'Happy' New Year?

The famous Scottish poet Robbie Burns once wrote, 'The best laid schemes o' mice an' men / Gang aft a-gley.'

Our plan was to spend New Year on Alona Beach, Panglao Island but it didn't quite work out like that.

On Saturday 22nd Dec, we were in Siquijor Island and Shoshi started feeling ill that afternoon, seemed like a touch of the flu.

48 hours later, after increasingly unpleasant fever, pain and headaches, we spent Christmas Day morning at Siquijor Hospital Emergency Room (Third World standards!), with Shoshi doing quick blood tests.  It transpired that she had suspected Dengue Fever and they advised us to go to the nearest 'proper' hospital for the necessary treatment.

The nearest proper hospital was a ferry trip away, either on Bohol Island or in Dumaguete on Negros Island.  Shoshi didn't feel up to such a trip and so we decided to wait another 24 hours and travel on the morning of the 26th.

We got up on Boxing Day and caught the 9am ferry to Dumaguete, arriving at the Silliman University Hospital at 11am.  5 hours of tests, waiting, more tests...Shoshi was taken to the ER and admitted to hospital with confirmed Dengue Fever.

Not what we had imagined that Santa would bring us for Christmas but hey, ho, ho, ho...

The following morning, Guy woke with fever and I headed back to hospital with the kids to check on Shoshi.  We then spent the next 8 hours, doing various tests on Guy after which he was confirmed also with Dengue and so he was also admitted.

Shoshi and Guy, sharing a hospital room, both trying to recover from Dengue.

And just when we thought things couldn't get any worse, they did!

Shoshi was also confirmed as having Typhoid Fever, a very nasty tropical disease indeed, which made the treatment of the Dengue more difficult as the doctors could not be sure which of the viruses were causing her symptoms.

The next 3 days were exceptionally tough for Shoshi.  Very strong medications, very little sleep, not able to really eat or rest.  A real nightmare.  Thankfully this morning, her numbers had improved enough and so after 5 days in hospital, really great care from the doctors and nurses, finally, at 4pm n 31st December, Shoshi and Guy were allowed to leave,

Guy is back to his old self (cheeky) but Shoshi is still pretty poorly and has to return on New Year's Day for further tests. She also has another 10 days or so of killer antibiotics to get through which is taking its toll.

Not the Hogmanay we had expected but just glad the worst of it is hopefully behind us.

On the plus side, Rangers pumped Celtic so as they say, 'every cloud has a silver lining...'

Happy New Year to everyone...

2 weeks in Paradise

We spent the first couple of weeks of December in Palawan, a quite beautiful island on the west coast of the Philippines.

We split our time between Port Barton, El Nido and Sibaltan.

No need for too many words...

Port Barton

• 4 days
• Small, authentic fishing town, partial electricity, wonderful beaches, very relaxing.
• In 10 years time, this place will likely be overrun with tourists so it was great to see it still in a relatively underdeveloped state.
• We loved this place

El Nido

• 5 days
• One of the top tourist destinations in the Philippines
• Busy and showing the growing pains of the last 5 years influx of tourism but retains that classic Philippines underdeveloped feel.
• We spent the start of Channukah here and the kids loved going to Beit Chabad to play with the other kids there.
• Island hopping Tour was the highlight of the trip on Mili's 10th Birthday.

Sibaltan

• 3 days
• tiny fishing village on the sunrise side of Palawan
• only 7 small guesthouses, almost no tourists
• no internet, electricity only for 4 hours per day
• Kids loved playing with Jake, the hotel manager, and didn't want to leave
• I loved the peace and quiet and could have stayed for weeks
• Shoshi suffered 3 days from terrible headaches and was quite happy to leave!

Remember, Remember the 19th of December!

Today marks exactly 2 months since we left Israel.

It's been an amazing journey so far but we are only just getting started.

Thailand and the Philippines with hopefully many more countries to come.

We've laughed, cried, shouted, argued, swam, jumped, hiked, walked, ate, dived, watched sunsets and sunrises, worked, studied and done homework, been on planes, trains, boats, buses, tuk-tuks, minibuses and motorbikes, been to doctors and dentists and even manged some time to relax.

Oh, and I almost forget, today is Shoshi's birthday!

Happy birthday to the best travel companion in the world.

Here's what happens when you have 4 days without internet

Nothing

You relax and do absolutely nothing.

What you don't do is:

• check business performance every 5 mins for 16 hours per day
• check business email every 10 mins
• check personal email every hour
• check the business bank (5 times a day!)
• check Israel bank
• check UK bank
• check the stock market
• check Facebook
• check WhatsApp
• check Skype
• check LinkedIn
• check Rangers.co.uk
• check BBC
• check Agoda
• check Skyscanner
• check what's new on Netflix

The world keeps turning, nothing brakes, no emergencies, not even one 'urgent' email to be dealt with.

4 days at Tapik Hotel in Sibaltan.

Beach, sunrises, playing with the kids, reading and doing absolutely nothing.