My last Saturday..... :-)

Well it was a nice day today, the sun was shining and I had a walk around Makati and took some more photos. Yes I do feel very sad leaving but walking around helped me to appreciate what I have had here, I appreciated the "good afternoon sir" a little bit more as I won't be hearing it much in the UK.

In some ways though these last few days have been a bit difficult as I don't really don't know what to do with myself, returning to the UK is uppermost in my mind, Wednesday is looming over me and it seems to stop me from organising my day better as everything is being geared to leaving.

I had a real scare at 10.30 am this morning, I just realised that I hadn't obtained my exit clearance certificate from the Bureau of Immigration when I was last there. If you live in the Phils for 6 months or more you need this certificate to allow you to leave. I frantically rang them but of course it's the weekend so no answer, I checked their website to see when they are open but of course no information. It meant that I would have to get there on Monday morning first thing, I have to give them 3 photos and have my fingerprints taken. This would have spoiled my Monday as it is a complete day with my badminton friends, coaching under 18's during the day and adults part of the evening, then we are going for a farewell meal.

Then like a light bulb going off in my head I remembered..... I went to Vietnam in January.... which means that the 6 months restarts at that point, officially I have only been in the Phils for 3 months of this trip..... PHEW !!!!

Tomorrow (Sunday) will be my last day to rest, Monday is all badminton, Tuesday I have to make sure all bills are paid and up to date, I will have to have a clean up, the owner will be visiting to check out the condo and of course I have to pack everything away. Packing is going to be difficult as I have had to buy quite a lot of new clothes, I am allowed 35 kilos, I hope that I can keep under that, I may have to throw away some clothes to keep the weight down. I am allowed to bring home only £145 of things bought outside the UK, I wonder if there is a bit more leeway for someone that has been out of the UK for 7 months, as obviously during that time everyone would have bought some new clothes. We shall see... do I walk through the "nothing to declare" or the "declare" aisle ?

On my walks around Manila I often see people going through the rubbish bags looking for plastic, mostly bottles but anything made from plastic is saved, I believe that they get a few pesos for every kilo. I think it takes a lot of bottles to make up 1 kilo, mostly it is woman with their children that do it. On my walk home to my condo I mostly enter through the rear of the building (it's quicker) and often see a woman with her child going through our buildings rubbish, she is tidy, she saves what she wants from the rubbish bags and then re-ties them so there is no spillages.
Today when I came home she was there with her daughter, we smiled and as I am leaving the Phils I gave her daughter 50 pesos... she was overjoyed and ran over to tell her mum ( this is more than she earns in a day with the plastic) and I was able to take a photo of them, I felt a bit strange taking a pic of her when she was doing this, I felt uncomfortable like I was taking a pic of someone's misery for my own enjoyment.... anyway they both seemed to be OK with it and smiled. You can see for yourself below.

Notice how clean they are, you wouldn't think by looking at them that this is what they have to do to eat each day, for those that read my blog regularly you will remember how I told you before, they don't have much but what they do have they keep clean and look after well.




I hope you all have a great weekend....................