Wednesday, April 26, 2006
Well
today has been pretty much a laid back day. We pretty much
planned the whole day around 1 function and now that has ben cancelled
so it looks like we will have to make some different plans.
We were going to go out for dinner with Laila's lawyers, and I was
going to find out a little about the cases, but now they have cancelled
and won't be able to make it to the dinner.
I guess
now we will go to the market and pick up some food items to cook here
at home. Her mother is visiting so I will probably be cooking
tonight.
Anyway, while we were sitting around all day taking
it easy Laila and the kids were taking turns singing songs on the
Karaoke machine. I have kind avoided doing that as I don't sing
as good as I used too.
I was always brave when in a Karaoke Bar when I was half in the bag, but I have always stayed away from it when sober.
I am always hearing the kids giving her a hard time when she sings and
the fact that she is often off key. Well, they are not much
better, and I think it would be cool to record them and play it back so
that they can hear what they sound like.
After that Laila and
I did something we haven't done yet and that was to go through and read
some of the blogshares forum entries together. There seems
to be a whole lot of stuff going on.
I would like to make a
public appology to all blogshares players, as I was the person that
granted Ronnie Yu (Pyro 7) a one month premium membership.
I
though I was helping a deserving newbie, as Laila and I have done many
times in the past, but this time it seems I gave it to the wrong
person. I guess you just can't figure out some people.
Anyway we have had fun reading the entries and seeing what goes on,
though we have been pretty much absent from the forums for quite a
while now.
I am glad to see some of my old freinds taking
higher positions in the game. Maybe after I get Laila to the
states and we get all settled in and all one of us will try and get
more involved with the internals of the game. Until then both of
us have a pretty full plate of things in real life.
I have
been driving Laila nuts today, chasing her around the apartment with
the digital camera and snapping pictures at random.
As is
with any woman no pictures taken of her will ever be good enough for
posting. I keep teasing her that I am going to post them all on
Flickr, but I haven't. I have taken quite a few though, but have
not downloaded them to my laptop yet.
Other than that I
talked to my son via chat yesterday and everything at home is going
great. Today I paid another of my monthly bills online, and now
will get home just in time to pay next months bills.
I did
try and revise my flight status today, but decided I will hold off a
little longer on it. I leave here via Philippines Air on Sunday
at 8:30 PM and get to Los Angeles at 6:30 PM. My flight
from L.A. to San Diego leaves at 7:30 so I didn't leave myself much in
the way of time to get from PAL to United Express. I was going to
try and change it via the United Express website, but they want $100 to
change it, where if I do it at the airport on the same day it will cost
$25 or will be free. I guess I will try back tomorrow or Saturday
and see what is up. I also have to arrange for Cloud Nine Shuttle
to the house but I have to know when I will get to San Diego
first.
Oh well, a little excitement for the trip as I will try and make all the connections on time.
Well, it is almost time to go grocery shopping, so I have to get ready
to go. Again I will try and keep this up as much as possible and
will try and encourage Laila to update her blog. She is snacking
on Cheetos right now, while watching me update the blog. Now she
will have some excuse like cheese on her hands or something.
I guess Cheeto's are good for her leg injury or something. She
was told she needed more Calcium, cheese is made of milk and milk has
calcium, so Cheeto's must be good for that. Or they are just
fattening, but I don't think she wants to hear that.
Anyway, off to change clothing. Later.
Posted at 09:42 pm by RWO
The last couple of days Laila and I have been hanging out at home making sure the progress on her leg continues to improve, so we have been watching some DVD's that I brought from home and taking it easy. She has still found a little time to sing Karaoke and play on Neopets though. Her favorite game besides the slots seems to be Moon Rock Rampage and she can get a really high score on it when she wants to. Today it is not a world challenge game so she is just trying to get her 1000 points. She has also been talking about updating her blog for the last two days now, but has still managed to ignore it. She has been getting quite a bit of spam in her comments section and she has been taking care of that part of her blog at least. I think she has managed to tick someone off, as they seem to be pretty persistent and good at what they are doing to spam her blog from legitimate sites. She has been fighting back by restricting more and more keywords and all, but then I think it may eventually keep anyone from posting any comments on her blog as she has so many banned words. As for me, I have been making a run on blogshares when I get the chance. When I started this trip I was is 28th place and even though I haven't been playing as much I am up to 24th place and moving up. I have learned a few tips from the expert and am playing a bit smarter. I will really start moving up when I get back home and have more time in front of a PC instead of sharing and doing other things instead of PC stuff like we have been doing lately. Other than that I guess it is great to get away from the news for a while. I am so tired of seeing the same stuff day after day in the press and it was nice to take a break from everything. I will of course get back to regular blogging when I get back home on Sunday. Being away from the news and home does make you wonder about things though. I have really been feeling sorry for this one Ice Cream vendor that goes up and down Laila's street all day. For one he is on a bicycle and is running I would say a 5-mile route, maybe a little longer, but the big thing that would drive me nuts is he has to listen o the same little song over and over all day. I am sure he hears it in his head when he goes home at night. I think that has to be a slow form or torture or something. I get sort of like that after going to Disneyland. I always wind up with "It's a small world" going off in my head and can't get it to go away. I guess that's it for today. I hope everyone has a great week.
Posted at 04:15 am by RWO
Monday, April 24, 2006
Days passed by so quickly.
We got up early yesterday and showered, then went to church where
father Nelson Oroqueta, a Filipino Priest from Our Lady of Perpetual
Help Parish, said the mass. The mass was in Tagalog again but I
felt at home there since it is where Laila goes all the time for
worship.
After church we went to McDonalds for breakfast, and
had their version of a big breakfast. It is sausage, scrambled
eggs, and a muffin (or rice) with coffee. We also got a side
order of pancakes. Anyway their brewed coffee tasted a little
funny. Later, I had diarrhea, but then that happens sometimes
when you eat overseas.
We spent the afternoon doing some
chores around the house and then me, Laila and her children met Laila's
best friend, Vera, along with Sherwyn for ultimate buffet dinner at
Dad's. It took us four hours of chikka while eating until we
headed for home.
This morning, we got up early as we had to
go to Sta. Teresita General Hospital to check Laila's knee injury
. Dr. Rimando Saguin sent us off to get knee x-ray right
after Laila filled out Patient's Information Sheet. After
examining the film, he then tested her for yellow fluid or blood in her
knee by inserting a long needle. The result was negative
(thanks, God!). Dr. Saguin's assistant told her to drink milk
everyday, and try to reduce some weight. He prescribed
anti-inflamatory pills to take the swelling down and she must return to
Dr. Saguin's clinic after 7 days, if pain doesn't go away.
Right now I have her laying in bed with her leg elevated to help with
the swelling while I am trying to catch upon news, e-mails, and making
sure Laila stays in bed with the leg up.
Anyway, I
will try and blog when I can over the next few days, or I may just have
to blog when I get back home to San Diego. Sorry about the lack
of blogging but everything has been going so fast over here, except for
the travel from place to place. Traffic here is a nightmare.
Until tomorrow, take care.
Posted at 05:10 am by RWO
Saturday, April 22, 2006
Today,
we took our BS sponsored child, Sarah, to SM Sucat for some grocery
items and a pair of sandals as the pair she was wearing were rented
from a friend for two pesos, about 4 cents American dollars.
We started out at 10 AM when Rose Marie and Fred, the driver, dropped
by at Laila's house to pick us up. Again the traffic was terrible
as MMDA was doing some road works along Epifanio delos Santos Avenue
(EDSA). I am starting to learn the names of some of the cities
around here. Anyway near the airport is Tramo, Parañaque City
where Sarah and her family live in a depressed area.
We met
Sarah, Shiela, and their mother up at McDonalds and then took a short
drive over to the SM Sucat Mall. On the way, we were talking
about possible places to eat when Laila mentioned Chow King and we
found that the kids had not been there yet, so Chow King it was.
We parked the van in a basement and met Riel at Chow King. After
Laila had them remodel the place to accomodate our group (she is very
good at that), we sat down to a meal of Sweet and Sour Pork, Chicken,
Pancit Bihon, Rice and other stuff. The meal was great and the
kids really stuffed themselves as did everyone else.
After the meal we all went upstairs to the food section to buy food for
Sarah and her family. Laila, who is always really observant of
things caught Sarah's mother trying to add things to the list like milk
formula for her son's baby and things like that. We were there to
spend our money on Sarah and her needs other than the extended family.
We went ahead and filled up a shopping cart with grocery items and then
took them to Tramo where we put them on a tricycle for home. It
was great to see the smiles on Sarah and her sister's face as they
left, even though we have the feeling that their mother would probably
sell some of the food for cash. Sort of how the welfare folks in
the states do.
Anyway, we then headed back to Laila's house which again took quite a
while as the traffic again was miserable. She didn't know about
the traffic because she had slept through the trip back. I look
forward visiting Sarah and the Save the Children again on my next
visit. It was a very good feeling to be helping someone less
fortunate than ourselves and Laila and myself enjoyed it alot.
Posted at 08:00 am by RWO
Friday, April 21, 2006
Sarah, our sponsored child
Today after many months of waiting, Laila and I finally met Sarah, our blogshares sponsored child, through Save the Children.
We have been keeping in touch with Riel Andaluz
since I returned from my Christmas visit to Manila where we had applied
too late to visit with Sarah. Riel sent me all their forms and I
applied for a visit which was accepted. We received our itenerary
yesterday, and after getting up early this morning, eating breakfast
and then starting to get ready, Pearl told us that someone from Save
the Children was at the door. They were an hour early, and we
were not quite ready. Also Denise was asleep on the couch and we
didn't really want to have them come in and see that so, somehow Laila
excused us and asked if they could come back at 9 AM, as scheduled.
We went ahead and got ready and went downstairs at about 8:30 in case
they were waiting for us. They were not and then at 9 Laila
decided she wanted to wait upstairs. I told her to be patient and
wait but then we went ahead and started going upstairs. Just as
we got to the fourth floor they drove up and we went down again and got
into the van. We then headed off to their headquarters for a
brief presentation and to meet some of the folks that work there.
Traffic was really terrible and it took us quite a while to get there,
but when we did finally pull up we had a very warm reception. We
toured their office and met some of the staff. We then went to
the conference room for a power point slide presentation that had Laila
quite amazed.
Laila was always skeptical about Save the
Children. But then she suspects anything being run in the
Philippines if the government is involved. The slide show showed
all the different things they do and where our sponsorship money goes.
Not all of it goes to Sarah and I think that shocked Laila a bit.
I think Laila was under the impression that they just gave Sarah a
monthly allowance and she spent the money on her own, which is not the
case.
They use the money to buy some school supplies in the
beginning of school year, but then they also run programs for the
younger kids to prepare them for school, assist with school, and teach
them how to eat right, and sanitation. Sarah, in fact, serves an
ambassador to all children who are in the same school where she
studies. They received the same program benefits what Sarah
receives. They help children from 4 years old up to 18 years old only.
They also address birth control, and bad habits to older ones.
Anyway after seeing the presentation it was off to McDonalds to meet up
with Sarah and her family. We again got caught in traffic and it
took us quite a while to get there but we finally did.
Sarah. Her Mother, and Sister Sheila
Sarah is 12 years old and I was quite surprised by how small she
was. We met Sarah, her youngest sister, Shiela, and her
mother. Sarah is one of seven children in the household and her
father abandoned the family six months after her youngest child was
born.
ME, Laila, Sarah
Her mother works as a fish vendor but, it is a really low paying job
which is equivalent of 4 -5 dollars a day. Anyway Laila
learned a lot about the program from talking to some of the workers and
the family. Sarah didn't speak English so we just kind of smiled
and used sign language or let Laila translate for me.
We then
went to a community center where they were teaching job skills with
materials they have available. I felt really bad as this was an
extremely poor area, but the folks at the center were working hard, and
there were many volunteers there helping them out.
Tomorrow, we will be taking Sarah out on a shopping trip to a
mall. We were thinking of school supplies but after Laila talked
to Sarah, I guess we will be going grocery shopping instead, as Sarah
prefers grocery items and rice for her family. As a rule, we are not
allowed to give any cash donations to Sarah or her family.
Anyway, after that it was time for the long ride home. Laila's
knee gave her so much pain. Somehow, it is really nice to finally
put a real child in place of the picture and letters. We're
excited to take her and family out for shopping tomorrow...
Posted at 04:08 am by RWO
Tuesday, April 18, 2006
Getting a better schedule
Well today I finally got Laila all ready to finally update her blog. Low and behold, she is not able to access it. She is still trying to figure out what is going wrong there. I hope she figure it out as she needs to update her blog or she will lose her audience. This morning I got up at 5 AM again. I am kind of happy with the fact that I have managed to change her schedule. We go to bed at 11PM and get up at 5AM. We then shower and say the rosary. After that we have been making breakfast for the kids. Yesterday her mother and sister dropped by. We kind of got them hooked on the series "House" as I brought the first season on DVD with me. Everyone
loved it and they watched the first four episodes before Mama and
Pacette had to go home, after eating tacos of course. We have been having a little fun as I have been cooking western dishes white Laila fills in with Filipino dishes. It is fun though sometimes I can't get quite the right ingredients I am used to having at home. Also I am not used to the stove and smaller cookware. Anyway, I guess that is about it for now. I
am going to get this posted and then we will work on finding out what
is up with Laila's blog and then continue with out blogshares strategy. It sure is fun to be playing blogshares and kissing and hugging while waiting for the slow pages to load. Makes the game a lot more exciting for both of us.
Posted at 06:08 pm by RWO
Monday, April 17, 2006
Usually
since staying in the Philippines, I am awakened by the sounds of the
roosters crowing in the morning. They have been waking me up
between 5:30 and 6 AM each morning which has been driving Laila nuts as
she likes to sleep in. I still haven't determined if the roosters
are crowing in Tagalog or English as the rooster crows sound the same
same in both countries.
I am just not used to all the noise
and since for years, all I got is 4 to 6 hours sleep anyway, I have
been getting plenty of rest and have a lot of energy.
This
morning was a little bit different. Laila and I went to bed early last
night to make sure we got up for the Easter Sunday Service. It is
afterall the most holiest of Catholic Days "The Resurrection of
Christ", and so we wanted to make sure we were on time.
Here
I was sound asleep and then all of a sudden, all of these firecrackers
started going off all over town. I looked at my watch and it was
only 4 AM, so I was wondering what was up. Laila was still sound
asleep so I went to the restroom and then came in and played a little
blogshares, until she woke up and asked me where I was. I think
she got a little hot under the collar when I told her I was playing
blogshares as the firecrackers woke me up. Anyway I told her the
noise woke me up, logged off and went back to bed.
I asked
her about why they did that and she said she would ask her friend Vera
about it. I guess Vera pretty much knows all the customs and
stuff, so she is the one to ask about it.
We then stayed in
bed until 5:30 and then it was time to get ready for mass. We
took a shower, ( I am starting to get used to the cold water).and then
said the rosary, something we have been doing together since I got
here, and then went to church.
The Italian father gave the
mass today and it was kind of a mixture of Tagalog and English, mostly
Tagalog. I kind of caught pretty much of what was going on and
though they use different songs during their mass and all, I felt I
knew what was going on.
At church the message was that
everyone has been resurrected upon baptism and when you see someone
messing up, try to look at the good in them and use that as a starting
point for change. At least that is what I caught from the
message. Also as we were leaving church they gave us each an
Easter Egg made by the children of the parish.
After
that we went to breakfast at McDonalds, yeah, I know, such class, but
without wheels and with everything closed it was hard to find a fancy
place for breakfast. I miss IHOP and Denny's for special
breakafsts.
After that we went to that great shopping venue
7-11 and got some donuts, ice cream, milk and orange soda. We
usually catch a taxi but since we were just up the street from the
house we caught a tricycle. Laila has been scared to ride them
because of her knee. When she got into and out of this one, her
knee actually felt better. Humm, I wonder what is up with
that. We will have to watch that over the next few days.
Anyway, we are waiting for the mall to open. I have to buy and
install a door handle for her bathroom. Yesterday the door handle
broke and I got locked in the bathroom. I will get a good handle
and install it properly and that should take care of that. We
then are thinking about watching a movie.
Posted at 07:46 am by RWO
Friday, April 14, 2006
Am finally adjusting
to the hours here in Quezon City. It is
really hot and I am glad Laila has air conditioning. I have been getting pretty
much used to everything but all the noise at night. Here the transportation system consists mainly of modified jeeps
called Jeepney’s and Tricycle type motorcycles. They are quite noisy at night.
At home the only noise I get is when the neighbors are
fighting or having a party, which gets the dogs barking. Then occasionally something loud will go by
on the South Bay Freeway, but that is rare.
Most of the time when we go places we go by taxi. I don’t think I could drive here, as there
does not seem to be any traffic laws.
We always seem to get where we are going safely though so I guess the
system works for them.
It is pretty cool to be part of a family again. We all got up early had breakfast then we
had to go do some more grocery shopping.
Since all the grocery shopping is done by taxi we do it in stages. Also
since Laila lives on the 4th floor again it helps to do the shopping
a little at the time.
Almost all our shopping is done at S and M which is like a
mall size version of Walmart, though there are many different stores
there. The food store is really crowded
every time I have been there, and they drive the carts just as bad as they
drive their cars. I lost count of how
many times my foot was run over or that I was bumped into. Also you have to watch carefully for the
professional thieves that like to take purses, wallets, and cell phones. They are always making announcements telling
you to watch your stuff. Also it was
really bad Wednesday because here they really celebrate the Holy Week. The stores hut down on Thursday and some
will remain closed until Monday. Others
will open on Saturday but will be closed again Sunday.
We are planning on attending mass on Sunday, but it has been
pretty hard to get anywhere during the holiday’s due to non-availability of
taxi service. There have been some, but
Laila says they charge double for the holidays.
I have actually been working on this post for a couple of
days now. We have been taking turns on
her PC and I have had to check e-mails and all of that stuff. I think both of us have been neglecting our
blogs.
Also we have both been spending a lot of our time together. Leaves little time for blogging or game
playing. Besides we can get caught up
with that kind of stuff when I go back home again.
We are still alive, and we are doing well. I can definitely say that most of the time I
am traveling I can’t wait to get home.
This time like my last visit here, I don’t want to leave. I am having a lot of fun with someone whose
company I enjoy. We will try and keep
up our blogs a little better over the next couple of days.
Posted at 11:42 pm by RWO
Monday, April 10, 2006
Well I am in Manila now and after a long flight yesterday I wasn't really ready to blog anything. I was a little behind on sleep but I have now caught up. Yesterday was really different than my trip through the airport last time. For one thing I knew where I had to go and to get there fast. I got through immigration really fast as I was 4th in line. After waiting a while to get my bag, I had no problem getting through customs either. Unlike last time where it took me hours to get through all the airport stuff I was in and out in no time. Then came the hard part, I left the terminal, and in Manila they have everyone wait for passengers in one area. I looked over the crowd and did not see her so I went to the taxi and van area. I had just arrived there and found a place to wait and as I turned toward the taxis and vans, there was Laila and Pearl. I was surprised that I found them so fast. We then had to wait for our van as Butch, our driver, had parked it waiting for me to get through customs and all. After that we went home and everyone took a nap. We got up in time to go to Palm Sunday Services and then we went to an all you can eat place called Dad's for dinner. After dinner we came home and I had brought some CD's from home to watch. Well the kids picked out the "Ring" so Laila, who can't stand horror,and I came into here and got online. I
posted my travel blog entry and then we showed each other some tricks
we had learned playing the Neopets games as well I make a few
blogshares moves. We got up and had breakfast and then went to the beauty shop and all of us got haircuts and a few extras. We are now getting ready to go grocery shopping. I want to get Laila out and exercise her bad knee without causing any permanent damage and walking is good for that. Anyway, we are still hitting it off, and I am going to close this down for now and get ready to go to the grocery store.
Posted at 08:26 pm by RWO
Thursday, April 06, 2006
Laila is pretty angry tonight and I can't really blame her. She subscribes to the Philippines Long Distance Telepnone Company (PLDT). Her internet speed is down into the range of dialup many times recently.
She has called their tech support several times and gets the runaround. They have not fixed it, nor really have any ideas.
She sent me a link to this site where people have been complaining about PLDT's poor service and I wonder how a company that has such poor customer service is allowed to continue to be in operation.
I am with SBC and have only experienced problems twice in the past 3 or 4 years. Each time it was taken care of really fast, even though I did have to deal with folks in India with strong accents.
I hope they get her DSL straightened out before I get there as I want to keep everyone informed of my trip and what we are up to. But if we are going to be on dial up speed even though I will blog on my laptop and transfer it with my memory stick, it will still take forever.
Laila is paying quite a bit of money, that she really doesn't have to, pay for this service. With such crappy customer service she should be entitled to a refund, since she is paying for a service she is not receiving.
Hopefully Laila will be here soon using my SBC DSL and won't have to depend on PLDT.
Posted at 09:01 pm by RWO
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