Sunday, January 11, 2009

Daily Report: Looking Forward

It was raining when Epril and I woke up this morning. We had planned to go to Jasaan but didn't want to go on our motorcycle in the rain. Instead, we had lunch with our neighbors Dave and Nilda Pebley.

After lunch, the rain stopped and Epril requested we again go to Jasaan, which we did.

Unfortunately, halfway to Jasaan, the rain caught us out on the highway, and we had to put on our big rain ponchos and we made the rest of the trip in a soaking, cold downpour. That rain proceeded to fall for the rest of the day.

While at Jasaan, I hung around with Mike Bird, and we talked about our plans to go into business together. We've got four different business ideas, and have pretty much settled on where and when to start. Hopefully things work out.

Epril and I are moving next month. Sad to say, we can no longer afford our hill-top castle. If anybody is interested in renting our old place, leave a comment: We can't give high-enough praise to our soon-to-be-ex landlords, Aldin and Annie. Obviously you know the house well enough from this blog. It's a great place to live.


Our future home in Jasaan.

The rooftop patio with nice views.
So looking towards the future, Epril and I are moving out to Jasaan. We've found a lovely 2-bedroom, 3-story house at the highest point in the center of town (just down the street from the local grade school and around the corner from the hospital) renting for $210 per month.

On the first floor, there are 2 garages, a bit of a yard, a nice front porch, a fairly large semi-furnished living room, a bathroom, and an (unfortunately) empty kitchen.

On the second floor is a very big semi-furnished master bedroom with separate dressing room, balcony, and bathroom. There is also a second bedroom with it's own bathroom and balcony, and an outdoor kitchen in a private open area above one of the garages.

On the third floor is a rooftop patio with a view of the ocean, a bathroom, a nice little windowed observatory that will be my office, and the piece de resistance: a big two-person bathtub with views out over the town.

The place needs a little work and setting up, and we need to buy some more furniture, put in an air conditioner, water heater, internet (although there already is a working phone line), and alarm system, so Epril will be heading out there in early February to get settled in while I'll be staying here on the hill until the end of February to work.

Anyway, back to our day in the jungle: We had chicken and rice for dinner as per usual, and then joined Mike, Emilyn, and the rest of the neighborhood over at Mike's to watch Wall-E (the DVD which Epril and I brought).

All day long, I had felt a cold coming on, and during the course of the movie, it pretty much showed up in full force. When the movie finished, I was ready for sleep, and Epril and I bedded down in the spare bedroom at Epril's father's nephew's house (the house between Epril's parents' house and Mike Bird's house), where I proceeded to cough, sneeze, and ache through an endless rainy night.

7 comments:

  1. that is a good price, i guess epril had a hand in finding it

    also what is your monthly budget for living in the ph vs thailand

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  2. Actually Epril did not. Her Auntie Puring did.

    When I need something done here in The Philippines, I have two people that are my foot soldiers: Momma Nila the pit bull, and Auntie Puring, the pussycat. Auntie Puring tracked this house down in about 10 minutes of chatting up villagers around town.

    My monthly budget right now unfortunately is whatever I earn... pretty much as the way was in Thailand, just substantially less. Hopefully the move to Jasaan will cut things down a bit: Eating out at restaurants will obviously go down quite a bit.

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  3. I know you have been concerned about having enough to do in CDO. Won't it be even worse in Jasaan?

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  4. Tom,

    Epril and I do mostly planned on the weekend and as far as those things go, I think we have enough to do. Jasaan is only 40 minutes from the center of Cagayan De Oro; we plan on being at many of our favorite functions each week.

    As far as during the rest of the week, we never go out much... except for lunch and stuff, and my wallet won't miss that even if I will.

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  5. Good Luck to you and your move; I haven't been following your blog as much lately; the new house will be fine and I am sure you will be happy there.

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  6. I happened to re-read this post and I had a question. You talk about having an alarm installed. That seems prudent. Who responds when the alarm goes off?

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