BrettGC

Thanks and will do mate. Look forward to taking the piss out of team of yours and this year you'll have a bit of a come back given their relative positions on the ladder

Hi All, As some of you know I'm pretty familiar with Dumaguete but it's been about 2 years since I've been there and I'll be back in late Jan - Yes I will be up for a beer or 6. We've previously stayed in Essencia which is okay for purely hotel type, and Golden Gate which we like as their studios have pretty good cooking facilities. Any other other suggestions or alternatives that you know about? We'll be in and out of town a bit but we will be spending one 7 day stretch in Dumaguete.

We use Western Union both ways - yes, there is a back and forth between us. Direct to bank account is about 3 hours, cost is minimal compared to other services, and exchange rate is never very far off the official rates. I believe cash pickup is instant. WU drastically reduced their transfer fees and sped up the bank transfers so we started using them again rather than World Remit. 3 hours to BPI or BDO and about the same to our Citibank PHP account.

I second Guijo, after the Angry Midget and I discovered it it's the only place we stay in Manila now. But yes, 10 mins to Greenbelt during the day, 5 mins at night in a taxi/Grab. I think it's the best value for money in the area. Last stay there was two years ago though, but I doubt it's changed.

Basically it's a porous tube filled with pest control chemicals that keep termites etc away. About 5k AUD to install.

These guys have been around for years in Australia slowly gaining traction. Mainly due to the fact no wood boring pests affect the structure, the speed at which the frame is put up and the longevity of the build. It's all pre-fab'd in the factory i.e. assembled etc so very quick to put up on site. More expensive than traditional wood-frame the long-term cost benefits outweigh this to my mind. With regards to earthquakes it's less flexible than wood which can be a both a positive and negative. Just as an aside, a mate of mine who's a pest control guy hates these things, no chemical barriers required by law, they are in most states in Australia on all new construction with traditional wood.

Oldie but a goodie. For myself, given that I'm with an angry midget, I reckon the angry hot matrix applies. But yet I love her

He's not there, can't be... There's no black beer on the table

Free plastic shopping bags are banned in QLD Australia now. Drinking straws, coffee cup lids and similar are also very high on the list along with water bottles and something else I can't remember that made me raise my eyebrows.

I just finished watching the "Decoding Bill Gates" doco on Netflix... Prior to this Davao outbreak, it gives the impression that it was just isolated pockets in Nigeria and India that had any polio at all. But having said that, The Gates Foundation does focus on Africa and India so probably didn't give the entire picture. Recommended watching by the way.

A mate of mine was part of a team that outsourced his company's telephone support to one of those multi-company call centres in Cebu City. His company did most of the visa for him but he did have to go for a very comprehensive medical for it. Initially there 2 years, met a local girl, decided to stay, it's been 4 years now and he's happy to fill that position indefinitely. I'm not sure of your situation, and they all vary, but I'd imagine it's the foreign/business investment status and integrity of your prospective employer that offered you the job that will determine your outcome more than anything else. It's a nationally recognised brand here in Australia so I'm guessing they had their ducks in a row with experts to facilitate the process. And yes, as TimL stated, it could just be a pre-employment medical rather than visa.

I was really pleasantly surprised how good Jack Ryan is. I found it to be a bit of an amalgam of the the earlier books but put in a present day context. Yep, I'm an Amazon Prime Video subscriber.

Retracting some of my previous points based on your post Tommy

Yeah, it was only relatively recently for PI, around 5 - 6 years ago, they announced it. They only updated the website at the beginning of '17 I think, so as usual things take time to filter through. It was actually a member here, JJReyes, that made us all aware of it when it was announced. At the time, he used to do a lot of liaison between PI authorities like BI, PRA etc and the US I believe. I should qualify my initial remark by saying that the consulate in Brisbane was completely unaware until they made inquiries themselves. Much like you, the other SRRV options aren't really a consideration given the cost benefits, or lack thereof. Yeah you can invest the deposit in property, or used to be able to, but for me that's a bit of a waste as we already own a lot and house about 2 hours North of Dumaguete. I guess an AirBnB investment could be an option? I didn't look too closely at the requirements on that front as they didn't/don't really apply to me and may not still be allowed.

The Angry Midget was here in our tropical "winter" last year, she's only 4'10 and 99lbs so we couldn't find warmer clothes to fit. She went nuts on Amazon.au, there's some amazing deals on there. Here's the crunch when it came to payment time: Turns out Amazon Aust is only a shopping portal for numerous vendors and she had to pay shipping for each item individually sent from different locations, some outside Australia. So for the $300 AUD she spent, the postage bill was around $100 effectively negating any savings. Needless to say, her anger level rose significantly. Target Au's store is pretty good. Electronics JBHiFi or Harvey Norman. I only mention those 3 as they're the only ones off the top of my head I can guarantee are located here and will honour statutory warranties; same goes for any of the major brick and mortar chains here. Many of the others are portals for overseas operations and your goods could quite literally end up on a slow boat from China.