[smartads] My day began around the 0730 hour. I turned the computer on shortly thereafter and it is now 0840, but I have not even made it to the site yet. An article about a beautiful woman in Taiwan committing suicide on Facebook caught my attention. Sorry I forgot the link and no time to find it at the moment. After I finished that story another one about a lady from the slums of the Philippines that fainted when she found out she won P3.5M in the lottery. Then Rich called me. In addition to the reading he sent me, which I haven’t even started yet, he sent me the How to Videos for the new website that I’ve got to learn. I need to download the videos, but I have to update Windows Media Player first, which it was doing as I was writing these notes. Downloading can take time around here, but sometimes it surprises me and it runs well.
I finally made it to the site at 0919, but there was only 1 comment from Don to response to.
At around 11:05 Lita talked me into going out to LolyKat so she could take a nap. I need to cut the onions and peppers to make the salsa later anyway and that’s a good place to do that, instead of staring at the space. We will be having chicken tacos this afternoon. Chicken because of my obvious dislike for the quality of beef here. Usually I just cut the ingredients up and let Lita mix it all together into the salsa, but today I just did it all. I’ve eaten the salsa she makes so many times and helped her make it so many times, that I know everything that she puts in there. The only thing that I was missing was cilantro. The don’t have the fresh one here that I know of and we do have some dried one, but I don’t like it much. Besides, it smells old to me. All you newcomers moving to the Philippines, it would be a good idea to plan on space for a garden for your favorite vegetables.
The manicurist is here for Lita, so I had to wake her up. It’s louder around here now.
Lita is upset with Vicky because she used the wrappers for the banana’s and those are the ones that she planned to make the tacos shells with later. Some kind of communication problem again. Seems like that even when they speak the same language there are a lot of communication problems. Now we need to go get some more for the tacos later, or rather Lita is sending Vicky to get them.
At 1:35pm I got go back into the house. I think I’m going to take a nap, if I can, then read those e-mails from Rich and maybe watch a video or two, there are 8 of them.
So I did take a nap. I decided to get up at 3:30pm. I got to hang out in the computer room for almost 10 minutes before Lita showed up and said that she needed to go downtown to get those wrappers and a couple of other things. Since Paypal has stupidly decided to to limit my account again, right after reactivating it, the money here is getting short. It’s not all Paypal’s fault, but the point with that is every time I try to get some money from the account, it says it’s processing, then it limits the account and puts the money back in there. I got tired of messing with them. I’ll just take care of the problem when we get to Texas. It’s much easier from there.
Cathy still has my camera, but I just noticed that the Ciriaco shuttle van has a new paint job. It’s not the same, but the same type of paint job that their large van has. There are lots of pictures all over it along with their name and phone number. I need to go get that camera from Cathy anyway. There’s no telling how long it will be before she decides to get the pictures on there printed.
Well that was easy. I just asked for the camera as soon as possible and about 1 minute later, Precious was handing it to me. I told Cathy that I would not delete any pictures for at least 2 weeks, to give her time to get the money for her pictures.
It’s 5:15pm now and Lita just said it was time to eat, so that means it’s Taco Time.
http://www.restauranteaescola.com/tag/taco-restaurants/
Taco Time was over quickly. In about 20 minutes I consumed my 6 tacos, maybe 7, I didn’t count. Anyway, I’m done eating for the day and it did taste great. Lita informs me that when/if we get this restaurant open, those tacos will be on the menu. Y’all are going to love it. You definitely won’t find any tacos like that being sold anywhere around here.
We closed down the food and the store at 6:00pm. There was hardly any food left and the store was only getting a few customers, mostly children buying candy and the occasional cigarette sale.
I got a response from Travis AFB on Facebook. They inform me that they travel to Fort Hood approximately 3-4 times per month. The dates and times are not constant though, so we would still have to be prepared for anything. Right now it looks like we will need a flight going to Fort Hood on the 25th or 26th. Of course we still have to get to Travis AFB first, but Osan does fly there too. All this has to be planned in that 72 hour Space A window or just stay a day or two on Osan and take what comes along. We probably will end up doing the latter. It’s easier and we ain’t in a hurry anyway.
Salamat, Paalam
In Manila, you can find the flour tortilla’s for burritos in SM (along with refried beans). No corn tortillas though. There are a few TEx Mex restaurants like Mexicali. We have one pretty authentic tacoria in Fort Bonafacio, but there salsa has too much garlic (which it should have none).
Randy My wife trys to get me to take short trip to P.I. but I tell her no way in H__. I want my money worth for the high cost of plane tickets. No less then 1 month. Some times it takes 4 days just to get to Calbayog during storms and plane problems. No sooner you get there its time to turn around and come back.
Ha, I’m not quite retired yet!
I get a kick out of when we pack our 4 checkin bags going to Philippines. I tell the wife it looks like we are going camping instead going to another country. We get a big laugh out of it while packing. I wonder what TSA thinks when they see all the food and other items with no cloths in the bags when they scan and open bags for inspection. I usually pack food, parts for house, and tools which usually disapear when I leave, which no one see’s them grow legs and walk out the house.
George, does RP customs have problems with any food products whether it be fresh food or packaged? Could I bring a small can of coffee without any hassles? 2 days and counting!
Randy I have had no problem. Usually they do not open bags. As I understand it as long as food is not raw and is processed you can bring it into country. I have known people and my wife has done it by taking food in big coolers as check in and slip inspector a few peso’s to let it in.
Good, I’m headed to Walmart to look for some wrapped sausage and cheese. Thanks! 2 days and counting.
Randy with everything I’ve got going on here, my mind loses it sometimes, so where in the Philippines are you heading? Here?
Randy How long are you going to be staying in P.I. I was suppose to be leaving by now but wife decided to change her retirement date. Will leave 6 of May and return 6 June and then she is suppose to make up her mind of when she will retire. She is trying to milk it so she can get as much as she can for her retirement. Once she decides we will supposely try to live there 6 months, but knowing filipina mind that can change in the next hour.
John, heading to Tomaligues.
George, we should be there for about ten days then to Mariveles, Bataan for a couple days, then return to MS.
Special Occasion serves tacos and they’re pretty good but small. I have no idea where they get the tortillas though.
Mark G.
The have the tacos at Carlos n’ Carmelos too, but they are not even in the same universe as Lita’s tacos.
Nothing beats a good homemade taco.
I always have the tacos at SO Cafe when I am there. Like Mark says, they are pretty good but small. I will have to see if I can teach Jen to make tacos.
Gary I like your idea of bringing over some tortillas. I may do the same thing but I’ll add some refried beans, salsa, chorizo and cheese, lol.
John I was wondering if you’d be in Texas at the same time I will? May 15th – 17th I’ll be in San Antonio on business.
Mark, my suitcases are typically filled with a wide variety of foods that I want but can’t get there. Salami, summer sausage, spicy mustard, bbq sauce are always in my bags. I have never brought cheese though but I will add that this time.
George, I wonder the same thing. My suitcases never have clothes either.
This trip I get 3 free bags so I am bringing a 24″ HD external monitor for my computer, a wireless modem and an xbox 360 kinect. I am also bringing one of the new iPads, an iPod nano and a kindle for friends
Salami, summer sausage, spicy mustard, bbq sauce … stop it Gary you’re killing me.
I’m glad I’m heading back for a couple of months.
Well Mark I sure hope so. If all goes according to plan, Yes. Of course San Antonio is about a 2.5 to 3 hour drive from Temple.
What do you use for your taco shells? Can you buy them in Calbayog? My suitcase will have a package of 30 10″ flour soft burrito shells this trip. I can’t find them even in Angeles.
Lita actually uses egg roll wrappers and fries them crispy into a curved shell, perfect for tacos.
No, you can’t get the soft wrappers here. I’m not even sure you can buy the masa to make the soft ones here. Maybe in Tacloban, but we haven’t seen it.
Maybe in Manila, they’ve got lots of things. I need to go shopping in one of the big malls there, but heck I can’t even get there yet.