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Nice little restaurant/bar close to the Thalatta Resort in Zamboanguita. Burgers - tell them what you want on it. I had a take out Padthai noodle dish with chicken and shrimp, very good. Nice menu.

 

Had a nasty experience this week, had booked flights for this April through them back in January, got an email saying two of my booked flights were cancelled but they could help me out if I was willing to pay double. One of those flights wasn't even actually cancelled, so probably overbooked and throwing out the customers with the cheapest tickets lol.
Obviously no way I'm going to pay more than I already did to correct something that should be on the airline to correct free of charge, so I cancelled the whole thing through kiwi and applied for a refund (which I am pretty sure won't happen).
I booked again through a different channel but because it's much closer to the departure date I had to pay through the nose anyway to get replacement tickets.

Anyway, lesson learned, I will henceforth study the conditions page better when booking through an agent, and not book through kiwidotcom again ever.

 

Baki Dive Resort Dauin. Choices cheeseburger, bacon cheeseburger, double bacon cheeseburger. 3 kinds of pizza. Directions south highway to Dauin market, turn toward the sea, right turn at church by Dive Cafe, paved road about a kilometer turns into dirt road for about a meter+, left turn at Baki sign, look for next Baki sign.

 

Silence is a powerful tool
It can work for you or against you,
Michaelangelo is quoted in todays "UCB Word for Today", as a visionary when he picked up a piece of marble, what one person saw as worthless he saw differently.
So long as people are silent or silenced, change will never come about.
"The pen is mightier than the sword" and a more peaceful means.
In 2023 we will have choices, it will come down to, are we willing to pay the price?
My hope for 2023 is that we will see Peace return to this troubled world.
May we all have a year that sees the changes we would like to see.......JB

 

hoping all of you are having a great day this Christmas Eve and I will raise a glass this evening to wish all good fortune and good health HUZZAH

 

No longer in J-Mall Mandaue, now in Robinson Galleria Cebu.

 

For those considering enrolling their better half in the Social Security System in the Philippines so that she can avail of the state pension when the time comes (there are other minor benefits but the state pension is by far the most important).
I have read the SSS law (link), and my conclusions are:
1. Yes it makes sense to enroll, if she's not already enrolled (compulsory) because of a paid job, however
2. The way the system works for voluntary members (like a housewife would be) is rather arbitrary, with discretionary rules.
This leads to the following for a partner at age 40:
If you pay the premiums for the maximum "monthly salary credit", currently 13% of 25k a month, but this will rise in 2025 to 15% of 35k a month, so around 5k a month in premiums, then there's basically 4 choices.
a. You can enroll now and pay for let's say 25 years until she turns 65, then she would get 300+1000+50% of the 35k=18,800 peso per month pension.
b. You can do the same but she "retires" at 60 (so pay 20 years). Then she'd get 15,300 a month.
c. She can enroll at age 50 and pay for 10 years, so retire at 60 and get 15,000 a month.
d. She can enroll at age 60 and pay for 5 years, retire at 65 and get the same 15,000 a month.

My conclusion is that under the current law it seems like the most economical plan to start putting 4k a month in a savings account now, then enroll at 50, and pay the premiums for 10 years from the savings account.
The other options are simply not as good.

Obviously they should change the system to a much more gradual change between options, so individuals can't game the system anymore, but it is what it is.

 

Short answer is yes we do
Lets be honest and admit it....What do you take for granted?

The story told of a man who was asked, what's the first thing you do when you wake up?
He replied, I stick my elbows out in both directions!
Why would you do that he was asked......To make sure I'm not in my coffin!!!
Well that might be taking things to extreme...... but just think of the things you take for granted.

 

Just in case you missed it, this short video (1 minute only) showcases the ability of the James Webb telescope in a totally awesome fashion.
The video was released 2 days ago, if you can, watch it on the biggest screen you have available, preferably a large television.
Make sure to set the video quality on youtube to the highest your tv will handle, the higher the better (it's available in 4k), and be utterly amazed.
The nebula the video concentrates on is 2000 lightyears away, so the light in the final picture traveled 2000 years to reach us. In comparison, light needs just one second to travel from the moon to earth, or 8 minutes to reach us from our own sun.

 

Pork Chop stairs I'm talking about, these are a space saving unit and only take up half the room of a traditional stair, 12 treads of 12inch take up 12ft of space, with this type of stair 12 treads of 12inch take up only 6ft, when building my house it was always my view to have it small and easily managed and these stairs were an ideal solution for me and solved a big problem that I never did foresee, I did have the room for a standard stair but Never thought about an overhead steel beam I installed making it not possible, so these PC stairs are a great compromise, they do take a bit of getting used to for an adult??? but children take to them like a Duck to water odd but true. they also have an added advantage over a standard stair, something I did not realise at the time, if you have a cupboard under them it is better than one under a standard stair as you get more headroom, all things considered it was an ideal choice for my situation.