Author Archives: sheg4184

Afternoon Tea on the Quay

Posted on 10 June 2013 by sheg4184

Anyone for scones? Yes, I do realize it is starting to look as my life is nothing but clotted cream and champagne, but there you are, that’s just the way it goes… for some! This tea was for a very … Continue reading →

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Massages and Mayhem

Posted on 3 June 2013 by sheg4184

Somewhere on Mindoro… I am lying naked as a chicken fillet on a butcher’s block, on top of a large black plastic garbag, peering through a hole in the bed to a pile of pebbles artistically arranged on the floor … Continue reading →

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“The Grounds” in Rural Alexandria

Posted on 30 May 2013 by sheg4184

I hit ‘The Grounds’ running, straight off the plane from Manila, and was astounded, in my jet-lagged stupour, to discover this rustic café located in semi-industrial Alexandria, only minutes from the airport, the site startlingly at odds with its surroundings. … Continue reading →

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Farewell Tea

Posted on 26 May 2013 by sheg4184

The bane of expat life is the constant ebb and flow of friends. Every year, about this time, I start deleting names from my cellphone, as a clutch of my old mates disperse to new postings, and the talk revolves … Continue reading →

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Memories of Manila (1)

Posted on 19 May 2013 by sheg4184

Jennifer Gordon-Russell, a.k.a. Jenny Wallum, first arrived in the Philippines in the early 80s with her economist husband Peter Wallum and younger daughter. These were the years of martial law and the Marcos’s sovereignty; the days when traffic was light … Continue reading →

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Mother’s Day in Manila: saccharine or sincere?

Posted on 14 May 2013 by sheg4184

…yet though you dance in living light, I am the earth, I am the root, I am the stem that fed the fruit, the link that joins you to the night. ~ Judith Wright from ‘Woman to Child’ This year … Continue reading →

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La Cocina de Tita Moning: Stepping Back in Time

Posted on 11 May 2013 by sheg4184

In the San Miguel District of Manila, once Manila’s most elegant district,  and just around the corner from Malacanang Palace, Lory Vi Valdes had a childhood brimming with family, where aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents lived in a row of … Continue reading →

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The Inn at Cliffhouse: a romantic escape

Posted on 6 May 2013 by sheg4184

The Inn at Cliffhouse: a secret destination in Tagaytay – so secret we drove past it three times. That’s the way owner Jennifer Dee likes it: discreetly tucked away behind an unassuming entrance just off the General Emilio Aguinaldo Highway. … Continue reading →

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Home Help: a challenge and a joy

Posted on 30 April 2013 by sheg4184

As an Australian, the concept of household staff is a foreign one, and I constantly find myself bewildered by the presence in my life of a full-time driver and a part-time maid or ‘helper’ and all the unwritten rules and … Continue reading →

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Cooking with Frieda

Posted on 25 April 2013 by sheg4184

Since I arrived in the Philippines almost two and a half years ago, finding someone to teach me Filipino cooking has been like an endless game of hunt-the-thimble, but I have finally found the treasure: an everyday Filipino cooking class … Continue reading →

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