That was Friday morning. By Friday afternoon I had spent my second full day with a fever near 38 that would just not break. Rose decided enough was enough, so despite my objections it was off to the hospital we went. Twenty four hours later I was released, feeling fine, perhaps a little weak, with the cause of the fever apparently a mystery.

Bart and Bony

We were welcomed home by everyone outside with lighted candles. Was this my welcome home? Nope, brownout. Just enjoying the cooler evening air. Rose and I plopped onto the couch outside on the porch. We all conversated, Bony and Mozart were playing, and I may have dozed a little off and on.

At some point in my dreamlike state I just had to ask, “Why do I keep hearing the name Bart?” Two or three replied at about the same time that Bart is the puppy’s name.

“His name is Mozart,” I said. “Oo, Bart,” they all said. Even Rose seemed to join the chorus.

How could I argue against logic like that? It’s one of the mysteries of Filipino nicknames that all but a very few westerners will ever comprehend. Well I’m not gonna to try to fight this tide, it’s a lot less work and usually more fun to paddle with the current. So I sat there on the couch in the cool night air, dozing a little off and on with the flickering candlelight, enjoying the company and chuckling at Bony playing with our puppy Mozart, aka Bart.

Why do I recommend renting a place to live for those who are newly living in the Philippines?  Well, there are a few reasons.  Firstly, if you build a house here, and build it to the standards that you are accustomed to, it will very likely be very difficult to sell that house if you decide to move.  Let’s face it, most houses here in the Philippines are not built to US standards, or to the standards of whatever first-world nation you come from.  Also, people here might not like the design of your “American style” house, or some of the things you put into the house.  What Filipinos like, and what we like is not always the same.  Nothing wrong with that, we are just different, as would be expected.  However, if you build the house that you like, and then decide to move somewhere else, you may never be able to sell the house for what you have invested into it.

The truth is, a lot of foreigners come here dead set that they are going to live in a certain place.  They are sure of it.  I came here with the idea that I was 100% certain that I wanted to live in General Santos City.  After two years there, a number of factors played into the fact that I decided to move to Davao City instead.  It’s a move that I have never regretted.  After 8 years living in Davao, though, I am pretty sure that I have decided that this is not the place where I will live in 5 or 10 years from not.  There are a number reasons for that, which are outside the scope of this article.  But, the fact is, I am very happy that I have continued renting my house instead of building one, or purchasing one.

Somebody asked me the other day, though, about deposits on rentals.  How much do you have to deposit, and can you ever get your deposit back?  Let me try to answer those questions.

How much do you need to deposit when you rent a house in the Philippines?  Well, there is no law about it that I am aware of.  It is simply something that you negotiate with the landlord at the time of rental.  In my 10 years of living in the Philippines, and renting houses here, I don’t think I have ever put down more than a 2 month deposit on a house.  This is a security deposit, to ensure that you do not damage the place, or leave it in a state of disarray.  It also ensures that you pay all the bills when you move out.  For example, if you owe the Electric company for a month of electricity, the deposit will be used to cover that.  Same goes for telephone, water, or whatever else you may have on a monthly billing.

Now, I said previously that I have always given 2 months deposit.  Sometimes I have been asked for more, even up to 6 months, but I have always been able to negotiate it down to 2 months.  If there was a case (which I don’t recall) where I could not get it down to 2 months, I simply walked away from the deal and found something else instead.

What about getting your deposit refunded?  Well, legally, the landowner must refund you for any amount of the deposit which is not used to make repairs to damage you caused, or to pay bills that were left unpaid.  That is the law.  In practice, though, it can be difficult to get that deposit back.  However, in my years of dealing with this, I have come up with a way that has ensured that I get my deposit back every time.  I suppose it can still be circumvented, but in my experience that has never happened.

How do I do it?

I leave the deposit asked for, say 2 months.  Then, as my contract is coming near the end, and I have decided that I won’t extend my contract, and will indeed be vacating the premises, I go and talk to the landlord a couple of months ahead of my vacating the property.  I explain that I will be leaving when the contract ends, and I tell the landlord that I have maintained the house well, even usually leaving it in better condition than when I moved in.  I invite the landlord to come and have a look, if he would like to do so.  Usually, this invitation is declined, and the landlord simply accepts my word that the house is in good condition.  Next, I ask the landlord if there will be any problems in returning my deposit that I left with them.  If he indicates that he doesn’t have the money, or is wishy washy about it at all, I simply propose that I be allowed to stay in the house for the last two months without paying any rent, simply using up my deposit as the rent payment.

So far, in every case, this method has worked.  There have been times when the landlord has assured me that he has the money to refund my deposit, and there have also been times when I lived rent-free for two months.  In either case, though, I have always gotten my deposit back.

My view is that if you maintain a good relationship with your landlord, treat him with respect, and keep the lines of communication open, he will treat you fairly.  Of course, there are some landlords who are bad people and will not keep his word, but in my experience, so far I have not had that problem.  I think that such a problem would certainly happen in a small minority of situations.

So, that’s how it has worked for me.  Every person is different, but these are my experiences with rental deposits.

So why am I bring this up today? Well last Friday my wife turned fifty, and to her it seemed like it was no big deal. She knew there’d be cake and pancit and of course a party. Did I forget to tell you she’s a twin? So her sister’s husband get’s a break, as he knows they always celebrate together, and I throw the party. The party will be in my re-built backyard and the food and beer will flow, at least the beer will.

Friday morning, much to do, tent is up. All outside light bulbs have been changed. Cooler filled with beer and water, ice added. (Will check again later) All tables and chairs have been power washed and ready. Man Cave is clean. Fishpond cleaned again, nieces and nephews in the pond, (A pox on my neighbor’s tree) Nieces and nephews already in clean pond. I’ll await further instructions from ComPacFlt-House, (Commander Pacific Fleet-House, or as I call her “My Mahal”.

Does it stop with the present, or the cost of the party? Hell no, a trip to the hairdresser, and a new outfit are also required. And one must have the obligatory damnable singing machine. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining at all. I enjoy seeing her and her family having a great time. And we’ll do it again on the 14^th during the PacMan fight on Pay-per-View (sans the damnable singing machine). I just like the fact that no matter what her age is, she’s beautiful to my eye, and 13 years younger than me. So here are a few pictures of the party. You under fifty folks have something to look forward too, and remember what my father said to me, “You’re no longer middle aged at fifty!”

My 13 year old nephew wanted a beer, his older brothers said no, he snuck in to my beer ref. and took what he thought was a beer. I found him at the side of the house sipping on a ICB bottled Cream Soda, true it does look like beer, and has no label just etched glass. Being the “Cool Uncle” I told him it was Ok-na-Ok, the sugar rush will do him good!

More pictures from the party:

The kids are having fun in the pool!

It's not a party without this!

He gave his life, but not in vein

Birthday Girl

Two Birthday Girls

What defines “Civilization”? In my mind, at least, the level of literacy, rather than the use of tools or anything else, determines that a civilized people existed. That definition is not too far off the mark of the official “cultural development” definition given by Webster’s and Oxford. In short, the ability to write one’s history and communicate abstract concepts to others defines a people and is what separates the civilized from the uncivilized and the animal kingdom. There was a civilization in the Philippines.

The national language, Filipino, was derived from Tagalog, and is colloquially different in many ways, but intelligible, to Tagalog speakers. Think of it as similar to the difference between American English and the Queen’s English: Not quite different dialects, but greater differences than merely different accents. Americans and Brits can normally understand each other, but there are slightly different usages based largely on class and other cultural differences.

Why was Tagalog chosen as the basis of Filipino? There were many reasons, but chiefly: The Capitol is Manila, primarily inhabited mostly by Tagalogs; The nation’s founding Fathers were mostly Tagalogs; Most Filipinos at least had a basic understanding of Tagalog at the time of independence (Bisaya was also considered, due to the number of speakers, but because it splintered into many different dialects, it was deemed less suitable than Tagalog as a “national unifier”); and, finally, there were more surviving written records in Tagalog than any other Filipino language (Back to the “civilization” definition). Modern Tagalog is comprised of approximately 40% Spanish “loan” words, and another 10% English “loan” words. The remainder is mostly derivative of native Tagalog words (Which themselves were mostly derived from Bahasa Malaysia or Bahasa Indonesia words, largely derived from ancient Indian Vedic or Sanskrit), many words derived from Arabic, and local words of Philippine origin.

By way of comparison, the modern Filipino alphabet was Latinized, the only difference from the modern English alphabet is the addition of the letters “Ng” (Tagalog) and “Ñ” (Spanish). Ilocano, Bisaya, Tagalog and other native languages were spoken here for centuries, and were each very different, as they are today. However, they all used the same alphabet (script) when they were written, with a few regional variations. The ancient script was called Baybayin (or, sometimes, Alibata). Baybayin was syllabic in nature, meaning that each character represented a complete syllable, rather than a single sound, as represented by a letter in the modern Filipino alphabet. This syllabic writing came to the Philippines from Indonesia, especially Java and Sulawesi, and shared many characteristics with ancient Sanskrit alphabets that are used, to this day, in India.

Baybayin was used primarily in Luzon and the Visayas. People in Mindanao primarily spoke Arabic, after the Islamic conversion, by the time the Spanish arrived, and Baybayin was largely forgotten in Mindanao (If you are a Muslim, you must be able to read the Koran, which is only officially written in Arabic).

The Baybayin alphabet is written below:

Each character represents a syllable that consists of a consonant, followed by the “a” sound (ah).
So, what if a syllable requires a sound that doesn’t have an “a”? A kudlit, or hash mark, is added either above, or below, the symbol, depending on the sound. For the sound, “I” or “E”, the kudlit is placed above the symbol.For the sound “O” or “U”, the kudlit is written below the symbol.

If a syllable doesn’t have a consonant (like “Oo”, or “yes”), then one of three vowel symbols could be used:

There are many syllables that end in a consonant, leaving a slight problem in reading Baybayin: There’s no way to write that consonant, so the reader must guess as to the meaning. The Spanish solved this problem by developing a special kudlit, in the form of a small cross, which was written below character of the ending consonant, thus making Baybayin easier to read. There were no symbols used for numbers.

Words were written bottom to top, and left to right. The early Filipinos usually had more of an oral tradition, rather than a written tradition, but written records of epic poems and religious works were kept.
The early Spanish friars were literally amazed that the people in the Philippines could read and write. They were impressed. They noted that a greater preponderance of women could read, rather than men, and, initially after the conquest, translations of Spanish into Baybayin were made. The Spanish Friars translated Spanish into Baybayin mainly to aid in the conversion of Filipinos to Catholicism. However, by the 19th Century, the use of Baybayin had largely died out, except occasionally as personal signatures on documents. These documents are largely the ones that survived. Many Friars noted with pride their destruction of “pagan” documents written in Baybayin, and most of the documents written by the ancient Filipinos were lost forever. However, as this article noted in the beginning, “History is written by the victors”, and the Spanish used language as a means of control. By forcing the native people to learn and speak Spanish, they minimized the incidences of insurrection: Keep them fed and ignorant, so to speak. By the time of the American colonial period, the Philippines was largely a Spanish-speaking country, with local languages used in the home and colloquially.

It is interesting to note that Rebecca had never heard of Baybayin before… I’m not even certain that it is taught in schools here. The first thing she said when she read this article was, “Wow! It looks similar to Arabic!”. She is fluent in Arabic, and, given Baybayin’s origins, there are many similarities. There is a small movement among young Filipinos trying to resurrect Baybayin as a source of Filipino pride, primarily through the use of tatoos and other means of artistic expression. Hopefully, they succeed in at least showing their fellow countrymen that their history began well before the Spanish ever arrived.

In researching this posting, I found several good overviews on the Net about Baybayin in addition to a lengthy Wikipedia post (and got the pictures).

www.baybayin.com

http://www.mts.net/~pmorrow/bayeng1.htm

http://www.eaglescorner.com/baybayin/

http://www.omniglot.com/writing/tagalog.htm

When you make the decision to leave your home country for another are you giving up on your home country? Or are you making the decision that there is just a better place for you at the time the decision is made?

Spring in Canada

I’m of the mind that if you make the decision to leave you home country and adopt another you’re not necessarily giving up on your home country. You are making the best decision for your future and your family at that time. Perhaps you are going to earn a living for your family. Perhaps you’re escaping the heavy hand of the tax man and going to a place where your dollar goes further. A decision based purely on lifestyle and opportunity. With that being said do folks who trade one country for another give up on their homeland and become citizens of their new home? If you are living your life in the Philippines have you become 100% Filipino. Learning Tagalog. Learning about the history of the Philippines and becoming a true citizen or are you just a citizen of convenience?

Is there really anything more required of you other than paying your taxes and living your life? I know here in North America there is a bit of an expectation that if you come here as an immigrant you will become “Canadian” or “American”. You will learn English, learn about our history and become somewhat assimilated into the fabric of the country you move into. Having said that, there is absolutely no expectation that you abandon your culture or your identity, just that you take on some of the elements of your new home.

Does the same hold true in the Philippines? When you move there do you plan on becoming fluent in Tagalog? Will you take classes in language and history? Will you even adopt a second passport? While it is easy to put those expectations on folks who come here I believe that it should go both ways. If you plan on living your life in another country it just makes sense you will do you part and contribute, add what you can and make it a better place to live.

Spring in Mindanao

The next article I am going to write is about the great work being done in the Philippines by Tyleen Reynders. She has recently left for the Philippines from Vancouver and is bringing with her a huge entourage of dentists and donated equipment to help better the lives of those who are a lot worse off than than many of us reading this post. They are going to be giving free dental services to those who can’t afford to do it for themselves. Tyleen is doing this because she wants to give back to a great country and people. This kind of effort is a perfect example of doing the right thing, especially for people who can really use the services being offered by the team of dentists. Is this something you can do to help make a difference in your adopted home?

Why is there no power?  Mostly, the reason is because of a lack of water, caused by El Nino.  The vast majority of power in Mindanao comes from Hydroelectric sources, primarily from Maria Christina Falls in Iligan City, and from hydro sources along the Pulangi River (also known as the Rio Grande de Mindanao) in Bukidnon.  Because the world is experiencing another El Nino weather patter this year, much of the Philippines is experiencing a severe drought.

A drought like we are having is bad for all of the Philippines, but it hit’s Mindanao harder when it comes to electricity, because Mindanao is more dependent on hydro generated power than the other islands.  I have been following on the news that the Northern part of Luzon is particularly hard hit when it comes to irrigation for rice farmers and such, but at least they still have electricity up there, or have more than we do down south in Mindanao.

The bad news is that the electricity situation is getting much worse now.  Each day, it seems to worsen.  Local newspaper reports say that if we don’t get rain within the next 70 days or so, our currently supply of electricity will be cut in half, because two major power sources will have to be idled at that point.  And, we are already in dire straits in terms of electricity, I can’t imagine if we lose half of what we have right now.

I have a group of folks in different areas around Mindanao who keep me informed of the power situation where they are.  Thankfully, here in Davao, we are not in nearly the situation that much of the rest of Mindanao is currently in, and I feel really sorry for those folks.  Let’s have a look at what typical electricity situations are in key Mindanao Cities right now:

• Davao City:  Two hour rotating brownouts.  Brownouts are not daily in every location, but are a few times per week in most places.
• General Santos City:  Three hour brownouts three times per day.  In other words, basically every area in General Santos goes for 9 hours per day with no electricity now.
• Cagayan de Oro:  Five hour rotating brownouts daily, once per day in each location.
• Mati, Davao Oriental:  Brownouts up to 12 hours at a time, daily.
• Koronadal, South Cotabato:  Brownouts up to 10 hours at a time, daily.
• Butuan City:  Multiple 2 to 3 hour brownouts every day.
• Zamboanga Peninsula:  Daily brownouts of up to 18 hours at a time.

So, as you can see, the situation is not good, and is predicted to get worse as time goes by.

As I said earlier in the article, if we don’t get rain in the next 2+ months, the situation will go much worse than it is now.  Problem is that at this time of the year, even during normal cycles, we do not generally get much precipitation, so it is doubtful that we will be seeing much rain anytime soon.

So, what are the options?  Well, they are not that good.  For the government, there is talk of purchasing some diesel burning barges to generate temporary electricity.  This is probably the best short-term fix for the crisis.  For longer term fixes, there are several coal-fired plants being proposed for Mindanao.  Yesterday, a Congressman proposed that the Philippines build a Nuclear plant.  I personally, feel that Nuclear is something that will be an energy solution for the future.  Even President Obama is proposing nuclear generation for the USA now, something that he did not support in the past.  But, building a nuclear plant is something that will take years, and we already have a serious crisis in Mindanao as I type this (hoping that the power doesn’t die on me while typing!).

It would seem that this would be an ideal time to put in place some shorter term solutions, and then pursue some long term greener solutions like Sun, Wind and perhaps other methods.  So far, I don’t see that happening, or even being discussed much at all.  Perhaps the reason is cost, but some of the things being suggested are also very costly, so that would seem to put some of these more eco-friendly generation possibilities into play, but it seems not.  What I will say is that when it comes to doing something to address the energy future of Mindanao, I see a lot of talk, and no action yet.  Something needs to be done, and quickly.  Given that elections are about 2 months away, it would seem likely that nothing will be done, though, and it will be left on the plate for the next President to address.  Problem is, I don’t know where we will stand two months from now, let alone the extra time that will be needed for any new President to get things into place and address the issue.  That could be a year from now before the situation gets even serious consideration.  Mindanao cannot wait a year, unless the rain starts falling.

To show how serious the situation is, a number of businesses in different parts of Mindanao are already considering simply closing up shop, because they cannot operate the business with no electricity.  This does not bode well for Mindanao.

From my ranting about nearly every domestic airline in the Philippines, to singing the praises of the friends I have made here in Davao and Manila, Filipinos and expats alike. It has been great starting again in a new country, and of course there has been huge problems too, but I like those to be opportunities to overcome, well that’s what my lifestyle guru tells me.

Funny enough, the biggest reaction to any story was my feelings about how Dogs are treated in the Philippines.  I  wrote that after seeing so much mistreatment of the Dogs, and what I saw as lack of training, that means dogs bark all day and all night, for what to me is no reason.

I have a better understanding now, because of the poverty some humans are treated so badly, so why should dogs be elevated higher. Regarding the non stop barking, all my friends tell me that a dog barking is like a constant security, it tells the bad people there is a dog there, so they will leave it, no matter how I argue about the noise being useless as no one will know if you are being burgled or not as the dog  just will continue barking. I am trying to understand the logic, but not there yet.

I am such a moaner, I have moaned several times about the Taxis and the lack of customer service, I have moaned about TV, moaned about internet providers (still do),  and now after the years go by, I don’t moan I accept,I am becoming Filipino, and its OK.

I have been very lucky to travel to the out of the way places, one of those is Mati here in Mindanao, which is a must to visit for the beaches, unspoiled and so friendly, but don’t expect anything touristy as its UNSPOILED.

I have done articles on child poverty and abuse, and I cannot get used to that and I hope I never will, even this last weekend I visited a school for disturbed boys and watched them eat rice and vegetables (looked like grass), and dug into my pocket again, I defy anyone not to do that is they have a heart for fellow human beings suffering.

All of the above was from 2007, the year my article on Pinoy Idol was reprinted by the UN in house magazine, no royalties though, still waiting lol.

I urge you to look back in the achieves, and its so amazing for me to see how I have changed, and how much I love the people and the place called the Philippines, and yes I still moan, but its down by 50%.

Next week I am going to sit down with a cool beer, and re-read 2008, and see  just what else has changed in my life, its good to take stock sometimes, as no matter how bad you can feel sometimes, its great to see the fun things you have done, but have allowed yourself to forget.

When we first opened Cambridge Farm Hotel in 1992 there were not many places in General Santos where large gatherings could be held so in the first years we had plenty of big events all year round and no two of them were ever the same!

This is the kind of thing that Ellie my wife really enjoys and I will admit that she always does a good job! My part usually is to keep out of the way!

Feast in the lounge.

The cost of the events differed a great deal as some wanted all the best food which on several occasions included whole Spit Roasted Cows but this we did not attempt ourselves as there was an old local man with the appropriate nick name of Lolo Baka who was the local expert or cow roasting and he was very famous locally for his roasting talents! The usual roasting time was about 24 hours and at the end the cow was roasted to perfection!

Feast in the Garden Cottages.

Roast Pigs are more usual as there are people who roast them at every street corner but we used our own staff for this work as one of my older workers actually had been on a Government Pig and Chicken Roasting Course and he had the T Shirt and Certificate to prove it! During the roasting phase the cook had one long neck (Fifth) of Tanduay Rum and when the bottle was empty the pig was totally cooked! I suppose that using a bottle of rum to time the roasting is the same as using an hour glass but much more fun!

Yummy, Piggy.

On one occasion we held a Senior Prom for the Notre Dame Girls and for this event we supplied a 70kg pig of our own. The evening was very formal with all the girls dressed in the long gowns and looking as beautiful as they were able and they were on their very best behavior, until the food was served that is, once the Priest blessed the food and invited the crop of new young ladies to the table then, all hell broke loose! All the girls pushed up their sleeves, snorted and grunted a bit and then, all in perfect unison drove in for the food in a manner which would have made the New Zealand All Black Rugby Team feel afraid, the Nuns were bowled out of the way like skittles, the priest was also engulfed by the charging hoard then the food was out of site, covered by the ladies! In only seven minutes on the tray where the pig had been was left only an oily stain! This was the new years crop of young ladies showing their true talent, maybe the Philippines should form a Roller Derby or a Rugby League as these ladies sure showed a natural talent for such activities! in the end, after the carnage it was a most enjoyable evening as the ladies all turned back into ladies once again and danced the night away!

A Smaller Feast.

Most of the feasting happened after special events as I mentioned earlier. Now unlike what would happen in Europe or the US, once the meal was devoured, the party would start proper with drinking and dancing but here in the Philippines the end of the meal triggers the end of the party and everyone goes home! On more than one occasion we have had traffic jams on our entrance road as party members who have eaten are trying to leave while other guests are trying to get in! We really should have constructed two roads, one in and one out for such occasions!

A Chicken Tree.

Ellie was always in charge of the cooking and in all the years that we did this type of function there was never a real complaint about the food! At times there would be interesting table center pieces, a Chicken Tree was one where Banana stalks were covered with tin foil and Fried Chicken Legs and on stick type finger foods were placed into it to make it look like the Chicken and other things were all a part of  te decoration, it as been seen that some guests never even noticed just what it was and passed it by as they were too busy looking at the other normally visible dishes until they were told!

Suits.

On another very memorable occasion a group of Muslim Men came in and asked if we could fix them up with a small gathering that very evening. With their being only 30 of them Ellie agreed even at such short notice as they did not want anything special and as long as there was no pork involved then there was no problem! In the early evening the group arrived and started their meeting, all was going well when one person asked if they could put up a streamer as a back drop for the main part of the meeting. No problem for me so I got one of my staff and helped to hang the streamer for them for which they thanked me for the help! The Streamer Stated” MILF ELECTION OF OFFICERS”! Wow, I was a bit shocked to say the least but basically these were a very nice and polite bunch of people who gave us no problems and at the end of the evening they thanked us very much, each one of them, paid their bill and went on their way!

Plates Prepared.

Weddings were always the big ones with sometimes up to 250 people at least, just preparing food for such a crowd took a lot of planning especially when it was “plate in”, this is a local term meaning that the food is served already on the plate unlike being buffet style! Getting 250 plates full of food was difficult enough but was even harder when there were kids and cats around waiting for the opportunity to grab something off of a plate! Nothing looks worse than a skinless pig with no ears as a table center piece! Ellie got around the plate logistics problem by giving the meals to the main body of guests on Basket style plates with Banana leaf covers, this also saved washing up as the Banana leaf could be discarded after use, only the head table got the good stuff to eat from!

Small Buffet ready to attack!

Buffet style meals did cause problems as greedy people would go to the table and get a huge plate of food then return to their table or even their car and empty the food directly into a plastic bag or container then immediately go back and refill their plate again! Some of these people even had the nerve to complain later that the food was lacking but I would simply answer them by saying something like ” if you are still hungry then why not bring the food back which you put into your car earlier and eat that!”  That was usually all that I would have to say to calm the situation! I was always diplomatic with a few San Miguel in me.

Wedding Cake.

Many years ago, the RECON Radio Club planned a meeting, this was in the days prior to Cell Phones. Yes, for any younger readers there was a time before the cell phone! Anyway, the meeting was to start at 4pm with the meal being served at 5pm. 4pm arrived with just a couple of the Radio Heads on site, they used their radios calling each other and slowly the group all arrived and with it now being 8pm they decided to eat first then hold the meeting! We served the food and while doing so I heard one guy say to his friend that the food was not hot! With this group who were all in contact to each other by radio, it took 4 hours for them to arrive then to complain about cold food was too much so I ripped into them and gave them a piece of my mind! (That’s the polite way too describe what I really said) The president of the group apologized later and bought me a drink so all finished well!

The Little Guy is 17 now.

Probably for about 8 years we had lots of catering but as more facilities opened up the catering prices got cheaper and cheaper. I think that we used to charge between 250 to 400 pesos per head for our services which guaranteed a good deal for a sponsor of the occasion but we gave up on the business when a person came to us and wanted us to feed 100 people for 75 pesos per head, this was the standard price at that time! We found out that we could allow a caterer to rent our swimming pool for weddings etc, they would supply everything including tables and chairs, food, the whole works and that way we would make probably more money than we could by catering it our selves! On such occasions we did and still do advertise that we are not the ones doing the catering so people cannot get the wrong impression if the food is sub standard!

Ellie Cleaning Up After a Polite Feast.

All in all, it’s very honest to say that anyone who is involved in the catering business in any form must be ready to take care of all kinds of problems as these problems do occur before, during and even after any kind of function and you must be ready to deal with anything at any time!

Most of our events went ahead with no real problems worth mentioning but I would like to give a word of advice to any person thinking about getting into the catering business and I think that it can be summed up in a single word DON’T!

Please excuse the quality of pictures as they were scanned from old photo’s

Topic One-
February the 28th was me and my sweetheart’s 1st anniversary. While people were worrying about tsunamis (because of the earthquake in Chile), I was out ordering a bouquet. They didn’t have red roses, so I got a dozen pink roses. It took an hour for them to get it prepared, so I walked back from the mall and wrote a love letter. Later I took it and the bouquet, to her house. She was surprised and happy. I had secretly planned to hopefully take her out for a nice dinner, but unfortunately she had a dance practice, for school, to attend.

Its nice to know it’s been a year, but it still doesn’t feel that long ago. I think its also funny how my idea of coming to the Philippines, someday, aligned up with my love-life when I unexpectedly met my sweetheart. Even if she wasn’t the original reason I planned to come, she became a part of the reason, well, took over the top reason (leaving the original reason a part of the reason, but lower). For those curious, here’s a short summary of our love story: We met online, started off as friends, and it turned into something more. No tradition of American dating, nor Filipino courting. No flirting or love at first sight kinda stuff either. We weren’t looking for love, but we got what we didn’t know was coming. She wasn’t crazy about long hair on guys, nor could see how someone could be in a relationship with someone so far away, when she saw her friend in a situation. But she got a longish haired boy far away. We didn’t tell each other at first, because, we were afraid to tell each other and thought the ‘he/she doesn’t like me’ kinda thing. We also wanted to rule out if it was just a crush (before we told each other), and also because of past heartbreaks. Feb 28th 2009 we became official. Late March our parents knew, and I came out public about it, not fearing remarks about it being an online relationship anymore and what our parents might say (since our parents already accepted). A few months of dealing with the pain of distance (talking only on phone, chat, and webcam), and a few lil’ realities of a relationship, our patience paid off when I arrived in Davao on Dec 27th 2009, seeing her face-to-face for the first time. We’re both very happy now.

Topic 2-
I thought it’d be nice to give 3 jeepney short stories. Why? Well, because I was embarrassed 3 times on jeepneys. Just a reminder: A jeepney is a main transportation vehicle in the Philippines.

(A Jeepney)

1st story: On a jeepney you are supposed to knock to tell the driver to stop. I was coming back from the mall, and the jeepney took a turn I didn’t know it’d take. It was riding alongside the curb, so I thought maybe I could get off on the sidewalk. I knocked but then it turned into the road as the sound waves got the the driver’s ears. He and everyone looked up at me. I gave a signal of my hands to let him know ‘whoops’ to show I made a mistake of knocking. Embarrassing.

2nd story: To get a jeepney to stop for you, you hold out a finger for it to stop. I did so, preparing to get groceries at the mall. The jeepney stopped many feet before me on the side. Seemed like a few feet to me. I was confused why it stopped there, ’cause, I saw nobody get out and so I walked to the jeepney. As I was approaching it to get on, people got off. I was getting on then it starts to ride off. So, I jumped. The driver looked up at me and hit the brakes. He gave me a ‘no-no’ expression on his face and said something in Bisaya. People were staring at me, and he gestured me to get off of the jeepney. I felt very shamed and felt like I wanted to hide my face. I kinda felt like maybe I did something wrong, but some I spoke to said stuff like ‘that was weird’ or ‘the driver is an idiot’. Still, embarrassing.

3rd story: Me and my girlfriend were getting off of a jeepney. It was a funny ride to see the front-desk lady ,of my dorm, on the same jeepney that we got on in a different district. Anyways, I saw the front-desk lady get off. Part of my mind was like ‘why are you about to stand?’, and the other half of my mind was like ’she just got off, I guess its okay to get off now’. What I didn’t know is that the jeepney was still moving a bit. So, when I stood, the brakes were lightly tapped. It made me fall to the side on some lady. I’m sure I became a pain in her face as my shoulder hit the side of her head. My shoulder was sore afterward. Embarrassing.

Other than these two topics… what else is up with me? I am working on a project having to do with maps and such. I’ll unveil it here when I am ready to present it. Ooo.. and I need to update my tourist visa since I am still awaiting the time for my medical exam to help get me my student visa. Anyways, peace.

In addition to various house sizes, I have also lived in different types of neighborhoods.  I have lived mostly in very “Filipino Neighborhoods.”  I mean places where you know who your neighbors are, places where anybody is welcome.  Places that are, frankly, mixed use, as the article I wrote last week about the new call center that has moved in next door to me.  We also lived for one year in a gated subdivision called Woodridge.

Woodridge is a beautiful place.  The houses are very nice, and more of the American style too.  Most of the houses in Woodridge are quite large too, with many bedrooms.  There are a lot of facilities at Woodridge to take advantage of too.  But, in the end, we found that Woodridge was simply not for us.  Too exclusive.  Not as friendly as what we like.  Not Filipino.  Basically, what it came down to, though, was that if we wanted to live in a neighborhood that “felt like America” – why live in the Philippines?

Now, that said, this was a very beautiful house that we lived in.  It was located just next door to the Woodridge Clubhouse too, where there was s swimming pool, tennis courts and other such things.  Lots of stuff for the kids to do.  The kids would go swimming almost every day during the summer.  The picture at the right is the entrance to the Woodridge Clubhouse.  In addition to the swimming pool and tennis courts, they also had a restaurant and a convenience store.  The club management was also located at the clubhouse as well.  Whenever there was a homeowner’s association meeting, it was generally also held at the clubhouse.  Being next door to the clubhouse had pluses and minuses, though.  The biggest minus was that there were times that it could get a bit noisy with people enjoying activities at the clubhouse.

The house where we used to live in Woodridge Subdivision

The house where we lived was one of the larger houses in Woodridge.  I suppose there are maybe 200 to 300 houses in Woodridge, and our house was probably in the top 15% for size.  From the front view, seen above, the house looked a bit small, but it was very long, though, which you can see from the side view at the left.  The house was only a few years old too, so it was modern.  One of the things I liked about the house was that it had solar hot water heating, with a storage tank for the hot water up on the rooftop, and all heated by the sun.  That was really nice, so that even if there was a brownout, you still could enjoy a hot shower!  That always started off a nice day!  Also, even if we had cloudy days, it was rare that the solar panels did not make enough hot water, which was nice.

One nice advantage, especially with young kids was that the house had a large yard along the side, where we put our trampoline, great for the kids to keep active!  Well, the side yard was not really part of the house, though, the fact was that it was a vacant, unsold lot that was right next door.  Now, the lot has been sold and there is another house built there, which is only like one foot away from our old house!  So, while it was all open, sunny and nice next door back then, now the newly built house is just inches away, and frankly,  I would feel claustrophobic living there now.  Oh my, how things can change in the space of just a few years!  Having that extra lot along the side sure did make for a nice yard, though!

My home office in this house was quite small, though.  I would estimate that it was only about half the size of the office where I am now.  There were some nice things about the Woodridge office, though.  For example, it had built in bookshelves all around the walls of the office, which I liked, and cabinets along one of the walls.  I was a bit cramped, though.  In my current office, we have room for both Feyma and I to share an office, which I like.  In Woodridge, that simply was not possible, because it was too small.  Another problem, office-wise, in Woodridge was that it was very hard to get a DSL Internet connection when we were there.  We finally got on, but I did have to survive on poor dial-up connections for several months there.

The kids had a nice play area inside the house too.  We had several computers set up where the kids had Internet Access (albeit poor internet access like I mentioned above) and also computer games.  We also had an X-Box set up here where the kids could play Video Games.  This indoor play area was great for days when it was way too hot outside, or when it was rainy.  It seemed we became a hit in the neighborhood too, because the kids always had a lot of friends over playing on the computers or the video games.  Actually, this lead to one of the things that turned us off on living in Woodridge.  The kids began picking up really bad attitudes from the other kids in the neighborhood.  The other kids would tell them things like – “you don’t have to listen to shat she says… she’s just a maid anyway!”  We did not like this, and really told our kids that they must respect the maids and helpers at the house!

One of the real jewels of the house, though, was the kitchen and dining area.  The dining area, shown in the picture, also included a family room type of setting.  Plenty of room for a seating area, a place to hang out, whatever, in addition to putting a dining room table where the entire family could enjoy a meal together.  The kitchen was a half floor lower than the dining area and separated by a wall to keep the dining area more private.  This was kind of nice for entertaining, because you could have a staff of helpers working in the kitchen, and still enjoy privacy with your guests while eating a meal in the dining room.  Another nice thing in this part of the house was that the dining area opened up out onto a patio that was along the side yard.  Very nice for entertaining!

Of course, there was a Sala, or formal living room too.  We had a TV in this room, and a sitting area where we could entertain guests.  Just like the dining area, this Sala also opened up to another patio that was on the other side of the house.  In fact, when you went outside to the patio, it wrapped all the way around the house, to the front and to the other side of the house!  There was even an enclosed bathroom outside on the patio as well, so it had everything you needed!  What a great area for a barbecue party or that kind of thing.

OK, so I am sure that nobody would argue that this is a great house.  In many ways, it is a Western Style house, but with the Filipino things that I wrote about the other day.  We did enjoy living here, although there were a few problems.  As I already said, the neighborhood “feels like the USA” and is not such a friendly place.  Also, we found that our kids were picking up bad attitudes from the “rich” kids in the neighborhood.  Another problem is that the house had a lot of problems – leaky pipes, rotting wood from termites, this sort of thing.  The owner of the house never had the money to fix the problems either.  So, because of these factors, we decided to move out, and that is when we ended up where we are now.

The house where we are now living is probably 50% bigger than this house in Woodridge.  Yet, it is also much less expensive!  It’s in a more “Filipino style” neighborhood.  We like it a lot where we are now.

So, now I want to ask you… how much do you think the rent was on this house that I have featured in this article?  I won’t say how much now, but after you guys have had a chance to think about it, and post some guesses, I will tell you how much we paid for rent.  That was 4+ years ago that we lived there, and the rent would be higher now, but I will tell you how much we paid 4 to 5 years ago.

Any guesses?