Construction and Reforestation at Chateau Du Mer

Front Yard of the Main House, January, 2010
Beach House-Photo taken 1/10/10
A Multi-Purpose 27 sq.meters air conditioned room is under construction in the first floor of the beach house with an adjacent 18 sq.meters patio facing the ocean. Photo taken during Garden Wedding, 1/30/10

With several tourist groups from Manila inquiring about accommodations at the CDM beach house, I decided to continue the finishing of the first floor of the beach house. First construction is underway for a 27 square meters air conditioned room with an accompanying 18 sq.meters adjoining pation on the side of the western MDQ sea. The room will also served as a meeting room for a party of 30 to 50 attendees. The second phase of the construction will be the kitchen area with spaces for sink and gas stove. The expected completion date will be the third week of March, just in time for our busy Easter tourist season. The beach house will now easily accommodate from 10 to 12 persons. The rent for the whole house will be 8000 pesos per day. This will turn out to be less than 700 pesos per day per person if there are 12 in the group. This an affordable rental considering there is air conditioning, hot water shower and cooking facilities if desired.

Regarding reforestation, Edwin and I just planted 13 narra tree seedlings last month. This will provide the needed shade at the Conference Hall during the summer months in the years to come. Currently MDQ is also suffering from the drought. Luckily I have 3 deep wells that provide the needed water for my gardens, I am still hoping for rain though. Have a good day and hope to see you in MDQ soon.

Selected Pictures from the Sena-Dacumos Garden Wedding at Chateau Du Mer

The following are selected pictures from the first garden wedding at Chateau Du Mer. The bride was Rheziel Sena and the groom was Ramon Chito Dacumos. The wedding took place on January 30. 2010. This was a historic event in the Beach resort.

Filipino Time is still in style in Marinduque

Garden Wedding Site, Boac, Marinduque, Philippines, where the wedding ceremony started only one hour late

Macrine's nephew is getting married next month. We will be one of the three pairs of sponsors for the wedding. Today, he formally introduced his future wife to us. Both of them are college graduates. During their visit, he mentioned that it is now a requirement to attend a seminar on FAMILY Planning, before the couple could be married besides the one required by the catholic church. The seminar will be given by an employee from the Health and Social Services in conjunction with the municipal government of Boac. Macrine's nephew and future wife were told that the seminar will be at 1:00PM. They were at the office at 12:50PM. They waited until 1:45PM but there was no seminar. So they went directly to the office of the employee who was supposed to give the seminar. They were told, the seminar will not start until 4 couples are present. It was not until 3:00PM that THE SEMINAR started. When my nephew complained that this wait was a waste of time, the lady giving the seminar blurted out in tagalog " We are all Filipinos, so there is no reason why you are complaining, why this seminar is two hours late". The comment made my nephew fuming with anger, but he did not say anything. This incident is an example why the Philippines will never be as progressive as the US. If all our government employees has this attitude, I feel sorry for the Philippines and its future.

Happy Birthday- Mayor Vicky Lau Lim

Entrance of CDM Hall-Big Enough for a Party of 250 Guests
The other day we were invited to a birthday Party for Mayor Vicky Lim of Gasan. She turned 65 and there were 65 long stem red roses offered to her during the dance in the Gasan public court held in her honor. Prior to the dance, an elegant and sumptious dinner for more than 250 guests was catered at her mansion in Bacong-Bacong, Gasan by one of my favorite caterer in Boac, Rosette, a Face Book friend. My favorite dish was the roast beef with mash potatoes. The beef was tender and tasty with brown gravy and mushrooms. There were 4 other filipino dishes, besides 4 roasted piglets ( lechon). All the political candidates of one of the major parties in Marinduque including Gov Carrion and Atty Velasco as well as Jasper Lim, son of the mayor were there. But the party was not a political campaign as Mayor Lim indicated. Jasper is running for vice governor and Atty Velasco for representative in Congress. This is a birthday party I will never forget. Who says there is a recession in Gasan? I heard in the rumor mill that the family of the celebrant spent more than a quarter million pesos which included a Chinese New year dragon and entertainers from Manila. Cheers to All my readers. From your GrandPa blogger!

Post Garden Wedding Depression at CDM

My Brand New Picnic Table

It has been very quiet here after a week of hectic and chaotic preparation for the first Garden Wedding of Chateau Du Mer. I missed the excitement and adrenalin rush of hosting last week historic event in this resort. This week, life here is relaxing and even depressing. I could only hear the sounds of mowing, vendors selling balut, fish and bread and occasional jeepneys and tricycles (except during rush hours). Do you have any suggestion what I can do to relieve this feeling of depression? Oh, yes, I could go swimming in the ocean or do snorkeling. I could do gardening by mouth and I could supervise maintenance projects in the resort. Oh well, just thinking about this already gave me an adrenalin rush and my depression is gone. Anyway, if you want to view the latest pictures of our activities here at CDM since December 2009 to the present, please visit my Face Book page and album, MDQ 2010. Good Day to All! From Your GrandPa Blogger!

Garden Wedding-A Historic Event at Chateau Du Mer

The bride with Parents on her Wedding March

The wedding ceremony started with the bride transported by a white horse-drawn open carriage from the nearby beach resort. This reminds me of Cinderilla riding in her golden carriage on her way to the Ball. On her arrival she was met by the groom and her entourage( includes 6 pairs of primary sponsors) at the balcony of the beach house. The groom stayed overnight in the beach house. The wedding ceremony then began with a ballet dance on the bridge, followed by songs, prayers and homily. It lasted for two hours. The wedding vows and ritual ( cord, veil and candle sponsors) is similar to the Roman Catholic Church, except for presentation of gifts to the parents of bride and groom. In addition all the primary sponsors were required to give public advice to the newly weds. The pastor is from the Born Again Christian Church from Manila.

The reception in the hall had a printed program distributed to around 200 guests. It included several musical and dancing exhibition as well as public dancing. Music was provided by a live band of 10 musicians. At the end of the reception 4 hours later, the newly weds spent another hour at the beach house and ocean just relaxing and taking more pictures. There was a videographer and several photographers.

The ceremony ended with the bride and groom riding the open horse-drawn carriage back to the nearby resort where the bride stayed. The next day, I was told, they are flying to Hongkong for their honeymoon. A most memorable and grand wedding event -the first event here at Chateau Du Mer. I hope more garden weddings in the future.