After scouring the length and breadth of Manila , we finally moved into a 3 bed house just over a week ago. It's in Philam, the gated community were my office is located. A 5 min walk to work for me! We did consider a number of other options all over Manila but in the end decided to start off near to the office until we get Gianna's school sorted and if necessary relocate in 6 months time.
The bedrooms are all large double rooms, we have 4 bathrooms and thru living/dining area. No garden - its actually really hard to find houses with gardens, as the Filipinos hate the sun and do everything to limit the sunlight around their houses. We have a huge mango tree that shades the whole house. The net u can see above the house is to catch the fruit and leaves. There is a large outside area where we can put chairs / the kids can play and we are opposite the tennis courts, pool and kids playground so the kids aren't exactly couped up. the photo os front outside our house across to playground courts etc. Its really nice as its one of the older communities and whilst the newer developments are devoid of character, Philam has a church and some local shops at its centre along with the sports facilities and therefore has a natural focal point where people congregate. Everyone seems to know us whilst we are still getting to know people. Angelica is everyones darling and has her own little posse of friends calling her name wherever she goes.
Gianna has just finished 4 weeks tennis course. She was asked to be a model by the course sponsor MILO and interviewed for TV- probably a good thing as shes more likely to have a future in modelling than tennis ( as her father says she has all the required model characteristics - photogenic, loves the attention as well as being wilful and lazy)
The house is a bit sparse at the moment as we have to buy everything from scratch. Feels like I have been all over manila viewing at garage sales picking up odds and ends. We bought some fantastic new bamboo furniture - Marc bargained hard and we got large double bed, table with 6 chair and single bed all for £80!!! We are actually doing some research as we think there may be a business opportunity importing the stuff to the Bahamas!U can see the dinning table in the photos of the first Filipino meal we cooked with our language teacher. We even made our own coconut milk. Its chicken adobo in case your wondering what it is!! There are some fabulous food markets near here where the variety of fish, fruit and vegetables is amazing - We have had some great meals since we moved in, 6 weeks of eating out in restaurants had us craving for home cooked food!
U can see the kingsize bed sitting in the covered area below our bedroomin the photo! It was too big to fit up the stairs so we are waiting fo the guys to come and take the window out and haul it into the house that way. Not as difficult as it sounds because labour is so cheap here and we have borrowed the landladys handyman to help us out. We had the whole hosue painted and scrubbed inside and out before we moved in.
Now the house is sorted we are focusing on schools for the girls. Angelica will only go a couple of hours a day to a lovely little nursery between my house and work (ie 3 mins away). Gianna will start at around 7.30 and finish at 2.30 each day over in Makati. She is sitting a test this week for a posh Filipino school where all the rich kids go. We decided the British school was just going to cost too much especially when there are so many good Filipino schools about,This school has one class each year which is just for foreigners - mostly Korean and Filipino kids who have been brought up in the states although there are other nationalities. She will get to learn Tagalog. Its in the poshest part of town where many ex pats live and therefore a lot of the kids from the British school, so she can go and play with her friends or do after school stuff quite easily. It will be a 40 min commute each day for her on the train . They do get busy but unlike the tube in London they have aircon and have a woman's/family carriage she can travel in. I've also contacted an English woman that does home tutoring and though might get her to come and do a couple of hours of English geog/history so she keeps up with that side of things.
I have started work proper today after 7 weeks induction with VSO which included 5 weeks language training. We had a wonderful teacher who has become our friend. We plan to go out to some nightclubs together soon! He lived in the states for a while and is great at interpreting Filipino/UK,US culture clashes!!!!Not exactly sure yet what I'm actually supposed to be doing at work yet but have 6 months to find out so not too worried.
Off to join the super new gym today in the mall next to where we live. They are busy constructing the biggest Mall in Asia and have already completd this flashy new gym. Its just too hot to run and will soon be too wet to do much else so will spend my spare time in the gym and being pampered in the spa.................Missing friends, family and camping but not much else about UK ...oh yes English mustard!!!
The bedrooms are all large double rooms, we have 4 bathrooms and thru living/dining area. No garden - its actually really hard to find houses with gardens, as the Filipinos hate the sun and do everything to limit the sunlight around their houses. We have a huge mango tree that shades the whole house. The net u can see above the house is to catch the fruit and leaves. There is a large outside area where we can put chairs / the kids can play and we are opposite the tennis courts, pool and kids playground so the kids aren't exactly couped up. the photo os front outside our house across to playground courts etc. Its really nice as its one of the older communities and whilst the newer developments are devoid of character, Philam has a church and some local shops at its centre along with the sports facilities and therefore has a natural focal point where people congregate. Everyone seems to know us whilst we are still getting to know people. Angelica is everyones darling and has her own little posse of friends calling her name wherever she goes.
Gianna has just finished 4 weeks tennis course. She was asked to be a model by the course sponsor MILO and interviewed for TV- probably a good thing as shes more likely to have a future in modelling than tennis ( as her father says she has all the required model characteristics - photogenic, loves the attention as well as being wilful and lazy)
The house is a bit sparse at the moment as we have to buy everything from scratch. Feels like I have been all over manila viewing at garage sales picking up odds and ends. We bought some fantastic new bamboo furniture - Marc bargained hard and we got large double bed, table with 6 chair and single bed all for £80!!! We are actually doing some research as we think there may be a business opportunity importing the stuff to the Bahamas!U can see the dinning table in the photos of the first Filipino meal we cooked with our language teacher. We even made our own coconut milk. Its chicken adobo in case your wondering what it is!! There are some fabulous food markets near here where the variety of fish, fruit and vegetables is amazing - We have had some great meals since we moved in, 6 weeks of eating out in restaurants had us craving for home cooked food!
U can see the kingsize bed sitting in the covered area below our bedroomin the photo! It was too big to fit up the stairs so we are waiting fo the guys to come and take the window out and haul it into the house that way. Not as difficult as it sounds because labour is so cheap here and we have borrowed the landladys handyman to help us out. We had the whole hosue painted and scrubbed inside and out before we moved in.
Now the house is sorted we are focusing on schools for the girls. Angelica will only go a couple of hours a day to a lovely little nursery between my house and work (ie 3 mins away). Gianna will start at around 7.30 and finish at 2.30 each day over in Makati. She is sitting a test this week for a posh Filipino school where all the rich kids go. We decided the British school was just going to cost too much especially when there are so many good Filipino schools about,This school has one class each year which is just for foreigners - mostly Korean and Filipino kids who have been brought up in the states although there are other nationalities. She will get to learn Tagalog. Its in the poshest part of town where many ex pats live and therefore a lot of the kids from the British school, so she can go and play with her friends or do after school stuff quite easily. It will be a 40 min commute each day for her on the train . They do get busy but unlike the tube in London they have aircon and have a woman's/family carriage she can travel in. I've also contacted an English woman that does home tutoring and though might get her to come and do a couple of hours of English geog/history so she keeps up with that side of things.
I have started work proper today after 7 weeks induction with VSO which included 5 weeks language training. We had a wonderful teacher who has become our friend. We plan to go out to some nightclubs together soon! He lived in the states for a while and is great at interpreting Filipino/UK,US culture clashes!!!!Not exactly sure yet what I'm actually supposed to be doing at work yet but have 6 months to find out so not too worried.
Off to join the super new gym today in the mall next to where we live. They are busy constructing the biggest Mall in Asia and have already completd this flashy new gym. Its just too hot to run and will soon be too wet to do much else so will spend my spare time in the gym and being pampered in the spa.................Missing friends, family and camping but not much else about UK ...oh yes English mustard!!!
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