Another year...

Turning 31 is nowhere near as exciting as turning 30. (Especially if work takes you to another island on your special day...) No jokes about entering a "new decade", no play of words with the "big 3".

Thanks to Facebook more than 60 friends remembered my birthday and painted my wall with warm wishes and "thumbs ups" because they... liked me getting older?! Ehm, wiser, I suppose.

Gifts, of course, are always exciting! It seems they get more exciting the older I get. Definitely more unique and tailored to my personality (which I find charming since it's a sign of a) having a personality and b) people really knowing me).

Let's start with the sugar-less apple pie Glenn made for me! He's been bragging about his perfect apple pie crust for the longest time. I finally got the chance to try and... confirm! More than the crust I appreciated the time and effort he put into making it (given we have a sub-standard oven and baking utensils of even lesser standard).


His creativity didn't end with pie making. What started as a joke became a beautiful and very unique... wind chime! Readers who follow my blog are familiar with the odyssey of my broken arm. Once my beautiful blue "cobra" fixator was removed we were pondering what to do with its remains. (Don't get me wrong, I don't plan to use it again but since I paid for the surgical steel, I might as well keep it!)
Ideas ranged from key chain to wind chime but for the longest time the parts and pieces were collecting dust on the shelf. Not anymore! Let the wind sing through my metal friends! A piece of art, indeed!



That I'm a coffee addict is no secret. And, I'm a tree-hugger when it comes to disposable coffee cups. I guess this is known, too. Adding the two together my friends Boy Garrovillo and Uli came up with this unique re-usable coffee mug. Unique, since Boy designed and painted the face of the mug to personalize it. More, he researched old Tagalog script which now spells "cup of Jana" on the cover.
What a great gift! The "Kalinga Blend" (whole beans for extended freshness) came along with the cup. What else would have?!



With age comes wisdom or in my case more thoughtfulness of what I'm eating. For almost four years now I'm a fish-eating "vegetarian". What some might call a "difficult personality" others accept as the "complex nature" of mine. Serving Bratwurst and Hamburgers during our spontaneous birthday dinner, Dondi and Esmi had prepared vegetable paddies made of kidney beans! It's
not to imitate the taste of meat but for me to enjoy condiments such as mustard!

Unique because it's mine is my new bike!!! Now that I'm headed for 40 I should take care of this body of mine. I can't do much about the wrinkles around my eyes but at least about my physical condition. So I can spend many more "31st" birthdays in the years to come, to get to know more interesting people while bonding the ones already in my life closer to me, to explore life to the fullest with Glenn and only stop to get my cup of coffee!

Under Falcon's wings

Last week's 'wet-from-all-angles' sailing experience left no doubt: the typhoon season has officially started in the Philippines.

Since yesterday, it is typhoon Falcon spreading its wet wings over Luzon. No storm signal had been issued for Metro Manila. Strong winds are truly not the problem. It is heavy rainfall which “reached the “abnormal” level of 44.4 millimeters in just three hours, from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m., way above the normal level for June of 10 mm per day” which paralyzes the city.

My ordeal started already Wednesday night. Heavy rains woke me up several times. I started panicking at the thought of being trapped in the bus to commute to the office. The roads are in bad shape anyway since our water provider Maynilad started ripping them open for pipe work half a year ago. My imagination was running wild what non-stop rain would do to my 2 hour commute (one way) to the office...

In the morning I treated myself to a cab ride in. Taking a different route, I made it to work within an hour!

Intramuros, the walled city in old Manila, was still passable at 7am. Despite the rain, the office had electricity and internet! Not always the case during typhoon season.

When I left the office for lunch break at noon small puddles sprung up her and there. Coming back to the office an hour later I was already tip-toeing through a sheet of water. When I left the office at 6pm, Intramuros was completely submerged!

Luckily, I got a ride to Makati. Staring out the window of my waterproof air-conditioned vehicle I watched Intramuros, Malate, and Manila Bay flush by. Makati was a big swimming pool with people walking knee deep in the murky water. Needles to say Manila's infamous traffic chaos worsened with every drop of rain!

The main arteries and veins that keep Manila's traffic somewhat moving were blood red, tinted by the tail lights of non moving cars. Glenn was stuck on the new Skyway whose exits were backed up. His only way forward was to go backward. Back to Alabang that was. I knew no cab would dare taking me south either (or maybe for triple the usual price). In short: I was trapped in Makati for the night.

Thanks to a well functioning social and cell phone network it took me a few texts to arrange a shelter for the night. Lesson learned: be prepared! Until the end of typhoon season, I’ll always carry a toothbrush and a clean set of underwear!

Sailors are happy people. There is little which dampens our sailing fun! Storm is wind in our sails and rain merely a by-product of interesting wind conditions. And interesting they sure were during this year's Independence Day Regatta in Subic! The two-day event has seen it all: wind, no wind, rain, no rain, and a combination of all or none.

We soon found out we had chosen the right boat to crew on! Helping out Dale and Richie on their 30 foot cruiser turned out to be a perfect choice! Being a cruise boat it might not be the most competitive dog out there but surely the most comfortable.

Although the little sun roof proved to be an accessory rather than a protection from the elements we were given rain jackets (just like the ones we had forgotten in our car!). We were fed apple pie with cream and delicious tuna sandwiches! The latter started flapping in my face like a chatty mouth when the wind suddenly picked up. All I could do is quickly put my wet thumb on its lid to keep it from flying!

Drinks, just like food, come in handy when the wind dies for an hour or two... And trust me we had a lot of no-wind-time to cover. Time for me to take over on the helm and practice some light wind maneuvering!

The board engine becomes the sailors best friend when the open bar at the marina calls with free drinks but the wind decides to not collaborate at all. Called it a lack of enthusiasm or simply being practical. After two days on the boat we had grown quite some sea-legs. Which turned out to be useful during the tropical depression which wet the 113th Anniversary of the Philippines' Independence!

Back on track!

After 4.5 months forced retirement from sailing, team Tiger Gambas is finally back in the game! With low expectations (from our out-of-shape performance and from the seasonal low to non-existing wind) we joined the Taal Lake Yacht Club Sunday race. To our surprise, we came in second overall, scoring first place twice in 4 races! Seems our sailing spirit hasn't faded in the past months! My (according to my doctor) fully recovered arm did a great job in pulling ropes and fixing sails. I even dared helming for a little while and maneuvered some maneuvers.

While on land, we paid a visit to the office of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Philvocs) at the shore of Taal Lake. The office is rather unimposing. It houses a few computers monitoring the seismic activities of Taal volcano. With 115 earthquakes in 24 hours, the staff should be rather busy. Or maybe not. For the longest time signal 2 has been issued. The status quo hasn’t changed in weeks now.

However, according to the office's own documentation pinned to a simple corkboard I would say it's time for signal 3! Interviews conducted with residents on the main crater (where permanent settlements are strictly not recommended since it is declared a Permanent Danger Zone) confirmed some of the earthquakes were 'felt'. According to Philvoc's documentation, 'seismic squirms of felt quakes' are indicators for signal 3. While seismic activities seem to increase, boat operators started 'sightseeing' tours on the lake again. In the wake of the current fish kill I wonder which 'tours’ exactly are being offered. Fishing for beginners?

At the bottom of it all

Yes, the current fish kill in Lake Taal started with an act of nature: a tropical storm. Wind blowing across the lake from the south moved the lakes' oxygen enriched top layer water to its northern shore. On the southern shore the bottom layers of the lake surfaced. Suddenly, thousands of fish floated in the water with their bellies turned up.

The effected fish farmers are quick in pointing their fingers at climate change and a somewhat active volcano causing the fish kill. Wrong. It was their irresponsible behavior that finally killed the vulnerable eco system of the lake. It’s the result of overfeeding the way too many fish cages with feeds based on chicken manure. Unused feeds sink to the bottom and create the perfect breeding ground for weeds using up oxygen.

What was washed up during the storm was oxygen-deprived water from the lake’s bottom. The waste buried at Lake Taal’s bottom finally turned up. (For an explanation read Bernie Lopez’ opinion piece. I don’t think the polarizing and finger pointing at “foreigners” exploiting the lake's resources adds journalistic value to the article. He does give a good explanation of what happened beneath the surface though.)

A lesson learned you say? Wrong again I fear. Laguna de Bay is a living (or rather dead?) example of recklessly abusing aquatic resources. Obviously, the Philippine’s largest lake with its 950 square kilometers surface are was not a big enough lesson to learn from.