Dec. 21, and they were 6:14 a.m. and 5:32 p.m., so about 11 hours, 18 minutes is our shortest day of the year. I hadn't ever checked on that before. It seems to indicate that our "longest day" will be about 12 hours and 45 minutes, June 21.
Daytime temperatures are staying around 85°F., but as always, sticky-humid. Temperature at sunrise is nearly always about 78° or 79°. Recently we have been able to sleep without air conditioning.
We've been BURIED with events and projects the last several weeks. I'm glad I randomly put quite a few photos on this site, several times when I was dumping the camera-files into the computer. Let's see if I can get them captioned and organized - -
I frequently see, but often don't appreciate, sweeping scenic vistas when I'm routinely out-and-around. This is about 3 miles south of us, just after crossing the Delanas Bridge into Barbaza Municipality.
"You might be in Antique Province, Philippines" if a jeepney
piled-high like this one seems like a common sight. These
iconic Philippine vehicles originally were "stretched" WWII
surplus jeeps, with bus-bodies added. These days they
are still hand-built on heavy van-chassis - with inside height
too low for me to easily enter and move forward. Only
recently is the Philippine government taking steps to force
modernization of the jeepneys - - the reaction is maybe
something akin what might be to the U.S. government made
"baseball, hot dogs, and apple pie" obsolete by regulations.
You might be in in San Jose, Antique Province, if nearly EVERY
appliance dealer is CLOSED For Lunch, in this case for
1½ hours. What a Great Opportunity for a competitor to
appliance dealer is CLOSED For Lunch, in this case for
1½ hours. What a Great Opportunity for a competitor to
advertise, "Extra (XX)% Discount for purchases completed
while our competition is out to lunch!"
while our competition is out to lunch!"
Construction Gallery:
Here are a few views of the wall-finishing process. String lines are stretched from nails driven into the cement-blocks, and the finish is thrown-and-daubed until it can be troweled and flattened to match the string-lines. Regular readers know, any skilled process fascinates me. I can do a presentable job using gypsum- "drywall" materials, but cement work like this is a whole 'nother level ;-) .
This shows the thickness of the cement finish coating. A wall made of 4- inch blocks ends up being 7- to 8- inches thick, with voids filled and steel- rebar in a grid. Very strong!
Window installation nearly completed.
The window opening at left edge, not yet finished. The door-
jamb shows the contrast after some skilled finishing. This door-jamb is for the closer door in the next photo.
As of January 4 or 5, the exterior is nearly paint-ready, with doors
and windows installed, and one interior room is finished and painted.
The farthest wall in the first photo is a room which was doubled in size, and the roof raised
about 18- inches. Foreground, and small photo, show expansion of a much older part of the house, where the interior floor is also raised about 24 inches. The inside of the house will now be one level. Right photo, some days later, shows the wall completed, and the OLDER house inside, just before it was torn down. That OLDER house was part of the place I stayed when visiting here in 2001. This place is quite close to the usual "high tide" of Sulu Sea, so the increased floor levels will help prevent flooding in storms and other high-water situations.
It isn't TOO unusual here for someone to build a house surrounding an existing house, while meanwhile living in whichever end of the place isn't being worked on at that moment.
Malabor Elementary School, 50 yards from our gate, provides us with parades and processions fairly regularly.
Last-day-of-school before the holidays, it seemed as if each class had "themed" costumes and decorations. Often there is no vehicle on our street for an hour at a time; but of course, that van happened to time his departure to get "stuck" behind the parade! ;-(
I rode to San Jose last week via "Agare Lines," owned by our nearby neighbors. They have had this nice blue bus for 5 years now, and another one similar for about 3 years.
That morning, after unloading passengers at the terminal, they headed for CITI Hardware (building supply) at the opposite end of town, and picked up something-over 3,000 pounds of ceramic floor tiles (four seats, loaded like this) to carry to Culasi, 60 miles north. This worked out perfectly for me, so I just rode along with them. We had been several days with water-system problems, and CITI has the best prices on various components. I quickly bought a stainless-steel pressure tank to replace our 6-year-old galvanized tank, which had begun leaking from a rusted-out weld. Stainless steel = no more rust-outs!
The following morning I was able to fairly quickly (with a couple
"snags") transplant our pump and modify a couple pipes to get
the new tank on-line. One of life's unplanned blessings - - -
but it ended up being 4 days of off-and-on plumbing work
before we got it solved.
I get surprised sometimes, by how things have changed. Until a few weeks ago my recollection/ conception of MG- vehicles was pretty much like these internet-sourced photos. AND, English-made cars have pretty much been unheard-of in the Philippines.
SO I was a little bit startled to see the "MG" logo on this car displayed at a shopping mall, and much more startled by its form. Looks like MG has decided to push into the market-place here.
SORRY TO SAY, I just don't see much difference between THIS, and several-dozen Japanese and Korean cars which are heavily marketed here. MG has "lost its identity" with this one, and they will be hard-pressed to compete with established brands "selling the same thing," here. (Unless, of course, they actually have manufacturing somewhere in Asia - - but even with THAT the Japanese and Koreans have too much advantage I think.)
(Philippines is thought of as a "poor country," and indeed many ARE poor, here. But with 7%+ economic growth for the last several years, vehicle sales are booming, and so is commercial construction, everywhere.)
We tend to celebrate special occasions with pies. They aren't common-cuisine here, and there's enough effort involved in the making to keep us from indulging very often. Above, Bernadette's coconut-meringue pie, and right, my Christmas apple pie (apples a little pricey here, so we make it a point to do "one a year" but usually not more-than).
A good illustration of WHY to bottle home-made ginger-ale in
PLASTIC bottles. These two are same-batch. I think that
the bottle on the left may have been used one time before,
so I'm keeping track of them a little more, now. A few nights
ago, we had one burst - no damage! - and sadly lost its
contents. NOW, we store them in the patio-kitchen instead
just- in- case. (The home-made brew is getting more
consistent, as I "practice," now pretty mild with just enough
"snap" from the ginger to be interesting.)
One Christmas social I attended had this wonderful-looking
table loaded with decoratively cut watermelon. Red/ green
seasonal color scheme? I heard that the prep- workers are
professional salad- chefs from Boracay, a resort island
60 miles from us.
Two of quite many roadside Christmas Trees which I saw this year. They become more elaborate and creative year by year it seems, and with the advent (!) of LED lights, more and more of them are lit at night. The one pictured below had hundreds of (plastic bottles?) very finely and carefully cut into wispy, shimmery icicle- looking flowers. The effect when assembled is snowy- tinsel like but really quite subtle.
I couldn't decide between TWO rather dramatic sunsets this time (PLUS I got several more), so I'll post both of these and probably hold others "in reserve."
Looks like things won't slow down very much here in the next few weeks, as Bernadette and I both have a few "day trip" travel occasions approaching. I'll try to keep the camera handy and get all of you up to date again in a few weeks.
Have a great day!
TJ and Bernadette Larson
Antique Province, Philippines
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