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Major, major results

September 1, 2010 By MindanaoBob 102 Comments
Miss Venus Raj, 5th Runner Up, Miss Universe

For those of you who don't know, Miss Philippines scored a big result last week when she placed 5th place in the Miss Universe pageant.  I don't normally follow beauty pageants, but I am very happy for Miss Maria Venus Raj, the 4th Runner Up in the Miss Universe contest last week in Las Vegas, Nevada. Venus is quite a beauty, I must say.  I first saw her a couple of weeks ago when Feyma told me about her.  Feyma told me that Venus Raj, the contender for Miss Universe was half Indian.  It's true, Venus was born in 1988, the daughter of a Filipina mother and an Indian father.  Shortly after Feyma told me about her, I saw her on a TV commercial … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Bob Tagged With: Bob Martin, Daily Life, Entertainment, Living in The Philippines

It’s on the Coconut Telegraph

August 20, 2010 By MindanaoBob 63 Comments
Coconut Telegraph Album Cover

I admit it.  I'm a Parrothead.  Big time. Oh wait... some of you are asking... what the heck is a "parrothead?" Well, a Parrothead is a fan of Jimmy Buffett.  For the uninitiated, Jimmy Buffet is an American Singer.  His music is hard to categorize.  It is not quite rock.  It's not quite country.  It's somewhere in between the two.  Jimmy Buffett primarily sings island style music.  He is a man who loves the tropics.  He sails boats.  He flies a sea plane.  He parties a lot, or used to when he was younger.  A lot of Jimmy's songs really sound a lot like the life that I lead here in the Philippines.  Songs about Coconuts.  … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Bob Tagged With: Bob Martin, Daily Life, Entertainment, Expats, Filipino Culture, Living in The Philippines, Travel

Travel by ferry in the Philippines

August 18, 2010 By RoselynSmitley 8 Comments
Supercat Boarding Area

Today we have a Guest article from Roselyn Smitley.  Roselyn lives in the Southwestern USA.  Thank you for submitting your article, Roselyn! MindanaoBob In 2005, I visited my parents in the Philippines from the U.S. My parents were long-time residents of California before retiring to the Philippines. They maintained residences in two of the largest islands in the Philippines: Cebu City (my mother’s nephew resided two houses away) and Cagayan de Oro City (where my father’s only brother lived with his family). My retired parents enjoyed a slow travel pace at an affordable price via inter-island ferry. They could have easily afforded … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Guest Tagged With: Daily Life, Entertainment, Filipino Culture, Financial, Living in The Philippines, Roselyn Smitley, Transportation, Travel

I felt good!

August 16, 2010 By MindanaoBob 102 Comments
Swimming at the beach on Samal Island

I had an experience last Friday that really made me feel good.  I thought I'd tell you about it today. On Thursday evening, my oldest son, Chris, mentioned to me that he wanted to go get a haircut on Friday.  I needed a haircut myself, as I had not had one in 2 weeks.  I usually get my hair cut every week, but I had been busy and not had a chance to make it to the barber shop, so I told Chris that we would go together on Friday. I don't recall having gone with Chris to the barber shop anytime recently.  Usually, all of our kids go for a haircut with their cousin, Deo.  I usually go alone.  We all go to the same barber shop, though. I … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Bob Tagged With: Bob Martin, Daily Life, Entertainment, Expats, Filipino Culture, Living in The Philippines, Relationships

TV in the Philippines

August 10, 2010 By JohnM 46 Comments
Rachel Ray

I'm not a huge fan of TV... I watch it, but really only certain programs. Note that I'm NOT one of those people in the States that claims to only watch PBS. I'm no scientist, but I think that if everyone who made that claim actually followed through, then PBS would, by far, be the highest rated network in the US, with Discovery and History running right behind. Does it make you any less highbrow if you simply enjoy the WWE, American Idol, or Rachael Ray? Note that I like WWE, only watch Idol for the terrible singers, and find Rachael Ray incredibly annoying. Sometimes the pure idiocy that is professional wrestling is a nice break from thinking. … [Read more...]

Filed Under: John Miele Tagged With: Daily Life, Entertainment, Expats, John Miele, Living in The Philippines

Visiting Texas in Subic

August 9, 2010 By Paul Thompson 45 Comments
Pulled Pork

Lechon and liempo wow, they sure taste good, but do you miss Texas Pulled BBQ Pork? Or Texas style BBQ Pork Ribs, served with corn bread, ‘taters (Rice also) and corn on the cob? How about Texas style BBQ chicken and beef ribs? How about a BBQ beef brisket sandwich that falls apart in your mouth? And a host of BBQ sauces, that will remind you of home wherever that might be from, waiting to be dripped on you BBQ. Let me digress, the weekend of July 18th I had planned a road trip to Vigan up North, here on Luzon. The gods sent a typhoon that changed my plans a bit. My area of Bataan never did get hit hard, about 5 hours of gusting … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Paul T Tagged With: Daily Life, Entertainment, Expats, Food, Living in The Philippines, Paul Thompson, Travel, Weather

No news today

August 3, 2010 By John 34 Comments
BBC News

Not sure if you guys were like me, that when we were in our home countries, you were a  a News Junkie, I mean with rolling national and international news it was easy to be involved in anything from a fire in Russia to a disgraced Politician in the UK. It did not seem to matter that nothing really changed on the story for hours and hours, we stayed tuned just in case  it did,and it was a topic of conversation with family , friends and co workers. On arrival four years plus ago, I stayed tuned to BBC World News, and CNN and followed everything as before, but I began to notice that when I was speaking about world events to my Philippine friends, … [Read more...]

Filed Under: John G Tagged With: Communication, Entertainment, Filipino Culture, John Grant, Living in The Philippines

Bizarre Foods!

July 29, 2010 By Feyma 51 Comments
Cow Blood

Today I was gonna write about the bizarre behavior of our dear neighbor. I can't even begin to tell you how their attitudes were. They are the one at fault but didn't up to it. Instead of saying sorry they are blaming us. My gosh, what a neighbor we have here. Well, when I look over my shoulder I saw Bob already wrote an article about the incident that happened a few days ago. I let him do the honor of explaining everything because I am still too upset over that matter. Why the title bizarre foods?  Well over the weekend Bob and I and the kids were watching the show Bizarre Foods hosted by Andrew Zimmern.  On the episode we were watching … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Feyma Tagged With: Entertainment, Feyma Martin, Filipino Culture, Food, Living in The Philippines, Travel

If It’s On The Menu

July 26, 2010 By Paul Thompson 50 Comments
Pool

The Advertisement said that every Friday Night they served Mongolian BBQ, I’d been there before, just two weeks prior, it was good. (Their lunch menu has a Philly Cheese Steak sandwich that is the best I’ve had outside of Philadelphia.) My buddy has just come home after being to sea for the last three months. We decided to head over to the Casablanca Hotel on Subic Freeport and chow down on Mongolian BBQ. The added benefit was their huge pool with a swim up bar, when you order food, you may swim gratis. The Kid’s like that. We met there at 18:30, I with my family and assorted kids, and my friend with his family and some more … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Paul T Tagged With: Adjustment, Daily Life, Entertainment, Expats, Filipino Culture, Food, Living in The Philippines, Paul Thompson

She Did Promise Me!

July 19, 2010 By Paul Thompson 40 Comments
Nice Box

For my putting off the purchase of a new car, and having all her house projects completed, my wonderful wife promised me a new Pioneer car stereo that would play USB Flash drives in my old Honda. The one I had, played MP3 CD’s, and worked fine. The thought of one month of country music, never hearing the same song twice, well, that just gladdened my heart, and caused a slight tingle in my brain. Plus, my son-in-law Chris loves my old unit, which is now in his car. The shop I use is in downtown Olongapo City, and I’ve been using their services for more than ten years now. So when I drove in Max (the owner) asked what type of stereo was … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Paul T Tagged With: Daily Life, Entertainment, Expats, Living in The Philippines, Paul Thompson
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