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TWENTY EIGHT January 22 (2007) - Now this is ridiculous. It is January 22, 2007 and I haven't written an entry for over six months. Shame on me. I will try to bring you all up to speed. June 10 (2007) - So much for that idea. LOL here it is five more months later and still no entry. This morning when I got my e-mail there was one from my friend Steven back in Florida . He mentioned that he missed my updates and he hadn't seen one in quite sometime and didn't have a clue what I was up to since I saw him this past October when I visited Florida. Anyway, I think it is high time to get this Diary/Blog up and running again. Okay since June of last year the following has occurred: 1. From June until End of August 2006 I continued playing lots of golf at Bravo and actually made some real improvements to my game. I probably got down to a legitimate 17 handicap from a 22. Not the 10 handicap I was seeking but whose complaining. I was a happy camper consistently breaking 90. And all this despite Bravo being a very glorified Par 3. Other than golf more or less things were the same in other areas of our life. Happy and contented but no progress on buying something decent, 2. Lynn and I actually left living in Dumaguete in late August 2006. It was mostly out of frustration not having been able to find a property to settle down on and build a house coupled with the real thought of a move back to the States or Canada. Lynn went to Davao to spend time with Joe and her family and to wait to see how my trip went. I went back to Florida to check out real estate prices and to see friends again. It was a great trip from start to finish. I stayed with Danny and Helene who are great friends who lived a few doors down from me in Beach Club Villas. It was so nice to see and stay with them. I ended up spending most of my days there playing golf and looking at places for sale. Evenings, I would mostly stay in the house with Danny and Helene watching TV shows I had been missing over here. Despite the economic slowdown and looming housing crisis I didn't see a noticeable downturn in prices enough to warrant buying back again. Perhaps a $25,000 drop when I was looking more for a $50,000 to $100,000 depending on the unit. I am thinking now it is really all for the better I didn't find something. Frankly, despite my bitching and complaining about this backwoods place called the Philippines, it is still has a certain attraction that I can't really describe but makes you want to stay. I find the states way to dictatorial and constraining and most everyone walks around with an attitude or stick up their proverbial asses. Apathy, arrogance and mistrust rules the day. True the states has everything you could possibly want and need in material things but it is simply missing a certain thing called humanity. In the Philippines there is a sincere smile on everyone's face and you don't have government breathing down your neck telling you what, where and how. The catholic church seems to have a monopoly on that. Also, here in the Philippines medical and medicine is very affordable and with my serious health issues, I don't even think I could go back to the States and get health insurance and that basically takes moving back out of the picture. Okay, so it wasn't meant to be. In any event I had a great time, shot (84) my best round of golf on my next to last day in Florida, saw special friends, my mother, grandmother and 2 Uncles. I returned to the Philippines on or about October 15. Unfortunately, upon my return Lynn and I found ourselves basically homeless. Convinced of a move to the States, we had sold off most all the furniture and appliances we had in Dumaguete. The rest of the stuff was in Davao where Lynn had brought it when we left Dumaguete. The rest of the stuff was in storage in Manila. For four months YIKES from mid October until the end of January 2007, we stayed in the CRS short/long stay hotel in Manila. This hotel is in the Paco part of Manila an area which really has no identity per se but is located just by the main trucking route to and from the ports. When not in the room which was as often as possible I spent most days in Starbucks working on the other website or going to malls and of course visiting the Diaz clan. On weekends we would try and get out of town and usually head up to Tagaytay. It was in December that we thought about buying a condominium in Tagaytay Highlands/Midlands. This is a private land area containing hundreds of hectares featuring sections of upscale single family houses, condominiums, golf courses (two at present and a third on the way) , a health spa, restaurants, a country club, and many more upper level lifestyle things. I really liked the place and we looked at a particular condo complex called The Horizon which featured two and three bedrooms of about 1300 sq. ft. with incredible views of Lake Taal and the Midlands Golf course. The price was a lofty 8 million peso or $160,000 with a $100 monthly maintenance fee. As much as we loved it and felt it would also be a good investment, there were some real definite shortcomings and many restrictions that stopped us from closing. For one the completion was not until April and no Internet until at earliest November. And then there were rental restrictions and a bunch of other challenges. It was a big decision but, we walked away anyway despite losing a $2,000 deposit. The fact they did not return the deposit also showed us we made the right decision. A shame as it was a beautiful place that offered clean living and only 1 1/2 hours from Manila one hour from great diving. Ce la vie.
Since we liked Tagaytay so much we then decided a try and find a rental place to live and see how living in Tagaytay would be. It would also give us the opportunity to look around for property on the ridge and other areas for possibly buying and building a house on. As it turns out The Diaz family had a house their mother owned which was vacant since her death in 2003. We agreed on a rent and took the place in February. The house had two bedrooms with full bathrooms, dining room, living room and good size kitchen. It was really wonderful. It was in a great location, walking distance to a Starbucks located on the ridge which overlooked the lake. I finally was able to get my artwork out of storage and hang them on the great wall space the house offered. I really felt at home. But guess what........................But of course, something to come along and fuck it all up. Welcome to the Philippines LOL. As is common and I mentioned before are the problems of barking dogs. Just our luck there was a neighbor with 5 dogs all of whom seemed to enjoy barking up until about 11pm and then sleep from barking exhaustion unless disturbed by a passerby and then the barking would commence all over no matter the hour. We tried to reason with the owners but to no avail. I then decided enough was enough and to solve the problem myself. Suffice to say the problem was solved. Another issue was I couldn't get Internet in the house. PLDT being the phone company of the Philippines and the main supplier of DSL Internet service, never expected such prolific growth in Tagaytay and only had a limited amount of bandwidth available. As you might derive that was all taken up and nothing more would be available for at least one year. Fortunately there was a Figaro coffee shop across the street from Starbucks and I was able to use their wireless. Only draw back was I ended up spending most of my time there instead of the comfort of the house when using the computer. 2005
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