Bradley's Old Fashioned Weblog

Cleaning, Cleaning, and more Cleaning

May 10, 2010 Bradley Farless10 Comments

After arriving here on Wednesday we’ve spent the last 5 days cleaning for about 5 hours a day and the end is nowhere in sight. I’m something of a clean freak to start with, but just getting things to a level of basic sanitation and orderliness is my current goal.

For the first few months of my stay in the Philippines I’ll be living out of my in-law’s house, which is a bit north of Manila in a surrounding town. The house has been mostly derelict for about six months, with only an occasional visit to make sure it’s still standing. My in-laws were both living out of other houses in other provinces until just recently. So, the place is a disaster area. Besides the accumulation of junk from decades of things being left here as a store-and-forget drop off spot, there’s dust, cobwebs and the buildup of grime to deal with. So, there’s quite a bit of work to be done to get this place into a condition that’s suitable for living in.

I wish I could just throw money at the problem and make it go away, and for some parts I can, but most of it is just going to require hard work. I have to haul stuff out of the house to the curb and do quite a bit of scrubbing, wiping, dusting, and brushing.

I didn’t realize just how much work it would be. We spent 7 hours on just one room today. It was the worst room, though. It had been unoccupied the longest, so it was full of bags of junk, sometimes literally.

I suppose when you have more than one house, you can’t quite keep up with what all you’ve left where, so arranging it, sorting out what needs to be saved and what can go, and then doing basic cleaning can be a long, long process.

The goal that I keep in mind is that once it’s all done, I’ll be able to relax and enjoy life here. Hopefully with another week of work we’ll have everything wrapped up and ready to go.

Voting Day in the Philippines for 2010 Elections

May 10, 2010 Bradley FarlessLeave a comment

Today was voting day for the 2010 elections. We got here just in time to witness the madness. In the US, campaigning can get pretty wild and out of hand, especially when the target audience is a bunch of radicals or ultra-rightwing conservatives, but in the Philippines they step it up a notch.

First off, the campaigning is in-your-face. You really can’t miss the fact that there are elections going on because almost every available inch of wall, post, and overhang is used to display posters of the candidates. Some campaigning parties will even run strings across roadways (as seen in the image above) and have hundreds of the same poster hung up. It gives the whole thing a sort of festive feel. I also saw a lot of private vehicles and transportation vehicles (like taxis and tricycles) covered in campaign posters (pictured below). Every last one has a profile photo of the candidate, presumably at their best.

The other interesting thing about campaigning in the Philippines is that trucks will drive around, or position themselves, with music blaring to draw attention to a particular candidate. They’ll use the music (minus the vocals) of a popular song and overlay it with a slogan or a song about the candidate. For example, we heard one playing the music from Lady GaGa’s Poker Face.

Today was the actual day for voting. We hadn’t intended to leave the house, for safety reasons, but wound up going to a restaurant called Max’s with my father-in-law, brother-in-law and brother-in-law’s wife. It was a delicious meal! The only sign we saw of the voting process was a long line of tricycles and a crowd of people gathered at one point along the road, outside an elementary school where the voting was being done. Other than that it was traffic and business as usual. I suppose the real drama might come when the results are announced, if they haven’t been already.

I believe this year was the first year that the Philippines used an electronic voting system, rather than manually counted ballots. The idea is that it’s supposed to inspire confidence in the citizens and allay fears of corruption and cheating. It may work in some areas. Some parts of the Philippines are so poor that a shiny computer screen is almost like magic, but most educated voters will probably realize that computer results can easily be manipulated, the same way that manual votes can easily be forged or disposed of.

If you’re not familiar with the government in the Philippines, it’s so consumed with corruption that it’s surprising it hasn’t fallen apart yet. The current president, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, is recognized as one of the most corrupt leaders to ever hold office anywhere.

I doubt that the election will be any more fair this year than it’s ever been, but hopefully whoever gains office will be more fair than the outgoing president.

Singapore Airlines vs Philippine Airlines

May 8, 2010April 9, 2023 Bradley Farless11 Comments

In 2008 I had the opportunity to fly on Singapore Airlines and earlier this week I flew on Philippine Airlines. I spent two years living in Singapore and am moving on to the Philippines, so I figured it’d be in keeping with this blog to do a comparison of the services offered by both airlines. I’ll also be reposting this on my Philippines blog, Everything But Balot.

Singapore Airlines:

When I first flew to Singapore in June of 2008, I had some choices to make. One was which airline I was going to take. I made that decision the simplest way. I took the one that was cheapest. When you’re flying from the US to Singapore, the cost of the ticket can be pretty steep, especially if you’re flying during the summer, so the price point was my major choosing point.

Somehow, Singapore Airlines wound up being the best priced fare at roughly 1400 USD for a one way ticket from New York City, with one layover in Frankfurt, Germany. I have no idea how this happened, but I’m glad it did.

To put it simply, Singapore Airlines is the best flight experience I’ve EVER had. I think it completely enhanced the experience that I got onboard with absolutely no expectations or any knowledge of the airline. With it being the cheapest ticket, I’d assumed it was some sort of low class airline that would get me where I wanted to go, but not necessarily in style.

I was wrong. Singapore Airlines is all about comfort and relaxation while in flight, even if you’re in the economy section. I had a good seat too. I’d booked early and chosen my seat, so I wound up on the aisle. Someone begged me to switch with them, so they could sit next to their spouse, but I declined. Their seat was dead center of the plain, with two seats on either side. I have long legs, so I need the extra space, especially on a 22 hour flight.

Shortly after getting on the plane I was handed a package by a stewardess. I don’t remember if it was prior to take-off or just after the plane leveled out, but it doesn’t really matter. I got it right away and it was a fantastic goodie bag! It had slippers, a toothbrush, toothpaste, and I think some soap in it. Right about then I knew I’d lucked up and gotten a good deal, but it only got better.

A little while later, a stewardess came down the aisle and asked me if I’d like to have a glass of champagne. Of course I accepted her offer and then got lost in the menus on the touch-screen TV on the back of the chair in front of me. Oh, and I’d put on my comfy slippers by then too. The TV on the back of the chair was loaded with on-demand movies, TV shows, music and even a few basic games. It kept me thoroughly entertained for the duration of the flight.

The meals I was served were top notch. It was better than some of the things I’d eaten in restaurants. The one meal that still stands out in my mind is the steak dinner I was served. The meat was tender and it was real, rather than being some chopped and reformed meat patty. The vegetables were still crisp.

Between meals there was a steady flow of drinks and snacks, and most importantly, the stewardesses were very prompt and kept their eyes on the passengers to make sure everyone was as comfortable as possible. I could really tell that I was a valued customer, even if I wasn’t in first class.

If I ever make a long-haul flight from Asia to Europe, or back to the US, it will definitely be with Singapore Airlines.

Philippine Airlines

My trip on Philippine Airlines left a lot to be desired. I flew from Singapore to Manila, in the Philippines. It’s a pretty short flight, but even so I expected there to be a level of service offered in exchange for the premium price we paid to fly with their airline over Jetstar, or an even lower priced budget airline. That wasn’t the case, at all. I won’t go into the disaster with my cats here, but do take the time to read it, as that may have affected my opinion. I’ll try to stick to specific examples here.

When we first approached the boarding area, I was expecting to see a large, shiny plane waiting for us. Instead, the plane looked a bit small and old. I kept my hopes up for the interior, but was let down on boarding. The seats were a bit cramped, there was no TV in the back of the chairs, and everything looked really old and worn down. If it weren’t for the uniforms the stewardesses were wearing, it could’ve been a Tiger Airways plane. Not that I have anything against Tiger Airways. I’m just saying that you get what you pay for, and I paid for more than that.

I want to talk specifically about the entertainment services offered. The TVs weren’t in the backs of the chairs, with each person having their own individual screen to suit their taste, but there were drop-down TVs. Each one was set to serve about 3 rows. The screens were small, but they were ok. The movie selection wasn’t bad either. They picked The Tooth Fairy, which I really enjoyed watching the first time around. I got excited and plugged in the complimentary headphones provided by a stewardess. I then found out that I couldn’t change the channel or the value through my armrest. Also, each headphone was playing something from a different channel. I had crappy music in one ear and even crappier music in the other ear. So, I took off the headphones and just looked at the screen for a while.

When the movie started, the stewardesses were distributing meals from their cart. The food was actually pretty good. I had a chicken dish that actually hit the spot, especially since it was accompanied by a Red Ribbon brownie. Red Ribbon is a baking chain in the Philippines that really does it right. I love getting cakes and other goodies from them.

Unfortunately, that’s as far as I can go with the compliments.

After the meal, I think we sat there for about 40 minutes with our empty trays, waiting for a stewardess to come by to collect them. My wife had to use the restroom and couldn’t wait any longer, so we wound up stacking everything together into one tray that I could hold so she could climb out. In the process, we spilled ice water in her lap and on her chair. About 10 minutes later a stewardess finally came by to take the trays, and instead of offering me service, she told me I needed to put everything back on the individual trays before she would take it. Then she moved on and I had to yell at her to get her to come back and take the damn trays I’d put back in order. She should’ve taken the trays and done the work herself. If she’d been more timely in her job it wouldn’t have been necessary to put them like that in the first place.

Also, during the entire flight the cabin felt stuffy and warm. I’m not sure if the air conditioning wasn’t working right, or if they just weren’t running it as often to save on fuel, but it was disappointing. You know how you always think you’ll need a blanket on an airplane because it’s nice and cold? I was wearing flip-flops, shorts and a t-shirt and I was still warm.

I spent the rest of the flight furiously updating and arranging my e-book library on my laptop, looking forward to getting off the plane. Instead of being a great experience like Singapore Airlines was, Philippine Airlines made the trip feel like a chore. I don’t understand why I paid more for their tickets. I get better service on Jetstar and the rates are a lot cheaper.

To top it off, when the plane landed it almost veered off the runway. Not sure what that was about, but it seemed a fitting end to an uncomfortable flight.

Conclusion:

I suppose I already said it above, but from now on it’ll be Singapore Airlines only for long-haul flights, if my budget permits of course! Other than that, I’d rather take Jetstar than Philippine Airlines again.

Giant Billboards

May 8, 2010 Bradley Farless1 Comment

One of the first things you’ll notice as you leave NAIA (Ninoy Aquino International Airport), besides the hellish traffic, are the gigantic billboards. Ya, giant really isn’t even enough to describe these things.

Billboards aren’t anything new to me. They’re all over the place in the US, especially along highways, but Manila takes it to a whole new level. These things are about four times the size of the average billboard in the US. They’re so big, in fact, that they pose a safety hazard during bad weather. My wife was telling me that a few years ago there was a hurricane that caused a lot of the billboards to fall over. They fell onto the highways, which had cars on them, and killed a few people.

I think they’re pretty interesting to look at, but only because of how big they are!

Cat Export – Complete! But… Minor Disaster At The Airport!

May 8, 2010 Bradley Farless11 Comments

So, the great saga of exporting cats from Singapore is now complete, but it ended in near disaster.

Everything was going great. We got up on time. We got to the airport on time. The Philippine Airlines attendants saw us in the line and pulled us into the business class line to have the cats taken care of. We wound up paying 330 SGD for the cats to get on the plane. The rate was about 20.50 SGD per kilogram.

Then, they were tagged and wheeled away in their carriers. We were assured that they would be taken good care of. I’m not sure where things went wrong, but I think it must have been with the ground crew that loads the planes.

We were already on board and seated when we looked out the window and saw one of those baggage trucks with the cat carriers pulled up alongside the plane. I even took a photo, thinking it was neat that we had such good seats for watching them get put on the plane.

That’s when disaster struck. We saw a guy holding up a broken carrier. The carrier was broken in the middle. I don’t know how they managed to do it, other than to think that maybe they put something too heavy on top of the carrier and it caused it to fall apart. Why would they be putting something heavy on top of a cat carrier that has a live animal in it in the first place?

A guy bolted out of view, presumably chasing Marble.

I thought I was going to have a heart attack. I put all that effort into securing my pet’s passage to the Philippines and she almost ran off into the airport somewhere, to meet who knows what kind of fate. I ran back out of the plane and into the boarding area to ask the women there just what was going on. I told them what the situation was, and that I saw the empty carrier and pressured them to get everything taken care of.

My wife called me on my mobile from her seat in the plane and said that she saw them bringing the carrier back with Marble inside of it. The attendant then talked to someone on her walkie-talkie and confirmed what my wife had said. So, relieved, I went back down the boarding ramp and back to my seat.

That wasn’t the end of the drama though.

There was some banging around under the plane and I started to wonder just what the hell they were doing to my cats. Then, about 5 minutes later they began to unload all of the cargo from the plane. They had broken the carrier again and Marble was running amok under the plane.

I offered to go under the plane myself and secure the carrier because I figured I’d have an easier time of it than they would, but they said that for security reasons they couldn’t let me do that. So, we sat there. Eventually the pilot made an announcement about why we were still sitting there 30 minutes after the plane was supposed to have taken off, and everyone got a good laugh out of it, but I didn’t think it was all that amusing. I was worried about my cat.

At about 11:30 AM, 45 minutes after the plane was supposed to take off, they finally had Marble secured in her carrier, the cargo reloaded and they were closing the plane doors.

I spent the entire flight worrying about how my cats were. After a fiasco like that, I didn’t have much confidence in the airline’s ability to handle my pets properly.

Thankfully, things went incredibly smoothly in Manila. We rushed off the plane to the baggage area, but our cats still beat us to the baggage claim area. It seems like NAIA knows what ‘Priority’ tags mean. It means take care with these animals, and move them along quickly, rather than put heavy stuff on the carrier and crack it open.

By the way, this is what the carrier looked like after the ‘fix’ at Changi Airport:

Anyway, the paperwork was done in a matter of minutes. We didn’t even have to take the cats anywhere. The workers came to us and helped us get through the paperwork while I was pulling our luggage off the carousel. That’s some good service!

The cats were a little terrified, but when we got into the taxi the quiet and the air conditioning put them right to sleep, all the way to Antipolo.

Stay tuned for more updates on how the cats are adjusting to their new home!

PX Goods in the Philippines

May 5, 2010 Bradley FarlessLeave a comment

My wife and I were having a conversation a few weeks ago that just popped back into my head. She was telling me about how imported goods in the Philippines are sometimes called PX goods, but she doesn’t know why. I could be absolutely wrong, but I have a theory about that!

As you may or may not know I spent 8 years in the Army, and “PX” is an Army term. It’s short for “Post Exchange”. Almost every Army base has a post exchange on it, regardless of where it is in the world, with the exception being some in combat areas or when the post is just too small. Even some of the camps in Kuwait have a PX. The PX is like a big department store. You can buy clothes, kitchen stuff, electronics, DVDs, music, games, and sporting equipment there, among other things. A few even have sections for gardening.

So, how does this tie in with the term being used in the Philippines?

Well, there used to be a strong US military presence in the Philippines around the time of World War II, the Vietnam War, and even during the Cold War. The first place that comes to mind (that’s still standing, albeit no longer under US control) is Clark Air Base in Pampanga. It’s recently been given another name, but most Filipinos still know it by the old, American name. I found the following information on Wikipedia:

Clark Air Base was originally established as Fort Stotsenburg in Sapang Bato, Angeles City in 1903 under control of the U.S. Army.

That article goes on to say that Clark Air Base had a “base exchange”, which is the Air Force term for a post exchange, but I think that initially it had a post exchange, like all Army posts do, and that word stuck in the minds of the local population.

Regardless of where you are in the world, a PX carries the same variety of goods which are mostly things from the US. These goods would eventually make it into the local population by resale from troops trying to turn a buck on people wanting genuine American items. So, in the Philippines, these items would be seen as imported goods.

So, long story short, I think the term “PX goods” is used to describe imported items because PX goods from the US military PXs that used to be in the Philippines were all imported items from the US. Again, this is just a theory and it could be something else entirely, but this just fit so well with what I know!

Cat Export Preparations Update #7

May 5, 2010 Bradley FarlessLeave a comment

Monday night the AVA health certification was approved, so I immediately got online and made my payment. I didn’t want to run into any hang-ups with my card not working properly in some scanner at a government office. I didn’t have time to take chances.

I did have time to sleep in a bit though. Not intentionally of course, but I’ve been so exhausted from running around preparing for this move and from stress that I just slept for about 12 hours straight that night. When I finally got out of the house it was around 2 PM already. I went directly to Tanjong Pagar to pick up the certification.

I was expecting it to be pretty hard to find. I actually had my iPhone out with the Maps application running. It was kind of ridiculous though because there I was, walking down the street with my face glued to my phone, trying to figure out when I’d be close to the Ministry of National Development building. The thing wasn’t reading quite right because when I looked up, there it was right in front of me.

It’s a pretty massive building that’s hard to miss. I could’ve seen it from the MRT station if I wasn’t so busy trying to use my iPhone’s Maps.

The process of picking up the health certification was painless. I was in and out of the office in about 10 minutes.

It took a little more effort to find the Philippines Airlines office at Parklane Mall. You have to show them your documents at least two days before your flight so they can fax them to the terminal office and, presumably, have proper arrangements made on the aircraft.

I’d never been to, or even heard of, Parklane Mall before so I had looked it up on Google Maps before leaving the house and, once again, I was walking with my face glued to my iPhone screen. And… once again, I was standing there looking at that screen, trying to figure out where I was in relation to the mall when I looked up and was staring at the entrance. In my defense, the entrance to Parklane Mall is kind of hard to pick out from the rest of the storefronts in that area.

The entrance is between the DBS and McDonald’s signs in this picture. Hardly the average mall entrance in Singapore.

Anyhow, I wasn’t quite prepared for what all the agent wanted to know at the office there. He wanted to know the dimensions of the carrier, if it was IATA approved, its weight and the weight of my cats. He wanted to see the credit card I’d used and of course he wanted to see the documentation. He made copies of the export permit, import permit, and AVA health certification.

I wound up leaving their office at 5 minutes to 5 PM, which is when they close, so I made it, but barely.

If I could go back in time and reschedule this all, I would set it up so that my flight was on a Sunday. Having that weekend, a holiday weekend no less, in the middle of the 7 days leading up to our flight, cramped our available time for getting things done for the cats. Everything has to be done within a certain amount of time leading up to the flight. Some of the documents are only good for 7 or 10 days.

Anyway, I’m glad that stress is over. Now we just need to show up at the airport with them in the morning.

The next post you see on this blog will be published from the Philippines. Hopefully I’ll have a happy tale to tell about our cats’ first trip on an airplane. By then I’ll have all the information I need to complete my step-by-step guide on importing cats to the Philippines from Singapore as well. I’ll be publishing that on my ‘Philippines’ blog. You can find the link to it at the bottom of the sidebar. I got it going but haven’t posted much to it yet.

Take care, and see you on the other side!

The Soup Spoon @ Bugis Junction

May 5, 2010September 4, 2021 Bradley FarlessLeave a comment

My wife and I are constantly finding and trying new restaurants and I’m kinda sad that this one slipped our notice until just two days before I leave Singapore. The Soup Spoon has some GREAT food.

My wife ordered the Simon & Garfunkel Ragout (pronounced ‘ra-goo’). I had a little taste of it and it was delicious. I don’t know how close to original the ragout recipe is, but it was great on its own.

I had the Velvety Mushroom Stroganoff. Ever since I got to experience the mushroom soup at Say Cheeze in Tampines 1 I’m always on the lookout for a chance to try a new recipe. I never realized mushroom soup could be so good, because in the US plain ‘cream of’ soups aren’t that popular and the ones that come in the cans are really bland. The mushroom soup at The Soup Spoon is really excellent. It’s thick and the chunks of mushroom are big enough to sink your teeth into.

The soups could be a meal by themselves, especially with the bread roll that comes with it, but they had a set meal offer that we took advantage of.

My wife tried their Garden Green salad. She said it was nice.

I had the Chicken Tikka half-wrap. It was ok. I think I’d have enjoyed it more but it didn’t really go well with the soup I chose. The taste was tart and sour, which was an abrupt change after the smooth, mellow tastes of the soup. Oh, and the stuff on the side that you can see in the picture above? It tasted just a bit south of foul. I left that alone.

Overall, the meal was very satisfying and very filling and, surprisingly, very affordable at only 22 bucks for both of us.

I’m just sad that I’ll probably never eat at this place again. It would’ve been a regular stop for me if I’d known about it earlier.

Cat Export Preparations Update #6

May 2, 2010 Bradley Farless7 Comments

Things are going right on schedule. We had kind of a hang-up on Saturday with taking the cats to the vet because it was a public holiday. I didn’t even realize it! The vet was closed. Someone let me know on Friday night. Coincidentally, it was the person that recognized me from my blog at Teadot. She noticed the blog post and contacted me on Twitter. Apparently, we’d chatted a bit on Plurk before I stopped actively using the service. I guess social media paid off for me this weekend, because it saved me a wasted trip to a closed vet.

Thanks @_rasyidah!

It turned out to be a blessing in disguise. The vet we were going to take the cats to wanted 104 per cat for the rabies shot and health certificate, but when we called around we wound up finding a vet that would perform the same service, including an application of Frontline to meet the “treated for external parasites” requirement for import to the Philippines, for only 84 dollars per cat. That’s 60 bucks in savings. Plus, the clinic was closer so we saved on taxi fare too.

I’ll list the places we went in my “roll-up” post on how to import cats to the Philippines from Singapore later, on my Philippines blog.

We really had to get the cats to the vet over the weekend to fit our timeline. Immediately after returning home from the vet, I filled out the online form with AVA to have the certificates converted to AVA certified versions. That included scanning them and uploading them along with the application.

So, after this I still have to go pick up the certificates from the AVA, which will hopefully be available by tomorrow afternoon, and then take them to the Philippines Airlines office to present to the customer service officers there. They require that you show them the paperwork before they allow you to board their planes with pets. I suppose it’s a good policy, but it adds a bit more stress. The health certificates have to be obtained within 7 days of arrival at your destination and you have to show it to the PAL office no later than two days before the flight. It creates a sort of time-crunch that we’ll hopefully get over without issue.

As for the cats themselves, this trip was a little less traumatizing for them I think. On their last trip to the vet we were in a much noisier area, with a lot of traffic and then to cap things off we got caught in one of Singapore’s flash rainstorms that left us pretty drenched. They did panic a bit when a dog the size of Marmaduke came into the vet, but I don’t blame them. That thing kinda worried me too. I’m sure it outweighed me by about 30 pounds. It was HUGE.

So, that’s it for now!

Total damages so far: 1075 SGD

Total to go (approx.): 260 SGD

Cat Export Preparations Update #5

April 30, 2010 Bradley Farless2 Comments

It’s almost time to go and rather than winding down, things are winding up, especially our stress level. There are only a few things left to do, in regards to the cats, but it’s still troublesome.

On the 28th, the carriers showed up as scheduled, which was a relief. It’d be time consuming to try to get a refund and then go elsewhere. The cats don’t seem to mind them. In fact, as soon as I put them in the room, they wanted to investigate. I read that it’s best to let your cats get comfortable with the carriers so they’re more at ease during the trip.

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So, what’s left? Tomorrow I have to take the cats to get their rabies shots and health certificates. Immediately afterwards I need to file those health certificates along with an application to have them converted to AVA health certificates. Those should be ready to pick up on Monday. Immediately after picking them up I have to go to the Philippines Airlines office and present the documentation to them. They won’t let the cats on the plane without me performing that step first. They want to verify the documents and make sure everything’s legal.

My stack of paperwork involving the flight and these cats is growing…

Stay tuned for more updates tomorrow!