Continues from 2024 update.
Highlight of the year would be the building of our house. In our rented house the owner said he finally sold it, in which case we were pressured to move out. Fortunately there was a few months grace period, so the transition was not so painful.
One of the funnest tasks of building the house was picking out tiles:
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Or choosing various furnishings, here a lighted and heated mirror for the bathroom:
Gardening work was fun too.
Speaking of the glamping tent…
Place for guests, airbnb and volunteers. The work of our first volunteers, a mural in the back of the house to help camouflage it from the main road or passerbys:
And a little tree fort for Kaja to get excited about, his own little escape place:
But the piece de resistance by far was the envisioned beautiful terrace:
The big, bold, beautiful terrace.
Where we could put some of our furniture, since our house is rather small.
Because it’s rather small inside.
Our big king sized bed sure takes up a lot of room.
A small place that quickly fills up into a mess.
Even with ample shelf space in the adjacent storage room.
Which is why the big terrace can compensate, such as for occasional parties.
Such as for our birthdays: Izzy one year old on Feb19, Kaja five years old on Feb21 and me 60 years old on Feb23:
Mel wanted to entertain the kids so she hired a magician.
And lots of different games.
Of course the “cackling hens”, as I like to call them, had to be invited. I used to work in my car off solar whenever I took Kaja to school and had to listen to how Mel and the other mothers of children going to school would cackle nonstop whenever they’d meet. Fortunately I found another solution to working in the car.
And what do these children do in school?
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Well, all sorts of events and activities, like United Nations day when each student represents some nation.
For some reason Kaja decided on Mongolia. Not sure what the tin whistle has to do with that country, but he entertained us anyway.
Other times the mothers would form into teams (by grade and class) and compete who could make the best food preparation and presentation.
While the children would dress up as foods, Kaja choosing the passion fruit.
Other times dressed up as their career of choice, Kaja here as an astronaut.
Or competing who can be the best prince and princess couple.
But it’s all rewarding when at the end of the year he gets medals.
But obviously Kaja wasn’t the only star of the year!
But alas, there were some moments of excitement and adventure beyond watching the grass and children grow – a trip to Manila to get Izzy a Czech citizenship.
At the embassy we noticed how handsome the president at the time was, so we had to pose and show off our beautiful, Czech genes.
But first we had to fly there.
And check out some sites, such as the Manila Ocean Park.
Or introduce the family to some good ‘ol fashioned Canadian cold and ice, with little helpers for balance.
And while in the big metropolis, inevitably to indulge in fine and exotic cuisine.
Such endless indulgence greatly thanks to our successful boat tours business.
And although a major storm did pass through our hood (one tree fell near our property but fortunately away from the house, and below this big tree crushed a house neighbouring our folks in the big city)…
overall I’d say it was a lovely and successful year!
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We are a family operation managing private custom boat tours in the beautiful Palawan area, and are happy to help travelers with their plans through the Philippines, having traveled a lot of it ourselves and planning to visit it all. These pages in this section cover my various solo travels before meeting my wife.