So, what are we up to then?
Work’s been grindingly busy. Being the only person that can run the operational simulation programme has become a real pain in the proverbial. People just don’t understand how they work, they think it’s like a video game where you press “Play” and go. The fact that each new one takes me around 3 days to set up and run (and I’m pretty slick now) is lost on them. As soon as I hear, “Can you just…” I’ve already said, “No!”
I really hate 14-hour days, especially over weekends.
Mangos: Hmm, that’ll teach me to listen to My Little Bottle Opener. She was the one who told me they were bitter. Apparently the word she should have used was, “unripe”. Seems that now they are fit for purpose, they have been declared beautifully sweet and everyone’s wandering around chewing mango.
Just as well really, this was the sight that greeted me this morning (and about every morning for the last three weeks!)
So, I’m going to investigate the availability of rum and give that recipe a try.
Anyway, having had my newly minted passport since February, the mighty Bureau of Immigration have now given it a new visa and that, along with my Alien Registration Card will be ready for collection on Monday. Freedom again. If I was allowed to go anywhere.
This is good news as, having failed completely with Globe internet, the next supplier in line needs passport/work visa to supply a mere foreigner.
Globe were great. Having told me I could only have the slowest package available, because obviously White Guys can’t pay, they then turned around and decided I could have their super-duper deal because, well, I’d suddenly become lovely, or something. Then, after several weeks of nothing, the little man turned up to install and informed me that I was back to zero again because Globe had no fibre into where I lived, despite their website (and agent) telling me the opposite. I sent him away.
Globe then called me to ask if I was satisfied with the installation and the speed of internet. That was an interesting chat, I’ll tell you.
Meantime, My Little Bottle Opener turned 18 the other Sunday, so we had a bit of a do. We checked with our immediate village hall to ascertain what was allowable. The reason behind this is simple.
For example, Central government may say you can have fifty people due to COVID regulations, City government decide they actually meant thirty and by the time your local one has chipped in, three may be the limit. Everyone has their own take on the rules, so lowest common denominator it is.
Anyway, twenty guests was the approved number, so we set about it. These are the pitfalls:
1) Madam ordered a “Money Tree,” whatever that is. The reason I say that is because despite being paid for, it never arrived, so I’ve never seen one.
2) Madam also ordered a three tiered cake. Looked great until Tania, sticking her finger into the icing, discovered that the top two tiers were polystyrene blocks.
As you can imagine, Madam was on a mission on the Monday morning!
Interestingly, the cake, below, was in the shape of three suitcases. Subliminal, or what?
To be fair, she’d also arranged for someone to come and decorate the place. They did a good job, albeit Philippine style. Suppose one out of three ain’t bad.
Meantime, I’d discovered that whilst it’s still illegal to buy alcohol in Parañaque, I can buy it online and get it shipped in. Sorted!
Anyway, Tania, surrounded by her friends, Jack Daniels and Johnny Walker, had a great time. I stayed out of the way, apart from saying the obligatory few words and the night passed without major incident.
Of course, due to the curfew, I awoke on the Monday morning to find dead teenagers everywhere. Fortunately, they’d heeded my advice that, unless they wanted to be awake really, really early, they should avoid kipping in my office. Anyway, after I’d bought MacDonald’s breakfast for twenty, eighteen of them went home. That means we had three teen girls in the house, one of which, bizarrely, brought her dog, bringing us to eight of them as well.
I also decided that being as I was spending all my hard earned on stuff for other people, or not, in the case of the Money Tree, I'd treat myself.
And very pleasant is it too!
We had a mail from work this week telling us that that they’d be paying for COVID vaccine. This would be at some undefinable time in the future, and no, no idea which medicine it’d be, but we had to let them know by the following day. My colleague asked about vaccination certification, and was told that wasn’t available. Oh, as they were paying for all this up front to an, “agent,” if we cancelled, for whatever reason, we’d owe US$75. Now sounding more and more like a Nigerian scam, strangely, I didn’t sign up.
So that's us pretty much up to date.
Oh and whilst I remember, Tania's birthday was on 23 May, it's now 8 June. The two friends (and extra dog) still haven't gone home!
And have a gratuitous sunset pic.
Work’s been grindingly busy. Being the only person that can run the operational simulation programme has become a real pain in the proverbial. People just don’t understand how they work, they think it’s like a video game where you press “Play” and go. The fact that each new one takes me around 3 days to set up and run (and I’m pretty slick now) is lost on them. As soon as I hear, “Can you just…” I’ve already said, “No!”
I really hate 14-hour days, especially over weekends.
Mangos: Hmm, that’ll teach me to listen to My Little Bottle Opener. She was the one who told me they were bitter. Apparently the word she should have used was, “unripe”. Seems that now they are fit for purpose, they have been declared beautifully sweet and everyone’s wandering around chewing mango.
Just as well really, this was the sight that greeted me this morning (and about every morning for the last three weeks!)
So, I’m going to investigate the availability of rum and give that recipe a try.
Anyway, having had my newly minted passport since February, the mighty Bureau of Immigration have now given it a new visa and that, along with my Alien Registration Card will be ready for collection on Monday. Freedom again. If I was allowed to go anywhere.
This is good news as, having failed completely with Globe internet, the next supplier in line needs passport/work visa to supply a mere foreigner.
Globe were great. Having told me I could only have the slowest package available, because obviously White Guys can’t pay, they then turned around and decided I could have their super-duper deal because, well, I’d suddenly become lovely, or something. Then, after several weeks of nothing, the little man turned up to install and informed me that I was back to zero again because Globe had no fibre into where I lived, despite their website (and agent) telling me the opposite. I sent him away.
Globe then called me to ask if I was satisfied with the installation and the speed of internet. That was an interesting chat, I’ll tell you.
Meantime, My Little Bottle Opener turned 18 the other Sunday, so we had a bit of a do. We checked with our immediate village hall to ascertain what was allowable. The reason behind this is simple.
For example, Central government may say you can have fifty people due to COVID regulations, City government decide they actually meant thirty and by the time your local one has chipped in, three may be the limit. Everyone has their own take on the rules, so lowest common denominator it is.
Anyway, twenty guests was the approved number, so we set about it. These are the pitfalls:
1) Madam ordered a “Money Tree,” whatever that is. The reason I say that is because despite being paid for, it never arrived, so I’ve never seen one.
2) Madam also ordered a three tiered cake. Looked great until Tania, sticking her finger into the icing, discovered that the top two tiers were polystyrene blocks.
As you can imagine, Madam was on a mission on the Monday morning!
Interestingly, the cake, below, was in the shape of three suitcases. Subliminal, or what?
To be fair, she’d also arranged for someone to come and decorate the place. They did a good job, albeit Philippine style. Suppose one out of three ain’t bad.
Meantime, I’d discovered that whilst it’s still illegal to buy alcohol in Parañaque, I can buy it online and get it shipped in. Sorted!
Anyway, Tania, surrounded by her friends, Jack Daniels and Johnny Walker, had a great time. I stayed out of the way, apart from saying the obligatory few words and the night passed without major incident.
Of course, due to the curfew, I awoke on the Monday morning to find dead teenagers everywhere. Fortunately, they’d heeded my advice that, unless they wanted to be awake really, really early, they should avoid kipping in my office. Anyway, after I’d bought MacDonald’s breakfast for twenty, eighteen of them went home. That means we had three teen girls in the house, one of which, bizarrely, brought her dog, bringing us to eight of them as well.
I also decided that being as I was spending all my hard earned on stuff for other people, or not, in the case of the Money Tree, I'd treat myself.
And very pleasant is it too!
We had a mail from work this week telling us that that they’d be paying for COVID vaccine. This would be at some undefinable time in the future, and no, no idea which medicine it’d be, but we had to let them know by the following day. My colleague asked about vaccination certification, and was told that wasn’t available. Oh, as they were paying for all this up front to an, “agent,” if we cancelled, for whatever reason, we’d owe US$75. Now sounding more and more like a Nigerian scam, strangely, I didn’t sign up.
So that's us pretty much up to date.
Oh and whilst I remember, Tania's birthday was on 23 May, it's now 8 June. The two friends (and extra dog) still haven't gone home!
And have a gratuitous sunset pic.
