I am glad Dubya has enjoyed his 8 hour visit to our hospitable and beautiful country today (or so he said) to cosy up with his old university classmate Gloria Arroyo but he sure has snarled up the traffic for 2 days where I live. 2 1/4 hours last night to get home 6 km: closed streets, anti-US rent-a-mobs, SWAT checkpoints, out of the car and get searched. One very nasty US person bullying the locals at one point as well, something you do here very ill-advisedly indeed.
You can't help thinking far from reinforcing US might all this stuff makes them look like a bunch of scaredy-cats. But then I suppose all that US aid comes with a price tag....
As Growlette said they would have done better apprehending all the Friday night drunk drivers...another point is that the Christmas Sales have begun (yes it's true, Santa is already in the stores vying with Hallowe'en) and the malls are choc a bloc as it is till gone midnight in this 24 hour city.
I asked my old air express company to get me an airside ramp pass so I could at least get some pics of Air Force One. No way.....
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"get some pics of Air Force One"
Sounds harmless enough (anywhere but Greece) so presumably it was just a matter of principle. Or is your camera made by Smith & Wesson?
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Illegitimi non carborundum!
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....but take me with you...Presumably, you are being ironic. I know we didn't get to meet on my visit but this does sound a bit desperate!
Dubya and GMA both classmates, privileged backgrounds, reactionary and dumb - that explains a lot.
A car question related to your previous post. I have bought the house in Cebu and am in the process of selling up here. When I get back in December I am going to look for a wagon. In view of your comments about tax relief for vehicles built in the republic can you post a list of manufacturers/models to which this applies? Any help from a contributor as experienced as yourself would be much appreciated. I might think about four wheel drive because, in the province, it is sometimes difficult to tell whether you are off road or not.
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Bafta attached should help:
tinyurl.com/rjbz
Toyota/Nissan/Honda broadly similar price ranges. You will see that lower priced locally built cars have come down in price with a flat 2% excise tax, whereas everything over P600k is taxed at a flat rate plus a percent of it's value plus a quite substantially whereas large-engined imports have gone up by as much as 50%. Ford prices are currently good value. I just bought the basic Lynx foir P545k OTR, that's 11% less than it cost a month ago.
If I was looking for a mid-size 4WD to cope with rough provincial roads while being manageable in town I'd go for the Ford 4WD Ranger double cab diesel pickup. As you know diesel fuel costs peanuts in the RP.
tinyurl.com/rjct
or else the Honda CR-V with a gas engine. Both come out around P1.1m on the road, alas 10% more than a month ago.
I'm mystified as to why BMW's have come down since they are exempted from all the above and can only assume Congress members put this one in so they could still afford graduation, Valentine's Day and birthday presents for their spotty little offspring or their mistresses (you will understand!)
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I caught the beginning of the BMW ad campaign about their new, cheaper prices before I left and, to be frank, I couldn't believe it. What a brazen cheek! Someone in the company must have paid someone in the government an awful lot of money. The whole thing is a bit fishy. However, if they are that cheap I might buy one!
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Oh, I've little doubt someone associated with ownership of the dealership paid their way into the legislation with a bit of help from on high or some similar scenario took place. As we know this is how business is done in the RP. Interesting also is the Chevy Suburban remains unaffected and is exempted from all this? I wonder why? Since many big cheeses like to run around with 3 of these: one full of bodyguards in the front, one full of them and another behind full of more bodyguards, sirens and lights to order, blacked out windows, no license plates etc etc...
Well, the beer is cold and the women are Asia's most beautiful, so....
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....and the people laugh and smile. They have some of the most beautiful beaches in the world and some of the best reefs, so the sensible thing to do is hang around and buy an exempted vehicle like the dudes own!
Incidentally, sorry I did not make it to Manila on that trip. I did send you a message whilst marooned in Leyte. I was lucky to find a house on Mactan very soon after my arrival. When asawa mo and I returned to Cebu on 1 September we moved in so we were fairly busy for a while. Besides, whilst you were up to your knees in water the sun shone in Cebu. I'll send you some pictures via email.
I saw your posts regarding my flight plans on the 'meeting' thread. Apparently, I flew out at the same time as your daughter but I flew Singapore Airlines to Cebu. We must have been at LHR at the same time so, if I had had a contact number, I certainly would have said hello.
We will have our inaugral meeting otherwise you will have no members in your group, although there is always 'jm' out there, somewhere in the South China Sea. I wonder if he ever has a run ashore? Perhaps, if he reads this he will contact us. We could do with another member!
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Send me your email and we can pursue off-forum.
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Growler, have sent email to you at growler@37.com but no response. Did you receive?
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