Philippines Part II (Penned during the voyage…but due to backlog of work upon return, only able to post now).

The waves are crashing ashore only 50 yards from the dining room table, of the open walled villa where Vince and I are now staying on the private island of Mangenguey Our hostess Helena advised us at breakfast that we should be mentally prepared for the possibility that our stay on her island, which she likes to call Utopia, may be extended, as a result of Typhoon Megi which is currently waddling its way to the Northwest of us in the South China Sea, and sending large waves and occasional bands of heavy rain showers. Helena says we are now conserving diesel fuel for the generator, so power will be only on briefly at one pm today and then turned off again until dinner. I have an hour and 24 minutes left on the computer battery and am will use the current cloudy spell to catch up on the Bulletin.

As with any good tropical vacation, the days have started to all run together, so at this point, it seems best to write from today backwards to where I last left off.

Our current digs consist of a main house which is built into the side of a slight hill which looks onto one of the island’s three beaches. Helena moved onto the island five years ago from New York where she owned a self-named tapas restaurant which she describes as located between the Blue Man Group and Indochine on the lower East Side.

Helena is Catalan which explains our menu which has varied from almond croissants and fresh fruit to seafood Boullabaise(?) and last night a chicken and sausage paella. Once again the tropical mindset, has allowed me to bury the lead—as only hours after arriving and coming all this way—we learned that in New York Helena and her husband turn out to be our neighbours. Their apartment is at 147^th and Convent which is only three blocks away from our condo on 146^th and Riverside Drive.

We are sharing Utopia with a couple from London who we formed an easy bond with during our rather harrowing adventure getting to the island. We met at the dock on the Island of Coron, on the day Megi was upgraded to a “Super Typhoon” and was crashing ashore to the North of Luzon, the biggest island in the Philippines. Coron Island is 40 minutes to the south by turboprop, which meant we were more than a couple hundred miles from the eye of the storm, but I was still a little bit surprised when I saw the 17 foot wooden catamaran that that arrived at the dock to take us to the island.

Alan and Peter did their best to make the boat storm worthy, erecting a makeshift plastic wrap barrier that rose about three feet in front of us, then they handed out umbrellas which our hostess Ruby Ann unfurled and poked out under the canopy in front of us to shield us from the worst of the rain. We rode in heavy rains for more than an hour, and then when the rain let up, we next encountered rising sea swells—as the nose of our little boat crashed up and down—as the waves grew from three to five feet and higher. It was around this point in our journey that I remembered that I had placed my passport in my right hand pocket of my now soaked shorts, expecting that I might need to show identification at some point. It was still thankfully there, but somewhat curled and very damp. It will be interesting to learn whether the nifty new electronic strip Uncle Sam now includes in the passport still works when I try to get back Stateside next week.

Anyway, during all the pelting of rain and crashing of water from the deck into our open cabin, we got to know our British companions. Matty works in the computer technology industry and Thea is an IBM consultant.

Flash forward to the present—“My gosh” Vincent exclaims, looking up from his copy of Obama’s Wars as the sky has opened up with another band of rain showers. We have moved to the far side of the dining room, as a good bit of the rain is making its way onto the beach end of the long dining table.

We had about an hour of sun yesterday, enough time to get in a nice swim and to walk the beach in front of the main house.

In addition to Helena there is a staff of three men and three women on the island. We were originally supposed to stay in one of the small cottages, but Sanjee the main housekeeper suggested that Helena “upgrade us” and the British couple to the main house, where we each have a private bedroom upstairs at opposite ends of the house connected by a library that doubles as a small dining room, where we enjoyed a candlelight dinner.

We intend to return to “Utopia” again someday soon…hopefully with friends and family. Helena is a wonderful hostess, should would have forced to sun to shine all day—were it in her power. Instead she RubyAnn, Belinda and Danji gave us the run of the place, it is a wonderful spot…and we wish them all great success.

Bulletin 206-Mike in Philippines Part I

October finds your humble correspondent on a two week visit to Vincent at his family home in Quezon City one of the cities in Metro Manila. I had a mercifully easy 19 hour flight from JFK via Tokyo to get here and have had a wonderful adventure getting to see his country for the first time.

Mealtime at Vincent’s is prepared by Alma who has been the family housekeeper since before Vincent was born. She is a wonderful cook, and when things are quiet, will slip a plate of some new Filipino delight before me to try. Alma and her daughter Althea are considered to be members of the family and have joined us on many outings.

To get from place to place we are driven by the family driver who actually is a family member, a cousin named Des-Des. One look at the main drag into Manila—which is at times 6 lanes wide and filled with cars, busses, scooter, people on bike, people standing in the middle of the traffic trying to sell things—and you can see why it is wise to have a driver.

Our second night found us at a five star hotel and a birthday bash thrown by Vincent’s rather well to do in-laws. Vincent’s twin brother is named Victor, and Victor’s mother-in-law “Tita” Fely threw the birthday bash for Vincent’s 7 year old niece Keisha It was an event that could make a Wall Street Hedge fund manager blush.

The gala included Hello Kitty characters, a magician, famous Filipino actors and actresses, an elegant buffet dinner and more balloons, gifts, and pomp than I had ever quite witnessed in one place.

Happily Keisha, who underwent no less than three designer dress costume changes during the course of the four plus hour evening, seems to have come through it all with good grace.

She and her younger sister Sophie Bella seemed to have just as good a time the next night when most of Vincent’s family took me to a local restaurant in Global City in an old fort that is now a new mall.

As an aside, Starbucks and Gap’s presence here nearly rivals that of New York's UWS.

Monday found us headed to Tagaytay and the Taal Volcano. It was a day spent in the countryside, on the water and the backs of mule like horses.

This particular volcano is nested in a thousand foot deep lake inside another volcano, so first you

travel by boat toget to the base of Taal.

Next, a guide leads you on horseback, up narrow, rocky trails.

Sometimes the guide is on foot, then the next thing you know they inquire, “together?” and before you can answer they have hopped on the back of the horse and are now urging it double time up the volcano.

It is a beautiful spot and well worth the ride both up and down

Afterwards we headed to a restaurant Vincent and his mom found called Sonya's Garden that specializes in dishes prepared from vegetables grown on the property.

It is lovely restaurant, hotel and Spa that Matty, Nicolle and Ben

(the Vegan wing of the Longman family) would most enjoy.

Next Vincent had a surprise in store that would have delighted my step-mom Karlene—a stop at the spa which is attached the restaurant’s garden where Vincent treated the family and your humble reporter to a massage—good move, as it greatly reduced the impact of saddle sores.

And so that pretty much gets you up to speed with my first four days in the Philippines. In addition to showing me around to his favorite spots, Vincent is also making sure I partake of

some of the best local bargains, like a trip to the dentist where you can get your teeth cleaned with the utmost care for 500 Pesos, or about 11 dollars. Before the gala he also took me for a relaxing oxygen facial, so I would look my best for introduction to the extended family. For the inquiring mind that runs about 25 dollars in this part of the world.

MIKEWEEK BULLETIN 205

July 17, 2010 – New York, NY

Greetings from CPW

It has been a long time between Bulletins and yes there is much to report.

My pal Vincent had to return to the Philippines for a while. He parted company with his New York employer and is home helping his family start a taxi company, and looking for another multinational company to work for. He has a great resume, a Masters in Economics and a great track record at work, so we both believe he will be back to work very soon.

Some of Vincent’s in-laws are visiting New York, and they rented our condo for the month, which is the reason I am banging out this bulletin from dad’s library on CPW (many thanks to he and K for providing this housing, so I can get somebody else to pay the condo note and fee for a month.

I just spoke with Vincent by Yahoo messenger, which has a videophone, so we were able to enjoy each other’s smiles as they bounced from Manila to NYC via the magic of the web. We have had plenty of practice in the long distance relationship department as his recent job required lots of West Coast Travel, so we both view this trip as just a little bit longer and a little bit farther away—that’s all.

I will be looking to lease out the condo from time to time while Vincent is gone, and hope to squeeze in some visits to family and friends in New England, New Orleans and yes to Vincent in the Philippines—that trip will likely come in October. It will be my first chance to see his country. We also see this as an opportunity for Vincent, because up until now every job he took depended on a US company being willing to sponsor him, and that greatly limited the field of options. Now, he can look all over the world for a job he really likes, and many countries do not share this country’s increasingly crazy outlook on immigration, so the field should be a lot more open.

As for me, the work has been steady and over the past year I have been able to broaden its scope. I still produce around 20 radio stories a month for my main radio gig. On top of that, I have added work for a new service called Labor Radio, and just got word yesterday they have renewed funding, which should mean an assignment or two per month. And, then there have been occasional print assignments. So, despite the economy, things are going well, and I hope to use some of the extra time I have on my hands, to keep reaching out for new writing, reporting and investigative gigs.

The print review I wrote for Jarrett on the HBO series “Treme” really drove home, how much New Orleans is a vital part of me. Perhaps I will be able to figure out an assignment that brings me that way for work as well as for pleasure. With BP and the Danziger Bridge Police case, there certainly seems to be no shortage of New Orleans in the news.

No question this time brings new challenges—we go from a two income family to my income and still a pretty hefty condo note. And, I go from having Vincent’s smiling face to return to each night to living solo for a time. But, as I told my dad, It was six years ago last week that I walked out of the gate at Butner and made my fresh start on life. And at this very desk that I sent out the resumes that landed my first job---in telemarketing of all god awful things, and then back in radio, and now for radio, print and the web.

So, I am optimistic that both Vincent and I will come through this stronger and better, and hope to be in touch with all of you in the weeks ahead for a phone call—or who knows a visit, or maybe even a video call on yahoo messenger. Vincent made up my address it is Violong1301mango…kind of long, but catchy.

Current Reading: Just finished The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman-very funny short novel on the very believable charters who staffed a dysfunctional (aren’t they all?) newsroom in London.