Garden guardian angel?

Doesn’t really look too reliable, so will just see her as a garden angel.

Diwali ball at Dusit Thani

I don't know exactly how it all happened, but some time back in spring the ladies - me included - in my Bollywood Zumba class got persuaded by the lovely Vandana that it would be a great idea to perform at the annual Diwali ball in September. That sounded really far away and thus kinda great. The closer we got however, the more unconsidered the decision felt... Until then, when the big day came, we had so much fun!
Kids performed as well and were the true stars of the evening. So brave - the audience were about 800 prominent, mainly Indian, guests, all dressed up and showing off their beautiful traditional clothes. And ah, the food!

Ladies team: Mei, Smita, Maripa, Manisha, me, Liz, Marianne, Vandana, Sherazade.

Ortigas Kids group. Kai with Alex, Zach, Faizaan, Shayan, Ella, Gwen, Ved, Mikael and all the rest.

And here I am trying to upload the videos of our dances, but without success. The cool gran finale can be seen HERE though.

I *heart* my lanai

Lanai is Filipino for that kind of lovely outdoor but with almost indoor feel kinda space of a roofed veranda or patio – where at least we spend about ninety per cent of our waken time at home. For me, absolutely essential in a tropical country like this.

Looks like one of those Facebook photos that says “look at the picture for ten seconds, write (random word like help/it’s true/Jesus or so) share with all your friends, look at the picture again, it amazing.
Well, this is just a roll that protects the lanai from rain, adding a bit of a lovely semi-sombra when it's sunny .

(trying to find out what lanai actually means, I learn it’s origin is Hawaiian, with the same meaning, and also that Lanai is the name of a Hawaiian island, every day you learn something new  – google is my friend)

Trick or treat?!?

Earlier this week the annual Valle Verde Halloween trick or treat chaos took place, kids all dressed up and as I was stepping in as visiting witch in friends-down-with-dengue place I did my best as well. Maybe succeeded a bit too well with the sticky green and black theater make up - or did the witch in me just pop out naturally? Successfully handed out treats to all kids without scaring them too much though - and then headed over to the final haunted house where it all ended with a most amazing Pakistani buffet - hooray for multi-cultural neighborhoods!

 The little black people.

 The mummy witch.

 Happy Halloween!

Filipiniana

This week kids will celebrate "Filipiniana" in school, sort of a tribute to our lovely host country, the Philippines. Hana was asked to send in a couple of pictures from different parts of the country, as they were going to do some kind of visual exercise on the beauty of this place. Going through our photos from last year I really was amazed of how amazing this country actually is - even remembering you cant really capture it in pictures. And yeah I'm happy rainy season is almost over and we can get back to our out of town (down our mountains) weekend escapes habit again!

Some memories from last year.

 Hidden Valley Springs, Laguna.


Maricaban Island, Anilao, Batangas.

 Pinto Art Gallery, Antipolo, Rizal.

 Coco Grove, Siquijor Island.


Banaue Rice Terraces, Ifugao.

 Aninuan Beach, Puerto Galera, Mindoro.

 Kinabuhayan camp site, Laguna.

Beverly Hills, Antipolo, Rizal - our street!

Garden flowers

Well, still in the middle of rainy season we don't really go anywhere, I just travel around my green garden. It's starting to flower.

Tae Kwon Do

Kai's new favorite after school activity.

 Discussions with the coach.

Don't know if this is really a Tae Kwon Do move, but looks kinda cool.

Pixie and Jack

A couple of months ago we adopted Pixie, an adorable puppy girl, from Cara Philippines. She had been found roaming the streets of Greenfields together with her brother Jack, tiny, skinny and miserable. After a couple of weeks at the vets they looked much better and were ready to move on to new homes. Still tiny and shy we couldn't leave Jack behind when we came to pick up Pixie, so took him along for fostering, until he finds his real home (some friends of ours claim he already did, lets see...). So cute, fun, friendly - and troublesome!

Just arrived.

Certainly being cuddled enough.

Enjoying the garden.

Happy Birthday Kai!

Two weeks ago already, we celebrated Kai's 8th birthday, with traditional morning singing, cake and presents in bed on the 27th and then with a big and fun party the day after. Twenty kids going wild on what must have been the first sunny afternoon in weeks.


Early (very early) morning celebrations.


Pool party fun times.

 Catching tadpoles.


Game time.

 Mums' corner.


And dads' corner, too.

Lunch time.

Cake time! Big thanks to all friends who came and helped us make this day a very special one!

Despicable me III - the Jeepney adventure

Let's goooooooooooo!

Garden details

So here I am, like in a dream (sometimes a little bit nightmarish, but generally a wonderful one). Living in a huge house with an amazing tropical garden where I can just go wild, in the countryside, with stunning views and just outside a big (very big, one of the biggest on Earth) city. Yeah, just what I always wanted. And seriously, I can't get enough of the tiny details.

My flower girl

Still the cutestest one on Earth.