Bradley's Old Fashioned Weblog

Why The Philippines?

April 29, 2010 Bradley FarlessLeave a comment

This is a question my wife has asked me on more than one occasion. It seems to boggle her mind that I would really look forward to moving there. The Philippines is a ‘poor’ country and many Filipinos strive to find ways to leave and find what they consider a better life abroad. There’s something of a joke that the primary export of the Philippines is human beings, as a labor force. With so many of her countrymen trying to get out of the Philippines she finds it curious and a bit odd that I’m so excited about moving there.

Just to clarify, I’m not going there with some wealthy expat package lined up. I’m moving there for other reasons, which I’ll get into later in this post. But, for all intents and purposes, when I move to the Philippines I’ll be living pretty much as the average Filipino does. That will have both its ups and downs, but I look at this as a great opportunity rather than a disadvantage. The easy answer is that I’m moving to Manila to go to college, but there’s more to it than that.

I spent the first part of my life in the US Army. I was actually enlisted in the US Army Reserves before I even finished high school and shortly after I applied for and was accepted to active duty. During that time I had a few odd jobs on the side, but my service in the Army was the only ‘real’ job I’ve held. I wouldn’t call service in the Army a waste of time, but it can seriously set you back if you don’t intend to see it all the way through, or if you later decide that you’ve had enough and don’t want to do 20 years for a retirement. I didn’t completely gimp myself. During the last year and a half I was in, I realized I wasn’t going to make a career of it after all and managed to squeeze in almost 2 years worth the college credit hours through CLEP tests, sit down courses and online courses through Park University and the University of Maryland UC. Those college credits paid off by giving me enough points to get promoted to Sergeant before getting out, and by giving me a leg up on getting a degree. I earned a scholarship while in the Army that will pay 100% of my tuition. There’s a time limit on it, and it’s hard to go to school full time and still make it financially, but I’m in a position to make it happen now and I want to take advantage of this opportunity, because it may never come again.

In the US, it’s possible to get a decent job based on military service alone, but outside of the US that’s nearly impossible. I’ve found that out the hard way. Having a degree on top of my military service would make me look real good though, both to peers and to potential employers. It’s a nice thing to be able to say you have a tertiary education and a piece of paper to prove it. I want that. I am by no means an idiot, but just saying you’re smart or good at something isn’t going to win you a job interview or a high paying executive position. People want proof. They want evidence that you’ll be a good, solid investment. Even if your degree isn’t necessarily applicable, it will show that you’re at least smart enough to learn.

Eventually I’ll make my way back to the US, and I think that having lived abroad for a number of years and having a degree from a foreign, but US accredited university, will give me an advantage. The work climate in the US right now seems to be focused on finding people that can interact in multiracial groups of people from diverse backgrounds, and having lived abroad and having gone to school abroad would be a clear indicator that I at least have experience with getting along with people who are different than I am. That’s also something you learn in the Army, though to a lesser degree.

The time I spend in the Philippines will also be an opportunity for me to enrich myself on a personal level by gaining a greater understanding of the world around me. The Philippines is a place rich with history and culture in a way the US can’t quite match, now or in hundreds of more years. The US is a melting pot of cultures and while that has its advantages, it causes the US to lack any sort of distinctiveness, politics and war aside. So, it’s a very thrilling prospect for me to live in a country that has so much history behind it, to learn about the people living there and to experience it all first hand.

It’s also an opportunity to connect with my wife’s family in a way that a short visit just can’t accommodate. My wife is from the Philippines and we’ve visited a few times but the visits are brief and while we try to mix in sight-seeing with visiting time with her folks, the whole thing always feels rushed. Living there will give me more time to hang out with them and get to know them. It’ll also give my wife an opportunity to reconnect with her family before we move on to other things and other places. I’m also hoping she’ll be able to finish her second degree, a master’s degree, or medical school while we’re there.

So, moving to Manila and going to college will provide me with a lot of advantages in terms of future employment when I return to the US, as well as being personally enriching for both my wife and I. I think both reasons have equal value because living life isn’t just about the job you hold or your income; it’s about family, experiencing the world, learning, progressing, understanding and eventually contributing to society. This move will be a win-win situation all around.

The focus of this blog will be whether or not we achieve these goals, how we make it happen or how we fail, and the adventures we encounter along the way.

Japanese Sesson Grill at Manpuku, Tampines 1

April 29, 2010September 4, 2021 Bradley Farless4 Comments

We’ve gone to Manpuku quite a few times, but we still haven’t tried everything the place has to offer. That’s not so much for lack of opportunity, but lack of desire. You see, Manpuku as an establishment has slowly been going downhill.

When Manpuku first opened, the place was packed all the time. It was fresh, it was clean, the decor was awesome and the food was a novelty. Unfortunately, most of the choices weren’t anything to get excited about, especially for the prices they were charging. Most of it is little better than hawker food.

A few months ago, I’m not sure exactly when, Manpuku’s customer base shrunk to the point that they did away with the charge card system. It used to be that when you arrived you would queue up to wait for seating and to get a charge card. You would use the card to pay for the items you wanted from the various booths inside. Then, before leaving you went through a register check-out lane, kinda like in a grocery store. That’s where you settled your bill. Now, you just walk in and pay at the specific booth you want to eat from, either cash or NETS. If you want to use a credit card you still use the original charge card system. I suppose that system became more of a hassle than it was worth in regards to having extra employees just to ring up the bills and the owner realized it would be more cost effective to have individual booth workers handle their own cash payments.

With the lower patronage comes lower standards it seems. The trays are usually covered in a white grime and the eating utensils still have residue on them when you pick them up. It makes me wonder if they even use washing soap or if they just rinse them with water. I’ve also had trouble communicating with some of the employees lately.

Despite these issues, there are still a few gems to be found there. The ramen from Aoba Hokkaido Ramen is pretty good but we wanted to try something different, so we went to Japanese Sesson Grill, which is in the corner near the MRT tracks.

The food is a bit pricey. Individual kabobs were between 2.50 and 3 bucks apiece, which seems expensive given their size. We settled on having a set meal that came with five skewers, rice and miso soup for 13 SGD. It seemed a fair enough price to pay for what we were getting.

One good thing about Manpuku falling out of public favor is that it’s less crowded and you can actually have a quiet sort of meal there. We went to the very corner, overlooking the MRT station area. It was even a bit cozy feeling there.

The food itself was better than I hoped it would be. It’s nothing to get too excited about but I definitely felt that I’d gotten what I paid for and left satisfied.

Cat Export Preparations Update #4

April 26, 2010 Bradley FarlessLeave a comment

Another piece of the puzzle has fallen into place. I was having an issue getting the export permit from Singapore because I couldn’t get the AVA’s site to work. It was a mix of problems that started with the site being horrible in terms of navigation and ease of use. It was harder than it should’ve been to find the information I needed and then to find the form.

The form itself was the next problem. The AVA has sacrificed ease of use for practicality and merged the export and import permit for both personal and business use into one form. To further complicate matters, many items that don’t pertain to people looking to export personal pets are marked with a red asterisk, inviting you to try to fill in the box with some sort of data since you assume it’s required. Then, when the data is erroneous, you’re not allowed to proceed. It took me a few phone calls and some waiting to get past that hang-up.

Once I knew what was going on it was no problem to get the form filled out and submitted. That was Friday. Today I checked the form status and saw that it was approved so I was then able to make payment through the AVA’s site. Once I did that the download link was unlocked for me. I downloaded the export permit in pdf form and then printed it out.

So now we have the import permit, export permit, tickets for Philippine Airlines, and the cats have had their first round of vaccinations. Next up is a return to the vet sometime between the 29th and the 3rd for rabies vaccinations and the health certificate. I may get them the 1 month boosters while we’re there as well to save hassle later. I don’t know if that’s possible though because I’m not sure if there might be a reaction between all the vaccines. Guess I’ll ask the expert when I get there.

I’ll also have to give them all a dip in flea & tick treatment shampoo and get my wife to cram a dewormer pill down their throats. She’s much better at it than I am. They always spit it out when I try to do it, but they don’t give her any trouble.

We’re still waiting on the replacement cages to show up on the 28th as well.

Relocating pets is a serious pain in the butt and requires a lot of double-checking to make sure things are done, but it’ll be worth it when they’re all sitting at the window staring out at the Philippine and enjoying the space and privileges they’ll have in their new home.

View Full Album

Total cost for export license

: 50 SGD! Yay!

Total damages so far: 820 SGD

Total to go: approximately 500 SGD (I realize that’s higher than before, but I must have miscounted somewhere. 300ish for rabies & health certificates and about 200 for airline shipping, rough guesses.)

Tampines (Edit: Pasir Ris) Library Groups Cats in With Roaches and Rats On Poster

April 26, 2010 Bradley FarlessLeave a comment

This poster is on display in the ~~Tampines~~ Pasir Ris Public Library branch. While I wholeheartedly agree with the message, that it takes everyone to keep the city clean, I disagree with the images used to portray the negative consequences.

This poster implies that cats are disgusting pests, on the same level as roaches and disease carrying rodents. Cats are not in the same category of animal. Cats are domesticated house pets and have been for thousands of years. In ancient Egypt, when a household’s cat died, the owners would shave off their eyebrows as a sign of mourning.

While I’m not suggesting that we start shaving our eyebrows off to protest cat culling in Singapore, I do want to call attention to the fact that it’s not proper to reinforce the negative perception of these animals. The person who created this poster was even sly enough to use a black cat, which has always been associated with bad fortune, to add dramatic effect and further create a negative opinion of cats in the general public.

What’s truly ironic about this poster is that cats are Singapore’s greatest defense against the real pests, as mice are a stray cats natural prey.

A clean city may be a reflection of moral and civic values, but kindness to animals is a much better indicator.

“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Cat Export Preparations Update #3

April 21, 2010 Bradley Farless5 Comments

Well, we’ve encountered two hang-ups. One isn’t so bad and one is making me want to claw my face off from frustration.

I received the airline certified cat carriers this afternoon but there was a problem. They were smaller than what I’d thought when I originally bought them. They looked roomy and more than adequate when I was in the store, but when I put one down and stuck Dapper in it, it was obvious that it was not going to be appropriate, or even acceptable by the airline. Dapper could barely fit inside, couldn’t turn around and couldn’t even stand up. Maybe it’s because she’s so fat, but regardless, I had to jump in the shower and take them back to the store for an exchange to the next bigger size.

When I went up there I was a little worried about how the whole thing would go. I’d never tried to exchange anything in Singapore before and while it would be an easy swap process in the US, you never know when it comes to Singapore retailers. Thankfully, this standard of exchange is in use here in Singapore as well. I just had to show that the carriers were still in new condition, with the packaging on them, and present the receipt and it was a quick process to request a “top-up” to the next size.

So, I was able to bring home one carrier in the next higher size and I’ll have to wait until next week to get the other two. I imagine it’ll take 7 days again, which means I’ll get them on the 28th, just in time to take them to the vet on the 29th for their rabies shots and health certificates. I’m glad I bought those other cages when I did, leaving myself room for fixing this sort of mistake. I’m also glad that the people at PetLover’s were pleasant and quick to help me out with the exchange!

That was the easy fix problem. The next problem is the one that has me banging my head against my desk. Well, not literally, but I want to.

Part of the process of getting my cats out of Singapore is requesting an export permit from the AVA. Getting an import permit from the Philippines BAI was as simple as sending an e-mail with the details of the cats, the shipping method and date of arrival. There was a slight hang-up due to technical issues but once we contacted them we had it back on the same day by e-mail. The AVA is proving to be much, much more difficult.

When you go to their site there are clear links for export permits for personal pets, and it indicates that you can fill out a form online for two day processing of your request. The problem here is that all of the links point to an online form that seems to be geared towards businesses. There is no personal form that I can find. The form we keep getting directed to requests some business identification number and another number I don’t recall right now, but either way, you can’t progress past the first page of the request form without filling those in. We obviously don’t have them, and the average person wouldn’t have them either. I keep getting the feeling that I’m looking at the wrong form, but no matter how many links I click I always wind up on that one. My wife tried with the same results.

So, tomorrow I’m going to have to call up the AVA and figure out what the deal is. I hope they don’t tell me something that’s going to make me throw my phone through the wall. This process has already been stressful enough, both on my wife and I, and on my wallet.

This whole process has been a real lesson in how difficult an international move really is. Before this, any time I’d ever moved I’d had it all arranged by the military. Well, except for my coming to Singapore in the first place, but when I did that I gave away my furniture, electronics, and anything I couldn’t immediately use to my family, packed a few suitcases and hopped on a plane. I suppose this wouldn’t be too much different, except for there being two of us now, if not for our cats, but we aren’t about to abandon them either.

Anyhow, the “top-up” on the carriers wasn’t free, so here’s the update:

Total damages so far: 770 SGD (approximately)

Total to go: 380 SGD (approximately)

Cat Export Preparations Update #2

April 20, 2010 Bradley Farless6 Comments

We are well under way!

Last week I went to the pet store in White Sands and found IATA certified Ferstar travel carriers that will meet our needs. They were a bit pricey at 75 bucks apiece, but since they’re airline certified I know we’ll be able to use them multiple times in the future, since the Philippines isn’t a destination so much as another stopping point to learn and enjoy life. I opted for home delivery both because it was free and because they didn’t have 3 carriers on hand. They had to order them from their warehouse. A few days later I got a call saying that the carriers would take a bit longer to come in because they had to be ordered from overseas. That’s a little troubling, since I don’t have a lot of time to play around with anymore. They’re supposed to arrive tomorrow, so here’s hoping it pans out alright. When we get them in, I’ll be sure to throw up some photos of the carriers and point out some of the details.

Beyond that, I called up Philippine Airlines to discuss having the cats transported along with us. The procedures are fairly simple. You book your tickets and then within two days prior to the flight you have to go down to their office to provide them with a copy of the export permit, import permit and health certificate.

If you’re wondering, cats (and other pets) can’t ride on the budget carriers. You have to take one of the full fledged airlines and the only two offering the service between the Singapore and the Philippines are Singapore Airlines and Philippine Airlines. The difference in ticket prices between SIA and PAL was about 400 SGD, so we went with the cheaper option.

Total cost of the carriers: 213 SGD (after PetLovers members discount of 5%)

Total difference in cost between premium airline tickets and budget tickets: roughly 400 SGD

Total ‘Damages’ So Far: 713 SGD (approximately)

Total to go: 380 SGD (approximately)

Stay tuned for more updates! Also, I’ll later be compiling all of the details into a more refined post for a good walk through on how to bring cats from Singapore to the Philippines.

Graffiti At the Somerset MRT Skate-Park

April 18, 2010 Bradley Farless5 Comments

The most used entrance and exit for the Somerset MRT station is the one that opens into the new 313 @ Somerset mall. Even before that mall was there, that entrance was still the most used since it opened onto Orchard Road, which is the main shopping strip in Singapore. I actually never even knew there was another entrance and exit until I was directed to go back into that area to find an iPhone armband for jogging at the SingTel store.

The area that surrounds that MRT entrance is very green, with tall trees and lots of grass. There’s also a skate park there. It has half-pipes, rails and ramps, at least that I noticed. It looked like a good place for people to hang out. The idea of skateboarding there wasn’t what caught my attention though; it was the graffiti.

Graffiti isn’t something you see in Singapore all that much to start with, and you definitely don’t see graffiti of the quality that’s on display in this skate park. As we passed by I snapped a few shots.

I don’t have a problem with graffiti. I think it’s pretty cool, as long as it’s tastefully done on public areas, rather than people’s businesses or personal property. It’s a great method of self expression and goes a long way towards cultivating artistic talents.

Kim Garry: Hong Kong Restaurant

April 17, 2010September 4, 2021 Bradley FarlessLeave a comment

The booths looked really comfortable but they were all full. The booths on the other side of the restaurant were roped off, since the restaurant wasn’t that full.

On Wednesday I went to meet my wife for a late lunch and she recommended we try out the Kim Garry restaurant that’s on the basement level of Tampines 1. I’d never had Hong Kong style food before, at least that I know of, so I was willing to give it a shot.

When we were seated by the hostess, she tried to squeeze us into a cramped area along the wall that was already packed with customers, so we went ahead and re-seated ourselves at a stand-alone table where we’d have more room. If I’m going to pay for food at a restaurant I’d rather be comfortable, otherwise I’d just go pay 3 bucks for food at a hawker and squeeze in there.

This is the back of the restaurant. If I remember right, there was a window in that back wall that opened on the kitchen.

The decor of the restaurant is really nice. It had a stylish, modern look to it, but it felt a little incongruous given the types of food.

The borscht soup and the silverware, which was packed in a sealed container.

The food itself was good. We started out with the borsch, which is a traditionally Russian or Polish soup that has a beet and tomato juice base. The borsch we were served had chunks of tomato and cabbage in it as well. I’d never had borsch before, so I have no basis for comparison but it seemed pretty good to me.

Before moving on, one more thing I’d like to point out is how they serve their silverware. You can see it in the picture above. It comes in a sealed container and the utensils were spotless, which is just how I like it.

The sauce was delicious and the serving was generous!

My wife had a dish that I forget the name of, but it had pork chops in garlic sauce over spaghetti noodles. She let me have a bite of the pork chop and it tasted great!

A few pieces of the beef were chewy, and I think I screwed up picking the red wine sauce that’s under the cheese, on the rice, but it was still a good dish.

I went with the beef baked rice with cheese. There was a choice between a white cream sauce with sweet corn and a red wine sauce. I went with the red wine sauce, which I think may have been a mistake. It’s sweetness threw off the whole dish. If I go there again before departing Singapore, I’ll definitely try a baked rice dish with corn next time.

When it came time to pay the bill, we were happy with the cost. The food seemed to be reasonably priced.

Overall, the dining experience was moderate. It’s hard to judge a whole restaurant off of one trip and one dish, but I think this is a restaurant that’s worth going back to at least a few more times to further explore the menu, if only I had the opportunity.

Finally Replaced My Dying Beast of A Laptop

April 17, 2010September 4, 2021 Bradley Farless14 Comments

It’s been a busy couple of days, filled with long talks with my wife about plans for the beginning of next month, when I’ll be moving to the Philippines, along with our cats. It’s also been busy because I finally picked up a new laptop.

For those of you that have been keeping up with my blog for a while you’ll remember that about a year ago I started complaining about issues with my MacBook Pro. I’d originally bought the thing in March of 2007. I guess you could say it was a birthday present to myself, so I went all out and got the best specs and I wound up dropping about 3500 USD on it. 3 years on, I think it was a waste of money.

I first started noticing a problem with it about 5 months after I bought it, in August of 2007. At the time I was still in the US military, on a deployment in Kuwait. I was staying in a very quiet, nicely air conditioned barracks. It was an open bay barracks, meaning the whole thing was one big room, so noise was kept at a minimum out of respect for people who were working different shifts and may be asleep during the day. I was able to hear a faint clicking noise coming from the left internal fan. Being in Kuwait and locked down on an Army camp I had no way to do anything about it until I went on leave (vacation) in October.

As soon as I got to NYC I went to the 5th Avenue Apple store and dropped it off to be serviced. Roughly 6 days later, I had to go up there and demand that it be returned because they’d kept it longer than they said they would and I had to leave to go back to Kuwait. When the guy came back with it, he said that they’d found some dust inside the laptop, but there was nothing wrong with the fan.

The clicking noise continued and later research on the internet showed that it wasn’t an isolated problem. Of course, by the time I got back from Kuwait, finished the mad rush of paperwork, picking up my car and household goods, and going through all the medical processing, my warranty was expired. Not to mention that there was no Apple store around to take it to again anyway.

Additionally, during the last few months I was in Kuwait the DVD “Super” drive failed. It no longer recognized discs and would make some ‘clack, clack’ noises and then spit the DVD (or CD) back out. The only disc it seemed to accept properly was my Leopard installation disc.

A few months later, shortly after arriving in Singapore in February of 2008, the Express Card 34 slot broke. I was trying to insert an eSATA adapter and instead of hearing the familiar sound of the card seating, I heard something snap and break and the adapter just sat there, loose in the socket. The locking mechanism must have gotten stuck in the wrong position and been broken off when I inserted the card.

Thankfully, the thing held up well until May of last year. The noise from the fan started to increase but that was all.

May was when it really started to go bad on me though. The OS started to slow down considerably. Fresh installs did nothing to help it. Shortly after that the left fan finally gave out. Whenever I started doing anything that would generate a high amount of heat, like using 3D programs or watching Flash videos, the left fan would spin up and make a sound like a lawn mower dying.

Since then I’ve been putting back money when I was able and I was finally able to afford and justify the purchase of a new laptop.

Given my past experience with my MacBook Pro, I decided to go with something far cheaper and hopefully far more reliable. During that long ordeal with that beast of a machine I found out that Macs are plagued with hardware issues. I guess I really should have coughed up the extra money for the Apple Care Extended Warranty, but I figured that having spent so much on a premium product it would be reliable. That obviously wasn’t the case.

So, now I have a Lenovo Y450. It’s got an HD screen, an nVidia GeForce 210M video card, a 2.13 ghz dual core processor, 2 GB of RAM and it even sounds good. It has Dolby Home Theater software that’s supposed to make it kick ass. It’s also running Windows 7, which is taking some getting used to. I’ve primarily used OS X and Ubuntu for the last few years. The whole thing has a nice, solid feel to it though and the only trouble I’m having so far is finding programs to replace the ones I’m accustomed to. Oh, it came with freebies too: a shoulder bag and a wired mouse. The mouse works well, even without a mouse pad, but I don’t know what I’m going to do with the bag. It’s not a bright idea to walk around in Manila advertising that you’re carrying a laptop with you.

I also think that I’m done buying Apple products. For a long while anyway. I’ll use the iPods we have until they die and then maybe replace them. There’s probably a cheaper alternative that’s just as nice and supports more formats. I don’t think I’ll get another iPhone after this one either. It’s nice and all, but I hardly use the majority of the apps on the thing, the camera is crap and it seems to stay behind in functionality compared to competitors. That’s a story for another post though.

One last photo:

Dapper, The Great Investigator, examining the laptop box, perhaps to see if it’s suitable for use as a cat bed.

Hygiene Standards at White Sands McDonald’s Are Lacking

April 13, 2010September 4, 2021 Bradley Farless4 Comments

I went to the McDonald’s at White Sands Mall in Pasir Ris last night and I was disgusted by the lack of proper hygiene and knowledge of simple concepts of cleanliness I encountered. This was the second time I’d seen the same behavior, so I took the time to send a feedback message to McDonald’s Singapore.

This is that message:

To Whom It May Concern,

I’m concerned about the standards of hygiene that are being implemented in your White Sands, Pasir Ris branch, and possibly all of your branches if this one location is any indication.

Last night I approached the service counter for ice cream and asked the young man behind the counter for a hot fudge sundae. He was polite enough, but when he presented the sundae he set the plastic spoon down on the counter.

This is completely unsanitary as nearly every customer that makes a purchase at this counter puts his or her hands on it, and puts money on it. People’s hands have been in places that I don’t want to think about, and the money they’re handling has also been in many unsanitary locations, including the ground in some cases. For example, I paid 1.50 for that sundae. The 50 cent piece I used to make that purchase came from the floor of Tampines Mall where I found it just prior to leaving and getting on the train to head to Pasir Ris.

To make matters worse, when I told him I didn’t want a spoon that had been placed on the counter, because the counter is dirty, he gave me a new spoon, but immediately afterwards picked up the first spoon from the counter and put it back in the container with the clean spoons. Seriously? I just said I didn’t want it because it was dirty from being on the counter, so why contaminate all of the other spoons? It makes me wonder if the replacement spoon was even clean.

The employees at this branch need some lessons in proper hygiene and proper handling of eating utensils. If this is how they handle utensils then I’d hate to see how they handle the food.

Please. Train your employees. This is McDonald’s in Singapore, not a hut in the middle of a jungle somewhere, where cleanliness and hygiene is an alien concept.

I look forward to your response.

Regards,

Bradley Farless

Update: The manager for the outlet called me on my mobile phone and apologized for the poor service. He said that this is definitely not the standard that McDonald’s Singapore wants to set and told me that corrective action would be taken to ensure that it didn’t happen again. He asked for a description of the employee, and then asked me if there was anything he could do to compensate me for the bad experience. I told him to just make sure it doesn’t happen again. I wasn’t trying to get free stuff out of this. I just want to know that when I go to McDonald’s, the food I’m eating is clean and the utensils are clean. I’m glad to see that McDonald’s takes this issue seriously.