Getting my Police Clearance

Most of the process takes place in a small alley beside a building in the police compound as you see in the picture. The line of applicants isn't too long fortunately and the process is pretty efficient.

The process: First pay 10 to get your cedula which proves you paid your community tax, it's supposed to be a percentage or your salary but nobody does that. Next pay 100 to get your police clearance processed, renewal or new is the same process.

I am immediately noted by people working in the process that I am travelling abroad, they asked it several times because I wrote it in my application form. I guess the other people didn't write that down because they weren't being asked. I think I am the only one they asked if I could give them some money for a snack.

Next they get your finger prints. I am told I can wash my hands in their sink and I can pay any amount I want for use of their soap. I give a 10. (I know I'm cheap)

Next my photo is taken for the amount of 20 using a webcam. The 1st pic shows a computer setup in the alley and later they print your pic into your document from the printer there. Then I am asked if I need my document today, a rush process costs me 100.

Then I had to wait. I was told to sit by the fan and I was told it only costs 2 pesos. But I wasn't sure if he said something else because he murmured it. I asked him "what?" and he said never mind. Maybe I asked too loudly. I was by the fan and when the person next to me left and the fan was closed. But it was windy anyway.

While waiting I noted how evenly the pattern of finger prints are smeared all over the wall. no 2 finger prints overlap. See the pic, it almost looks like wall paper right? I guess some people rather not pay for soap.

Finally my name is called and I got to the printer to print my picture on it. I was asked again if I could give them some money for a snack and I said I would, and gave them 50 on my way out of the alley. That's not really a bribe since I did it at the end.

The process took no more than an hour. Pretty fast if you ask me as long as they don't mistype your name. A fellow applicant had to resubmit because of a typo.

Sunday at Greenbelt

My trip to the US is now pretty certain. So we went to Greenbelt 5 to buys clothes so I'll look presentable to the clients. Bought 3 long sleeves and slacks at Banana Republic. Total is around 15k, not bad.

We were supposed to buy shoes for me but ended up at Crocs. Mom, May and I each bought a pair of Crocs. Funny, how my fake Crocs costs 200 but my real Crocs costs 2k. The real Crocs seem a bit harder because the sole is denser, where with the fake Crocs I can feel the contours of the ground.

We ate at John and Yoko a japanese restaurant. May thought it was funny when a passerby commented: "John and Yoko? yoko jan!" (translation: I don't like that place.) Food was so so.

1st is a picture of Mom pretending  not to monitor me though she is watching my every move. 2nd pic is Mom and May after seeing an outfit that looked really cute for Caitlynn asked about it if they have the correct size. I think they didn't have the correct size so nothing bought. 3rd pic are my new Crocs!

The ugliest muffins - ever.

If these were not chocolate muffins, they would probably look really unappetizing!  Luckily they tasted alright.  Well, according to my 3 1/2 year old critic - "yummy muffins!"  These were from Betty Crocker's shake and bake range. They came out moist, fluffy and not too sweet.  Pass.

Skype on the iPad

Finally saw the iPad being used for Skype. Gage is still addicted to angry birds. He has learned to use a mouse because of angry birds. Fortunately he has daycare and kinder school so he is not playing all the time. Angry birds isn't bad, but if there could be more variety in his interests I think that would be great.

May asked if he was behaving, Che says Gage doesn't usually like to eat his vegetables. She shaves carrots into his spaghetti to get veggies inside him. Gage will always do what Grant instructs.

Is there a competition between Caitlynn and him in eating or envy? Gage when he saw Che feeding Caitlynn also wants to be fed, he tasked Grant to feed Caitlynn and Che to feed him.

We also saw Caitlynn, she stared at us a bit. Gage also showed us his jump.

Mom does Friday Afternoon Mahjong

Another nice afternoon to play Mahjong for Mom. I'm careful to take this watch from afar so they would not notice, last time they were shocked and one of them covered their face.

For a change, Mom has a Mahjong session but Dad doesn't. There was a time when Mom hated it when Dad played Mahjong and tried to discourage it.

Atchi's Birthday

 For May's birthday we ate a Uncle Cheffy at the Fort. Big platters of meat and pizza were what we ate.

Attendees were Mamay's family, Jane's family without Walter because he is in China. Rose wasn't available but we will eat with her some other time.

Sometime in the middle of the meal we were all started by a sudden shout by the waiters. They started singing May her birthday song although she explicitly told them not to sing. But they gave her a free cake.

After that we May blew another cake from Jane, a mango cream pie, it was delicious.

A Cocoon of Trash

The Laws of Trash Accumulation:

Every object you find must be used especially if somebody threw it away or it is free. It was destiny that you found it and you must find some use for it.

The more objects the better. The poor have nothing, therefore to succeed you must acquire as many objects as possible. Happiness comes from knowing you have so much stuff, you have every kind of thing imaginable!

Free objects are the most valuable objects. There is no joy in owning an object of good quality if they cost anything. Therefore usually the ugliest unusable objects are what you should value since people throw them away or give them out for free.

Ignorance is bliss. And for people in this room, blindness is bliss. Keep a state of mind that piles of ugly mismatched things have beauty in their own way. That way being happy with your surroundings is effortless.

By the way, as I predicted a cabinet is used to block the old air con hole and also blocks the window in the last picture. I already know the above laws by heart so I knew that that is how they would fix the problem.

New Air Conditioner

See the new air conditioner? It is on the upper right corner of the window. Maybe now the rooms will not be so hot. The hole for the old air con got covered up though with some ugly random piec of wood. But it will probably be covered anyway by the cabinets which would also cover the windows. This room is becoming more and more ugly. They need help!

Lunch News: Bing-Bing's husband, Mom scented, Birthday dinner idea

I overheard Mom and Bing-Bing, Mom asking if her husband was successful in his job application. Unfortunately no, they needed a college graduate and they had a maximum age limit. He has been continually applying with no success. That's all I heard over lunch, a slow news day.

I gave Mom the scented sanitizer, she said she'll keep it in her bag for emergency, I was going to give the other to May but she took both.

May's birthday is coming up on Thursday. I suggested the Omakase at the Ayala triangle. May said the traffic might be bad but it was an interesting proposal since she'd like to eat there.

I asked Pie to buy a shared gift: iPod earphones. She's been looking for cheap versions since her ear phones break easily. Fortunately she does not read this blog so it will still be a surprise.

Scented Sanitizers

Bought some orange and watermelon scented sanitizers being sold by my co-worker seat mate. I though May and Mom might like them. Of course, I will them it got them as free samples otherwise they might save them and never use them.

Crap Everywhere

On my way out of the house today, I was thinking what could I post as news today. Nothing, so I took a picture of the stuff from bidding piled around. I don't even know what those are in the picture or why there is a wine bottle.

Rockwell, Classic Cuisine, Aperture Laboratories

This Sunday Dad wanted to find the price for jasmine rice having acquired some in his bidding. We went to Rockwell and Dad asked around pretending to be interested in buying.

May went off to buy some chippy and carbonated ice tea. I bought a rolitoland toy for Pie and Portal 2. Mom bought a type of sugar for diabetes and flax seed powder. Dad went to look at the car display.

Max seeing Dad and Mom eating ice cream demanded some.

Later we are at C2 (classic cuisine). Food was pretty good: mongo and tilapia, bulalo, pansit, crispy pork with kare-kare sauce and crispy fish in coconut sauce. We didn't finish it all of course. We were seated near the rest room and kids kept on runnig out and into the rest room causing Max to bark everytime he saw anyone run like a hall monitor, I tried running too and he also barked at me.

When we got home May and I watched the Glee rendition of the song Friday. Afterwards it's time to revisit the Aperture Laboratories in the game Portal 2 in PS3. I tried to convince May to try the cooperative play version of the game, she rather watch Community because there was a cross over to Cougar Town.

Gamblers caught Gambling

At 10 pm the mahjong sessions are still on. Mom though lacking sleep from preparing for the party for lunch still pushed through. Whenever we have mahjong players we also have lots of food to feed the guests.

There was a time when I was small I did not want Dad to go out gambling. I told him don't go you'll just lose, he gave me an angry look then. (or should
I say angrier look?)

Earlier when they just started, Mom burst into the room saying Max has disappeared. We were in panic because of Mom was worried. Turned out he was just among them in the room. Sigh of relief.

Guests have arrived.

The party has started, relatives from far and wide gather to feast on Mom's hongba and mango pandan.

Max was not getting along well with a guest though: Conan.

Preparation for the Death Anniversay

Death Anniversary again for Grandpa father side. Relatives from the father side will be coming in at lunch tomorrow lunch Saturday. I may wake just after they leave.

Mom of course washes Max, we need to be presentable!

Max after a wash loves to roll and roll and roll, I think he is trying the wetness out of his face.

Mom will be cooking the feast and will be preparing her most special dessert: mango pandan jelly salad.

A Snack Before Bed

Arrived last night at 4 am then I recalled there are still some left over meat balls from lunch. Add brown rice and vegtables and I have a nice snack before I go to sleep at 6 am. (I need to read a bit of "A Game of Thrones" first).

Raw Cotton Fabric

A fabric factory closed down and had a sale of it's inventory and Dad both some. The cloth is yellowish because it is raw, it still needs to be sent away to be bleached for it to become white Mom said

Lunch News: Boiled Peanuts, Salad and Cabinets Destroyed

 Found these dark peanuts on Mom's desk. She eating the left over peanuts from last week when Dad bought a kilo of it raw for only 50 pesos and had Luc boil them.

At some point after eating the expensive salads of the brand "goolai" so many times I grew tired of the taste and smell of their salads, but I had craving for some crunchy veggies so I bought again. Their salads aren't bad, but with the ingredients packed together their smells combine so something that is not so fresh smelling.

Goodbye to the 20 year old infested with termites. The wash room has so much space now but Dad plans to put a cabinet from the bidding in that is much too big. Dad and Mom, they love to get the items from the biddings and place them in the house though furniture always seem out of place and the wrong size.

Impending US Trip

Once again the possibility of an onsite assignment is looming in the horizon. In 3 weeks I will know if a team mate will be able to go onsite or if not, I need to go.

It's mainly the work load I am dreading, especially on-call week where you need to be available to handle production issues 24 hours a day. You sleep with a cell phone beside you. Then again it would be great to work late, eat little or a lot, go to church or drink alcohol, without there being an issue.

Child Labor

Gina's Ella is out of the hospital. She managed to pay the hospital but I did not ask how. For some reason Ella and Bing-Bing's kid wants to help out folding the paper money that will be burned for our passed away loved ones.

New Books from Dad

Dad acquired a lot of books probably through bidding. They are mostly for business but May found a few young adult books, perfect for Gage or Caitlynn when they grow up.

I said the books are probably form the 1800s, Dad heard and was outraged

Happy Mother's Day

We ate at Seryna at little tokyo, very authentic Japanese cuisine. The salmon roll had a crisp skin in the middle. we the vinegar, spicy oil, and soy sauce you had to mix on your own for the gyoza. The sukiyaki, used the raw egg to dip your hot meat and noodles in. Again we ordered too much.

How do I know Mom watches my every move? I was thinking I wanted more rice and just then she asks me to take her rice. Every need is anticipated.

Party at Dannyboy's place

All of Mom's side of the family were invited. Food was korean: dumpling, grilled pork, kimchi, beef stew... cake and fondue at the end. 3 events in one: (1) Kristine's going away party, Mother's day and Pacquiao's fight.

After lunch we played bingo and watched the slide presentation of the Boracay trip and a tribute to Kristine. Dannyboy gave a rose to each mother. And there were picture's from Boracay framed and given to the guests. Mom's picture's were pretty good, Dannyboy has recently taken of photography and photographed the pictures that were framed and in the slide show.

Pie, a big fan of Pacquiao, was watching the fight from a movie house. Before coming to the party, he texted that we should let Ado go home to watch the fight. Pie was not able to make it to the party though but was pretty close to attending. When he tried to get into the compound the guard would not let him in, this was because the non-owners were only allowed to go in thru the main entrance. Pie, irritated, went back home, which is just a couple of minutes away.

Night News: Heat, Rain, Shows, Nek Nek not hungry, Mahjong

We're almost done watching all the shows and it is night time already. It's been a hot day and it has started to rain. Nek Nek again does not want to eat, May suspects he might have gotten wet and gotten sick. Of course Dad has his Mahjong session again.

Saturday again

Another Saturday of watching shows until we vomit. Tomorrow Dannyboy invites us to attend Kristine's despedida.

Milk that does not taste like milk

Mom bought me some milk that is for the lactose intolerant. She says she likes it because it does not taste like milk, she hates the taste of milk. Oh wow I can't wait...

Max guards

Max in this picture taken just today is still driven by his instinct to guard the entrance. The other dining room is closed off to Max since it's being sprayed with insecticide.

Lunch News: Multi Steamed Egg, More on Dad's IPad, Tata Back Soon, Nek Nek won't eat.

For lunch we had steamed egg with salted egg and century egg.

IPad news: Dad says he mostly uses his IPAD to check insurance, or I think he means the prices of the goods hi bids for. He does check flipboard which he calls the newspaper. He says he has problems using youtube. I'll check on his youtube usage next time.

Bing bing says Tata will be back soon. She just noticed Nek Nek's lettuce was untouched today.

Lunch News: Mom Lunch Out, Dad IPad

Lunch at home is chicken adobo and pechay? Mom did not have lunch at home, she went out with cousin Kristine to visit the dentist. Mom says dad asked why his youtube does not contain much videos so Dad must still be using his IPad.

How is Nek Nek doing?

Nek Nek is as shy as ever. But he does try to escape from his patio once in awhile. It's been years since he has had a bath and his claws have become very long.

Mom buys Nek Nek 1 Kilo of lettuce every week. He gets fed everyday by Luc or Bing-bing and Mom says he is quite greedy. We think he is more than 10 years old (Che please provide the year), he was a gift by Pie to Che on her birthday.