Monday – 13 Sep 2010

[smartads] I decided to crawl out of bed at 0834 this morning.  I was up late last night/early this morning, trying to watch NFL games on the net.  I did get to see some games, although the picture kept stalling.  Didn’t get to watch all of any game though.  I know the Cowboys lost.  I watched the 1st half of that, got disgusted and turned it off.  By the time I got back, I got to see the replay of the last play of the game.  Figures it would end like that.  Cowboys are good, but their discipline is lacking.  I’ll have to check all my fantasy leagues here in a little while to see if at least those are doing well.

I was going to do that poll I was talking about yesterday, but when I went to find a place to post it, it wasn’t there.  I think that when I had the old WordPress site, it was on there, but it is not here.  It’s okay though I can just ask for opinions and y’all can give them.

I wanted to mention that the Jollibee here in Calbayog is the only one on the whole island of Samar, unless they have built one VERY recently elsewhere on the island.

Filipinos double words when they are really stressing something.  For example:  Maganda is beautiful (if you have been reading all the posts you would know this).  If you say maganda maganda it means ‘very beautiful’.

Arnel is here finishing up the gate.  He is making it so that you open it inward and up.  That way it will not be in the way of the main gate.  They also put a table on the outside of the fence, nailed it to the fence, and plan to leave it there for the customers.  They also put up a giant umbrella to keep the customers dry while ordering their food.  There is a tarp on the inside for the workers, so they won’t get wet either.  The umbrella will be taken down at night though.  I guess that is all the protection they will have, for now anyway.  They will not be closing until 10pm.  I think she wants to start today, and it is already 2:45pm.

We hired Vicky’s niece today.  I was told her name is Lynn Lynn, but I’m not to into that double name calling, so I’ll just call her Lynn.  I’ll have to get a picture of her for the blog.  Just as soon as Marlou returns my memory card.  She will be working Monday-Saturday, 8am to 10pm, for 1000 pesos per month.  That’s like .26-.27 per hour, but she was happy with it.  All she will be doing is helping to cook and helping with the ice candy.   No house cleaning or clothes washing.  We also told her that if/when the business did well, she would get a raise, probably to 1500 pesos per month.  Vicky’s son should start working here soon too.  He will start out at 1/2 of what the niece makes, but he will only be working about 6 hours per day, doing some manual labor and washing the truck.  I saw him for the first time yesterday.  He is 13 years old, looks like he is 8 years old, and is very willing to work.  Of course, most Filipinos are very willing to work.

I need to go by Mar’s house today to use his printer, I don’t have one yet.  I need to print a copy of a form to disenroll my wife and me from Tricare Prime insurance.  Here in the Philippines they do not accept Tricare Prime, so I have to change to Tricare Standard.  I heard all I have to do is disenroll in Prime and that will automatically put me in Standard.  I think I mentioned this already, but in case you forgot or missed the earlier post, here it is again.  I hope that really is all I have to do, but it seems too simple.  I really need to get an all-in-one printer, copier, fax, scanner.  That sure would make life for me a litter easier around here.  Also might help me get more things on this blog.

It’s thundering outside again.  It was raining a little when I went out to meet Lynn and see how Arnel was doing.  Time to eat, according to my wife, so I’ll be right back.  Wonder what I am having.

Turns out it was beef stew.  It was good too.  I had a medium size bowl of it with crackers.  Oh ok…I had 2 bowls of it.  The second one with rice.  Tonight she plans to cook bar-b-q chicken wings for me.  They are already marinating.  I guess since she plans on bar-b-qing anyway for her little business, she’ll just add a little more for me.

Our water was turned off.  Evidently we did not pay the bill, but everyone here says they did not get a bill.  I was told that maybe they stuck it in the fence and the wind could have blown it away before anyone saw it.  Think I’ll put a mailbox out front so that won’t happen again, if it even did.  Lita agrees with the mailbox idea and we will have Arnel build one.  Going to mark “MAIL” on it in 2 languages and maybe the Waray dialect (the local dialect).  Had to pay 1300 pesos for the bill.  That’s almost as much as I was paying in the States.  Of course this comes with a small penalty for having to turn the water off.  I heard 100 pesos for today and if we don’t pay by tomorrow, it’s an 800 peso penalty.  Wow, that’s a big jump, isn’t it?  I’ve got to talk to someone about that, that seems unfair.  Not the 800 peso penalty, but the no one getting a bill thing.  Seems we should have paid the bill at the end of August, well now that we know, that won’t happen again.  Also the bill was a little high, but I’m assuming it was because last month the faucet outside was left on for several hours without anyone’s knowledge, until I heard it at night time.  It wasn’t running very hard, but it was a steady flow.  I think one of the batas was messing with it.  We’ve pretty much got that area blocked off now and told the batas not to mess with the faucet anymore.   Ramil is on the way to pay the bill now.  It’s only 3:42pm right now, so I guess they’ll be able to turn the water back on today.  I hope so.  We need the water for the ice candy, and I’ve got to take a shower tonight (Lita agreed with this too, so….).

Tagalog words of the day:  ikoreo and buson – which mean (you guessed it) mail and mailbox.  Doesn’t seem like either of these words are used very much though because no one knew what they were, I had to look it up.

The chicken wings were very good.  Lita is an excellent cook.  I ate about 5, maybe 6 of them, I lost count, with rice and a bottle of water.  The water is turned back on, thank goodness.  No mailbox yet, but even Titing and Neneng agree it would be better to have one out there.  Titing says that we just have to put “Mail” or “Mailbox” on it cause everyone here understands “Mail” and “Mailbox”.  It’ s fine with me, I’m just trying to avoid problems and make things easier for the mailman and us.

Well I guess it’s closing time for the day.  I will update you on the new bar-b-q area tomorrow.  Let you know how it did, so far.  I’ve also got pictures of it and of Lynn now.  I will post those either tonight or tomorrow.  Thanks for reading, hope it was interesting enough to return and to tell others about it.

Salamat, Paalam