JDDavao

Most likely, you were the "leader" in your relationship in England. My wife was dependent upon me when we lived in the US. She required prodding to even go out by herself, 'round the corner to the Goodwill store to shop for bargains. Our roles reversed when we came here. Clearly, my bad hearing plays a role in how much power she has in the relationship now but from the moment we settled in, she has been Enhanced Wife, unafraid of anything in her own environment. In the Philippines, the wife is the Domestic General. Her jobs are legion. She not only is responsible for creating the nest and maintaining standards, she's responsible for YOU. I've told this story before but when I was growing up, I was pretty isolated. We were a meat and potatoes family. The most exotic thing we ate was chicken chow mein that came from a double can, one with crunchy fried noodles on top. By the time I was an adult and "foreign" foods began arriving in my home town, I was scared to try them. I once refused a Chinese dinner with a girlfriend's parents because I'd never eaten it before and was afraid I'd hate it and embarrass myself! Fast forward to today to me complaining that the fermented fried shrimp paste served with the kare-kare isn't spicy enough. Anyway, what I'm getting at is that part of her status and of her well-being, is you. My wife's friends are all still amazed at how much I like Filipino food (any kind). It bumps her status up to have chosen the "right" man, one who appreciates the food of the Philippines, as her husband. They are, in a very real way, a little jealous of her. You will find that "a little jealous" is exactly what Ems is aiming for as a reaction from her friends and family. She *had* to buy that food from the vendor to save face. She's feeling her oats now that she's back home. My advice is, treat her like a kite. Let her dance in the sky but be her connection to the ground.

Slippers, I've heard.

Oh, I've been calling him the owner. Maybe he's both? Why do you dislike him? Message me if you want.

I was the maintenance engineer for two piers on the central waterfront in Seattle. it was a high-tourist area and so, an area awash in grifters (and many people genuinely in need). I've heard a lot of cons. From needing bus fare to get back home to attend a family member's funeral (some relatives die over and over again each weekend), to simply wanting to buy beer ("Hey, at least I'm being honest!"). My favorite: A guy in a suit claiming that he just had his bag stolen with his phone and money in it. He hit me up twice in one week. Bad memory, too, I guess. The second time, I tried to remind him that he'd already tried that con on me earlier in the week. He said, brazenly, "You wouldn't believe it, it happened AGAIN!"

I will go on record as saying that the pastries, having eaten too many of them, are delicious!

My favorite combination is the giant land-yacht running on bald tires.

I've never been good at making friends. I'm an introvert anyway and a damned deafie besides. Fifteen years in Seattle and I only had one friend and I worked with him! My wife is always after me to react to foreigners who give us a nod at the mall or whatever. I remind her that, in the US, I used to point out every Filipino to her in the same way and she'd get annoyed. i will say that she did become friends with a couple of them. The other day in the Swiss Deli, there were two foreigners sitting with the foreign owner. The owner has tried chatting me up before but he's soft-spoken. Once, he was talking to me and I didn't even know it! My wife had to give me an elbow and tell me. Anyway, one of the guys kept looking over at us and I usually would give a nod in that situation but as it happened, my hearing aid battery was slowly dying and I'd left my spares at home. So I was desperate to avoid them all. If you're reading this, Swiss Deli guys, my apologies! If we run into you more than once around town, I usually will nod at least.

Did you leave Seattle before the "Seattle Freeze" became a thing? It's a weird town now. Everyone talks about "community" and no one wants to make a friend.

Ours were from the church named after the day they say god rested. We've had subsequent visits from that couple and also a team of Filipinas. My wife kept claiming we were busy at the moment and (I hope) they gave up.

Tommy, I find that's the general rule with everything here and it frustrates me to no end. We were poor when I was a kid. I mean, Welfare and Food Stamps poor. My parents drilled it into our heads that we had to take care of what we had because there wasn't money to replace things. Here, despite the catchphrase "Pinoy Pride", there doesn't seem to be much pride at all.

I only ever used the good brushes with latex so cleaning was easy. I don't think I'd buy expensive brushes for oil paint, unless I was doing furniture on a regular basis.

Had another very nice lunch at the Swiss Deli in Matina. I chose the pan fried pork tenderloin from the board here. I enjoyed the blue and feta cheese atop the pork but there was a little too much blue cheese. That's a strong flavor and overwhelmed the feta and pork. The tenderloin was cooked beautifully as were the sides of carrots and cabbage and French fries. I'm so happy they do not use lauric oil to fry in at the SD. It's the cheaper option and is used extensively here but it adds a flavor to fried foods that I do not like. Menchu had a breaded chop with rice and we shared a bread bowl of seafood chowder which is now our go to appetizer. From the shop we got a couple of pastries and Christmas stollens. Yum!

My wife let that lot in once. French guy with a Filipina who had a small child. Her reaction was, as intended, "Oh, there's a nice married couple all done up in pretty clothes, come for a visit." Now, everyone here knows my hearing is shot. So the last thing I want is a conversation with a stranger with an accent. It was awful for me. Came time to go, we found out that they were of that "church" and not romantically involved at all! It was a setup. I was so mad and my wife was, too.

Purdy are what I bought! Sorry to hear of their demise.

I have an old Stanley brand hammer that my father bought back in the 60s. It's nothing special, just a claw head, metal handle and plastic grip. But it was my father's and it's very special to me. My wife had a couple of guys here doing some work around the pig cesspool. The pigs are gone and the pit is usually covered but they decided to use it as a burning pit. One of them was using my father's hammer. Yes. Right into the pit it went. It took him 40 minutes to fish it out of the muck on the bottom but he finally got it. Certainly, he didn't know it was a legacy tool but, damn. What the hell was he doing with it?!