[smartads] Okay it’s Sunday morning and instead of being on our way home as we thought we would be before yesterday, I’m up here in the bedroom at Bebie’s house writing these notes. Today has been a better day for me so far though. When I woke up this morning the first thing I noticed was that I was no longer dizzy. I’d like to think that the adobo had something to do with it. Besides eating the adobo, the only different thing I did was take an “aspirin tablet”. I say that because Bebie said it’s just like taking an aspirin. I personally think aspirin is a wonderful medicine because it takes care of so many of my problems, but I don’t normally take medicine if I don’t know what it is. For some reason I took a chance on this one, and well, I’m still alive. Oh and I did get a “Red Pepsi” instead of the regular “Blue” one. I’m just glad the dizziness is gone, I don’t really care how.
After getting up from the torture rack (the bed hurts my back), I headed downstairs and I actually got a good cup of coffee today, just like at the house in Calbayog. I also had 4 cucumber and tomato sandwiches. Lita had to toast the bread in a wok because they did not have a flat pan, but it turned out good and there was even mayonnaise to use. (I forgot to bring the mayo home with me, so I hope someone there uses it).
They are still trying to get us to go to Hindag-an Falls and Forest Park again today. Since I’m not dizzy, I should go, but I need to get some pictures and/or a video around here before we leave tomorrow. I’ve already gotten plenty of pictures and a video at the Falls.
Someone with a baby must have showed up downstairs because everyone’s IQ seems to have dropped about 20 points.
The first thing that Poppa said when he woke up this morning was, “I’m going home today”. Sorry Poppa it ain’t happening, not today, unless you count 0300 tomorrow morning as today. And in fact they are down there now convincing him that 0300 is close enough.
I guess the baby left, everyone’s IQ is returning to normal. It was probably Margie’s baby. From what I can see, that little girl is very limited on the people she will go to. The only male I’ve seen her go to is her father. Even her Lolo (grandfather) can not hold her without her crying. At least the few times I saw him try, she cried. She could be in a rotten mood though.
I took a few pictures this morning. I even got some banana eating parakeets. Khany has 4 of them in a cage hanging outside his front door. You would think they all be crowded in there, but they all look happy and chirpy together. He put a banana on each end of the cage and those birds went at it.
I’ve got no idea what time it is, but of course it doesn’t really matter. Hopefully Lita will stop talking out front here and walk with me through the barangay to take pictures. Khany says there isn’t much to take a picture of though, except at the river and I got pictures there last time. Besides, Jun got an excellent picture of the hanging bridge there and I’m going to snatch it off his Facebook and put it on here. Well crap! It won’t let me snatch it. It says it is already tagged and I can’t get it for security reasons.
It’s “later on” now, I don’t know what time, but people are leaving to go to the Falls again. Lita and I are staying here. We have had enough “fun” for now.
Actually with everyone gone, except Lita and me, it’s kind of nice. Not much noise at all. A bad thing though is that the TV goes out when it rains and it has started raining. Sounds like a good reason not to be at the Falls. People might be sick after this trip. I wonder if they will be coming back early because it is raining? I hope they are all having fun. Another problem with it raining is that I can’t get out to get any pictures, except here in the house. There’s still the trip home for the video, if there isn’t a kid to kill, I mean a kid pestering me.
We just finished most of what was left of the adobo, but Lita didn’t want to put the last few pieces back in the refrigerator, so she gave it to the lady next door. Lita says that after she does the dishes, she’s going to lay down on the sofa in the living room because it’s softer than the bed.
It’s about 2:00pm now and it’s still raining. No one has returned from the Falls either. Lita is downstairs at the kitchen table yakking with one of her many cousins around here. I have no earthly idea what they are talking about though. I’m sure I’ll hear something about it later though.
I tried to sleep on the sofa, but I’m just too long to be comfortable on it. So it’s either the bed or nothing. I choose ‘nothing’. I don’t want to lay down on that bed to hurt my back anymore, unless I have to.
Around 5:20pm people starting showing up from the Falls. They all seemed happy, so I guess the rain didn’t affect them. I never did get out to get those pictures and now it’s getting dark. I hope that what I have will be enough. I suppose it will be.
Things have not gone so great here, but at least I’m not dizzy anymore. I still don’t know what the problem was, but I’m thinking it was the high consumption of San Miguel and the low consumption of food occurring at the same time. As long as it doesn’t come back is the important thing though.
At around 9:00pm everyone was ready for bed, except me. I was watching Jr. Master Chef Australia at Disneyland. But it was all over by 9:20pm and I headed up to the torture rack, hoping that the hours until we left would go by quickly.
Stay tuned tomorrow to find out maybe why it might have been better to have the kid bugging me instead of what did happen.
Salamat, Paalam
UJ sounds like you had” fun” you missed the b’day parties here we had the live lechon on our patio for a day and night then at 6 am it was off to the cooker, biggest lechon we have had here, 50 kilo dressed out,i made home made meatballs the night b4 from ground pork,ground beef plus my secret seasonings LOL 5 lbs of meatballs to cook,1 kilo of pasta,1/2 gal of homemade sauce with mushrooms and whole tomatos, then 2 cake from SO Cafe and 5 gallons chocolate/coffee homemade ice cream of course it was all devastated from the filipino crowds.Pics on FB if you get a chance
Sounds like a heck of a spread. I would have been sure to try the meatballs, but I still don’t eat lechon baboy.
I’ll check those pictures out in a little bit. I need to check to see if Rich is up and about ready to activate the new website.
And I had to be a week late! 🙁
It’s been fun to tag along on this trip over the vast expanse of the WWW. Wish I was in the Philippines right now. I spoke with the wife last night for about 20 minutes and it’s getting difficult to justify our seperation, unfortunately that’s just the way it has to be for now. I appreciate you keeping me grounded John.
Well whatever it is that I’m doing that’s keeping you sane … your welcome. I’ll try to keep it up.
I think it’s the very day update of life in Calbayog to tell you the truth. Nice to know
what I’m missing…I think, lol.
Should read ‘every day’, oy!
Mark, I know what you mean. I have been away from my wife and son for almost 3 months now. Like you, that is how it has to be for now. At least, I will be back in the Philippines in 12 days and I will stay for 14 weeks this trip.
And thanks to you John for keeping me informed on things going on in Calbayog. 39 months till I can collect social security and then it is full time in Samar for me.
Your welcome Gary. I think that Calbayog is the best niche I have for a blog at the moment. I’m going to work it for all it worth for now. I’m really going to be getting into this blog when I return from Texas though. That is, if I make it to Texas. Still having trouble coming up with the back up money in case we get stuck in Korea and/or Seattle (Or California). We might chance going without it, but I sure hate to get stuck. It’ll work out somehow.
Gary,
You must be a couple years older than me. I’m 56 so I have a few years to wait for SS. That can’t come soon enough. It feels like I’ve been working everyday since I was 14!
John,
How adventurous is the Missus? Sometimes you have to leave things to chance. I used to do it all the time while single and had some interesting trips. I suppose you already know this but did you check Travis AFB? I know they ship a lot of freight to Japan via Travis.
Mark G.
Well Mark, she’s not that adventurous that I know of, but we haven’t really had a chance to test it. We hope to. I don’t think either of us would mind to “leave things to chance”, if we had the money to hang out for a day or two. We won’t this time, but part of the reason we are going to Texas now is to be sure to get her social security started and to get rid of our storage payment by selling the stuff in the storage. So that will mean more money, plus with the upgrade of my website, I expect to actually start making some money with it. Even without the blog, we will be gaining an extra P10,000 per month at least. That’s why I say things are starting to look up and soon we hope will be able to travel and “leave things to chance” and be happy about it.
Mark,
I turn 59 in July so I am a few years older than you. I had my first job at age 12 delivering newspapers at 6am. Like you, it seems I have been working forever.
Oh ok, I’ll throw my P2 in on this long time working thing. I had my first job at 8 years old, delivering seeds and greeting cards door to door. I don’t remember the name of the greeting card company, but the seed company was The American Seed Company. I got the jobs from a comic book. By the time I was 12 I had graduated to shining shoes at a local barber shop, Jackson Barber Shop (no relation). At 15 I started working summers for the county on the paving crew and road side clean up. My first job that they took taxes out. Texas in the summer is hot in case y’all didn’t know that. I also collected a lot of soda bottles and pecans to sell throughout all these years, especially the 9-10 year old range.
Just FYI. When I was getting my TS-SCI clearance in the Air Force, they went back to that barber shop and talked to those people. Heck they even came here to the Philippines down to Tambis to talk with my father-in-law. I’d say they were a bit thorough. But I’m only 54, and just turned that about 2 1/2 months ago.