Rome was not built in a day ...... but our new house was

Maligayang Pasko at Manigong Bagong Taon

Tomorrow it will be Christmas eve again … and it won’t be a white one so we will just have to dream about such an event.

It’s been a year full of major events. We sold our house in New Jersey and are now going through the approval process for our new home in Silang Cavite. If all goes well, it should be finished by August. We had planned or hoped to start construction in October but things can move a bit slowly … and so the completion date is somewhat up in the air.

Obviously, it was a major decision to make this move and change in our lives but so far no regrets at all. We are enjoying life here and are both in relatively good health. Can’t say the same about Nikko, who will be 16 in January and shows his age; he’s gone blind and does not hear very much anymore … though he still eats well.

Some of our activities have been documented on our blog and we hope you will visit the site from time to time to look at what we are up to.

We had planned to go to Boracay, an island resort, for a few days, right after Xmas. However, when we tried to make our plane reservations, we found out that there was no space available. C’est la vie. Instead we may go to Calatagan where friends of our have a nice beach house [and they are still in New York].

In January, we have scheduled scuba classes … that should be nice, given all the great diving places here in the Philippines.

We’ll keep you updated on the progress of our house.

Maligayang Pasko at Manigong Bagong Taon.

Hans & Noel … and Nikko

East meets West ..... in a seed company

East meets West

At Ponderosa Leisure Farms in Silang, Cavite, where we are building our new home, there is a store in the development that sells various items, including vegetable seeds. As I looked over the selection of available seeds, I noticed their origin, the East West Seed Company. What an amazing coincidence, as that firm is owned by one of my cousins from Holland [our fathers were partners in a family-owned seed company].

Early in November, I decided to contact the firm, intending to pay them a visit in Bulacan, just north of Manila. Another fortunate coincidence – the firm was about to celebrate its 25^th anniversary a few days later and, of course, we were invited to this landmark event.

East-West was set up by my cousin to develop hybrid vegetables that would be particularly well suited for growing in Southeast Asia – the firm now has branches in the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand and India.

An overflow of farmers from throughout the Philippines attended the 25^th anniversary event that included tours of the farm, laboratories, and processing facilities and, almost needless to say, the firm is making a major contribution to the agricultural development of this part of the world.

THE PICTURES. Siem or Simon, my cousin, is shown in one of the pictures addressing the crowd at the firm’s base in the Philippines. We bought seeds that day and planted some at our condo in Malate; the picture at the top right shows the development of our vegetable patch in Silang.

Philippine Holiday Season

Christmas in the Philippines would be incomplete without the PAROLE or Christmas lanterns. they come in all sizes, shapes and colors. December 15 we drove up to San Fernando, Pampanga, for its annual Parole Festival, reputed to be one of the best in the country. Eight barangay took part in the contest of giant paroles, each about 15 ft in diameter and within each a network of wires and computer to provide a fascinating show of music and lights. These pictures do not really do justice to the show of constantly moving lights of so many colors and patterns.