The reason we are thinking of 5/6 months in the Phil is to see how I cope. After a few years then decided if I/we want to make it full time.

Sounds like you have a good life there. Hopefully ours can be similar. We also like to travel/visit different places so would want to tour around to different events etc. If we were there now I would have been at Clark for the hot air balloon meet. Also different fiesta's.