Inspiring Others

In the last week I've been quite swamped by messages from readers. Apparently people are reading the stuff I write...yikes!

Back in mid-November, after figuring out how to do it, I added a counter to the site. Since then, it has recorded over one thousand hits. That's about one hundred fifty people each week.

Anyway, a lot of the messages had to do with people saying how much they enjoyed reading it, how they found it (other blogs have this one as a link, a friend told them about it, I begged them to read it), and how they are looking to me as a source of inspiration.

Huh?

Well, a lot of it has to do with my relationship with Edson. To those for which that is true: I have news for you!

Last week was our sixth anniversary.

Yep. We met six years ago, on January 11th, 2002.

In metro Manila, where couples mark weeksaversaries and monthsaversaries (I'm not making those words up. That's just another part of Taglish.), that we are measuring ours in years is truly unusual.

People ask us about our secret. If I knew we had one, I'd share it, probably in hardback, and for a price.

They ask about our fights and how we manage through them. We'll let you know when we have one.

As I mentioned to someone yesterday, people always say that after years go by couples stop talking. It isn't because they don't have anything to say. It is that they can read each other's mind and don't need to say anything anymore! Edson and I frequently catch ourselves completing each other's sentences. Even when surprised, we often respond in unison (word-for-word).

Anyway, we traveled to Tagaytay last weekend to celebrate. That weekend, like the present, was a mix of rainy and sunny weather. It began as cool and rainy. You know, to keep our spirits up.

Lonely Planet describes Tagaytay as:

Meandering along a ridge high above the gaping maw of the Taal Volcano...serves up jaw-dropping roadside views that will force you to stop...(it is) everything the capital is not: cool, clean, gorgeous, relaxing and oxygenated.

Add cool plus rain plus elevation and you get fog. So we weren't seeing much of the volcano, which sits inside Taal Lake.

That didn't stop it from playing a little game of peek-a-boo as the clouds and fog rolled off the ridge in irregular waves.

We settled in for the night at Sonya's Garden Bed & Breakfast. It is quite the "secret garden", being tucked away (away away!) from the road. It was lush and fragrant and full of patrons vocally surprised to see "look, a foreigner" had found it! I believe they were referring to me, and I didn't find it. I was taken there!

These images were, of course, taken on day two, when there was some sun:


Here is the entrance to the garden that led us back to our cottage, named "Parsley":

And the room itself:

(Yes, those are starched pillowcases.)

Breakfast the next morning was wonderful, complete with omelette, fried rice, fish, adobo, and mango (my favorite):


Fresh flowers on the table gave me an excuse to see how well the "flower" mode works on my compact digital camera:


(That's right. A simple little compact digital camera took those while I sat at my place at the table.)

After eating, we decided to walk the gardens, multitasking. Walk off the meal and see the gardens now that it wasn't raining.




And there we ended it, tired from our walk and ready to head back to the heat, congestion, pollution, and madness that is Manila...

...or were we?