May 17 – A week ago I left my 3000 Watt Voltage Regulator at a repair shop. For some reason it was not powering up. This morning I got it back. The bill was for $9.00 and included the replacement of two computer chips. Had I done this repair in the States it probably would have cost at least $50.00.

Mom brought me a copy of the Hank Haney book "The Big Miss" which is all about his time teaching Tiger Woods and his impression of him now. I hope I can get through it without forgetting what I just read. She also brought with her a couple of movies. "Money Ball" and "The Descendants". I have seen them already, but can't remember anything about them UPDATE: The book was just okay. Very redundant and didn't really reveal anything about Tiger that most Tiger Aficionados didn't already know. Basically a book written by a disgruntled "Golf Coach" that couldn't take the dismissive, rude, and totally distant Tiger that was revealed to him many times over his six year tenure as Tigers coach. Tiger is a man that has deep psychological issues and Hank Haney is a jerk through and through for taking advantage of Tigers trust. Simple as that. And Tigers former Caddie Steve Williams is just as big an ahole. He made millions with Tiger and if Tiger didn't give him the respect he needed for his sensitive ego then too bad as Steve could have quit at any time as well. Poor baby.

May 18 – Scott and Jen arrived from Manila this morning. They came here in Scott's truck loaded down with a thousand pounds of stuff. They seem to be willing to try out living here. Scott has a sleep disorder so living in the cool, clean and quiet of their property in Valencia could be the solution.

May 19 – Too honor Facebook officially becoming a public company, I have ended my relationship with the Social Media Giant. I have deleted all the photos and other content I had on my Timeline. Now if you search for me I don't think anything will show up. I just came to the point where I realized I hardly if ever used the site. My initial euphoria about finding people from the past had also past with my realization that I really didn't give a shit about them or rekindling friendships. The people I already had relationships with I could just as easy communicate by email  or just call them when I get to the States. Also, I use this site to publicize my life so I really don't need Facebook any longer.

We had yet another discussion about Joe and College and it has been decided mostly by Joe that he would prefer to go to College in Vancouver, Canada and not Miami. I respect whatever decision he makes as it is his happiness that is most important. Just as long as he goes to school outside of the Philippines!!! A positive aspect of this is he will only be a few hours north of Portland and my Dad so Alex will be able to visit Grandpa when she goes to see Joe.

May 20 – Went to see the movie The Avengers today with Lynn and it was quite enjoyable. Good action and humor. I think we will get into the habit of seeing a movie every weekend. Gets the mind off of things.

For at least a year now I have been telling people I meet in other cities how great Dumaguete is and about the 4,500 foreigners that live here. I was just informed by an American journalist named "Kojak" who writes for the Negros Chronicle that the 4,500 number is way too high and based on the number of monthly visa renewals, the actual number is probably closer to 1,500 and if you add in another 500 for Permanent Residents and short term tourists, this  brings the total to about 2,000. Still a large number but no where close to 4,500. On any given day I see well in excess of 50 foreigners and of those maybe 30 I see on a regular basis.

is proving to be more of a disappointment than he was before. I hear that he is actively engaged in Drinking, Drugging, Fighting, Partying and Gambling. His most recent transgression caused the recent firing of one of our helpers (Mimi) and the reprimand of our other helpers who knew of the action. One of the biggest taboos is when an employer has relations with one of his helpers. Many expats have done just this and have ended up divorced and settling down with the former helper. In the case of Ryan, he went out with one of our helpers while we were away in Davao. This is a grave disrespect on us and Ryan should have known better to ask us first if this would be okay. First of all, in this culture you don't go out with your helper or the helper of your friends and family. IT'S JUST RUDE!!! While many might think this is condescension at its best, (I do agree to an extent) the fact is this is the way it is here and prevents just the kind of issue that has cropped up which has led to the helpers firing. One of the side effects of dating or being in a relationship with an Expat by a helper, is the helper has an automatic change in attitude and all of a sudden they feel like they are are part of the family or an equal to us. This invariably gets much more pronounced as the relationship goes on to the point where they actually develop real attitude and no longer function effectively in their helper role. I can't believe Ryan would disrespect Lynn like this after she has been so kind to him. UPDATE: I look at all this in a positive way in that maybe Mimi if she continues to go out with Ryan will have a positive effect on him and help him to stop or greatly curtail his vices. Would be kinda funny if they fall in love and Ryan gets her a fiancee visa for the States and Mimi becomes our Niece LOL

Today we drove to see some mountain land that is for sale. A friend of ours Fred (an alias), who is having financial difficulty told us about it and made us an offer we probably won't turn down. There are two lots. One is 9,000 sqm and the other 2,600 sqm. They both have the same owner. Fred wants to use the lots to grow expensive vegetables geared toward the expat market including: Tomatoes, Lettuce, Red and Green Peppers, Carrots and possibly some others. The proposal is we buy the two lots for the offer price of 300,000p or $7,100. Fred will pay us 20% on the loan and give us the 2,600 sqm lot. When the loan gets paid we then turn over the Title on the 9,000 sqm lot to him. Furthermore, he will cultivate our 2,600 lot and profit share with us on the crops grown and sold from our lot. How can we refuse a deal like this. Tomorrow we will look at the papers and then get legal advice before making the deal. Here is the view from the lot. Hard to see through the coconut trees but if they weren't there, you can clearly see Dumaguete and a huge expanse of the Mindanao Sea. Absolutely beautiful.

Jeffrey, Maya's boyfriend is a great guy and I am enjoying showing him around Dumaguete. He really likes the place and simplicity of life here. He is so facinated by the ying and yang of the place where it is very common to have a huge house or nice sub-division on one side of the street and shanties on the other. Too bad they are leaving back to Davao on Wednesday. I look forward to seeing him again perhaps when we get to the States this Summer.

Tonight the whole family including helpers went to Why Not Disco. Alex had lots of fun dancing.
Mom, Joe and the cutie pie

May 15 – Today we went to Bob and Gina's House for Fiesta and Pool Party. We all had a blast especially Alex and the Kids.

How Many: Single, Couple or Family          Where: City or Provincial Town

Aside from influences such as a relationship, job, health needs, interests, etc. your budget is certainly a very important if not the major factor in where and how you live. There are many individuals living on less than $1,000 a month and some I hear living on $500 a month (personally never met anyone here doing this) while others live without any regard for budget. For the purpose of this article I will first focus on the actual expenses and costs people will encounter living in both urban and suburban areas. Second, I conducted a survey of people living in various areas and will show what their actual expenses are as they relayed them to me.

Whether you are single, a couple or have a family there are basically three types of places expats tend to live. In a major city like Manila, in a Provincial City like Davao or Cebu or a Provincial Town or Small City like Dumaguete, Bacolod or Iloilo. Of course there are some that live in the middle of nowhere and mostly off the grid. We hear about these folks but rarely if ever see them (but they do exist). However, we won’t address that demographic for this study.

After conducting the survey, I found there was not a tremendous deviation in expenses from one living area to another EXCEPT for rental housing costs. This was the major expense variable and was especially relevant to those living in a city like Manila where rent can be at least two to three times as much as anywhere else. This impacted overall expenses by $1,000 – $3,000 plus. There are of course many expats that own their own housing so we will show that cost and their total monthly bottom line but, we will also show the rent they would be paying in the same building for the benefit of those that won’t be buying and only renting.

Another expense deviation would be for those sending their children to International Private Schools in the Manila area. These averaged $10,000 Annually. Nothing to sneeze at.

EXPENSE BREAKDOWN IN (US DOLLARS)

Housing – This obviously depends on the kind and size of the place you will stay. Following is based on a central location close to Shopping, Schools and Hospitals.

Internet – Most of the providers are fairly competitive in pricing. Generally you will pay more for higher bandwidth but figure on spending for all carriers about $31 for up to 2mbps. $100 for up to 10mbps monthly

Cable –Like Internet, provider pricing is competitive so for all the channels figure on about $25 monthly. There are specialty packages available that can push the pricing up

Schools – $100 – $2,000 monthly for a Private School based on ten months when you factor in all fees. Following are Annual Tuitions for Pre-School through High School for some of the Best Schools in the Philippines. Most of these schools are non-sectarian. The Schools in the Provinces tend to be lowest in Tuition and Fees.

Electricity – is very expensive in the Philippines. The price is a whopping .25 cents per KWh. Depending on residence size, monthly bills can range between $50 for a small apartment to well over $500 and higher for a larger house and that is by not using the Air Con 24/7 but only when at home and in occupied rooms. I made the mistake a little while back of running my air con most of the time (even when we were out) and found our bill was more than twice our $500 monthly house rental cost. Ouch!!!  

Help – This also depends on where you live (Major City versus Provincial Town) but will range as follows:

                      Helper           –     $40 – $70

                      Yaya (Nanny) –     $40 – $85

                      Driver           -   $100 – $300

                      Gardener      -     $50 – $100

Gasoline - $5.10 a gallon. Fortunately, in the Provincial Cities and Towns the distances are not that great and fuel consumption not that drastic. Remember most Expats are retired and use their vehicles mostly to go shopping, on trips or taking their children to school. Many opt for Public Transportation.

Public Transportation –

                   Taxi – .95 Drop and .08 per km   

                   Jeepney – .19 and .03 per km    

                   Pedicab - .16 per trip

Dry Good Shopping – You will find clothing and shoe prices are very reasonable here, but electronics very expensive as most are imported and subject to high customs duties. LCD prices can be more than double than in the U.S.A. Cigarettes and Alcohol are very, very cheap.

Club Membership – Fitness – $20 – $40      Golf – $120 (playing rights – all club membership benefits including green fees)

Movies – $2.35 – $3.55      Digital 3D – $6.00 – $7.10

Building – When it comes to building your own house figure on between $28sqf (low end) to $60sqf (high end) for construction. Therefore a very high quality 2000 sqf house, will cost you about $120,000. These higher end or more expensive houses usually reflect better indoor fixtures and treatments i.e. tiles, cabinetry, lighting, windows, doors, bathroom fixtures, etc.

Manual Labor – Almost any skilled labor needs you may have (plumbing, electrical & carpentry) will run between $8 – $12 (plus materials) for the job assuming it can be done the same day. Anything longer will require some discussion.

Restaurant Food – For the most part I find restaurant food to be quite affordable in the Philippines. I know a number of guys that eat out 2-3x daily at good restaurants for less than $15. Most Full Dinners in quality restaurants (regardless of location) will run about $12.00. This includes an appetizer (soup or salad), the main entree and a Drink. Entrees alone will cost about $5.00 to $8.00. A whole pizza for example is about $5.50. Meat or Chicken Entree dishes were about the same. Soft Drinks $1.00.

Sample Restaurant Prices

Moon Café – Baby Back Ribs – $3.66
Canvas – Cream Dory – $5.53
Gustavian – Ceasar Salad – $2.84
Gustavian – Beef Stroganoff – $7.81
Pizzeria Michelangelo – Pizza Margarita -$5.90

Home Food -  Much of your expense will revolve around how much imported food you eat. If you sick to local foods it will save lots of money. For example a pound of Sushi quality Sword Fish or White Marlin is only $4.00 a pound. Boneless Chicken is $2.15 a pound. Vegetables are pretty anemic here but are fairly cheap and local fruits are very, very cheap and incredibly delicious. I recommend Mango, Papaya and Banana.

Here is a sampling of Supermarket item pricing as of 5/12/2012 with the dollar exchange rate of 42.25p/$         

Survey of Actual Expats Living in the Philippines

Single Man (in Provincial Town)

 

Rent – $289 (furnished 1 bedroom and includes cable, internet, electricity)
Food – $402 (eating out 3x day at places like Moon Café)
Gas – $29 (motorcycle)
Phone Load – $29
Entertainment – $118 (imagination)
Misc. – $118 (medical, travel, etc.)

$985 give or take

Single Woman (in Major City)

 

Owned – $165,000 (1500 sqf 2 bedroom bondo in mid-range makati building)
Condo Fee – $142
Internet and Phone Landline –$24
Electricity – $60
Cable – $24
Home Food - $237
Helper - $85
Transportation – $24
Entertainment - $36
Misc - $200 (medical, Restaurant, cell, etc.)

Rent - $700

$832 (actual out-of-pocket expense give or take)
$1,532 (with rent expense if no-Condo ownership)

Couple (in Provincial Town)

Owned – $190,000 (3500 sqf 5 bedroom house on 2.5 acres)
Electricity – $50
Cable – $25
Internet – $50
House Food – $300
Helper Food – $60
Motorcycle Gas – $40
His Spending – $200
Her Spending – $200
Helper – $40
Gardener – $70
Dining Out – $200
Misc – $400 +/- (shopping, repairs, medical, travel, etc..)

Rent – $950 (you can also find a nice house for less than half this rent like ours)

$1,635 (actual out-of-pocket expense give or take)
$2,585  (with rent expense if no-house ownership)

My Family of 4 (in Provincial Town)

Our Rental House

Rent – $473 (furnished 4 bedroom house plus helpers area)
Electricity – $260
Cable – $24
Internet – $47
Food – $473
Helper Food – $118
Car Gas – $24
Motorcycle Gas – $14
Other Transportation – $36
Daughter Pre-School – $83
Son College – $76
Son Spending – $71
My Spending – $118
Wife Spending – $118
Helper 1 – $36
Helper 2 – $36
Yaya – $47
Dining Out – $118
Misc – $237 +/- (laundry, clothing, load, medical, travel, etc..)

$2,400 give or take

Family of 3 (in Major City)

 

Owned – $426,000 (2850 sqf 4 bedroom condo in high-end makati building)
Condo Fee – $675
Electricity – $300
Cable – $25
Internet – $50
House Food – $500
Helper Food – $150
Car Gas – $200
Other Transportation – $30
Daughter School – $1,150
Husband Spending – $400
Wife Spending – $200
Helper 1 – $70
Helper 2 – $70
Driver – $150
Dining Out – $400
Misc – $1,500 +/- (clothing, golf club, medical, travel, etc..)

Rent – $3,500

$5,870  (actual out-of-pocket expense give or take)
$8,770  (with rent expense if no-condo ownership)

There will be exceptions of course but for the most part, these numbers are reliable and a true representation of monthly expenses. As high as the cost of living in parts of Manila (Makati and Fort Bonifacio) as reflected in my example of a family living there, it is still about 1/4 to 1/3 of what the same lifestyle would cost living in a Major U.S.A. City like New York. Still, the costs for a family living in Manila are high and it is important to note that many of the Expats living in Manila are retired executives and those currently working for companies with high net worth or incomes. On the surface it sure seems better to own in Manila (if you can afford it) than rent as renting increases monthly costs dramatically.  I will certainly be interested to see what the actual expenses will be for my family once we move there next year. I anticipate (since we will own) that they will fall in the $3,500 – $4,000 range due to the added expense for our daughters school and the need for a driver.

What I am seeing is a dramatic rise of expats making the move to the Provincial Cities and Towns where costs are more affordable. I would highly recommend this as well.

In Conclusion: I have no doubts that some of you reading this may have differing experiences with the cost of living here. Of course we all have different priorities in our spending. It would be great if you could share yours as well. My overall conclusion based on my own experiences and with those of people I interviewed is: in the overall scheme of things it is far, far cheaper to live in the Philippines than in the States especially if you take advantage of the labor factor. In the Philippines you can have maids, nannies, chauffeurs, gardeners, masseuses and entertainment for a fraction of the cost in the U.S.A.

Single Man – $1,000 – $2,000

Couple – $1,200 – $3,200

Family (3-5) – $2,000 – $10,000

Lock me up and throw away the key. Are you ready……Okay! We’re staying in the Philippines. I have been consumed with thoughts about this upcoming move for a few months now and there is no fooling oneself. I finally realized I needed to be completely honest and objective in my decision making as to why we are moving to Miami. I could only come to one conclusion and that is, the move was all about me: Corey’s happiness. Fortunately, in my becoming way less selfish in my old age I realized that what is most important is the happiness of my family, that being: Lynn, Alex and Joe mixed in of course with certain considerations that could not be compromised on i.e., Alex and Joe’s education being of first and foremost importance.

I realized that the only really big thing I would be missing by staying in the Philippines would be my Scuba Diving/Spearfishing but in being a realist I know that with my health as unpredictable as it is, I could end up sick and unable to dive at any time. I also realized that the most important months of the year for my diving are August, September and October and I could easily make trips there for that purpose. Easy solution!!!

On the other hand by staying in the Philippines and specifically Makati I would have access to many positive things: Great food, excellent golf courses, an eventual Condo in Tagaytay overlooking the lake, a loving grandmother for Alex, Lynn’s family, cultural activities and many other things. We might even consider finally building a house on our “Casa Alexandra” Dauin property and take trips there for relaxation.

I have also realized that Alex for sure will be better served staying in the Philippines at this stage in her life where she can have a genuine happy childhood unfortunately, more challenging to accomplish in the States. Here she will definitely have many more friends, activities, family, and an overall environment conducive to her growing up. Additionally, she will have "Yaya" and probably a driver. Believe it or not these benefits typically do not result in generating a spoiled child as Alex is already taught to clean up after herself and that responsibility will increase as she grows up.

As for Joe I have come to the realization that I can’t be directing his life at this point in time. At 19, he is practically a man and therefore he must now make his own decisions as to what he does with his life. I feel this is in his best interest. He needs to be his own man now. I will still encourage, support and help him in any way I can. We will still have lots of time to scuba dive together, for me to teach him to lobster, Spearfish and drive a boat. But we will do that on our vacation breaks. First things first. I know that he wants to follow in his father’s footsteps and pursue a career in Law Enforcement. That’s great but now he has to do it and at hopefully one of the best schools offering this kind of program. That might mean in schools located in Canada or the U.S.A. Hopefully he will do what's best. I will support whatever he decides and in NO WAY am I trying to get rid of him.

As for Lynn, I know she will be happiest here in the Philippines close to her family and her culture and yet we will still have those trips to the States each Summer to see Leah, Lori, Sandra, whoever!!!

Now for the NEW PLAN. I have instructed my Mother to look for a Condo for us to buy in Makati specifically in her building. Hopefully this can occur within a couple of months. We will then need to renovate the unit to our liking and that might take a few months. This would probably make the move to Manila more realistically occurring in the new year. This works just fine for Alex as she would be in Holy Cross in Dumaguete and the new term in Makati would start in new year anyway so she wouldn’t miss a beat. If for some reason we cannot purchase a Condo by the New Year, we would still move and rent something furnished until we do find a place of our own. Joe of course may decide to finish his year in his present school and then figure out what to do come April when he finishes.

May 8 – A lazy day in Cebu just passing time until my baby comes back from Davao. Took the Starex into Hyundai for minor servicing and figured I had a few  hours to kill so I found a massage place where I took advantage of their packages and for 550p ($13.00) got: One Hour Massage, One Hour Body Scrub and a One Hour Facial. It was fantastic and I will definitely go again next time I am here.

May 9 – Lynn decided to stay in Davao until Saturday at which time she will return to Dumaguete with Lori and her BF. She had to take care of some business anyway so all for the best. I am already back home in Dumaguete arriving at exactly 4:00pm.

I think the plan once they arrive is to head over to Bohol and do some scuba diving. I've never been to Bohol and I hear it is beautiful so why not. Mom arrives on the 16th but she knows her way around and Alex will be here and that is who she came to see so we don't have to rush back.

May 11 – My long running (2 years I think ) feud with Bob Martin of "Live in the Philippines" appears to be over assuming I behave myself on his site. In a way I feel slighted and a victim of hypocrisy as he has apparently made an exception with a very intellignet, informative and entertaining contributing writer to his site named John Miele. John has stepped over the line in using foul language and insulting people many times yet has been allowed to get away with it. I admit I could very critical of people and their posts but I don't recall ever using foul language or calling someone a so and so. I always felt my submissions on the site while my own opinion, were always based on objective reasoning and experience. I readily confess I am not a politically correct person or practice cliche. I don't always paint this rosy picture of the Philippines as is often the case on LIP. I think debate is good and differences of opinion should be welcomed. Sometime though a spade needs to be called a spade if only to wake them up or better yet shut them up.

Can't wait to see Lynn tomorow. I really don't like to be away from her for long periods of time. I also look forward to seeing Lori's BF and showing him around. He sounds like a cool guy.

Below see a promotion from an organization in Oklahoma of all places. Never figured to find an Atheist group there.

I found a new facebook site I am proud to promote http://www.facebook.com/Antitheists For most of my adult life I have struggled with the existence of God. I didn't grow up in a religious household but out of my two parents I do know my dad believes (not sure about my Mother) and as a result I had the required (boy becoming man) Jewish Bar Mitzvah which meant absolutely nothing to me then or now. But there are some things for some reason I do believe in: Superstition, Karma, The State of Israel, Poetic Justice but certainly not a God. 

This will be my final rant on the subject of Religious exploitation. Two lawsuits filed in Los Angeles recently against the founding family of the religious Trinity Broadcasting Network allege that Televangelists Paul and Jan Crouch have spent well over $50 million of worshippers donations on "Personal Expenses" including 13 mansions, his and her private jets and a $100k mobile home for Mrs. Crouch's dogs. The jets are necessary, the Crouches lawyer told the Los Angeles Times, because the Crouches receive more death threats than even the President. Allegedly the Crouches keeps millions of dollars in cash on hand, but according to their lawyer that is merely out of obedience to the biblical principle of "ow(ing) no man anything."

May 3 – Finished with my Dental Gum work. And on another up note, my feet and big toes are feeling much better

May 4 – Sunday Lynn and I head off to Cebu. I definitely need to drop the Starex off at Hyundai for some servicing and other than a little shopping at S&R but, no other plans but to relax. Lynn has to go back to Davao for a couple of days to pick up my all important spear gun shafts we forgot to take with us on the drive and hopefully finish up business with the buyers of our Insular lot but have yet to give us the required and promised down payment money. I tell you nothing is easy in this Country.

Today, I had a mild experience with the Brain Dead Filipino Phenomenon. Any conscious human being in the Civilized World probably knows that the iPhone is the dominant cell phone in the World. Many competitors have tried but none have succeeded in coming out with a direct competing model until perhaps now. Samsung has just introduced its Galaxy S III unit which many experts are calling "THE ONE". It apparently has all the best features and beyond that of the iPhone including a very important longer body and hi-res screen. Anyway this would be very exciting news for dealers of Samsung phones you would think. The device is slated to be released here in the Country on May 29th. I went into six stores selling Samsung Phones here in Dumaguete and not one sales person has even heard of the Galaxy S III let alone know any pricing information. Amazing. Hey, it's just in keeping with the  "WHO CARES" and "WHY BOTHER" products they really specialize in selling here. It's quite comical already.

May 5 – Another example of the Brain Dead Philippines at work. The Philippines has smartly set up a special Retirement Visa for foreigners that purchase Condos in the Country and would like to retire here. That is both nice and smart of them. However in my Mothers case she doesn't qualify. WHY? Well because she bought her Condos before she applied for the Retirement Visa. Are these people Morons or what. The current Tourism campaign the Country is running is called "It's More Fun in the Philippines" and they encourage people to substitute another word for fun. I might suggest they accept mine which is "It's More STUPID in the Philippines"

Let me give you an example of the Philippine Political System and their handling of the Country.

Only the Politicians can figure out the mess they made and the solutions to unraveling it, is to STOP THE CORRUPTION!!!

Again let me refresh my readers minds that while I do complain and whine about the Philippines what seems to be an incessant amount of time, I do truly love this Country and its people.

Every so often I need to publish a record of what medicines I am taking daily. Mostly for reminder purposes. Presently:

Plaquneil – 200mg – 1x  Lupus
Cozzar – 50mg – 1x – Heart
Coumadin – 5mg – 1x – Heart
Naproxen/Esomeprazole – 1x – Gout Pain
Febuxostat – 1x – Gout Reduction

I may still have an enlarged Heart (happens every so often) and might need to go back on medicine to help reduce it such as:

Aldactone and possibly digoxin

2 – 1/2 Liter Bottles Italian Filippo Berrio Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2 – 28oz Cans U.S.A. Hunt Whole Peeled Tomatoes
1 – 6oz Can Philippine Tomato Paste
2 – 1lb Packs Australian San Remo Spaghetti
1 – 8oz Stick New Zealand Butter
2 – 1/4 Liter Containers Philippine All Purpose Cream
 

All in all I spent $24.93. I would say this is ridiculously high. I decided to go online and price this out in the States and this is what I came up with. Almost the SAME exact thing. $23.87 give or take. The point being, it ain't cheap no matter where you live anymore!!!

April 27 – Wouldn't you know it, there is another change of plans on our trip to the States much more to my liking I might add. Instead of Joe and I going ahead to Miami in late May and then driving to Portland to meet Lynn and Alex (and see Dad) in Late June followed by a two to three week drive back to Miami. Instead we will all go together to Miami sometime in June. Probably mid to late depending on Air ticket pricing. I honestly didn't want to do all that driving even if Joe was helping. I know Dad will not be thrilled about this but we will get him an Airline ticket to come to Florida whenever he would like to visit us.

I am dumbstruck. About two weeks ago I applied for Disability from the Social Security Administration using their online application. A few days ago I received an email notifying me that someone from the SSA in the embassy in Manila would be contacting me at 1:00pm today to conduct the required interview for processing my application. Amazingly, someone did call me and we concluded after about 20 minutes. She then sent me some additional paperwork by email to fill out. She wants that paperwork and copies of my medical records sent in by May 4th. I will do so by LBC this weekend. Then they will review and determine my eligibility. I truly am amazed by the efficiency of this whole thing. Even if for some reason I am declined, the fact the process went as fast as it did reassures me there is still intelligent life in the government of the United States of America. BTW, if I am declined as does happen in many cases I can then appeal in Federal Court and most rejections I understand are overturned and approved. Of course I hope it doesn't come to that. I will be so grateful if I can get this soon as it will be a huge financial burden lifted off my shoulders.

Holy Canoli. I just went online to check out ticket prices for us to go to Disney World and Sea World. It's an insane world we live in. Imagine for the four of us to go to just Disney World for One Day is $334, Two Days = $659 and Three Days= $910. Now to enjoy and see everything you really need three days. Honestly I don't see spending $910 on tickets and that's before food and the shopping Alex will surely want to do. Sea World is slightly better at $279 for Two Days. So for five days just on tickets we are at $1,189. Add in food, drink, shopping and hotel and we are talking about at least $2,000 for five days. UNFREAKIN REAL!!! I think I will wait until Alex is ten before taking her LOL

April 29 – Nothing much happening except my left foot and back are just killing me. I feel like an old man hobbling around and it took a huge effort to get out of bed this morning with my lower back pain. Both these issues have been going on for almost a week. Actually the foot longer. I just bought some new medicine to deal with the foot pain (Febuxostat) and the Uric Acid causing it. As for my back pain, I am clueless as to where that is coming from. A best guess would be from the stressful drive back from davao as the pain began right after we arrived in Dumaguete. I just hope it goes away soon. UPDATE: We've all heard and have probably used the expression "You're Full of Shit". Well in my case it was literally true. After I solved that problem the pain in my lower back has subsided dramatically LOL

April 30 – Lynn was just looking at some past photos of Alex taken in Miami last year and one from September stood out for me after Lynn told me that all the girls in the Photo were about the same age as Alex. At the time Alex was 3 years 7 months. Just look at the height difference and the size of Alex's head. She must be a genius with a head that big LOL  and she's taller than 93% of girls her age.

Mom arrives back from Italy tomorrow. It appears she will never return there and good for her because it doesn't appear to be a very healthy place for her to be. We will stay with her for at least a week before we depart for the States.

Yea, tomorrow we leave back for Dumaguete. Adios Davao. Hope not to see you again for a very, very long time.

I have decided to do a comprehensive Expose' on online dating/courtship with Filipinas using the Internet. I will draw from real examples using actual (Case Studies) women who are currently or previously expert participants using the Internet for the following purposes:

1. Seeking immediate sources of revenue from unsuspecting guys around the world; and/or
2. Looking for a future Boyfriend/Husband who may be coming to the Philippines to retire/live;  and/or
3. Looking for a future Boyfriend/Husband interested in bringing her back to his Country;

I will touch on the various tricks and techniques women use to get money online as well as things they say (using actual conversations) to develop relationships. Please understand that many if not most of the women fishing/hunting out there are probably sincere in legitimately finding a man that they can love and be loved by. However, make no mistake there are many online who are very larcenous and are just about the money and how much they can extract from you. In general most girls just want to improve the quality of their life.

I as an example came here back in 2005 and was interested in meeting someone for a formal relationship who would travel around the Country with me on a custom Banca I was planning to build. Unfortunately, I got very sick and ended up putting that plan to rest. At that point in time and the condition I was in, I understood that I really needed someone to take care of me. Nevertheless, I was still extremely horny (hadn't had sex in three months while in the Philippines) so I went back online. I think I used the site Cherry Blossoms. On my profile I wrote that I WAS NOT looking for a girlfriend or someone wanting to go to America. I wrote that I just wanted to have sex. Shortly after I put this up I got contacted by one person. LYNN!!! LOL. We had some chit chat on Yahoo Messenger and then I asked if I could send her a sex story and if she would finish it for me. She did. We met shortly after here in Davao and went to Mer Grande Resort where we had great sex and fun so much so that I ended up in Davao Doc Hospital for 3 days (Seriously). Turned out we really did get along great and really liked each other. She also felt sorry for me and as they say, the rest is history.

April 23 – We left Davao this morning at 7:00am after saying goodbye to Lynn's Mom. The trip to CDO was a living hell taking 6 hours driving on roads that defied description. Most of the way the roads were under massive repair and I anticipate it will take at least two to three more years to finish the entire highway presently under construction. We averaged 30 miles an hour for the 192 mile trip Davao – CDO. On the way we passed two huge new Municipal Government buildings. They were quite imposing considering the abject povery in the area surrounding these buildings.

On a more positive note, we passed a Buffalo Milk Sales and Processing facility and I have to say the Chocolate Milk I bought had to be one of the best I have ever drank anywhere/anytime!!!

Buffalo Milk Sales and Processing Facility

Taking a Break on the Drive

Once in CDO we stopped for some food and then picked up again driving toward Dapitan with the thought of stopping in Illigan for the night. However, we made it all the way to Ozamis where we did spend the night.

April 24 – The road to Ozamis was equally as bad as the one to and from Davao. I think I will pass on driving to Davao in the future until (maybe 3 years) the roads are finished. The hotel was great and we got back on the road to Dapitan at 4:30am making it there on absolutely PRISTINE roads by 6:00am. We had to wait until 10:30am when the RoRO was departing to Dumaguete. The ferry was great on a nice smooth sea and I slept most of the way there. It was wonderful being back home. I do love Dumaguete despite my whining.

This evening we went to Moon for dinner where I ran into Bob. Darwin and his GF came in shortly after and he totally ignored me. Rather rude I thought despite our differences. Darwin is leaving tomorrow for the States and NYC.

April 25 - My mother seems to be concerned about Alex's weight. She says she has a pronounced stomach. We took her to the Doctor and she ran her Stats (4yrs, 2 months and 13 days) and she is:
73% – Weight (She weighs 39.5lbs. which is more than 73% of other U.S.A
children her age)
92% – Height (She is 43" which is taller than 92% of other U.S.A children her age)
I have no clue about any of this. Doctor said Alex will be Lynn's height by the time she is 10 years old….LOL The fact her height and weight are close in percentage seems to suggest she is proportionate. It would be different if she was say 25% for height and 73% weight. Then she would be heavy. I agree, Alex seems to have a big face and head but the big tummy is questionable. When she is naked she looks thin enough for me. She hardly eats much and almost never eats sweets. Maybe Mom is paranoid.

I went to Davao Doc this morning to get some blood tests done. I was #20 and they were only on #10 so I decided to wait outside. I found a chair by the entrance to the Emergency Room. About two minutes later this foreign guy without a shirt, his pants exposing his pretty red color jockey underwear LOL, obviously drunk off his ass, saunters up to the front entrance. Of course I was mortified as this is a perfect example of bad behavior by a foreigner and gives us all a bad name. I decided to take a picture of him for the purpose of this blog. He noticed as did apparently the woman with him (turns out his wife) who by the way was dressed very nicely and quite sober. She wags her finger at me suggesting no I shouldn't be photographing him. I ignore her as I do him. Now he comes up to me and starts asking me in a language I think is French but of course masked by his drunkenness, if I was CIA or a spy or something to that effect. I said no and ignored him even though he was only six inches from my face (I could get drunk from his breadth) with his and I can see his fists are clenched and my face would have been an easy, easy target. He kept going and going at which point I got aggravated and stood up and told him he was a drunken fool and if he didn't leave me alone I was going to kick the shit out of him. I then preceded to walk away. He followed and then pushed me. I let it go and continued to walk a few feet more and he then pushed me again (in my head I said F it, I'm going to kick his ass) and almost reflexively I went to swing at him but never made it as he moved away. I then grabbed him in a tight headlock and brought him forcibly to the ground. He hit the ground hard and even after I was up he lay there for a few minutes more. I then went back to the Laboratory so I wouldn't miss my blood test. I was shaking like a leaf in the wind. Yes it was a bit unfair and that is why putting him on the ground was good enough and I didn't need to proceed further. I'm sorry but this guy had no business acting this way at 10:00am in the freakin morning and all I did was defend myself despite being the instigator innocently through my picture taking. I can't even remember the last time I was in a physical altercation. It was a real adrenaline rush and in all honesty IT FELT GREAT!!!. Maybe this is what I have been wanting all along, a way to let go of some pent up stress. Seven years of it. Apparently, no gym, massage, love making, scuba diving, etc has been the answer. I guess I just needed to have a good fight. I hope this was the last.

I Redid my Uric Acid test and I am back within the high end of the normal range.

Oh I forgot to mention that I spoke to Rick about getting Disability from the Social Security Administration when I get back to Miami. Assuming I get accepted which I think in my case is a given since I have: 1. No Income (well I do get a daily 500p allowance from Lynn LOL) 2. No Assets 3. No Capacity to Work (Well, I am an official spokesman for the "This is your Brain on Drugs" Campaign), I would be entitled to Monthly Disability income of probably $700 give or take. And I could also qualify for $300 in monthly Food Stamps. Rick mentioned a few other avenues for income I would qualify for but they escape me right now. Of course this all sounds very nice but I am not going to get excited about it until I can verify it. There was one downside he mentioned and that is all of this would only apply while I live in the United States. If I was to return to the Philippines, I would not be entitled. Of course I also need to verify that as well.

April 21 – My poor mother is suffering so terribly in Italy. Can you imagine an entire country being incompetent. Generally it is with people on a micro level but in Italy they have taken it to a macro level of incompetence and that would have the "Peter Principle" blushing. Today as an example she got on a train to go to Rome and upon arrival found out all the buses were on strike. Tomorrow it could be the trains. The next day all the electricity is turned off and no one is told, there is rarely an explanation. IT JUST HAPPENS!!! and these idiots called Italians just accept it like okay this is Italy. Guess what. Nothing changes. Just a day earlier her town of Nettuno had their postal service suspended. The Government sold the service to a private company and I guess they decided it wasn't profitable to deliver mail there. For how long this will last no one knows. The fact most bills still come by way of mail I guess didn't mean anything but you can bet the creditors will still want their money on time!!! LOL  I mean the entire Country is one big clusterfuck. Makes one yearn for the Philippines.

Yes I know my language has been very colorful lately and I will be closing that chapter once I return to peace and tranquility of my beloved Dumaguete.

Today is Lynn's Mom's (Lola's) Birthday and much of the family has shown up from various parts of Mindanao. Since Joe is taking driving lessons I let hin drive to Rosalina from downtown Davao. He did GREAT!!!

There is tons of food and everyone is in a festive mood. The house is packed but I am lucky to have full rights to Leah's old room complete with good working air conditioner so I am tucked away in it at this very moment writing this entry. I am enjoying myself with everyone and so is Alex especially with all of her cousins. There must be 20 kids here ranging from one year to 12 and they are having a blast playing games, eating and just being enjoyed by all the adults. A big family. And the nice thing is everyone gets along and likes each other.

While I was going to the other house where we are storing all our stuff, I noticed an American guy smoking a cigarette in the house right next door. We started talking. He is 28 years old. He moved to the Philippines in 2010. The way he got to the Philippines is in a way through his military service. He served and suffered wounds in the Iraq war (He looked okay to me) that were serious enough enough to warrant him permanent disability status. He has some shrapnel in his arm and foot and still suffers from what he says is Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome. Presently he is receiving money from the Social Security Administration and shortly his Veteran benefits will kick in and he will collect about $3,500 for the remainder of his life. He moved to the Philippines in 2010 as he heard this was a good place to live as your money goes far over here. First he lived in Laguna near Manila where he met a girl and got her pregnant. They had a son but had a falling out and he had to leave. He then came to Davao and met his dream woman who he fell in love with and proceeded to marry and get pregnant as well. The baby should be arriving in about 5 months. What is interesting about all this is the literally tens of thousands of expats who journey to the Philippines for one reason or another and have all these stories. I don't think I have met more than one with the same story. Many of course come in search of the FILIPINA but their backgrounds, financial resources, etc…. are as different as the different kinds of foods one can eat. The weird thing as I have mentioned before is I find myself developing friendships or acquaintances with Demographics I would normally wear an environmental protection suit around. Okay, yes I am a bit of a snob. But it turns out I have met some of the great people ever in my life (Sorry, Bob and Michael you are not on the list LOL). After more discussion with this guy I come to find out he and his wife are Jehovah Witnesses so they turned down the invitation I offered them to Mom's Birthday party as that is not allowed. Seems strange they don't even celebrate the birth of their God "Jesus" on Christmas. Also on this list is New Years. I brought them some food instead. I tell you man, Christians are some seriously weird people. Funny thing is he was smoking when we met and apparemtly that is not allowed either and I think he got suspended from the Church. He was a pretty amusing fellow as he also suffered from lazy eye syndrome and the entire time we were talking it seemed he was blind as his eyes were always looking to the far right of where I was standing while we were talking. Really strange. Another thing I bring up is his wife. Now this is certainly a judgment call and looks are in the eyes of the beholder but honesly SHE IS A PIG!!! And in this entire country, this is what he ends up with Mind Boggling!!! Even my friend Bob has beter taste than this LOL More importantly, they look happy

Tomorrow is Lynn's Mom's 80th Birthday and there will be family from all over the place attending. Should be nice.

This morning I asked Alex what she wanted to be when she grows up and she said maybe a Mermaid or a Princess. I asked her why a Mermaid and she said "Because Mermaids have big boobs" Lynn says she was watching Disney's big boobed blonde hair animated version versus the flat chested Philippine version LOL No matter, you really need to be careful what you say around kids as they pick up everything. I plead the 5th. It wasn't me.

It's interesting when you think about how technology or innovation can affect a culture so rapidly. Lets take the simple concept of the Toilet Seat. Here in the Philippines for most of it's history you would be hard pressed to find a toilet seat in most public bathrooms and most private ones in the homes of the poor and middle class. Even Lynn's parents house didn't have a seat until I bought one for them. Some house warming gift LOL People are just used to squatting and have never experienced the pleasure of being able to sit while doing their business. However, due to the millions of OFW's working in countries where seats are the rule, many are coming home and installing them in their homes. And many of the new shopping malls and restaurants are putting them in as well. I for one am extremely grateful as you can not imagine how many times I have been unable to keep myself steady above a seat less toilet or have slipped on the wet floor and have literally fallen into the toilet. After awhile I just gave up and wiped off the top and would sit on that. I wonder how many other quirky things like this exist in the world that we as Westerners take for granted everyday.

I visited Alex's school today. She in Kinder One Summer Session. She really is so good. Now they are spelling words just from their sounds, Counting from pictures and other things. She will certainly be way advanced once she gets to the States and I have a real dilemma as the States has a very stupid rule in my opinion that mandates only children turning 5 by July of the school year beginning in September may enter Kindergarten. Alex won't be 5 until February 2013. Mom suggests to let her repeat Preschool in the States as it is better to be one of the older in the class and know everything rather than being the absolute youngest in the class and possibly being behind everyone. Good point. I will just need to investigate what exactly they will learn at the start of Kindergarten and compare it to where Alex is now and then decide what to do.

I might have written about Lynn's house in Bucanna before but not sure due to my fading memory so, I will post about it again. Bucanna is what in most cities would be called the Ghetto. In the case of Davao, this is their Ghetto. It is a city within a city consisting of narrow streets, bamboo and concrete houses, small businesses and shops and lots of people many of them poor or bottom of the middle class rung living in close proximity to each other. I actually love it here and don't feel anything but peaceful energy. My Sponge Bob Scooter is a big hit with all the kids and I enjoy navigating the obstacle course of streets, pedicabs and people in my getting to and from the house to the Main Blvd. As I have mentioned before Lynn's house is made of Narra Wood and has two bedrooms, living room, dining area, kitchen and bathroom. I would say the entire house is a very comfortable 850sqf which is the same size as my former NYC two bedroom apartment. In a previous post I spoke of the lot next door being for sale and I think it would be smart to pick it up for its low asking price which is the plan. We would probably build another house there as Lynn likes her present house too much to tear it down. I don't blame her as it has lots of memories. The most recent that of her former Husband dying in it and now haunting it according her. Who would want to take that away LOL

Wisdom of the Day: Life is like a penis – simple, relaxed and hanging free . . … .. It's women who make it hard!!!

I am so happy as I just found one of my favorite T-Shirts of all time. The weird part is when I saw it made me think of my good doctor friend Dr. Darwin LOL. Actually he hates me. I wonder why. Must be because I am mean and cold hearted. Darwin is a 50's+ stressed out, nice Jewish Psychiatrist from N.Y.C. who visits the Philippines four times a year to relieve his stress through 18 year old girls. Not a bad way to do it I might say. Anyway, this would seem to be the perfect T-Shirt for a Psychiatrist to wear while on a vacation.

Lynn and Alex are going to a Mormon Wedding this evening.
Seems about the right outfit for Lynn.

Imagine vulgarity like this is being allowed and tolerated in a public forum
in the U.S.A. AMAZING!!! In this case at a Boston Bruins Hockey Game.
Great example it sets for kids don't you think

April 11 – I started thinking that i haven't heard from my Mother in almost a week. So Mom this is for you. Let us know you are okay and give us your new Cell #. Also, try and update your site. I do think they probably have WiFi in Italy by now LOL or at the least Internet Cafe's. UPDATE: Mom is alive and well in her most favorite Country in the World ITALY where ineptness, incompetence, stupidity and various forms of mental retardation makes the Philippines (Italy's Sister Country) seem to be populated by Albert Einsteins in contrast. I know she can't wait to leave and come back to her real home, her beloved Philippines where abject ignorance and stupidity still remains rampant but, still a paradise compared to Italy.

Tonight we all went to Michaelangelo Pizza Restaurant in Damosa. It was very good as usual.

April 13 - I am happy to report that Joe has started his driving lessons and should have a Philippine Driving License in about one weeks time. This is great as he will be able to use that license in the States until he converts it over to a Florida one. Driving in Florida is a must and his school is approximately 5 to 6 miles from the anticipated area we will live and more importantly, what 19 year shouldn't have his own wheels. I mean you have to have wheels for dating, seeing friends and just having freedom RIGHT!!! Lucky Joe. By the end of Summer he will know how to drive a car with confidence, drive a boat, successfully Spearfish and catch Lobsters and of course maintain a professional suntan LOL

April 14 – For the past three days my feet have been killing me especially my big right toe so I knew automatically what that meant GOUT!!! Probably coming from too much acidic foods. I have been eating too much red meat and drinking way too much coffee for my own good so, I went to see one of my favorite Doctors in all the Philippines, Dr. Llewellan Hao. She is a great Rheumatologist and always a pleasure to see. She ended up prescribing some medicine that will help eliminate the Uric Acid from my body but unfortunately, it conflicts with some drugs I take so I feel like total shit. Nausea, extreme dizziness, sleepiness, diarrhea, hallucinations. Okay my feet are feeling better and only a couple more days of this hopefully. For some reason I always end up feeling like crap when I come to Davao. I will be glad to leave in about a week.

April 15 – I found a story in the Philippine Inquirer Newspaper this morning that was both ironic and amusing. Apparently a man wanting to commit suicide jumped off the Mactan Bridge (a bridge that connects Cebu City to Mactan Island) but to his misfortune he ended up landing on and killing a fisherman on his boat who happened to be right under him at the time of his jump. The jumper only suffered minor cuts and bruises. He has now been charged with involuntary manslaughter.

SPECIAL NOTE: It's tax filing day in the States

So proud of myself. Solved my 4th 5 Star Sudoku Puzzle ever in 7 Years. I guess I finally figured it out. Took long enough

April 16 – I was just watching CNN and there was a discussion about the use of two terrible words where letters are used to insinuate them in conversation. The "N" Word for NIGGER and "C" Word for CUNT. They also mentioned a different acronym for describing the "C" word and that is "C U Next Wednesday" .(took me a minute to get that one) To me it's politically correct horseshit!!! These are certainly very strong and ugly words and should not to be taken for granted however, there are blacks that act like Niggers and there are women that act like Cunts and why not call a spade a spade. It is what it is. Gosh I sound like such a Honkey, Cracker and Whitey don't I. I submit there are people and times that reflect the use these derogatory words and why should they be given a free ticket. Hey, why is it okay and readily acceptable to call someone an asshole, prick, jerk, douche bag all which seem equally derogatory words.  Personally, I would never hesitate to use any of them in cases that truly require their use. Not doing so is worse. However, to use them as a general description would be an injustice and given the generally pervasive ignorance out there, perhaps the reason in the first place for the politically correct versions being universally used. I however, am an intelligent person quite capable of using the words in the right context and spirit. So all you A's, B's, C's and D's better watch your FUCKING STEP!!! Sorry, I mean F'ing Step LOL

1. Lost my watch. Lynn thinks Gent (her dead ex-husband) is playing games and moved it somewhere. I'm inclined to think a live person is playing games or it was boosted from the house.
2. Bought a bottle of genuine fresh pasturized/homogenized milk today and washed down a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with it. Doesn't get any better than that.
3. Went to Boo's coffee as Starbucks was closed and truth be told I prefer the coffee at Bo's over SB. Nevertheless, I will continue to drink my coffee at Starbucks as I prefer the atmosphere there more.
4. Working out daily at MetroFitness and really enjoying sweating from something other than heat.
5. I love hearing the constant laughter of Alex playing. That is one of the things I worry about when we go to the States. Will Alex get to play there as often as she does here. I think so but maybe in a different way. I do know she will be happy as she had a great time on the last trip.
6. Had a great massage today. I really needed it. I was still carrying around the stress of the drive to Davao
7. Coverage of the Masters Golf Tournament will start tonight with with Solar Sports providing television coverage here in the Philippines.

Alas, absolutely nothing but Churches will be open tomorrow. No matter as I have my coffee, fresh half and half coffee cream I made and good food to eat and we will go visit Lynn's Mom again in Rosalina.

April 6 – Went to see Lynn's Mom and she really looks good. Spent the rest of the day in Bucanna as everything was closed and the entire city was Dead!!! My Mom left tonight at 6:00pm for Italy. Hope she has success over there taking care of the things she needs to do. She is due back the first week of May.

April 7 – Watched Tiger Woods totally screw up and shoot 3 over to end up 8 shots back of the leader Fred Couples. It was so paonful to watch. No matter, as much as I love Tiger I also love Fred as he epitomizes all the good in the game with a happy personality, great with spectators and just so laid back he makes the game of golf just so COOL!!!

Easter weekend in the Philippines represents one of the few times of the year (other than Christmas)  where families can have quality time with each other going to Church and having big family get togethers. Many of these getbtogethers are in resorts located all over the Country. Usually booked way in advance they offer a wonderful break from what can be a hard life for many. A place families can unwind and eat, drink, listen to music, talk, swim and all things fun. We did the same and at about noon we loaded up the Starex as well as JunJun's Jeepeny and headed over to MerGrande with cousins, nieces, nephews, sons, daughters, mothers and fathers, grandchildren and friends as well as food and drink for a day at the Resort. On the way we picked up a 30kg Lechon. It was a really fun day with the kids including Alex who spent most of it in the Pool and Ocean swimming and playing. The adults mostly ate and drank. I had really inflammed sore feet so I stayed in a cottage we rented and slept. BTW, this is the same resort where I first had my way with Lynn shortly after meeting her seven years ago LOL and as a consequence of my excitement, suffered a Pleural Effusion from to much exertion and had to go to the Davao Doctors Hospital.

Now are you sitting down. Lynn is pregnant again WITH TWINS!!! Like I said I am in shock. I don’t know to be happy, sad, laugh or cry and Lynn is like freaking out as well as she felt something was weird and she just didn’t want to admit it to herself. It’s too early to determine the sexes. Holy shit I just can’t believe this.

Well of course this means no more trip to the USA to live as it would be unaffordable to raise three kids let alone Alex. We’ve also just put Joe in a strange position as now what does he do about College. I still think he should go and I guess it should be near one of his Uncle's who happens to be a College Dean and lives in Chicago where there are great schools for Criminology. I don’t know maybe he will opt to just stay with us here in the Philippines. That would be nice to. I guess my Mom will be happy as we will definitely move to Manila now and for sure we will need her help. Alex can go to the British or Chinese school just earlier than planned and Lynn can deliver in a great hospital which will no doubt be very difficult on her tiny body and having great medical care is a must. I am so freaked out. Maybe we should terminate them. I just don’t know. Life is so full with Alex and Joe and this will change everything and I don’t know if I can handle this right now with my health. Lynn is crying now so have to go.

I think I will talk to some people tomorrow about the best way to kill them. I mean they don’t really exist yet right!!! I have no feelings about them yet and probably best if I don’t think about them as human beings. I must be freaking out a lot of people right now. Well please go to this link and tell me what you think as this has the best answer that I have found as a solution to this whole new situation. Please Click the following link: http://mylifeinthephilippines.com/?p=8024 

After all this trauma and drama I needed a coffee so I headed over to Starbucks in SM and three of the four guys I had met over the past couple of days in this Starbucks were there again and as I often do, I got into a animated discussion about why my town of Dumaguete was so great and why Davao really sucked in comparison. You see all 4 of these guys (Ted, Michael, Ken & Rick) came over at the guidance of TED (all were members of a yacht club together back in Hawaii) and after being here about a year, they find they all really hate it here in Davao. 3 of them are in denial about this and despite this they have decided to settle here on a permanent basis. Ted and Ken have already purchased homes recently and Michael just did so the other day so the last thing they wanted to hear was me extolling all the virtues of Dumaguete especially in light of the fact they had already made in a sense a permanent bed/coffin for themselves here in Davao.

Rick on the other hand, has not made a house purchase and instead is getting ready to head back to the States and give up on the Philippines completely. He has been here for over a year, has gone through 33 women, none of which he could sustain a relationship. He is now on his 34th who he thinks is a keeper but she has grown tired of him and wants out now so, he has still decided to go back to Hawaii (I should Mention LOL, Rick has had 14 Marriages in the U.S.A.) Rick has very little savings and lives almost 100% on his SS. Hawaii here he is from is apparently very kind and generous to its senior citizens offering subsidized housing, free medical and other perks. Not a bad place to live I would say. Hawaii has spectacular natural beauty with majestic mountains and white sand beaches coupled with strict environmental protection laws so it really is a paradise found in the United States. Far more beautiful than the Philippines could ever hope to be. I wonder why these guys came here to begin with. Could it be the women LOL UPDATE: Rick who is in my mind a total nut job has now decided to go visit Dumaguete. I have been telling him about the place for a week now and it took about 25 other people to finally convince him it it's a great place to visit and live. So there is a chance he will go there in a about 4 days. I actually hope he doesn't go as he really is a nut job and will drive everyone he meets there absolutely batty.

Emilio is in a way part of this group in so much he is at Starbucks practically everyday and sits with Rick much of the time. He is an 45 year old Italian man from Milan who makes and sells Rock Band Concert T-Shirts during the Summer. He lives with his Mother in her house just outside the city and he is so funny without trying to be so. Each Winter and Spring, he travels to countries like the Philippines for six months with the specific purpose of having as much sex as possible in that time. He has no interest in a relationship. He just wants sex with as many girls as possible. He generally meets them by way of the internet. Then they connect by cell phone and this is when it gets funny. You see Emilio thinks of himself as some sort of Adonis and Mans gift to women and they should be grateful for his presence in their life. It's like how could they have survived so long without knowing him. Then, he is aghast when they may not be interested in. It’s like “Are you crazy, I am a God and you a lowly peasant, how could you not want to come here to SB this very second and drop everything you are doing” LOL. He is so full of himself I just want to bust out laughing. As you can imagine he spends lots of time alone as even girls here are not that nieve!!! The girls usually meet him directly at his hotel. "I make love to them all night long, but of course, they never have a good fuck with these little Filipino dicks" I asked him if he gives them any money and he proudly says "no". I say not even to catch a jeepney ride home. "NOTHING!!! They had me and that should be enough" Cracks me up

April 2 - Baby Alex starts Summer School today. UPDATE: School was just fine, but Alex felt she knew most of the material presented to her already so she will be requesting more challenging assignments from the teacher tomorrow. 

I've been here five days now and I have to tell you Davao is some sort of an anomaly when it comes to good looking Filipinas. I have been to the three main malls (Abreeza, SM and Gaisano) and have spent in the past five days at least 4 to 5 hours sitting in Starbucks or just wandering the malls and I have yet to see a girl over a 6 (ok, there are two 8's working reception at my heath club, but that's it). And of those, I think the best looking ones are some of the girls working at Starbucks. How is this possible. Oh and it's no better in the streets. Amazingly, you go to Cebu and there are so many you could suffer neck strain. Here A TOTAL VOID!!! I guess it is better in the VISAYAS

Enlargement of the heart may interfere with the ability of the heart to pump adequate levels of blood throughout the body. The heart muscle may become stressed because it can't meet the demands of the body. This may cause the heart muscle to weaken and may prevent the heart from being able to pump blood through the body in an efficient manner, leading to heart failure

An enlarged heart may interfere with the normal rhythm of your heartbeat. If an enlarged heart causes your heartbeat to significantly decrease, the heart may be unable to pump blood throughout your body. Alternatively, an enlarged heart may cause your heartbeat to increase rapidly, which severely interferes with the heart's ability to pump blood through the body. These alterations in the rhythm of the heart beat can cause fainting to occur in some people. In severe cases, the heart may stop–a condition called cardiac arrest–which can lead to sudden death.

On a different note, I found this so adorable. 8 year old Sophie and her 5 year old Cousin Rosie on the Ellen DeGeneres Show. Watch

March 31 – It's totally bizarre. My heart feels great. I took my Cozaar last night instead of in the morning and so far no dizziness today. I went to Metro Fitness and had a good one hour work out on the weight machines. I did a Kilometer on the track fast walking 2 laps and then running 2 laps for a total of 10 laps and while I was tired, I was never winded and my Heart felt great. This is what makes all this enlargement stuff so frustrating. Here I am feeling better than I have in years in fact probably as good as before my MI and I have this enlarged Heart that can easily kill me. What a pain in the ass. I look forward to seeing Dr. Campos in Manila later this month to try and get things figured out once and for all. In the meantime after some research, I have decided to take only the Aldactone prescribed to me by Dr. Chiew and NOT! the Lanoxin. Aldactone is a simple (non threatening) Diuretic that will help me to eliminate water more easily and in the process taking away some of the stress on my heart and thus helping to reduce it in size. HOWEVER itAldactone is also a Hypertension medicine that Reduces Blood Pressure which is something I DON'T NEED TO DO!!! so where is the middle ground in all this with the desired result to reduce my freakin Heart BUT without the need to lower my blood pressure in doing so. Geeeeeeez Louise!!! Bottom line is if I get dizziness all over again I will have to stop the Aldactone and wait to see if Campos has a better solution and hopefully until I see him my Heart won't enlarge anymore.

We went to visit Lynn's Mom, Alex's (Dark Nona) and I had my usual sleep in Leah's old room. Sisters BingBing and Charmane were there as well. It was a nice time there and Alex got a 1,000p present from Nona. She split it with her brother and now without delay she is spending it in the San Pedro shopping district of Davao City.

The trip here has been very enjoyable so far and I hope to get on the golf course this coming week.

Alex did a very beautiful coloring tonight and wants to give it to her White Nona. Since Nona is leaving for Italy shortly, I present it to her in advance and it will be waiting for her at home so when she returns she can frame it.

I am already giving thought to our trip to the states and the driving Itinerary. First off, Joe and I will probably fly ahead and get the car in Miami sometime in late May. Then the first week in June, we will drive the 3100 miles to Portland where Dad is living, stopping first to see Leah in Ogden. We will pick up Lynn and Alex in Portland who should be arriving about the time we get there but we will stay another week in Portland so Dad can spend some time with Alex. Then we will drive the 731 miles to Ogden to again (see Leah and Dave) LOL. From Ogden, 1000 miles up to Saskatoon, Canada where Lynn has her Canadian Inlaws she wants to see. Then 1600 miles to Lansing, Mi (to see GinGin and James). From there 800 miles to Boston (To see Yale and Kathy) then 100 miles to Provincetown (to see Steven) and finally the 1500 miles down the Eastern Seaboard to Miami. I am thinking to take upwards of three weeks to even a month for the trip enjoying the sights as we go.  The nice part is before we get to the States I am having both Lynn and Joe attend driving school as they will have to know how to drive since we will be living in the States and they can also participate in driving during the cross country trip. I am hoping to play golf in as many places as possible during the trip.

This morning at McDonalds one of the guys: "Ben" said to Lynn "When Alex got older she was going to Break Someones ____". When Lynn told me I thought of the standard answer HEART but as it turned out Ben said BALLS. I found it so funny and when I thought about it probably TRUE. Alex is one tough little girl and has a character similar to mine in a way. I hope that it is Hearts and not Balls that she breaks if indeed she has to break anything.

Our Roro to Dapitan departs the same as last time (Aleson) 4:00am Tuesday Morning arriving Dapitan about 7:30am. We will probably stay in Cagayan De Oro (CDO) overnight and then make an early start to Davao on Wednesday. I found a hotel there (Kingston Lodge) with a pool so hopefully I can get Alex into the water. This trip to Davao I will definitely be playing some golf. Its been five months since I last played

March 27 – What day is it??? LOL Here I am in Davao and the last 36 something hours are like a big blur. We departed Dumaguete on time at 4:00am and arrived in Dapitan at 8:30am. Then the adventure began. We got to CDO about 5 hours later on the absolutely worst roads imaginable. No wait that happens later on the CDO to Davao portion. Any hoo, the road from Dapitan to CDO was also pretty terrible for most of the way. Broken concrete, one way diversions, huge potholes and so on. We arrived CDO as I said about 5 hours later. First we stopped off at the SM for some lunch at Chow King and after began looking for the Kingston Lodge hotel. No such luck as it was not in my GPS and no one could give us accurate directions so we said screw it and lets just drive to Davao. The SM was located on a nice highway that was going in the direction of Davao so we stopped for gas and asked the attendant if indeed this road went to Davao as an alternative to the Provincial Highway we have always taken. He said confidently yes and also said the road was in very god condition. So now being about 3:00pm, off we went. An hour later we mysteriously came to the end of this marvelous road and asked someone where the road went to. Puzzled they said there is no more road and nothing to Davao as far as they knew. So off we went back to CDO and to the Provincial highway. Of course I wanted to kill the Gas Station attendant but ended up driving past it before realizing it. Two hours wasted!!! We then thought to stay overnight in a CDO hotel but convinced ourselves we would just pull over when we got tired. What's this we stuff. I'm the stressed out driver RIGHT!!!

So now almost its 6:00pm when we start driving to Davao AGAIN but this time on the Provincial Highway. Fist off the traffic was a nightmare with literally Dozens of slow moving big ass trucks and then of course there was the road itself. If I told you, you wouldn't believe it. Of the 150 miles to Davao, I can honestly say that only about 50% would be what you could consider normal smooth driveable concrete road. The other 50% was either mud or road so rough that the pioneers  settling the west back in the 1800's had better road conditions with their wagons. It was that bad. I did manage to find two other cars to play cat and mouse with on the good sections and we ended up in the (Midway Point) town of Malaybalay at 10:00pm and were fortunate to find a nice hotel there we bunked down for the night in.

March 28 -  We got up at 5:00am and were back on the road by 6:15am. About 2 hours out we were climbing a hill section and was taking a severe curve and  just after the curve low and behold there was a car (just behind huge truck) with its front end caved in and a bunch of desperate looking people standing along side it. A woman stared at us and for a split second my mind fooled me into thinking this was a trap by the Abu Sayyaf to kidnap us or kill us but then I heard the desperate cries of "Please Help Us" "We beg you in the name of Jesus to hep us" "Our son is injured so can you take us to a hospital please". Of course without thinking I said yes as any decent human being should and off we went with Mother, bleeding son and his sister. From what I could see it looked like the front of his head was split open. How much I didn't know or care as my only task was to get him to a hospital as fast as I could. The thing that really irritated me was the fact that the entire way to Davao there was not one single sign for a hospital or a mileage marker telling us how far it was to Davao City. My GPS has this issue of only telling me distance to the next turn or sizeable town so that was useless as well. I just knew it was something in the 70 mile plus range. A long way on these roads and they were pretty terrible. So here the nice Jewish boy (Despite the Rumors, Yes I am NICE) from New York is driving the devout Catholic woman in the 2nd passenger seating row who is constantly saying Jesus or Please Jesus or Please God the entire way much of it in chorus with her non stop screaming in pain son. It might seem like I am making light of this but I really did feel for the boy, and he did finally calm down about 50 miles into the trip. Anyway, we finally made it to Davao (driving like an absolute lunatic to get there) and dropped them off at the Adventist Hospital. We did stay until they checked him out in the Emergency Room. I think he should be fine because as it turns out after they cleaned him up it was only a really huge gash on his forehead and not the whole head split open thing as previously thought. I will go check on them tomorrow. As we left, we got a couple of more God Bless and thank you's, etc….Yes, Yes I know how nice this is and I appreciate her comments. I just wonder if there is any Irony in any of this LOL I mean C'mon what are the chances of a Jew driving in the middle of freakin nowhere being the savior to a devout Catholic and her injured son.

March 29 -  I have settled in nicely here in Bucana. I really don't mind Davao at all, just never want to drive here again until the roads coming are pristine.  All I needed was a good night sleep. Made it to MetroFitness this morning for an hours worth of excercise and then to the Abreeza Mall for my morning Starbucks coffee ritual. I also signed Alex up in the Chinese School Summer Program for three weeks of daily classes in Reading and Mathematics starting Monday.

CONCLUSIONS

Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS – IV)
Verbal IQ – 97-109
Perceptual Reasoning Index – 94 – 106
Full Scale IQ – 103 – 111 (95% confidence interval)
RBANS-A
Working Memory Index Score – 106 -120 (95% confidence interval)
Processing Speed Index – 104 – 121 (95% confidence interval)

1. Slight Decline in General Functioning;
2. Three Slight Improvments in Memory Functions: Immediate Recall, Learning Abilities and Working Memory Skills;
3. Significant Decline in Delayed Memory;
4. Adequate Visuo-Spatial Abilities;
5. Language Problems with Vocabulary, Similarities, Word Finding Difficulty and Spontaneous Speech;
6. Attention Slightly Effective;
7. Executive Functions Impaired;
8. Marked Tendency for Agression;
9. Still far more intelligent than Bob & Michael combined LOL

These general conclusions above may appear cut and dry but the report suggests a lot of interpretation and reading between the lines so to speak. There are contrary indicators as an example:

His performance in Digit Symbol Coding indicated he has high average ability in learning unfamiliar tasks and employing new techniques to novel situations. Despite this he appears to have difficulty identifying meaningful relationships between two seemingly different concepts satisfactorily.

Regarless of the results I know for a fact that I am in a classic LUPUS FOG as I am the one who deals with this on a daily baisis and knows what is happening when it is happening and the fact is MY MEMORY SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It looks like instead of going to Manila next week, we will opt to drive to Davao as this Tuesday. There are no promo airfares available now out of Dumaguete to Manila so better to spend the time in Davao so Lynn can be closer to her family before we leave to overseas. I really don't care one way or another. They just opened another Starbucks in Davao (in SM Mall) close to the house so I am fine and I will do daily workouts at MetroFitness. I will try and put Alex into some kind of summer school as well so she keep up with her chinese. We will still try and fly to Manila once we arrive in Davao as Mom is leaving soon and we want her to spend some quality time with Alex before she leaves. Hopefully there will be promos from there.

I am thinking to put this Billboard Ad somewhere on Edsa or the Skyway in Manila. Whadda think?

Mike, husband of Nita passed away today at their house in Dauin. He was suffering from Liver Cancer. He came back to the Philippines back in January sadly to die. This is a good place to die as you can get compassionate people to take care of you during your illness and be able to die with dignity. Even though I only knew him a short time from his time here in Dumaguete and the time we spent with them in Las Vagas during our trip in 2010, he was always kind, considerate and very likeable guy. He went way too soon.

March 25 – We went to Mike and Nitas house to pay our last respects to Mike. He was already in the coffin and looking quite at peace. He will be cremated in about a week after Nita arrives from the States. We brought Alex and she was facinated by it and not at all scared or afraid. I don't think she understood but at least she got the exposure and took it well.

Alex is a hoot and impresses me more everyday. Just a few minutes ago she came into my office and without prompting took my camera and preceded to take some photos. Of what I did not know. I did not instruct her in any way. She took it upon herself and this is the outcome. Not bad for a first try.

1. I get a text from an unknown # saying that the doctor in Cebu is named Dr. Virna Armor;
2. I respond I don't know what they are talking about and who is this;
3. They respond its about the Colonoscopy I apparently asked about and that Dr. Armor does them for 9800p;
4. I respond that even so, it is unlikely I would have a female Doctor named Armor (Spanish for LOVE) looking up my ass and again, who was this sending me these texts;
5. He responded that his name is Dave Ryan and that he was the Christian guy with the beard I met at McDonalds;
6. I responded that I have a really bad memory and didn't remember and that in any event I don't normally associate with Christians LOL but if he sees me, to reintroduce himself;
7. He said, That's ok I understand and that when he sees me he will say hello;

BRAIN DEAD NEWS
Vol II Issue II
life with and about filipinos

Most of my experience with retail stores (especially Hardware & Building) is that new items tend to arrive all day long into the stores but don't get stocked on the shelves until after business hours. This way I would assume customers have clear access to the things they are looking for or might want to buy and not have to deal with stuff all over the floor in their way. Instead, these deliveries are put in the store stock room but generally recorded in the store inventory computer so it will still show in stock though not on the selling floor.  If for some reason a customer can't find what they are seeking then the sales person can possibly go back into the stock room or look on the computer system. The Philippines has a different philosophy on this. I was at my local Handyman Store yesterday and in the middle of the shopping day there were literally boxes in almost every aisle making more than half of them impassable and impossible to get to the things you might want to buy. This was not an exception but rather the rule as I have seen this time and time again not only in this store but in most all hardware stores I have been in here. What were they thinking.

Just returned from my Dentist. Today she did preventative work on my receding gums. She grinded my upper front teeth a little up where the teeth meet the gum line. She then put on the grinded area some adhesive, followed by some kind of filler and finally used a blue light to affix it permanently. I don't know what this process is called but it is supposed to stop the gums from receding any more. Who knows. What I do know is for the six teeth she did, it set me back $77.00 which like most medical costs here is ridiculously cheap. $13.00 a tooth C'mon LOL and the best part is there was absolutely NO PAIN!!!  I still have another six teeth to do. The Lowers.

I found a great new Informational website that is specific to the city of DAVAO. It is still new and needs to be populated more but, it has lots of good information already. Eventually it will dominate as the Informational website for Davao City.

March 23 – POOR TROY. He's driving along minding his own business when all of a sudden some nitwit woman crosses the street while texting and paying no attention to oncoming traffic. Well one of those oncoming was Troy on his motorcycle with no time to stop and both end up in the hospital. Troy got the worst of it and her hospital bill to boot. Apparently, she's now asking for $$$$$$

Just across the street from McDonalds is Money Changers Corner. Same money changing guys standing there day after day since my arrival over six years ago.

Went to see the Hunger Games this afternoon with Lynn. There were some corny kissing scenes and the Filipino audience went wild making fake kissing sounds and oohs and aaahs. They acted exactly like children. It was pretty funny. Only in the Philippines. US audiences are so serious. The movie was okay but I loved the lead actress as she nailed the part.

Total Cholesterol – 87
HDL (Good Cholesterol) – 48
LDL (Bad Cholesterol) – 33.8
TRIGLYCERIDES – 26
VLDL – 5.2

Now readers, don't be jealous of these results as spectacular as they are. Almost superhuman in fact. You would be hard pressed to find even one Doctor who ever saw such low results but……….Remember I have Lupus and only 75% of a heart so who really is the lucky one!!!

The Philippines overall seems to be getting more and more crowded with foreigners. I see so many new ones on a daily basis just here in Dumaguete. No doubt the Country is aggressively entering a new phase especially in the Province as the main cities already have most of what I will speak of.

I would say that in about 3 years the Provinces will be at a point whereby Foreigners will be able to move around and easily get things done for themselves as if they were in their own countries. The transistion of moving and living here is starting to become more seemless without the exisiting dependency on a Filipina GF or Filipino fixer. Even though these two fixtures STILL play a vital role with the still many "Philippines" ignorant foreigners coming into the Country,  this is starting to change and helping undermine it are the prethora of new websites full of information, catering to foreigners on just about any subject matter you could think of: Girls, Pros and Cons of Living in Practicallly Every Provincial City/Town, Best Diving Locations, Housing - Renting and Buying, Transportation, Shopping, Banking, YOU NAME IT!!! and this is providing a huge help to foreigners in their research and facilitating their transition here in the Philippines. Another source of course are the foreigners who are living here giving direct assistance to new arrivals. Most towns have established yet informal meeting areas that serve as centers of information for both locals and visitors alike. For example here in Dumaguete there are many but the ones I am intimate with are McDonalds in the Morning and Why Not in the mid to latter part of the day. Also very postive are the many new businesses  sprouting up that are owned and operated by foreigners who know what other foreigners want and are therefore catering to their needs. As an example I currently buy QUALITY!!! Romaine Lettuce, Beefsteak Tomatoes, Hamburger Buns, Bagels, Japanese Beef and English Muffins from Foreign owned and run businesses and it is all top quality and has only been available in the past year. HELLO!!!! If things continue to progess this way, it won't be life on Philippine terms and if they (Filipinos) don't get with the program they will be left behind in their own Country. Just an observation but If only Filipinos would direct their wonderful and postive energies to things like this at the same level they do Jesus, Mary and the Church, imagine how much further along they will be.

Other things I have noticed are foreign owned Real Estate Agencies, Developers, Restaurants, Dive Operators and Retail Stores stocked with international products like you would find in a Costco or Sams Club; There are Foreign Tour Guides and the list goes on and on!!!. Of course many returning OFW's and monied Filipinos like and want this as well. Imagine only as little as 8 years ago comiing here to retire was really a considerable investment of time and energy just to accomplish simple tasks. Foreigners were still such a novelty. NOT ANYMORE!!! Of course there will be good and bad from this. No doubt there will be too much commericalization and modernization and even perhaps a loss of identity for the Country. Is that Good???? or Bad???? I for one will be happy with this new direction as long as the people remain the beautiful, friendly, smiling and loving people that they are. This is the principal reason I stay here. Cost is another factor. Yes I know I am leaving and I bitch and complain all the time but I do love it here and we will be back sooner than later

Fuel Update (Philippines)                Fuel Update (U.S.A.)

Gasoline – $5.36/Gallon           Gasoline – $3.77/Gallon
Diesel -     $4.57/Gallon            Diesel -     $4.00/Gallon

March 21 – I am thinking to do another blog but one that is more fact oriented to people considering or actually seeking to retire in the Philippines. Most of the other blogs out there are so disjointed in their aproach. I think that people want to know the ABC's of moving over here as seemlessly as possible and then once here settling in and making friends and a new life. So first and foremost is providing facts on various places to consider living in and things available and to do in those places. This will be from a first person perspective. Who better to know about a place than someone who lives there. So far with all the Blogs about the Philippines, I have yet to find one that through reading it, when I close my eyes I can see the place they are talking about. Has NEVER HAPPENED, except in this blog of course LOL That's what I would want and I think others as well. This is why I will try and have guest writers who live in different cities and towns who can give their first hand perspective on life there. Not just Tuesdays technique on how to open their San Miquel beer. My Uncle Yale is interestingly enough, going to be starting a number of Retirement Sites and he is smart to do so as 10,000 Americans DAILY are retiring not to mention a huge number of Europeans as well. I think many of them would move overseas to places like the Philippines if they knew more about it. Perhaps Yale and I can joint venture on a site for the Philippines and offer a wide range of services to facilitate both their visits and move.

When it happens you will all be the first to know.

Chalk one up for Womens Lib. Lynn was sitting in McDonalds with some of her casual girlfriends this morning and suggested they go to the Why Not Disco this evening as it is a good night to dance. The husband of one of the girls overheard this and said Why Not is only good for hunting and I'd never let my wife go there, men there are ony looking for girls and vice a versa. Lynn said; well I go to dance and not hunt for men and my husband has no problem with it, he trusts me, don't you trust your wife!!! My husband is not jealous and never asks me where I have been in a suspicious manner and   if I was going to hunt, it wouldn't be at Why Not as the only thing there are a bunch of fat, old guys, I'd go somewhere where the guys are good looking BADABING. She said she was so angry she turned red ha ha ha.

As they say timing is everything and today I had the good timing to be in the Robinson Mall when the following students of Negros Oriental High School were doing a dance routine and I was able to shoot some video of it. Afterward, I was able to get a class photo. Sorry Barry, Bill, Bob, Bobby, Darwin and Michael that you could not be there but I know you will watch this over and over and over and over again LOL. And for any of you single guys out there still needing a good reason to come to the Philippines well, here it is. You see these girls will be 18 in a year or two and then they become of legal age. The fact is, they may be looking for love, sponsors for College or a nice foreigner boyfriend to provide them security.  This could be you!!! Now I don't personally condone or approve of this but alas this is the reality here in the Philippines where an elderly man can actually have a girl this young as his girlfriend or even wife. I put this up purely for educational purposes as this site is about the Philippines.

I just had the ultimate pleasure of eating an Umalag Sirloin Steak. Better than most steak I eat in the States. It was worth the wait for the new batch they promised me.

March 19 – I went to Manila determined to prove to myself that my short term memory loss issues were as a result some heart related medicines I am taking and nothing else. I also attributed my dizzy spells to the medicines as well. My goal was to eliminate these medicines. Happily, I successfully negotiated getting one of the drugs (Imdur) eliminated and already I feel less dizziness and I think a slight improvement in my short term memory.  Here I am back home and just for the heck of it, I decided to do a search on Lupus and Short Term Memory issues and low and behold there is something called LUPUS FOG that actually nails right on the head the EXACT type of memory problems I am having. Lol. Here are some excerpts reflecting Lupus Fog

The term "lupus fog" is almost universally known to people with lupus. The phrase reflects the difficulty that you may have in completing once-familiar tasks, such as remembering names and dates, keeping appointments, balancing your checkbook, or processing your thoughts. Properly termed "cognitive dysfunction" or "cognitive impairment," this inability to recall information can be extremely frustrating. These symptoms may come and go, but may also be continuous, making school or work difficult or even impossible in extreme cases

Debbie Helm first realized something was wrong in 1989 when, at the credit union where she works, she would forget members’ account numbers in the three steps it took to reach her computer. “I used to be able to work circles around people and never have to write a list,” says the 51-year-old from Terrell, TX. “Now I live with a list because I might not remember your name if you just told it to me.”

At first, Helm thought that her forgetfulness was a normal part of aging. “I jokingly said I had old-timer’s disease,” she says. But, it wasn’t until she was diagnosed with lupus in 1997 that she learned her memory loss was a more serious matter and a symptom of the disease.

Since then, Helm has continued to have problems, forgetting to show up for appointments and even losing her sense of direction while driving. “It can be really scary when you’ve taken a route so many times and all of a sudden, you don’t know where you are.”

Memory loss can be devastating. “It is a concern when it interferes with a person’s ability to function in their daily life, and it can range from minor inconveniences to safety issues,” says Kathy Kilpatrick, a consultant in Hudson, OH, who has helped adults with memory problems for more than 30 years.

The funny part is I know all about Lupus Fog but just plain FORGOT!!! LOL Now of course the trip wasn't a waste of time as I did get to see Mom (always a pleasure – LOL) and do away with one of my medicines and in so doing, the practical elimination of my Dizzy spells but, it really seems the medicine had nothing to do with my memory problems. No matter as all this makes my life more interesting if not more expensive but still really enjoyable and I have learned a little more patience as I go along. Hey I can take an MRI now Piece of Cake

Angel (Lynn’s Nephew) also showed up while I was with Paul and then he and I walked around a bit ending up back at MCS. He left at 1:15pm. It was good to see him. I only wish he could get on a ship somewhere and start working as a Seaman. They exploit him terribly at his work with his so called “On The Job Training” where they pay him if you can believe this…..50 pesos a week. $1.20/week. That is fucked up!!! And this will go on another six months at least.

At 2:00pm I had to have another MRI as apparently they missed something from yesterday. The procedure went great and I was just as relaxed as I was yesterday. I will get the results tomorrow.

At 6:00pm I went to the “Novo Gallery”  where there was an opening featuring the works of my ex Brother-n-Law, Ramon Diaz. He is so talented and a really nice guy to boot. The theme was SUMO. The show was great. The part I enjoyed the most was getting to see a few of my ex nieces and nephews. I saw; Jessica, Ava, Georgina, Timmy, Georgia, Cathy, Isabelle, Robin and Marco. I know all of them their entire lives and have watched them all grow up into the incredible happy and successful people they appear to be today whether in the context of money, accomplishment or both. In my eyes, they epitomize what we all hope and desire as parents about how our children will turn out. I can only hope Alex is so fortunate. It's truly wonderful. Aside from them I also saw some friends from the past like Eva, Marivic, Greg, and others. All in all it was a nice trip down memory lane and what was surprising and so wonderful is that everyone asked about Alex and even Lynn. Alex had made such a positive impact on them with her intelligence and beauty.  I told them we were coming back in about two weeks and they could see them then.

After the show I went out to dinner with Mom and some people she knows. We went to a restaurant called Casa Nostra. The food was just okay but the company and conversation was enjoyable. The owner Joe is quite a character and the kind of personality a great book could be written about as he has been in the Casino, Hotel  and Restaurant business in places like Las Vegas to Korea to Hong Kong to the Philippines starting back in the 60's. And he knew all the players in those businesses throughout the years. We got back to Mom’s place around 10:30pm.

I forgot to mention that next to the Art Gallery where the show was taking place was a car conversion shop. I took a peak inside and low and behold was this 2011 Mercedes coup that had gull wing doors. The thing must have cost in excess of $200,000. SWEET!!!

March 17 – Got up, went to Starbucks for coffee and then at 10:00am over to Alviar Lab to get my blood and urine test results. Boy was I in for an unpleasant surprise. As I have mentioned in this blog before, I am genetically predisposed to low Cholesterol. My Total Choleserol has never been above 120 (like ever!!!). My LDL (Bad Cholesterol) is generally in the 40's as is my HDL (Good Cholesterol). So imagine my surprise and SHOCK when the results showed my total Cholesterol to be 153, my HDL the usual 40's but my LDL was 95. Yes you heard it right 95. That is 50 points higher than only three (3) months ago when I was last tested. There is no F'ing way. I would have to be injecting pure egg yolks into my veins for this to happen. In fact I met with Dr. Alviar (The Lab Owner) who looked at my testing history and was amazed at how low my Cholesterol has been so he could not argue against this fact (agrees with me) and said I could retest for free when I got back to Manila. He also said he would bring my questionable results to the attention of the manufacturer of the testing kit used to test Cholesterol in his lab. Nevertheless, I intend to do the test here in Dumaguete next week just to see that I am correct. Imagine how embarrassing it would be if his test result was correct all along. I don't know how that could be possible but who knows!!! I will definetely be consulting other cardiologists if that is the case.

Mom got the results of my MRi but there is no layman interpretation for it at this time. Mom will be dropping it off with my future Neurologist, Dr. Dominquez at St. Lukes along with the results of my Cognitive Evaluation sometime next week and then we will know more.

So let's recap:

I arrived back in Dumaguete at 4:30pm with 10kg of steak. If you can believe it, officials at Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila tried to confiscate it twice claiming it was a quarantine item. I went to the Quarantine area where that official said no problem since I was flying domesticaly. I then went through another security checkpoint and had to deal with the bullshit all over again and back to Quarantine again this time for a written release. Another classic example of the right hand here not knowing what the left hand is doing. I lost my temper bad and was lucky not to have been arrested and deported right on the spot. No one was going to take away my steak!!! LOL Bob picked me up and by 5:00 I was with my beloved family who I missed greatly while in Manila.

After arriving in Manila, I Found a taxi and was at Mom's in less than ten minutes and costing only $2.50 for the trip to Makati. The ride used to take much longer and cost well over $6.00 but they have this new road called the Skyway and it practically cut the trip timewise in half. It really hasn't been that long since I was in Manila but it now looks so different. The explosion of building goes unabated and I hardly recognize the place. Arrived At Mom's Condo Building aka Makati Cinema Square (MCS) and headed upstairs seeing familiar faces as I went along.  The building once known as the Pirated DVD selling capital of Makati now sells mostly phones as the place was raided and the building fined money so the DVD's got the boot. Sadly, I didn't see a DVD movie for sale anywhere.  Mom's new Condo #408 is very nice and  I was all ready to stay in it as planned, but turns out the Air Con wasn't working so I to stay in her place #407 and then as it turns out the air con in her guest room didn't work either LOL so alas I took over her bedroom. 

We headed over to Ayala Greenbelt Shopping Mall about 30 minutes after I arrived and I can't say enough just how wonderful it felt to be here. There is a smell of money and success here and frankly I like that. All the new buildings, All the people we passed were nicely dressed, the restaurants were packed, the stores were packed, there is just an air of sophistication that you don't get in the province. There are so many foreigners at least in Greenbelt that you would think the Filipinos were in a foreign Country LOL. I know even the boys would like it here for a few days as there were many and I mean many HOT LOOKING WOMEN. My love I promise I didn't look LOL The only downside I see is that people in Makati (Manila) while walking seem to be so preoccupied with whatever (phones, their own thoughts, Ipads) that they don't smile like people in the Province and I guess that is the sacrifice they make to be in the big city to make more money. Once in Greenbelt we headed over to Park Square where believe it not the two places I had to visit were about 50 feet apart. First I got the Computer drive replaced and then I went and paid for my new set of Golf Clubs. I'll pick up the clubs tomorrow.

March 15 – I Got up at 6:30, was at MCD by 7:00. The McDonalds downstairs from my Mothers building is really nice. Done in Art Deco style it is a wonderful place to enjoy MCDO food in. They even have a Mac Cafe inside and Oh they even give complimentary newspapers. Wish they had one like this in Dumaguete.

Had a latte and then headed over to St. Lukes for my 8:30am Cognitive Evaluation. Cost $175.00. St Lukes in Fort Bonifacio is amazing. Like a deluxe Hotel. Easily the nicest Hospital I have ever seen and with the medical expertise people would expect.

It lasted 3 1/2 hours and I found it much more frustrating this time around as I had difficulty dealing with some of the tests. I was actually getting really pissed with myself. The results will be known in about 7 days. The time was now 1:30pm and we headed off to Makati Medical Center where I had a Hippocampal MRI. Cost $172.00. I am usually very claustrophobic but this time I relaxed myself so much that I actually fell asleep during the procedure. Now that's a first. After the MRI I went to see Dr. Campos (My Cardio) for a consultation. Cost $32.00 (which included an EKG) who after telling him my woeful story of memory loss decided to at least for now, stop my Imdur. HOORAY!!!  Maybe later he will stop the Cozaar as well. Now, he wants me to get a 2D Echo Color Doppler and then to go see a Neuro at St. Lukes regarding my Cognitive Evaluation and MRI results. I mentioned to him about my twitching lip and slight drool and he said it was very possible that I had a stroke and would be revealed (if so) on my MRI. Tomorrow I will get my Blood Tests done and then I will have free time. I was bad today…..went to Dairy Queen twice. Sorry my love, please don't kill me LOL

Here she is with Yaya Sleeping

March 10 – We had dinner at Why Not last night and it was terrible from the service to the food. Apparently Marcos (the owner) is cutting back on Servers to save money. There was only one Server for three outside tables that had at least 5 diners seated at each. Then to top things off, Lynn and I ended up in the bathroom only an hour or so after dinner and then throughout the night. Very Dissapointed. UPDATE: It's 4:00pm Saturday and Lynn has been ill all day. Stomach pains and persistent diarrhea!!! She has been in the bathroom numerous times and is presently lying on the living room floor where there is a nice breeze. May is with her and if she doesn't start to feel better we will take her to the emergency room. Maybe we got food poisioning. I was fine this morning so hard to say what happened. UPDATE: It's 5:00pm and just as a precaution we have taken Lynn to Silliman Hospital. They took her vitals and what really shocked me was here her blood pressure being only 80/50. How is that even possible. I mean that seems ridiculously low. But, then again she is a tiny person. Her weight is 95lb's so she has actually gained 10lb's since she last weighed herself. They now have her on Dextrose and she will be tested for parasites and any other anomalies that may have invaded her body if any. She is now in a private room in the brand new wing of Silliman. Both Rose and Joe will stay with her the night. Nevertheless, I may have to postpone my trip if Lynn does not feel better by morning. She is nervous without me around and I understand this completely.

While in the emergency room I felt really dizzy so I had the nurse take my blood pressure and mine was very low at 90/50. I am positive this relates to the Cozaar (Losartan) I take each day. The purpose of the drug is to increase circulation of blood to my heart through the opening of my arteries more but a negative side effect is this daiy dose of dizziness. I really have to find an alternative to this. Hopefully Dr. Campos will be a lilttle more understanding and try and come up with one.

March 11- I have postponed my trip until Lynn gets out of the hospital. The results of her blood tests are all negative so we will now wait until the stool test result comes back. Better this way as Lynn dreamed I had no head from some sort of accident so another good reason to postpone my trip LOL.

March 12- Lynn got out of the Hospital this morning and still no conclusion on what was wrong with her. Thankfully medical is so reasonable (I MEAN CHEAP!!!) here.
Emergency Room – No Charge
Private Room (2 nights) – $140.00
Laboratory – $42.00
Medicine - $112.00
Supplies – $16.00
Doctor – $35.00
Misc – $25.00

TOTAL BILL – $370.00

I have rebooked my trip to Manila for Wednesday but only up until Saturday as the airfares jump dramatically in price due to Holy Week starting this Sunday. Not much time for fun but enough for the medical tests I need. Psch evaluation and Brain MRI on Thursday and then on Friday Blood tests and suggestions from Doctors based on results from the Thursday testing. Lynn has agreed to come back with me to Manila to see my Mom and enjoy some R & R at the end of March. We will be in Davao at that time (up until April 20, then returning back to Dumaguete) so will fly from there. We will use the time in Manila to visit Tagaytay and look at some condos in the Fort amoung other things

March 13- I am thinking to have a hair transplant before leaving to the States. Cost here is much, much lower and I have wanted to do this for a few years now. I will consult with my Cardiologist regarading my blood circulation issues as I will have to stop taking my Coumadin for a few days before the hair transplant procedure. Unfortunately, the two important women in my life (Lynn and Mom) refuse to go along and since Lynn controls my spending I am shit out of luck FOR NOW!!! Scary looking head isn't it LOL

The Umalag meat dilemma is almost over. They owe me 12kg of Sirloin and it has been decided I will get it in Manila this trip. I will leave 5kg with Mom and bring back the 7kg balance to Dumaguete.

BRAIN DEAD NEWS
Vol II Issue I
life with and about Filipinos

My friend Troy's wife Cheryl had an emergency related to her pregnancy and went to Holy Child Hospital where it was determined she needed blood. Being the same blood type A+, Troy volunteered his blood. Now there are certain protocols that need to be followed that would prevent this from occurring (unless in extreme emergency situations generally reserved for the battlefield) such as screening for contamination in his blood, etc and these protocols may be different depending on where you are in the world. Other than that there would be no reason not to accept his blood which instead of going directly into Cheryl would go into a general blood pool where he would have a credit of A+ blood to use as he wanted. She in turn would get blood from a pool that most hospitals maintain. Now get this, the Dr. actually said to Troy. "I'm sorry sir but we cannot accept blood from a foreigner to give to a Filipino". Can you believe that. What the doctor was saying is that there is a compatibility issue between the blood of foreigners and that of Filipinos (like we are different species) even if they have the same blood type. Quite a scary thought coming from a Doctor. But something else to consider from what I have heard time and time again is the training to become a doctor here in the Philippines would barely qualify them to be a nurse in the States. Personally I have been very satisfied with the expertise of medical attention I have received here in the Philippines but there can always be exceptions and this Doctor appears to be one of them and an a ideal candidate for inclusion in the "Brain Dead News"!!!

I think I will go to Manila the next or following week. Purpose of visit three fold. 1. To get some medical tests done before going to the States 2. To look at the Fort Bonafacio area as a potential future home 3. To see Mom as she will be leaving to Italy soon and will not be back before I leave for the States. UPDATE: Leaving this coming Sunday for upwards of a week.

March 4 – I was driving around Dumaguete this morning and was thinking to myself about my strange love hate relationship with this Country. It was a usual nice peaceful Sunday morning with all the smiling faces of these people I have come to Love and Hate. One thing for sure is I really get a kick and so enjoy seeing so many new foreigners here in Dumaguete with their cutie-pie Filipina GF's (all smiles) enjoying the simplicity and freedom of life here that they could not get anywhere else at their generally advanced ages. So why am I so freaking complicated, demanding, and spoiled and mostly miserable. Ridiculous (RIGHT!!!) considering the great family I have and that I do get to do most of the things I want. Oh well, my lifetime nature I guess. So often I wish I could be like the Bob's and Michaels of the world, content in what they have and at peace in life. But, I always need and want more. I certainly want better for Alex and who knows maybe better is here for her. Nevertheless, I think time in the States will be good for her. And Joe needs a College education in the States no if's, and's or but's about it!!!

I probably have another 5 -7 good years Scuba Diving and playing Golf and where better than back in Miami. I have good friends there and it's not like I am abandoning the Philippines. We will come back for a couple of months every Summer and eventually once Joe finishes his College we will return back for good and my trips to the States will fall around Lobster season which starts in August. Almost for sure we will settle down in the Fort Bonifacio area which has great infastructure, cleaner air, parks, shopping malls, golf courses and more importantly, the British School for Alex. I think it will be a more productive place for her schooling and developing friendships important to her future.

March 5 – WOW!!! the traffic is becoming insane here. I rarely if ever have close calls or near collisions but now they are becoming much more frequent, 2 in fact, just today. Yes, I am a very agressive driver but also a good one and now I have to pay much more attention than ever before.

I Just got back from the Seaside Blvd. where I took Alex for a walk on the boardwalk and drinking of some juice at Why Not. I never realized how talkative she is. From the minute we left the house to when we got back over and hour and half later she never stopped talking. I was amazed she could keep going as she did. LOL. I enjoyed spending the time with her immensely and will try and do this on a nightly basis.

March 2 - Already back into the routine at mcd with the boys. It's nice. I will miss them for sure when I leave but always have something to look forward to when I return assuming thay don't die on me as they are so OLD!!! LOL. I just got the Scooter back from Motorstar and it looks much better. I am missing a headlight assembly so they will have to order that part. 

Well, things are pretty much taking their course. Of course I am planning way ahead as usual and without a doubt many things will change but as things stand now, Alex and Joe will finish their schooling this month of March. On or about April 7 we will drive to Davao and stay there until the 18th (Lynns Moms 80th birthday is the 17th) when we will drive back to Dumaguete. I will fly to Manila about April 25th and I will stay until the 1st of May or so at which time I will fly to Miami. I will use the week in Manila to check out potential future places for us to live (near the British School where Alex will attend) when we finally and permanently return back to the Philippines sometime around 2016. Are you laughing hard now LOL. Once in Miami, I will spend a week or so looking for an apartment or house for us to live for the Summer Months there (June, July, August) then decide what to do, continue renting or buy something. Lynn, Joe and Alex will go to Manila after Mom returns from Italy (spend some timne with her) and then follow about May 10th, but will fly to Portland to see my Dad instead of direct to Miami. I will then drive to Portland leaving Miami around the 10th arriving Portland the 15th. We will stay a few more days with Dad before commencing another scenic drive back to Miami arriving just before June. Once back in Miami LIFE BEGINS ANEW!! 

I am sure this all sees so ridiculous my writing every nuance of my existence but the honest truth is I am bored out of my gourd and this gives me some mental exercise

Here are some photos of beloved Alex's bedroom. Notice she is fast becoming a shoe collector on the order of Imelda Marcos.

I hope when I reach this gentleman's age I also have the benefit of two nurses to care for me LOL

I saw this sign before checking in our luggage for the flight from Davao to Cebu. Very strange I must say considering these items would be in Checked-In-Baggage and pose no threat from there. Perhaps they meant for "Carry On".

Tomorrow we leave back to Cebu and then onto Dumaguete. It has been a long trip here and I am ready to get back to my routine there which I find more interesting to my routine here.

The power of the Christian Religion or as I like to call it, The Largest Pyramid Scheme in the World is something to behold in the Philippines. With almost 100 million Christians here, it is a power to be reckoned with. Within this 100 million are literally hundreds of Christian denominations (Baptists, Mormons, etc) and Church offshoots and one of them is Iglesia Ni Christ or Church of Christ and it boasts 1.8 million members. Tonight INC. (interesting play on name) is holding outdoor gatherings in Cebu, Manila and Davao and expected to bring in well over one hundred thousand attendees. Forgive me while I digress – For those not familiar, this particular Church is the one of the more recognizable in the Country with very Spanish style, large and new looking buildings that you can find in almost every town of consequence that are clearly marked Iglesia Ni Christo.  It seems this Church really has its priorities in order especially in where its money goes. I mean who gives a shit about the thousands of their poor and I am sure many starving parishioners in comparison to giving them a nice and expensive Church for them to attend. Oh I forgot, they build those churches with the 10% of income they get from those parishioners LOL Am I being cynical! you betcha. I hate Religion and its hypocrisy more than life itself and if I could only have one wish in life it would be to wipe this EVIL called Religion off the face of the Earth. Back to the Story –  I was just over to the area where the gathering tonight in Davao will be held and I could already count well over one hundred busses having transported people in from all over the Island and then of course there are all the Jeepneys and private vehicles as well. Amazing!!! Oh and right now it is absolutely pouring down rain and no doubt many are getting soaked but I am sure this will be looked at by the Church leaders as a blessing and a wholesale baptismal.

Here is an interesting topic and one that I am absolutely not sure what I am talking about. It deals with the subject of Sushi. Sushi has a sort of snobbery attached to it. Depending on where you eat it, it can cost a fortune. It has to be prepared and served in special ways the skill set required for this is apparently very high. Now there is no doubt I have eaten in what are perhaps some of the finest Sushi Restaurants in existence (of that time) in cities like New York, Miami, San Francisco, Provincetown and even Tokyo as my wallet can unfortunately attest too!!! and yes I have had Toro melt in my mouth. I have had Salmon, Snapper, Tuna (Toro and Manguro), Marlin (Blue and White), Swordfish, Shrimp, Monk Fish, Yellowtail, Uni, Fish Eggs, Grouper (you name it) in both Sashimi and Sushi style. No doubt over the past 35 years  I have enjoyed too many to count experiences eating Sushi. BUT!!!! many of these Sushi eating experiences were not at Hi Falutin, High Brow, Hi Expense Sushi establishments that everyone raves about and to be honest, I was just as content eating in them as the others. The fact is I just don't see it (the art of it) as so many others do. To me its raw freaking fish!!! My good friend Steven has even opened up a very high end Sushi place on Cape Cod and it is packed with people wanting to eat the very best in Sushi and are willing to pay the price. I'm sorry but I just don't get it.

I am of the school that if it tastes good, then eat it. I can't ever recall eating sushi and thinking that I would like to have that as my last meal on Earth or Holy Shit!!! this is the best thing I ever put in my mouth. I mean it can be really good eating no doubt, but for me, not the religious experience others claim it is for them. Just yesterday I went to the fish market and bought some fresh caught Swordfish. I then brought it home where Lynn cut it into nice edible pieces. I mixed some soy sauce with Wasabi and I tell you, I couldn't have enjoyed it any more than I did. Okay maybe if I was still drinking a nice cold Long Neck Bud would have been great but other than that it was awesome. Am I wrong to think this way. I only spent $5.00 for a pound of Swordfish filet. I rest my case.

February 29 – We finally made it to Cebu and are now ensconced in our room at Premier Citi Hotel. We flew on AirPhil in one of their new aircraft and it was very nice especially being seated in an emergency row with three times the leg room. Just before we left Davao Lynn decided to inform me of an idea she has. This one pertained to the house in Dumaguete and all of our stuff there which we had planned to put in a container and ship to Davao before leaving to the states. Now understand the saga of our life together has been of change, change and more change. We have lived in Dumaguete twice already in four different houses and I guess her thinking was even though we are moving to the States, who knows how long that will last sooooooooo, the bottom line is Lynn wants to continue renting the house in Dumaguete and leaving our stuff there along with our helper Rose to look after all during our absence just in case we return sooner than later. I think this is nuts and even crazier is the $6,000 it will cost us annually for rent. We can do alot of shit with that kind of money. The Jew in me will not allow or stand for that kind of disregard for money!!! Sorry!!! And even if we get someone to stay their during our absence, it is still NUTS!!!
UPDATE: Lynn wins. We are keeping the house. Ryan and/or Barry will offset much of the expense during this first year away, so not too much financial damage will be inflicted on our funds. We will return in June of 2013 for an annual holiday back and see where things stand then. Maybe during that trip we will get a House or Condo in Fort Bonafacio, Manila and then we can ship the stuff there at that time. Who knows!!!

After 6 years in the Philippines I just came across what appears to me to be the most attractive, classy and wonderfully presented food stall I have ever seen. It is located in the Food Court on the 4th Floor of the Abreeza Mall. It has beautifully presented barbeque dishes, fried foods, stews, fresh seafoods and salads, something for every taste. I will try it before we leave back to Cebu.

February 22 - This morning when I arrived at the Abreeza Mall, I noticed the guards were being prepared for their day's duty. Here in the Philippines all the malls employ depending on their size oftentimes over a hundred male guards clad in blue pants, white shirts, ties, badges, hats and shiny boots/shoes complete with nightsticks and guns. They can be found at all the entrances/exits as well as in front of the major boutique and department stores in the mall. They also wander the mall space itself. I have never seen this anywhere else in the world to this degree. It can be inconvenient at times but it is well worth having them there as they do act as a significant deterrent to those looking to cause trouble. This morning when I came in to the motorcycle area, they were doing marching excercises. There were women guards as well with their own uniform style but, they did not have firearms.

February 23 – On a sad note, a couple of weeks ago the owner of a lending business died. He was the brains behind a hugely successful business which lent money to OFW's (for high rates of interest) and through him many foreigners were able to invest, (by providing his company some of the lending capital) and in return receive very generous monthly interest returns on their cash invesments. Unfortunately, the new company manager has decided not to continue this practice and will be not be renewing contracts with foreigner investors after their investment terms expire. That is really a shame as many foreigners here depended on this money to maintain their lifestyle and some to even just get by a little better financially.

Speaking of invesments, one of Lynns next door neighbors does quite well selling frozen fruit juice pops. I am seriously thinking about investing with him LOL. Basically it works like this. He makes a gallon of fruit juice using a powdered mix like Tang or something to that effect. He then pours the made juice into 6" individual plastic tubes which he then freezes overnight. The next day there is a continuous line of kids who come to the house to buy them for one peso a piece. On a given day he might sell 50 tubes and makes about 30 peso profit for the batch. Now why didn't I think of that. Actually good for him as every peso counts around here and we take so much for granted for such small amounts of money.They can't afford to!!!

On a more upbeat note, Lynn has successfully negotiated for a 500sqm lot right next to her house/lot here in Bucana. This means we will own the entire corner. Lynn is thinking to put up a three story 30 room dormitory building. We both agree it shoud be really nice with rooms having built in beds, closets, cable TV, internet, fans, mini fridges and desks. There would be a large bathroom on each floor and downstairs a front desk with available room safes and a security guard to keep secure the premises. Of course this will probably take years to make happen as with all our real estate purchases.

February 25 – Happy Birthday Mom. Not much new to report except we miss Alex and Joe very much and we hear Barry is still dating "Car Chasers" LOL

As you are well aware practically every morning I go to McDonalds to hang out with the boys. One of the guys who is almost always in attendance is a man named Bobby.

Bobby is a Southern Gentleman and an overall nice guy but also someone that tends to drive me nuts as he can't let go of a major subject matter that has absolutely no relevance here in the Philippines. U.S.A/American Politics. Bobby is a devout Democrat/Liberal and can't spend even one freaking second not thinking or talking about anything other than politics and his hatred for Republicans. (For the record I am a liberal as well) Bobby bitches about Republicans incessantly and it is so boring and tiring listening to this practically non-stop. If we were in the States fine but NOT HERE!!! I mean who gives a shit. We live in the Philippines not America!!! and very little if anything politically that happens in the USA has any affect on us here. SO, I have decided that for the remaining time I am here, every time Bobby opens up his irritating mouth and talks USA politics I will tell him to Shut the F__k Up!!! and for all intent and purposes drive him crazy until he does shut up or leave.

This morning our Helpers were cooking Parrot fish on the grill. Here in the Philippines and in much of the tropical water world, Parrot fish are considered a First Class (white meat) eating fish. This got me thinking about the ethics of underwater hunting and fishing and how skewed this is depending on what part of the world you are from. In America it would be difficult for most Americans to relate to eating such a beautiful fish and any caught on Rod and Reel are released back into the water. None that I have heard of are speared on purpose. No matter that even something this beautiful could in time be considered dangerous to the very reef ecosystem it lives in. It just doesn't matter because it's just to pretty to kill. There is no population control. America for most everything, is mostly concerned about esthetics and how something looks as the first line of judgment and defense. I guess I feel this way as well to a certain extent in "How dare you kill something as beautiful as this fish" However, this is a further evidence of just how ignorant in general Americans are. As for the Parrot, they do serve a very useful purpose in that they clean the algae from coral as well as create a new supply of sand from the reefs they munch on (as much as 200lbs annually for a single Parrot fish). Of course too many in a given area could be too much for the reef to handle and I have heard from fellow divers (for example in the Miami area) that this is just the case. My question would be so why not pare down the population by hunting them. It is perfectly legal and could help maintain the balance of the local reef ecosystem. On the other side of the coin this could also result in overfishing Parrots and potentially wiping out the species in certain areas. I say play it as you see it. If for example you happen to be diving on a particular reef that seems to be exploited by the Parrot fish then my all means kill them as you see them there. Otherwise leave them alone and admire their beauty!!!

February 18 - Lynn and I drove to Cebu early this morning. First made a stop at S&R (philippine version of Costco) and then got a room at Eddies Hotel. I left Lynn there and I dropped the Starex off at Hyundai. After that I went to the Ayala Mall for some Coffee. I decided to eat there as well and during my meal at Laguna Cafe I noticed a heavyset White guy in his 50's sitting with four "Chicks with Dicks". It was a pretty funny picture to see. When I went to pay my check it turned out they needed to use the rest room so I thought here is my chance to take a Photo of them. So I waited outside the ladies room, and I waited, and waited, and waited for like ten minutes, Girls!!! Lol. When that finally came I politely asked if I could take their photo. They reluctantly agreed.

The day from the very start was trying. First and foremost was the flooding and subsequent traffic nightmare that ensued getting to the downtown area. Apparently, it rained very heavy during the night and huge amounts of water drained down the mountainous area behind Dumaguete causing landslides and causing many people to abandon their homes. Then the canals couldn't contain the water volume and forced huge quantities of mud onto roadways. The roadways became impassable for practically all vehicles forcing them to enter town on the remaining few roads available. RESULT….horrible traffic jams made worse by the truly incompetent traffic officers. This went on the entire day up to 7:00 pm when rush hour ended.

On a positive note, Lynn and I had a romantic dinner at Why Not and then later on went dancing there. It was really nice.

HELPERS

One thing I tend to take for granted on this site is the conveying of gratitude to the fantastic helpers we have here. There is Yaya, Rose and Mimi.

Yaya (4 years) is the official nanny/caretaker for Alex. Rose (6 years) also acts as nanny/caretaker but is mainly head of managing the household cleaning. Mimi (4 months) takes care of washing our clothes and also shares time with Alex and cleaning. They are super nice people and really a part of the family unit. They are entitied to days off every week but, every time Lynn asks if they want to take time off they say NO!!! Why? well because they so enjoy working for us and being with Alex so they don't want to leave. Also, they get treated so good and fed so well so why leave. For us it's like winning the lottery. To give you an idea of how much they cost us, it breaks down to about $185 monthly for all three combined (salary wise.) Add in the cost of food and other benefits $280 combined and it raises that to a $465 a month total expense for us or $155/each. Amazing Right!!! almost makes you want to move here just for that, especially if you have children. I kid you not they are invaluable and really become an important part of the family unit.

               YAYA                                      ROSE                                        MIMI

I went down to Dauin this afternoon to see the Beach lot. It sure is nice and peaceful there. If only I wasn't so complicated and conflicted I could probably live there quite easily. I mean what's not to love. But alas I am difficult and too f'ing demanding. I make no apologies for who and what I am….SPOILED!!!. Even when I had bad years financially, I can't seen to remember sacrificing much. Anyway, I am not a blue collar person or mentality that can appreciate almost anything and live at a simpler level and pace. I wish I could be that way. No I want my cake and eat it too ALWAYS!!!. I want, I want and yes I want. I look forward to being back in Miami. 3 1/2 months and counting.

JOKES of the Day

Two blondes were going to Disneyland. They were driving on the Interstate when they saw the sign that said Disneyland – LEFT. They started crying and turned around and went home.

A highway patrolman pulled alongside a speeding car on the freeway. Glancing at the car, he was astounded to see that the blonde behind the wheel was knitting! Realizing that she was oblivious to his flashing lights and siren, the trooper cranked down his window, turned on his bullhorn and yelled, 'PULL OVER!' 'NO!' the blonde yelled back, 'IT'S A SCARF!'