Jackie made chicken curry for lunch today. It was just great.
We went to the Mega Mall today to sign up for DSL internet. The land line phone company here operates on the Ma Bell model that a lot of you are not old enough to remember. Basically, the phone company has to evaluate your application and determine if you are WORTHY to have a landline phone. You can't get DSL by itself, just like with Windstream in the US. The land line is too much, and the DSL will be 3Mb and cost a little more than I paid in the US for 5Mb. I will have to buy a wireless router so we can all use the internet, but I am waiting to see if I'm approved before I buy it.
It started raining while we were in the mall. The malls are so big, you don't realize the weather has changed until you get to the door. There is a very long covered walk from the entrance to the bus stop, and there were a number of umbrella vendors there offering a rainbow of collapsable umbrellas for 50p each. We got 2, one barely covered me and the other was plenty big enough to cover both Jackie and Joan. Lines for the SUV taxis were too long, so we caught a bus, transferred to a Jeepney and walked to the local market to pick up things Jackie wanted for making dinner. We caught a tricycle and made it home mostly dry. New experience on the bus...A woman got up, opened up a book and started preaching in Tagalog. I caught the words "god" and "loves a cheerful giver" then she passed an envelope.
I continue to provide endless amusement for the girls. What I have been calling a "motorcycle taxi" is actually called a "tricycle." I'm not going back and changing it everywhere I named it incorrectly, so just remember that when I say "motorcycle taxi" the correct name is "tricycle."
For my friends interested in cost of living information, regular gas is around $3.75 a gallon, bio-diesel is about $4.25 a gallon, and straight diesel is about $4.50 a gallon....roughly approximate conversions from pesos and liters.
10 gallons of drinking water was $1.50 this morning.
The life and observations of a retired American teacher living in the Philippines
Can you use a wireless router from the USA George? If so I can send you one for free =)
ReplyDelete-Matt
Thanks for the kind thought Matt. Unfortunately, the cost of shipping and import taxes would make the free router cost about $200. It cost me $168 to ship a $100 set of powered speakers, and the import tax was about $30.
ReplyDeleteA "N" capable router will cost about $65 here.
It cost me $500 to ship my iMac and $300 in import taxes even though it was for my personal use and not resale.
If you ever need to ship to the Philippines, UPS is much more reliable than FedEx. UPS has their own employees here, while FedEx uses an agent that seems to live to make peoples' lives difficult.