More of my observances not to rude or disagreeable.
After spending such a large amount on washing clothes, taxi’s, and eating out I started getting frugal. My funds starting to dip to the minimum I wanted to have when I left and I still have the trip to Baguio. Helen and Janie came over and took us to a dry cleaner that is washing and ironing our clothes for a total of P250. The only thing is that it’s so far away, closer to Harrison Plaza than our hotel. Oh well I guess sacrifices have to be made to save money – hehehe.
We rushed to get back from our trip to Nayong Pilipino and the cleaners because we knew May, Mary and Marianne were coming so that we could go out to dinner. Lily was totally excited about finally passing her interview. She was at Robinson Mall waiting on Helen and Janie. I think they wanted us to come with them but we already had plans. We tried to get them to come with us to no avail. Lily would have liked meeting Mary since they will be going to the same place in Hawaii, probably even the same military base were both of their husbands work.
I didn’t know where to eat at and several people recommended Aristocrat’s which sounded okay to me but then May said that Forest Café would be better and we ended up at Harbor View. Harbor View was a restaurant where you actually ate out over the water on a pier. From our view I could see quite a nice view of the bay and several ships in the harbor and even in the distance a “jack-up” rig for oil drilling. Back towards the city lots of skyscrapers but too many buildings are completely dark meaning that they are empty. Everyone wanted me to experience Filipino foods. So I let May and Honey order me what they thought I would like or they felt I needed to try. All of it was really nice and I guess I could make myself eat ampalaya but bitter vegetables are not a main stay on my diet. The shrimp was great, but they ate the heads!!! Gosh!!! Hmmmmm?
After the meal we all went over to the old Spanish Fort and Mission and took some pictures. I thought it was awesome to see buildings near 500 hundred years old still in such good repair. The architecture was so increditable. Then we went over to the old American Fort to see the ruins? What? Hmmmm? I think that statement says way too much.
They also showed Honey and I the performing arts building and told us the story of the many people who died because Imeda Marcos had this building built in Two months with out proper safety being considered. All of this is near a government project to partially fill the bay so that new lands would be available. But this has made the land prohibitively expensive and there is practically no commerce in the area.
At one part of the city I noticed four (4) very tall Condominiums. Three were so well taken care of, immaculate, then the fourth one – a ghost building. How does this happen. So confusing to me when they say the builder ran out of money. Ok but why not finish the building and sale at a lower profit than lose everything. So many buildings here like that. I think I have counted 15 or more. At the same time I can count from my window seven buildings under construction and I’m sure if I could see in the other four directions I would see even more. The mall we went to yesterday evening called Coastal Mall is a victim of this kind of thinking. They started the mall during a period of fast expansion and went belly-up before completed and no one finished it. I cannot imagine the lost jobs and effect on the community plus the effect of having such a massive structure, near empty, on the property values of the neighborhood. Particularly when this one is across the street from the empty condo mentioned above.
Honey was very upset yesterday. When we call the Embassy they told us no K-3’s were being issued as of yet. She cried a long time and even got a little “tampo” when confronted by Helen and Janie about it. She lay in my lap and cried for several hours this morning now that its almost positive we will have to separate again. I didn’t catch much of what she said when she was mad but it didn’t sound nice and I did hear the word “Embassy”. Even with all that it was nice to have her curl up in my lap for feel so safe and comfortable there. It is getting harder and harder to understand having to come home without her, but still it has to be done with the new job sending me e-mails detailing already my first days activities on Monday.
Honey did learn about “bathtubs” and bubble bath. She is currently relaxing in a hot bath with a wall of bubbles and grinning ear to ear. I think the trip has shown me that we will be closer than I had even thought. I never fail to see how much this girl really loves me and how much she is willing to show me. Even if she won’t agree to the “lasik surgery” and let me have more chocolates. I still get dizzy and headaches trying to comprehend how so much difference between AMs and Filipinas can be. I think Christmas will be the loneliest ever if she doesn’t get approved before then.
More to come.
Bear
