I have had a setback

[Ray]

Well piggy, we'll be waiting for the report on that trip. Should be fun, but I hope she doesn't have a heart attack...
 
Of course you realize that by posting your plan here, there is a very good chance that she already heard about it through the bamboo telegraph   

Ray

[Dave H]

Hey piggy,

Now your talking! I LOVE IT! Man this is going to be interesting! You are going to have some story to tell! I hope it stays a secret until she sees you at her door. Good luck and have fun!!!

Dave

[piglett]

Well piggy, we'll be waiting for the report on that trip. Should be fun, but I hope she doesn't have a heart attack...
 Of course you realize that by posting your plan here, there is a very good chance that she already heard about it through the bamboo telegraph    Ray

Hey piggy,Now your talking! I LOVE IT! Man this is going to be interesting! You are going to have some story to tell! I hope it stays a secret until she sees you at her door. Good luck and have fun!!!Dave

she doesn't have a computer so her online time is very small. I don't think she has ever been on this site & she has never spoke of it either , so i would say the odds are fairly good that she will not find out from here. I'll have to make sure i don't post it on visa-journey, she does go on there from time 2 time. i don't want to let the cat out of the bag.


pig

[Ray]

i would say the odds are fairly good that she will not find out from here.

Well pig, I guess you don't know the bamboo telegraph... LOL!

Ray

[robert angel]

Re:

>>Well pig, I guess you don't know the bamboo telegraph... LOL!<<

Ain't that the truth! I've seen guys try and run 'secret action plays' between women in Mindanao and Manila (The two islands farthest apart in a nation of 7000+ islands) only to be much surprised to find out that there wasn't much at all that ended up being 'secret' after all. The internet can be scarily amazing and sometimes it can even be a 'friend of a friend' who happened to be on-line, got wind of what was going on and verbally relayed the 'secret'.

Then again, just like in the old fashioned kid's game of 'telephone', sometimes the message this case the 'information' can get all misconstrued. Hopefully you'll be fine--it will be a great surprise in the true sense. Any which way, I'm sure she'll be estactic to see ya, Piglett and you'll both have a great time.

PS--again--if you buy a fish finder for your in law--I suggest you go with a Garmin brand one--for the money and for salt water, they're pretty good--better than Hummingbird for salt and brackish water and cheaper. I like Garmin products--Lowrance is good too, but you typically pay more.

[piglett]

Re:

>>Well pig, I guess you don't know the bamboo telegraph... LOL!<<


PS--again--if you buy a fish finder for your in law--I suggest you go with a Garmin brand one--for the money and for salt water, they're pretty good--better than Hummingbird for salt and brackish water and cheaper. I like Garmin products--Lowrance is good too, but you typically pay more.

my inlaws have a bamboo floor in the front 1/2 of their house i sure hope it doesn't give me away 

as far as the fishfinder goes this is what has been recamended to me so far
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=390302341894
it looks EZ for my non english reading farther inlaw to figure out & it's priced rite

or my second choice is
http://cgi.ebay.com/Portable-Sonar-Fish-Water-Depth-Finder-Fishifinder-100M-/290548816324?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item43a60f19c4#ht_1833wt_905

i'm not sure the 2nd one will get the job done & hold up in the salt water for long....or maybe it's just as good. hard sayin not knowin


thanks
pig

[piglett]

i met an interesting older lady today while i was out & about.
one of the local bodyshops saves all of their doors, bumpers, radiators, ect for me. i pick them up every week or two which saves them from having to haul them off to the transfer station.
 while there the owner called me into the office & introduced me to a lady who was probably around 55 years of age. she asked me about my wife & how the visa process was going. after answering her she told me that her husband works for some construction company & they will be doing a bunch of work to update some of the embassy buildings in Manila. she said the she had already lived in manila once before & while there she took a job with the embassy. she said that should i have any problems with my wife's visa application that i should contact her & she would see what she could do.
 
I am not sure what duties she preformed while working at the embassy in Manila & I'm not sure who she knows but i guess it's good to have someone who mite be able to straighten out a snag if one happens to occur
 
 
pig

[thekfc]

I am not sure what duties she preformed while working at the embassy in Manila & I'm not sure who she knows but i guess it's good to have someone who mite be able to straighten out a snag if one happens to occur
pig

It's good to have someone to assist you should an issue arise but to avoid any issues you should do your part to prevent that from happening - control what you can. Make a checklist and go over it, make sure that you have all the required paperwork/documents, go over them & check for mistakes, etc,. Make sure that everything is in order..... 110%.

I know your situation and you are not in a "hurry" and this is just a reminder. We are approaching summer and NVC / Embassy workers will be taking their vacation so there may be less agents processing application - that could create a backlog/slowdown.

[jm21-2]

Week 2, things are going fine between us, but had a few things go wrong. Washing machine had some troubles right before she arrived, I fixed it pretty easily, but I missed some water when cleaning up (under the drying machine) and it stunk up the laundry room for several days (really bad). Smell seems to have mostly gone away now. Then last Thursday my car broke down due to a coolant problem...we were struggling with it for a while and thinking we'd have to buy a new car for me (which I hadn't really planned on) but seems to be going OK now. Or might just need something cheap like a new radiator cap. fingers crossed. Don't really have enough money for two cars.

[fathertime]

. Or might just need something cheap like a new radiator cap. fingers crossed. Don't really have enough money for two cars.

Must keep coolant under pressure to keep it from boiling over...the radiator cap is special and creates that pressure if it is sealing properly.  good luck

Fathertime!

[Ray]

 
Sounds like a blown head gasket...
 
 
Hey, just kidding! 
 
Is she done cleaning yet? I think William is still at it... (?)
 
 

[thekfc]

I gave up cleaning & let the wife take over. 

[robert angel]

Jm,
 
Glad to hear that things are going well. But when it comes to things in need of repair, when it rains, it pours! Hopefully it's just the radiator cap--they are really vital to maintaining system/coolant pressure and don't forget to keep some liquid (up to the line) in the overflow container. I realized that in our 1997 Toyota Camry, not only is there NO copper in the radiator, but most of the radiator's structure is made of PLASTIC.  A seam on the top was showing and when I squeezed the radiator hose, I could see coolent ooze out of the plastic seam across the front top. If it ruptured could've been expensive.

 
So we just replaced the radiator (don't let em stick you for a $69.95 'radiator flush' if they do change out the radiator)--they're pretty much already doing that by replacing all the fluid, our mechanic 'go to' guy told us. It needed and oil change and air filter (one of those air filters from hell to replace) and they pulled out the after market radio to replace a fuse that blew when when my son went to jump start it and reversed the positive and negative jumper connections --lucky we didn't blow the car's central computer---that's expensive.. Anyway--we were actually surprised the bill for all that was 'only' $338.

 
Most of the previous generation washers and dryers are surprisingly easy to fix, although some parts are pricey. Kudos for doing it yourself.

 
I don't know how much of an 'Asian thing' it is, but my wife insists a lot that our house smells bad--I have a pretty good nose and  don't notice anything--but seems she and I smell different things differently. She can fried dried fish and it's not that big a deal, but then notice some 'undescribable odor'. Any way, we have candles, oil burners and such we sometimes use, despite the house being pretty clean.
 

It's great owning a house, but kind of scary too, sometimes. I replaced the central heat and air unit a couple years back and now a couple shingles are coming off the roof--you really need to, when possible, put some 'rainy day' money away. Easier said then done.
 

But look at it this way--in my first marriage, we were happiest before we both started making decent money. We still had some disagreements about money matters, but once we both made enough where we could live w/o each other, matters got worse. Now my wife doesn't make too much and I pick up the slack and money is very rarely an issue.
 

[michaelb]

Kind of hard to diagnose a car that you're not looking at, but heater hoses fail much more often than radiator caps, particularly if they've got a few years on them. They are pretty easy to change out, that is, if the clamps are in an assessable location. Over heated antifreeze has a peculiar smell, very sweet, really hard hard to miss. I put a radiator in my 99 Honda a couple of years ago, cost $99.99 plus sales tax at a parts house. Took all of 15 minutes to install. Disclaimers: 1) In my younger days I actually worked as a mechanic, so I know what I'm doing (famous last words??) 2) This Honda was the easiest radiator to install I've ever seen. Only two hoses (manual transmission, so no transmission fluid cooling lines to mess with) and literally only one bolt (radiator fits down into a little sleeve about 3 inches deep at the bottom that keeps it in place, one bolt on a brace that holds the top of it in place).

Of course if you're not the mechanical type and/or don't have the tools and/or don't feel confident doing it then you'll have to hire it out. My (tongue in cheek) advice is to carry two gallon milk jugs full of water with you and keep a close eye on the gauge      

[piglett]

Then last Thursday my car broke down due to a coolant problem...we were struggling with it for a while and thinking we'd have to buy a new car for me (which I hadn't really planned on) but seems to be going OK now. Or might just need something cheap like a new radiator cap. fingers crossed. Don't really have enough money for two cars.

I'm not sure what kind of coolant problem you had exactly
If either the fan motor which cools the radiator or the thermatic switch which tells the fan motor to turn on took a dump you could have an overheating problem. the other thing that comes to mind is the water pump. if the water pump is leaking then you will be adding coolant or at least water to the cooling system.
did you ever find out exactly what the problem was ??
 
 
 
pig 

[michaelb]

JM, just remembered something you ought to know if you try to do the work yourself. Cats like to drink antifreeze. It will kill them. If you have any pets (or if you care about your neighbors' pets), keep them away and clean your work area very well when finished.

[robert angel]

Yea--be safe with antifreeze--most states still don't have laws that would make it taste bitter and would add maybe a few cents to the cost, saving lives. I'm not into new laws, but this one makes sense--just as being real careful when opening a hot, or even warm radiator makes sense too. Always have a thick towel or rags, if there's even a chance of it being hot in there. Otherwise, the  potential gusher can blind and scar you badly.

 

Click here to view larger

A federal bill designed to force antifreeze makers to add a bittering agent to their products is once again before the U.S. Congress, despite the fact lawmakers previously failed to consider two nearly identical measures.   

If enacted, H.R. 615, sponsored by Rep. Gary Ackerman, would amend the Federal Hazardous Substances Act to nationally require what already is mandatory in ten states and has been considered in a handful of others: Engine coolant must contain denatonium benzoate, the most bitter compound known, to render the sweet but toxic liquid unpalatable.

The goal of H.R. 615, or the Antifreeze Bittering Act of 2009, is to deter children and animals from drinking antifreeze. Ingesting just a tablespoon of ethylene glycol, the poisonous component in automotive antifreeze, can be lethal to a 10-pound cat. The Humane Society of the United States estimates that about 10,000 dogs and cats die from complications related to ethylene glycol toxicity each year, but other agencies guess that number to be much higher. Thousands of people are accidentally poisoned annually, states the American Association of Poison Control Centers. There also are reports of ethylene glycol-based antifreeze being used as a murder weapon http://news.vin.com/VINNews.aspx?articleId=15224

[Dave H]

JM, just remembered something you ought to know if you try to do the work yourself. Cats like to drink antifreeze. It will kill them.

Hey Michael,
 
Thanks for the tip!      
 
Dave

[piglett]

well it looks like I'll be buying my ticket for the up coming trip within a week. has anyone ever done an "airport change"
one of the flights had one in NY but how in the hell do i get from one place to the next??? do they provide a bus? do i have to pay for the bus? one ticket was $1335 plus taxes but........... there was a 10 hour layover on the way back , so i think I'll pass on that one.
 
 
pig

[thekfc]

Piglett, elaborate a bit on "airport change" & which airline are you plan on flying?

Normally you would ask the airline to tag your luggage all the way to the final destination so you wouldn't have to pick it up & re-check but with an airport change you would have to do it yourself.

If you are "transferring" from LGA (or EWR) to JFK, I would be wary. You would have to give yourself a lot of time - collecting your check bags, trip to JFK (about 1/2 hour on a good day from LGA, longer for EWR), rechecking and such. And since we do not know what airline (s) not sure if they will provide airport transfer, normally the answer would be no and you would have to provide your own transportation.  Can't you fly directly into JFK? that would be much easier & terminal transfer is a breeze.

Give us a little more info & airlines.

[Capstone]

I would heed KFC's warning about avoiding airport changes in NYC. I once did a LGA-JFK airport change and it was a big pain in the a$$ and is something that I will not do again. There are several companies that run mini bus shuttles between the 3 NYC airports (which is not free) but the hassle is just not worth the little money that you might save on airfare. Go for convenience over price in this case.

[thekfc]

Yep, I too in this case would go for the convenience over price.

Personally, LGA is an airport that I try to avoid - the way people try to avoid LAX, I try to avoid LGA,  I prefer to go all the way to EWR.....and LGA is the closest airport to me, about 1/2 hour away. 

[piglett]

http://www.cheapoair.com/Default.aspx?tabid=1685&sid=1&oa=MHT&da=MNL&adt=1&chd=0&snr=0&infl=0&infs=0&dd=07-03-2011&rd=07-14-2011&tt=ROUNDTRIP
 
well here is one example
there is an airport change IN JAPAN !!!!!!!
i think I'll pass on that whole mess thank U
 
i checked the same site a couple of days ago & they had an airport change in NYC like i already said, hey if i was a world traveler i mite give it a go but i just want to go see my sweetie with the least amount on BS
 
 
piglett 

[thekfc]

The session have timed out but I think that I can make out Manchester to Manila & 7/3 - 7/14 from the link......is that correct? I am in transit now & will check later when I get to work.

Not sure what you mean by airport change in Japan (cannot open link) but if it is transiting then I wouldn't worry about transiting in any of the 4 airport in Asia for you (HK, Taiwan, S Korea & Japan)  - transiting in these airport are great (a breeze), HKIA is one of the easier airport to transit in and jm (Taiwan) & Jeff S (Japan) can tell you how easy & painless these airports are.

Also in addition  to the search engines, check the airlines sites to see what they offer - price & better connections.

I would go for convenience & If I was in your shoe I would do NH to another domestic airport then a changeover in Asia then Manila (or directly to Manila if the domestic airport is on the west coast).

[Jeff S]

I think he means having to take ground transportation from one airport to another - like La Guardia to Kennedy - probably Narita to Haneda in Tokyo. I've had to do it in Shanghai (there are 4 Shanghai airports) and it was a hassle. Only recently have international flights re-started from Haneda. It's the older airport closer to downtown. I used to fly into there before they built the new airport way up north. Since the late 70s, when Narita opened, Haneda had been only used for domestic flights, but now they're expanding it to other east Asian commutes. That said, Narita to Haneda is probably one of the easier airport changes. The Japanese have public transportation figured out better than anyone - and everyone in the travel industry speaks English. It's extremely easy to get from Narita downtown, though you do need to go through baggage, customs, immigration, and security an extra time.