He was Australian, somewhere in his fifties, I guessed. He'd been living and working in the Philippines along with his British wife for a number of years. I'd been biding my time. When the man's wife excused herself from the dinner table I jumped at the opportunity."Pecker performance enhancing drugs have sure taken their toll on the young women of the Philippines,” I said.“You shouldn't jump to conclusions,” the man responded,...

    SuperFerry is a boat so massive that its owner took two words and merged them. You can do that in the Philippines. I've become a bit of a boat freak over the past few years and wanted to do the twenty-four hour journey from Cebu to Manila in style. That's not to say that everyone on board is doing it in style, but for only a few extra dollars it can be done that way. And SuperFerry has a specialty restaurant where you can eat the balls of squid, o...

Stayed the night in Cebu City. Tomorrow we catch SuperFerry. There's a massive shopping mall close to where we're staying. Although the Philippines is very poor there is no shortage of shoppers in this mall that's probably as pleasant as any we have at home.They had a Seiko watch store in the mall and I bought myself a new dive watch with an orange face.  

 The day before yesterday, I overcame two life hurdles. I passed my advanced scuba certification course, something I should have probably done thirty years ago. The second accomplishment involved a deep, buried skill I never knew existed. In the evening my fellow divers decided that we should celebrate my advancement at the Squirrel and Moose Karaoke Bar just down the road from the Sogod Dive Resort where we were all staying. Mandy and Peter from Wales had orga...

 The tarsier hunts by night. It can pounce on its prey from a distance of five metres. I looked into its almost human-like eyes, then at Ellen's; same size, perhaps the creature's a bit lighter. It was daytime and we'd awoken it. Earlier, we'd watched it on video turn its head almost a full 360 degrees, not unlike the Linda Blair character from the Exorcist. Ellen and I stared at it, it back at us, none the least bit afraid. Its prey after all is...