Thoroughly full after a 2:30am breakfast of rice, bacon, chicken and a banana I set off once again for Manila. It went a bit better this time, I managed to sleep (not on the floor) and walking through the city was much more manageable with the cooler climate. ‘Twas not without its challenges though.

We did end up being refused by a taxi in the middle of a highway. He waved us off and then we were trapped in a ring of blaring horns (myself carrying a large piece of luggage and a ukulele). Praise the lord I wasn’t run over whilst escaping that death trap.

The second near death experience was also a bit of a surprise. Namely being that the jeepney decided that it’s better for me to depart while it’s still moving, we called stop, he waited 3 seconds and took off again. I jumped down off the moving vehicle and then narrowly avoided the oncoming herd of traffic. (Picture the wildebeest stampede in The Lion King).

So before 9 o clock I had dodged the scythe of the grim reaper twice and was ready to enjoy my life while I still could.

Back at the B’s I had my second breakfast and walked my hobbit feet up to my room where I saw this.

The sign is a little hard to read but it says welcome back. Such a sweet kid.  I nearly decapitated myself it’s true but it’s the thought that counts.

We caught a taxi to a shopping mall called green hills and I bought a white elephant gift? I think that’s the right term, later on it’ll be in a secret Santa game. The minimum was 300 pesos spent so I bought some head themed gear. A trilby (the fashion never dies) a head massager (looks like a whisk) and a neck pillow which is most often used on an airplane. If I end up giving myself those gifts I will be rather happy actually. And when I think about it I’ve never seen a Filipino wearing a trilby. There’s a first time for everything I suppose.

Next we ordered some lemonade at a stall and I watched the lady squash fresh lemons with a slightly evil looking machine. I smiled, took the drinks and handed them to the B family. They specifically requested natural but I had a small hunch that 3 lemons worth might be a touch too sour. It was. So with some added syrup we set off to the pearl changae.

Now according to Mr B the changae is a large number of stalls in a given area. I imagined a market sized setup but I have never in my life seen so many pearls in one spot. Look at this:

And that is one shop in one row. There were easily 10 rows 5 deep. All of them looked like they’d had an oyster hooked on steroids for the last 30 years. There some beautiful jade bracelets as well, my personal favourite though was a honey coloured necklace made out of citrine. As an ex-beekeeper I feel confident in saying it looked like honey had been pressed into perfect golden spheres. But Mrs B mentioned that pearls are like marbles here which explained why none of the storekeepers minded the 11 year old who was crawling round under the stalls looking for spares or bits that had dropped off. We walked out of that changae with our pockets jingling.

At home the Christmas lights were being put up (the traditional lantern type)

Like this:

Twinkle, sparkle, shiny….. Hang on…

But suddenly I remembered I had a singing lesson in 15 minutes! Panic!!!

One speedy tricycle later…

Well my first official voice lesson was pretty interesting. I am classed as a baritone with a range of F (2 below middle C) and a D one octave higher than middle C. Not bad I think. Overall the singing lesson went over time by half an hour because I and my teacher were so enthusiastic to just do “one more thing”. I learnt about breathing exercises, sang a couple of hymns and as a treat am going to learn an Irish folk song. All is well.

Dinner was a TV dinner with the B’s tonight. I was introduced to a hilarious show known as Dick van dyke. American humour apparently, but it had me in stitches. It also showed gorgeous 50s fashion, nice

suits, pretty hairstyles and classy American-ness.

I whiled away the evening listening to beautiful classical music (Christmas carols as well), all in the glow of the twinkling, blurry Christmas lights (I had my glasses off). Evan was asking me why we were just lying there, I suppose soon. He’ll realise that it’s more of a luxury than it seems. Time is the most valuable thing we own. I nearly fell asleep watching the hypnotic motions of Lydia crocheting a blanket into creation.

When I did fall asleep (later in bed) I had a pretty odd dream. My dream consisted of me hanging from a climbing frame… in an arena… fighting skeletons and dinosaurs, and skeleton dinosaurs. Only Filipino food can make dreams like that….