Wednesday – 10 Nov 2010

[smartads] This morning I got out of bed at 0456.  I guess all that sleeping in the back of the truck on the way home from Tambis was enough to sustain me for awhile.  I’m starting to get tired now though, so I guess I’ll try to stay awake as long as possible tonight and get back on my regular schedule, even though that was pretty irregular, by tomorrow night.  Well for the next few days I will be letting y’all know about my events for the day plus I’ll add in one day of our trip to Southern Leyte.  It wasn’t a very exciting trip, but it did have some moments and at least it will be different than the things that happen around here.  I’ve got about 2 dozen new pictures to share with y’all too, so I hope you enjoy it all.

When we left for Tambis we unplugged the freezer and brought all the ice candy that was in there with us.  It was all nice and clean when we got back.  Whoever cleaned it forgot to leave the door open though, and it sure did stink in there, it was horrible.  When I got up, Lita was already in the kitchen making ice to put in there.  She needs for me to carry the water from the sink to the freezer because it gets too heavy for her to carry.  She filled about 2 dozen of the bags with water and they should be all frozen by now.  She also started some ice candy today, and it will get put in bags probably tomorrow so we will have that for the next day.  The ice is starting to sell better than the ice candy, so she plans to make more of that instead.  It’s cheaper for us and makes just as much or more money anyway.

Tagalog word of the day:  kotse  (kot-se)  means car.

About 0730 this morning Lita left to go to the market.  She went with Vicky today, not alone as she has been doing recently.  She wanted to stop by Judith’s on the way home, but when she went by there, they were really busy already, so she just came home.  While she was gone I made pancakes.  I missed the way I make pancakes.  You know, because I make them so wonderful.  I only made 4 pancakes today.  I ate 2, I gave 1 to Precious, but she only ate like 1/2 of it, so I had to eat the other half.  The 4th pancake I offered to give to Lynn because she was here cutting up papaya and shredding it.  She said she didn’t want the pancake.  I think she did want it, but she is just too embarrassed to say so.  If Lita would have been here, she would have eaten it.  Since she didn’t want it, I offered it to Anna Pearl.  Anna Pearl doesn’t have the same issue as Lynn, so she said yes, she wanted it.  She doesn’t take too much syrup on her pancake though.  She must be trying to keep that fine figure she has, and she’s doing a great job of it too.

Since Ramil is working in Manila, we made Ado our new official driver.  He will still drive his multi-cab though.  I guess you could call Ado our ‘on-call’ driver.  We just have to let him know the day before when/if we are going to need him.  That way he will not be getting up at 0400 to go to work.  Or even if he does decide to go to work, he can come home at lunch time and still be able to take us/me downtown, or wherever.  Tomorrow I will be going downtown to pay the internet, and we have already told him.  I have to remember to talk to those people there at Globe so they can explain to me how to use my phone.  No one here can use it, so I don’t know if there is something wrong with the phone, or there is just some secret that no one here knows about.  We can get incoming calls, but can not dial out.  Our internet/phone bill is kind of high this month.  It must be one of those pre-rated for the old service and 1 month in advance for the new service thing.  At least that’s what it looks like.

For lunch today I had something that I don’t normally eat, but still do every now and then.  It was pork chops.  I don’t know why but pork is not on my list of favorite things.  I had 2 of them today though, along with some rice that we bought in Tambis, and Lita made gravy also.  I also for the first time, tried that special blend of pepper that Gary brought me from Montana.  I liked it.  It has a very good taste to it.  I’m going to have to find things to use it on now.  I still have 1 can of beef stew left, so when I open and eat that, I will use the pepper again.  When I ate, I ate outside on the picnic table with Lita, Lynn and Vicky.  As we were sitting there, a dog walked in the gate.  I was just about to get up and scare it away, when I heard this terrible screeching noise.  It scared me.  I asked Lita, “What was that?”  Turns out that it was Nicole scaring the dog away.  It worked too, and I know why.  I thought I was going to have to change my pants.  Lita’s pansit is just as popular as ever.  She put a big glass dish of it out there and it was the first thing gone again.  They try to save some of that to eat later, but it never works out that way, because it’s always gone.  I think if Filipinos were more willing to try things that they are not used to eating, then Lita can make plenty of things that they would like.  When we get the LolyKat Store open, we are going to try to sneak in a few things a little at a time, probably starting with her spaghetti sauce.  All the relatives like it, so I’m sure others will too.

Last item before I start on the Tambis trip.  We have 3, count ’em, 3 new readers.  Welcome to the site John, Erny and Jhunnel.  No, not the Jhunnel that is my nephew.  All these new readers are not related to me whatsoever.  I’m always glad to have new readers, especially ones that leave comments.  Jhunnel was a little concerned about the music, but I hope the fact that he can stop or change it is a good enough solution.  Of course if there are a lot of people out there reading that think the music should go, it can go, not a problem.  I also had an anonymous reader leave a suggestion that I change the background because it was interfering with their reading.  Is anyone else having that problem?  That can be changed without much problem also.

We left for Tambis on Saturday (6 Nov) around 0745.  That is right on Filipino time because we were suppose to leave at 0600.  There were 9 of us on the truck.  There was me, Lita, Titing, Neneng, Juvic, Crystal, J, Romeo, Jun and Leo.  Leo was the driver, all the way there and all the way back.  He is a professional driver so it wasn’t much for him.  The Jun is not cousin Jun.  This Jun is someone that works with Titing and Neneng with the Pepsi.  The only other person aboard that you may not know is Romeo.  He is a constant around here at times.  I will have a picture of him posted here today.  In case there are any Juliet’s out there that need a Romeo, he is available.

About 30 minutes into the trip we passed through the town of Gandara, then another 10 minutes after that we were in a town called San Jorge.  On my last post we were kind of debating the travel time from here to Catbalogan.  Well I remembered that and I wrote it down.  It only took us about 1 hour and 15 minutes to get to the outskirts of Catbalogan and another 10 minutes after that to get to Catbalogan Proper.  So we’re in Catbalogan and I’m trying to take pictures and wouldn’t you know it, I got ‘battery exhausted’ again.  I was able to squeeze out a few pictures before the camera completely died on me.  We tried to get batteries in Catbalogan, but the place we stopped at ran out of AA’s.  I guess no one wanted to take the time to look elsewhere in Catbalogan because we just moved on.  I fell asleep somewhere between Catbalogan and Tacloban because when I woke up we were just past Tacloban and stopping at a restaurant called Andoks to buy some chicken.  When we reached a town called Silago, Jun left.  Guess he was doing some visiting of his own.  We finally arrived in San Juan at 2000 and went straight to the cemetery to pay respects to Lita’s father, Uncle and Mama (Poppa’s wife).  The little door that they have there for the enclosed area had a lock on it and no one knew where the key was, so they were going to call Bebie and ask her, she is the one that goes there the most because she is the only one that lives in the area now.  Right before they dialed, I just reached for the lock and pulled it open.  It just looked like it was locked, it wasn’t or I’m stronger than I think I am.

After the cemetery we went to St. Bernard to do some shopping at the market there.  It is like a farmer’s market, only there on weekends.  It was 8:00pm.  While they were getting their vegetables and dried fish, I went to the same store that I went to last time we were there, and bought some batteries.  They even had Eveready long life batteries.  They came in a package of 4, for P150.  They would have opened them and sold me only 2, since that is what I told them I wanted, but I just took them all.  I told the lady there, that I took her picture last time I was here and put it on the computer for the whole world to see, and I think she actually understood what I was talking about, because she got a little red.  As I was standing, waiting on Lita to shop, I saw a tricycle go by with a crate full of Coca-Cola, that just made me want a Coke.  I get tired of drinking Mountain Dew and I don’t like Pepsi.  I went back to the same store and bought a 256ml (I think that’s what it is) for P25 (.60).  As we were getting ready to leave, Lita decided we needed some D cell batteries for our portable fans, just in case of a brownout.  So back to the store once more, 4 D cells (which they call the large batteries) Eveready for P100.  We finally got to Tambis at  9:21pm.  Then, and only then for some reason, I noticed that I was slightly sunburned.  It must have been because from around Silago and almost all the way to San Juan, I was standing up in the back of the truck because my butt was hurting from so much sitting down.  I helped carry in a little bit of the stuff, mostly just our things, and after that I was ready for bed again.  We got the ‘royal suite, as Bebie likes to call it at her house, as usual and I went to bed almost immediately.  I figured it would be a long day tomorrow and I was pretty much correct.

That’s it.  I will have Day 2 of the trip tomorrow plus tomorrow’s activities.  I will be going downtown, so I’ll get even more pictures.

Philippine Trivia

World’s Largest Canine Gathering
On May 8, 2005, some 7,000 dogs participated in what was billed as the world’s largest simultaenous canine gathering in separate locations in the Philippines. The main venue, the Baywalk along Roxas Boulevard in Manila, drew 3,000 dogs that walked for five kilometers. Another 4,000 dogs reportedly participated in simultaneous marathons across the Philippines. The event sought to surpass the record set in the United Kingdom where some 5,017 dogs participated in a 4.8-kilometer dog “marathon” in 2004.

UN cites 165 Filipino soldiers in Liberia
April 12, 2006
Source: Philippine Star
The United Nations has recognized 165 Filipino soldiers deployed to Liberia as peacekeepers for their contribution to the peace process in the country. The Filipino peacekeepers were given commendations by the special representative of the UN secretary-general for Liberia, Alan Doss for their professionalism and dedication to the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL).
There are currently 172 Filipino peacekeepers, including nine women, serving in Liberia.
The Philippines began contributing troops to United Nations’ peacekeeping operations in 1950 in Korea and has since served in over 20 peacekeeping missions in Vietnam, the Congo, Sierra Leone, Iraq, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, East Timor, Haiti and Liberia.

Greatest Asian Football Player
From Pamela de los Reyes
A contributor sent in this article. A Filipino named Paulino Alcantara who played for the Spanish club Barcelona Giants from 1912 to 1927 was the all-time leading goalscorer with an outstanding 357 goals in 357 matches.
He ripped the goal net with a thunderous strike from 35 yards out in a match between Spain and France on April 30 1922. He is considered the best Asian player in the football history.
Grand Father of Philippine Internet
Dr. William “Bill” Torres is considered as the “Grandfather of Philippine Internet.” It was reportedly Torres who promoted the use of Internet in the early 1990s. In 1992, he initiated the first informal negotiations with the US National Science Foundation to bring the Internet to the Philippines.

First Woman PMMA Valedictorian
March 28, 2006
Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer
For the first time in its 186-year history, the male-dominated Philippine Merchant Marine Academy (PMMA) in Baguio City honored a woman cadet as the valedictorian of PMA Class 2006.
Cadet First Class Zulaika Mariano Calibjo, 23, led 180 graduates as the first woman to top the graduating class of one of Asia’s oldest maritime institutions.

Outstanding Physicist
Physicist Rommel Bacabac of the Society of Divine Word, crafted US National Aeronautics and Space Administration experiments for zero-gravity effects on bones lofted into space by Soyuz. These have spin-off for osteoporosis and other bone diseases.

Salamat, Palaam