Ketsana or Ondoy

The world saw the effect of “Ketsana” while the Philippines suffered from the impact of Ondoy. No idea why the world can’t agree on naming a spade a spade.

It had been raining more or less all week so when I left Saturday morning for a noon meeting in Los Baños, I didn’t think twice about making the trip; after all, I was driving an SUV and that is a bit higher off the ground than other cars. The meeting was to finalize plans for a large fraternity reunion on October 10.

I got to Los Baños, I found I was the only one there for the meeting. Our texted our Treasurer and he informed me that he was stuck in Manila. I texted the president of our sister sorority and she said she was on the way. In the meantime the rain continued .. sometimes a bit heavier. I also texted our caterer and she said she was coming.

More waiting – then a text from the caterer saying she could not make it to the meeting as the water by her house was waste deep. The sorority sister arrived and talked some about our plans, then called it quits to go home.

I got in the car and tried to make my way home. The first part was OK, some flooding but not too much for the SUV. As I got to the Pansol area in the city of Calamba, the water got higher and higher in places … and finally we were told to turn around as the road was not passable.

I went back to Los Baños but got worried when I could not go home. The two dogs were home, locked in the patio, but with only some water and a little food – one of the dogs is a 17.5-year-old ShihTzu who is blind and has almost no hearing. I was concerned. Our gardener visited the house around 4 pm and said the dogs were OK. I also called Noel in Manila to ask for his advice – he was pre-occupied as he had to leave our other car in Makati because of the floods there.

Finally, around 8:30 pm I was told that the road should be passable again. Yes, it was passable but lots of stranded cars and long sections with high water levels and other areas with lots of mud washed down from Mt. Makiling. There were a couple of places where I kept a safe distance from the car in front of me .. to make sure I would not hit the car and also to see where there might be problem areas. Finally, made it home around midnite [normally, with no traffic, it’s a one-hour trip. The dogs were asleep.

Yesterday, I got word from our caterer informing me she had to beg off – her business had suffered too much damage. I hope we can find a replacement caterer on such short notice.

Meanwhile, Noel slowly made his way from Makati to Malate, where he was planning to stay overnite with friends. He took the elevated train and when he got off at the Pedro Gil stop, he found the streets flooded and had to wade to the condo in Malate, on Roxas Blvd – parts of the way had waste-deep water. At the nearby Robinson Mall in Ermita, bangkas were being used to ferry people between high spots. He finally got to the condo after a six-hour trip – normally would take no more than an hour. Noel had to stay in Manila until Monday morning as large parts of the city still had standing water.

We were lucky. A number of our friends got flooded out of their houses only to return to find mud all over their things, and cars that had been standing in deep water.

Some 250 Filipinos lost their lives during the storm and many suffered serious damage to their properties and/or had to evacuate.

Tomorrow, October 1, my oldest brother and his wife arrive for a two-week visit. I keep looking at the weather reports as maybe one or two new typhoons may be headed in our direction and get here late Thursday or maybe Friday – hope the storm track changes. The last time they visited us in Hopatcong, New Jersey, we had 15 inches or rain in one day. Ondoy dropped 16 inches on the greater Manila area in a nine-hour span. I don’t want any new rain records; not interested.

Our home in Silang, Cavite, is in an elevated area – some 1,500 ft – so no worries about flooding.

New Kid on the Block

.......................our expanding family

Good friends of ours, one of my fraternity brothers here, gave me a "living" birthday present -- a three-month old Shih Tsu; we/I named him Noah. He looks very much like Nikko, who seems to get along with him OK, and has the same coloring. Nikko, now almost 17.5 years old or around 84 in human years, has gone blind and does not hear very well anymore. In contrast, Noah is full of energy and runs around like crazy; he's also very loving but has not yet figured out why Nikko would rather sleep than play. He also loves to watch Nikko eat and then licks the bowl for good measure. He doesn't yet realize that he's supposed to function as "seeing eye dog" for Nikko.

The Ponderosa Floorplan

The house is set in an area of rolling hills and to take advantage of the terrain, the house is split level.

The main part of house is essentially one floor, with a step up or down here and there.

As you enter the house you come into the foyer. Immediately to your left is the powder room, next to it a staircase going down to the garage, and next to it the staircase that leads up to the guest quarters.

When you turn right from the main door, you come to Noel’s master bedroom, then the study/library and at the end Hans’ master bedroom. The two bedrooms are linked by a shared master bathroom.

If you go straight from the front door, you pass through the foyer and then enter the living room with cathedral ceiling and, through that, you come into the dining room overlooking a pineapple farm. To the right of the dining room is the gourmet kitchen with stairs leading down to the dirty kitchen and maids’ quarters which are located partly under the gourmet kitchen and dining room. Also downstairs are a storage room and electrical room that one day may house a generator.

The living room has three French doors on each side – one side opening up to an oversized patio good for outdoor seating even if it rains; the other side also has a patio but not as wide; the patio overlooks a "fishless" pond and waterfall. The kitchen and side patio overlook the swimming pool and garden.

Up the stairs, you go to the guest quarters – two spacious bedrooms with a multi-purpose room in between. One bedroom has a terrace facing the street and the other a terrace with a view of the pineapple farm. There is a shared bathroom.

Below the guest quarters is the garage, laundry room and driver’s quarters.

HOUSE VIEWS

It's kinda hard to give a good description of our new house but, as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. Here are some pictures of the outside of the house; I have labeled the different sections so you'll have a better idea of what you are looking at. Of course, the best is to come and take a personal look.

another view

As others see us

Noel's nephew Alecs and his girlfriend recently visited us from Calgary. They also have a blog and did a write-up on their visit to Silang.

This is what they said about their visit: alecsandmeg.blogspot.com


Hans

Growing Up .... or Older???

Getting ready for the party

We have experience when it comes to giving garden parties with a little rain. After all, when we had our 25^th anniversary party at Lake Hopatcong in New Jersey, it rained some – well, a bit more -- around 15 inches fell in that day – but the party was very successful.

So when it rained here, poured at times, the two days before Hans’ 70^th birthday party, we weren’t too worried. Our concern was needless – it was dry the whole time during the party, with the exception of a few drops early in the afternoon.

We had a guest book ready so friends could record their presence at this historic event – however, somebody moved the book and most guests did not bother. We’re not sure how many people attended – somewhere between 100 and 125. Also I’m not sure if they came to sing “happy birthday” or to take a good look at our recently completed house.

The first guest to arrive, in the morning, was one of my fraternity brothers who came by to drop off a case of black label – much appreciated later in the day. My godson came with his wife and two kids [and yaya/babysitter] right after lunch. The next set of guests included one from Calgary who’d arrived in Manila a week earlier with a suitcase full of nice steaks from Canada [good steaks hard hard to get here].

As usual, the guest list included a variety of people whose lives had intersected with ours – fraternity brothers and sorority sisters of Hans, a couple of former Folklorico Filipino members, some of Noel’s relatives, and some neighbors from Ponderosa.

We had arranged with one of our friends to bring a piano player so we had entertainment – during his breaks, some of our piano-playing friends filled in.

The food was catered and was OK but not something to write home about. In fact, after most of the guests had left, Noel noticed that the catering crew was not eating the catered food but seemed to prefer the adobo, menudo, and pancit Noel had prepared for the drivers [yes, many people come with drivers so you always have to have extra food prepared].

Since we live a more rural area known for its pineapples or pinya, we had arranged for a load of pinya for guests to take home as well as plenty of bananas or saging. Our drink options included buko juice or coconut milk thinking that a few of our city friends might appreciate that – we expected some to be left over but the juice was gone within the first hour of the party.

I didn’t have time to take pictures during the party – only a few during the setup. Several friends took lots of pictures and promised copies so we can upload them to the blog.