By the way: The right word for 'turn left' is 'pakaliwa' and 'turn right' is 'pakanan'.
Sunday, February 26, 2012
How to find your way home turning left only
Last week-end I went out and had a couple of beers. When I was riding a taxi home, the taxi driver didn't know where my home street was. So I had to give him the directions. But: I couldn't remember the word for 'turn right' in Tagalog language. Finally I managed to direct him using the word for 'turn left' only. This is how we ended up driving:
By the way: The right word for 'turn left' is 'pakaliwa' and 'turn right' is 'pakanan'.
By the way: The right word for 'turn left' is 'pakaliwa' and 'turn right' is 'pakanan'.
Monday, February 13, 2012
Found a condo finally
While typing this, I am sitting on the couch in my new condo. Using my iPad, as my PCs are not here yet and while I don't have any wifi internet available here.
As I just moved in yesterday, I dont even have cuttlery, plates, no stuff for cleaning... Only very basic so far.
Here are some pictures.
Today my container was supposed to be delivered (containing my PCs, TV, bed, household appliances, ...) but it wasn't. :-(
Last two week-ends, this used to be my view on Saturday morning:
And this used to be my view on Saturday evening:
And Sunday morning:
...well: You get the idea...
By the way: Note the green bottle next to the team member's pictures: This is antiseptic disinfectant liquid which almost everyone here at the office has on his desk. Who knows if it is really needed or not. But why taking the risk...
Filipinos seem to be really fond of Fast Food. They have a brand which has more restaurants than Mc Donald's, and there are many of those as well:
I have tasted their Chicken Burger and their Beef Burger equivalent. And I have to say the flavour is really good and strong. However, I was told that the Spaghetti would be sweet and not suitable for a Westerner's mouth...
In the morning, sometimes I go to this cafe at Greenbelt to have breakfast:
If I could only remember its name though...
On Saturday, I had to say 'Good Bye' to my 6-weeks residence: The Sumerset serviced apartment.
6 weeks stay and never used their pool. What a shame.
Last week Adrian (my brother) and his friend Christian came to the Philippines. They seem to enjoy themselves at Angeles City and at Boracay. I guess they have already seen more of the Philippines that I have....
Here is a short impression of the Mall of Asia, where they have a ice skating court including artificial snow. For you guys in Switzerland, who are used to weather as cold as -17 degrees, this might look normal. But here we have nearly 30 degrees (on the positive side of the scale...).
Today my container was supposed to be delivered (containing my PCs, TV, bed, household appliances, ...) but it wasn't. :-(
Last two week-ends, this used to be my view on Saturday morning:
And this used to be my view on Saturday evening:
And Sunday morning:
...well: You get the idea...
By the way: Note the green bottle next to the team member's pictures: This is antiseptic disinfectant liquid which almost everyone here at the office has on his desk. Who knows if it is really needed or not. But why taking the risk...
Filipinos seem to be really fond of Fast Food. They have a brand which has more restaurants than Mc Donald's, and there are many of those as well:
In the morning, sometimes I go to this cafe at Greenbelt to have breakfast:
On Saturday, I had to say 'Good Bye' to my 6-weeks residence: The Sumerset serviced apartment.
6 weeks stay and never used their pool. What a shame.
Last week Adrian (my brother) and his friend Christian came to the Philippines. They seem to enjoy themselves at Angeles City and at Boracay. I guess they have already seen more of the Philippines that I have....
Here is a short impression of the Mall of Asia, where they have a ice skating court including artificial snow. For you guys in Switzerland, who are used to weather as cold as -17 degrees, this might look normal. But here we have nearly 30 degrees (on the positive side of the scale...).
Sunday, January 29, 2012
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:
This would be the building where my favourite apartment would be located in:
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:
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.
Sunday, January 15, 2012
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
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:
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
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