Moving Toward Asia

Time is passing - of course it is - and I am now counting the days before we leave our city. As of today, May 23rd, we will be gone in 38 days. 5 more days in the office. Two weeks and change before my next "retirement". x days to this, x days to
that. So that's the measurement part, the part that follows a calendar and involves counting.

The other part of it is a little more subtle. As the days pass, I feel myself moving toward Asia in my thoughts and perhaps more. The things I'm thinking about and imagining are different. The websites I visit in the evening are different, as are the books I read. I poured over the pictures brought back, knowing full well that what I'm seeing can't possibly do it justice and wondering what it will actually be like.

People are contacting us to talk about Manila and the Philippines - We had an email today from a man who lived in Manila for years. They want to get together. Someone else who is living there now but returning to Canada shortly wants to know if we want to hire his driver.

Serendipity also happens. Today I spoke to someone I do business with (we've never met in person) and when I said we were moving and to where, it turns out that she is from the Philippines and is active in the Canada Philippines Business Council. She invited me both to their next meeting and to the upcoming (June 12th) celebrations at City Hall for the Philippines National Day. According to the Philippine Government, there are some 300,000 Filipinos living in Canada.

And so it begins...

This is an often repeated quote, supposedly from Goethe, but I love it nonetheless and believe it to be totally true. So from him or W.H. Murray in The Scottish Himalaya Expedition, 1951:

...the moment one definitely commits oneself, the providence moves too. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one's favor all manner of unforeseen incidents, meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamt would have come his way.

And the punch line, from the man himself:

'Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it!'

Here's one thing I AM dreaming I can...

I intend to replace this photo with one from real life - perhaps taken in that very spot in Palawan. Stay tuned.







P.S. I wasn't sure whether this title should be "toward" or "towards" but Dr. Grammar gave me the answer in seconds.

Speaking of Imelda

Last fall, Imelda Marcos announced the creation of her own fashion label with its first line of jewelery.

This seems very appropriate as Imelda was known for not only her shoes, but also for her jewellery, some of which was obtained by the government by intercepting a courier attempting to take it out of the country in 1986. Or so it is said by Diana Limjoco who says she knows. Check out this web site to see photos of these amazing jewels (the site's sponsor is pretty amazing too).

There's more to the fashion label. Apparently her daughter and grandchildren are involved as well, with her daughter as designer. The Imelda collection, a made for-the-masses line based on her own jewellery and closet, also features trainers, accessories and clothes. The line is aimed at a younger generation, not familiar with the extravagances of the Marcos family. The line will be as glitzy as its designer, however at a fraction of the price of her originals. Fashion United News


As for the shoes:

"I did not have three thousand pairs of shoes, I had one thousand and sixty."





The First Lady Treatment
Imelda Marcos talks about her new fashion line, remembers her New York trial, and learns that she's a drag-queen icon.
Vanity Fair article

Shoeless in Manila

I have never, in my whole life, looked at a map like this. It's a big world, I guess and in busy lives there is really only time and energy to focus on the immediate surroundings. What was I missing?!!

No doubt when I get there, my neighbourhood will be the focus again to some extent. And that is the challenge. The trick, I think, is to keep this map in full view and top of mind and remind myself that it's a big world out there and not that far away. Get out there and take a look! (Click on the map to get a closer view of the South China Sea and surrounding countries).

What am I looking at? How big is it? Asian Development Bank lists 44 member countries in Asia. Another site listed 37. All I really can say at this point is "lots". I'm setting this map, which is only part of Asia, as wallpaper.

Howard is, as we speak, in Manila for a few days, having his look at things. He's been exploring neighbourhoods and apartments with an agent and getting some interesting first impression perspectives on where we might want to live. I had suggested that he ask some of the people he met with if there was anything specific we should be bringing with us - anything we might want to have but can't get in Manila. One man had a very important suggestion...

"If you are a woman with a shoe size larger than 8, you can't get shoes in Manila".

I am. How ironic. I'm going to the land of Imelda Marcos, yet I have to bring my own shoes.

We'll see.

P.S. What is Imelda doing recently? Lots it would seem, including this: The world's best-known shoe collector, former Philippine First Lady Imelda Marcos, has opened a museum in which most of the exhibits are her own footwear. And even more recently, has launched her own fashion label.

Museum - Homage to Imelda

Shoe courtesy of Fulcrum Gallery a great website for art prints.

Getting Ready to Leave

At lunch with Janie today - at my new favourite restaurant in Barrhaven - I said that I was considering writing a blog when I was gone. The only problem was, it had been five days since I had signed on to Blogspot and I was still dithering around with the colours. At this rate...

The house is for sale, Mike is looking for an apartment downtown, I have given notice at work and the journey begins. We are shipping things over to Manila, but I have decided that purging, decluttering, downsizing, simplifying, whatever you want to call it is in order. My rule of thumb is the following:

The one question to ask about an object is "When I open the box and see this thing on the other side of the planet, am I going to be delighted?" If the answer is "No", then out it goes.

Already with what we've done so far, in preparation for showing the house, we've thrown out or given away a lot. It feels good. Lighter.

And is making room for new things from Asia!

By the way - the picture above has nothing to do with the South China Sea - except perhaps in sentiment. That is Ontario cottage country - Minden (me, floating in the middle of the lake).