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Jun 25, 2017 11:55:38 GMT
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Well, Malate Catholic School continues where it left off last academic year. Let’s take a look so far.  Week 1 – Four days due to Independence Day. No actual academic work but Tania is weighed and measured (light and small). Daddy George fills out 20 forms for various school sections, all requiring the same information. Week 2 – Five whole days! No actual academic work. Spent the week setting up their iPads that are supposed to streamline learning. Unfortunately, the school intranet keeps falling over (surprise, surprise) so not too streamlined just yet. PE on Thursday, and Friday spent umming and arring over which of the many school clubs she wants to join. None, to my knowledge - she's not a big joiner. This is all called "Orientation" to give it an air of usefulness. Another 5 forms to fill out. It’d be easier to stand outside school and give every teacher, administrator and child our address and phone number individually. On the subject of iPads, school very kindly offered to do me a “Good Deal” on one at a mere 18,000 Peso (around GBP300 – excluding software). Madam found exactly the same one for a third the price! Week 3 – we can make certain predictions here. At the maximum it’ll be three and a half days. Tomorrow, school is closed for Eid. Because Catholic. Tuesday they finish at 12, so as to make way for a blood donating session. Mysteriously, this is from 10am ‘til 12. Don’t ask.  So whilst they’ve not officially introduced the previously threatened four day week, they’re not doing too badly. One downside is that the P38 is playing up. Actually, that should be my car fixing motivation is playing up, but the upshot is I’ve been using the hateful Toyota Fortuner to do the school run. They say that absence makes the heart grow fonder and I suppose that if I never saw it again, I may look back more kindly in twenty years, but right now I still hate it.  The only good thing is that Madam selected what looks like 100% tint for the windows (seeing out not being a prerequisite for driving in the Philippines) so at least nobody knows it’s me in the damn thing. I really must get stuck in tomorrow. |
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skinnylew
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 5,683
Club RR Member Number: 11
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Jun 27, 2017 16:59:15 GMT
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100% tint for driver anonimity/if you can't see what you hit, it wasn't there, right?
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100% tint for driver anonimity/if you can't see what you hit, it wasn't there, right? You Driven here before then? :-) (for some reason I can't go to full reply mode for smileys) Drivers pull out of side roads staring resolutely ahead, caring nothing of approaching vehicles, until the noise. In fact manufacturers could save money by stamping doors out of a single sheets of metal. No holes, no glass, no expensive electric motors. Do away with the redundant door mirrors too. And the indicators, brake lights and a whole load of other superfluous stuff as well. Meanwhile, let’s have a little look at justice in action, Philippine style. Yesterday it was time for Kuya John’s first appearance on the made up drug dealing charge. He received no official notification and we only found out via a call from someone who’d seen a Facebook post. Me? I’ve no idea either. So, after saying a tearful goodbye, off he pops at 07:30 only to reappear at around 3pm, “G’wan than, What happened?” Now originally, the charge sheet stated that there were five arresting officers, all from Malate (we’ve never worked out why a Malate officer would be making an arrest in Tondo either) whereas on the day, there were two, both from Tondo, one of which John knew. He was also held in a Tondo gaol, not Malate. Apparently all the arresting officers should attend the hearing, but in this case there was only one and he was neither one of the actual ones nor one that was named on the charge sheet. Still with me? Cos I’m lost. It seems that for a little donation, the officer who was attending suddenly became just an interested bystander. This means the police offered no actual evidence. Now, anywhere else, that’d be the end of the matter. No evidence, no charge, right? So was it? Oh no, no, no. He’s got to reappear on 5th July, when the coppers get another bite of the cherry. Should anyone turn up. Got to smile at the fact that the “Judge” thought nothing of the fact that the only policeman there to present, suddenly wasn’t. Anyway, he’s been appointed a Public Defender who seems to think it’ll just all go away. Maybe. Eventually. Possibly. |
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Smiler
Posted a lot
I no longer own anything FWD! Or with less than 6 cylinders, or 2.5ltrs! :)
Posts: 2,492
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Last Edit: Jun 30, 2017 8:27:16 GMT by Smiler
www.Auto-tat.co.uk'96 Range Rover P38 DSE (daily driver) '71 Reliant Scimitar SE5 GTE 3.0ltr Jag V6 Conversion '79 Reliant Scimitar SE6A 3.0ltr 24valve Omega Conversion '85 Escort Cabrio 2.0 Zetec - Sold '91 BMW 525i - Sold '82 Cortina 2.9i Ghia Cosworth - Sold '72 VW Campervan - Sold '65 LandRover 88" - Sold
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?? My Dear Sir, that's way too many questions and the answer to all of them is, "Not got a bleeding clue!" |
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Just another day in the Philippines…
Some of you may remember from way back, that when Madam was shot and lying in intensive care, several of her family decided to go help themselves to her stuff from the house, you know, TVs, jewelry and the like, that just being the type of folk they are.
We reported this to the police at the time but, of course, they were too tired to do anything and went back to sleep.
However, Mr.Duterte likes them awake, so last night they happened to shoot one of the offenders dead.
My understanding is that he had a considerable quantity of Shabu with him and tried to do a runner. I also hear that the responsible copper is now looking at receiving a nice shiny new motorbike as a bonus from the government!
My informant also tells that the dead guy’s brother, who I had a great little roll-around with at the hospital the night the family tried, inexplicably, to storm it, is also on a ‘wanted’ list. Apparently he has, rather sensibly, gone into hiding.
I make no judgements, just the observation that Karma seems to work both ways.
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Jul 12, 2017 21:15:00 GMT
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Explain to the officer the great British tradition of swinging a bottle of red horse to smash against the front of the new vessel and then naming it after said miscreant?
Or is that too tasteless..?
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Jul 13, 2017 12:40:23 GMT
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I really don't know what goes through people's minds sometimes... Via an intermediary, a message arrived today from the 'family' asking if we'd pay for the funeral. Let me just consider this for a moment.  |
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Last Edit: Jul 13, 2017 20:12:48 GMT by georgeb
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Jul 13, 2017 19:04:51 GMT
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Surely George you could do the gentlemanly thing and pay for 4 litres of unleaded and a pack of matches for them, you never know they may get it wrong and reduce the number of thieving criminal cnuts in the 'family'.......
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Needs a bigger hammer mate.......
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Surely George you could do the gentlemanly thing and pay for 4 litres of unleaded and a pack of matches for them, you never know they may get it wrong and reduce the number of thieving criminal cnuts in the 'family'....... Understand your ideas but three problems. 1) Cremation is not a big concept here 2) Madam kinda likes the idea of something to dance on, should she be of a mind. 3) Any of Mr.Petron's finest will only be used on a certain little 4.6 girl I know who gets a tad thirsty from time to time. 😊 |
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Jul 14, 2017 18:58:10 GMT
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I really don't know what goes through people's minds sometimes... Via an intermediary, a message arrived today from the 'family' asking if we'd pay for the funeral. Let me just consider this for a moment. Would it be wrong to reply you had already paid enough to get him shot, you're no paying to put him in the ground as well? |
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Jul 16, 2017 23:21:04 GMT
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Let’s go back to ooh, I don’t know, November last year maybe, when I received a missive from the Centre of Learning that is Malate Catholic School. They had several projects on the go and were keen to tell me about them. They were:- 1) Installation of card swipe system for entry and exit. It would also act as formal ID and could be loaded so the children could pay for things like meals, stationary, etc. They actually had the cards last year, barcodes and everything, but no software or hardware to use them. 2) Introduction of IT based learning, via the use of i-Pads and intranet 3) And, a bit more ambitious, a new school gymnasium At the end of the letter, the programme for introduction of these wondrous upgrades was described thus; “…True to our faith, all these initiatives will be in place in God’s perfect time” So let’s have a look at how He is performing on the Project Management front. Swipe cards? Actually this is what prompted this whole thing. Two weeks ago, I was press-ganged into parting with 50 Peso so that Tania could have her new card. This morning, she showed me a small bit of laminated paper with a flowery border containing her picture and the word “Tania” and bereft of anything computer-y. Could have saved 30 Peso and had one knocked up down “Mrs.Sanchez’ I.D. Shoppe ‘n’ Café”, as there’s still no sign of the kit to run the new system. So, a fail there then.  When we signed her up for this school year, you’ll remember I was to purchase, at great expense, an i-Pad, onto which we then had to download a ton of “apps”. Now, the Project Manager may know why, but I certainly don’t. Aside from the fact that she’s already broken it and it’s away for a new screen, the intranet doesn’t work so no one has yet used them anyway. The replacement for the Cardinal Sin Gymnasium (someone has a sense of humour at least) has gone silent. All the banners with fancy artist renditions have disappeared, so that looks like it may subject to delay at the “No-one’s Really Thought This Through” stage as well. On the bright side, they've not had a single Walang Pasok...yet! |
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eternaloptimist
Posted a lot
Too many projects, not enough time or space...
Posts: 2,578
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Maybe you've underestimated them George - perhaps the pic of Tania is of such high resolution that it enables Iris pattern comparison from the pic on the card with the actual person holding the card. Oh, in which case you wouldn't need a card if it can do actual Iris recognition. As you were....
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XC70, VW split screen crew cab, Standard Ten
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Maybe you've underestimated them George - perhaps the pic of Tania is of such high resolution that it enables Iris pattern comparison from the pic on the card with the actual person holding the card. Oh, in which case you wouldn't need a card if it can do actual Iris recognition. As you were.... You could be right. .jpg) |
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Don't want to pee on my chips, but had a call from my port client a couple of hours ago, telling me he thinks he's broken the Department of Transport created impasse.
He has a meeting with DoT and PNR on Friday with a revised proposal that I've just finished revising for him.
Lots of stuff crossed here. This one is close to my heart!
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jamesd1972
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 2,917 
Club RR Member Number: 40
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And wallet ?!
Fingers crossed for you
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We've looked before at the Filipino's love of zero information. School's kicking out willy nilly, orgainising secret sea-sports festivals, etc. Well here's another. just up the road is an empty shop and recently, it's had a bunch of workmen doing stuff to it. Obviously it's going to open as something, but what? Well, the owner, knowing we're all on tenterhooks, has had a large banner produced. It says: "COMING SOON" So there we go. Could be anything from a branch of Mothercare to another outlet of the ever popular "Mrs. Sanchez' Cafe 'n' Botulism" franchise to a knocking shop. Anybody's guess. |
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And wallet ?! Fingers crossed for you Very, very much so! Thanks. |
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Don't want to pee on my chips, but had a call from my port client a couple of hours ago, telling me he thinks he's broken the Department of Transport created impasse. He has a meeting with DoT and PNR on Friday with a revised proposal that I've just finished revising for him. Lots of stuff crossed here. This one is close to my heart! Fingers and the rear crossed George. Let's hope this starts to move for you. |
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Thanks Rian. Just realised there's way too many 'revise-ing' words in my post. Must improve my Engerish! No matter |
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Last Edit: Jul 19, 2017 6:54:53 GMT by georgeb
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Ax GTi Turbo
??
