Sunday – 18 Sep 2011

[smartads] Sometimes I don’t understand things like this.  It says that Iloilo City is the capital of Iloilo.  Iloilo is a province, but the capital is not part of the province.  I think that other capital’s are like that in the Philippines also.  I wonder why that is?

Iloilo is a province of the Philippines located in the Western Visayas region. Iloilo, the Heart of the Philippines occupies the southeast portion of Panay Island and is bordered by Antique Province to the west and Capiz Province and the Jintotolo Channel to the north. Just off Iloilo’s southeast coast is Guimaras Province, once part of Iloilo Province but now a province in its own right. Across the Panay Gulf and Guimaras Strait is Negros Occidental. Iloilo’s capital is Iloilo City though the city itself is independent and not governed by the provincial government of Iloilo.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iloilo

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8724323@N06/4748075395/

http://www.philtravelcenter.com/philippines/travelinfo/iloilo-info.php

Hits @ 0009 = 1179140 = 6422.  Better hits than yesterday and hits like this will get me over 2,300,000 in a year, so no complaints from me on that still.  I shut down the computer at 0011.  I sent the post a little early yesterday and I went to watch TV.  I took a break from watching TV to come in there to get the hit count and shut the computer down.  After shutting down, I went back to watching TV and watched until 0253.  I could have stayed up longer if there was anything good on TV, but I got tired of changing channels and coming across the same stuff over and over.  I finally got a NCIS, but it was the same one that I had already watched that day.

Philippine Knowledge:  The Tarsier is one of the smallest primates and lives in the forests of Borneo, Sumatra and the Philippines. Tarsiers have a maximum body length of 6-1/3 inches and a 10-1/2 inch tail. Their eyes are so large that they would be equivalent to grapefruit-sized eyes in a human being. Tarsiers, along with animals from the genus Galago, are the only primates able to turn their heads through 180-degrees in each direction.

When I got up this morning I didn’t even bother looking at the clock.  I’m pretty sure it was 8 something though.  As usual, it doesn’t really matter what time I get up.  Lita was already up whenever it was I did get up.  I don’t think she was up very long though.  After I woke up and visited the CR I turned on the TV and started looking for something again.  It’s Sunday, so I knew there would be little to nothing going on around here.

http://corporate.mozcom.com/dot/iloilo0.html

As I was watching TV, Lita stuck her head in the door and asked me if I wanted eggs for breakfast.  I told her that we didn’t have anymore eggs, but she knew that.  She will send Jay to get the eggs if I’m going to eat them.  I told her if we have onions, then I’ll eat eggs.  She pulled out a bag with about a dozen little onions in it.   I said, “Okay, 3 eggs should do it”.  She sent Jay to get 4 eggs and a loaf of bread.  I guess she was going to eat 1 egg, or thought Jay would.

While Jay was gone, I cut up 3 of the onions and 3 peppers.  I cut 2 little green hot peppers and one big red one that I thought was a got pepper, but it wasn’t.  It turned out to be just a red bell pepper.  The bell peppers locally are so small that it’s easy to confuse them.  They actually do have some medium sized bell peppers in Tacloban, but I think they are all just the green ones.  It’s too bad that the ground beef around here sucks, because stuffed bell peppers are one of my favorite things to eat.  Maybe we could use ground chicken instead?  I suppose we could use ground pork, but I don’t like pork much and there is no telling what is ground up on the ground pork here.

http://simbahan.net/2008/01/19/the-camposanto-of-cabatuan-iloilo/

Before Jay got back, I realized that I don’t have anymore oil to cook with.  I was just going to use the oil that they usually cook the banana balls in, but I made a derogatory remark about it and Lita said not to use it and she sent Jay back to get a small plastic bag of oil.  I don’t know what kind of oil it was, but it sure wasn’t my Canola or Olive Oil.  It made the eggs taste a little funny, but the grease was hot and Lita would have been upset, so I just ate it.  I guess it couldn’t have been too bad, because I ate it all.  I finished eating it all a little past 10:00.

Lita is in the mood for fried chicken, so let’s see if we will actually end up with fried chicken before the day is over.  The time before last and the time before that when she wanted fried chicken, we ended up with BBQ chicken.

http://bestcityaroundtheworld.blogspot.com/2011/04/iloilo-city-city-of-love.html

I saw a lot of Casandra today.  I got to carry her a little, but mostly I just let her stand up and hang on.  I don’t hang on to her the whole time either, I let her stand up on her on strength, even though she can’t do it very well or very long.  People are worried when I do that, but I just let them know that today is not my first day with a baby.  The should know by now that I would NEVER knowingly do anything to hurt that baby or any child for that matter.  My son may beg to differ on that, but your own children are a little different.  You have the prime responsibility of discipline and raising your own children, for others you just be nice and try to protect them when they are in your care.

http://www.pbase.com/hammerslag/marbuena

After I gave Casandra back to Cathy I decided that I needed to go get a liter of water.  I got P20 from Lita and headed for the other sari-sari store.  Well when I got there, they were closed.  Okay fine, I’ll just go to the next store.  They are open and they have water, but only the 330ml bottles and they want P10 each for those.  That’s too much.  I was talking to the young lady at that sari-sari store and told her that those were to small for me.  She said, with a smile, “That’s just one gulp for you”.  I was actually surprised she used the word ‘gulp’.  That’s not a word I’ve heard from a Filipino much and I think not from any in the Philippines unless they are Americanized.  I asked her if there was another store close by that might have 1 liter water.  She said that the next one down did.

http://www.philippinesholiday.net/iloilo-philippines-top-must-visiting-tourist-attractions/

So I went there and sure enough, they did.  The had some Nature Springs 1 liter bottles.  I thought they only had the warm ones because that’s what they had displayed and the guy grabbed the display when I asked for it.  When he handed me the water though, it was a cool one.  I guess they have a limited amount of refrigerator or cooler space and take a cool one out and put the display bottle in.  Whatever, it was nice and cool and that’s what I wanted.  They charged me P20 for it, but when the first sari-sari store had Nature’s Spring water, they only charged P18.  But I didn’t care at the time.  They seemed to be the only ones around with the water and size I wanted, so I just paid it and was happy.  When I got home I stuck it in the freezer anyway, to make it very cold.  I left it in there for about an hour before I took my first drink  It was cold and good.  There is nothing better than ice cold water when you are hot, sweaty and thirsty.  I’d rather have the ice cold water over an ice cold beer.  Who said that?

http://www.holydieexplorer.com/an-attractive-city-of-iloilo-philippines/

Lita was able to buy some chicken to fry today.  She got some money from Jay because he should a rooster today.  I think he told Lita P700.  I don’t know if that good or bad, or even if it’s right, but we got the chicken.  Angelo gave Lita a ride down to Monterrey Meats to buy the chicken, so Lita told him that he could eat some chicken and rice with us.  Angelo’s alright.  He’s a bit on the quiet side, as are most of the Filipinos when they are around me, but at least he attempts to communicate with me.

After Jay let me know that the chicken was finished, I turned off the TV,  grabbed my Tabasco sauce, BBQ sauce and the remainder of my water and headed out there.  We were eating on the picnic table tonight because it was nice and cool out there.  Lita would actually like for us to have a chicken dinner out there every Sunday.  At least that is what she said to me tonight while we were eating.  I realized, after I bit into the chicken that I wouldn’t be eating more than just the breast, because she had to use oil that I’m not use to.  The chicken tasted strange, worse than the eggs, but I ate it with no complaints.  I let Angelo try the Tabasco sauce, but I guess he never had anything like it before.  He put some on a little piece of pork, that Lita also cooked, and he starting choking when he ate it.  He said that it was very hot.  I knew that, that’s why I like it.  I hope that I get a chance to let Emei try it, he appreciates hot.

http://paparazz0.com/2010/11/30/san-joaquin-iloilo/

I finished the rest of that liter of water and was still thirsty, so I had to get a Mountain Dew also.  I think I consume more liquids per day around here then all the other people combined.  I so look forward to the time when I have my own little refrigerator in the computer room filled with mostly water and some beer, Gatorade and soda.  I will be drinking even more then because the water will be readily available.  I’ll probably have some chocolate hid in there too.  Shhhhh!  Don’t tell the kids.  They do have Kit Kats, Snickers and Cadbury bars here.  When I get financially settled I will buy a lot of Kit Kats.  I hope they will have the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups when the mall or malls get put up, those are my favorite.

It’s only 9:55pm right now and I’m about at the end of this post for the typing part.  I still need to put in the pictures, but it surprises me that this post ended up so well.  For my notes I only had about a 1/2 page and I ended up with all this.  I even considered not doing the post tonight because I wasn’t sure I’d be able to come up with enough to write about.  I guess I was wrong, but that’s not the first time and I’ll guarantee it won’t be the last time.

http://www.pbase.com/hammerslag/alimodian

I guess I should mention that Lita and I was talking about going to Angeles again, to go to the sausage place, I forgot the name already, and I don’t want to look it up.  I’ll have the name when we are ready to go though and a good idea of where it is in Angeles.   Unfortunately it looks like it will not be until December before we will have enough money to make the trip there and make the trip worthwhile.   Lita informs me that she wants to spend at least P5000 and maybe up to P10000, depending on what looks good and how much it costs.  So unless that unexpected windfall occurs, I’m guessing December is our best bet.  I hope Gary will still be in Angeles at the time because he is the one that turned me on to this place and I think he would like to make sure I get there.  If he is not there, I will still be sure to mention his name at ‘Brettos?’, was that it?  I will be sure to mention his name at whatever the name of the place is.

http://forum.philboxing.com/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=185102

I paid off 3 of the smaller bills last month and will be able to pay 1 or 2 off this next month also.  For November we plan to go to Tambis and then Tacloban (on the way back), so that will deplete any money we had a chance to catch up on.  I doubt if we will get any of the smaller bills paid off that month.  It’s looking more and more like it will be January before things are manageable, especially if we do go to Angeles in December.  I cross my fingers that someone will use MJ Services for travel to the Philippines before then, so that will help counter any of the money that we have to spend.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/neumeyer/2362262542/

Well that’s enough.  I’m going to insert the pictures and other little things.  I hope y’all enjoyed this post, I think it came out pretty good.  It shouldn’t be boring like some of the other posts I have.  Thanks for reading and thanks for staying.

Salamat, Palaam

Today in Philippine History

17 SEPTEMBER

1900 – The Battle of Mabitac that spelled victory for  the Filipino freedom fighters against the imperialist  American invaders takes place in Laguna one and  one-half years into the protracted  Philippine-American War (1899-1914);  Cailles, acting operations  chief in the first zone of Manila, had earlier defiantly raised the Filipino flag in the headquarters he  established at Santa Cruz, Laguna from where he  directed operations against the enemy under Gen.  Henry Lawton; using guerrilla tactics and mastery of  the terrain, Filipino Gen. Juan Cailles leads the  native soldiers in routing the militarily superior  American forces commanded by Col. Benjamin F.  Cheatahm, Jr.

1871 – Filipino revolutionary Gen. Francisco  Macabulos, future liberator of Tarlac province during  the Philippine Revolution against Spain, is born in La  Paz, Tarlac; Macabulos will  not go to Hong Kong to  take part in the Biak-na-Bato Peace Pact momentarily  forged by Hen. Emilio Aguinaldo  with the Spanish  colonial authorities and, instead, will form the  Provisional Revolutionary Government of Central  Luzon covering Nueva Ecija, Zambales, La Union,  Pangasinan, and the Ilocos Region, with its own  Constitution; unfortunately, Makabulos will not deem  it worthy to fight the new colonizers, the imperialist  United States and, thus, will early on capitulate to the enemy Gen. Douglas McArthur in June 1900, one year and four  months into the  protracted Philippine-American War  (1899-1914).

Photo credit: http://www.laguna-tourism.techcellar.net/paper-mache-at-pakil/