Long Day

We walked to the gym, which is another mile further than we had walked before.  We paid for a month each, and the instructor got us started warming up.  This gym is much nicer than the 3 we looked at yesterday, and the instructor is very good.  I was very sweaty, but feeling energized, when we got done working out.  Grace said she felt like she was starting from scratch because she missed so many days working out when I started taking up all her time.  That's a good thing, because I haven't worked out since the Nautilus gyms in Albuquerque declared bankruptcy and left me with a worthless, paid up 5 year membership.

In the US, if I need to pay someone, I just go to my bank's online banking web site, set up a payment, and if I have the proper routing and account numbers, the payment goes to the person's account, no matter what bank they use.  Things don't work that way here.  It turned out that the easiest thing to do was to get cash from the ATM and deposit it in the landlord's account because he uses a different bank than I do.  The line at a branch of his bank was so long, I sat down and Grace stood in line for me until she was next in line.  Things are so much more difficult to do here.  My back would have been killing me if Gracie hadn't kept my place in line for me.

We took a cab to the LRT (light rail - old line from the Marcos era) and rode to a station to meet a guy who wanted to buy a modem Grace was selling.  They had trouble making connections, and it took the help of a traffic enforcement officer for us to find him.  Transaction completed, we crossed a very wide, busy street and climbed many, many stairs back to the LRT.  We rode to the place where the LRT intersects with the MRT (the new light rail line)  A whole complex of shops has grown up around the skywalks of this intersection.  We looked around, but didn't see anything we couldn't live without.  We have been looking for a new mattress.  The 3 inch foam pad I've been sleeping on was fine for just me, and I'm sure it would last for years with 80 to 100 pound filipinos, but the combined weight of two people has taken a toll on the pad.  We found a supermarket that has a second floor of Walmart type stuff, and a 3rd floor of furniture.  We got some small items for the apartment, but Grace thought the mattresses were too expensive.  We took a Jeep that is basically a mini box truck with window openings in the sides and bench seats along the sides, to the Mall of Asia.  The home store there was more expensive and they were pushing an innerspring mattress that cost more than my rent, so we went to the SM Department store.  They had a bigger selection than the SM Mall in Bicutan, close to our apartment, and we found a 4 inch, genuine Uratex foam mattress, on sale for 3199p.  The clerk used strapping tape ant the tie stuff they use to wrap things here to fold the mattress in thirds.  Then he carried it to the taxi stand for us.  He and the taxi driver wrestled with if, couldn't fit it in the trunk, and finally laid the front passenger seat flat and got it in the cab.  Grace and I squeezed into the back seat space that was left.  Our bed is smaller than a US Double at 48 inches by 75 inches, but Grace doesn't take up much space, and it seems quite big enough.  That leaves a bigger path between the wardrobe and the bed than if we had a bigger bed.  At this point, we like being as close together as possible all the time anyway.  Hopefully that won't change.  We put the new mattress on top of the old one, and had a very good night's sleep.

I bought a granite tile, about 2 feet by 2 feet to put on top of the wood cabinet so the stove won't burn the top.  We are going to go to the admin office and see if maintenance can drill a hole in the wood top for the gas line so it can be routed more safely.

It was a long day with lots of walking, but we got lots done and it feels good.