Some everyday stuff

I don’t know how interesting this post will be for people, but since I kind of want to use my blog to remember my time in the Philippines after I return home, I thought I would just do a post on some everyday stuff.

Cooking – we haven’t been doing a lot of cooking here. It’s hot in our kitchen, we don’t have many pots and pans, and we hardly ever go grocery shopping – it’s pretty hard without a car. We have to end up taking a taxi home, but more to the point, we have to find time to actually go out and get groceries. Neil sometimes grabs some stuff on his way home from work as he passes through the closest main shopping mall to our house every night. But also, the food here is slightly different to that in Australia, which makes the Indian curries taste a little funky and the Chicken Kiev’s a little non-existent. So were are basically living on a pretty consistent weekly dinner diet of pasta, stirfry and the occasional other meal like noodles or stew. We eat out fairly often as we find it pretty cheap, but again our meals consists mainly of Italian food, pizza or pasta, from Cibo or Italiannis if Neil is feeling generous, or of Japanese from Teriyaki Boy all at Araneta Centre in Cubao (that shopping mall I mentioned earlier).

Laundry - We don’t have a washer let alone a dryer so we take our laundry down on a weekly basis to the local laundromat. Except that they do it all for you which is great, but sometimes they have so many orders to do that we have to wait 2 or 3 days for our clothes. This wouldn’t be so bad except for the fact that we only brought a limited number of clothes, and don’t have too many reserves. We’ve been trying to buy clothes, but again, sizes are very different which is great for me and shoes, (I have the typical Filipino-sized foot) but not for pants (I guess I have the typical Western thighs and butt). Actually, talking about my thighs and butt, I have lost weight here. I think this is mainly due to the 40 minutes of walking I do each work day (20 mins to and from work) and the smaller, but more regular meals (I eat an average of about 5 times a day – and this is pretty typically Filipino). But for me, the size and amount of food matters! It’s amazing all that money I spent on my gym membership when all I needed to do is eat more often – but importantly eat smaller servings . . .

Other physical activity - I’ve started playing badminton once a week at a course near our house. I’ve been going with our AYAD neighbors who live in the building next door. It’s fun and we’re noticeably getting better each week. To make an otherwise fun event a little annoying is the fact that the guy who works at the gym where we rent the court has a crush on poor Natalie and keeps asking if he can play with us, and generally is a real pain in the butt. But hopefully we’ll bring Neil along this week to play doubles and he can give this guy a stare-down or two. . . I doubt it!!

Other extra-curricular activities - The only other constant after-work weekly event is Monday Filipino language classes. Our teacher is a teacher of English to Korean students here in Manila and while she is fairly nice, she is a bit strange. She talks about her period, how she gets flushed and hot right before she gets it, and even about her bowel movements (this one was fortunately not to us, but to another AYAD who has her for language classes!). But this is pretty typically Filipino. It makes me wonder what it is that I do that grosses my workmates out, or that they may consider ‘rude’. I guess discussing bodily functions should not be such of a faux-pau in Australia – but it takes some getting used to!! Particularly when nice workmates pull a huge loud burp after eating, are happy to talk about how they are currently suffering from constipation before heading into the toilet, but seem to go out of the office if they have to blow their nose . . . I love it really, it makes me laugh! J

Blood? - I’ve been asked twice this week what my blood type is because a couple of people have been sick (one with dengue, the other is having a kidney transfusion thingy) and the hospitals/blood banks don’t seem to carry enough blood here for these types of medical emergencies. I guess this is the kind of place where donating blood could really be useful (or is it useful everywhere . . ?) I wonder if concerns with blood donation and AIDS etc are ok here – I am sure they are due to the huge AIDS education and awareness campaigns that have been undertaken internationally . . . but it would have to carefully considered if I go ahead and start donating here.

What else? At work they place music all day and today we ran out of computers for the number of people who wanted to use them. It’s finally cooling down here but I have a really sore ankle and need to buy some new shoes. Mikey-in-law if you are reading this, I may have to come see you for a professional visit when I get back to OZ, I suspect I may need some orthopedic things to stop rolling out on my left foot when I walk. We finally found a nice pasta sauce to cook with, and a new restaurant opened at Araneta on the weekend, which is always an exciting event. Its called Peking Duck. We might try it tonight so I’ll have to report on it tomorrow. Oh and they are planning to open a Pancake House there too – I hope it’s good!!

That will just about do I reckon. Before I sign off, thanks everyone for the comments – please leave more, especially what I should write about – what do you want to know about the Philippines?? And I also wanted to finally share some ridiculously long, real Filipino words in an article about the origins of the Filipino word ‘Jologs’ – a word that I quite like (it’s like the word ‘lame’ in English):
· Pinanlalampaso (16 letters)
· Nangangahulugan (16 letters)
· Ipinagmamalaki (16 letters) – something about ‘big’?
· Kapangyarihang (16 letters)
· Ipinangangalandakan (20 letters)
If I have any Filipinos reading this (I?!) can you please translate what on earth these mean!! J

And sorry if this post has been so .. . . jologs!




This is Neil at the local market - there is some great fruit here and it's so cheap! 50c for a kilo ove huge, delicious avocados!

posted by batik billy @ 4:48 pm