[smartads] Today Lita made me get up at 0847. She wanted to eat breakfast. So you know what we were having for breakfast today, right? Yeah, that’s right, pancakes. I ended up making large pancakes today though. None of those little things I have been making. I used 2 boxes of pancake mix cause the boxes here are so small. Two together they probably equal 1 box of Aunt Jemima’s. Still no bananas though. Lita says she will buy some so we can have that next time. I asked her to get some blueberries too, but all I got was a laugh out of her. For those you don’t know, there are no blueberries here. Maybe you can get the frozen ones in a big supermarket, but I’ve yet to see even that.
When we are in Cebu for our little getaway, then we will be sure to get to a mall and supermarket while we are there. Might as well because it’s not everyday that we will be in Cebu to take advantage. We have to take a ferry to get there. If we take the one from Calbayog, well they only have the slow ferry from here. It’ll be an overnight trip to get there. If we go to Ormoc we could take a Super Ferry and get there in a matter of hours. Of course Ormoc is a lot closer to Cebu anyway, plus the ferry is much faster, hence the name Super Ferry. It’s easier to just get on here and do the overnight thing. You can get a bed to sleep in or just stay on the deck. Lita always wants the bed, but it’d be okay with me to just sleep on deck with most everyone else. Lita doesn’t like the CR on the ferry, I’ve not yet had to use it, but I probably wouldn’t like it either.
Well we bought another tricycle today. That’s 2 we now own and 1 that we might own if they guy doesn’t pay back the loan we gave him. Price on this tricycle started out at P12,500, but that got whittled down to P11,600. Approximately $263. Vicky’s oldest son will just use this new one and Eddie will just use the other one full time, until about 10pm. Eddie didn’t really want to give the tricycle up for those 4 hours anyway. He was scared something might happen to it, while it was gone. So now they both can work full time and have lots of money for their household. That’s good, because they had diddle-squat before we arrived. Now we employ 3 of the family members, soon to be 4 with the youngest son working part time. Plus one of her nieces. They are much better off now. With 2 parents and 5 children, I’ll bet that was hard getting along before. We won’t make them rich or anything, but I’m glad they are not on such hard times anymore.
When I went to bed a 0150 this morning I had 5466 hits. At the moment I have 5705. That’s 239 hits in an almost 9 hour period. About 26.5 hits per hour. A little over 6 hits every 15 minutes. If that rate kept up all 24 hours, I’d have 636 hits or so everyday. That’d be great for starters. I’m being greedy, but I hear that some websites get 1000’s of hits per day. Think I’d be happy with just 1000 per day. I still can’t figure out how to get the advertisements to my site though. Anyone out there know how to do that? I’d appreciate your expertise.
Okay Winda, why we chose Calbayog City Samar, when Lita is from Tambis in Southern Leyte. Have you ever been to Southern Leyte? That question should answer your question to a degree. To the best of my knowledge there are no big malls, no supermarkets, no nothing that I can get to reasonable quickly if I wanted it, you know for stuff that I’m use to having. I don’t need steak everyday, but when I want one, I’d like to be able to get one. Unless I wanted to go swimming everyday, then there is not much to do there. They have more of those dreaded brown outs there than here, if you can believe that. I guess the biggest problem though would be some of the relatives. Most of the relatives living in Southern Leyte are very poor. Now I don’t mind helping poor people, especially relatives, but they would take advantage. They’d say they are ‘borrowing’ the money, but they don’t have a job to pay it back. The could pay it back with labor, but there is only so much that we need to be fixed. Of course other relatives would hear about it and they’d want some too and on and on. If you give the money to one relatives but not the other, then they think you’re playing favorites and then they talk bad about you, which is okay with me. Lita doesn’t like people talking bad about us though. That would make her life miserable and in turn it’d make mine miserable. Of course we’d have Bebie and Canuto there to run interference for us, but they can only do so much too.
On the other hand, here in Calbayog is different. Most all the relatives here have jobs. A couple of them getting about as much money as I do. When we first got here and had a small financial problem, we got money from them. Well they owed us money that we lent them when we were in the States, but the point is, they were able to pay it back when we needed it. We had a good chance to buy a nice piece of land here, and we did. Didn’t know the hotel was coming then. Still it seems that this land is going to be more valuable before long. I think all in all we made the right choice by moving here versus Southern Leyte and after this post, I think y’all will think so too.
Okay that got me quite a few words for the blog. Any other suggestions or ideas?
Tagalog word of the day: desisyon (de-sis-yon) means decision.
Arnel is putting up the walls in the store today. He was banging like crazy out there awhile ago. I should take a picture of his progress….. Okay that is done.
It’s 4:36pm now. Chatty just returned from school and I missed a perfect opportunity to get a good picture of her. She wasn’t even looking, I could have snapped the picture before she even knew it. She was looking all cute in her school uniform too. I’ll try to remember to sneak it in tomorrow, if I happen to be outside, with the camera, when she comes home. Odds are not good, because I think she is early today.
Precious is sick today. She has a small fever. She is sitting outside with Lita and her Momma. She cries when you try to lay her down. She is drinking some milk from little box with a straw.
Pam starting working today. It’s 5:04pm and she is outside folding the clothes now. She is already finished the washing and since there was no rain today and lots of sunshine, they are all dry now. I thought Vicky would do all the folding, but I guess Lita is comfortable enough to let Pam do it. Besides, Vicky is busy with the BBQ and household chores.
There, that’s all the pictures y’all are going to get. Unless I decide to throw in some older pictures that I have not posted yet. I’ve still got some from the Falls, Malajog Beach and around here too.
Titing’s passing by…I don’t know it.
It’s 6:05 now. Think I’ll go outside and see what going on. It’s probably working. Right about now the BBQ starts getting going good.
I went to hang out with everyone outside for awhile. Lita was in the kitchen complaining that who ever put the water for ice in the freezer should not have put them 3 high, because they all expanded and now they are almost impossible to get out. She’s trying to fix it. Juvic is filling the little bags with the strawberry stuff they make the ice candy out of. Grace, Neneng and Titing were all out there enjoying the evening. Vicky and Lynn were busy, just as I predicted.
It’s 7:00pm now. I’m going to lay down and watch TV for awhile. I don’t watch too much TV these days. I’m usually in here on the computer. Maybe I’ll catch a good movie on HBO or Cinemax, sometimes I get lucky. There is no TV guide here, to my knowledge. Be happy and safe.
Salamat, Paalam
wouldnt let me comment on fridays page so i come back to thursdays..lol its sat.mornin here im gettin ready 4 work was to tired to read ur blog last nite..im always wantin more to read so dont act like ur writein alot..lmao who named it ice candy? maybe u should name it crushcicles..lol and yes get u a bike or trike or whhatever u call it and get out and see stuff so u can tell us what u seen or what happen well u was out and it is great exrcise to help you with the extra pounds you want to get off..lol maybe i should get me one..lmao need to get ready 4 work so keep bloggin and ill bbl love you…
Well Joyce I hope the pictures I took today were enough to get you through the day. I will see what I can do about getting you more pictures. That tricycle thing really does sound good, not sure when we’ll be able to afford another one though. I don’t know who named it ice candy. How’d you come up with a name like crushcicles? Well I’m going to keep writing what ever comes to my mind, so read away. Don’t want to make the posts super long, then people might get tired before they get to the end. Besides, usually not that much happens around here and I don’t want to make what does happen so long and drawn out. It’ll sound funny and like I’m an idiot or something. I’ll just stick to about the length I have been doing. I’m sure you’ll survive. Will it let you edit on this page today? I hope so, I don’t want something to be wrong.
John, have you ever been to Bob Martins’s blog? It is http://liveinthephilippines.com/content/
He has been doing this for 3-4 years. He is also an American and lives in Davao. He might be able to give you some good ideas as to how to get advertising onto your blog. I like his blog although I have not been active there over the past few years.
Bob Martin is my blog guru. He’s the one that does my host webbing. So yes I have been to his site and I have talked with him many times.
I think he’s already basically told me how, I just have to figure it out. I’ve got some other ideas from him also, but he can (and does) write books on the subjects. I’m not savvy enough for book writing or even pamphlet writing.
If you’ll notice, I even have a link to his site on my site. Under “Other Expat Sites”.
lmao ur so funny johnny jr..nice big room counter you got there…lol i would of passed on the berries 2 make the banana pancakes.what is ice candy john is it like a popcicle or a snowcone?
Wanted to make sure you could see the counter.
Ice candy I’ve already explained and put a picture also. See the 14 Sep post.
It’s like a popcicle in a little bag. Frozen flavored ice.
Add to comment. We was waken up by cocks crowin at 3 Am. which someone was transporting in boxes. We looked at each other and seen carbon soot on each others faces and cloths. I said this would be a good National Geographic epposed on the life and travel in the Phillipine. We all broke out in laughter to cut the misery which we was in for lack of sleep.
That just wants me to want to go even more…NOT. Oh well, it’s a life I’ve chosen, so I’ll have to take the bad with the good.
But I hear those steaks calling my name. Just found a steakhouse in Legaspi, that’s closer, maybe we should go there.
I have taken the Ro-Ro from Calbayog to Cebu. The cabins are not A/C like they say. Just sucking air from outside and blowing into cabins this is what they call A/C. They are bunk beds just as same on deck except you have room and maybe the door will lock. If wind shifts, blower will start blowing exhaust from engines into cabin and you will get sick like we did. Ended up taking mattress on deck and sleeping along deck, which pissed personnel off. Asked for refund but we got that foreign look. As for the restrooms or what they call CR. I do not think they have been cleaned since they bought the ship from the Japanese. No water.
Sounds like the same one we were on, going the opposite direction. Oh boy, you just made me think of how wonderful the trip is going to be. 🙁 Maybe we should drive to Ormoc first.
Howdy. What happened to my comment yesterday, JJ? Is it possible I could have deleted it after I posted it? Hmmm. Anyway, I guessed that the commercial possibilities was the biggest factor in your decision to choose Calbayog since SL is basically a place to kick back and chill. Population count alone for potential customers would make Calbayog a hands-down pick.
How long does it take to drive from there to Tacloban? Between TAC and my little town, staying on the Pacific side, it’s only 2 to 2.1/2 hrs drive if you don’t fly. Mind you when you hit the mountains some of those elevations are strictly first or second gear depending on what’s in the vehicle. Last year I was in Tac almost every second day at CitiHardware or UltraSteel. You’ll love the instore service at the former, almost like NorthAm’s.
When you get going on building your house I have oodles of info you may be able to use. 🙂
No clue what happen to your comment. It wasn’t here and I didn’t receive it in my e-mail, so I guess you did delete it.
From here to Tacloban is a 5-6 hour drive. I don’t like going the mountain way, but we have done it. I’ll be glad when I can use that oodles of information. It’s so loud downstairs sometimes, especially since the batas don’t have anywhere else to play.
I have seen blueberries in the market in Angeles City but they were about $1 per berry. Needless to say, I did not buy them.
Wise man. I think I would have passed on that too.