Daily Report: Nice Weather

One thing about the Cagayan that is nicer than Pattaya is the weather: It's about the same temperature, but here there are actual blue skies. For some reason, Pattaya is the world capital of haziness; the white sky... or at least the so-light-blue-as-to-be-white sky. Almost every day so far here in Cagayan, there has been some blue sky to enjoy. In Pattaya, I would say that there were only 60 or 80 days per year with even a fraction of the sky above being cloudless and showing some true blue... and only 20 or 30 days per year with greater-than-50-percent clear sky.

I got my first "full" electric bill today. Including the Jumbotron and air conditioning run on high all night in one bedroom, the cost was 4,000 pisos ($100, 3,200 baht). Some people had warned me to expect very high electrical bills... but I don't think that is too bad. It's approximately the same as Thailand, if I were to guess.

I had a fair morning of work, and then for lunch, Susan made pork chops covered in a very tasty wine sauce that reminded me a bit of plum sauce. We watched the end of the first season of "24". I had seen it already and knew how it ended, but the girls were kind of gobsmacked. I think it sort of put a damper on their afternoon.

In the evening, Epril and I went out to Citibank to get some cash. (It's the only ATM in town that gives out 30,000 pisos at a time.) I went to the Sony Center in Limketkai to see if they sold this: A home computer that primarily functions as part of your television, with a Blu-Ray player built in. Unfortunately, as with several Sony products here in The Philippines, this one was exorbitantly overpriced, especially since the one being sold in The Philippines isn't as good as the one on the internet. (The Sony MSRP price of the internet model is 65,000 pisos; the Sony Philippines price of the older-generation version is 100,000 pesos... an $800 difference.) I really don't know why they do that, especially when they are selling the same stuff in Thailand for the "right" price.


As the sun sets over the
Cagayan River Valley, smoke
from food cooked over open
flames wafts over the trees.From there, we went over to Spooks for their Friday night expatriate family buffet. I met a nice guy named Kevin who was opening up an internet café in the town of Villa Nueva, close to Epril's town of Jasaan. My friend Ross became my hero by picking up for me on his trip to Cebu a bottle of Drambuie (price was 1,300 pesos... slightly less than Thailand) and gave it to me during dinner.

After that, I went over to Racks for 2½ hours and shot pool while Epril, Susan (who came down into town after dinner), and a new friend of Epril's, name Marifel (who is internet-dating a Norwegian guy chat-buddy of Epril's) went out and did some shopping. With only about 10 hours of practice under my belt, my pool game is already about 50% back to where it used to be, which is surprising. I thought it would take a lot longer.