Bachelor Life in Manila

It has been very quite and a bit boring. I do miss the family quite a bit, but I have managed to do fun some fun. The only enjoyable thing is being able to sleep without Amy telling me to roll over because I snore so much - but I also miss that as well.

I have managed to do some fun stuff. I have hit a couple of movies, the golf driving range and I went scuba diving yesterday (June 24th). One of my coworkers took some underwater photos. I will post those shortly so check back soon.

For the scuba diving trip, it was a day trip down to Anilao which is about a 2 hr drive south of Manila still on the island of Luzon. This was my first scuba trip after being certified at the end of March. I managed to remember everything from our training session. We got in three dives. Managed to see some giant clams, eel, couple of lobsters, barracuda. The coolest things was feeding the fish some bread. It was a very wierd feeling having a massive school of fish pecking at my hand trying to get the bread.

Food Fest in the US

The thing we miss most about the US is good New Mexican style Mexican food or any type of Mexican food for that matter. As well as a good steak.

We landed in Vegas at 8 pm and headed straight for In-n-Out burger. There is nothing better than a Double-Double late at night. For lunch the next day, we hit Delmonico - Emeril's steakhouse in the Venetian. It is very pricey, but I have never tasted a better steak in my life. $16 oz Dry-aged Ribeye will set up back $42 - that is steak only. Potato and veggies are extra.

When we made it to Phoenix - Si Senor had to be at the top of the list. We had dinner with some old friends Wednesday night. I followed that up with lunch the next day with some Intel coworkers and for lunch again on sunday before I came back to Manila.

We managed to squeeze in a couple of burgers at Red Robin.

All of the food was great but it was not over the top. I think our expectations were set a little too high.

Singapore Visit

We arrived Friday afternoon. We spent most of Friday riding the subways and doing a bit of shopping. I passed through Singapore on a couple of business trips but Amy had never been to Singapore before. She was struck by how clean the city was vs. Manila. We do enjoy the Philippines but it is a bit dirty.

Singapore has a wonderful Zoo and Night Safari. Satuday morning we hit the Singapore Zoo. It did not disappoint. If you like Zoos, be sure to visit the Singapore if you get a chance.

If you remember from our Beijing Blog update, we mentioned we ran into one of Maria's Brent classmates in Beijing. Asia is truly a small place - or at least all of the expats hit the same vacation spots. We ran into one of Maria's Brent classmates at the Zoo about halfway through the day. the kids ended up having a great time walking around the zoo that day. We left at about 3 pm so we could rest up for the Night safari. We hit the night safari at 7:30 pm until around 11:00 - before all the kids as well as Amy and I ran out of gas. On the Night safari you can a tram as well as walk through the park. The animals are used to the visitors so a number of them will walk right up to the tram as you pass by.

Night Safari and the Zoo was awesome!!!

Zoo photos at the following link: http://www.jkirley.photosite.com/Singapore_Jun06/

Schools Out for the summer

Before I begin I must stay I am clearly not a consistent Blogger, but I hope all the readers will enjoy my posts when I am able to get it done.

Maria completed the first grade at Brent International School and will be headed to the 2nd Grade in August.

The family headed to the US on June 2nd, but first we stopped in Singapore for a short visit to the Zoo and to visit an old work buddy of mine. I occupied the family to the US and stayed for a week before heading back to Manila. I will fly back to the US on July 14th to pick up the family. I will spend another week in the US before we all head back to the Philippines.