Still not decided which condo to rent

Still I have not decided which condo I shall rent. Made an offer for the owner's of my favourite one. But that has not been accepted for more than a week now. And it's already expensive enough. I wonder if I shall make a even higher offer now or look for another one.

This would be the building where my favourite apartment would be located in:

To make get an idea what district I shall look for a condo, I have been to Fort Bonifacio Global City. It is like a city in the city. Totally different from Makati. But very nice too. Taxi ride from Makati to there: On a Sunday 11 minutes (I took the time). On week-days: 30-40 minutes (I was told). Not sure if that will be convenient for commuting every day...

This is Highstreet, where a lot of people hang out in restaurants, cafes, in the park. Or walk their dogs. Good for children to play. I guess this place might be preferrable for the Remund family once they will be here:

At the end of the Highstreet, there is a huge shopping mall: Market Market. Asians really love shopping, not only when they travel to Europe. And the best thing: All the malls are open on Sunday, too!!

This is the park in front of the Market Market Mall:

A little fair where the newest kitchen tool inventions are presented:

The entrance to the mall: Security Check. One line for women, one for men:

Inside:

Need a new phone number because your current number contains an unlucky digit? Here you go.

Last week, I found an ant trail running staight trough my hotel bed. That night I was woken up several times by a tickling of an ant. Luckily no bite. First I tried to de-route the trail through a hole into my neighbour's apartment to get rid of them. But my capabilities as an ant traffic enforcer seem to be limited. So I made the house-keeping taking care of it.

The streets in Makati (city centre) are abandoned on Sundays. Streets where usually cars run bumper by bumper look totally empty on Sundays: (the red car is a parked one...)

This week-end, I checked out two of the largest malls of Asia: The Mall of Asia and the SM Megamall. The Mall of Asia is said to be the largest Mall of Asia.
There I visited the food court and had a small menu including soft drink for 1.5 US$:

This is the ice skating court inside the Mall of Asia. Every hour they also have real snow falling down from the ceiling:

This is the inside parkway of the Mall of Asia. The mall is very spread out accross a big area and looks very nice and not not just monolithic:

This is a picture of the Greenbelt Mall. I think you understand why I would like to live nearby:

A restaurant with tables in the park of Greenbelt:

It is a bit sad to hear that the area of Makati used to be very green having a lot of trees and birds, before it was developed and most of the trees were removed. The Greenbelt mall seems to be something like a memorial of the ancient vegetation in this place.

So far I have to say that the Filipinos are really nice folks!
What I like about them:

• They are not in a hurry all the time
• They seem to be always happy, even if life is playing hard on some of them
• They are friendly and very respectful, not only to foreigners
• They all speak English well (many of them better than me...)
• They are very caring, for children, for elderly, but in general for other people as well.

After such a week-end, only one thing helps to cool down a bit:

There is a job for everything

Due to my caugh I went to MakatiMedi recently. There I was given a good example how many job can be created for each kind of need: After I saw the doctor and got the prescription, I had to go to the drugstore department to obtain the medicine. First there was one guy who opened the door for me when entering. Then there was another guy who fetched a waiting line ticket for me and kindly handed it to me. When it was my turn I could talk to the pharmacist to obtain the medicine. Of course I had to pay for it at another desk with another person sitting behind. I was gladly paying cash, while another person was mopping the tiled floor and also around me feet.
Don't get me wong: It has a lot of positive sides to create that many jobs. But I am not really used to that.

Well, there is one thing that my local laundry will have to get used to, when making business with me: I usually hand in my laundry, filling in the standard form to list all the items to be submitted and cleaned. Sometimes the socks in my laundry bags just won't add up to be pairs of two. So I might hand them in as uneven number, hoping that the missing sock might show up agan at a later stage (what they usually do). How to fill in the form correctly? I usually try: "Socks: Six and a half pairs". The cleaning staff used to look at my legs and started counting, but it still wouldn't make any sense to them...

Recently in the Greenbelt shopping center I discovered this handy gadget:

 I wonder if I should get it for my future scuba diving...

And have a look at this designer store. It's a pity my apartment will be furnished already... I would love to shop here...

On Friday the staff of Sofgen organised a cool Welcome Lunch at Gerry's, a Filipino Food restaurant chain. Thanks again for organising and for the invitation!! The food was great!
PS: Note that I am wearing a sweater. This is due my cold and because of the permanent aircon.

Today I got a private city sight seeing tour with a friend and a tour guide. We visited Intramuros. A place with a lot of history. It is a must and practically inevitable to visit if you want to understand the Filipino identity.

This was our private tour guide for the day. A very gentle person.

I couldn't count how many passengers, but there were at least 11 on that tri-cycle.

The oldest church of the Philippines: San Agustin Church, completed 1606 a.d.

This device was used by the Spanish to process gun powder:

Cherry, my charming company today, who had organised the tour:

After Intramuros we continued to the Mall of Asia, which is said to be the largest mall in whole Asia

I receive 1000, Sir

All service staff is really well trained here in Makati. Whenever you pay something cash, they count the amount in front of your eyes and tell you the amount they have received. I am hearing the sentence "I receive xxx, Sir" many times a day.

On the way home I usually pass through the super cool shopping mall Greenbelt. There are around 100 restaurants in there (not exagerated). I wanted to get a McDonalds cheeseburger long time ago. But as McDonalds is the last restaurant in the line, I never managed to arrive there being hungry still...

Today I was at the clinic called MakatiMedi to consult a doctor for my caugh and running nose. At 9am I was second patient in queue when I registered. At 10:30am I was still second. Something seemed wrong. At 10:45am the doctor finally arrived and I realised why it took so long waiting in line...
Next time I will need it, I might try another clinic called Saint Luke's. I was told that would have a better standard. Doctor seemed well qualified at MakatiMed though...

Locals told me not to choose the white taxis if possible. Those are privately operated and thus might be not as safe as the officially registered ones. But there are hardly any other ones than the white ones. Argh.

At lunch break we keep going to different restaurants each time. There is an Irish one we have visited twice already. If you read their menu, it looks as if there would be a massive supply shortage:

Yesterday I have had the chance to view the Greenbelt Residences. 4 apartments. I fell in love with one in the middle tower, level 40.  Because it has the most modern interior and has never been used before. It is a little bit far on my upper price range, and not too large. But hmm... See yourself.
This is the kitchen:

Living room

This is the view from the living / dining room. The thought that my boss can see me from his office is kind of disturbing though...  :-)

Guest bedroom

Shared garden

Shared gym

The fire alarm board

Master bedroom

First week is over

After one week here in Manila, I am getting more and more accustomed to the place. The environment around Greenbelt (that mall...) is very convenient.

Work is great so far except for the slow internet connection which makes working with Citrix really annoying. I guess we will have to improve something there in the near future.
This is the tower where I work: The Rufino Pacific Tower.

The people are all cool. However I am surprised to see that most of the staff bring in their lunch to the office and eat it in the break room. I might do that too some times, just to get in touch with the local staff better. I did not yet have the opportunity to have a personal chat with each of them. And I don't know all of their names yet.
This is the place where I had lunch twice this week:

A shame that I did not yet start to read my Tagalog text books. But there are just so many things to discover everywhere.

When I walk I usually have a good pace. Here it's kind of difficult sometimes, as most people have a really slow pace when walking down the stairs or when stepping on the escalator. Especially the escalator thing is a mystery to me. Some people are just standing in front of the escalator, looking down to the moving steps, and... just keep standing. 

Yesterday I could see 4 more condos. One happens to be right next door of my current serviced apartment. Here are a couple of pictures.

PS: Sorry for that finger