My last Friday..........TGIF

Sorry that there was no post yesterday but the Internet in the building was down, I stayed up until 1 am but it stayed down.

Today I was going to a summer training camp in Las Pinas but unfortunately coach William had an accident in his car whilst coming to pick me up. Shame as I was really looking forward to it, I was all packed and waiting by the mall when he phoned to tell me the news. He was hit by a Jeepney, no serious damage, bumper smashed off and the lights broken. He was lucky as the Jeepney owner (not the driver) agreed to pay his damage (very lucky) but is going to take the costs off the drivers salary each week (very unlucky). Car accidents are strange here to me, there doesn't seem to be a law about having insurance, the richest pays, the poorest drivers just leg it as quickly as they can, I was in coach Williams car when a tricycle bumped into him, the driver got onto the pavement with his tricycle and done a runner !!

Being a foreigner, if I am ever involved in an accident, it will definitely be my fault no matter what happened, even when the police come along it is still my fault.... WHY.... because I'm a foreigner and can afford to pay for the damage... no matter who caused it...... yes of course it's unfair but some things in life you just have to accept.
My friends have even told me.... I guess tongue in cheek..... but that if I ever run a person down it is best to make sure that they are dead as damages are worked out on limbs or senses damaged, so it is cheaper to kill them !! as then you only pay one set damage.

Today I walked through Greenbelt to get a karaoke mike for my brother Paul (nice mike bty), when a guy coming towards me stopped and gave me the " Hi sir do you remember me)routine, for those that have read my blog since it started you will remember this happened to me a lot, it's a way of con men getting to talk to you and walk with you as they pretend that they know you from your hotel, they say they are security there then go on to ask you for money for a sick child/mother/wife/cow or whatever. I used to quite enjoy the banter as I would always catch them out by asking "which hotel", of course they took a guess but never got it right, this time I was in a hurry so I just said to him " NO I don't know you" and carried on walking.

Rice is a big issue here at the moment, it is so important that it could be the downfall of the government. You have to realise that 90% of the population depend on eating rice 3 times a day. The Philippines used to be the biggest exporter of rice in Asia, it is now the biggest importer in Asia. The officials went to the Asian markets to buy their stocks of rice but because it is now more expensive they only managed to buy 20% of their quota, which will not fill the bellies of the population for 3 months. Rice prices have gone through the roof and there has been reports of hoarding, some businessmen have been arrested for that very thing. The government are trying to address the situation but have failed so far. Filipinos can do without beef, pork and chicken but if you ask them to do without rice... their staple diet.... this could cause big trouble. This could really bring down the Arroyo government.

At 6pm I decided to visit my favourite Chinese restaurant, it is in Greenbelt, really nice but expensive for here, a meal and 2 pints cost me £8, I know that's cheap for the UK but you can eat much cheaper here. Oddly enough I did have rice, the portions are huge, enough for 2 fat greedy Brits or for 4 Filipinos and their kids.... I only ate for 1 fat greedy Brit.... NO I didn't eat it all... only half !! But under the circumstances a real waste, the government have even asked the big fast food retailers to offer a half rice portion to save some stocks but the retailers and the public have ignored it, it's a shame really as a lot of rice is wasted in these restaurants.

I hope you all have a great weekend, I hope I do too as it is my last one in Manila.... everything I do at the moment is.... my last !!