Ms Gasan - Final Night - Lots more photos of beautiful filipinas!

Last night (19th August) was the big night for the Gasan 400 year celebration pageants, with the final pageant for the Ms. Gasan beauty contest .. it started with a bang - a few bangs actually - nice fireworks!



.. but we went there for the girls not the fireworks really ;) here is my personal favourite, she placed as 2nd runner up (which equates to 4th overall) ..






this is the 'modern philippine dress' section .. I didn't know modern filipinas dressed this way, but there's always something new to learn!





contestant number 8, here, actually won the contest and the title of Ms. Gasan 400 ..



and here is the winner of the 'Miss Gasan Tourism' title ..



together with the unofficial winner of Miss Gasan - Sexiest Derriere 2009
(and also the 1st runner up in reality ..)



The swimsuit defile' involved 10 girls aggressively removing their sarongs, to reveal the same terrible bikinis from the bikini show at the Hotsprings a couple of days ago.. maybe for the 500th anniversary they'll find something a bit nicer!



Evening gown is obviously the crowning point of the evening ..



our contestant came well prepared for one of the famous Marinduque 'brown-outs'




the 2nd and 1st runner ups, holding their prizes



There's a much more complete gallery on my facebook account, it can be accessed here :
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=102356&id=637233806&l=a477d1b5ab

Malbog Sulphuric hotsprings - Buenavista

A short visit to the Malbog Hotsprings in Buenavista - the first thing that literally hits you in the face is the smell of hydrogen sulphide - a homely smell of rotten eggs - the Malbog Hotsprings are volcanic in origin, and hydrogen sulphide is a common gas where sulphur and heat are present.

Getting to the springs themselves is slightly difficult - the road leading to the springs' entrance is not paved, and at one place one has to ford a stream. The car made it, and we survive to tell the tale!

First photo is the main pools - the water isn't actually hot at all and seemed to be at ambient temperature. The circular cistern in the background bubbles with gas constantly, however the swimming pools seem to be more still.



This little spring also bubbles gas constantly, and yet again the water was not even tepid ..



the sky was looking gloriously ominous ..



I guess this acacia was struck down by lightning - it looks really nice now that it has been converted into a sort of flowerpot



this is the bottom of one of the pools - many bright colours due to the deposits of sulpher, and i'm not sure what causes the blue (copper maybe? copper sulphate is blue ..) .. quite a 'primeval soup' type of image ..

Ms. Gasan .. beautiful filipinas!

Another activity to celebrate 400 years of Gasan .. 'Miss Gasan' .. the swimsuit part is definitely the most interesting, and apart from the terrible swimsuits that must be old stock from the 1920's (with padded brassieres too!) it was fun to watch. As I happened to be carrying a 'nice' camera (actually a creaky Canon EOS 300d) I was allowed to stand in with the photographers, so I got some pretty good shots! The location here is the Marinduque Hotsprings, in Buenavista, one of my favourite haunts around Marinduque.










here's a link to the album on Facebook with the complete photoshoot, including the photos from Ms. Gaysan ..

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=102356&id=637233806&l=a477d1b5ab

Ms Gaysan - Gasan 400 year celebration - gay pageant

Gasan is celebrating 400 years since the town was founded, and one of the activities organised by the local council was this gay parade, called 'Search for Miss Gaysan' .. I haven't managed to work out if it was meant to promote gayness, make fun of gayness, or just provide some mass light entertainment. What is sure is that the contestants seem to have taken it quite seriously! For some reason a good percentage of the Gasan male population is gay .. lesbians (which are far more interesting if you ask me ;p) don't make a showing though ..


the initial defile'



costumes ..




this shot is from the 'talent' section .. this particular guy had a monkeyish talent!





and finally .. the swimsuit contest ..



the crowd present was enormous, and everyone seems to have had a great time! We left before the evening gown show - Miss Gaysan was run simultaneously with a dance contest of sorts - rather boring stuff with lots of kids dancing out routines to hip hop, with bits of Michael Jackson thrown in for good measure, for some reason where it comes to music black american culture is the most popular here - it was past midnight by the time the swimsuit defile' ended, and we needed to wake up at 5.30am as usual, to get the kid to school.

Marinduque Provincial Hospital - Photos

I couldn't find any photos of the Marinduque Provincial Hospital on Google, so here are a few should anyone ever need to see this 'lovely' building!

Construction update - 2nd week August

the roof trusses are more and more complete, the doubled up trusses on the front are there because the bottom links were removed to allow the area above the kitchen and living room to be open all the way to the roof (and not have an interior ceiling ie)


wooden form for the extended deck ..


working on the trusses, precariously ..


the deck - with steel bars in place


partly concreted .. the doubled up bars at the ends transfer the cantilever load of the deck extension onto the beam that is supported by the foundations.



seiving sand .. by hand .. the wooden assembly allows the seive to be swung


the concrete deck, now complete and set (a couple of days later)


painting roof trusses with red lead, they will be painted again with red lead primer, and then gloss finish paint in situ.

Meanwhile, the granite and ceramic tiles, glass blocks, bathroom set have been ordered and should be delivered from Lucena. The roof gutter should be delivered today, and the rest of the roof material early next week. more photos will follow then!

Garden wildlife ..

I took these photos one night while looking around the garden with a torch ..


this is the light under our porch, with a 'constellation' of red ants around it .. these buggers really nip!


a yellow frog .. I picked this guy up and he squirted water at me .. seemed VERY pissed off!


and a smaller frog of a different species .. great attitude!



one of the many crabs that live in our garden, the first image shows the hole they dig as a hideout .. this one seems to have a pincer missing



and this friendly little guy was crawling across our front doorstep .. I think it's some sort of freshwater hermit crab, looks quite similar to the sea version though ..


little brother ;)