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Impressions of the new Unitop store in Dumaguete:

Good - easy underground parking; walking distance from downtown; spacious and airy with no boxes of goods stacked around the aisles; plenty of cashier points and none very busy.

Bad points - do not accept bank cards (apparently temporary); same quality of staff who spends ages moving the items you are buying around and checking underneath them to see if a tiger has slunk in and done a poop underneath them, instead of just putting them through the till; don't make the mistake of taking something from one floor and trying to pay on the next floor, unless there is a barcode on the item......usual thing, many items are not barcoded and some of our purchases ended up being left at the till; food court area (small area near the entrance and may be temporary as the third floor is not yet open) had dirty floor tiles...clearly never been cleaned since the store opened.

Overall impression - more of the same cheap and nasty stuff in a nicer environment; could have waited a week or two longer to open and done it better.

 

Just a heads-up on G-Cash.
Despite their denials this morning, G-Cash was hacked yesterday.
Hackers succeeded in transferring 37M pesos from unsuspecting users to their own bank accounts, but they were discovered before it was too late to recover the funds involved.
Reportedly victimized G-Cash customers were reimbursed.

Conclusion: G-Cash might be handy in some circumstances, but their system is apparently not up to security standards. Best to not have a large balance in a G-cash account. The public denial regarding the hack is obviously an attempt to limit the impact of the fall-out from the event on their business.

 

Bayawan is a place i have been to many times but the last time we went must have been well over a year ago so when we arrived there on Saturday i was amazed to see they had installed a roundabout and at least 3 sets of traffic lights with countdown timers and also on the pedestrian crossings, even more amazing was the people seemed to be obeying the signals.
Considering the general state of the infrastructure in Neg Or this seems to me like money that could have been better spent elsewhere.
The traffic was quite busy on Saturday but when we left on Sunday the traffic was very light but we were stopped at all 3 sets of lights with virtually nothing coming from the side roads so it looks like there are no sensors fitted or they are not set properly to change according to the volume of traffic.
The road from Dumaguete to Bayawan is now for most of the way a beautiful 4 lane highway but most people want to only use the middle 2 lanes and some drive slowly with a wheel on the centre divide marking (not 2 wheel vehicles)
So unfortunately unless the authorities are going to educate or better still force people to use the road the way it was intended then its a waste of money building it, there are many signs now saying slow vehicles use the right lane but they are totally ignored. There are new speed limit signs stating 60KPH in some areas and even 80KPH in other areas, 80KPH hahahahah, i laugh because this road is well capable of being safely used at 80 but not with people hogging the middle at ridiculously low speeds.
i know i know i know, i am flogging a dead horse and it will probably never change but it should

 

If you have problems with mail, you can get a PO Box at Dumaguete City Post Office. P1200+ annually.

 

May the Queen R.I.P. King Charles has a tough act to follow.

 

Seems like a few foreigners here are experiencing strokes recently. I will post my mistakes leading up to a stroke (in Sept. 9 yrs ago).
I stopped taking cholesterol meds when I got here.
I never got a health check up for years.
My cholesterol level went very high.
I had a lot of stress and anxiety an I let it bother me.
I was exercising at the gym regularly but very little aerobics.
I ignored the constant headaches in the back of my head.
I ignored the numbness in my left arm.
I ignored what was probably a short mini stroke (dizzy, almost fell down).
BOOM! My life changed forever. FUBAR.

 

Since the start of covid i have done my best to keep as far away as possible from doctors, hospitals or dentists but a couple of weeks ago the inevitable happened and i had to see a doctor, first stop was Silliman where the doctor said i needed a small operation and the protocol was that on the day of admission i would have a test for covid and if the test is positive then i have to wait 7 weeks before it is safe to operate.
On the day of admission i had the test 3400 pesos had to wait 3 hours for the result which was positive, as i had no symptom's, my wife had no symptom's and the other 3 people who live at our house had no symptom's i suspected the result to be false.
I decided to get a second opinion so 2 days later i went to Ace and had another test 2600 pesos, had to wait until next day for the result which was negative.
The next day no doctors for my particular condition were available at Ace so i went to Polymedic, same deal there on the day of admission i had to have a test 660 pesos, the result took less than 1 hour and was negative so the operation went ahead.
I just want to pass this on to members to highlight the price range,
Silliman, swabbed one nostril, 3400 pesos - positive
Ace, swabbed both nostrils and back of tongue, 2600 pesos - negative
Polymedic, swabbed both nostrils, 660 pesos - negative

 

I have decided I will no longer live here for the long term and packing up to get ready to return home, building a house here has been much more costly than I ever imagined it to be? I have gone way over budget to build this, used up all my savings and have started to dip into my emergency fund to get the house ship shape before going home.

Building a bespoke house and expecting Pinoy workers to adapt to something other than which they know has been a big problem during the course of this build, having said that I'm not so sure they can be depended on to really know what they are doing building here with the standard CHB method, on the face of it labour here is cheap P350 to 450 a day depending on skill level, but in reality you are paying 3 times that much for the amount of work they do, they are just so inefficient at their jobs in just about everything they take 3 times longer than a tradesman in the western world would, then there is mistakes to be corrected of which there is many, which leads to added costs for labour and extra material.

I am selling up most of my construction tools which includes a cement mixer and a host of other tools, many related to carpentry.

I have a young son here of 4yrs and I will provide support for him and his mother, but now I can only come back for short term visits only, perhaps with holiday insurance? having had some minor health problems in recent times has made me realise living here without a reasonable emergency fund is out of the question, fortunately I still have a hoose back in Bonnie Scotland, I have always known that at some point I must return home to live out the rest of my years and make use of the free health care there ( not free exactly I worked and paid into the system for 47yrs) only I did not expect to have to do this so soon?

I have enjoyed my time here and building this house has given me a lot of pleasure, especially when I consider this very practical house fully insulated house, which is affordable for my wife and son to live in, come out of my own head, the carpentry work was all done with my own hands, never having built a house before this gives me so much satisfaction that I was able to do this for the family here, parting with my young son will be difficult for me, but circumstances are such that I have no option.

It is highly likely that I will be on DI from time to time and if ever anyone wants some advice on Building here in the Philippines I may be able to give them some useful very sound well researched information, so I will not be offended if I get a PM regarding this.