Wednesday – 27 Jul 2011

[smartads] The National Capital Region or NCR is the center of Luzon and capital region of the Philippines. The Cordillera Mountains forms its boundary on the east, Laguna de Bay on the southeast, Central Luzon on the north and Southern Tagalog region on the south.

It is composed of the cities of Manila, Kalookan, Las Pinas, Makati, Mandaluyong, Marikina, Paranaque, Muntinlupa, Pasay, Pasig and Quezon City. Pending ratification for city hood through plebiscites by their respective residents are the municipalities of Taguig, Valenzuela, and the industrial district of Novaliches in Quezon City. The municipalities of MM are Navotas, Malabon, Pateros and San Juan.

http://pptbusiness.net/pictures-3137.html

Useless Knowledge:  A camel can lose up to 30 percent of its body weight in perspiration and continue to cross the desert. A human would die of heat shock after sweating away only 12 percent of his body weight.

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

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

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

http://www.world-stay.com/en/ph/national-capital-region/

26 Jul –  We had that brown out a couple of minutes before midnight, so no counting of the hits for today.  That brown out was at 11:58pm, but it only lasted 3 minutes until 0001.  I had already turned my computer off, because it was running on battery and I thought we’d be down all night.  Well, after it came back on, it went back off again at 0015.  That one also only lasted about 3 minutes.  About 2 minutes after it came back on, I’ll be danged if it didn’t go out again.  This time it stayed out, all night long.  I’m sure glad it wasn’t humid last night our I would have been in an extra bad mood.  Crappy electricity around this place!

In fact, when I got up at 0559, it was still out.  It is now 0640 (no not yet).  To fill my time this morning I took some pictures outside of the blowing trees and the motors running in the rain.  Yest it is still raining and is expected to rain until Wednesday.

http://ncrpersonnel.wordpress.com/

Lita went to the market as I was getting up.  She came back at 0635 and said she forgot the money.  She was in such a hurry to get back before it started raining hard again, she forgot it.  Some of the vendors let her get things and they will wait until she comes back to pay them.  Some places won’t let her do that though.

She rode one of the pajak pajaks here and back.  That will probably end up costing her about P50 just for that round trip.  I’m not sure which form of transportation she left in, probably a motor and she will probably take a motor home too.  The motors are only actually P8, but we usually pay P10.  Normally you’d want to take a motor because they are faster for the longer distances than the pajak pajak.  We only take the pajak pajak to come home on a few occasions.  If it is Eddie (Vicky’s husband) or if a motor is not available.  Some of them don’t come in this direction and a lot of times they are full when/if they come by.  I get tired of waiting sometimes and just take the first pajak pajak, even though it costs more.  I guess because it is out of their normal territory and they have to do a lot of extra peddling.  That can be hard, especially with me as a passenger.  I probably weigh more than twice what the normal Filipino weighs.

http://tripwow.tripadvisor.com/tripwow/ta-00be-0d18-c863

All the bata, J and Chatty are getting ready for school.  It it stops raining for a little while, I’ll go take a picture of the waves splashing up on the rocks and a little on the road.

It is now 0852 and still no lights.  It seems like it should be later, but I guess since I got up so early the timing is throwing me off on that.  Also I just found out that I must have been wrong about the kids going to school, because they are still here, except for J.  He is the only college student in the bunch.  I don’t know why none of them went to school.  Maybe the school is closed for the pending typhoon, I don’t know yet.

Just about a half hour ago I snapped a whole bunch of beans.  Lita said she was going to help, but she disappeared after she did just a couple of beans.  It’s okay though, I didn’t mind doing it.

http://www.weddingmapper.com/plan/vendor/national_capital_region/manila/reception_venues/casa_blanca_manila/131603?geocoded=g

It’s not raining now.  If I trusted these stairs I’d go on top to find the leak we have.  There must be a spot up there where the water is puddling and it is seeping through the concrete.  It’s only in that one spot, but, of course, that one spot is right over our TV.  It could be worse I guess.  It could be over my computer.  (Knock on wood).

The water drips onto the little shelf we have the TV on, not on the TV.  But it splashes on the TV when it hits.  I put a couple of Tupperware bowls there to catch the drops and I covered the TV with a raincoat.  I can’t watch TV anyway, no electric.

Maybe I can get someone lighter than me to check that.  I use to go up stairs but the constant rain weakened the uncovered wooden stairs and the bottom step actually broke.  One other step, high up, not sure of which one, also is suppose to have cracked on someone already, but hasn’t broken yet.  That’s the one I’m scared to find if I go up.

http://www.panoramio.com/photo/53164372

Useless Knowledge:  The average person who stops smoking requires 1 hour less sleep a night.

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

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

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

http://www.wellsphere.com/wellpage/philippine-region

The small people that climb up there to hang clothes don’t seem to have a problem, but it was on one of them that the step cracked up high.  When J is here during the daytime, I’ll get him to do it.  Maybe if Ado is not too busy, he will do it.

I’m laying on the bed writing these notes.  I don’t have very much light, but I guess it’s enough.

Tomorrow is the day we are suppose to go to Tacloban, but it ain’t going to happen tomorrow.  We didn’t inform Grand Tour (GT Services) that we wanted to be picked up.  We didn’t because we were not sure about whether the roads would be opened or not, and I don’t want to get stuck anywhere. The trip may be put of for 2 or 3 days, but it is still a GO, so far.

http://www.flickriver.com/places/Philippines/National+Capital+Region/Manila/

That young lady that was working for Robbie last week is back.  I guess she is a part time Yaya.  I still don’t know her name.

The electric came back on at 10:46.

I got my only 2 comments answered just in time to have a big power surge and lose the Internet.  I reset it and it came back up with no problem.

The Amazon.com was approved.  I now have 2 Amazon advertisements on the site.  Feel free to click on either or both of them and buy everything.  Just kidding, but it wouldn’t hurt to check them out, you might like something.

http://twobmad.hubpages.com/hub/Making-a-good-use-of-Shopping-Malls-in-Philippines

We got a new reader today.  His name is Michael and he is getting ready to start a hitch in the USAF.  That’s a good choice on the military service Michael.  It’s better to be known as a ‘flyboy’, instead of a ‘squid’, ‘grunt’ or ‘jarhead’.  I hope that you will be able to make it a career.  Michael is half Filipino.  I don’t normally tell others this, but in this case Michael’s father is the Filipino and his mother is American.  That’s backwards from the usual, so I thought that was kind of special.  His parents plan to move to Lucapon in Zambales, next April.

I was going to do a feature of the town, but there were not enough pictures to do one.  As you can see, I’ve continued with my features of the Philippine Regions.  I’ve still hot 11 more to do after this one.

http://tripwow.tripadvisor.com/slideshow/philippines/tagaytay.html?p=5

Somehow or another I seem to have eaten another ant.  Not before it bite my upper lip though.  Yeah, my lip is a little swollen again.  I’m fixing to eat, after which I will brush my teeth and use some Listerine to see if that will help.

It’s 2:21pm now.  I just finished my stew, but I  haven’t gotten to the brushing or the Listerine yet.  I’m just making sure that there are no comments to answer.

It’s 3:12pm now.  The brushing and the Listerine are done.  It seems to be helping, but maybe that is just the alcohol stinging.  I’ll be able to judge it better in a few hours.

Yeah it looks like our Tacloban trip IS going to be pushed back.  I don’t anticipate it being any later than Saturday though.  I’m so close this time, so it just has to happen.

http://www.newgeography.com/content/002198-the-evolving-urban-form-manila

Emei is too drunk to fish.  Well at least to walk to his room, according to Lita.  He may have to sleep in our so called living room tonight or get some help to his own bed.

I went out there to check on him and he is not that drunk.  Lita is exaggerating again.  Emei has been thinking about his kids and grand kids and he misses them.  They all live in Tambis, way down in Southern Leyte.  He had to come up her to get a decent job with his cousin Titing, so he could support that family.

He will be alright.  He better be because he has to work in the morning.  Cousin or not, if you mess up on the job, Titing has no choice but to fire you.  But I’m sure Emei will be fine, it’s not his first day on earth and he is an “experience drinker”.

http://www.allposters.com/-sp/Housing-in-the-Divisoria-Distict-Manila-National-Capital-Region-Philippines-Posters_i2695806_.htm

I did make sure I got a picture of him all stupefied though.  While I was at it, I got a picture of the mysterious young lady that hangs out at Ramil/Robbie’s house like one day a week.  I still don’t have a name, but I did get a couple of pictures of her while she was cooking on the grill out front.

After I get a few more pictures, I will post them.  They will all probably be in tomorrow’s post.

The wind and rain tonight, mostly the wind, has caused us to decide to close early again.  For some reason when the weather is bad, people don’t show up to eat.  I guess they prefer to stay at home and not get so wet or blown away.

http://tripwow.tripadvisor.com/tripwow/ta-00be-1344-d63f

It’s 9:45pm now.  Leo is suppose to be going to Tacloban tomorrow morning on a Pepsi run.  We will find out if the road is open.  If so, we will make the trip to Tacloban on Friday or Saturday.  Lita can’t make up her mind right now which day she wants to go.  Both of them have their advantages and disadvantages.

Nice post tonight wasn’t it?

Useless Knowledge:  The seeing-eye dog, or any dog trained to guide the blind, cannot tell a red light from a green one. When it leads its master across the street, it watches the traffic flow to tell when it is safe to cross.  (Of course … because dogs are colored blind and only see everything in black and white … that must suck, but I guess they don’t care)

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

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

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

Nice post tonight wasn’t it?  It turned out a little bit longer than I figured, but it had some good stuff in there.  I have it written down to put the recent pictures I have taken in for tomorrow’s post, so I hope I remember to do that, I probably will.  I will continue with the Regions after the day after that, unless I get a lot more photos.  I probably won’t get more photos until we go to Tacloban on Saturday though.  I  hope I remember to bring the camera to Tacloban.

http://www.philippinecountry.com/metro_manila/

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

http://www.paraisophilippines.com/category/philippine-regions/national-capital-region/

http://www.trueknowledge.com/q/where_was_enchong_dee_born

http://www.philippines-travel-guide.com/national-capital-region.html

Salamat, Palaam

Today in Philippine History

26 JULY

Japanese occupies the US colony, the Philippines

1941 – Lt. Gen. Douglas MacArthur, military adviser to the United States colonial government in the Philippine Islands dubbed the “Philippine Commonwealth,” is placed in active service as commander of the newly created USAFFE (United States Armed Forces in the Far East) during World War II; some 100,000 Filipino soldiers whom MacArthur has trained in modern warfare will be inducted under his command; however, in five months’ time, Bataan province, where MacArthur will run to his retreat, will fall during the Japanese’s so-called December 1941-May 1942 Philippine Campaign, part of the early developments during the Pacific theatre of the Second World War, with Japan to be able to occupy the US colony, the Philippines, until 1945.

Photo credit: http://www.smccd.net/accounts/skylib/oralhist/Ignacio/