Friday, December 7, 2007
explosion update
Just in case u were wondering about the blast - The "official" conclusion is that it was a gas explosion whilst the owners of the Mall maintain that their experts confirm that a gas explosion, from methane in the sewage system, could not have caused the amount of damage. They still argue it was some sort of bomb. As usual one is left not knowing who to believe. Obviously the mall owners don't want to be found liable but there are lots of more conspiracy theories around too! For now the antics of those involved in the coup are keeping us entertained along with a new set of conspiracy theories. The Philippines has been found the 10th most corrupt place in the world - Doubt that will come as a surprise to anyone!
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
Never a Dull Moment!
The last month has been exhausting. Prior to our “holiday” in Bohol – life felt fairly chilled and less stressful than London but Mums fall and hospitalisation made me realise just how exhausting Manila can be. Trekking backwards and forward to hospital in one part of Manila, school in yet another part and work and home far from both locations, was enormously challenging. Not having a car meant lots of taxi rides and traffic jams. Up until then our life was fairly organised as we tend to use the train to get to everywhere we need to be, within our set routines.
Having said that, Mum received wonderful care at the Chinese General Hospital in Manila, resulting in the wound mending very well after her return to the UK. She flew home business class with an accompanying nurse, probably her one and only time, and although she has taken some time to get over the ordeal she will hopefully be fighting fit for Xmas.
Her last week in the Philippines was more enjoyable, although the reality was she could not walk for long periods and easily tired, so was very much restricted in what she could do. We did get to Sonyas Garden (see pictures in earlier post) which was a huge hit with the visitors and our regular haunt Mayamaya where we had a beach front villa with fantastic views. Tagaytay itself was a disappointment for them, as it was misty on the day we were at viewing spots. However not quite as bad as when we took our last visitors Pete and Marie Line, when visibility was practically nil!
We also managed to get to Intramuros and take a horse drawn carriage around the old fort walls, have coffee and cakes at the Shandri La, a posh hotel in Makati and dinner at the Greenbelt Mall, which looked very pretty with all the Xmas lights. The kids really enjoyed “Grandmas” stay and I think Mum will remember for some time her welcome from Angelica running to the front gates screaming “shes here shes here – Grandma Grandma!”
We are busy preparing for our next visitors in 2 weeks time and hope we can follow a more traditional holiday schedule and this time avoid the local hospitals.
Of course being the Philippines we continue to be entertained by the ongoing “ soap opera “ of life here. In the last week we have had 3 Typhoons with flooding and loss of life, an earthquake and an attempted military coup!
The typhoons brought miserable wet weather to Manila and the usual confusion regarding cancelling/ uncancelling of classes and people in shelters in unaffected areas and floods in unevacuated areas! The north was badly affected by floods and landslides. Apparently we were caught in an unusual pincer movement between two of the storms, resulting in one of the typhoons doubling back on itself back into land, which is apparently very rare.
The earthquake was quite impressive as I was on 12th floor of a hotel at the time. The building swayed and I felt quite sick for the rest of the afternoon! It was the strangest feeling.. The strength was exaggerated as we were high up and whilst it was scale 6 at centre, there was no damage within Manila where it was much weaker.
Two days later we heard during lunch that Trillianes (recently elected senator, in jail pending trail regarding his role in a military coup last year) had walked out of his latest court hearing. He hadn’t fled or fought his way out, he had simply left the building and had been allowed to do so or joined by those guarding him. They headed straight to one of the poshest hotels in Manila (of course) where they called for the overthrow of the government. As we were sitting around having lunch, in the hotel where we were attending a workshop, I realised there were TV cameras and security personnel milling around us. Suddenly Estrada, the aged movie star and ex-president, (just pardoned by the current president after being found guilty of embezzling billions of pesos) got up from the next table. He and his gang were obviously gathering ready to go down to join the rebellion if it got going! We were right in the middle of the “action”.
So what did we do? Go back to our workshop of course. Along with the rest of Manila people just got on with their lives and waited to see what happened next. As it was raining it didn’t seem that the the masses would go out on the streets - Filipinos hate getting wet!
The end came fairly swiftly with true soap opera overkill! The military drove an armoured personnel carrier into the Peninsular hotel whilst firing tear gas. Meanwhile the whole thing was filmed live and broadcast by the local TV network that was INSIDE the hotel, the bishop prayed, and the public worried about whether the Xmas tree at the Penisular would get knocked over or not and everyone was irritated by the curfew at 11pm! We went out with the other volunteers for dinner and unless one had seen the news you would not be aware there had been an attempted coup…….
So whats the fallout? – Trillianes and his supporters are back in prison, the Hotel has reopened, the President is in Spain on her way to the UK with a huge entourage of supporters, on an all expenses paid trip, presumably celebrating another failed attempt to get rid of her government. The Military, police and press are arguing about whether the attempted coup should have been broadcast live or not, and the general public are just getting on with life and preparing for Xmas. They started in September and the whole country is slowly working themselves up into a tinsel adorned, jingle belled, Xmas frenzy!
Having said that, Mum received wonderful care at the Chinese General Hospital in Manila, resulting in the wound mending very well after her return to the UK. She flew home business class with an accompanying nurse, probably her one and only time, and although she has taken some time to get over the ordeal she will hopefully be fighting fit for Xmas.
Her last week in the Philippines was more enjoyable, although the reality was she could not walk for long periods and easily tired, so was very much restricted in what she could do. We did get to Sonyas Garden (see pictures in earlier post) which was a huge hit with the visitors and our regular haunt Mayamaya where we had a beach front villa with fantastic views. Tagaytay itself was a disappointment for them, as it was misty on the day we were at viewing spots. However not quite as bad as when we took our last visitors Pete and Marie Line, when visibility was practically nil!
We also managed to get to Intramuros and take a horse drawn carriage around the old fort walls, have coffee and cakes at the Shandri La, a posh hotel in Makati and dinner at the Greenbelt Mall, which looked very pretty with all the Xmas lights. The kids really enjoyed “Grandmas” stay and I think Mum will remember for some time her welcome from Angelica running to the front gates screaming “shes here shes here – Grandma Grandma!”
We are busy preparing for our next visitors in 2 weeks time and hope we can follow a more traditional holiday schedule and this time avoid the local hospitals.
Of course being the Philippines we continue to be entertained by the ongoing “ soap opera “ of life here. In the last week we have had 3 Typhoons with flooding and loss of life, an earthquake and an attempted military coup!
The typhoons brought miserable wet weather to Manila and the usual confusion regarding cancelling/ uncancelling of classes and people in shelters in unaffected areas and floods in unevacuated areas! The north was badly affected by floods and landslides. Apparently we were caught in an unusual pincer movement between two of the storms, resulting in one of the typhoons doubling back on itself back into land, which is apparently very rare.
The earthquake was quite impressive as I was on 12th floor of a hotel at the time. The building swayed and I felt quite sick for the rest of the afternoon! It was the strangest feeling.. The strength was exaggerated as we were high up and whilst it was scale 6 at centre, there was no damage within Manila where it was much weaker.
Two days later we heard during lunch that Trillianes (recently elected senator, in jail pending trail regarding his role in a military coup last year) had walked out of his latest court hearing. He hadn’t fled or fought his way out, he had simply left the building and had been allowed to do so or joined by those guarding him. They headed straight to one of the poshest hotels in Manila (of course) where they called for the overthrow of the government. As we were sitting around having lunch, in the hotel where we were attending a workshop, I realised there were TV cameras and security personnel milling around us. Suddenly Estrada, the aged movie star and ex-president, (just pardoned by the current president after being found guilty of embezzling billions of pesos) got up from the next table. He and his gang were obviously gathering ready to go down to join the rebellion if it got going! We were right in the middle of the “action”.
So what did we do? Go back to our workshop of course. Along with the rest of Manila people just got on with their lives and waited to see what happened next. As it was raining it didn’t seem that the the masses would go out on the streets - Filipinos hate getting wet!
The end came fairly swiftly with true soap opera overkill! The military drove an armoured personnel carrier into the Peninsular hotel whilst firing tear gas. Meanwhile the whole thing was filmed live and broadcast by the local TV network that was INSIDE the hotel, the bishop prayed, and the public worried about whether the Xmas tree at the Penisular would get knocked over or not and everyone was irritated by the curfew at 11pm! We went out with the other volunteers for dinner and unless one had seen the news you would not be aware there had been an attempted coup…….
So whats the fallout? – Trillianes and his supporters are back in prison, the Hotel has reopened, the President is in Spain on her way to the UK with a huge entourage of supporters, on an all expenses paid trip, presumably celebrating another failed attempt to get rid of her government. The Military, police and press are arguing about whether the attempted coup should have been broadcast live or not, and the general public are just getting on with life and preparing for Xmas. They started in September and the whole country is slowly working themselves up into a tinsel adorned, jingle belled, Xmas frenzy!
Sunday, December 2, 2007
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