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FIFTY SIX January 15 - Tuesday This past Sunday I decided to finally test out the new version of the Dive Sled. This is version III. Out of all 3 versions, this one worked the best. Once again Joe and I had a great time in the water.
After the weekend I remembered I promised to get Joe certified so, now I am following through. This weekend he will begin his Open Water Dive Certification with my Instructor friend Gary. Joe is excited and I am thrillled for him to see the exciting underwater world. Now I will have a dive buddy and I hope we can do some more diving before we move to Davao and then again before he moves to Canada in June.. Lynn has an appointment with Dr. Tan on January 20 and then on the 22nd we again are off to Cebu for my dentist appointment with Dr.Lao and a follow up with Dr. Arancillo. I also need some paint work on the truck and an additional fix with my DVD system again. And I miss my Starbucks. Can you believe Davao of all places doesn't have one yet! On a separate note: Boy am I glad we changed from our previous OBGYN (lets call her Dr. A) to our current one Dr. Tan. As it happened I met a guy named Chris who as it turns out used Dr. A as his wifes OBGYN and when they had a ultrasound it was determined that the baby was going to be due during a very specific time frame. However, Dr. A was going to be out of town during that entire time so Chris says (and he got actual confirmation) that Dr. A scratched the placenta or something like that and this induced his wife to have pre-mature labor. Dr. A was then able to deliver the baby two weeks early and before she left on her trip. This way she could collect her P4,000 delivery fee. If that had happend to Lynn and I found out I just don't know what I would do. I could always plead Temporary Insanity I guess. I was planning to go to Siargao around the 21st to see the property but it seems I won't be going as I really need to stay with Lynn during these last couple of weeks of pregnancy. Won't be long now. I will go after we make the move to Davao and are all settled.
Something just occured to me that shocked me when I thought about it. It has to do with building a house now in January 2008 versus in September 2005 a few months after I got here. Here is the scenario: In September 2005 The peso was about 55 to the dollar. The cost to build a quality turn key house was about P14,000 sqm. So a 350 sqm house would be about 5,000,000 peso and at 55 peso to the dollar about $90,000 USD. Today, January 2008 the peso is 40.50 to the dollar and the cost to build that very same house given labor and materials price increases over the past 2 years now puts the house at 20,000 per sqm. So the same 350sqm house would cost 7,000,000 pesos and at 40.50 to the dollar would be $173,000 USD. Can you imagine that ALMOST DOUBLE!!! The thing that irritates me most is how in the world prices in the Philippines have gone up so much, especially on imported stuff from the states. Yes, I understand that prices have risen in the USA as well but, due to the 30% increase in the peso vs. the dollar those price increases should have been mostly neutralized and if anything prices here should have remained unchanged. Oh, get this....a kilo of bonless breast chicken was P120 two years ago and now it is P170 a 42% increase just in the peso. So in dollars it went from 97 cents per pound to $1.86 a pound. Imagine that, almost two bucks for a pound of chicken a 91% price increase for me factoring in the dollar depreciation. They may be switching to dog pretty soon ha ha ha. I never thought I'd be saying this for at least more 10 years from when I first moved here, but believe it or not it is getting real expensive to live here now. In fact many foreigners are starting to consider other places to go.Some are looking at Argentina and other parts of South and Central America. Problem there and everywhere else is the language which is still the biggest advantage of being here in the Philippines. English is widely spoken. BTW, gas here is $4.22 a gallon and diesel is $3.82. Oh well. 2005
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