I was up bright and early Friday at 6.30am as I had to be in Las pinas for 9 am. It takes an hour to get there by cab, if we used the meter it would only cost about 200 pesos (£2) but this is one instance when I do understand the cabbie not wanting to use the meter and just have an agreed fixed price, he has to go out of town and the chances of him getting a fare back to Makati are slim, so we agree a fare of either 300 or 400 pesos depends on how much of a hurry I am in. If I have the time then I do the barter game... you know.. he says 500.. I gasp audibly and walk away... he either drives away or calls me back to agree a low price.... usually i can get them down to 300 and if he is friendly and a good driver I will give him 400 anyway.
It was a very hot morning in Las Pinas, so much so that after 3 hours I was beginning to feel faint, some of the other coaches asked if I was ok because my face was red and blotchy. I went to the comfort room and they were right I didn't look very good ( not that I ever do... thought I'd get that in before someone made a clever comment !!) and I didn't feel very well. I then just went home and rested and slept the rest of the afternoon. By 7pm I felt better (sleep and aircon work wonders) but felt very hungry so popped into Greenbelt and had 2 meals and 2 pints of beer, their meals are so small that 2 equals a normal one for westerners, though in saying that I have got used to their portions but yesterday I was exceptionally hungry.
I'm off to Las Pinas again today (Sat)to coach as they prepare for their big Tourney next Saturday.
Hope the sun is shining wherever you are,
Saturday, 13 October 2007
Friday, 12 October 2007
BB.......... yes at last
Globe surprisingly did come yesterday at 1pm as promised, it really did surprise me as I thought that they would at least be late, but there you go when you least expect it.
So I am all up and running and ready for action on the internet front. Pics will follow very soon.
Stayed at home last night as I didn't feel too good, also had an early night as I had badminton coaching at 9am this morning in Las Pinas.
I used my skype phone to speak to a friend at home in the UK, it was excellent, clear as a bell over the 7000 miles and best of all is that it is free !! So if you have skype or any other voip phone, feel free to call me.
Thanks for the message Anne. Yes there are lots of skyscrapers here, I think your perception of Manila may change when you see some photos later. Yes I do see quite a few white guys particularly here in Makati but there seems to be an unwritten law that we don't make eye contact. I have spoken to an American here at my condo but no-one else, sometimes a nod of acknowledgement is given. But then again why should be try and be friends just because we are the same colour.
So I am all up and running and ready for action on the internet front. Pics will follow very soon.
Stayed at home last night as I didn't feel too good, also had an early night as I had badminton coaching at 9am this morning in Las Pinas.
I used my skype phone to speak to a friend at home in the UK, it was excellent, clear as a bell over the 7000 miles and best of all is that it is free !! So if you have skype or any other voip phone, feel free to call me.
Thanks for the message Anne. Yes there are lots of skyscrapers here, I think your perception of Manila may change when you see some photos later. Yes I do see quite a few white guys particularly here in Makati but there seems to be an unwritten law that we don't make eye contact. I have spoken to an American here at my condo but no-one else, sometimes a nod of acknowledgement is given. But then again why should be try and be friends just because we are the same colour.
Thursday, 11 October 2007
BB............... the legend
Well as usual... no BB, it may be today !!!! ;-)
I have managed to get online at home though, if I kneel on the sofa with my laptop pressed against the window I can piggyback an unsecured network, which is what I'm doing now. Of course it drops a lot but beggars can't be choosers.
The weather was great yesterday, very hot but little humidity which was a nice change.
I am up on the 18th floor, mozzies are not supposed to fly very high, they say if you live above the 7th floor that you won't see them. Well pardner they sure fly to my condo !! I reckon there's a mozzie somewhere near the ground that tells all his mates that there is a juicy foreigner on the 18th and it's worth the effort. All my windows are closed so I can only presume that they get in via the aircon. I must admit though that I don't get bitten as much as I did the first 2 weeks.
As you would expect there is a lot of begging over here but not always what you would expect, of course you have the street kids and you have the blind ones being guided around by a helper, but there is another kind too. The hard luck story ones, I'm not saying that they are lying but then again every one here can tell you a hard luck story. They are usually quite well dressed young ladies maybe even mums with their children but always about to tell you their story if you listen but it will always have the same ending.... can you give me some money. You have to be firm as I am and just say "no thanks" and carry on walking. You can always see someone about to approach you, it's like a radar for them but also for me too, I keep my peripheral vision wide, so that I can see when anyone is going to accost me then I speed up to give them a body swerve.
You also have the "hotel employee", this is usually a guy, you may just be walking down the street and he will walk alongside you and say "hi sir, do you remember me I work in your hotel" of course most foreigners stay in hotels as they are tourists, this is their get your attention icebreaker, they may walk with you for a while using friendly talk then they will give you their hard luck story, "need money for a sick child...mother....grandma...caribou...whatever. I got clever to this on a previous trip and I used to say " which hotel", this caught a few of them out. In my first week here on this trip I got one H.E walk with me, I asked him which hotel but he did know where I was staying, I think he followed me when I left my hotel to sound more truthful. Unfortunately I simply ignore everyone that is about to approach me, they rarely get past "excuse me sir" before I am about 5 yards away of them.
I have managed to get online at home though, if I kneel on the sofa with my laptop pressed against the window I can piggyback an unsecured network, which is what I'm doing now. Of course it drops a lot but beggars can't be choosers.
The weather was great yesterday, very hot but little humidity which was a nice change.
I am up on the 18th floor, mozzies are not supposed to fly very high, they say if you live above the 7th floor that you won't see them. Well pardner they sure fly to my condo !! I reckon there's a mozzie somewhere near the ground that tells all his mates that there is a juicy foreigner on the 18th and it's worth the effort. All my windows are closed so I can only presume that they get in via the aircon. I must admit though that I don't get bitten as much as I did the first 2 weeks.
As you would expect there is a lot of begging over here but not always what you would expect, of course you have the street kids and you have the blind ones being guided around by a helper, but there is another kind too. The hard luck story ones, I'm not saying that they are lying but then again every one here can tell you a hard luck story. They are usually quite well dressed young ladies maybe even mums with their children but always about to tell you their story if you listen but it will always have the same ending.... can you give me some money. You have to be firm as I am and just say "no thanks" and carry on walking. You can always see someone about to approach you, it's like a radar for them but also for me too, I keep my peripheral vision wide, so that I can see when anyone is going to accost me then I speed up to give them a body swerve.
You also have the "hotel employee", this is usually a guy, you may just be walking down the street and he will walk alongside you and say "hi sir, do you remember me I work in your hotel" of course most foreigners stay in hotels as they are tourists, this is their get your attention icebreaker, they may walk with you for a while using friendly talk then they will give you their hard luck story, "need money for a sick child...mother....grandma...caribou...whatever. I got clever to this on a previous trip and I used to say " which hotel", this caught a few of them out. In my first week here on this trip I got one H.E walk with me, I asked him which hotel but he did know where I was staying, I think he followed me when I left my hotel to sound more truthful. Unfortunately I simply ignore everyone that is about to approach me, they rarely get past "excuse me sir" before I am about 5 yards away of them.
Wednesday, 10 October 2007
BB.... the next episode...........
Yesterday (Tuesday) as you can guess I was getting a bit fed up with the waiting, I had to get a bit angry with people to get things done. Shame that I had to resort to that but I can't wait forever. I contacted Globe myself as mentioned in my previous post, they say no application has been received so someone is lying to me. I contacted the broker he assures me the application is being processed but I still give him a bit of stress, he obviously contacted the owner who then rang me, I gave her a bit of stress too. The upsurge of all this is that my BB is being installed today at 1pm...... we shall see. I think what has happened is either the application was lost or held up or more probable it wasn't put in to Globe in the first place by the owner, but Filipinos don't like to lose face by saying that they messed up so they will just pay you lip service until things work out.
So if I do get BB installed today it means that I can upload some pics in the next few days. Then I can start to make some videos too.
Friday is a holiday here, I am going to Las Pinas Friday and Saturday to coach the players that are taking part in the national tourney on the 20th. I haven't had much time to help them but I think it will have made a difference especially in the mixed doubles.
The last few days have been quite cool with some rain showers, I like the rain as it isn't cold, I can still walk around in shorts, get wet and be dry again once the sun returns.
Hope the sun is shining wherever you are....
So if I do get BB installed today it means that I can upload some pics in the next few days. Then I can start to make some videos too.
Friday is a holiday here, I am going to Las Pinas Friday and Saturday to coach the players that are taking part in the national tourney on the 20th. I haven't had much time to help them but I think it will have made a difference especially in the mixed doubles.
The last few days have been quite cool with some rain showers, I like the rain as it isn't cold, I can still walk around in shorts, get wet and be dry again once the sun returns.
Hope the sun is shining wherever you are....
Tuesday, 9 October 2007
Broadband
As you can probably guess my BB wasn't installed yesterday (Monday), the broker that is dealing with it went to the Globe office and they now say that it will get done on Friday... yea OK.
I'm tired of this so am visiting the office myself this morning. I phoned their customer services last night, they asked which name was the application filed, I guessed the owners name... NO nothing under that name... well maybe my name......... No nothing there either......... I ask, can you find it under the address.......... No sir that is not possible... OK bye. I then contacted the broker he says that the owner filed it under her friends name in New York........ well that's helpful isn't it !! I ring them again with the new name.......... sorry sir nothing under that name either !!! Apparently the call centres here don't actually have the info that the office has....... again that's helpful isn't it. So I am going to the office myself though I know it won't make the slightest bit of difference, I feel that I must try to do something rather than constantly going through a 3rd party.
Other than that Monday was a restful day as will today (Tuesday) be. The sun is shining again... surprise !! and there is a cool breeze which is really nice.
One thing that you see a lot of here which is quite quaint, is that a lot of people, guy with guy, woman with woman, husband/wife or any other combination walk along together with an arm on their friends shoulder, at first I thought they were probably "good" friends but no, I have seen a lot guys I know do it with their mates and I know that they are not "good" friends. It just seems to be an accepted way of showing friendship, it's not around the shoulder but actually on the shoulder like the way a blind person may put their hand on your shoulder for you to guide them. It's quite cute but I can't imagine doing it along Uxbridge High St as I may get some queer looks... pardon the pun !!
I'm tired of this so am visiting the office myself this morning. I phoned their customer services last night, they asked which name was the application filed, I guessed the owners name... NO nothing under that name... well maybe my name......... No nothing there either......... I ask, can you find it under the address.......... No sir that is not possible... OK bye. I then contacted the broker he says that the owner filed it under her friends name in New York........ well that's helpful isn't it !! I ring them again with the new name.......... sorry sir nothing under that name either !!! Apparently the call centres here don't actually have the info that the office has....... again that's helpful isn't it. So I am going to the office myself though I know it won't make the slightest bit of difference, I feel that I must try to do something rather than constantly going through a 3rd party.
Other than that Monday was a restful day as will today (Tuesday) be. The sun is shining again... surprise !! and there is a cool breeze which is really nice.
One thing that you see a lot of here which is quite quaint, is that a lot of people, guy with guy, woman with woman, husband/wife or any other combination walk along together with an arm on their friends shoulder, at first I thought they were probably "good" friends but no, I have seen a lot guys I know do it with their mates and I know that they are not "good" friends. It just seems to be an accepted way of showing friendship, it's not around the shoulder but actually on the shoulder like the way a blind person may put their hand on your shoulder for you to guide them. It's quite cute but I can't imagine doing it along Uxbridge High St as I may get some queer looks... pardon the pun !!
Monday, 8 October 2007
11am
It's Monday morning and my broadband is supposed to be installed............... I won't hold my breath. It would be great if it was installed as I have some pics that I want to upload.... I'll just have to wait and see.
I'm afraid things are very quiet here at the mo, after Saturday I was feeling a bit stiff in my legs so have taken Anne's advice and decided to have a few days rest from playing. I won't play again until wednesday.
This will give me time to do some walking around some other areas early evening.
If I get BB installed I can do some uploading in the evenings and have some fun surfing again.
Anyone got Skype installed......... fancy a chat sometime ??
My first month has passed and I have enjoyed every minute so far.
Any visitors from St.Andrews that can update me on what's happening there ?
Hope the sun is shining wherever you are in the world
I'm afraid things are very quiet here at the mo, after Saturday I was feeling a bit stiff in my legs so have taken Anne's advice and decided to have a few days rest from playing. I won't play again until wednesday.
This will give me time to do some walking around some other areas early evening.
If I get BB installed I can do some uploading in the evenings and have some fun surfing again.
Anyone got Skype installed......... fancy a chat sometime ??
My first month has passed and I have enjoyed every minute so far.
Any visitors from St.Andrews that can update me on what's happening there ?
Hope the sun is shining wherever you are in the world
Sunday, 7 October 2007
Noon
Yesterday (Sat) I went to Las Pinas to do some coaching, it was a really enjoyable day. I coached some superb players mixed doubles tactics, they found it difficult at the beginning but soon got to grips with the basics, they have a National tournament in 2 weeks time and I'm hoping this pair will do well in the mixed doubles.
They have 53 players playing in this tourney !!!!! I have been given the honour of being part of the coaching team to attend, they presented me with the Tourney shirt with my name on the back. I stayed on and helped with coaching some adults and played some games also.
On the way home by cab we passed through the "rough" areas, they look so interesting and really these are the places that I would love to walk through to look around. There are so many people doing so many things, so different from home. I'm constantly told that I shouldn't go there by people, which I abide by but I don't think it is as bad as people say. Sure I would get a lot of looks but that is normal..... a white face amongst a background of brown faces does stand out and gets you a lot of attention at times.
I got home at 11pm but was hungry so went out to the local bar/grill for a snack and a beer. I walked home just after midnight and as usual got accosted by some street children selling flowers, I never buy because I know that it is just a ploy to attain some cash, not even for the kids, somewhere in the street will be someone that is organising them. It may be their parents or a "minder" of sorts but at a guess he/she is the one that gets the cash.
Anyway I refused as usual, there was 3 of them, a 12/13 year old girl and 2 boys about 8/9 all streetwise of course. They asked if I could buy them something to eat as they were very hungry, they did look it and didn't look in the best of shape with teeth missing and poorly dressed. So as it pulled at the heartstrings and I wasn't giving them money I thought OK I will help this time, they knew exactly where a mini mart was, just 50 yds from my condo. Anyway we go inside, the employees know the situation as I am obviously not the first sucker (tourist) to go along with this, they try for some expensive sweets............ NO you will have the basics.. chicken and rice..... so they are happy, then they ask for a drink............... OK no problem.
An adult of the same ilk entered and spoke to them... mother I would guess, anyway that is it I pay and we all go our own way.
I have seen these kids many times selling rubbish flowers or begging, it is so sad but it is difficult with so many of them around. I wonder if they eat the food or is it then shared with the adults.... probably.
So instead of giving them a few pesos I ended up spending 300 pesos on food, did I do the right thing... probably yes, did I help overall.... probably no. Would I do it again... probably yes but next time I would insist that they sit down in the mart so I can see that they actually get to eat the food.
Wherever you are in the world I hope you and your children eat well today and are healthy.
They have 53 players playing in this tourney !!!!! I have been given the honour of being part of the coaching team to attend, they presented me with the Tourney shirt with my name on the back. I stayed on and helped with coaching some adults and played some games also.
On the way home by cab we passed through the "rough" areas, they look so interesting and really these are the places that I would love to walk through to look around. There are so many people doing so many things, so different from home. I'm constantly told that I shouldn't go there by people, which I abide by but I don't think it is as bad as people say. Sure I would get a lot of looks but that is normal..... a white face amongst a background of brown faces does stand out and gets you a lot of attention at times.
I got home at 11pm but was hungry so went out to the local bar/grill for a snack and a beer. I walked home just after midnight and as usual got accosted by some street children selling flowers, I never buy because I know that it is just a ploy to attain some cash, not even for the kids, somewhere in the street will be someone that is organising them. It may be their parents or a "minder" of sorts but at a guess he/she is the one that gets the cash.
Anyway I refused as usual, there was 3 of them, a 12/13 year old girl and 2 boys about 8/9 all streetwise of course. They asked if I could buy them something to eat as they were very hungry, they did look it and didn't look in the best of shape with teeth missing and poorly dressed. So as it pulled at the heartstrings and I wasn't giving them money I thought OK I will help this time, they knew exactly where a mini mart was, just 50 yds from my condo. Anyway we go inside, the employees know the situation as I am obviously not the first sucker (tourist) to go along with this, they try for some expensive sweets............ NO you will have the basics.. chicken and rice..... so they are happy, then they ask for a drink............... OK no problem.
An adult of the same ilk entered and spoke to them... mother I would guess, anyway that is it I pay and we all go our own way.
I have seen these kids many times selling rubbish flowers or begging, it is so sad but it is difficult with so many of them around. I wonder if they eat the food or is it then shared with the adults.... probably.
So instead of giving them a few pesos I ended up spending 300 pesos on food, did I do the right thing... probably yes, did I help overall.... probably no. Would I do it again... probably yes but next time I would insist that they sit down in the mart so I can see that they actually get to eat the food.
Wherever you are in the world I hope you and your children eat well today and are healthy.
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