficial springboard is our best guess......) broke.

Draining the pool was slightly tricky because we have a submersible pump to pump out groundwater and this needed to be balanced with decreasing water content in the pool.....then also because 28 m3 (my guess) was introduced into the water run off drain and it started to back up later in the process, anyway after a day or so it was done.

Bracket changed, re-grouting took place and then re-filling, all took 4 or 5 days and we had a "new" swimming pool party Sunday 21st Feb, water was bracing to say the least, kids dodged it, me and Arnel were the main swimmers it was re-freshing.

Job cost a few quid in repairs, grout, labour and water, but every 2 years or so not too bad.

Samal v Panglao

Gina (a friend) asked me if i prefer Samal which is an island in the gulf of Davao here in Mindanao. or Panglao an island near Bohol, we visited this week. To be honest i don't know, Samal is close and we take it for granted, it is just there and very accessible for local resorts like paradise beach resort, or Chemas via boat or a RORO ferry away ....or like....

A week or so back we went to a backwater place for our niece Kitkats birthday to a place called La Concha. it is a private resort and can be booked only when the owner isn't present, he rents it out to cover overhead and maintenance costs.

I drove and Arnel also drove his Dads vehicle, about 12 in each vehicle so a happy party of 24 or so, arrived early for a full days eating, drinking and swimming. Wow some of the kids swam all day and were so sun tanned at the end of the day, really burnt but it was beautiful and so.....

Gina, not sure which i prefer but Samal is closer and in support of Mindanao i guess i choose Samal.

trip to Bohol

We went to Bohol last week and stayed on a popular local island Panglao, going with friends Mats and Cora and of course Germaine and Annika, it was a happy party. We stayed at a place near to Alona beach called Alona studio's, it was ok and fairly inexpensive but not convenient for the beach and with limited food menu, very limited, so, would try somewhere else next time.

We went by plane, 45 mins to Cebu and from Cebu transfered to the port area where we waited about an hour for the ferry from Cebu to Bohol. The ferry was a pleasant 2 hour journey, me and Mats sat on top which was quite noisy but blowy and fun taking in the sites of passing paradise islands.

Annika was fine at "getting up" at 4am, great on the flight and slept on the ferry testing Ann's biceps but resting and happy. We were only there for 3 nights and 2 full days but soon got the feel for the place and "hit" some really good restaurants during the trip. We would have liked to go boating, dolphin watching or island hopping but between us we counted that out because of Annika and the extra hassle that would have entailed, so, we took it easy for the first day, except Annika up at 5am so at first light 5:30am (we called for Mats as arranged at 5:30 but he sleepilly declined to come with) Germaine and I took Annika down to the beach for a nice splash about in the cool weather. Super meal out at night and that was the first day done.

We went on a Bohol trip the next day which was python stroking, monument visiting, tarsier monkey viewing (worlds smallest primate i think see picture with Ann) and chocolate hill viewing, boat trip for lunch and caves and rope bridge it was all packed into one trip, tiring but fun. More beer and food and then back to home next day returning via ferry, 3 hours wait and lunch in Cebu shopping mall and then delayed flight of about an hour home, all no problems apart from an upset Annika on the return flight coz of ear / air pressure problems, she was a handful thats for sure, 45 mins felt like 4.5 hours, anyway she was fine as soon as we touched down so it had to be her ears, she slept on the way there but not on the way back, anyway no big problems.

All in all a good trip, weather not perfect, digs not perfect but it was fun, Bohol is worth a trip.