Hi, My name is Paul (aka ancienrocka) and I was born in Reading many,many years ago. I took a law degree but hated law and went straight into sales after my course at LSE. I had many sales jobs selling a diverse range of products until I settled down with Mr Kipling Cakes around 1975, eventually becoming District Manager based in Woking. I got married and had 2 beautiful daughters. In 1983 the whole family emigrated to Perth in Western Australia in search of a "better life". We were better off financially and enjoyed the climate, but missed old friends. Finally, after my divorce I looked around for somewhere I could live comfortably on a limited income. I met my wife, Elsa, online and we talked purely as platonic friends for about 3 years before we finally met in Cebu. It was love at first - which sounds stupid when you write it down in cold black and white, but is absolutely true. I sold up what I had left in Australia and moved to Cebu about 6 years ago. Over that time my marriage has blossomed and Elsa is still my best friend as well as my wife and lover. We run a small business here and spend every minute of every day together. My friend, Markham, introduced me to this forum and I hope I will be able to help members who have not yet made the move to the Philippines, with honest answers to their questions/problems, especially regarding visas and business set ups.
G'day Paul - and welcome!! You'll be fine here, mate, they're a friendly bunch and all pretty much house-trained! For those who don't know you ... Paul - who's on nodding terms with Noah (hence the "ancien" bit of his name) - is one of the very few Expats I know who has managed to grow his business successfully year on year since he started over 5 years ago when the majority of Expat small businesses lose money or fail completely. He is also one of very few Expats I trust absolutely. He's a fine rock musician - although he will modestly say "I know a few chords" - and has a great singing voice ("I know a few bars"!). He performs as often as he can, usually on a Sunday afternoon at an ad-hoc gathering of musicians - often including the retired professional musician, Mickey Dobie (Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky,....) - at a venue in Liloan, just north of Cebu City. His charming and beautiful wife, Elsa, also sings and her rendition of the popular "Boom Tara Tara" will bring tears to your eyes - and cotton wool to your ears! They are good people, very knowledgeable and helpful.
Hello there Paul, a warm welcome to the forum. Looking forward to your writings. My wife and me are quite far down the path of our journey to a life in Philippines and are both eager to learn as much as we can.
A friend of Markham is a friend of mine - and actually this is altogether one of the nicer corners of the Interthingy.
Hi Paul..Welcome mate!! It is indeed rare for a foreigner to become independently successful in the Philippines so I respect you already!!! Cheers, Januarius!
Welcome. My wife was born and raised in Negros Oriental though spent her later life in Cavite. Her mother is from Cebu originally( San Remegio ) and she and my wife have spent a good number of visits to Bantayan Island. So I have a kind of an idea about the region. Anyhow, looking forward to hearing how you achieved the "impossible".
Paul and Elsa are the folk who brilliantly organised our wedding in Cebu and I cant recomend them to much. You can read about by checking my posts feb/april 2011. They also can help with other useful services, Kuya please let Paul post his link for cebuexpat services. A warm welcome to you mate
Welcome Paul, like KeithAngel we've had a lot of help from Paul and Elsa when we were in the Philippines and with our wedding. It's good to see you here Paul! I rarely post on the LinC forum now that we are here in the sandpit.
Thank you all for your warm welcome. It may sound strange but I am only now reading them 6 months after you posted them! For some reason after my first post I couldn't access the site and in the end just gave up, until I received an email about the new site. I will endeavour to be more active in the future - I couldn't be less active with just one post!
Sorry you couldn't access the site Paul. If ever you have issues, email me using webmaster@british-filipino.com or message me through our Facebook page (I get that on my phone).
