788 replies to this topic

[thailover57]

Mac, ten years ago my company said the number one industry in the Phils was kidnapping foreign nationals and holding them for ransom. If the family didn't come up with the money quickly, they would sell the person to another group. I think this may be the reason you see so many guns, etc. I hope not, but who knows. Please be careful.

[Macman]

I don't know, TL, maybe. There doesn't seem to be much threat of that here. I know that our State Department warned Americans not to travel south of Midinau though.

Angel just got back from buying some rice. Coming back home, she got the same tricycle driver she had going there. He told her that a lot of his passengers that have seen her have commented on how beautiful she is, and asked if she's a ladyboy. He said that he wasn't sure at first, and agreed that she's very beautiful. (I guess she's been a passenger a few times before today.) Believe me, that made her day.

While she was gone, I was thinking that it's easy to prove that she's truly a woman. She'll want to buy a new pair of shoes, even though she already has 14 pairs, including a few pairs of boots. She'll stop and window shop and gush over a new handbag, even though she has 7 of them. On the other hand, I had told her that I wanted to take care of cleaning the frying pans because she was scrubbing them too hard,and wearing off the non-stick surface. You have to hear her moaning when she thinks I'm putting a few too many drops of dish-washing liquid in the pan for soaking. Ohhh, I'm wasting so much money. So now she dilutes the stuff. If that's not a woman ....

Macman

[Surin Nix]

So how long have you been there in total Mac?

Any second thoughts? Regrets?

Nix

[Macman]

It'll be 2 months on Tuesday, Nix. No second thoughts, no regrets, but certainly pangs of homesickness from time to time. I'm glad that it's so inexpensive to call back to the States, but living with Angel is even better than I thought it would be. She's an absolute doll.

Macman

[Surin Nix]

It'll be 2 months on Tuesday, Nix. No second thoughts, no regrets, but certainly pangs of homesickness from time to time. I'm glad that it's so inexpensive to call back to the States, but living with Angel is even better than I thought it would be. She's an absolute doll.

Macman

I am delighted to hear that!

What a great story of a man living his truth, on his own terms. I admire you for that.....and continue to wish you and Angel all the best. Someday, I hope to meet you two.

Nix

[thailover57]

I second SN's comments. Good for you Mac.

[indigo66]

I know that our State Department warned Americans not to travel south of Midinau though.

Sorry to interupt you but I'm sure you're talking about Mindanao instead of Midinau. I'm not into hairsplitting.

I've been several times to Mindanao, never had problems there. That area is undervalued and also unknown territory to lots of Filipinos living in Luzon. I've been to Basilan (the island of kidnappings) but not any further than that, too dangerous ...

Good luck with your girlfriend.

[Macman]

Thanks, Nix and TL for your comments. I appreciate it. Indigo, you're probably right. I find that there are a number of places to which my friends refer that sound similar to another town. That reminds me of something that I keep forgetting to post. A while back Nix asked me if they still have the "Philippine Rabbits" here, and I said that they have what they call "jitneys." Actually I misheard. We have "jeepnies." Hey you know what name I love? There's a town in Bohol named Tagbilarin. Doesn't that have a Celtic ring to it? Sounds like it should be right around Tipperary instead of here in P.I.

Macman

[Macman]

Indigo, I just noticed that I left the "n" out of Mindanau. That was just a typo, but I also used an "i" instead of an "a". We're talking about the same place though.

I just came on line after a power outage that went from 4:00 AM to 6:00 PM. It wasn't even due to a storm. It was just a routine check of the lines. Jeez, there has to be a better way than to shut everything down. When our power goes out, we also lose water. Our water is stored in a tank on a little tower next to the building. When we lose power, the electric pump can't get the water up to the tank. No fans, no AC, no water, no internet, no TV or radio, no lights. By the way, they refer to these outages as "brownouts" here, which makes no sense to me. There's nothing brown about it. It's a total blackout. When I told Angel that we refer to the action taken to reduce the current sent to us during times of critical usage as "brownouts", she said that they call that "shortages" here. Okay. When in Rome ...

We're going to Cebu tomorrow to try and get my money from Citibank so I can pay for the SUV I bought. If not, I guess I'll lose out, because the buyer's not going to wait 3 or 4 weeks to get her money. The money is there in my Citibank account in The States, but I've learned not to try and apply common sense to these kind of situations. We'll see.

Macman

[thailover57]

This may be a stupid question not knowing the lay of the land there) but do they have portable generators for sale? Although it might make you a target of jealous neighbors.

We had a hurricane in'85 in the northeast and lost everything for a couple of weeks. Didn't have a generator (they were all sold out within minutes). But I did have a Coleman gas lantern which worked wonders to illuminate the house. Much better than candles. We'd play card games and board games to pass the nights and keep the kids entertained.

Maybe they call them "brown"outs because it scares the s#$% out of them!

[Macman]

Actually, TL, I was the jealous neighbor this time. I could hear that damn generator coming from my rich neighbor's house, and it was driving me crazy. I'll have to look into possibly getting one for us, but I don't think we're set up for it, being an apartment. As for the lantern, it's the damn heat and lack of water that got to me. I can live without the light, but the heat was really bad. 14 friggin' hours. By the way, we also had to toss some chicken and pork. Oh, well.

Macman

[thailover57]

I hear you. We ended up having a block party to cook (on charcoal grills) all the food and commiserate about the lack of everything. Met some good people who became friends who we had never seen before, even though they were just a few houses away. Sometimes positives come out of negative situations.