fire and earth: exploring Etna

Visitors flying in to the Italian island of Sicily will see its magnificent volcano Etna breaking the horizon.

home sweet boondocks

American soldiers, fed up with struggling through hostile jungle in the Philippine highlands, coined the term boondocks in the dawn of the 20th century to denote a backward rural area with 'connotations of bewilderment and confusion', according to Wikipedia. The English word comes from the Tagalog word bundok, or mountain - a word with very different meanings to the wonder | wander | women.

stormy holiday blues

For the Christmas holidays our sad local state of affairs in this island backwater we grew up in had more to do with no PLDT internet service than the local Typhoon Vinta. 

You can try calling all their hotlines as a guaranteed exercise in futility. Nothing ever works well with this quasi utility.