Chris Thompson   Chris Thompson on the internet

Anything to do with travel, and my parents have been only to keen to find it, read it, digest it. They showed me this, which is a collection of travel blogs, and blogs on news and anything travel-related.

It seems that, quite recently, there was something on there that mentioned the Philippines, because after reading it, they mentioned looking into property there. I think it was light-hearted; not too seriously considered. However, from the looks of it, there is plenty on offer there. My dad especially likes his birds and wildlife, so the chance to see a Philippine Eagle would be something special; but even so, that’s the sort of thing you can do on holidays. You don’t need to look at property for sale in the Philippines in order to experience some of the magic on offer there.

The thing that worries me about it is the unavoidable danger of living in these places: just recently, there was quite large earthquake, with an aftershock that rumbled throughout the Philippines. I’m sure it would be tempting to use it as a holiday destination, and if they did get a house over there then perhaps they could rent it out through the year, and keep it as an option for themselves when they fancied a trip to warmer climes – but I’m certainly hoping it was proposed more in jest than seriousness, because it is a bit of a different beast to France.

You don’t often hear of earthquakes rattling the vineyards over there.