It’s been days since I posted anything. This post is more of a summary of 2008 (I had 60 posts and 93 approved comments!) and what plans I have for 2009.
Posting this right here in our place in Mandaluyong gives me a sense of accomplishment that we were able to come out a plan and see it all to fruition. Early in 2008, during my hiatus from work I started this blog to talk about how I felt living in the Netherlands and our wild ideas of leaving it all behind and trying to start new ventures in the Philippines. I was then really tired and burned out from my job and at about that time we had a talk about the possibilities of having a trial visit followed by a longer stay.
Through the course of time, I also shared all my research about visas and paperwork involved and maybe some ideas around our stay here. In August of 2008, we made our first visit for 3 weeks. We stayed mostly in the Makati area and during the weekends went out of town to Cebu and places nearby like Tagaytay and Quezon City. At this time, I had already quit my job. I’ve long been looking for a great time to do this but suddenly something happened at work made it easy for me to let go and finally tell them of our decision. As of now, some people still try to ask about this decision of mine but I guess I am still trying to get used to explaining it all over again. Clearly, stability was not what we both were looking for. If that was the case, we would have stayed. However, we saw this opening or opportunity for us to actually still do our work and earn a living and be able to have the chance to do more things like exploring and testing new business ventures. We believe this country is a great place to be able to do these things that we wanted to try. At the same time, I also wanted more freedom to do what I want. I am not saying having too much freedom is easy either. I still need to have the discipline daily to actually make things happen and not go off course.
So in 2009, it won’t be that easy but I see that I have to get used to trying out new things and being a new kind of situation I have never been before. I hope to also get back in shape! I hope to share more of what I (re)discover and see with new pair of eyes as someone who has left long time ago and has came back. I also hope to share my struggles, good and bad things and surprises along the way and of course the people that we come across.
Thank you very much for taking time to read this blog and share your ideas. I look forward to hearing more from you and hope I could of be of help to those who are thinking of living here in the Philippines in the future.