Archive for March, 2008
On the local news this week:
Make sure you stay safe during the Holy Week festivities, the weather’s going to be hot so take sunscreen and plenty of bottled water with you. And if you’re planning on having yourself crucified, make sure that the nails are sterilised first….
Only in the Philippines!
Sadly, not a chocolate egg in sight.
Amihan: the northeast monsoon
Habagat: the southwest monsoon
Apparently the Amihan winds have stopped, overnight, and we’re now in ’summer’, where the winds are light and the sun is strong. This should last until June, when, just as suddenly, the Habagat begins.
[I hope Mr Weatherman is right, as I’m due to be diving again next week]
I tried out the new ‘Noda’ massage place yesterday. They offered Swedish, Thai or Shiatsu (10% off before 6pm). I opted for a Swedish massage, but thankfully the music was Thai - I feel sorry for those having the Thai massage and listening to ABBA!
I’ve had a ton of e-mails asking where I got the wordpress theme I’m using for my blog from. I designed the theme myself, based on K2. Since I’m nice, I’m making the theme available for download.
Get it here: Amihan wordpress theme
Upload the theme into your wp-content/themes directory and activate it on your Dashboard>Presentation. Under K2 options enable the sidebar manager and advanced navigation, and select amihan.css from the styles dropdown. Create and use the category ‘Photo’ for image posts (title below image), and ‘Etcetera’ for posts with no title/time/date; all other categories will be styled normally.
If you need more help with installing themes, please check out the ever-so-helpful forums over at wordpress and K2. I offer no guarantee that this theme will work with your version of WP… or at all!
Enjoy
- Becks
I dropped my washing off at Wishy Washy this morning, and the girl behind the counter remembered my name and had already filled it in on the ticket for me, spelt correctly*. This is starting to become a pattern.
Stopping off for petrol at the Caltex on the way to Dauin: “Good morning Ma’am Rebecca!”
Walking through Malatapay in the evening, a voice out of the darkness:”Hi Ma’am Rebecca!”
Looking at some pigs in Candanay Norte, Siquijor: “These are my pigs! …various discussion about lechon and fiestas… “you should come to our fiesta, Ma’am Rebecca!”
Huh? How does everyone know who I am??
We’ve even heard people call out from the side of the road as we drive though town. Some of these people (petrol station girl, obviously Miss Wishy Washy) I know I’ve seen a few times before, others I simply have no idea who they are or where they know me from. It’s actually quite spooky.
I guess it’s a small town without many white girls! On Panglao, nobody knew my name. But by the end of the week the habal-habal (motorbikes-for-hire) guys knew us and where we wanted to go, and even the incessant “Chocolate hills tour tomorrow Ma’amSir?” guys had realised that we would never be interested.
As an aside, I’m writing this from my new-found internet cafe… chilled jazz music, peaceful, broadband and coffee. Except today the coffee machine s broken, so I’m drinking green tea. I feel very healthy.
*I had a great idea for a photo project - photographing all the people that come to meet me at airports / ports etc. holding a card with my name on. It would be a great way to remember travels, and the various spellings of my name are hilarious. Last time I was Rebeka Wiett. Sadly I always have to travel lugging tons of heavy dive bags behind me, so the camera is always packed.
Becks is a marine ecology PhD student, living in Queensland (Australia), Dumaguete (Philippines) and London (UK). Marinegirl is her online alter-ego. She dreamt her up as as super-gorgeous superhero saving the underwater world (if you've seen Captain Planet, you get the idea). She is not, and never will be, in the marines.