After a fairly long time of teasing not to mention a severe lack of blogging, I can finally reveal that I am off to live in The Philippines with Crissy in January and from there, getting married at the end of the said month. It’s all very exciting and to mirror our relationship – crazy and exhilarating, which pleases me no end!
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I have all my documents ready and am clearing out the last of my things this week(ish) because Christmas is too quiet without doing something seismic to keep it interesting. It’s naturally an exciting and stressful time as I look towards the move to a new culture, adventures and a severe tan but will be keeping you all involved and am writing as much as I can in the meantime.
With the good comes the emotional wrench of having to say farewell to a good many people and of course the books I accumulated over the years but I shall be carrying over as many as I can. As to where that leaves the book review side of the blog, I am hoping to find a library as well as rereading the books that I haven’t yet reviewed from my own small collection. Approaching them again with a more critical eye will make for an interesting blog post in itself no doubt.
I don’t think I could go through the trauma of collecting books again, to then possibly lose them in another move should we wish to move countries in the future but I will keep my book posts flowing as much as possible amidst all the other things I claim to have planned but will probably just wing it as usual and see what takes my fancy words wise. The above café we found will probably be a popular haunt for us I suspect because it turns out that books on a ceiling are ridiculously fascinating.
Thank God, the secret’s out! Now can I tell somebody? Please, whom can I tell? You’ve just told everyone! Seriously, I’m looking forward to reading your posts from a new place, as I can imagine they will be interesting. Not that your old ones weren’t, but with all the new challenges you will face, I suspect you will rise to meet them just fine, and have time over and above to post about things. Have a great holiday season, Ste J! Waiting to hear again.
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Yes, it has taken me some time to post, what with all the things that needed to be done but it is now out there for anybody who reads my stuff. I am looking forward to the challenge, once I learn the language better I will get a better insight into life too, I don’t want to be dependent on people speaking English to me. Crissy will teach me well, I have no doubt. Have a great season yourself my friend, I have 18 days left in Europe so intend to spend as many of them appreciating the miserable weather as I can!
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I am so happy for you! Exciting times!
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Thank you my friend. I wil keep you all included on our jaunts.
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Congratulations, Steve! So pleased for you! Best of luck in your new adventures!
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Thank you! Life is a strange beast sometimes, eighteen months ago I wouldn’t have expected to be taking this path but it promises to be exciting and fascinating.
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Congratulations, my friend. How wonderful. Wishing you all the best in your new life and in your marriage. 🙂 Merry Christmas. 🙂
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Thank you, it is so exciting and I am excited to make a difference.
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Wow, that is seismic news! Many congratulations, it sounds very exciting and I wish you lots of luck.
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Thank you, it will no doubt be a challenge to adapt but one that I am excited get stuck into and learn new things.
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Steve, I am so happy for you. Congratulations!! And you couldn’t have told me this morning? I had to wait all day for the wonderful news. Wow! I am so excited for you and Crissy. I will definitely be looking forward to a deluge of photos, posts about your new adventures in the Philipines, and there must surely be a post coming on that cafe. Merry Christmas, happy moving, and best wishes for your future with Crissy.
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Thank you! Apologies for being a tease but I love the dramatic haha. There will be plenty of posts and if I find a libratu lots of book reviews that perhaps don’t get much attention in the West. It’s exciting but I am sure I will pine for the cold winters.
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I’m sure you will find lots to read, Steve, and as for the winters, I’m hoping for a snowy one.
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I hope for a light smattering but nothing that will stop my airport run in January. I will borrow whatever books I find and review them, I am resourceful like that. Plus I want to help more with charity work as well and see what good I can do.
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I am sure you will find enough books to keep to satisfy your book addiction. I am looking forward to hearing about your charity work. Best wishes.
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I’m not sure how I can put into words how thrilled I am for you Ste J! I hope this move is everything you wish for and more. And, BTW, the Philippines is on our bucket list as well, so there is still hope for a meet-up! Big hugs to you as you begin this new adventure.
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I would love that, we have been talking about it for so long and never seem to sync up. It’s a really exciting time and I am hoping to be involved in a lot of different things and entice you over with my photographs and writing, as if you needed the excuse!
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Meeting you is on my personal bucket list Ste J, so I am just going to have to make it happen. I am most thrilled for you and your adventures to come. Bring plenty of sunscreen with you. 🙂
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Well Crissy works for Philippine Airlines as well so I should be able to get tickets to come see you if you were not able to make it to me. We will get there and I will bring my own sunscreen to Ph as allthe ones over there has whitener in it oddly, and I am pasty enough!
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I have always thought, given my passion for travel, that I should have worked for the airlines. I have friends long since retired from the airline industry who still fly for next to nothing.
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It would be amazing to just grab a flight somewhere and not worry about the costs of it. It must be horrible serving people in those cramped aisles on planes though. It’s bad enough sitting through a flight let alone working one.
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Totally agree but having the ability to fly virtually anywhere at minimal cost would be a dream.
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I shall keep you updated on how it feels haha!
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Yayyy!!! The secret is out!!! Thank you so much for all that you are doing for us!!! I have so much books to share with you here!!!
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It is a pleasure, I have been committed to saving and coming over and it was worth the effort and wait. I shall bring you many books too!!!!
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Super congratulations Steve 😀 May the future hold nothing but love, contentment, joy and peace for both you and Crissy. We all look forward to seeing photos in the near future. Wishing you both a very wonderful Christmas.
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Thank you! It is going to be so different and so fun to be out of my comfort zone, you can count on many tales of accidentally funny language anecdotes haha.
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Many, many congratulations on such wonderful and exciting news. Can’t wait to hear more from you on the other side of the world as Mr Crissy. Sending much love and warmest wishes for you, Crissy and all those books.
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Haha, Mr Crissy, she will get a kick out of that when she reads this. It will be a crazy time but I am geared up for it and will be chronicling all my time in this new land, 11,000 miles away from where I am now. Thank you so much for your words. The support we have had from everyone is overwhelming.
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It’s good to establish the right priorities from the start lol! 🙂
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So exciting! I’m absolutely thrilled for you and wish you and Crissy all the very best on this new adventure together! I really look forward to reading more about your life over there. Ganga vel, as we say in Iceland!
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Thank you. I shall try and write a lot whilst I find my place in life over there. It is exciting and a bit nerve wracking but I love the challenge aspect of it. Cheers duck, as we say Nottingham way!
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WHOA ! ! Ste J ! ! ! Yay ! Congratulations ! ! ! My dad used to work for Philippines Airlines too, 25 years , actually. You’ll have travel benefits, as well, Ste J. We travel to the Philippines free…. one of the benefits of employees who have worked for 25 years. The benefits of course extend to the families of the employees.
You’re leaving your country, Ste J. I hope you’ll have a great future with your wife ( and future kids ) in a new country. I know you will.
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Thanks Ren! I am ready for the challenge and eager to begin after catching up with friends and family locally. The benefits will be a nice bonus but even without them the idea of exploring part of a new continent as well as starting a family is intoxicating. Maybe we shall bump into each other on one continent or another.
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Oh, my. The traffic though, he he he. And the typhoons, maybe a few earthquakes , LOL ! Just kidding ! ! And you’ll be Kuya Ste J ( or Tito Ste J ) to thousands of younger relatives, ha ha ha ! Or have they started calling you Kuya or Tito yet ?
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I am already Kuya Steve which is great as I feel accepted. I have never experienced an earthquake or typhoon so they will be interesting to say the least. The traffic though will be the big challenge, I expect to get on the wrong jeepney and van many a time.
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Good luck and have fun.
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Thank you, I am sure much fun and learning will be had.
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From a long time lurker and fan, congratulations are very much in order! All the best for your amazing journey, and future!
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Thank you for both the lurking, comment and best wishes!
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Congratulations! What fantastic news, and so exciting! I wish you all the best and look forward to reading all about your new life in the Philipines. 🙂
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Thank you, I am excited to write lots and hopefully with decent frequency as well. It will be exciting to share all with you.
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Congratulations! I thought it might be something like that because you looked pretty comfortable in those shorts a few posts back. I hope you’ll find great books and happiness everywhere you go – or sometimes the best books find us. I’m guessing you might be a book purist but if you’re going to keep traveling, a new e-book collection could be a good way go. Then you’d have all your books up in a cloud and wouldn’t have to worry about parting with them (though they do look good up on a ceiling too)!
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Thank you, I did feel at home, I must admit. I am a book purist, I think I will support the local libraries instead rather than an e-reader, mainly because I am intrigued about the obscurer literature at this end of the earth. Although I have plans to take a good few books with me. Perhaps I will give in to the e-reader one day but for now, I crave the scent of books.
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Yay!!! Congratulations!
Do I know Crissy from a blog?
Whatever, I am happy, if you are happy!
⭐️⭐️🌈☀️🌺💗🦄💝🎶🎵
Go Ste J!
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For some reason, I can’t find the link to Crissy’s blog but she hasn’t written much yet, although I am hoping she will soon so I can give her a reblog and you can enjoy her words and photos. I am extremely happy for me and for you being happy for me. I plan on taking the I Remember Sunnyside book with me as well, all being well, although the challenge of picking which books to take across is massive!
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Hi Resa! I have been writing but not that confient to publish it online. Last night, I had the courage to post one that I copied from my travel notebook. Yay! Thank you😊
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Bravo! I’m glad the hunch was correct — so fabulous, what an amazing relocation! Wishing you and Miss Crissy the absolute best! May 2018 bring much joy and exciting adventures. Peace to you both ~ a
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Thank you, and the same to you with a great year to come. It will be a year full of exciting experiences and I hope to keep you involved all the way through.
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Thank you Angela! I will take Ste J to the less travelled places here in our country. It is very exciting! 😊
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Oh my goodness. I stopped by to wish you a Merry Christmas and see what else you’d been up to since my long absence and look what I find. I am so happy and excited for you and Crissy. Finding that one special person is God’s greatest gift. I wish you both many, many long years of blissful happiness. Big Hugs.
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Thank you my friend! I do like to surprise you on the odd occasion with my adventures. This time in a fortnight, I will be ready to get going to the airport.
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I wish you well on your new journey. I’m sure it will be an awesome adventure. 🙂
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Thank you, the prologue has been wonderful but next year will be the man event and well worth the wait and stresses to get to that point.
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Many, many congratulations to you and Crissy, Ste! I had a feeling that this was your news but had to wait as patiently as I could!. Christmas is a busy time and of course I missed your big announcement by three days – just my luck! I hope everything goes to plan with the move and the wedding; we expect to see some photos, you know! Happy Christmas and a perfect New Year to you, my friend! xx
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Thank you, there will be many photos and stories of course, in fact I will be setting off in a fortnight from today so lots to be done in the meantime but looking forward to every day!
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Wonderful! xx
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Thank you so much, Claire! Ste J is such s tease! We will definitely share photos and videos of our wedding! 😊
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Good! Congratulations, Cris! xx 🙂
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Congrats to you and Crissy once again. I hope that you’ll have some wonderful adventures together.
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Thank you, we are planning a few things but the first adventure will definitely be the wedding!
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Wow, this is truly amazing news! Huge congratulations, I can’t wait to hear about your experiences! Definitely sounds like you have amazing 2018 ahead of you.
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Thanks man, it is going to be a huge change and I am already getting to finding my feet. Appreciate the email, I will get on with reading properly real soon. From what I have read so far, you will be having a pretty good year yourself.
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Looks like a really interesting place! I have been to a cafe once which had grass on the ceiling. It makes you start thinking upside down. 🙂
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That’s crazy! I think it’s in Berlin where there is a building with grass and cows stuck on the side. Those Germans are a wacky bunch!
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Wow, that’s one for the books!! Haha 😀 Grass and cows 😀 Wacky fun 😉
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