9 Days to Go!!

I heard from a friend this morning that her maiden mare has had her foal. Yay!!! A lovely little filly apparently, just as she had ordered. Hanging out for pikkies now.

11 Days to Go

And look!!!! More animal pics!!! My bud Kristina lunged a somewhat 'chipper' Spyke today. Apparently it was not boring!!! But doesn't he look FABULOUS!!!! Look at the dapples!!!

12 Days to Go!!!!

Yay!!!! Animal pics, received today!!!!

Spot da doggy!!!!!

Handsome boys and a Sammie that CAN do stay (unlike the 'missing one').

As you can see from the size of the grins, the girls are REALLY missing me........NOT!!!!!

2nd to Last Saturday

Today we had our big trip to the Mall of Asia, the third largest mall in the world. It was actually disappointingly small. There is a big hypermarket which if you live locally must be just great as it seems to sell everything and there is a big SM department store (we have one across the road at Mega Mall) so the actual mall itself is very ordinary in size.

However, we did have a ball as we got to see the sea!!! Yay!!! After 4 weeks the Bay of Manila looked fabulous and the sea breeze was very welcome. We had a bit of a wander around the mall and then debated about whether we would stay on for the fireworks at 7 (it was about 4pm). We decided to have an early dinner and watch the sunset (which is supposed to be lovely from MOA) and then head home. By the time we had wandered to Italiannis and had dinner (the sunset WAS lovely - my pics don't do it justice) it was about 5:45 so we decided that by the time we had been back to the stand where Anthony wanted to buy a watch and then wandered back to the waterfront we might as well stay for the fireworks. We did and it was GREAT!!! It was only abotu 5 minutes but the fireworks were fab and ther were thousands of people down on the waterfront to see them. It was a good day!!!!






Vid of fireworks can be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fAnZELG-hQ

Week 4

Week 4 is over. Only two to go!!!!

We had a good but very tiring week this week. I have not been sleeping well (still!!!) and have suffered for that during the day.

Today one of the trainees was late because he was held up at gunpoint on his way to work!!!! Yikes!!! He was on an FX. Apparently he had his phone in his sock (they don't look there) and it rang while he was being robbed (Mitch was ringing to see were he was) Fortunately he had it on vibrate so the theives didn't hear it. He was really blase about it when he got in, he just got on with his work and cracked a couple of jokes. I do worry about them all. :-( Here is Lester:


We had a bit of a 'do' for Anthony's birthday.Yesterday I asked Caryll if it was Ok for us to bring in a cake and the next thing I know a huge cake, burgers, hot dogs and soft drinks were organised. These guys are sooo ready to party :-). They are SUCH nice people!!!!







Of course, I joined Weight Watchers last night and have blown it on the very first day. I figure the next to weeks will be no good for WW anyway but when I get home I will get stuck in.

More Pikkies

Moving house Filipino style.

My room.

Real wildlife!!!!!!

Sunset from the room.

3 Weeks In

We have now completed our frst week of 4am starts and I have not adjusted as well I thought. I am completely knackered!!!! I haven't been able to get to sleep early enough so my nights have been quite short and I am really feeling it. I had a minor melt down on Thursday morning as the laundry had wrecked some of my clothes so I was REALLY grumpy first thing.It was also 'Thursday' and I hadn't slept much. I got over it though and now invested in some washing powder and have decided to hand wash everything in my room. The first load is now hanging over the bath, dripping happily.

We had a great day yesterday!!! For starters it was Friday (Yay) and then after work we had 'Team Building' 'Filipino' style and that meant................karaoke!!! Yes, my first ever karaoke!!! To start with we caught an 'FX' to the mall (OMG ANOTHER mall). An FX is a Toyota vehicle kitted out as a mini bus that acts a bus. It goes on a set route and doesn't stop to pick people up, it just goes from a to b. It is amazing how many people you can get in one!!!! LOL. Trinoma is yet another fabulous mall. Tom had booked us a room in a karaoke bar. It is soooo weird!!! You go into a booth (see photos) and there is a flat screen and microphones. You have staff coming around taking orders for drinks and food and you sit in there for four hours and eat and sing. It was HILARIOUS!!!!! We had such fun.

After the karaoke we were pretty tired so some of the guys escorted us on the infamous 'MRT' light rail. We had to keep our bags in front of us, tucked close to our bodies so we didn't get pickpocketed. The train was air conditioned (I love air con!!!!!) and we survived the experience unscathed (it was a lot like the undergound in London).

It was a great night but I was completely shattered by the end and when I looked in the mirror back in my room I looked TERRIBLE!!!!! 12 hours sleep followed and I am feeling little better today.