Good afternoon and welcome back to VibePinas! We’re still spending some time up in Daanbantayan, Cebu, and I wanted to give you a look at what a few typical days in our life look like right now. It’s a mix of working hard, dealing with the local "surprises," and, of course, plenty of family mayhem.
Our mornings usually start a bit later than I’d like—I didn't roll out of bed until nine today because I really needed the sleep, and Jessa was right there with me. Breakfast was a very Philippine affair. We had boiled rice, but the star of the show was some dried fish Jessa made herself. She just salts them, adds a bit of vinegar, and lets them dry out on a net in the sun. I’ll be honest, it tastes much better than it looks or sounds! It’s soft, not too salty, and surprisingly good with a little soy sauce on the rice. We’re living the "high-class life" here with canned food and home-dried fish, but it’s healthy enough (except for too much salt), and it works for now.
However, we had a bit of a tragedy with the next batch of fish. I went out around noon to check on them, and they were gone! It turns out the local cats and dogs aren't just my friends; they’re also food critics who decided Jessa’s recipe was too good to pass up. At least I got a taste of the first batch before the animals had their feast.
Living here also means dealing with the infrastructure—or lack thereof. We’ve been hitting some "brownouts" (power outages) lately, which is a bit of a disaster for my work. I was in the middle of editing a video about car economics when the power cut out, and my laptop died. Since we also had no water in the morning, we had to wait for the tide to come in so I could at least take Liam swimming.
Liam is becoming quite the water baby. Once he woke up from his nap, we headed down to the sea. He’s not scared at all anymore; he just wants to lie down in the water and splash around. Watching him enjoy the simple things is definitely the best part of these long days.
We also had a nice community moment today. One of the local kids—I think he’s the caretaker’s son—turned seven, so we headed into town to pick up a cake for him. It’s always good to give a little back to the people who help us out. While we were out, Jessa indulged in one of her favorite local "delicacies": balut (a fertilized duck egg). I’ve tried it once for the camera, but seeing the feathers and the whole "shabang" inside is still a big "no" for me. In Norway, we have some strange food like sheep's head, but balut is on a whole different level of "unusual"!
Back at home, the power finally came back on, which meant I could get back to the "grind." Between managing my Norwegian webshop and keeping up with the channel, and my IT company, there’s no such thing as a day off—even on a Sunday.
We wrapped up the day with some visitors and a big shared meal of fried chicken, fish, and, of course, a mountain of rice. It started pouring rain right as we were finishing—and in the Philippines, rain means everyone disappears into shelter immediately!
Thanks for watching, and I’ll see you in the next one!
