Over the edge of the earth

We have a reader - in fact a few dedicated readers who lives half a day from Manila in the Philippines.  He has obviously interested others in his area as our website (greenportvillage.com) records their visits and they read long and hard - this blog as well and it is appreciated.

The primary person there spent summers sometime back 4 decades here in our Village and indeed has been back to visit us.not only in person but through his reading.  Now we are visiting him as there has been a great typhoon there in the Philippines to his south with terrible damage and sadly, many many dead.

One of our fathers fought there in the second world war and was in Manila and was later asked by Gulf Oil to transfer there in the 1950s and almost went. It would have been his bridge too far and on that note, we stumbled upon a very interesting website to answer the question "how far is it?".  http://www.distancefromto.net/ told us and drew us a map as well.

As Greenport is a seafaring village (in history anyway), the idea of far away and far away in the South Pacific (whaling perhaps) brings us to sailing or traveling over the edge of the earth.  It seems odd that to get to Manila from here one heads almost over the north pole.  It seems to add to the distance when indeed it is the most direct route.....over the edge of the world. The northwest passage seems now more reasonable.

Actually, the most direct route to our friend in the Philippines is through writing.  He doesn't seem so far away from here as a map would imply but rather just over the edge of the keyboard..just over the asdfghjkl;.

We hope he and his friends are well and are surviving in the aftermath of one terrific blow...just over there...just over the edge of the earth.