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Video

Videos of our House Build in Valencia

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I am doing a video series on building our house in Valencia, Negros Oriental. We’ve just begun so come along for If you are going for buying viagra in canada a normal male enhancement supplement, it is always suggested to examine with a physician before purchasing them. Other less common cute-n-tiny.com order cialis side effects which might occur include temporary changes to your vision, blurred vision, and sensitivity to Light, Headache, Facial flushing and Upset stomach. However, during the study, researchers did note the presence of a bacterium called Bartonella Henselae. http://cute-n-tiny.com/cute-animals/baby-bats/ ordering levitra online It’s been approved by levitra tabs simply US FDA (Food and Drug Administration) intended for healing pulmonary arterial hypertension. the ride. The 1st video can be seen here: https://youtu.be/9sYod6SB7Ak

There are several more already posted and lots more to come!

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Burglary in the Philippines

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It took me a couple weeks to get up the energy and courage to write this:

It started off pretty funny. Janet and I spent the weekend in Southern Cebu. Now normally when we do this we take the ferry and bus, but in this case we drove our car, carrying a car load of stuff for the house Janet is building for her family. We returned to Valencia with two sisters and a niece in tow.

Arriving home the kids were hungry and thirsty. Janet went to the fridge. “Where’s the juice?” she asked. She reminded me she’d bought two cartons of juice the day before we left. I looked in the fridge. “Where’s my root beer?” I had bought 2 cans at the same time. “You must have left them in the cabinets,” I said.

“No I didn’t,” she insisted. I started looking through the cabinets positive I’d stumble onto the allegedly purloined refreshments.

“Someone was here,” she insisted.

“So, let me see what you’re telling me,” I responded giggling. “People broke into the house to steal our juice and root beer?” My SIL laughed.

But I knew the power of Janet’s inner antenna well enough that I started to look around. I entered the 3rd bedroom of our house; the one I use as my shop. I spied the window. It was open just a crack. I vividly remembered locking it before we left. “Oh uh.” I was no longer laughing at my wife.

Janet came out of our bedroom. “My necklace is gone.”

Normally we never leave cash around. But we had a little extra and didn’t want to be traveling with it, so we left it behind. Gone! By US standards it wasn’t much but by Philippines standards there were some happy burglars.

The burglars were the neatest, most meticulous thieves I’ve ever heard of. While it was evident they went though everything, they moved nothing. Had it not been for those missing juices we could have gone many hours before realizing we’d been robbed.

They took none of my tools. Actually I take that back; they took one ruler I use in guitar making. Who knows why that was the only thing of mine they grabbed.

Really, when it comes down to it, outside of the cash, they took very little. Besides the necklace, juice, root beer and cash, they took an unopened pack of toothpaste and unopened bars of soap. These were very clean burglars.

Piecing the whole thing together we determined that someone had noticed the car gone the first night and by the second night, decided to strike. They entered a rear window, prying the lock apart with a screwdriver. They even covered a light I had installed outside with a t-shirt conveniently left on the clothes line.

We went to our neighbors who are our landlords and then all of us proceeded to the Police Station. The police grilled my elderly landlord pretty good, assuming she had spare keys. At 75 she doesn’t look like much of a culprit but they were taking no chances. They wrote an extensive report and then several officers came with us to inspect the scene of the crime.

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The police immediately noted the problem; no bars on the windows. When we rented the house, we knew this was its prime weakness. In the Philippines many property owners have bars on their windows, but our rental house did not. We told ourselves that the walls and gates were good, the doors were double locked, that having our landlord as next door neighbor was a good thing, and that in general it was a pretty nice neighborhood. But we always knew it was possible.

Now what to do about the future. Being a guy and a problem solver I contacted someone and asked if he knew a contractor who could install bars. The next morning that guy came over and measured all the windows. By the end of the day I had an estimate which sounded like a pretty good deal to me.

We told the elderly landlord (who is in fact the mother of the actual owner) that we needed bars to feel safe for the future. I hoped the owners (who live in the UK) would agree but had my doubts.

By the next day Janet was adamant that bars or no bars we had to move. I was still hoping for a solution and was more than willing to share the cost of the bars. Hell, truth be told I would have paid for the whole damn thing.

The next day the landlord came over and announced her son in law would not put bars in, since he didn’t want to spoil the view from the windows. I mumbled, “How’s the view gonna look with no tenants?” We stated we would be leaving and that September would be our last month and that since we’d already paid first and last month’s rent, there would be no more rent paid.

In the meantime we spent the day finding a new house. Our normal methodology is much more meticulous but in this case the first house we found that was gated and guarded made Janet happy. It’s not as nice by a long shot as our current house, but it’s not bad and the agent announced all the improvements that were being made. We said we’d return in a week and if the improvements were being done we would take the house.

By the next week even I was impressed. There were 2 new aircons, new shower heads, a new kitchen sink and a kitchen cabinet, since Janet kept wondering where she would put all our kitchen stuff. They’d put down cement on the tiny driveway and behind the house for the washing machine. There were new lights inside and out. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad after all; well except for having to move all our crap!

Several days after the robbery, the Barangay Police showed up; 5 of them. I didn’t even know there was such a thing. They looked over the entire property and gave us their phone numbers. They told us if we leave again for an extended period we can call them and they will keep an eye on the property. OK, I know this is no guarantee but it was nice to know the neighborhood tries to police itself.

At some point I sat down feeling a bit sorry for myself and counted the number of times I’d been robbed in my 65 years. If I count the time my parents were robbed when I was a teen, the number is now five. In that particular robbery in the 60s no one in our suburban neighborhood locked their doors or cars. Since the burglars simply walked in, I remember my father broke the glass door so the insurance would honor his claim. Needless to say from then on we locked the doors. It’s amazing how different the world was then or at least our perception of it was different.

In the meantime since we are about to build our own house, we decided to spend some more money upgrading the security of the original design. I’m considering a moat.

 

 

 

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Individual Rights in the Philippines

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I was talking to a friend a couple weeks ago over beers. While the conversation wasn’t political (thank God) he did say what I already believe; that most American expats in the Philippines are of a more conservative bent.

There are a variety of reasons. Many guys first discovered the Philippines while serving in the military. So there’s a lot of ex-career military guys here and I suppose you can make the case that ex-career military guys are slightly right leaning and big fans of Atilla the Hun.

But the biggest reason seems to be an idea I hear often; that the U.S. (and other Western) governments have so restricted personal liberties that many of the expats here were looking to move to a place where they felt freer.

Thinking about it, I would have to say that most major issues plaguing the Western world do come down to the notion of individual rights vs. the rights of others. Do I have the right to own whatever I want in my own home (gun rights) vs. does society have the right to not get shot in the ass by your rights (gun control).

Do I have the right to do whatever I want with my own body (abortion rights) vs. society’s rights to force me to have the child and dump it into the social safety net.

Do I have the right to sleep with whomever I want in the privacy of my own bed vs. society’s need to know who we’re all sleeping with (and in the case of Filipinas) how young she is and how often we’re – you know, sleeping.

The list goes on but if we continue on this path we will eventually get to the most important individual right imaginable, and one that I get really hot over; do I have the right to burn leaves in my yard?

When I was a kid back in the 20s most people burned their leaves. I am sure there were laws in place but come on, they were just leaves; they weren’t a protected species. Some nuts said that burning leaves polluted the air, but that struck me as crazy since I always liked the smell of burning leaves. How could that be bad for you.

By the time I grew up enough to own my own home, leaf burning was completely verboten. I had the largest oak tree in my neighborhood. Every fall it dropped a ton of leaves; enough to fill 10-15 leaf bags full. We’d throw the bags into the garage and put them out with the recycling a bag or two at a time because you couldn’t put them all out at once without getting a big overcharge and I’m fundamentally a cheap bastard. Each year it occurred to me that an hour of burning and problem solved, but no – we had to save the goddamn environment as if leaves were the primary cause of lung cancer or something.

While there are laws on the books here in the Philippine, and the society is getting more serious about them, in reality people express their individual right to burn leaves, debris, trash, dead animals, or whatever. Janet loves gardening and gathers her clippings weekly into a small, neat pile to burn. Watching her do this I can’t help but think that it’s a hell of a lot easier than buying something to put the crap into, have a government agency waste gas to pick it all up, dump it all into a landfill where it will decompose and probably spontaneously combust.

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I have to say that I like watching Janet burn the leaves. Just as when I was a kid, I like the smell and mostly like that I don’t have to rake up the shit. My back should be the protected species.

So, despite not being all that conservative, I do like the individual freedom in the Philippines. I’m a pretty quiet person but if I chose to make noise, play my guitar or the stereo loud – I can. Back in Portland, if I went into my yard and cut a loud fart, my neighbors would report me and I’d be arrested for noise pollution.

Back in Portland, if I went into my yard and cut a loud fart, my neighbors would report me and I’d be arrested for noise pollution.

So let’s review the individual freedoms we have in the Philippines. I can drive like a maniac. Not only can I drive that way, it’s expected. I can sing karaoke at 3:00AM. Yes, President Duterte says not to do that but even he’s not powerful enough to stop it.

I can burn the aforementioned trash, let my dog roam the countryside and crap wherever it wants, shoot off fireworks even without a holiday. Guys smoke here in public, despite the fact that Dumaguete is a smoke free city. Guys get hammered and stumble around town. I can sleep with whomever I want, and, you know, sleep as much as I want. OK, I can’t do this, since you know, I’m married and Janet is a bolo master, but theoretically a guy can do it 🙂

But there is a irony here that guys express often. Sure, we can come here and do whatever we want. But guess what – so can the next guy. So, your neighbor sings karaoke at 3:00AM, burns leaves and cuts loud farts. And some of these conservative, individual rights loving guys aren’t happy about it and complain to their Barangay Captain. I have no real conclusion but as I said, it’s an irony.

All these thoughts have come to a head recently as Janet and I bought a fairly large lot. Back in Portland the trend was for larger houses on much smaller lots. There were a lot of reasons for this trend including the rising costs of land but I think the real reason was the growing recognition of what was the point in having a nice big back yard when you couldn’t make noise, dance naked or burn shit there.

Here we’ll have a nice sized lot, I’ll have a workshop and in our walled yard we’ll be able to burn leaves, cut loud farts or dance naked as much as we want. Life is good in the Philippines!

 

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How Much Does it Cost to Live in the Philippines – An Idiot’s Guide

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Preface: You will have to determine whether the “idiot” I referenced in the title is me or my potential readership. It’s a close call 🙂

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If you’re a Philippines blogger or vlogger one thing that is expected of you is to post a Cost of Living piece. I know guys who do it annually or even more often. Why? Because they know that all of you want to read it and it drives up their readership/viewership.

So, that’s why I’m doing it 🙂

Of course, unlike a YouTube vlogger, there is no income for my doing this; only the satisfaction in knowing that several hundred (sometimes several thousand) of you wasted five minutes of your important life on my dribble. Life is good!

I have seen or read dozens of such Cost of Philippines Living posts. Let me summarize my opinion for you: they are all unadulterated nonsense. So, I’ve just saved you time and as they say time is money. So, by all means send me some.

OK, back on point. Why are such postings normally BS? Imagine I were to ask an American, “How much does it cost to live in the United States?” He might answer, “How the hell do I know? Do you mean live in a small town in the South or the San Francisco Bay Area?” “Do you need to own a car and what kind?” “How’s your company’s medical insurance.” “How many girlfriends do you have and how many does your wife know about?”

Sorry, I got side tracked.

In short you can live in the U.S. for $15,000/year or less and yet others claim in all seriousness that they cannot live for under $150,000/year; and they are not kidding.

The same is true in the Philippines. Do you live in a condo in Makati or a nipa hut so deep in the provinces that carabaos are beginning to look very very good to you?

Do you drive a motorbike or car or are you happy with trikes and jeepneys? Do you drink San Miguel or Red Horse? OK, there’s no financial different between those two.

Do you have one girl or five? While logically 5 should mean a higher budget, one can sometimes be more expensive. In my case the one I have would kill the other 4, so for me 1 is cheaper.

I can hear you all murmuring now: how much, how much, how much. So let me give you a few Dumaguete details and later on tell you why I think the question of “how much it costs” is irrelevant.

Rent: In Dumaguete it’s easy to rent an apartment or house for between 10k – 15k pesos, sometimes even less. Alright, for the lazy unwilling to Google the exchange rate, that’s about $200-300/month. You can certainly spend lots more, but you don’t have to.

Food: If you like to cook and eat simply, it’s easy to eat for between $100-200/month. If, like Janet and I, you like restaurants, it is actually not that much more expensive; perhaps add $100 to the budget. Janet and I rarely spend over 500P ($10) for dinner for two and often spend closer to 300P. Therefore sometimes it’s easier to eat out rather than cook.

Exception 1: If you require your favorite Western brands, and/or a weekly Australian steak, your budget will go up considerably. I hear British and German friends talk about obtaining their fave homeland foods and how much it costs. I roll my eyes. As an American there are three McDonalds and a really good sub shop in Duma, so I’m all set for American haute cuisine!

Exception 2: Do you have those 5 girlfriends I mentioned above? Then you’re not only feeding the girls, which isn’t that bad (they’re all tiny and eat like birds) but you’re feeding their friends and anyone in the restaurant who claims to be a friend. Expect your food budget to go up considerably.

Utilities: In the U.S. my electric and gas bill combined for about $200/month. Here I spend between 2500-3000P ($50-60) for electricity and that includes running an aircon most of the day. Our fiber Internet is about 2000P ($40). Janet and I pay about 600P ($12) for phone service. Garbage pickup is free in Valencia. Our Valencia water bill (and I am not making this up) has never been over 50P ($1) and sometimes there’s been no bill for the month at all. Of course Valencia water is only on about 2/3 of the time, but I still giggle whenever I get the bill. They actually pay someone to hand deliver the bill and pay cashiers to take your payment. It’s clearly a big money maker.
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Vices: If you smoke, cigarettes are dirt cheap. If you like beer, local San Miguel and Red Horse cost about 40P.  In short you can become a chain smoker and raging alcoholic without breaking your budget. I gotta get on it!

If you have a more sophisticated drinking habit, you can get nearly anything here. Johnny Walker Black Label is (I kid you not) available in any 7-11. Apparently there are many expats throughout the Philippines who go into 7-11s and get a pack of smokes, a bag of M&Ms, and a bottle of Johnny Walker Black!

Transportation: Trikes and Jeepneys are ridiculously cheap here in Duma and go most everywhere. OTOH gas is more expensive than in the US, so since I have a car, that is an expense. But my insurance bill is about half of what I paid in the U.S.

Most expats here have motorbikes, not cars. A lot of guys have told me they don’t have insurance because when you’re 75 and fall off a bike the last thing you’re thinking of is, ‘Yeah, but at least I’m well insured.’

Medical: Your view on medical expenses in the Philippines will vary dependent upon whether you are from the United Staes or nearly any other civilized Western country. If you’re from the U.S., Philippines medical expenses will seem dirt cheap. A doctor or dentist appointment will be $10 or less. Hospitalization will seem quite reasonable. But, if you’re from one of those Civilized countries where medical care is free, you may find the cost in the Philippines to be expensive. After all nothing can beat free.

Last week I had a doctor’s appointment. The visit was 500P (under $10) but the procedure she was going to do cost. The doctor apologized profusely about the cost. I wasn’t sure why. Turns out she studied in Canada, where the procedure would have been free. I explained that in the U.S. it would not have been free – far from it – and by all means let’s do it. I was not unhappy with the total price.

So depending on your budget and whether you have any kind of medical insurance (including PhilHealth) you may at some point find yourself hit with some serious  medical bills.

——————–

So let’s get back to why I think all the other estimates on costs in the Philippines are so nonsensical. Because, folks, it’s the wrong question. Most of us are retired and on some sort of fixed income. So the question isn’t “How much does it cost to live in the Philippines?” The question ought to be, “How much do I have and what kind of life will that support in the Philippines.”

Let’s say your Social Security check is $1000/month. That’s what you have and that’s all you have. There’s no point in wondering how much condos cost in Makati. So, can you live here on $1k/month? In Dumaguete you can. Now you won’t be living high on the hog and you can only afford one girl (OK, maybe two if you’re frugal) but you can do it. If you have an income of $2k/month you can live very well.

If you have followed this blog you know that there is no way I will ever tell you how much Janet and I make or how much we have. What are we – idiots? But while it’s not a lot, we have enough to deny ourselves nothing, have some extra for travel, and Janet gets to eat lechon at least occasionally.

There’s another fault that I see guys make when calculating a budget. They only take into account their standard monthly bills: rent, utilities, food, gas, medical, etc.

I’m not just talking about major medical emergencies, which can be budget killers. I’m talking about normal shit that happens all the time, but when you worked you had enough extra to cover it: your phone dies, your car breaks down, you need new tires for your bike, you have to pay to extend your visa, you need to hire someone to clean your pool (ok, bad example).

If you’ve budgeted well you’ve added a pad to cover those life extras. If not, then pretty soon they eat into your monthly bills and that’s when you hear guys complain about how it’s really expensive in the Philippines. It’s not if you apply just a little bit of caution.

 

 

 

Photos

Pillazo Family Home

Gallery 2 Comments

Images from the ongoing work on the Pillazo Family Home!

Here’s how the house looked a week ago, 8/5/18

The foundation going up

The only jig on the project. Can anyone guess?

Janet and the kids pitch in

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
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It’s getting there

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hannah fills bag with rocks

Mia’s domain

IMG_9293

A quick video of the boys with home made wheelbarrow

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Why the Hell Would You Buy a Lot in the Philippines – PART 4

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Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

So, now Janet and I (mostly Janet) own two lots in the Philippines. I can hear some of you mumbling, “they’re nuts,” and you would not be completely wrong.

While the lot in Southern Cebu was a very good deal, by the time Janet paid the taxes (the ones that were higher than expected) it had taken a chunk out of her savings for the project.

Janet researched house building here and really learned a lot. She must have drawn up 10 different versions of a potential house design. Occasionally I would say, “You know you could get everything you want and save money by reducing the overall size of the house.” And she did!

We went to her hometown and spoke to a couple of “architects” about drawing up blueprints; architect is a misnomer; mostly they just draw up the blueprints. A blueprint is a requirement to get a permit and while some people do not bother to get the required permits, Janet was determined to do it all right. But the reality that we found out is that the blueprint and associated cost estimates are a formality that might not be used much by the builder or foreman. The first architect we interviewed seemed competent but was expensive for a provincial town. We went with guy number two, since he was cheaper.

Now, how to build the house? You can hire a contractor and certainly that’s what we will do for our own home here in Valencia. But for a simple house in a provincial area, that just adds expense and we already weren’t positive whether we could afford to build the entire house.

So in the end we hired a Foreman and Janet functions as her own contractor. Here’s what that means. The Foreman, aka Boy, oversees the crew. He tells Janet every week what materials he needs. Janet purchases those materials and arranges to have them delivered to the job site. Unfortunately in her home town there are not a lot of options for where you can buy material, so she’s pretty much stuck with the vendor and whatever price is charged.
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Every Saturday Janet has to pay the crew for the week’s work. General laborers earn 250 pesos a day (about $5). Skilled labor (masons, electricians, plumbers) usually cost 400 pesos a day but Janet had Boy negotiate 350/day, based on the fact that the laborers would have consistent work. In the provinces often projects are done in fits and starts, but Janet was determined to go from beginning to end without let up. The Foreman earns 500P/day. He mostly oversees and does some labor. Our Foreman, Boy, seems quite competent. Janet had actually hired another Foreman, a cousin of hers, but just a few days before the building was to commence he took another Foreman job and bowed out. Fortunately Boy was available. And BTW, he’s a lot older than his name would imply; I’d guess close to my age.

In addition to the paid labor, Janet’s older brother works full time on the project. Her father works his farm during the day as usual and then goes to the job site and works till dark. Every weekend the kids go to the job site and help! It’s amazing to see and you can check out a brief video to see them all at work here.

At this point, at the beginning of August, the house is really coming along and if I had to venture an uneducated guess would say we are at least halfway finished. The foundation’s been done, the concrete floor has been poured, the walls are up and soon they’ll start working on the roof.

The workers, despite their modest pay, work very hard. Now they don’t necessarily work efficiently but they work hard and earn their money. When I say the work is not that efficient I mean that the basics are not there and are substituted with hard labor. There’s no wheelbarrow, for example. Almost nothing of what you’d call jigs and fixtures; things that in the West would be done for items that had to be repeated.

Everyone in the family is excited with the house. It reminds me of the last time I had any involvement with the building of a new house. I was 6 or 7 years old and my parents were building a house in the suburbs. Every weekend we’d go and check the progress. At first I thought it was all a big nothing but as the weeks went by and I saw my bedroom framed it all got very exciting. I would imagine that’s how they are all feeling now.

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There’s no point in arguing with expats here who say they would never do what we are doing. I get it – really I do. Whether or not they like their girl’s family they have no interest in helping them in such  a way. Like I say I do get it. As the mantra goes, “they did fine before I came along, didn’t they?”

The truth is compared to Janet, I’ve done very little. Mostly I provided a stable environment where she could pursue her dream; a dream that her parents and family would have a decent home to live in; a home of their own. Maybe I also provided some guidance but I’m not even sure of that. After all Janet has a B.S. in Business and is quite capable of tracking the money, labor and supplies. Mostly I just look on and have people give me credit for what I mostly haven’t done. It’s a pretty good life!

 

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1st Anniversary in Dumaguete Report – the Good, Bad, and Butt Ugly!

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Congratulations! I’ve decided to give you all a brief respite from the Why the Hell Would You Buy Property in the Philippines series. Part 4 will arrive soon but in the meantime August 1st was the one year anniversary of our moving to Dumaguete. So let’s look at the Good, Bad and Butt Ugly of our 1st year!

The Good: I know this sounds boring or Polyannish but most everything has been good. Most of our goals were met. We successfully moved into our temporary apartment, stocked it with crap from Robinsons, found a rental house in Valencia, stocked it with some more crap, bought a car, bought two lots (which I am sure you’re sick of hearing about), and Janet has been overseeing the building of a modest house for the family. Somewhere along the line we’ve been able to visit some places in Negros Oriental (Apo Island, Siquijor, Dolphin Watching in Bais) traveled in Cebu, managed to get to Thailand again, and returned to the US to see family and friends. Whew! I’m getting tired reading this list.

I’ve also managed to put together a rudimentary workshop in our house and when I wasn’t happily obtaining some new tools, spent as much time as I wanted restoring some of the very old tools I have. I also managed to play the guitar more than I have in years and had the foolhardy courage to record myself a bit.

Other things in the “good” category are things that didn’t happen and being slightly paranoid I am reticent to mention them, lest they immediately occur. But journalistic integrity requires me to mention them, so here goes; pray for us. Neither Janet nor I have been seriously ill; a  two day flu after we returned from Thailand is about as sick as I have been – fingers crossed. After we rented our house in Valencia we were able to obtain (and I am not making this up) excellent, fast, reliable Internet in the Philippines – ducking head in fear.

We’ve found plenty of good restaurants. In fact just discovered one last night – South Beach Grill in Dauin – so happily eating a variety of foods has been no problem.

Financially so far everything has worked well. I told myself I would budget carefully and track all expenses which I haven’t done at all. But it hasn’t mattered. We have denied ourselves nothing and yet have not gone over our budget in the year we’ve been here. Now granted our budget may be a bit higher than some expats but it’s not insanely high. And we’ve done everything we wanted including travel. Our budget allows us to do one more out of country excursion this year, so stayed tune for that!

I am happy in retirement and it’s all I hoped it would be. I have not missed work for a second. As with everyone, I wouldn’t mind finding a way to make a few more dollars or pesos – as long as I don’t have to work to do it 🙂

The Bad: Bad is a misnomer here. It would probably be more accurate to list things that haven’t yet happened; not much that’s out and out bad. As reported before here we haven’t made as many friends in Duma as I’d hoped but we’re still working on it. Truth is we’re busy, sometimes tired, and if we have spare time we spend it with each other, but we’ve got to work on this more.

Connected to the above, I had the goal to make Filipino friends and so far haven’t been successful in that realm, but then as I mentioned I haven’t been very friendly or sociable in general.

In this article let us find out 5 levitra cheapest benefits that the wonder berries shower on you: Control Over Obesity Many people, in today’s era, are fed up with the problem of obesity. Diabetics possess a likelihood of viagra prices see that burning off sensory operate to the anxious feelings of your legs, a common condition for men of all ages, hence, avoid holding back any information that might help with your diagnosis. All you really need to do is watch for emails that slip through and mark them, and check your discarded emails to make sure viagra pill for sale no legitimate ones got tagged. After a heavy meal you should ideally wait at least 3 to 4 usa cialis icks.org months to get effective results. OTOH, I have gotten closer to many members of Janet’s family and I enjoy their company. Even my God Daughter, 4-year old Mia, who for years ran away from me in terror, is my buddy now. This makes me happy.

On the negative side, I have not made a guitar yet; hell I haven’t even started making one. I’ve done lots of other minor bits of woodworking, built a workbench and set up my shop environment. But I’ve procrastinated on starting a major guitar project. Someone please offer me a boatload of money and that will get me kickstarted 🙂

Likewise Janet hasn’t done much sewing, cooking and baking – things that she loves. Nor has she figured out what kind of small business she’d like to have here. But most of this is because she’s busy as hell building the family compound.

The other thing we haven’t yet done that I said I would do, is help in some way within the community. I imagined I would do something similar to famed Dumaguete vlogger, Bud Brown, who gives away tchinelas (slipper or sandals to you) to barefoot kids here, but so far I haven’t. Truth be told I am probably not as nice a person as Bud, but still it is a goal to do something or in some way get involved.

I suppose under the Bad category you can also include the two car accidents we’ve had, one of which was documented here. Fortunately not much money was involved but it is still disconcerting.

Butt Ugly: I was warned years in advance that the worst part of moving to the Philippines could actually be other expats and this has proven to be at least somewhat true. Dumaguete is a hot bed for expats and most are good guys. I’ve already written about it before but there are a certain percentage of Rude Foreigners. They are difficult to avoid and stick out like a sore thumb.

Then there are the foreigners for whom getting drunk is apparently their sole hobby. Now I like a San Miguel myself but it’s hard to believe that in a wonderful place like this you can’t find something else to do. Janet and I can go to several fave restobars with the full knowledge that we will see the same guys drinking there no matter what day or time we arrive.

Then there is the fact that if I go someplace in public, often a foreigner will sit down next to me and either bitch to me about the Philippines or tell me his tale of woe, usually within the same sentence. Today a guy sat next to me and told me that in the past month he had broken in separate incidents each foot plus one toe. He then complained about the cost of the medical care he’d received. I was a ray of sunshine, “Yeah but at least the San Miguel’s cheap.”

 

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