[smartads] This morning I got up at 0654 all bright eyed and bushy tailed. I was going to the market with my beautiful wife today. Not only did we go to the market, we went in a tricycle, not ours either. We started out saying that we would be going in a motor, although it didn’t matter to me. While we were outside waiting for the motor, a guy on a tricycle came by and talked Lita into him taking us to the market. He ended up dropping us off by Jollibee’s because Lita wanted to walked down the little road that goes to the back of the market. She checks out the fruits and vegetables at her favorite stands. She ended up not buying any fruits or vegetables so we continue our walk to the rear of the market. In the rear of the market is where the meat is.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMnk7lh9M3o
This video has been around for awhile, but I’m sure everyone hasn’t seen it yet. It’s the inmates at the Filipino prison, in Cebu, I believe, dancing to Thriller. I heard that they were told to do this video or they would be punished, but that may not be true. Being in a Filipino prison is already punishment enough. Nothing like being in a US prison. I think US prisons should be more like the Filipino prisons, but not sure what has happen in the US prisons can be reversed. It would take a lot of effort to reverse it anyway.
At the first stop we came to, which was like the first place where we went in, everyone was smiles (as usual). Today they were smiling because I was there. Lita buys most of her meat right at that first station and I guess they have been talking about me, but this was the first time they’ve seen me. Actually it’s not, but they don’t remember from the other times because we were new here. Anyway they were all smiles today. They started talking to Lita, they asked her my name. While they were jabbering, I walked around with the camera to take some pictures. Jaclyn I got a picture of a whole table full of crabs. I even got a picture of the fish they use to make the fish balls with. I don’t know what kind of fish it is, but I’ve got the picture. Lita bought some chicken and as we were leaving they said something, I didn’t pay attention to, but Lita said they think I’m a nice guy. I turned to them, shook my head and gave them my best sneer. Shook my head and did it again. Of course it got a laugh, which was my goal, so things started out well.
Some of the pictures I took at the market might make some of you, that are not use to the open market in the Philippines, turned to vegetarians. It is an outdoor, open market you should know. All the pictures I got at the market were in the meat market. After that my hands were full of carrying bags for Lita. I had to put the camera in my pocket. Lita did some more jabbering with people as we were walking out. She stopped at several places, but the only additional thing she purchased was some shredded cabbage for some pansit. I started to ask her to get some tomatoes, but decided that the ones we have in the refrigerator would be enough to last a few days.
When we got outside again, this time at the front of the market, we got one of the many, tricycles to take us to Joyous Eatery. The plan was for me to wait there while Lita brought the bags we had back to the house in a tricycle, so I wouldn’t have to be scrunched up so much. While we were rolling Lita told me that some of those people in the market were surprised that I was carrying such heavy bags through the market. A lot of the American’s have people carrying the bags for them. I don’t necessarily think because they are lazy, but because if someone carries it for you, then they are doing their job, for which they get paid. Of course it could mean that the American is just lazy, it wouldn’t surprise me. When we got to Judith’s, Judith again said that she would just get Grace to bring our stuff to our house, so Lita wouldn’t have to do it. That sounded good to me for 2 reasons. One, because Lita didn’t need to be doing all that extra traveling either. Two, while she was gone, I’d just be sitting there, doing nothing.
My favorite song is on: Family Tradition (Hank Williams Jr.) It sounds especially good with the stereo headphones.
Short break. Mar and company are here. In addition to them having my favorite Marianne in the whole world, I have a special treat today. My favorite Margie in the whole world is here too. She brought me some rice cake and, looks like, little mango candies. I’m going to visit a little while, be right back. Margie said that it’s up to me if I want to call her Margie or Marge (which she goes by on this blog). I guess I can understand that Marge sounds like a more grown up name than Margie, and I see her as an adult, so I will do my best to remember to call her Marge. Did I mention that she looks so much better these days since she’s gain a little weight? She use to be so very skinny. Of course like most women, she thinks she’s too fat. Please Marge, give me a break. You’re hot, sexy woman, learn to deal with it.
Okay, I’m back. Sorry I took so long, but I guess the time just flew by for you, huh. You didn’t even know I was gone.
While Grace was on her way to our house, we needed to go to COBO shopping. I was wonder why the call this store COBO, when the have a sign on top of it that says “JustMar”, but Ludy explained that to me tonight. Seems the owner’s or ex-owner’s (I missed that part) name is/was Cobo. It has since been re-named JustMar. I asked Ludy why it wasn’t called JustLudy, instead of JustMar (Ludy and Mar Apilado), so she said she would re-name it LudyMar. Marge wanted to name it Reverof Mar, that way when you look at it in the mirror, it says Ram Forever.
Okay back to the shopping. I took a picture just as soon as I walked in the store of a guy carry 2 large bags on his head. I got the usual stares as I made my way to the main part of the store. I remembered to buy my Chippy’s and I got a couple of other types of chips to test them out too.
We bought the Halloween candy to put in the little bags for mga bata tomorrow night. I bought 9 different bags of candy. We bought some of the bags that we use for the ice and I separated all the candies into different bags. Mga bata here will get the bags with the most in them. The next size bag I will give to the other bata that show up. I also have a smaller bag, with only 5 small pieces of candy in it, for the big bata that I know will show up. When I say big bata, I also mean the grown ups, especially the senior citizens, they like the candy almost as much as the children. We bought other things at the market too, including more pancake mix, but those were our main purpose for going. Well the candy was the main purpose and the chips were my purpose.
When we left the grocery the same tricycle driver that brought us there, was waiting on us. He helped with the big box that they put all our groceries in and tied it to the tricycle. Lita was sitting on the outside of the trike on a little seat there, but that’s where they had to put the groceries. Sometimes they put it on top of the trike, but this box was too big for that. Lita ended up sitting on a little board next to the driver, but in the cab with me. It was a lot more crowded in there with her there too. Our next and finally stop was to buy eggs. Lita directed the driver to her favorite place to buy eggs. Remember the picture from an earlier post? When we got to the place to buy eggs, I waited in the tricycle. I got even more stares for that. I did take a couple of pictures while I was sitting there doing nothing else. When Lita came back, she didn’t have any eggs. Seems that they were out. Good thing too, because the tricycle driver knew of a place that sold the eggs at a cheaper price. It was on a back road, but it turned out that these guys are wholesalers. The eggs where we usually buy them is P140 for 2 1/2 dozen. At this place they were P110 for the same amount of eggs. Lita boils these eggs and sells them at the BBQ for P6 each, and they go like crazy too. That’s an extra P30 profit for us. Anything that gives us more profit is good for me.
Tagalog word of the day: itlog (it-lowga) means egg.
After buying the eggs, it’s time for the long trek home. It’s a little over a mile, because we were on the far side of downtown, and this guy is pedaling a lot of weight. I started to ask him if he wanted to ride and let me pedal for awhile, but I figured that might insult him, and I didn’t want to do that. When we got home, I was so glad to be getting out of that tricycle. My butt was hurting. Next time we will take a motor, at least then I will be able to ride up front and I don’t have to worry about being so scrunched up because I can stick my head to the side and it’ll be outside the little cab. Can’t do that with the bars on the tricycle.
We ran out of drinks in the refrigerator and I was getting thirsty again. I got some money and went down to one of the stores by the house and bought a Coca-Cola (don’t tell Titing). I was so tired of drinking Mountain Dew, I don’t like Pepsi, and none of the places here sell Gatorade. I needed a Coca-Cola anyway. Lita had J (who is visiting here tonight) go with me. I bought a 1 liter and I still have about 1/2 glass left. I paid P24 for the 1 liter(that’s only like .56 y’all) and P6 for a deposit on the bottle. Lita has since had the bottle returned by J and had him buy her something while he was there, but I don’t know what.
This is a good day for blogging. I have extra stuff to put in the post, but I’m going to save it for tomorrow. I will say that it rained today, and in fact is still raining.
I also have stats from the top blog. I’m just going to put the total for the day one on here. Probably from now on, that will be the only one I put on here. Y’all probably don’t care for them all, just the final days results. Personal #470 of 1602 (30%), 21 visitors, 30 page views. Overall #2322 of 6786 (35%). Total of 111 visitors since I’ve signed up for this. This ‘total visitors’ is how they rate the blogs.
Okay that’s it for the day. I’ve got lots of new pictures and I will put them in here next. I have too many to put them all, so I’ll just put most of them up to the market and use the others in future posts. Count on an interesting post tomorrow, because I have quite a bit of leftover stuff from today. It’s amazing how one trip downtown can generate so much input. I feel like Johnny Five these day, need input.
Philippine Trivia
World’s Longest Tilapia Barbecue
On March 5, 2006, the people of San Fernando City in Pampanga grilled 26,000 pieces of tilapia, with total length of 1.8 kilometers. They were cooked using 675 grills set up from the Provincial Capitol to Lazatin Boulevard.
I couldn’t find a picture of the grill but try this: http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-detail.asp?recipe=111270
World’s Longest Eggplant Grill
On January 11, 2006, the people of Villasis, Pangasinan grilled 3,000 kilograms of eggplants, using 500 grills, each measuring one meter, during the town’s first-ever Talong Grill Festival. The event was reportedly just a dry run for a bigger attempt to set a Guinness World Record in 2007.
Again I couldn’t a picture of the actual Eggplant Grill, but here is a good story about eggplant. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/06/28/earlyshow/contributors/bobbyflay/main2991638.shtml
World’s Largest Marathon
On July 24, 2005, some 50,000 individuals participated in what was touted as the world’s largest marathon – the 42-kilometer Third Manila Marathon. Athlete Roy Vence clocked two hours, 22 minutes and 18 seconds to lead the pack. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-132914115.html
World’s Largest Photo Mosaic
Toothpast maker Close Up put up the world’s largest photo mosaic along EDSA in Makati City. The structure, measuring 15,000 square feet, consisted of 34,560 photos. It reportedly surpassed the previous record of 6,928 square foot mosaic in the United Kingdom. http://ph.yfittopostblog.com/2010/08/01/is-cory%E2%80%99s-photo-mosaic-really-the-worlds-biggest/
World’s Longest Noodle
On April 24, the people of Aliaga, Nueva Ecija produced the a six kilometer long strand of “pancit canton”, repurtedly the world’s longest piece of noodle. The record-breaking pancit, which stretched across seven barangays, used 240 kilos of noodles. (This record has since been beaten by China) See photos: http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&expIds=17259,17291,22881,25532,26637,27113,27284,27357&sugexp=ldymls&xhr=t&q=world’s+longest+noodle&cp=22&qe=V29ybGQncyBMb25nZXN0IE5vb2RsZQ&qesig=dlgb5LxCvC1zLGXtRGoKhA&pkc=AFgZ2tmVtCkC967m8SE4xEXj_CQoeETB4dRaTbaKXGO8DWxzt5Yx-slT-yi6KWGsgFq2WI_bdnczNQOBlvF_k47NZ1KwmLYAcQ&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=univ&ei=SBvMTLeXJ8ewcZnkkLgO&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=1&sqi=2&ved=0CCgQsAQwAA&biw=1280&bih=707
Salamat, Palaam
Hey UJ,
The blog was really good today. It’s a lot better with you getting out of the house every now and then. I love the pics of the markets… waiting to see the pic of the table full of crab so I can lick the screen….lol
Go back to look at where it was suppose to be. It’s there now.
The roads in Allen are better then ones to Calbayog because they are repaired by Japan contractor and by locales in Calbayog. You can tell when you leave Northern Samar and enter Western Samar by the quality of the roads. Roads from ferry repaired one year and next year looks like they have not been repaired do to quailty of repairs. Probably more kick backs in Western Samar do to local contractors and less quality of material to make up for cost.
Okay cool. Most of the roads here are just fine. There are some that still need repair, going north. I think they are in the process of that now. Supposedly these roads were done last year and they still look good to me. I’ve only been here 5 months though, so I’ll try to remember to keep track of that and see if they start to wear out.
The new background is the best one yet. It’s bright, tropical and calming. I’m not sure how much you keep up with the news back in the USA, but November the 3rd the Federal Reserve is supposed to announce that they are printing like 500 Billion more dollars. That cannot be good for the peso/dollar exchange rate. So if you or your readers have a bunch of dollars lying around the house this might be a good time to trade them in for Philippine Pesos. Just my opinion, this is not financial advice. What do I know; I bought E pets at the top of the internet bubble.
You are very smart for having a Filipino wife and having an income in Pesos as well as dollars. There are some retirees living over there on only Social Security and if the Peso rises significantly then they are in some serious economic trouble. Some probably will not be able to afford a plane ticket home. Hopefully, the exchange rate will remain fairly steady. Again, not financial advice.
I enjoy reading your blog and hope it will continue for a long time.
Good about the background, that’s exactly what I was shooting for. That and letting Winda be able to read/write on her laptop.
500 billion dollars, my goodness that would be a lot of pesos. Unfortunately I don’t have too many dollars just laying around and the retirement check I will be using on the 4th, so we’ll see.
If there are retirees living here on only social security, I haven’t met any of them. But there probably are. I hope they make it, but it is risky with so little unless you are pretty well set up already, or have the means to get additional money elsewhere if necessary.
Again, I’m glad you enjoy the blog. Think you can help me find a few dozen other readers like yourself? I’ve about run out of ideas to promote it. This is my first blog and I’m really trying, but I’m limited in my information. Any idea?
Yes i have been to that market a few times but really don,tenjoy it to much,for meat i like the Monterey meat market better.I went with my wife
once to the back of the market for some dried squid and fish boy the smell was bad there.Good to see you getting out more.The roads look like they are in alot better shape than when we were their,do you know if they have fixed the part of the road close to Allen,that was the terrible when we were
last there.
I like the meat a Monterrey better also. I didn’t think it smelled bad back there at all. I kind of turn my sense of smell off when I go to the market though. Glad to be getting out more. This Friday we are leaving to go to Tambis. We will be leaving there early Monday morning. So I’ll have some more new pictures.
I don’t know where “Allen” is so I couldn’t tell you about the roads. I can tell you that they are fixing roads in several places that are not fixed already.