Leases, Visas, Bikes and the Likes.

No I haven't abandoned my blog. I am lax indeed, I'll admit. Guilty by self incrimination. But please don't think for a moment that I've been doing nothing. I'll try to explain somewhat of the happenings since my last post nearly a month ago. It will not necessarily be in chronoligical order, rather however it comes into my mind and flows out my fingertips.

Leases

Just this rainy Monday morning I have received, re-read, and made a few what I hope are the final revisions to a "Contract of Lease" on a condo unit down the street from us here in Brentville (or more completely - Brentville International Village Barangay Mamplasan, Binan, Laguna, Philippines - but I prefer simply Brentville). 'Not happy with the one you're in?' you might ask. This new one is not for ourselves but for Dea's sister and brother-in-law Jeanne and Jerry who are coming this way. You see our closest family is a distant 18 miles away (Manila) so we're importing some more to live just down the street. And what I've found about dealing with brokers, leases, owners, subdivision associations, bankers and anyone else deciding to get involved, is that it's different here. I surly did not expect it to mirror previous experiences but ... well it is different. And, I have to say there are many friends who have helped a lot with advice and suggestions to help smooth the way. I think we're close, though rennovation on this place, which has been abandon for 5 years, has not yet begun. Hopefully this week. There's a whole lot more I could say about the process but this is the short version.

Here's a picture of the place.

Doesn't particularly look abandon for 5 years. That's because the Association recently repainted all of the unit exteriors.

Visas

And after having lived here over a year don't I have a visa? Well I do. And I'm glad of that. But Jeanne and Jerry will be in need of one for their stay here. They will enter the country with a standard visitors visa and then begin application for a SRRV - that is a Special Resident Retirement Visa. So I've been looking into that so they could be apprised of the necessary red tape busting documentation to bring along. Such as medical certificate showing them to be "not afflicted with any loathsome or contagious disease", a police clearance so they won't be adding to the resident criminal element, proof of at least a $1000 monthly pension, marriage certificate, and investment funds. The first four to be authenticated by the Philippine Embassy before coming.

It's all right here (at least the pretty pictures).

Might be worth looking into. Want me to send you one?

Bikes

To satiate my technical/mechanical bent and to enhance my bikeability, or just because I wanted to, I turned this pile...

... along with a few additional parts tires, handlebars, seat etc. into this....

I would have to say the most satisfying parts of the project were building and truing the wheels (my first time ever to do that), and the first ride on it. Hopefully there will be a bunch more satisfying rides.

On the first part, the wheelbuilding part, I started with two Mavic XC717 rims, 72 DT Swiss Competition spokes with nipples, and two Shimano Deore LX disc brake capable hubs, and a few pages of instructions (thank you Sheldon Brown! http://sheldonbrown.com/wheelbuild.html), a cheap truing attachment for my Park repair stand, and I was off!

The Front wheel before...

The front wheel during...

The rear wheel.

The Likes

The likes will have to come later. Promise not to take a month.

A Historic Cemetary in Laguna Province.

August 18th Dea and I went with the Lamb's to see the Underground Cemetary in Nagcarlan.

You can see from the pictures that at least the grounds appear well taken care of.

I think Dea is contemplating rental of an empty crypt.

A view of the church through the front wall.

If you have an interest in diet and heart health ....

I have added some additional citations on the subjects listed in my other blog. See http://pi-bill-articles.blogspot.com/

There is a link to book reviews in the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons, some interesting letters in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) titled "Dietary fat and risk of coronary heart disease in men ", and an interesting question "The Food Guide Pyramid: Will the Defects Be Corrected?" dealt with in the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons.

Hope you will find this information helpful.

Cycling into Taal Lake

Mark and I did another cycle trip last Saturday May 19th from Tagaytay down to Lake Taal. The bike site helped us redefine 'easy''. This is the beginning of the trail we took and let me tell you it was all down hill from there. The 'riding' part of this outing was riding the brakes. Remember Hot Wheels? Well on the second stop to repair Marks brakes I found out what hot wheels really are - about burned my hands on his rims. Then I checked mine and ended up burning them again. Some people never learn.

Mark's thinking that it doesn't look bad from here - in fact this is going to be easy. But between the above pic and the next one we had quite a ride. See Mark's view of the trip at http://stevenson-stevies.blogspot.com/. Of course you've got to wade through some girlie pictures to get to it. Enjoy!

This is one of the places we got to carry our bikes. And I thought they were for riding. So when Mark reads this he's going to ask 'If they're for riding why did you fly over the handle bars? Huh Bill, How come?" Well I ain't a going there. You'd have to see the skinned forehead, black eyes, and crumpled glasses to appreciate that man can fly but only for a short while. Actually the takeoff and flight aren't bad - it's the other part that I need to work on (avoiding).

There's Taal Volcano - the beauty of that site kind of eases the pain.
We rode about 10 1/2 miles along the lake before catching a jeepney ride up. (What kind of a whimp are you - taking a jeepney up?)

Here's a little about the place. Since 1572, Taal has erupted at least 34 times. Most recent large eruption was September 1965. The volcano has been restless since early 1991, with earthquakes, new steaming areas, ground fracturing, and increases in water temperature of the lake. It is being monitored to understand if the current activity may foretell an eruption.

Map of our Baguio Trip except for....

My GPS says it was about a 180 mile trip. (except for the 50 mile 2.5 hour shortcut I took at Capas. But the way I see it is we saw some country we never would have seen otherwise.) We drove from our place near Brent South to Barry & Michelle's in Manila where we left our car and borrowed their Isuzu Trooper and finished the remaining 160 mi (or 210 - depends on how you count).

Mile High City of Baguio

First thing we had to do upon arriving was to check out the accommodations and get checked in so we'd have a place to hang our hats. Here's Dea poking her head in to check our ours....

And Patricia looking into their room.

Actually the Pine View Hotel where we stayed was more like this.

With a view out the front over looking the city.

We did some shopping...

And Eating ... like at Cafe by the Ruins

That wall just behind Dea's back is the ruins of something. I think maybe something that was bombed during WW II or maybe destroyed in the 1990 Earthquake, but not sure which.

And... did I mention that we did some shopping then after that we shopped a bit before doing some other shopping? Well after all we went to have fun.

And saw some sights...

Including the Baguio Country Club...

And this vintage automobile which didn't seem to fit with the Jeepneys. (Let's see now what do those three round thingies on the side indicate... haven't seen those in years.)

And then we went shopping (again).

Bill & Dea Update

It's Tuesday here in Makati. Yes, I know I live in Brentville! But since Thursday eveing Dea and I have actually been hanging our hats at Barry and Michelle's in busy Manila. Dea has been commuting to work mostly B & M's driver has been taking her too-and-fro. In fact they're likely fighting traffic right now to get back in time for a band concert at ISM that Stevii and Davis are in. By the way, the reason we're hanging our hats here 'til next Monday is that Barry and Michelle took an anniversary trip to Sidney Australia and are taking a tennis school among other things like laying on the beach ( do they do that in Australia during their winter? - Well that's what they said.) and we were hired to fill their shoes. Someone has to suffer.

Two weekends ago Dea and I went with our neighbors for a weekend in Baguio (it was a 4-day holiday from school so the three of them were able to go. I Don't have such restrictions on my life. I was the driver in this adventure). Baguio's up north in Luzon and more than up north it's up at an altitude of over 5000 ft. The Philippines 'Mile High City'. And it was quite pleasant and an enjoyable.

One of the things we did was to visit the original Brent International School. It's now one of seven schools but this one was special in that the setting was in the pines. Reminded me of some of my younger days as a kid at camp in the pines of Prescott Arizona. I'll put up some pictures after I get back to Brentville.

The school certainly made us feel welcome with a super tour of the facilities. Quite different facilities than the newer South campus we're most familiar with. Like I said, in the pines and a bit more spread out than South. Smaller student body, and older buildings though well taken care of. The third grade teacher there took some time to take us around the Baguio area and see some of the sights.

I'll get some pictures up later but have to get together for the band concert. Stevii plays the Oboe and Davis the baritone Sax.

Smoke and Mirrors?

An investigative team of one was sent out to determine if there was a real fire yesterday or was all that simulated by ... you guessed it ... (If you can't guess it see title above.)

With careful sleuthing I was able to find several locations where there were alleged burnt areas this one allegedly leaping the nearly impenetrable Brentville perimeter. This is un-retouched, on the scene, almost live coverage.

Another view of what is left when you let the smoke out of the grass.

Still another, which has been re-touched but only to add an arrow pointing to our house.
To summarize what I learned by this experience: 1. I found no mirrors so it might have been real, 2. NEVER go on a bike ride (or is that cycle ride?) no matter how close to home with out some tools. The chain broke and with no way to affix the dangling ends I had to walk home. I hate it when that happens.

And Alas a few more pictures of CYCLING.

Thought I'd wrap up my cycling adventure with a couple more pictures and mostly true interpretation.

Here is a rare picture wherein I'm behind Mark. I was mostly keeping him in my dust (what's the matter can't you see any dust). But any way it's an action shot of him moving down the road. A very nice thing about traveling on Good Friday which is a MAJOR holiday here, is the lack of traffic. It certainly was to our advantage.

And this was a refreshment stop Saturday on the way back home. A roadside fruit stand. Now I don't know where you stand on fruit, but we decided to stand and watch a fresh pineapple being cut up for us to enjoy.

And this was a more typical scene - Mark trying to catch up with me. And I also crossed the finish line, arriving home, first with him bringing up the rear.

Don't read this small print: Actually Mark led most of the time. I only crossed the finish line first cuz he stopped to talk to the guards at the Brentville gate allowing me to zoom past him and make a not so photo finish.

A New and so far smokeless day.

I just went out to take a picture of the 'burn area' but from the wall near our house there is no visible evidence (it had gone up in smoke). Dea said that the smoke yesterday filled the Atrium and play fields at school to the extent that PE classes had to be inside. Really too thick for any outside activities.

Though they are unpleasant to go through especially when the smoke is inescapable, it seems to be one of the normal events here in the Philippines and seems to be the acceptable way of dealing with two ongoing problems:

• 1. What to do with the straw left from a rice harvest, and
• 2. How to clear land or get rid of what we don't want like garbage and debris.

On the first - rice harvest residue issue - I had asked the man who made a presentation for Dea's third graders when they visited the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) earlier this school year, if there was something better to do with this by-product of rice production than burning it. 'Of course', he said, 'plow it back into the soil to enrich the next harvest'. Seems like they could do a great service by getting that information to the farmers and getting it out of the research ivory tower. Seems like that would be a win-win-situation.

On the second item, Brentville fortunately has regular garbage pickup but many villages I've been through do not. I've seen them pile the garbage on the side of the street or wherever convenient and simply dispose of it into the atmosphere by the strike of a match.

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Not necessarily in the order indicated in the title...
I just came back into the house having taken a few pictures of an out-of-control rice chaff fire just outside of Brentville.

These taken just 20 feet from out front door. You see here the guards keeping watch over the threatening fire. You can see that there is thickly grassed fields right up to the Brentville wall.

Remember the Platters singing Smoke gets in Your Eyes in the 50's. Why do I keep bringing up all these oldies? Guess those are just the memories of life.

Even as I write this the flames have calmed down a bit but we don't stop holding our breath til the fat lady sings. There is so much smoke in the air I closed up the house. It's usually pretty wide open - all the windows and doors. Oh yeah, the temperature today is in the 90's F so I have the AC's on too.

To show how serious they were about this fire they even delivered a fire hose to the rusting hose station at our corner. A while back I asked the head of maintenance why neither of the hose stations had hoses. The best answer at the time was something to the effect that since the Brentville houses are mostly constructed of cement, if and when a fire ocurred they would have time to go buy some. O...K...! But as it turned out maybe they did have some stashed away. Or perhaps decided to go get some since someone cared enough to ask about them.

And finally the Good! This morning I noticed a couple of very colorful blooms in our front yard so I snapped them for you to enjoy. This was somewhat inspired by the beautiful pictures on the Marshall's blog. Eat your heart out Michelle!

These two blue flowers adorn our front yard. (Remember I'm color blind.)

I Stand Corrected!

Corrected, not by any of my faithful readers, (either one of you) but by my reading. I have been misusing the term 'bike' and its relatives. I was just informed while reading some of Sheldon Brown's insightful articles on bicycles (see a link to his wisdom to the right titled "My Favorite Bike Info site" ). According to him " Bikers ride Harleys, people who ride bicycles are cyclists." I don't ride a Harley and neither does Mark so guess a misdirected relationship has to be broken and a new one begun. Sooo... welcome Mark as my 'cyclist' buddy! No longer bikers. Anyway I'll try to do better with my use of terms. We'll see.

More Pictures of The Bike Trip

The towns along the way typically had rather pronounced announcements that you were entering their domain.


Me at Victoria...

Mark at Pila...



And Pagsanjan had two of 'em.

Mark at one...

And me at the other.


Pagsanjan is probably best known for Pagsanjan Falls which you have to take a P660 (about thirteen bucks US) boat ride up the river to see. As you go into the town you pass some rather agressive boat ride marketers. When I drove up to Paete several weeks ago grandson Davis was ocuppying the front passenger seat and had his window down. When a hoard of those marketers virtually attacked (that's an overly exagerated term to describe 'agressive marketing'), they ran up to his open window yelling something indistinguishable. It was so sudden and loud he was a bit taken back and chose to ride with his window up. I think cozying up to a Boa Constrictor later on built his confidence and he was ready to challenge them with the window down as we drove back through the hoard.

Though our 'avowed' intention was to bike on to Paete, we opted to soak in the pool of a hotel in Pagsanjan. Anything to get our rear off those bike seats and our feet off the pedals. I want you to know that we were only seven miles short of the goal. But do you think we cared. (answer=no!)

The lodge where we spent the night licking our wounds. (Ah come on - at least show a little sympathy.)

The rooms...

And looking out from the dining room - down the Pagsanjan River...

Then up toward the falls - I think it is a couple of miles further on.

Can't show you a picture of the pool where we soaked the first couple of hours cuz I had a bad experience with my last camera near (in) the water so chose to leave this one in the room.