End of 2013 blog, 9 months in a new land

It has been 9 months since I arrived here to start my new life. I have already documented some of the things that have happened or occurred to me during the intervening months, and have to the amusement of some, but not others, bemoaned the state of the vehicles and drivers and riders here. With the exception of a brief mention, this topic will not feature heavily in this end of 2013 blog post.
What I am intending to do here, is to elaborate some more on the things that I have observed, both good and bad, in a way that does not offend anyone and hopefully brings a smile to their faces “Ah, yes, I remember that” and so on. To encourage me to be less wordy, I am going to bullet point this blog, rather than using free text as much as I might normally. I shall start with an update of progress on the most important matters, residency visa and our new house.

·      It took a while to sell my flat back in the UK, around 8 months. I now have the funds to enable us to buy the land and to engage the contractor to build our house.

·      Kat and I met with the architect and after several discussions we came up with a modification to the standard design the developer was using to give us a lot more space and a master bedroom with en-suite bathroom.

·      Building permits have now been applied for and the first stage of the ground works has commenced.

·      In the meantime, we have been waiting for the arrival of some documents to be submitted in support of my residency application. Sadly, the rules seem to have changed, or at least the enforcement has, and we now needed some additional paperwork:

o   We obtained the new documents, one from the police here and one from the UK police to state that I have no criminal record or pending prosecutions.

o   Kat and I took these to the Bureau of Immigration, only to be informed that the UK document was not acceptable without validation, so we have now applied for that to be done

o   The first available appointment at the British Embassy for the first part of the validation is February 2014!!

o   My current visa expires end of March 2014

·      I have also been able to buy a car; well it’s a bit bigger than that, a crossover SUV. I like it as it gives us road presence, however it uses almost twice as much fuel as Kat’s Suzuki, ho hum….

·      Being married to a doctor conveys a number of benefits and also a number of drawbacks

o   We are respected by many of the people we meet because of Kat’s position in society, helping others when they are sick

§  Helping others often means phone calls or text messages in the middle of the night, which require answers and sometimes wakes both of us

§  When patients have been admitted, rounds need to be done to manage their care, every day until discharge!

o   My boredom threshold has risen immensely over the past few months;

§  I get to read a lot

§  I spend a lot of time waiting around during clinics and rounds visits when I have nothing much to do

o   I love seeing her interact with the patients and their parents

§  I spend a lot of time in waiting rooms with sick kids!

o   We get to go to a lot of social events, product presentations and conventions

§  I am surprised I have lost any weight, there is always food at these things

§  I am a bit of a spare part at these things, at least I get to go shopping and drink coffee in Starbucks!

o   I have been inoculated against a whole host of diseases including Hepa A, Hep B, flu, typhoid and varicella

§  Jabs hurt

§  I occasionally get to give them back to Kat!!

·      In the 9 months of living here, I have managed to loose around 7kg in weight, this is not due to a successful diet, but is most likely down to a dramatic reduction in the quantity of beer I was drinking. I normally have something like 4 to 6 small cans or bottles a week now, I used to do that in pints on a single evening back in the UK, especially Fridays!!

o   I still have small moobs, as we discovered when I tried on a t-shirt the other day

·      I have not yet been diving since I arrived. Complex reasons but very sad as we are in the Coral Triangle, must do better next year; whale sharks maybe in the spring.

·      I still don’t have a proper tan, but am a bit browner than when I left the UK, at least on my head and arms.

·      The Philippines, in common with the remainder of the tropics, is a hostile environment to live and work; the temperature and the humidity make the majority of physical tasks seem doubly hard, at least to a westerner brought up in a temperate climate. I need to take a rest about every 30 minutes or so even when carrying out light work such as sweeping up leaves.

·      Filipinos are tremendously hospitable, generous to a fault, offering refreshments and the best chair in the house to visiting guests; makes one feel so very welcome.

·      Filipinos love bling, even more than perhaps rap stars. You can see this love reflected, literally, on their cars; which have chrome plated accents and garnishes all over the place. These can be as varied as light surrounds, fuel tank covers, chromed exhaust tips and of course the wide, over diameter wheels, where would we be without them!

·      For some bizarre reason, owners of many SUVs here also have roof racks fitted, Thule being a favourite, however none of them seem to be used!

·      Those drivers and riders that make use of lights when driving often have many scattered about the place (think Fast and Furious 2 on steroids) with LEDs glowing in the most unlikely of locations.

·      Every Filipino I have had the pleasure of meeting seems to know one of the others I have already met, which is spooky, or have seen my photo on Facebook, maybe that tells me something about my public profile, I have even been stopped at the bank by a distant relative of Kat’s.

o   The whole society seems to run on an extended set of networks.

o   Each Filipino is the centre of a complex Venn diagram of social, educational, work and family circles, this is especially important for those working away from home or who have emigrated to other countries.

o   Some of these network connections are used for support in times of need, e.g. the family and close friends at times of illness, accident, and natural disaster and also happier times such as births, weddings and christenings etc.

o   Others are made use of to expedite matters such as permits, licences and contracts etc.

·      The Philippines as a society seems to me to be rigidly bound by a seemingly inordinate number of rules, procedures and regulations. Whilst this is not unusual, the fact that some rules seem to confound others and common sense makes life more entertaining, especially the way the population navigates normal day-to-day interactions.

o   Some of these rules are too important to ignore and are followed by almost everyone, but there is always an exception

o   Some rules, whilst important, and to me seemingly sensible are ignored by nearly everyone, including the police and other enforcement agencies e.g. functioning lights on vehicles, the wearing of crash helmets on motor bikes, driving on the designated side of the road, building regulations (there are a lot of self-built shanties by the sides of the road or rivers occupied by squatters) to name just a few

o   Procedures set by business owners and the civil service however are nearly always complied with, even when there is clearly a much better way to do it, no body challenges the status quo and so the time wasting and lack of value add continues endlessly.

o   Being an outsider, knowing how to navigate this veritable ocean of complexity requires endless patience, something I am sad to say I have not yet developed.

o   There is almost always a mechanism to get around the rules or procedures, the networks mentioned above can help, but there are also often “fixers” who, for a fee, can get things fast tracked. Whilst I object to this at a fundamental level, sometimes you just gotta bite the bullet and jump down off the moral high ground….

·      Filipino shops make extensive use of staples and self adhesive tape to attach receipts to bags once the purchase has been completed. I am sure there is a business opportunity here somewhere.

·      Still with shops, at the grocery most items are over packaged, especially “loose” items such as carrots, lemons etc. that are often wrapped in pairs or sometimes even individually in an endless sheet of cling film (Ceram wrap) which is then secured with, you guessed it, self adhesive tape!

·      Procedures not withstanding, some things can be achieved with remarkable rapidity. After a break in at our house, we decided to get some gates for the front and back doors of the house. With the aid of Kat’s parents we engaged the services of a local workshop to make them up of steel bar section and strip with some decoration. I had an expectation of just the welding taking a week or two, so imagine my surprise when the guys turned up the next day to install the finished gates (which they transported with a welding set on a motor tricycle).

o   This was back in early June, the painting of the gates has not been fully completed, I am doing it and my DIY motivation is sometimes a bit lacking!!

·      It will take 4 months for Kat’s medical licence to be re-issued to take into account her name change after our wedding.

·      My car is now one month old, the registration process has not yet been completed and I am driving on a temporary “Conduction Number” issued by the authorities (why this is not sufficient and they need another number I have no idea). The registration of Kat’s car took 6 months; I hope mine is completed more quickly.