It's all about the chocolate cake! Happy New Year from Manila!

Maligayan Bagong Taon! Happy New Year from Manila! The Maniquis family and I are settling down to rest with our bellies full of chocolate cake and many traditional Filipino foods. Firecrackers continued to go off like gunshots well into the new year on this side of the globe while my family and friends in Winnipeg still have 14 hours to go.

New Year's Eve with the Maniquis family.

  

I must admit that somewhere above Northern Mongolia, I started to wonder why I had undertaken this long trip that was taking 28 hours to get to a hot, congested place where I would be away from my family and friends - and would miss out on my annual New Year’s Day ski in fresh, new snow. I was tired. Then at the Hong Kong airport, on seeing the excited posts and messages from friends anticipating my arrival, I started to get excited again.

Friends reunited after 2.5 years. 

Bugsy the siamese kitten.

Farmer's Market at Araneta Centre.

Christmas corner at the Maniquis house.

Even though most people would be busy with family events and New Years’ Celebrations for the first week of my visit, plans were falling into place. As it has turned out, today - New Year’s Eve, is the first day of rest I’ve had since landing at midnight at the Ninoy Aquino airport. Except that we went grocery shopping at Araneta Centre and happened upon a Hello Kitty store that had everything from a humidifier (hm...I actually need one) to band aids.

It has been incredible witnessing and taking part first hand in New Year’s celebrations here where everyone scrambles like crazy on December 31 during the day to buy last minute groceries for giant family feasting. 

Here’s a short recap of the days since I landed at midnight, Dec 28th:

• Dinner at a 24-hour Wendy’s;
  
• After a good 8 hour sleep, went to a nearby mall (Robinsons’ Magnolia) to get a cheap local cell phone, SIM card and ‘Load’ - pay-as-you-go minutes, then take out pesos from an ATM - next priority was to visit Lyric, a music supply store for guitar strings, a strap, and pics for my friend Antonette’s brother’s electric guitar that I discovered leaning next to the couch on which I would be sleeping;
  
  
  
• Dec 29 - Go back to the mall for a few errands, attempt to find Power Up, the indoor climbing gym near University of the Philippines only to find they were closed, take the Jeepney and MRT home, then head out to meet some friends for dinner and then a local live music hot spot, 70s Bistro, to hear well-known Manila bands The Youth and Datu’s Tribe perform. 

  

  With Robert Javier of The Youth.

  
  
  
• Dec 30 - Meet a good friend and songwriting collaborator, Joan, for late lunch and then home - after witnessing the lights of Ayala - to rehearse a song for future recording.

  

  With Joan Bonito of Komik's Tale. 

• Then off to a far-away venue to meet Manila music encyclopedia and Mod-father, Bing Austria in person and experience Filipino-reggae and ska music

With Bing Austria and Antonette Maniquis.

Impromptu reggae jam with Bing.

• Dec 31 - grocery shop, cooking sumptuous feast, a city united by fireworks and loud karaoke.

Tomorrow is the New Year and I plan to take a good, long rest - 2016 is going to be incredible!

En Route to Manila - again!

Does one lose one’s passion for travel when it becomes part of work? So far I’ve been able to avoid that. It would be like waking up one day to realize I’m an actual grown-up, not able to find joy anywhere. I’m at the Winnipeg airport again - awaiting a flight to Chicago, then one to Hong Kong, with a final destination of - that’s right - Manila, again!

In the year since my last entry, I’ve been to Quebec City (May, for work), Vancouver (August, for family), Mantario (Thanksgiving - and yes that counts as travel even though I walked that 63 km trail for the 12th time!), Vancouver again (October, for work), then Calgary-Kananaskis (October, for work), and finally Ottawa (December for work). 

Quebec City was 2 days of work meetings, followed by a weekend of museums and wandering around Canada’s oldest city. A great opportunity to practice my French, discover some amazing history, peruse beautiful Quebec fashion and get a cool haircut from a fellow free-spirit and world traveller. 

Vancouver was a good chance to meet and reconnect with family, visit my favourite haunts in Chinatown, Gastown and downtown (Art Gallery). Kananaskis in October - work followed by play - hiking with my good friend Corey whom I had not seen in about four years. As he said while we wandered around Lake Minnewonka, “We’ve got no where to go and all day to get there.” The best way to catch up with old friends - take a long walk to nowhere!

Even in Ottawa the other week, I managed to learn about the metal-punk scene from the sales-kid at the Doc Martens store and checked out an incredible thrown-together blues band at the Rainbow Bistro. The key to playing the blues, I learned, is in the notes that you DON’T play, not in trying to cram in all the notes. And it’s about HOW you play those few, key notes. As with everything good in life, it’s about quality, not quantity.

So here I am again, travelling for play, not work, taking my fiddle on the road, hoping to reconnect with old friends and maybe make some new!