BOOM!!! Week 1/ Chapter 1

Vigan Town Plaza: the city centre, where you can take a calesa (carriage) ride down cobbled Heritage Street.


Helloooooooooooooo Vigan!!!

First week down, and a myriad of emotions. Joy, shock, calm, isolation, tranquility, annoyance, happiness, confusion, surprise, frustration, peace... rinse and repeat.

I now live in the suburbs of a small, Spanish colonial town, on the north-western coast of the Philippines, with a cornfield behind us and yelping neighbours' dogs all around us.


View from our bedroom window at dawn: full moon over the cornfields


D's paternal family is from this province originally and D was visiting here a year ago when he discovered a perfect spot for kiteboarding on a deserted beach near a fishing village, 20 minutes away from the town centre.

So 6 months ago, D packed up and moved here with the hopes of opening a kite centre in the sleepy province. The dream - nay, PLAN - is to have a hostel-restaurant- kiteboarding school on the beach. Where Boracay is filled to the max with kiteboarders during high season, this place is completely untouched. And international kiters who come to the Philippines have long been looking for new and unspoiled and uncluttered spots to explore and play in. WELL - WE FOUND ONE! ;)

Now the challenge is to turn the dream into a reality - financing, permits, paperwork, Philippine bureacracy (in a league of its own, honestly). For the past few months, D and his good friend who came from the States to set this up with him, have been working to create a hype for the idea. This means bringing the traveling international pro-kiters to the spot, to get them talking and blogging about it, and spreading the word. Our kiting friends from Boracay (both local and international) have been visiting, and raving about how great it is to everyone upon their return to Boracay (which is the kite mecca of the Philippines). Then - with the buzz beginning - the boys (D and D, double-D, D-squared) have begun to approach the powers-that-be, and to set the wheels in motion for the development of something truly exciting. I am proud, supportive, and happy to be around to see it all happening.

As for me: well, here I am! I shall be taking every day at a time, baby-steps, living in the present moment. I am learning and re-learning not to get overly stressed about the future, to just believe. It's worked so far in my life (also because I have an AMAAAAAAAAAZING mother whose support is unwaivering, unflinching, and incredible).

We have been extremely lucky in that D's uncle has given us a house to live in. It's large and spacious, unfurnished, with 3 rooms downstairs and a small master bedroom upstairs, a yard, a big living room, nice kitchen. It has clearly been empty for a while now, so it needs some paintwork and a bit of fixing up, and it needed a thorough scrubbing when I moved in (since boys only clean the immediate area in which they live, and I came with a bunch of stuff - kitchenware, linens... Oh my god - I really DO sound like a "wife". Yikes.)

So this week was about that: cleaning, arranging, unpacking, settling in. I had my first kite lesson, which was fun. (I previously refused to learn in Boracay,as there are too many people on the water already, and the sea on that side is filled with sewerage and sea urchins. And maybe I was a wuss.)

I received my package from the University this week, and already have 3 assignments due in the next month, so I'll be kicking off my studying with a bang soon too. The boys have been cooking up a storm, Maximo our pitbull pup is sweet and dopey and huggable, I've been reading a lot, we go for quiet walks in the evenings... life is slow, and calm. I like it.

So far, so good. :)


Love in the afternoon sunshine.


Fishing boats in a fishing village


"The Spot".


Sunset at the kite spot, shot through my sunglass-lens


Maximo, a.k.a. "Dragon" - for always "draggin' his ass" - the laziest puppy around; makes himself comfortable in the supermarket.


Dinner on my first night. The boys welcome me home with red wine and gastric gorgeousness.


Island gypsy always


Old meets new. Vigan City, Ilocos Sur, Philippines. *HOME*.