Mum came out to visit in March and celebrated her 75 birthday in Manila. We holidayed in Batangas @ Stilts www.stiltscalataganbeachresort.net and Coral beach club www.coralbeach.ph/ and then in returned to Bataan Montemar beach club www.montemar.com.ph
Stilts ( a location from the film) has a perfect location, nice accommodation but is overpriced for the service and restaurant which serves only basic Filipino fare. Coral beach club has great rooms and is good value with the best food we have had for ages. However the location is not as great beach wise. All the same somewhere we will return to quick getaways. Montemar has undergone some further upgrades since we were last there and their restaurant has improved as have the rooms . The beach is as always spotless and clean. Good value off peak or for large groups sharing rooms. The best are the ones fronting the beach (and of course the most expensive)We enjoyed all 3 locations, even though we were kept up all night by Karaoke by Stilts they did not charge us for that night and were very apologetic.
Marc was off in the UK training for his new job during this time in March /April and returned to Scotland to see family for the first time in 4 years. He also spent time in London catching up on some curries and very expensive pints.
After Easter the kids started at the British school in Manila www.britishschoolmanila.org which has been a very positive experience . The classes are small, the kids and parents very friendly and they both are thriving both academically and emotionally. They follow the UK system and at 16 they choose IB or A levels. The kids obviously gained a huge amount from being exposed to Philippine culture as we have now lived here for almost 5 years (being able to sing the national anthem is a good party trick!) but the curriculum was becoming too limited for Gianna along with weird gender stereotyping and religious indoctrination, whilst Angelica was not learning at all within the huge class sizes. The transition was easy for Angelica but took a little longer for Gianna as she had to leave her old friends behind and start afresh as a teen which is rather more challenging. She’s still keeping up with the old crowd which is good, she hasn’t lost old friends but gained new ones !!!
The move to the British school was made possible by my work opting to pay for the kids education at International school rather than me leaving for another job and final recognition for the stress and hard work of the last 2 years getting WGNRR back on track. I have enjoyed the work much much more this last year as I have gained more confidence on SRHR content and policy issues as oppose to solely focussing on management issues. The team are a great bunch of people and we have fun in our globetrotting around the world. I managed to keep the travel fairly low for the first half of the year, but was back on the road 3 times in the last quarter in elsewhere in Asia, Europe and Africa. The travel remains a challenging issue for the kids especially Angelica and hopefully with new staff members joining in 2012, I can cut down again.
At the same time the kids switched schools Marc began his work at the British Embassy so things all of sudden began to look much more settled in The Philippines . I have a 2 year contract with a possible extension so looks like will be at least 7 years total in The Philippines by by the time we leave !!!! way more time than I could ever have imagined....
I was in Amsterdam in May and popped over to celebrate Michaels birthday. jacqui came down so was a family reunion night out!! The next day I went to Dublin nursing a sore head and caught up with Derval, Graziano and Family and then Marion who has developed a career in TV chat shows alongside a revitalised career in Law!! watched her set off for studios then on TV a few hours later...all very glamorous
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