The invitation from a compatriot here in Manila was for a “unique farmhouse luncheon”. Of course, that deserved acceptance. It was indeed unique. The farm was only a short distance from the entrance to the Industrial Park where our plant is located. It was indeed a farm, although it didn’t seem to be very busy. We drove past horses, goats, and lots and lots of gamecocks. A big business in the Philippines is raising fighting roosters. Apparently on this farm it is also a big business. The main farm house buildings were lovely. They have a large swimming pool, several buildings connected by walkways and pathways, and a large recreation area. The owner opened up one of the buildings a few years ago as a place for a pleasant, peaceful lunch. Eating is by reservation only and only in small groups — 2-8 people. The menu is fixed in advance (and doesn’t have a lot of variety). There are a couple of waiters in the dining room, otherwise no one is around. It was very pleasant.
The menu today consisted of a light coconut juice drink, a very nice salad, followed by a seafood pasta, then pork, rice, various squashes, and a light cookie (with green tea for those interested) for desert. The place isn’t air conditioned, but the weather in Manila right now is very nice. I’d guess the temperatures were in the low 80’s with a light breeze and low humidity. It was very nice to be out of my too-cold office in the plant! The only noise was the crowing of the roosters out in the farm area.
The roosters are raised to be very aggressive. Consequently, they cannot be together in a pen as they’d quickly kill each other. So each rooster has his own “house” and roost. The house is a couple of pieces of plywood in an A-frame shape with a pole on the top sticking out a ways. A rope is tied through the pole and onto the leg of the rooster which limits the radius that the rooster can roam, keeping it away from other roosters. However, the other roosters are close enough that they provide a constant stimulus to each other. That makes for a lot of rooster crowing and strutting. That was interesting as long as I didn’t think about the end purpose of these roosters….
The trip is going well and I think I’ve made the time change. I had some important items stolen from my luggage somewhere along the line. My Minolta digital SLR camera and lens was taken. A folder of CD’s, including all of my Lord of the Rings CD’s and a number of software CD’s was taken. I was bringing an iPod Shuffle over for one of the people here in Manila and that was taken as well. I’m pretty unhappy about that and hopefully I’ll be able to get some reimbursement from insurance somewhere for the loss. The loss of the software means that I don’t have any picture processing software on my new company laptop, so I can’t post any pictures. That’ll have to wait until I get home.