What can I say...

It's been a long time, more than six months. I've been lazy and have mostly reading other blogs instead of posting on my own. A few things have happened...team meeting and trip to Phuket, moved to new house, Ben's done with Kindergarten, and now waiting for Irip and family to come home for a visit.

First things first. My boss decided to have our 2007 team meeting in Phuket or at least, in Phang Nga which is the province adjacent to Phuket (at least I think it is...obviously I won't do such a hot job in travel writing). We stayed in La Flora resort, which was pretty filled up because I think it was peak season. Was there from Nov 22-26. Most of the time was spent in the meeting room, as we learned some new things from our regular workshop speaker, Harry Dillon, and kept each other up to date with what each one of us is doing in our respective areas. It was nice to see the entire team together (Australia, Malaysia, Thailand, China, Singapore, Philippines). Photo below:

The team at La Flora

One of the Andaman Islands, can't remember anymore which one this is, I thought the rock at the bottom right of the picture looked like a beached whale

This one looked like a low-cut boot

Me before making a decision to plunge in

Conny and me after I decided to test the waters

Anyway, during the 2nd day of the workshop, we took half the day off for a trip to one of the Andaman Islands for snorkeling. It was about an hour by fast boat (I got seasick going in). And since I cannot swim unless my feet can reach the bottom, and the sea was quite deep, I was determined to just stay in the boat and watch everyone else have fun. As it was though, Conny (my boss from Malaysia, convinced me to jump in the water at least once. After all, I would be wearing a life preserver, so I took a deep breathe and did jump in. Water was nice and cool, and with the snorkel took a peek. It was BEAUTIFUL, the fish, the underwater plants, I'm so glad I let her talk me into it. Too bad I didn't have an underwater camera. Would've been nice to take a picture. What photos I have were taken from the boat, and here they are.

Coming back from Thailand, I started working myself up for the move to the new house (well, technically, it's not a new house, since we're the third family to move in, he he he), but it's a bigger house than Mapagbigay and since it is within a small subdivision, a much quieter place. We've got a chapel across the street and the clubhouse just next to it, so Ben has a place to play in. We eventually made the move in mid-December, and rather than spend Christmas home in Baler, I asked Papa to come down to Manila and we celebrated the holidays in the new house. New Year was spent home in Baler though, I just couldn't let the holidays pass without going home.

And so now, we've been here nearly four months. We've settled in (although we still need furniture), and we're pretty much used to the extra distance. One nice thing about the house is that we're closer to Kuya Toti's house again, so it's no longer a hassle going over there.

Meanwhile, we are now waiting for Irip, Girlie, Pau and Enzo to arrive from London (via Singapore) on March 26. It'll be the first time they'll be visiting after leaving nearly four years (almost five for Girlie) ago. I can't wait to see them again.

Well, I gotta get back to work. I just felt I needed to get going with this blog again otherwise, I won't ever come back to it. Next month, I'm heading off to Cebu, and I might be able to visit Bantayan Islands. If I do, I should have photos from that.