Thomo's Hole

We moved last month. We slipped out of Singapore in July, sat around on the beach (sort of) on Batam Island and then came into Manila early in August. A month was spent living in a serviced residence – One Pacific Place in Salcedo Village to be accurate – where I was accused of stealing 6 coat-hangers! That was sorted.

Then, about 12 days ago we moved from the scene of the great coat-hanger robbery to an apartment in Legazpi Village. 10 days later our Balikbayan boxes arrived from Singapore.

The Balikbayan box is a box used by freight consolidators and forwarders to assist (for a handful of pesos of course) Filipinos overseas to send items back to the Philippines. We liked it because the charge for shipping was based on volume rather than weight and as a method of shipping items, especially if the items are packed well with the understanding that the box will receive rough handling, it was a $600 solution to a $6,000 problem.

The boxes, all seven,  arrived so the last couple of days have been spent reacquainting ourselves with what we had rushed to pack back in Singapore. As expected, most of the damage fell on my painted figures. Everything else survived, in part because of Madam’s excellent packing (she maintains it’s the nomad in her where you are always packing for a move).

So, the next few days, my hobby time in the evening will be spent sorting and, I guess, super gluing items back together.

Thomo’s Hole is now in the middle of a soggy, but exciting, Manila!