Photos et lettres des Philippines, de France et d'ailleurs

First a big thank-you to all of my readers as since November 25 my blog has exceeded the 10 000 visitors.
I started writing my first article and posting some photos in June 2007 and in November 2008, to my great satisfaction, this blog had already been seen by 1,800 people. But the last twelve months, what was my surprise to have more than 8200 additional visitors.
So I really got into it and I oblige myself to keep going composing articles and adding some photos on a regular basis.

So last Wednesday, December 2, it was the anniversary of:
-The coronation of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1804.
-The victory at Austerlitz in 1805 won by Napoleon against the Emperor Francis II of Austria and Alexander the 1^st, Czar of Russia.
- The declaration in 1823 by the President of the United States, Monroe where he expounded his doctrine of isolationism vis-à-vis Europe that will be broken in 1917only with the participation of the United States in the First World War.
-The coup d'état in 1851 by Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte and then President of the Republic who dissolved the Assembly and Council to proclaim the empire and become Napoleon III.
Etc... ...
Later on December 2, 1944, while the war was still raging with the ultimate counter attack  in the Ardennes 14 days later by the tanks of Von Rundstedt, I was born at 10:20 am Paris time, the third of five children in the family.
I do not often talk about my personal life in this blog so I will do so in a succinct way in the fall of my life to celebrate my 65 summers.
I grew up with parents of the working class who later owned bakeries and from one bankruptcy to another bankruptcy quickly we became again a working class family with few resources but the salary of my father.
At 10 years old I was the only pupil the teacher of my little village primary school in the Department of the North presented at the entrance exam of the sixth grade at the high school  of  Saint-Amand-les-Eaux, where I was successful accepted.
Meanwhile my parents had moved to the suburbs of Lille and it is in the Faidherbe high school that I started the new school year.
At that time to do classical studies was reserved to the middle and upper class and all along my short four-years-education there, aside from a few, students and teachers made me feel that I was the ugly duckling. An English teacher even told me on day in public while I was struggling to answer his question that this language would in any case be of no use to the son of a baker. Another time a French teacher accused me having cheated as I was the only one of the class who gave the good reply. Bastards!
Despite the love of our mother, my childhood was not happy and that's the least we can say. In this festive period it is a cliché that I still have  in mind, that of my mother walking the streets of Lille, trying in vain to sell his old coat in golden sheep fur to cook her 3 children still at home a decent Christmas dinner.
So naturally I left school at 14 and a half years old to become an apprentice confectioner for a few weeks, then an apprentice pastry cook for a few days before I get fired for the first time in my life because of a rotten egg I mixed up with several gallons of custard then good to put in the trash.
The second and last time I was fired, it was by my own eldest brother after the death of my father but that's another story.
So I was then hired by a flax mill where the 14-15 years old workers, girls and boys, began at 5 o'clock in the morning at the blow of the whistle to stop only at 1 pm to give way to the afternoon shift. We worked in the heat and noise and we had to ask permission from the foreman for a replacement to go to the toilet.
After a short period of time where I worked in the company's offices in Lille where I had been transferred after an interview with the factory's social worker, again I left that company to become an apprentice baker. Part of that because my father said that working in an office was a job for lazy people. I don't blame him as deep down inside he was still a countryman only valuing manual work. After apprentice I became then a second skilled workman and finally a first skilled workman. Because of the many overtime hours, night hours and Sunday hours,  my salary was high enough to support, with the help of my brother Guy 18 months younger, the needs of my mother and my younger brother Joel as our father died at the age of 52 killed by sorrow and wine when I was just 17.
Again at this period of the year, I remember myself walking the cold and deserted street of the Christmas Eve to go working and watching through the windows the happy families who feasted around a table with the illuminated and decorated Christmas tree while I was dead tired with the countless hours of work and lack of sleep to make their bread and especially the typical brioche of northern France named coquille and supposed to represent a Jesus with two heads.
At the age of 19 years and 3 months I was drafted in the army as all young men of my age. On this occasion I discovered southern France with the cities of Toulon and Frejus and then the South Pacific with New Caledonia where, although forbidden by the army, I worked all the Saturday nights to make some pocket money.

(Private soldier of the Pacific Marine Infantry battalion. August 1964. First on the left on the low row)

(Nice hair cut. September 1964)

(Enjoying the warm sea. December 1964)

Back in France, I reworked a year before immigrating to Canada in Montreal where I exercised my job for eight months. Poorly paid with workdays lasting 20-24 hours with no rest or even seating, twice a week the eve the bakery was closed. Discouraged with my job, I then returned to France exhausted and emaciated.

(Canada, Montreal. With my workmates. Summer 1966)

(Canada, Montreal. A rare moment of fun. 1966)

While I was across the Atlantic, my sister had found a porter's lodge to my mother in Saint-Mande in the close Paris suburbs and I joined them there.
Disgusted by my Canadian experience and my job as well, I planned to start a new working life by finding a normal job during the day allowing me to attend night school. The chance helped me and I found a situation at the printing plant of the Union-Vie Insurance Company becoming soon UAP shortly after. That was in November 1966 and then everything went very quickly.

I was trained on small offset printing machines.

(My ID picture. July 1967)

Wanting to learn more I bought myself books and I tried to take the exam of vocational training certificate as an independent candidate in June 1968. I failed but I talked with a professor at the Ecole Estienne, Mr. Merlan, who said that with my small level I had put up a not so bad performance. He asked me if I liked the job and if I was ready to work like a dog to learn. I said yes and with his help I could get one of the few places available in evening classes on professional offset presses at the Ecole Estienne, the best printing and graphic arts school in France.
In June 1969, I passed my vocational certificate exam successfully with an honorable grade in practice and an excellent grade in written theory and general knowledge. In view of these results, Mr. Merlan asked if I wanted to continue to learn other aspects of the printing industry and I nodded enthusiastically.
So I enrolled in the courses of imposition, sciences and mathematics.
It should be noted that at the time the vocational training paid by companies did not exist and that these courses were attended after working hours and it was often after 10 pm that I went home several times a week with revisions on Sunday because I worked Saturday overtime.
At the beginning of 1970, I asked Mr. Merlan where this would take me and he said he thought I should try to pass the competitive entrance examination of the Ecole Estienne full time training for Associate of Technical Art (ATA). Thus I needed to enroll myself in this official contest which took place in May for the start of the new school year in September. This intensive full-time school year was designed to give confirmed skilled workers, especially typographers, the ATA level in graphic arts and printing industry and thus a job of junior executive as a reward.
From January to May 1970, I lived only to prepare this exam in learning all the required subjects ,History of French literature, Art history, general culture, French, mathematics, and of course all the disciplines of the printing industry.
When the day came, we were about 100 candidates for 15 places available, including 3 or 4 reserved for our French speaking friends of the Middle East or Africa.
At the end of examination, I considered that my chances of success were very weak and two weeks later when I was attending the imposition course, a classmate arrived and said he had seen my name in the lobby on the list of the successful candidates. I thought it was a bad joke and I rushed down the stairs four at a time to verify. This was probably one of the most beautiful moments of my life in finding that my name was well on the list and after the class we celebrated the event in a nearby bar.
At the beginning of the school year, I had to resign from my UAP job as they refused to help me and without income I sold my old Renault 4L to survive. It was not until January that the government gave us a little help but netherveless I lived one year certainly very studious but also very happy although out of money in a good atmosphere and camaraderie among the students. After 37 years many of us still meet at least once a year.

(Batch 1971, one of our first dinners in 1972)

(Some years later. January 1st, 2007)

At the end of June 1971 I graduated with cum laude and I found a first job in a small printing company and then I resigned to work for the most prestigious Jouve printing company. They hired me as an estimator in their Paris office of the quartier latin where I was granted the status of junior executive after my trial period.
In septembre1972, my ex employer, the UAP Insurance Company contacted me asking me if I wanted to return working for them in their brand new printing plant located in the basement and the 34^th floor of their Charras skyscraper in Courbevoie. Upon reflection, I gave my conditions they accepted and I took my new position in November 1972.  First junior executive for one year trial period and then confirmed with a good pay raise
I married in January 1981 with Dhana and I often used to say that this is the second best decision I made in my life with that of resuming studies in 1969 at the age of 24.
From this union were born Christelle on April 21, 1982 and Fabrice on December 28, 1984, two great joys in my life.

(The first birthday of Fabrice)

Then it is the whole and simple history of a busy life and I ended my career in UAP with the rank of Director of the department of the printing plant and warehouses with close to 200 employees.

(My office and view. Charras tower, 1987)

(A few souvenir photos of my career)

(My office in Suresnes at the peak of my career. 1996)

(I just got my 40 years-working medal. June 1999)

In 1996 came the merger with AXA but I kept my position and the greater part of my responsabilities until October 1999 where I took first my 6 months of leftovers vacations before my early retirement effective April 1, 2000 at the age of 55.
On that date, I enrolled in language training at the Edith Cowan University in Perth in Western Australia where I graduated in Advanced English.

(Edith Cowan University. My graduation and my classmates in 2000, year of the Olympic games. At 55, I am the eldest)

In 2001 I traveled for three months the Philippines while indulging in photography and from 2002 it was the project to build a house that occupied my mind and still occupy me. Even if the home is completed since September 21, 2005, there are always things to do and maintain.

(Our tropical house and the family reunion of Christmas 2007)

Now that I have reached the age when our parents finally retired and when our children will, I hope, with God help, to continue aging with a young mind and later on to be a dynamic grandfather for my future grandchildren.
My wife has planned to celebrate in France this December 31 my 65 and 25 years of my son Fabrice, so last week on my birthday, I just planned to stay home alone and to reply the phones calls and emails of my friends and relatives from France and the Philippines. Around 10 am my friend Charly called me up asking if I intended to go to the Malatapay market. I said yes as I had to buy a few things.
There I met most of my friends and their wives who had come to surprise and wish me a happy birthday, bringing wines and cake.

Afterwards we all went to my house to open the last bottle of traditional Champagne I had kept in stock for a special occasion. I must say that I was very touched by their attentions.

(Thanks my friends for your thoughtfulness!)

Now it is time to go back to France again and I will leave on December 19 to spend the greetings season with my family and friends. I am planning to return in March-April 2010.

(Dhana, Fabrice and Christelle. Christmas 2008)