Lechon

This is pretty ancient history now (from December) but I figured that since Ryan is back in the Philippines for a couple of weeks it would be a good time to post about his experience.
Since we moved to the Philippines over 2 years ago Ryan had longed to do one thing... kill, gut, stuff and roast a pig on a spit. They call it Lechon and think it's just so delicious, which it is good. Our first thanksgiving there we bought a Lechon and had the Focus staff over to eat it and I was shocked at how much of the pig they actually eat. I mean they love the crispy skin glistening with grease, the tail, crispy pata (the legs)... they eat everything! There was nothing left of the poor thing but the bones and lemon grass they stuffed him with.
So... Roque, a good friend, used to cook Lechon in his drive way for some income at one point in time and told Ryan that whenever he wanted to learn he would teach him. So as the time was coming for us to leave Ryan had the staff Christmas party to deal with and decided the party would be a great time to learn how to cook a pig on a spit. Roque took him to a place we would see cooking these pigs all the time in an underpass close to out house and Ryan got have a little fun. Unfortunately Ryan wanted to capture the whole experience in high definition so Roque ended up doing most of the gruesome work while Ryan recorded the experience and snapped some pictures although he insists on participating during some of the occasion.
I could be wrong with the whole process since I can't stand to stomach watching the video but from what i've pieced together I'll briefly explain.
All the piggies hang out together chilling in a pen waiting for their turn to be transformed into something delicious. Once they have their pig they take a knife and stab it down the pigs throat and into the heart and let it bleed it out. They do this because they collect all the blood from the squeling frothy pig and use it for a dish, kind of like a gravy. Once the pig has finished bleeding out they clean the pig by dunking it in a warm bath. Apparently it can be only so hot because you don't want the pig to start cooking in any way. After this nice soak in a hot tub they just start scraping off the skin and it just seemed to pull away like no big deal revealing the perfect pink skin beneath the nasty dirty hairs that were just there.

Once the pig is cleaned up and skinned they need to take out all those yummy insides which they keep and again eat. From what I saw they just kind of fell out of the body and they cut what was attached. They also need to break the pigs spine so that the flavours seep properly? I'm not sure how correct I am on that, that was just how it was explained to me. So once that is done they ram the pole from the pigs bum through it's mouth and position it so that it can be suffficiently stuffed.

They fill the pig with lemon grass, salts and spices until he's all full and then they loosly stich him up and prepare him for the coals. The rope that they use is made of some special material that won't burn in the heat so it stays nicely tied through the cooking. Once on the coals he will rotate by a couple of guys hanging out for a couple of hours until the crispy skin is toasty brown glistening in the sun. Apparently the process takes 4 hours from start to finish.... faster then a slow cooker!

WOW, It's Been A While

I wish that I had something really exciting to write to everyone about or some really fancy pictures to post but it seems that the last while has been pretty "normal" for us.
We've been busy trying to settle into our house, finding homes for our furniture and trinkets we've picked up along the road of life and I think that we have created something we can call "home." Ryan has been very busy painting, then repainting to a colour that we liked more, putting in pot lights, a new ceiling fan, chandelier and moving furniture around until it looks like it belongs in that spot. We've finally got pictures on the walls that prove people actually live here and we've had a couple good fires in our fire place and one out in the fire pit. I'd love to put before and after pictures up but we don't have any before pictures.
I've been able to pull out all the appliances I have missed over the last couple of years and drool over how easy they can make my life. Oh how I love my dishwasher, the machine not my hands! My washing machine that only requires a push of a button and no manual labour what so ever. AND even though I didn't necessarily need this in the Philippines I'm so thankful for our electric blanket which makes going to bed in the -30*C weather so much easier!
Although being reacquainted with all these wonderful technologies i'm also reminded of some of the not so nice things Lethbridge has to offer like it's blasted wind always blowing my hair into my lips; sticky from a fresh coat of lip gloss *sigh* I have to remember to apply AFTER I go outside and that it is inappropriate in these temperatures to let my kids run around in their underwear all day long. Silly clothes!
The interesting thing I'm finding is that here or there life seems to settle into some type of routine that works... thankfully.

The Surf in Surfers Paradise

For our last full day in Australia Ryan really wanted to try surfing so we headed to the beach and rented a surf board for a couple hours that morning. It was a great day, hot but with a little breeze. We were able to find a quiet area without to many other swimmer and surfers to get in Ryans way just out of the "lifeguard" zones and as I layed on the beach Ryan went out to test the waters and the surf.
Since Ryan opted a no-go for the lessons he just started out by kneeling on the board and riding the waves back onto the shore to gain balance and figure out how to steer the board in different directions. The waves were pretty big and it took a lot of time and paddling getting out since the waves seemed to overtake everyone as they came roaring closer to the beach. A couple of good waves seemed to get him and Ryan says he swallowed a tonne of salt water that morning!

After coming into the shore for a quick rest for his arms Ryan went back out to tackle the waves and try standing on the board. After a couple of attemps he was on a roll. It seemed no problem to get up and stand on the board but it always ends the same:

After a tiring day of laying on the beach and learning the ways of the surf we decided to take our crispy bodies out for an "Australian" meal at the Outback Restaurant. It had a great view of the harbour and we could watch boats coming in and out while I tried to keep my burnt feet from touching any part of my shoes and Ryan finished his HUGE plate of ribs! It really was a good meal and a nice way to finish out holiday!

Springbrook's Nature Bridge Glow Worms

Tonight we drove up into the mountains in Springbrooks National Park into the Nature Bridge section. In this area there is a short circuit walk where you walk through the forests to a waterfall, down into the cave where the falls tumble and then back up and around the back of the falls to the beginning.
This circuit is open 24 hours a day because of it's beautiful scenery during the day and the cave filled with glow worms in the night. We made our way up to the circuit half an hour before dusk and were able to make it to the falls and cave before dusk. The falls tumbled into a cave forming a pool in the bottom and leaving out into the creek and flowing down into the thick rainforest.

We walked down into the cave behind the falls and we could see a couple of tiny glowing specks on the roof of the cave. We decided to walk up to the top of the falls, wait for dusk and go back to the cave to see the glow worms. When we made our way back to the caves the bats were flying around our heads but we could see the glowing worms lighting up the cave in some areas. As it got darker more worms started glowing and you could see them everywhere in the caves. With the lightening flashing and thunder starting we decided it was time to make our way to the car. By this time it was dark and we were trying to walk on the paths while we could hear animals in the bush around us, the thunder crashing and thankfully the lightening helping light the path. We could see these glow worms all along the path and up the mountains, these tiny specks brightly glowing green. When Ryan went to touch one it tried to shrivel up into the mountain and he could hardly see it anymore. Just as we were reaching the end of the trail the rain started.

The drive home was beautiful driving through the valley with the lightening flashes brightening up the sky enough to see the outlines of the mountains and all the trees in the fields. The rain was pounding on the car cooling everything down after another hot day!

Glass House Mountains

On the way home from the Zoo we thought that we would take a quick detour and check out the lookout for the Glass House Mountains. These mountains were formed by volcano's eroding away. They eroded leaving the lava centers behind which look like tall skinny spears poking out of the forests. These mountains were named by the founder Captain James Cook because he believed that the mountains looked like the Glass Furnaces from his home town in England.

The Australia Zoo

One thing we really wanted to do while we were in the area was head to the Australia Zoo and check out what kind of legacy Steve Irwin had created. The zoo basically focuses on animals that are native to Australia but then also has a couple of extra species (such as Tigers) that are endangered and they use the exhibits as a form of awareness as to the trouble these animals are in. They also use them to help raise money towards the animals cause hoping to save these species.

Of course the highlight of the zoo for us was walking around with the kangaroo's and koala bears where you can walk up to them and pet them or feed them. I was surprised at how soft the Kangaroo's were and how matted the Koala's fur felt. It was the opposite from what I expected. It was amazing though the huge exhibits they had for these animals where they are free to roam, lay around in the shade or play in some rocky mountains. They had a fenced area where the kangaroo's go when they don't want to interact with the zoo visitors and can be left alone. The koala exhibit was a bunch of trees with koalas literally hanging in the trees.

We also saw 6 Tiger cubs (around 18 months old) walking around, a couple playing with a log and swimming in the water. Ryan was able to see one tiger pounce a Keeper when he entered the exhibit, playing with him. They mentioned that most of the keepers have raised these Tigers since they were cubs!

Of course the Crocs were the main event at the Zoo since Steve Irwin was fascinated with them. They had in the center of the zoo this huge Croc coliseum where they will bring out a Croc swimming in clear water so you can see exactly how they move and stalk. They then entice the Croc to get a little aggressive, jumping out of the water and onto the grass throwing raw meat into his mouth. For part of the demonstration they had the Croc jump vertically out of the water using his tail to push him up into the air. Monty, the Croc, was huge and definitely not something i'd want to run into!

They offered a lot of opportunities for people to hang out with animals for a fee, play with the tortoise, rhinos, wombats and a lot of other animals. They also had a line you could wait in and feed the elephants but since we've done that before on the streets of Bangkok we didn't have to waste our time but we were able to see the 3 elephants walking back to their exhibit according to size tail in tusk.

It was a great zoo and the keepers did a great job of educating you while you were looking at the exhibits. An example would be that I learned you can tell the sex of a Cockatoo by the colour of it's eyes or a tortoise reaches it's sexual prime around the age of 50 years old or by the amount of sunlight they are in; because the sunlight is prime at the zoo their tortoises are in their prime at the age of 35.

The animals would be taken on walks around the zoo so you would see a wombat on a leash waddling on the paths or a pack of young goats from the children's petting zoo. Birds and lizards were wandering around looking for crumbs left by the visitors and waiting in the bushes. We were able to get quite a bit of quality zoo time in before leaving just after lunch!

Byron Bay, New South Wales

This afternoon we found ourselves in a small community name Byron Bay. It's about an hour south of the Gold Coast, Queensland. The drive was pretty, beautiful green trees, sugar cane, and wonderful air conditioning cooling us down. The town was filled with small shops, surfers and of course lined with a beach. These small shops seemed to all be aimed towards tourists selling boardshorts, hippy paraphernalia, and surf boards all one block away from from the beach.
Before taking off back to our hotel we made our way through the small town to the Cape Byron Lighthouse which is Australia's most easterly light. The cape is surrounded by a beautiful view of the coastline and ocean on either side.

Springbrook National Park

After picking up our fabulous rental car today we made our way West into the Gold Coast Hinterland to the Springbrook National Park. It is located in the mountains covered in rainforests and walking trails. We made our way up the very windy roads which was great practice for getting used to the wrong side of the road and car. I have decided that so far Australia is the traffic circle King. I think we made our way around more then a dozen which can be quite stressful when you're on the opposite side of the road and not too sure where you're going. We did see some great road signs like Kangaroo and Koala crossings but unfortunately the only wild life we saw was road kill, poor joey.
We made our way to the "Best of Them All" lookout which was a 300m walk that lead to the rim of a 20 million year old volcano that had been eroded and was now covered in dense rainforest. You could see beyond the ocean and the green forest that seemed to go on forever to both the right and left. Along the way we ran into a great black snake looking lizard hiding in a small bush. Ryan couldn't help but try to move it somehow and eventually scared it out of sight.

We then drove back down the mountain a ways and stopped at the lookout for the Purling Brook Falls which were beautiful! There were two different lookouts and we walked to each of them getting two fantastic views of these huge falls tumbling down into the forest. Along with the view of the falls we were able to enjoy the cool walk through the trees and enjoy some shade from the sun.

Gold Coast, Australia - Days 1-3

So... here we are in sunny, hot Australia listening to some crazy sounding birds and letting the breeze blow through our room.
The journey getting here, not so fun. The flight totally kicked my butt! About 8 or 9 hours into our flight I was stretching my legs and noticed that although I couldn't necessarily feel anything I could feel my skin stinging, like it was so stretched it was about to burst off my legs so when the girl sitting next to me (she had the aisle) woke up I excused myself and got up to walk around and use the washroom. Well, my feet, ankles and legs were so swollen I'm sure my eyes were popping out of my head while I was looking at them wondering how in the world such small ankles could become so HUGE! Thankfully a steward walking by who told me I wasn't allowed to hang out in the aisles took me to some seats i assume to belonged to the employees and let me sit with my legs up against the wall for an hour while my toes and legs started to tingle again with life. With this out of the way I went back to my seat. Thankfully we arrived safely and a little ahead of schedule. I either ate something nasty or got some bug on the plane because during de-boarding and every moment after that I had to run to a washroom to puke! Thankfully this only last that one day which provided us with rest and relaxation in our hotel room and when we woke up the next day I was feeling human and ready to go.

So with Day 1 a total blow out we spend Day 2 exploring the shops, restaurants and beaches around the hotel. The beach is the biggest we've ever seen with no end in sight in either direction. The waves are huge and the surfers are out attempting to work their magic. It's hot hot hot which I don't mind considering the horrible cold snap hitting southern Alberta right now. I wouldn't want to be anywhere else! After a long day of walking and exploring we were walking back to the hotel along the beach and noticed a bright orange line coming up from the ocean. The sun had gone down 1 or 2 hours prior and it was quite dark outside and we realized that the moon was rising into the dark sky! We sat down in the sand as we watched this huge, brilliant orange moon rise out of the water into the starry sky lighting up the small clouds and leaving a reflection along the water back to the beach. It was so amazing and something I had never heard about or seen before. Unfortunately our camera wasn't on us at the moment but hopefully we'll be able to catch it again before we leave!

The third day we decided to play in the ocean which was like ICE! So cold. Thankfully by 9am when we walked the 400m from the hotel to the beach it was already scorching so the walk into the ice waves was tolerable. The waves were so huge and could carry you to shore if you let them. There were surfers out already, people kicking their rugby ball back and forth in the sand and people running by getting their morning workout. The rest of the day was spent walking around and checking out the area since it was our last day without a car and I expect to be out and about venturing into the rainforests or petting me some Koala's!!

I Don't Like Snow Anymore!

Well that last couple of weeks have been a crazy whirlwind of chaos that is hopefully starting to settle down!
Nothing is funner then attempting to pack the last two years of a families life into 8 suitcases each 50lbs or lighter (*note the very sarcastic tone in my words*). Then take the husband out of the picture for a couple of days because he's out of town trying to take care of some work obligitions, adding in a last minute trip that required us to leave to Manila a day early and then boarding our 10 1/2 hour flight back to Vancouver and having a 6 month pregnant lady trying to organize her two children and 300lbs of luggage out of customs so we can get to our connection flight without Ryan who is still in the Philippines. The kids were amazing! Not a lot of sleep but they sat perfectly, no crying and didn't go missing in the customs line once. I think the anticipation of the whole trip caused me way more stress then was needed.
Of course all was worth it, and I can say that now that we've all got our first real decent sleep since arriving Saturday night! I think (knock on wood) that we are finally adjusted to the time change, phew! The biggest problem wasn't that the kids weren't tired, it was that their bodies would wake up because they needed to use the washroom and dispose of their waste. Their bowels were still on Philippine time and unfortunately once you sit on that deathly freezing toilet seat, you're shocked into complete alertness and it's a little harder to settle back into that deep sleep.
The kids have been busy visiting with family and anxious to play outside in the snow. The first snow we had after we arrived they were stuck inside because their mother didn't think it rational to send the kids out in the only shoes we had (crocs) so we've been busy accumilating a winter wardrobe inclusive of boots. Poor Sydney can't resist trying to eat the snow leaving her crying "I don't like snow anymore" trying to figure out why it leaves her poor fingers stinging.
So now we struggle to stay warm while anxiously waiting for Sunday night when Ryan will fly home.

*Please kindly remind me to NEVER travel time zone changes with my children alone again! Night duty must be shared for survival purposes!*

Was that McDonalds or MacDonalds?

I the biggest hint that it's time to come home for a substantial amount of time is when your kids speak english with a Filipino accent rather then a "Canadian" one. Brayden has gotten into this horrible habit of talking about 75% of the time with this accent. I guess when you're surrounded by your classmates, friends and church members all of who speak with this accent you tend to pick it up and mimick it. Well.... I am so annoyed by it, no offense to those of you Filipino readers, that I can't talk to him unless he speaks like a "Canadian". This has lead into many conversations about the differences between being Canadian and Filipino especially when all he knows is the Philippines. I have had to correct his before near perfect grammer which has all of a sudden transformed into broken sentences or one worded responses that are known to me as "English as a Second Language" and the problem with this is that Brayden does not speak Ilonggo so English is NOT a second language.
The other day in the kitchen he was pointing out the words that Filipino's say differently then Canadians and he asked why they say "MacDonalds" when we say "McDonalds" and although I had no answer I just told him because that's just how we say it. So Ryan took Brayden out this week for some man time and they had a cheeseburger at McDonalds. Apparently Brayden is pointing to the table next to them saying "you say MacDonalds, we say McDonalds." I think maybe I should refrain from correcting him further until we get home in 2 weeks before he starts getting into it with his classmates and teachers?

It's a Small World After All

Today at Brayden and Sydneys school they had the Filipino equivalent to Halloween; Pretend Day. This year the theme at school was It's a Small World After All and every class was a different continents. Sydney was Australia and so she was able to dress up like and Australian animal, and Brayden was African and was assigned to dress up as an African. Other places were Asia, North America and Europe. Each class set up a booth which included a stamp for their passport, a game and prize for their completion of the game.
I was a parent volunteer for the Gummi Class (Sydney) and helped out at the booth during their 2 hour class with a couple of the other parents from Syd's class. We had to be their early this morning which meant that after I was done icing the cupcakes Ryan made the night before and the cookies I had cooked at 6:30am I was on my way to set up while Ryan was in charge of getting the kids ready and out the door to school. Sydney ended up being a great white shark which was an easy costume we bought a local department store and Brayden... well I have to say that Ryan really did quite the job with Brayden! When I say quite the job I mean Brayden really looked the part! It was perfect and of course I wouldn't expect anything less from Ryan.

The bonus to being a parent volunteer meant that I could follow the kids around a bit when there wasn't anyone at our booth and take some pictures of them playing their games! When the day was over they were able to accumulate quite the stash which defiantly makes up for the lack of trick or treating this year!!

MassKara Parade

This year we were in town for the big MassKara/Charter Day parade. Last year even though Focus had a float in the parade we were on our way home to Canada and missed the big event. This year we had to make up for it by all participating. We all got fancy MassKara Focus shirts which were black (thankfully it was cloudy so the sun didn't roast us in the dark shirts). Brayden loved his and Sydney needed some convincing about how "cool" they were so we made hers into a dress and put a belt around her waist (which is a VERY Asian look) but somewhere along the way the belt came off and she like her usual orphan self.

The float and shirt designs were made into a competition at Focus so both were designed by Focus employees which to my understanding were rewarded with some type of incentive. Ryan mentioned how many talented people were working at Focus and was really impressed with the different designs that the Focus gang was coming up with. This was the finished project for the float:

Focus employees that owned motorcycles drove those along with the floats, including Ryan who took the kids with him. They seemed to be getting a lot of attention and people were somewhat attacking him on the bike so after Sydney started to fall asleep Ryan switched off the motorbike to someone else and walked with me while we pawned Sydney off to a friend on the float. The walk took almost 2 hours in total which was slow and uneventful until we got to the Plaza which is where most of the MassKara festivities (dance competions) took place. It was insanely busy and Ryan thought it would be fun to play a "Where's Meghan" version of the famous Waldo books so here you go... find Meghan (click on the picture to get a larger version):

After the parade was finished everyone met back at Focus for some foods, relaxation and pictures. The families were invited to sit down, eat some pork BBQ, drink some Coca Cola and let their kids sit in an air conditioned room and watch some TV (which my kids were loving!).

One thing that I have promised to post are the drunk tanks I've previously mentioned in my blog. They are just big shipping crates from boats with holes cut out of them (Negros Navigation is the biggest shipping company in the Philippines). They had 2 of them set up at the Plaza this year and when you get a little too drunk and start making a scene the security will put you into one of these tanks to sober up. We've heard that if you drive by around 5am you will see hands poking out of the holes. The other thing we've heard about these tanks is that they are one big CR (Comfort Room = Bathroom)! Too gross. I just could not resist sharing this wonderful thing with all of you readers. The other picture is of the insanity of Masskara. This is one road that is filled with vendors selling cheap trinkets, clothes, chicken BBQ and blow up toys for kids (such as Power Rangers). It is so busy with so many people all squished together and you seriously can't move. It's 30*C+ outside increased by all the hot bodies you are mashed up against, you get so sweaty and disgusting, I just couldn't understand the fun in it! Ryan on the other hand loved the business of it all!

Happy 4th Birthday Brayden!

So on Thursday Brayden felt he had decided he was a big boy now because he was 4 years old. In his birthday excitment we were all up at 5:30am which is 30 minutes earlier then normal, we usually sleep though the intial call from the roosters. Mom, not so excited to wake up so early! It was a good day and Brayden finally got a much needed haircut just in time for his party the next day!

Friday was party day. Again, so excited to have our friends come over we were up at 5:30am, again I was not so excited about this. We decided to invite a couple families from church who Brayden really enjoys playing with. The couple of days before were spent making fondant for the cake and the kids and I making a horrible mess on the floor in our attempt to make a pinata. Brayden decided that he wanted a Power Rangers birthday cake which was a shocker to me since I didn't even have a clue he knew what a Power Ranger was and I had no idea what they were other then fighting characters on TV. I guess it's the begininning of peer influence. So Brayden and I searched the internet for pictures of Power Ranger cakes until he found something that he was excited about. I did the best I could and I figure I've come along way since his first birthday cake of a smeared soccer ball.

The festivities included a treasure hunt, pinata beating, food and cake and the kids took care of the rest playing outside, running after eachother and burning off all the sugar they were eating. We were able to feed the 30ish guests with our assortment of goodies including 200 Lumpia (spring rolls) made a church member for her favorite customer, Ryan.

Unfortunately we don't have too many pictures since most of the party was recorded on video instead of camera but i've rounded up a couple of the kids playing outside. It was kind of a nut house with the 13 primary aged kids and then some of the older kids Brayden really loves but Brayden had a great time and I think Sydney felt the party was just as much for her as it was for Brayden.