It’s now been a week since our arrival in Manila, Philippines. To cut to the chase; so far we love it. Our new apartment is fantastic; a high rise right in the heart of Makati – the business/expat area; all very upscale and metropolitan. We spent seven years in our home in Jakarta, so apartment living is a new thing for us. Our place is quite high in the sky and very spacious; 4 bedrooms, 4 1/2 baths not includingRead more
Rest in peace, my Grandfather
My nearly 90 year old grandfather passed away last week. My recent move to Manila is clouding the reality of his passing. It doesn’t feel factual, even though it’s now been many days. Rather than sum up his life with a few paragraphs of my own meager thoughts, I’ll simply paste the obituary that was published. He was an amazing man who led an extra-ordinary life full of adventure. He will be dearly missed. “SATCHELL, David Bidwell, age 89, ofRead more
Leaving Jakarta
Well this is it. We’re leaving Jakarta, moving to Manila. I’m typing this from a speeding BMW at 3am. The carefully composed post summing up my years in Indonesia will have to wait I guess. I simply ran out of time trying to spend time with everyone. We’re excited for this next chapter in our lives to unfold but are sad to leave our beloved Indonesia. It’s been a life-changing 7 years.Read more
In the mood for Ubud
I’m posting this from my iPhone so pardon spelling and grammmmatical errrrrors. We’ve been in Ubud, Bali since early Saturday morning. Early – as in left the house at 4am against Mr. Sandman’s strongest wills to remain on the lovely couch cushions (shipped our bed to Manila). It was odd saying goodbye to the house I’ve called home since 2002. A home where so many memories were etched into my mind, so many events have taken place, and where lifeRead more
How to choose a MacBook Pro – which Mac should you buy?
The entire purpose of this post is to help share some of my thoughts and research with those of you wondering how to choose which Mac best suits your needs. Warning – it is long winded and demonstrates my own opinions, so it is biased in that fact. My demographics in a nutshell: 31, male, American, photographer, designer, educator, ADE, expat in Asia. As you may know, I’m quite the Apple fan. Part of my job involves helping others learnRead more
Packing up, books vs Kindle, and the joy of dead trees
The movers are here today, shipping our belongings to Manila. We spent the week packing up and sorting through dusty memories. It’s really hard to narrow your life down to only 12 cubic meters; especially considering I arrived in Indonesia 7 years ago with only two suitcases. What goes? What stays? What gets donated to charity? What gets trashed? I don’t want to become a pack rat – I enjoy simplicity and minimalism to a degree. However, I do haveRead more