Wednesday – 6 Oct 2010

[smartads] Lita woke me up early this morning, at 5:59,  to go outside and move a bench and also to move the tricycle.  The fellow that was suppose to pick up the tricycle this morning, Eddie’s neighbor, did not come by today.  Not sure what’s going on with that, but Lita must, although she hasn’t told me anything about it yet.  I guess I was a little grumpy this morning because Lita said after this you can go back to bed and sleep all day if you want to.  Well I’m not one for arguing, usually, so I stayed in bed until 10:37.  Didn’t get any complaints about it either, so I guess she meant it.

When I was checking my Facebook this morning, I found out that my oldest cousin, Ricky, died on Sunday at a local hospital there in Texas.  I found that out on his baby’s sister’s site.  I didn’t get to see Ricky too much, but when I did, he usually made me laugh.  I’m going to miss him.

Hey Winda, I said ‘mga’ correctly, after she got home.  She knew exactly what I was talking about the first time I said it.

I found out today that Titing and Neneng had to go to the hospital.  Evidently they got some type of food poisoning.  At first we were thinking it was the beef we all had yesterday, but I’m not sick, so it can’t be that.  Then we found out that they had some mushrooms yesterday evening that might have caused the problem.  Sure enough, that’s what the doctor said it was, the mushrooms.  Seems like they’ll both be okay, but Titing has to spend the night at the hospital.  Things look good for him to be back home tomorrow though.  I wonder how long before they eat mushrooms again?  Lita had to go shopping downtown today and she stopped by the hospital to see them both.  Neneng is allowed to come home, but she wants to stay with Titing as long as possible before she has to come home.

Well it seems that my niece, Jaclyn, will be coming for a visit about the middle of next year.  Her, her husband and their son.   Not sure I should give out all their names without permission, so I’ll just leave it at that for now.  Jaclyn if it’s okay, feel free to tell everyone.  Right now it looks like they will be coming in June, right at the end of summer.  It’ll probably still be a little hot, but still not a lot of rain, so that might turn out to be a good time to visit.  She wants to go to Manila for a little shopping first.  She’s got to have some of the Coach purses they have there.  Jaclyn you know that the ones they have here are just knock offs, right?  They are not the actually Coach purses.  Same for the Louie Vitton, I think that’s the name of the other ones, they’re all knock offs.  Depending on when they arrive in Manila, we will pick them up and travel, by car, back to Calbayog.  Maybe after that long drive, they’ll decide to take a plane from here to Manila.  It’d be rough to make that trip twice in the short time they’ll be here.  They only plan to be on vacation for 10 days, so that won’t leave much time to be here.  So the trip by car from Manila to here once, is a good thing.  That way they can see a lot of the PI.  If they come in late, then I know a good place to stay in Pampanga.  The name of the hotel escapes my memory right now, but we’ve stayed there 3 times now.    Oh wait, it’s Woodland Park, or something like that.  They have an Olympic size swimming pool there and by June I should have a nice enough looking body to take a dip without worrying about being harpooned.  They also have a 24 hour bar there, right next to the pool.  I figured while they are visiting we would take them to Malajog beach, so they can see in person what they have only seen in pictures.  I was talking to Mar and he wanted to know if they would like to go to Hindag-an Falls and Forest Park  too.  That’s down in Tambis, and we’d have to ride in the POS to get there, but maybe by then it won’t be a POS.  We are going to give it several tests before their scheduled arrival day anyway.  Figure if they want to do that, are you reading all this Jaclyn?, then we could spend a couple of days here, then a couple more in Tambis, come back here for a couple more, then it’ll be time for them to go.  Not sure they’d want to do that much traveling, but if they want to see things, then they must to some traveling anyway.  Visiting the province is a unique experience I think.  It’s something that you will remember for a long time anyway.  I know I still remember my first visit to Tambis, back in 2000.  I got sick my first time visiting there, but the medicine the doctor gave me cured me in only 2 doses, so it wasn’t too big of a deal.  Bring some Pepto Bismol, vitamins and aspirin just in case Jaclyn, couldn’t hurt.  When I know they are coming for sure, I will make it a point to start getting good things to eat.  I’ve already asked her to bring me some things when she comes, so if she brings a little extra, she’ll have something to eat, just in case they don’t adjust to the food here.  Like I’ve said before, I’m a picky eater and I’ve found a few things I can eat here.  Only thing I eat at the restaurants is the orange chicken at Chow King and the french fries at Jollibees.   The fruit and vegetables here are good.  It’s just finding what you want that becomes a little difficult sometimes.  All in all I think they’ll have a good time.  That’s what a vacation is all about anyway, isn’t it?  Jaclyn is also wanting to meet Cathy.  They know each other through letters, but have never met.  They wrote to each other a long time ago, but Cathy always asks me how Jaclyn is, just like they were good friends.  Precious likes to nod her head a lot these days, so I told her that I was going to get her a boyfriend pretty soon and she nodded her head yes.  It was funny for me, and it made her smile too, but I’m sure she doesn’t know why.  Even though I’ve cautioned Jaclyn about bringing her son, because of the long, tiring trip, we’d really like to see him and it’d be interesting when he mets Precious anyway.   We are both looking forward to their trip and glad that someone in my family decided to experience some of the rest of the world for themselves.  My sister, Cindy, and I are the only ones that have been outside the country, not counting Mexico.  Oh, and my nephew David, Wanda’s oldest son, has been here to the Philippines once, back in 2002.  I guess he didn’t like it much because he’s never been back.  Maybe someday he will though.

Tagalog word of the day:  anak (ah-nawk) means son.

Mar and Ludy were just here.  They came by to chit chat and eat some BBQ.  They don’t eat for free either by the way, they pay the full price for the BBQ.  They brought my favorite Marianne in the whole world with them, their daughter.  She’s a really nice young lady, and very respectful.  Of course most of the younger Filipino’s are respectful because they are raised that way.  They may not always like it, but they still respect it.  I enjoy talking with her, and giving her a hard time.  Are you reading this Marianne?

I talked with Mar about MJTS and he approved the final flyer, so I’m going to be adding that to the blog as soon as I figure out how.  It does have the prices on there, but we agreed tonight that the first batch of 5-10 tourist would get a 15% discount and if the group is 10 or above, it would be a 20% discount.  Well we agreed on a discount, but these are the numbers I’m coming up with for the discounts.  It may be a little high of a discount, but it’ll be alright.  If necessary, I’ll take the cut from my take.  I just would like to get the first batch through so they can see what a wonderful service we will have and they can start telling their friends.  I hope the first group through is very critical too, because I personally will be doing my utmost to be sure they have a pleasant stay here and I’d like to know if I’m not doing what I should be doing for them.

Anyway, be looking for that and think about us when/if you are planning a vacation here.  We will be adjustable on the price even.  For instance, with our plan, tourist will be staying in 3 and 4 star hotels/resorts.  If you don’t mind staying in 2 star hotels/resorts, or accommodations, then we can make the price less expensive.  I’m the go between to decide on the final price and the sites that the tourist want to see.  Because we will get accommodations close to the sites that they wish to see to save on travel time, and there are many sites to choose from.  We want as much notice and information as possible, so we can get you the best for what you are paying.  I made a special e-mail, that is on the flyer, just for talking with people about MJTS.  Check it out, let me know.  Thanks.

Lastly for today, if you will notice at the bottom of each post there is now icons for y’all to share the things I say here to anyone on the different sites listed, like Google, Twitter and Facebook.  If you see anything here that you think someone else would like, then please pass it on to them.  Maybe it will get them curious enough to check out my blog for themselves.  That is what I was thinking when I put those icons there.

I added something to the Philippine trivia in yesterday’s post.  I found a little more information and just added it there.

The Woman With 3,400 Shoes
Former First Lady Imelda Marcos was listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the woman with the largest collection of shoes. Reports said that when the Marcos family fled to Hawaii during the People’s Power Revolution in 1986, around 3,400 pairs of shoes were discovered in one room at Malacanang Palace. They were the First Lady’s collection.
In 1987, Mrs. Marcos denied this and claimed she had only 1,060 pairs of shoes. The former First Lady has an eight-and-a-half inch footwear size. She said her having many shoes is not a symbol of extravagance but an expression of love and appreciation for Filipino-made shoes. Most of her shoes, she added, were bought from Marikina, the shoe capital of the Philippines. For this, Marikina City had acquired 200 pairs of the Marcos shoes and put them on display at the city’s shoe museum.

Salamat, Palaam