Snowy79

One thing I discovered is regardless how many years of National Insurance you've paid once you exit the UK for more than 3 months you lose entitlement to free NHS treatment. http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/+/http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Healthcare/Entitlementsandcharges/OverseasVisitors/Browsable/DH_074384

Your exit ticket doesn't have to be within 30 days. You can book it way into the future. I booked to Kota Kinabalu as it was very cheap. Realistically you can stay in the Philippines for 3 years on a tourist visa but I think the maximum an airline will give is one year.

Yes and the violence spread to new areas like Rothsey and Campbelltown.

If you're smart have it paid into a pound savings account in the Philippines and it goes in direct as pounds sterling with no fees. If you have an additional peso account just wait until you are happy with the exchange rate and transfer.

The owner is a foreigner and obviously I'm not going to take out a full page advert. If I get my deposit back I'll let it slip, if it doesn't I've got patience on my side.

I've discovered that the apartment I was renting has had a meter installed by the owner. He has about 79 apartments in the complex. Each with his own supplied meter. I constantly queried my bill as it seamed excessive but was shown meter readings and the cost. I've now realised he has an official meter for the whole complex which he pays so can 99% guarantee he is creaming money off of everyone. Looking into it I discovered what he is doing is illegal without a licence to sell electricity.

I'll find out today as I'm back on the island later. It stinks of preparation for Galaxy building something big. A nice wide access road could come in handy.

Just this morning the DENR has issued notices to hundreds of properties to give up 15m of their land or be refused permits to open. Apparently the area is forest land, or was years ago.

To be fair most of the tourist hang out near Dmall and Willy's rock. If you head down towards Diniwid there's hardly anyone. The only beach I've seen coming anywhere near it is Lio in El Nido. Nacpan used to be as good but it's full of sunloungers now. You can still sit at a bar on the beach just don't walk onto the beach carrying a beer. All water sports will be coming back over the next few weeks after the marine study.

I left just before the island re-opened and will be heading back there tomorrow. The main White Beach was looking stunning. Bulabog beach not so much as there's a lot of construction going on there and they are still laying the drainage pipes. The roads and D-Mall looks like it has been carpet bombed. I'd hate to think what it is like after a heavy down pour as there was already flooding in places.

I went into my other apartment that I'm renting until the 4th of November last week to find my friend who I let stay there cooking on the kitchen sink. She had an old car wheel and had filed the centre of it with charcoal and had put a wire grill over the top to turn it into a cooker. Her excuse was she had ran out of gas. I went mental. The ceiling and kitchen cupboards were coated in ash but luckily the fire alarms hadn't gone off.

Who has ever heard of a woman carrying an argument over to the next day?

It's OK he's got rubber sandals on.

My pool repair is coming on well.

Yes but in there quick. I'm thinking of booking him for Bohol.