Letter from Manila - Santol - of course!

Exciting times by the seafront! Glad that you and yours are ok.

Glad to hear you've survived ok George. Poor old Mary the Queen does have a bit of a list doesn't she?! Is the rear loading door still down?

Ah, just re-read it - She is a Clone done in 2011

Bloody hell, they'll clone anything out there.......

Glad you're all OK georgeb

There's more! See below. 



Long Beach? It was obviously a stronger typhoon than we thought



Door still open and as you'll see below, she's been on the move.


And they've managed to get it into this state in only 4 years?


Yes, been pretty bad to the east and north, but at least most have lived to tell the tale this time.


I think they need to start work on the next one then!


Thanks for all the good wishes guys, they are much appreciated.

All calm here in Das Kapital and it's a fine, sunny morning. Hopefully those most affected can start to get things sorted out now.

So this morning, I dropped my little bottle openers at their place of learning and agreed we'd meet down Adriatico when they finish, so I can feed them. How unusual. Anyway, having completed my parental duties for the morning, I thought I'd pop round and see if I'd gained any more vessels for my collection overnight.

Well I hadn't but...



It was a tad windy again last night and, as you can see from this frankly crappy picture ( I couldn't get any nearer this morning), the Old Queen has decided to get up close and personal with our mate the coal barge and the two are nestled comfortably together.

It's getting a right old jumble out there now.

I'll try for a better pic later as well.

And talking of pics, this one from the news site made me smile a bit...



He may be waist deep in water but he got his tea in one hand and the wherewithal to cook it in the other. Priorities.

To a Filipino, that is understatement of the year!

Also just read that whilst it was blowing yesterday evening, the Gods also threw a 5.4 earthquake into the equation as well.



www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/541236/scitech/science/magnitude-5-4-earthquake-shakes-parts-of-southern-tagalog-metro-manila

Around 100km from Manila and never felt a thing!

They certainly like to mix things up around here 

Had a bit of catching up to do tonight, looks like you've really been going through it mate, glad you're all ok. Seems a bit strange posting a picture of a man in the sea holding his cock but there you go, each to their own i guess... Sorry, i'll get my coat

SmokeEm congratulations on the new grandchild. At least your handy for visits. I've still not seen mine yet but I blame the parents. When my lad's missus was pregnant they lived in Chiang Mai, Thailand, nice and handy. Then, for some inexplicable reason, they decided to move to Spain before the birth, a trip of some 30 hours each way. Now she's in the UK, he's in France so that's no use but...In December, they all move to Cambodia, so nice and handy again. In the words of my lad, "...it'll be carols around the bamboo plant then"


You are right and as long as the beer and fuel stay as they are, I'm happy to pay it!


Thanks yes, we're all fine.

Most men have got cocks here...Cock fighting is a major pastime


I always maintain you can tell the relative affluence (and sometimes complacency) of a society, or an individual for that matter, by the things they complain about. Here, where we have the triumvirate of typhoon, earthquake and volcano eruption, carrier bags just seem to fade into the background somehow.


Shifted this here so as not to pollute your excellent Letter from Valetta. Obviously we don't get Channel 4 here, so I can't comment, but Manila is like many other places, with areas you are safe in, those where you need to keep your wits about you (Malate/Tondo for example ) and DON'T GO THERE!! You just need to know which is which.

If you've ever wondered why some Asian countries seem a bit disorganised, wonder no more. Last Friday, my little bottle openers came home with a note in their class diary which, after you got past the inevitable opener of 'Praise be Jesus and Mary', said that Thursday and Friday this week will be Intramural Days. Yes, I had to look it up as well. Anyway the upshot was that they would be finishing early on Friday. No problem.

So Monday was Walang Pasok due to weather but Tuesday was back to normal. Sitting quietly in Adriatico over a bottle of lunch when who should appear around the corner? Yes, my little darlin's as apparently the school, unannounced, closed early for no obvious reason. Fine. 

On enquiring about Wednesday on the way to School I was informed that all was back to normal and 4pm would see them spat out of Gate 3. So once again I'm sitting quietly in Adriatico over a bottle of lunch when who should appear around the corner? Yes, my little darlin's as apparently the school, unannounced, closed early for no obvious reason, AGAIN!

How the f**k do you expect them to plan anything when completely random behaviour and actions are programmed into them by the education system?

The thing that really gets on my tits is that they won't allow the girls to take mobiles with them. Now, I have no problem with not using them during the school day, but when the school randomly kicks two young girls out onto the streets of Malate (or indeed keeps them back unannounced - an "Emergency" Girl Scout meeting was the last one), it would be nice if they could contact us, just in case Madam or myself aren't in our normal places. Seems a pretty unsatisfactory arrangement to me and another one on the ever growing list for parents evening.

And ships? Well after two hours churning the water the night before last, a new and larger tug finally got the coal barge away but, unfortunately, the Ol' Queen is still sitting forlornly on the rocks. You'd think, what with Manila being a major port, that having haphazardly floating, unlit ,vessels bobbing around would be considered a 'bad thing' to be dealt with ASAP. But no... 

In one of my threads, can't remember which now, we were looking at names. Well now I've found this one and it's a doozey. This is a guy who goes to my eldest bottle opener's old school and glories in the moniker of...Jhelo Garcia Iverson Irving Curry James Jordan Vargas! Now that's a belter.

Yes, all fine, thanks. Ready for the next one now!

In my last post, I was commenting, somewhat heatedly, on the girls' school hours and crappy communication with parents. It gets better.

They were supposed to finish at 2 PM last Friday and, bang on the dot of three, they did. The arrangement was to meet up in Adriatico so they could avail themselves of a chocolate fix via a couple of very large milkshakes.

"Daddy George, we no school now until 4th November. Can we go away somewhere?"

"WHAT?!!"

Yes, without any notice at all, the school decides to throw a ten day holiday into the mix. God give me strength!

Anyway, with them packed safely off to Tondo (exotic I know, but they did want to go away ) I decided to have a socket sort-out yesterday. I've already got a Britool 3/8' and an old unnamed 1/4" set but as I had recently acquired a load more, it was time to consolidate this stuff. Bear in mind I also have my new 78-piece Blue Point 3/8" drive kit (my Manila Salon special price purchase) as well, that lives in the '38. You can't have enough sockets, I reckon. Anyway, as part of this, I noticed the old Britool ratchet drive was getting a bit clunky, so I gave them all a good service.



There we go. A big Proto 1/2" (with reducer), the Britool 3/8, a Craftsman 3/8, which came with the Proto in my latest haul and the dinky little Halfords Pro 1/4", which I think is cute. All stripped, cleaned, greased and reassembled. A good morning's work. At least it took my mind off bloody Malate Catholic School for a while!