Back from the wilderness...

Picking leaves and dirt from my hair I have stumbled back into civilisation with the decree that I am most certainly NOT a hiker.

The occasional mountain stroll is fine and dandy, and I won't even shy away from a bit of hill climbing or caving...but an entire holiday dedicated to outdoorsy pursuits...what was I thinking?

I'll post more detailed stories about my trip soon, still editing photos and trying to find ones of me not looking hideous in hiking clothes.

Right now, I'm dealing with a wedding issue...something I thought I was done with.

The lady who designed our invitations did an amazing job, however, she was incredibly slack with communication.

I have been chasing her regarding the design for our thank you cards and she has completely gone to ground. The most irritating thing is that we already paid her for the design...stupid I know.

There's nothing for it, she's clearly not going to come up with the goods, so I'm currently sourcing alternatives. Which is an interesting thing to do in Manila. And is taking up a little of my time.

So in short, I'm here, just not as prolifically as I thought I would be.

So, somewhere along the line I became a hiker

I think I became a hiker when I was trying to regain my sense of adventure, which has unfortunately been misplaced of late.

And when I say hiker...I haven't actually been on any hikes yet...but I plan to.

My dad arrives tonight and we are heading away to check out the rice terraces and mummies of Northern Luzon. We are even going to do some caving - so of course I needed some new shoes!

They are unattractive and practical and I love them.

But more importantly I love what they represent.

A newfound sense of adventure and willingness to try anything.

I'll be offline until Monday next week (some places don't even have power, let alone WiFi).

Don't miss me too much.

Calling my Australian readers...

Sometime down the track we will move back to Australia (some days we feel like we could be away for forever and some days I cannot wait to get back fast enough), and I don't want to have missed anything.

I'm pretty on top of news thanks to smh.com.au and news.com.au but the one thing I am missing is MUSIC.

So I need your help - what are you listening to at the moment?

What is popular in Australia at the moment...what is being played on the radio over and over again?

Summer is coming to a close - what was your summer soundtrack?

I have pretty diverse music tastes so feel free to suggest anything.

Thanks in advance for your suggestions and help.

xx

It's like I'm growing as a person right in front of your eyes

Sumo Sam - the restaurant where I gave the slightly bad review on the customer feedback card - has become one of our favourite restaurants.

I always order the beef teppan with a side of teriyaki sauce and a coke zero. I know, I know, my creativity astounds even myself. So our waitress (yes we have a waitress) pretty much knows what I am going to order.

Reece on the other hand is a wild card, ordering all sorts of crazy things off the menu, which inevitably never work out and leave him eyeing off my juicy beef teppan with envy. And without fail I always mock him for his choices and tell him to just order the same thing as me.

So when we went for dinner last night, I could happily descibe our waitress as cocky. Which is not a typical trait in a Filipino.

She didn't listen because she was so busy showing off that she knew my order and she completely fucked up Reece's order. Poor Reece, after weeks of me berating him for not ordering the delicious beef teppan he ordered it, but didn't get to eat it, because she only brought him his entree.

The most amazing part is that I remained calm throughout the whole meal, didn't lose my shit once and remembered where I was.

I'm growing.

Heaven is...

...512 illustrated pages of pastry goodness.

Can I get a Fuck and a Yeah.

What's your idea of heaven?