The Return of Halloween!!!

Halloween is back this year! We received notice that trick-or-treating was planned again this year which was great for us as we love Halloween. Last year the trick-or-treating was canceled due to the typhoon so we just had a party at home. What I failed to mention was during the party, which was held in our garage, there was a small group of maybe 10 kids who were peaking over the wall which were from outside the village (and hence had no idea that the holiday was canceled). We felt bad because what sucks worse than being a kid and having to watch a party from the outside. Plus they had made an effort and had their faces painted a bit! Since the party was in the garage anyways, we had them come in and join the games. They did and fun was had by all. Until we realized the little boogers had taken a bunch of our Halloween decorations (these little rubber characters that hang from a string). Actually, fun was had by all still. I guess those kids just got extra party favors. So, we had to go and buy a bunch of decorations.


Halloween is gaining popularity here and so decorations are becoming easier to find with the major department stores and toy stores stocking many items. We have been going to UNTC every year because we love the selection of items they have. They have a REALLY good selection of Halloween items. If you go there, the building looks just like a house or factory--there is no signage. I remember the first time we went, we were unsure if we were even at the right place. They also have a slew of Christmas items but we just hit Divisoria for that. The head above we got a couple of years ago at SM and is hung above a body we make.

This is what we bought there for about $40. Worth noting that despite the fact that they are a "wholesaler" some of the prices compared to Toys r Us are the same or higher. Some were definitely way cheaper--you just have to know your prices. Also we are able to find weird items there like the skull in the first picture. The little pile of dolls in the top right of this picture is what we are replacing from last year that were liberated by the outside kids.

We will start decorating our house this week!!

Online Shopping

Back when I lived in San Francisco I was a big fan of online shopping. I was working a billion hours and often did not have the time to go. Plus it seemed so easy--just go to amazon.com and I could find just about anything I needed. Same with the stores where I already knew my size. Add sephora and zappos and I was pretty much set. Oh, and ebay. I was a big fan of Pottery Barn crap from ebay.

Since moving here, I do very little online shopping namely because the shipping/customs costs are insanely high. For example Banana Republic (gap, et al) partnered up with a shipping service that offered international delivery with customs fees included. For those who do not know, customs fees can be HUGE here. We once had a glass sculpture from Italy sent here, and despite the amount of the item already being lowered on the customs form from the company, customs here still wanted Php50,000+++ which is over $1000. It ended as life usually does with a few hundred being slipped into a pocket and our item being released. But anyways, back to the Banana Republic shipper. I placed items in my online cart amounting to about $150. Fees for shipping and customs via their partner was $120. Way too rich for my blood. At those prices I am better off waiting until I am home or shipping them to my sister and having her forward them. (It is worth noting that there is a Banana Republic locally which makes this a somewhat random example, but such is life).

I still buy most of my clothes in the US for one simple reason, I am too big for Philippines sizing. I am over 5'8". This means that even when a size goes up, it does not necessarily get longer, just wider. According to the Inquirer (one of the dailies here), the average height of a Filipino woman is 4'11" (although this does seem suspiciously petite) which is a lot smaller than me. Wearing a size 10 in the US equals size like 3XL here. And your bellybutton will still be showing. There are larger sizes here of course in the imported clothing and the inseams will be longer, but at that point, I would rather just buy from SF because the cost markup is high. And finally, it is worth noting that my wardrobe consists namely of jeans and cheap tops from H&M, so I am definitely not high fashion.

The moral of this drawn out, convoluted post is I fell in love with a company that allows me to do all my online shopping: Johnny Air. I order from whatever random online retailer I want, email Johnny Air with the shipping info, and they forward it here. Earlier this month I ordered from Sephora.com. It arrived from Sephora to their US office in two days, and SIX days after that, I received a txt telling me my package was here!!!! The prices are preset based on weight or size (size is something is big I guess) and includes everything. Total cost for shipping: P1,750 for about 3 lbs. So, this is my new happiness. Their website is: http://johnnyairretail.blogspot.com/ and they have a facebook page as well.

Other fantastic delivery services that I have used recently include Fully Booked which was FAST. I ordered on a Monday and the books were here Wednesday. Not the cheapest shipping, but the convenience was fantastic.

Although everyone knows that all fast food (i.e., McDo) can be delivered, more and more restaurant delivery services are popping up. Main ones are: http://www.quickdelivery.ph/ and http://www.citydelivery.ph/. I have used them both...quick delivery multiple times and city delivery just once. Both are awesome and perfect for rainy season when I do not really what to go out, yet do not feel compelled to cook. Plus there are no Indian Restaurants near me, so this satisfies that craving.

I guess I never need to leave the house again........

Updates

Well, a lot has happened and at the same time nothing has happened. But here goes:

1. We ended up not buying a dryer. We wanted to buy one for the rainy season but I only wanted LPG due to the extremely high cost of electricity here. The only model I could find was a Whirpool which ran on a 110V ignition. This means that I would still have to buy a large transformer for the dryer. Cost (not including transformer) was ~Php34,000 (about $755). Instead we decided to send our laundry out to a nearby laundry chain, Metropole. Cost Php30 (Wednesday promo) per kilo which means that we can was over 1000 kilos of laundry for the cost of the dryer. No washing, ironing, electricity costs and the laundry is done within 24 hours. Best move we could have made.

2. Have you ever wondered where items returned to stores in the US or damaged items end up? Well, we learned they end up at surplus stores here! I already knew that we were somewhat of a dumping ground for unwanted products (suspected when I saw cheddar (!!) triscuits at S&R and was further confirmed when a bevy of sheets with linens and things tags showed up there shorty after the US stores all closed) but yesterday we found a slew. We went to HMR which is this insane mix off overstocks, returned, and damaged goods. Appeared (from the labels) that most items came from Australia or the US. We were looking for one of those plastic box/shed things for outside that are made of plastic. Kinda a weird hyper specific item. While they did have them, the price for a fairly damaged item (missing handles, shelves, and off balance) was odd. Actually all the pricing was odd. As well as the items, including a newborn incubator for Php110,000 (I fear the medical clinic that buys secondhand incubators from a non medical supply store), smashed cans of green beans, and maybe 15 bottles of kirkland brand water.

3. Found Mexican heaven. Hermanos Taco Shop on Granada in QC. Sooooo good. My new happiness. Still not La Cumbre on Valencia in SF but at least enough to get me through.

4. Watched the Simpsons. Realized that when mean jokes are made about the Philippines on the Simpsons, they are bleeped out. And when I say mean, I mean funny and satirical. Satire is NOT understood here.

5. Went to IKEA in Singapore. I hope they open up here soon....where else can I find 1000 different ways to store junk and cheap tea lights? Manila needs an IKEA.

6. Finally, on same trip to Singapore, I realized just how high we price imported items here. General rule for shopping in Singapore, if it is imported, the price is cheaper in SG than here. This went for fruits, cheeses, makeup, kitchenware--actually pretty much everything. We brought back over 10 kilos of cherries and gave them to people as souvenirs. While cherries from Canada may seem to be a weird thing to bring people from SG, everybody loved them. Including me!!!!

S&R sale starts Sept 15! Woo Hoo! The sale is awesome and is (for me) always one of those sales where I come home with a bunch of items I do not need.

Aclimation Failure

I went into SM Appliance today to inquire about a clothes dryer since rainy season is starting and last year the clothes would sometimes get a funky odor to them. I asked the salesman if they had any "drying machines" which is how I have heard a bunch of people refer to them. I was trying to be cool and fit in. The salesman gave me a pitying smile and gave me a look like I was was an idiot, and politely asked, "M'am, do you mean a dryer". Blech! Massive failure on my part.

I Think I Finally Figured Out the Food

One can generally categorize foreigners living here into three categories in regards to their food. Firstly the rarest are the people that eat only foods familiar to them from home. This is not limited to ingredients and recipes only but even brands. The second group are people who eat exclusively local. Never will they buy an imported item, eat at some place like McDo when there is Jollibee, and will be the first to give you a dirty look when buying a 60-pack of frozen jalapeno poppers (blech--never again--no one else likes them but me so it took me MONTHS to finish them all). The third and obviously more common group are the ones that eat from both. Appreciate the familiarity of some items from home, but buy local whenever it is better or less expensive.

I, like most, fall into the third, but probably even less than many. I do tend to lean towards imported when it comes to most dairy as well as snack food. Once I moved here, certain foods from home turned into major comfort foods. My mother's macaroni and cheese was a favorite when I first moved here although I realized quickly that the price of cheese made an inexpensive meal in San Francisco turn quite pricey here. And like many things, I was the only one who thought it was delicious.

My biggest food thing for me is still milk. I drink it. A lot. If I had it my way, I would drink it with almost every meal. While many claim the UHT milk tastes the same, as a beverage it does not. I have started to stockpile the California Sunshine milk from S&R. While it is still psycho pasteurized (I think the shelf life is something like two months) there is none of the funny aftertaste. Plus, it goes well with cereal. While cereal is not the most popular food here, I can eat it almost any time of the day. Also, randomly, Grape Nuts are sold here. Best cereal in the world and kinda random to be sold here. Corn Flakes and Cheerios, I understand. But who knew there was a market here for Grape Nuts? My sister & her husband visited a couple of weeks ago and they even brought a box back with them (they cannot buy Grape Nuts in France). Best cereal ever.

We do not ever buy meat in the supermarket. This is some weird issue of Ado's. She thinks the meat is not fresh in a grocery. Same for most produce. And on the subject of produce, it is almost avocado season!! Starting about May there will be tons! I can make guacamole! Burritos! Off season, one can find the occasional Haas, but if one avocado is the same price as a dinner out for two, I am not buying it. Same with off season strawberries. And cherries.

I can find bagels now. Either at the bakery inside Mickey's or French Bakery does a surprisingly good prepackaged bagel. Not gross mushy like most prepackaged but has a bit of a chewy crust. It is not the best bagel in the world but a really, really, really good substitute.

Blech. According to Meralco, we have rolling blackouts starting again this evening in our neighborhood for an hour. At least it will still be light out. Maybe a good time to go for a swim.

Christmas Tree!!!

The Philippines has the longest Christmas season of anywhere in the world. One can start to see decorations and hear the music as early as August although the official kickoff is the "ber" months (i.e., SeptemBER). This year it started later or I am just getting better about ADDing it.

We started decorating for Christmas late (again, relative to where we live). Perfect example: when we were hanging spiderwebs and positioning a headless man in our window for Halloween (our village participates in Trick or Treating woo hoo!!), our neighbor up the street was hanging up his Christmas lights. We started our decorating the day after Thanksgiving because that was the day we picked up our tree from S&R.

S&R ships in Douglas firs from Oregon for the Christmas season which rocks my world because I hate plastic trees. They are just not my thing. I have to have the nice pine smell for Christmas. For P3799 (about $75) I bought a real tree. It smells fantastic!! Admittedly, I am not 100% positive it will stay green until new years but I am optimistic. I went with a friend of mine and we picked out the best tree (read greenest) we could find and I think it looks great. Please note I am not one of those people that decorates trees beautifully. In fact, I have a friend coming over this week to redo the tree because she says it looks cruddy with my hastily bought decorations. In my defense, I impulse bought sale balls, random candy canes, and was assisted in my decorating by my creative team (a 5-year-old and a 4-year-old).


We bought a plain wreath and had a niece decorate it with berries and pine cones for the front door.

The staircase garland looks way cooler in real life because the little presents are lights that light up. Each 9' garland costs P150 (about $3) so life is good there!

Ah, this is my Santa Claus that we have dangling from the lights. It is paper-mache and we got him for the bargain price of P200 (about $4) in Paete, Laguna.

For some reason, people kept warning me against putting lights on my tree. I am not sure why. I am feeding it lots of sugar water and bought the overpriced lights that do not heat up too much. Although everyone told me that if I do not put lights on it, the tree will last longer, I find that akin to the people who put plastic on their couches. Sure, your couch will last forever, but who the fuck wants to sit on it????

**Side note--Mike at S&R Congressional is the coolest guy ever!! Not only did he not let us steal a tree that someone had reserved, he tolerated us picking a tree all the way in the back. Best employee ever!!!**

Random Thoughts

A few weeks ago we went to a championship basketball game. All is normal, but the guys play on a half-court instead of a full. Our team won. Woo-hoo!

We finally set up our grill. We shipped it here from the states when we first moved. One thing we did not consider was the size of the LPG tank. On the right side of the grill, there is a cabinet that the tank should fit into. The sizes here are different from the states, and therefore we have to have our tank outside. All of the ones here are too tall to fit!

We threw our first party here. Great thing about having a covered lanai is we have lots of places for the caterers to put tables. Everybody told me to lock up my good knives because the caterers would steal them, so I did. I still have all my knives.

We finally set up the furniture in our cabana......

...which turned into a nice drinking spot for my father-in-law and his friends. (Note, although I brought out wine glasses, they are drinking wine out of shot glasses.)



No party is complete without an uncle chopping the lechon.

Or a picture of the pig head (I have no idea who stuck the fruit there or why).

On other random notes:

-S&R now sells tampons!!!!!!!!!! This is the best news. I was so excited when I saw the boxes on the shelf. Tampons are impossible to find here. Seriously.

-We got a trainer for our Rott. This guy is the Caesar Milan of the Philippines. He makes my dog behave like never before.

-Our other dog (actually of mother-in-laws) is in heat and has her stupid period. Gross. I have to make sure there is always her blanket under her. People! FIX YOUR PETS. My mother-in-law refuses to get this dog fixed so until it ends, I am on blanket patrol.

-I am addicted to Five Cows (an ice cream place here) ice cream cake that is blueberry cheesecake. The blueberries are a little sour which balances out the sweetness of the cheesecake ice cream perfectly.

-Our new next door neighbor is a psychiatrist. I asked, and he told me there are approximately 500 psychiatrists in the entire Philippines. 80,000,000+ people and 500 psychiatrists does not sound sufficient.... I actually read on a message board for expats that the reason there is so little focus on mental health is because Filipinos do not get depressed. Yeah. Right. It has nothing to do with the fact that if one is having trouble putting food on the table or putting the kids in school, your depression or anything else is not likely to be a high priority.

-Hospitals here often have people selling cashews either inside the hall or outside. Best thing about going with my mother-in-law to the doctor is eating garlic cashews while waiting. My favorite seller is on the second floor or the Medical Arts building at Cardinal Santos.

-This is the coolest thing I have heard in a while (post dated July 27). As most of my family & friends know, the family planning situation here really upsets me.

-A few people here (many of them Fil-ams) when talking to me about the upcoming US elections, have asked me (when hearing I support Obama) if I am worried that when he is elected, "the blacks will take over." For real, what am I supposed to do with that statement?? There are so many bases to cover. I just don't know where to begin. Take over what? Who are these "blacks that might take over"? If there was more equality, wouldn't this be a good thing? If there were more people of color getting high government jobs, wouldn't this be a good thing? I just don't get it. And then there are the people (same people who pose the taking over query) that ask me if I am worried because he is a Muslim. 1) I really don't care the president's religion. I am still waiting for an agnostic president. 2) He is not Muslim. 3) If he was, who cares??? Final note on all this, as we can see by the current situation here is the Philippines (see above), a president does not necessarily support the groups they are a part of. If so, I do not think Arroyo would be figuratively fucking the women of her country.

Appliance Shopping

We finally bought one of the major appliances we need--a fridge (or as called here, a ref). It will not be delivered until this weekend but I am already loving it.

I never knew Sharp made fridges (I do not think they have a refrigerator line in the states) but I loved the idea of a freezer on the bottom combined with no center panel in the top. I also am loving the fact that the drawers for the freezer are plastic versus the wire baskets that are so common in the states.

We ended up buying our appliances at one store. Shopping for appliances is a process when it comes to pricing. There really is no last price--you can keep going. We got this fridge for P15,000 (about $350) below the marked price. The marked price is just the starting point. We also got a free blender and hairdryer as well. Catch? This is the cash price. We never carry lots of cash, so for us it meant a check which in the Philippines means three days clearing. No big deal for us.

Lest you think the fridge is too big, the tropical air kills food really quickly so items that are not normally refrigerated or frozen are here (i.e., bread, 72oz bags of chocolate chips from Costco).

(Sorry for the cruddy pic--I grabbed it from the Sharp website so the resolution is lacking)

Still in San Francisco.....

I am horrible about blogging when vacationing. I figure I will catch up when we get home this week. All I have been doing here (besides seeing family and friends and working) is shopping.

Wal Mart is my new favorite store. We do not have them in San Francisco (likely because they are evil in every way, shape, and form) but we spent three weeks in a tiny, tiny town in central Texas and after 9pm the only thing to do is go to Wal Mart. I felt guilty shopping there but was quite happy that I could buy a box of Triscuits for P100 less per box than in the Philippines (I bought a few boxes). Yes, I realize that purchasing my discounted Triscuits helps Wal Mart continue their world domination at the expense of everyone and I will not be surprised if when I get back and open my crackers, they are stained with the blood of all the people in the world who are raped by Wal Mart and their socially evil practices.

Side note, it is sooo good to be back in San Francisco. I really love it here. Although I am very happy in the Philippines, home is always home and home for me is a city that has banned plastic bags, encourages recycling everything, hates smokers (I am a freak here), has open space and parks everywhere, and has some of the best restaurants in the world.

Cool Places

Since we have arrived back we have been to two cool places that merit mention. The first was Ace Water Spa. This is a spa located in Quezon City on Del Monte Avenue. This spa has a lap pool and then an addition pool with various water massages. Very interesting. There are ones for each part of your body. In addition, there were three hot tubs (each getting slightly hotter) that were scented with either mint, jasmine, or lavender. At the edge of each pool was a chilled bar to lean your neck on and in between each pool, it is recommended you dip for five seconds in a cold pool (which was freezing--it felt like a glass of ice water). There were also steam rooms and saunas. The dressing room/locker area was very, very clean and the showers had hot water as well as shampoo. Hairdryers and q-tips were provided. Only random, no towels. You bring your own or rent them for P150 (about $3.65). Cost for admission was P500 ($12) per person and we went on a "buy two get one free promo". Really cool place and I will go back in a second. I had never seen a place like this ever. http://www.acewaterspa.ph/

The second really neat place was the Manila Seedling Bank also in Quezon City. Picture your average garden store and then feed it steroids and you have the Manila Seedling Bank. There were tons and tons of plants and all of them looked really healthy. While there we impulse bought two small sweet basil plants and one rosemary plant (total cost P100 - $2.45). Any plant you can imagine was there from herbs to flowers to trees to water plants. All at good prices and again, they all looked healthy. There were no half dead plants here. We are in the landscaper phase of our house now and were debating between hiring one and attempting to complete this ourselves. We will likely end up somewhere in the middle with someone helping us with the project.

Crazy Month

This has been a crazy busy month. We just got back from a two week family vacation in Hawaii (which was awesome--Hawaii is one of my favorite places in the world). It was great to be back in the states and to see all of my sisters and father. Hawaii is a lot like the Philippines.....it is just cleaner and has a much, much, much better infrastructure. Otherwise, the two places are quite similar: great beaches and jungle and really nice people (although I think people from Hawaii have to be some of the sweetest in the world). We did some shopping for our new house there including buying ceiling fans. The fans are 110V so this may turn out to be a mistake depending on how difficult the conversion is but we were able to buy 16 Hunter brand fans for the price of eight fans here. I also received an amazing red Kitchen Aid from my mother (again 110V but the price was $300 there versus the $585 it sells for here) as well as a fantastic set of Henckels knives from my father.Our new house is progressing. It is not completed and is behind my dream schedule (although right on time via the contract). The day before we left, we bought our oven and range. The range will be put in the bricked area above and we are having a chimney type hood (I do not know how to describe it. Once completed, I will post a picture). A really psycho blue was used for the kitchen which I adore. Buying the ovens was a little bit of a pain because I am unfamiliar with the brands so we were kinda shopping blindly. Total for one oven and a range (both cast iron) was just under P100,000 (about $2,250) which is insane. I miss the inexpensive appliances of the states.
One thing I love is the little vent outside for the oven hood (pictured above). How cute is that! These little details are a lot of the reason we went with the design company we did; they take the smallest details into consideration and make them beautiful.
Our foyer ceiling is complete and just needs the chandelier installed. My computer monitor is showing the picture as a wonky red, but in reality, it is a very true red and the wood is very dark brown, almost black.

All the interior and exterior doors have been installed and I am loving them. One of my favorite parts of the house. The doors were all handmade (which apparently can be less expensive than premade doors). They are solid wood and very heavy.

Yesterday was my first time seeing the driver/boy's room. I had not been up to the roof deck area as no stairs had been installed and the ladder the workers were using scared me. Above is the bathroom for the driver/boy which is fairly standard. I am posting this namely for my sister's who, like me, are a little creeped out by the idea of household staff. Although there is nothing luxurious about the bathroom, there is nothing wrong with it either. I could very comfortably shower there.

Above is one of our air conditioning compressors. We exclusives used split type air con which means the unit is out side. We have placed most on the side of the house in discreet areas (nothing bugs me more that a beautiful home with an ugly air conditioner sticking out of the wall) and this one is placed on the roof deck outside of the driver's room.


We opted to use terracotta tiles for the two lanais as well as the entrance. The center tiles are malaga tiles which are essentially painted cement tiles. These are the same tiles used above the range in the kitchen. This is the most recent picture I have of the front which is from November 07. For some reason I have not taken any newer pictures of the front. The most important item to acknowledge is the giant ugly prison wall has been removed and replaced with a lower, more friendly looking wall. I will have to remember to take a more recent picture of the front this week.

We also completed a lot of our furniture shopping (I think we spent too much time doing it....a salesman at a store saw us and said, "Hi! You usually shop at our Trinoma branch!" Once the sales people start to recognize you, I think it is time to start winding it down and making the purchase). I will later do a more detailed post about the shopping excursions.

Real Christmas Trees

Ha! I found a place here that sells real Christmas trees from Oregon. The Philippines being a tropical country has a distinct lack of pine trees so everybody has plastic which I abhor. Although we are not getting a tree this year (due to the timing of the house turnover), I will definitely buy a real one next year.