Today was the beginning of our end of year treat, weirdly it started with a 5:30am get up, but even this was taken in good spirits as we were heading off to the nearby island of Mindoro, specifically to Puerto Galera.

After the ferry had taken us across the damage immediately caught my attention.  I’ve never seen such a natural disaster before. The typhoon obviously ripped its way through the jungle uprooting trees and throwing large amounts of debris into the ocean. All of this is the driftwood which had been washed up on the shore.

But it’s definitely contrasted by the gorgeous scenery around it.

Naturally as soon as we had set foot on the island we traversed the beaches and consequently someone fell in love with Miss J. Island tradesmen selling necklaces, bracelets and other trinkets roam around hoping to sell to the tourists in paradise. After one such seller realised Miss J was fluent in Tagalog he sort of pulled back with a shocked look and said “your Tagalog makes my heart beat like a drum!”. That still didn’t persuade her to buy anything but it was worth a good laugh. He then turned to me and thought I was German. No one guesses British straight away (unless they hear me speak), that being said, this resort is a very popular place for European tourists (particularly Germans) to experience the world class diving locations.

Cue the beach sunset which is both free and priceless

As the sunlight poured upon the resort. We woke up to a day filled with nothing but freedom. Master B and I abandoned the girls to their swimming and we went off to play billiards. It’s been a while since I played and though I would love to buy a billiards table it shall only ever be a hobby for me. Afterwards we were in want of some fresh air so walked down to the beachside where I was greeted by a rather perplexing sight. It seems that this is obviously quite a popular holiday resort, even the Loch Ness monster has come out for a swim, please note that the photo below while blurry is definitely authentic and there is absolutely no room for doubt over Nessies existence.

This… is living life.

The evening was a bit quiet where I read my classical novel and learnt to play Rook. Yet another aspect from the B family which I’ll be taking home to Australia. I never thought that living with another family would cause me to pick up their habits and adopt their customs.