my 17 day trip

[Ray]

And the drama builds!

I sure hope piglett didn't get his nuts handed to him in the province...   
 

[robert angel]

Piglett,

Nice pics! You guys make a great looking couple. She's a lovely lady and just has that 'nice person' about her as well. Way to go, man! 

[Jeff S]

Hey pig - I agree - much prettier than the cam shots.

Love that bamboo floor.

[piglett]

So we head back into town with all of the requested documents for our marriage license & there is a small problem. The people in town in charge of issuing the marriage license have never seen an affidavit in lieu of certificate of legal capacity from the U.S.
Also to complicate things even more rite on the bottom of the affidavit there is a note that reads " the embassy assumes no responsibility for the contents or accuracy of the info mation provided in this document" the only thing that saved the day was the instructions that I had already printed from the U.S. embassy's web site. Once I handed it over things went much smoother & in fact they asked to keep the instructions that I had printed before leaving to go there. I looked rite at them & said "well i only intend to get married once so I will have no further use for those instructions in a matter of days anyhow. They gave me a big smile & told Marily & I to come back the day before the wedding to pick up the marriage license.

It was all looking good until we headed to our next appointment which was the priest.
He started to ask me a number of questions & then asked me for my baptismal certificate.
I explained that I was protestant & that I had never been baptised.
Well I can tell you that was not exactly what he wanted to hear.
After about 1/2 an hour of talking with him he said that he would have to speak with the bishop & that we would have to come back in a couple of days.

   

[piglett]

Hey pig - I agree - much prettier than the cam shots.

Love that bamboo floor.

The bamboo floor is great if you enjoy watching the the neighbors pigs root around under the house. All you need to do is just look down while relaxing in a chair in the house.
I also really enjoyed hearing the roosters crow starting at around 5:00am, you can hear them loud & clear because there are zero windows in the house only thin curtains   


piglett

[fathertime]

Congrats. pigglet, your wife is very attractive.  Now that you are married, I hope you can make it all work!

Fathertime!

[Ray]

OK piglett,

Now that you have Father Time's blessing, you have nothing more to worry about.

Just treat her like a princess, don't ever act like a "pig", and be a good, loving husband.

How can she resist that? 

Ray

[robert angel]

Piglett,

While FT's suggestion is well intentioned, ignore it for a while.

His saying >>Now that you are married, I hope you can make it all work!<< Is hasty.

Rather      >>Now that you are married, I hope you can make IT ALL PLAY for at least a couple months...

[piglett]

Piglett,
While FT's suggestion is well intentioned, ignore it for a while.
His saying >>Now that you are married, I hope you can make it all work!<< Is hasty.
Rather      >>Now that you are married, I hope you can make IT ALL PLAY for at least a couple months...

well she will not even be here for another year. that is how long I figure her CR-1 will take. So i should be able to hold it all together till at least then 

piglett

[piglett]

Sorry on the long delay on getting all of the trip report posted but as soon as I got back,I headed rite back to work & these 10 to 12 hours shifts have left me little time to give all of you the trip report that you all deserve.

OK when we last visited piglett & his soon to be bride they were meeting with resistance when dealing with the priest.

So Marily & i head back again to talk with the priest & he asks if I am willing to be baptised & convert to the catholic faith. After flying to the other side of the planet & was not going to let this speed bump stop me so i said " Oh what the hell" so after taking some classes at the church & kissing some @ss the priest said he could baptise me on the same day as the wedding & i agreed.

marily & I were also going to take some sort of health class that was required but it was waved because she is a nurse & the lady who teaches the class knew that Marily probably teach the class better than she could.


piglett

[michaelb]

Who knows how long it will take for her visa? But I certainly hope it does NOT take a year. Good luck to you two.

[piglett]

Marily & I spent a lot of time running around the island informing her many family members about the wedding. At one point Marily & I were on the other side on the island visiting an old woman who turned out to be Marily's grandmother's sister. Marily had not seen this woman in 20 years & when we walked up to the house Marily explained who we were, the woman started to openly cry rite then & there. She said she was very happy for us & that she would be glad to attend the wedding.

upon arriving @ Maily's parents house I was informed that her dad was ill. He has spot on the back side of his neck that was badly infected & it was about the size of a baseball.
I told Marily to go to the hospital with him & use some of the wedding money to pay the bill. After being admitted into the hospital & getting some medication he looked to be doing better for a few days & then he got even worse than before. Many older family members arrived to talk about the problem & I was asked what I thought.  The local hospital is not much of a hospital (not sure I would take a dog there) the hospital in Romblon from my understanding is better & I suggested that he be taken there. His younger brother uncle Nong Nong who speaks good English showed up & after getting all of the information he informs me that his brother (marily's dad) needs to go to the big hospital in manila at once. So I told Marily that we would just cut back on some of the things for the wedding & that she needed to give her parents some more wedding money. ( I thought her & I were on the same page when I said cut back....but I guess not) As the days passed i would ask Marily "how much do we have left?" It turns out that a few things had not figured into the price that I was given for the wedding.

At one point within days of the wedding Marily & I were at one of her aunts houses & once the two ladies told me how much cash was still needed for the wedding I knew dam well that we didn't have that much left.

Then the big surprise hit. Marily had got it into her head "she" or "we" should borrow $400 or $500 from someone there on the island & agree to pay it back in 30 days with interest. This was a big shock to say the least to me. Marily had always been very tight with her money & had never said anything about borrowing one peso to me.
I didn't want to make her look bad in front of her aunt so I asked her to go for a walk with me. I had to ask her a couple of times, she had a strange look on her face, she wasn't mad , not sure what the look was exactly.

So we walk down to the beach which is close by & find a place to sit.
I ask her how on earth she expects to be able to pay the loan back.
My math said that she only makes about $182 a month there & it would take her at least 3 months to come up with the amount of cash that she was thinking about borrowing. I explained that borrowing money was a bad way to start off a new marriage. I also explained that I would have my hands full with paying for her visa, review class, NCLEX, my plane ticket for her interview & her plane ticket here.
Still she wanted to borrow the money. It was like was hypnotized , maybe it was a case of wedding fever ?? So I figured I better lay the law down to her before she digs us into a big hole. I told her we are not borrowing any money & don't go behind my back & borrow any either. Things got a little emotional at that point but in the end we were on the same page.


piglett    
      

[piglett]

Who knows how long it will take for her visa? But I certainly hope it does NOT take a year. Good luck to you two.

I figure the CR-1 will be about 1 year.
However this will give her time to take the review class that she needs & also pass the NCLEX

piglett

[piglett]

A couple of days before the wedding that case of wedding fever that I thought had passed reared it's ugly head once more. I really think that if I had not forced her to set aside our fare for the ship so we could return to Manila she would have spent that too.

I sat her down & asked " how many ladies on this island will ever have a wedding like we are about to have?" she replied well almost none because of the high cost.
then I said  "so if you only get 90% of the wedding that you wanted it will still be much much better than what most ladies here can ever dream of having ....rite?"
She than started to see the light. I repeated that same question every time she started to talk about spending the few hundred pesos that we had left & it worked.
On the day of the wedding we were flat broke except for out fare for the boat & i still had $120 in my money belt. ( i wanted to be sure that I had the departure fee covered)
The good news is that one person did give us some cash as a wedding gift so we had a little walking around money. Once we returned to Manila I was also able to withdraw a few bucks from an account that I had just opened for Marily. I left her my ATM card for this account & the bank is open 7 days a week here in town so I can deposit cash here & text her to go withdraw it there rite away. I think the ATM fee is p200 which I figured I could live. Also the bank here didn't charge me any fee for using their card overseas, so it's all good!

[piglett]

marily & i spent our 1 night honeymoon at a place on the island called "seabreeze"
We rented a small room for only p500 a night. We brought some of the left overs from the reception & the old lady reheated them for us free of charge.
They also have larger (nicer) rooms but the small room was fine for us on this trip.
I think I would stay there again, the ocean view was great & everyone there was very friendly.

wedding prep
the day before the wedding aunts & uncles started to just come out of the wood work.
The men did what needed to be done to the cows(2) & pigs(3)
the ladies started to cook all sorts of different kinds of dishes that were all unknown to me. Somehow one of Marilys brothers borrowed a sound system from a friend & man oh man was it loud. by 10pm I was ready to bed down but there were about 30 people all running around & the music was REALLY LOUD!!!!
I decided that it was time for this little piglett to take a walk.
after heading down the road about a mile & found a concrete bridge & there was a nice breeze rite there so I figured that "this is the spot".
however I knew Marily would not know where I was & I didn't want to make her look bad by making a scene so I headed back & asked her to join be for a walk.
we got back to the house after midnight & it was still as loud as ever .
I think she asked her brother to turn the music down which he did thank god!
her & i slept well that night, I guess at that point we were really tired from all the running around & just ready to get on with the wedding.

piglett

[fathertime]

hey piggglet,

i guess you will not really have a great perspective on married life for quite some time.  hopefully you can ram that paperwork through a little quicker..if i were in your shoes i wouldn't want my (very attractive) wife to be away from me for too long!  it may go against your grain..but you should throw every financial resource you can at getting her here quickly and trying to visit her too if the delay is too long....this may be the one time you have to beg   or borrow money to make something happen...but these opportunities don't come around too often and if it were me i would drunkenly say " I'M ALL IN"  and not let money slow me down in any way or shape....On a side note...i have a buddy here who lives in an office (with bathroom) to save money (showers at the gym), when his spouse arrives he will be in a regular house/apt....he pays about 250 a month in rent (instead of about 1,000) he does this so he has money to do all the other things for his spouse that is still in china...perhaps there is something (rather extreme) that you could do to enable you to have a little more free money...

good luck,

Fathertime!

[piglett]

hey piggglet,

i guess you will not really have a great perspective on married life for quite some time.  hopefully you can ram that paperwork through a little quicker..if i were in your shoes i wouldn't want my (very attractive) wife to be away from me for too long!  it may go against your grain..but you should throw every financial resource you can at getting her here quickly and trying to visit her too if the delay is too long....this may be the one time you have to beg   or borrow money to make something happen...but these opportunities don't come around too often and if it were me i would drunkenly say " I'M ALL IN"  and not let money slow me down in any way or shape....On a side note...i have a buddy here who lives in an office (with bathroom) to save money (showers at the gym), when his spouse arrives he will be in a regular house/apt....he pays about 250 a month in rent (instead of about 1,000) he does this so he has money to do all the other things for his spouse that is still in china...perhaps there is something (rather extreme) that you could do to enable you to have a little more free money...
good luck,
Fathertime!

I can tell you that I am already spending money differently now that I am married. I just came from the super Walmart & the had large jars of whole dill pickles.
I love those but decided that I didn't want to part with $4.34 for a gallon of those babys. I am also big into movies but they are also on the chopping block until my new wife arrives.

As far as housing goes FT I own a house with a payment that's about 1/2 of what rent would be so I'm good to go there. I have work that I can do on the side falling from the trees rite now so everything looks good at this point.


thanks
piglett

[z_k_g]

if i were in your shoes i wouldn't want my (very attractive) wife to be away from me for too long! 

Piggy my friend, your wife is HOT, fathertime can't really see that well anymore (probably cuz his wife is such a peach, hehe)

Dude, get her over here as soon as possible, the pinoys are not as blind as father time and for some reason married women attract men like flies!!

Get crack-a-lackin!!

Zulu

[z_k_g]

Then the big surprise hit. Marily had got it into her head "she" or "we" should borrow $400 or $500 from someone there on the island & agree to pay it back in 30 days with interest. This was a big shock to say the least to me. Marily had always been very tight with her money & had never said anything about borrowing one peso to me.

Things got a little emotional at that point but in the end we were on the same page.

Piggy, red flag!  If she is taking these types of liberties in PI, imagine the damage stateside once she gets around a few AmW who will show her "the ropes" 

Before long you will be calling the 1-800-Reduce My credit card debt blokes and making minimum payments for credit cards you had no idea she had!

Get a handle on this now!

Zulu

[fathertime]

Piggy my friend, your wife is HOT, fathertime can't really see that well anymore (probably cuz his wife is such a peach, hehe)

Dude, get her over here as soon as possible, the pinoys are not as blind as father time and for some reason married women attract men like flies!!

Get crack-a-lackin!!

Zulu

very attractive=hot....I'm trying to use more age appropriate language ..but I think you all know what I mean!

I can tell you that I am already spending money differently now that I am married. I just came from the super Walmart & the had large jars of whole dill pickles.
I love those but decided that I didn't want to part with $4.34 for a gallon of those babys. I am also big into movies but they are also on the chopping block until my new wife arrives.

As far as housing goes FT I own a house with a payment that's about 1/2 of what rent would be so I'm good to go there. I have work that I can do on the side falling from the trees rite now so everything looks good at this point.


thanks
piglett

Sounds like you are making good decisions...but you shouldn't be denied your pickles and movies! We all should have our little harmless pleasures, especially when married!  It seems to make sense to take all the side work you can get right now, and taper off after your wife arrives.

Fathertime!

[piglett]

Piggy, red flag!  If she is taking these types of liberties in PI, imagine the damage stateside once she gets around a few AmW who will show her "the ropes"  

Before long you will be calling the 1-800-Reduce My credit card debt blokes and making minimum payments for credit cards you had no idea she had!
Get a handle on this now!
Zulu

not to worry I don't have any stupid credit cards ( been there done that) or car loans or time shares. Marily makes less than p10,000 a month there yet she was able to save p12,000 so she is normally a saver not a spender. Anytime the two of us have talked about borrowing money she says " oh no no" she just had wedding fever & it started to make her a little crazy.

BTW I will be the one to lead & she will be the one to follow.This is what she always says that she wants ME to do, so I will. Once she gets here her & I will sit down & figure out a budget & WE will stick to it. Both her & I will get X dollars a week to spend however we see fit & the rest will be spent on household bills & saving towards goals that the 2 of us have agreed upon in advance.


piglett

[z_k_g]

BTW I will be the one to lead & she will be the one to follow.

Piggy, good plan!

Zulu

[robert angel]

They don't call them 'Piggy' banks for nothing!

[piglett]

They don't call them 'Piggy' banks for nothing!

I hang onto my piggy bank sooooo tight I make it squeal 


piglett

[Bob_S]

Then the big surprise hit. Marily had got it into her head "she" or "we" should borrow $400 or $500 from someone there on the island & agree to pay it back in 30 days with interest. This was a big shock to say the least to me. Marily had always been very tight with her money & had never said anything about borrowing one peso to me.
Things got a little emotional at that point but in the end we were on the same page.

Piggy, red flag!  If she is taking these types of liberties in PI, imagine the damage stateside once she gets around a few AmW who will show her "the ropes"

Oh, I dunno.  Having a money discussion is normal for a married couple.  But it would be a MAJOR RED FLAG if after they had their discussion, she went ahead and borrowed the money.  That would have been a definite sign to slam on the brakes and get the heck outta Dodge.