I have removed the post some thought offensive and the subsequent replies. Please do not post further responses in this thread. Thank you.

Greetings all.

Thanks Jerseygirl. Just to make it clear, I welcome further responses obviously but nothing related to what has been removed.

Thanks for your understanding.

Regards

There are several shops in the Birmingham area that sell Filipino foods, soap etc. Also there is the major Chinese wholesaler Wing Yip that sells Filipino food.


In Birmingham market there is a Filipino food store who we are friendly with and he has to purchase certain stock from a licensed importer. My wife's friend got stopped at the airport and her dried fish was confiscated, as it is illegal to bring in that type of product.


I think you will find that you would need a proper import license to import dried fish into the UK. There are several online stores (mostly London based) offering all types of Filipino food. I am sure other countries would have replica outfits. Our relatives in Canada have such outlets.

Must have changed the rules, each time my wife or/and I returned from the Philippines we were always asked if we had any dried fish, if we said less than a kilo we were let through.

Unfortunately your clearing of the argument posts my "Good news of the day" got cleared as well.

The GBP has gone up by over 1 Peso since Friday.

Sorry I did notice that wasn't part of the argument but inadvertently moved it by accident.

Here is a big dollop of super mod karma to make up for the error.

Greetings!

How do you guys get on at social gatherings with your lovely ladies? I mean birthdays, weddings, funerals etc. Been here 18 months now and I am getting a bit tired of them. What happens with me is I like to support my lovely lady at these festivities but what I find is when I am there.....she does not support me. I get there raging for a beer or at least a glass of water and the place is devoid of such niceties. I am plonked in a corner and told to sit. Like a dog I guess. I am introduced to the luminaries and after a quick hello that's it. But what peeves me is that the person who I am introduced to will start chatting to my lovely lady about where I am from etc. In Illongo. I normally make a point of telling them that they can ask the question to me in English. That just goes over their heads. I then get bored in 2 mins flat and tell her I am off for a walk. Looking for a watering hole. I have always found one and entertain myself chatting to the locals who always seem interested by my presence. If a local is not present then I have a riveting conversation with a stray dog or cat whilst quenching my thirst. Then I get the texts. My lovely lady texts every 5 mins or so asking where I am or what I am doing. Every 15 mins or so comes the dreaded message ...."Don't drink Red Horse". Of course I don't. Far be it for me to disobey her so I down a few Colt 45's instead. After a while I walk unsteadily back where I get the glare that means she thinks I have been drinking Red Horse. But of course she never believes me. Would I lie....? No of course not.

What brings this about. Well her family has a double funeral a million miles away which will require probably require 2 over night stops. That strikes fear into my heart. It will be a visit to Jollybees for breakfast, lunch and dinner...how I hate that place. I will be ignored so I will be straining at the leash looking for suitable watering holes. I need at least 2 showers a day which I know I wont get when I want it. And I could go on. So, I told my lovely lady that I will stay here and she can go with her family. She was not exactly overwhelmed with that and I got the baleful stare and was told I can stay here by myself. Music to my ears. But I fear the subject will be brought up again. Very soon.


She paid the rent today and gave me the receipt without a murmur. That's the end of rent-gate...I hope.

Happy days

I bet there will only be half the number of travellers if you don't go.

You might be right Gazza but credit to the illustrious one, she always pays for all her families food. She also pays for mine also when we eat out. So it will cost her a packet. I will pay for the hotel where we both will stay. The family will doss down at some relatives house. The father will borrow a car from someone and the Mayor will fork out for fuel. There is a ferry involved which is down to whoever who has money. That will be me or her then. But I figure that if she does not go then waddly sister, worm boy et al may not go either. Who else will buy the food? But if she goes, then I will get texts every 15 minutes enquiring what I am doing. Me? I will be down the beach downing Colt 45. Not the nasty Red Horse. I suspect she will think I will be kidnapped by some local totty and forced to eat water melon. Nope...I shall just enjoy the peace and quiet .... And ruminate. With my phone switched off.

As an aside. I hate it when my lovely lady and I are having a swift half on the beach during the evening and her sisters and a few kids who happen to be passing just plonk themselves down and order drinks and a few fish heads and rice. This is wolfed down with gusto and away they go without a thankyou or an offer to pay their bill. She always offers to pay for that bless her. But the money is not the issue. Its the fact they don't even offer to pay. I would die of shock if one of them offered me a beer. Or even a thankyou. Little rant over.

Regards

I think the lack of thankyou's is a cultural thing. It's all share and share alike in Philippines families so why say thankyou for something that is expected behaviour.

Gazza, I am sure you are right. But what gets my goat is that its the waddly sister who avails herself to whats on offer when we are on the beach. She owes me 7k...lives rent free plus all amenities. If it was anyone else, it would be no problem. Next time she comes I think I will take the shirt off my back and let her have that as well! Yes...she gets up my nose. But I intend to change her free rent etc lark soon after my financial situation is sorted.

Regards

The waddly sister is a problem, I'm not sure how you will get her out of your hair without moving away without taking her along. It's not unusual in the Phil to if given and inch take a mile, you have taken her under your wing and she is now part of your family and expects to be treated as such. Throwing her out will cause both her and the gf to lose face, a social taboo in the Philippines so as I said not an easy situation to solve. Just using you UK logic will only result in you running into a wall nose first. The 7k loan is now a lost cause, it's too long ago now to even figure in her life, and as they say filipino for loan is gift, and as you're family it was probably never expected to be returned anyway because as all filipinos know as a foriegner you have too much money anyway.

Gazza. You are of course correct. I have no intention of turfing her out, but if we stay here she will pay rent etc. In the more likely event of us having to move, I will make sure she will not be coming with us. Yes, the loan is a lost cause. She most certainly will not get another one and as I have said previously, I will tell the family no more loans because I have no spare cash..... Once she repays, then I will have spare cash to loan out. That then puts the onus on her to repay if her family wants loans.

Regards

Greetings!

I have rambled on about waddly sister in the past which you may have noticed! She has a younger sister who graduated from College nearly 6 months ago after 4 years study and has a degree in IT. She is 21/22. My lovely lady paid for the first 3 yrs study and I paid the final year. She still has no job. She sits at home in her parents house and does nothing to help. She has not learnt how to cook or wash clothes. But spends all day instead on fb or wandering around. She has applied for jobs befitting her degree in call centres but so far has been unsuccessful. Last week she applied for and got a job in Pharmacy. Her father paid for her travel expenses which is a 10 hr return journey by bus and her uniform. She lasted 2 days in the job because she did not like having to stand all day. She is now back here ....idling about. My lovely lady gave her a hard time....and rightly so. She is a burden on the family but her parents are too soft on her and she gets away with it. There is another sister who lives in Manila. She is there because she was given away at birth. Because she was not a boy.

I mentioned that her family have moved to a new house because the other one leaked. They paid half for the leak to be fixed.....but still moved. A few days ago, the family visited waddly sister house in the early morning to use the toilet and shower etc. Why? Because their new house got flooded out with water in the wc area after heavy rain.

Makes me smile sometimes of the silliness in Sipalay. Sometimes though...it doesn't.

Nearly forgot. My lovely lady has 2 expensive phones...but never any load. She uses my phone for that but I have stopped buying load. So she uses the house phone which was free when we got the internet. Just got a bill for nearly 900 peso for 2 months use. This morning whilst she popped out I performed a little operation on the house phone. She now needs to pay for load.

Regards

It's definitely extra difficult for very provincial graduates compared to those living in the more developed provincial areas and certainly to those in Manila and its environs. For girls even more so, as boys would be trusted more to stay with someone or even take lodgings while looking for a job.

Getting jobs in provincial areas is much more to do with knowing someone.

Every year there's a large new batch of graduates and before long they are on the shelf job wise.

She needs to get something soon to keep her future hiring chances alive. How about Med Rep? At least they do a lot of sitting around, rather than standing!

One brave provincial female graduate, a relative of my wife's, chanced her arm and from reports seems to be doing well in the Gulf. Had not even lived or worked in Manila before. Not for everyone as apart from the cost and the risks, it takes a lot of guts.