GeoffH

I thought it was more nuanced that that... some antidepressents were illegal? Watsons have a page about them but I pressume they're prescription only (and they might require seeing a doctor that's allowed to prescribe them like only pain management specialists can prescribe certain pain killers). https://watsonshealth.com.ph/antidepressants/

We use almost all of those in Aussie as well... but it's interesting that here we don't say Dog's Dinner we say Dog's Breakfast - and it's used like "well you made a right Dog's Breakfast of that haven't you (and it means made a mess of it).

Yeah they're... beached as bro (if you're not a kiwi or an aussie that won't any sense to you and I'm not going to try and explain)

This used to be the norm in rural Australia as well, it's only about 10 years since the septic tank (sewerage variety) at my previous house in Maldon was retired due to the provision of sewerage pipes and a local processing plant. The early style septic tanks in Australia were not sealed, they had an outlet that was commonly piped and ran under the ground with small leak holes in them under the house lawn. The idea was that any overflow would be absorbed by the soil and become fertalizer. It certainly used to make the grass on the side lawn grow several times are fast as the other lawns. There was generally a second overflow pipe which ran to the street drain. However that was expected never to flow and you were required to have them emptied by a truck often enough that it didn't but in earlier decades it was common for the street drains to smell and be slimy because people were lax about emptying them. Storm water was (and still is) an open pipe running into the street side gutter. Nb I'm talking about a small town of 1300 people, larger towns had more modern systems. But what you're describing doesn't seem that different.

I mostly use World Remit, you can send to yourself (or your significant other) and pick up the cash at several chains (like MHLullier) or you can have it transferred from an overseas bank account into most Philippines bank accounts. There are alternatives like Western Union, Transfer Wise and Remitley (and probably others I don't know about). I suggest visiting the web sites and checking the fees that would apply from your location to send (just google the company names and the web sites will come up).

I think it will be a while before borders in Asia start to open up again, even countries that have have relative success are struggling with hot spot and potential second wave issues. China, South Korea and more seriously Victoria, Australia (where I am) are all struggling to contain outbreaks. There are a few small pacific nations that rely to a large extent upon tourism that are pushing to open borders to certain low covid countries.

Good news but it doesn't surprise me about QANTAS, their international flights are all suspended except for Australia - New Zealand at least until October (their words).

Try and avoid the areas that the locals fish at on a regular basis, they can get a bit posessive. A boat would avoid that issue of course.

I've done the shared glass thing a few times with extended family over at Ozamiz but that was in the early days, they keep a good glass for me for when we visit now. And don't forget the tubes of ice sitting in a bowl that everyone picks up broken bits of with their hands for the glass :) wouldn't be surprised if lots of locals still do the shared glass thing even with Covid, I wonder if that's one of the reasons for the alcohol restrictions?

Well... if your family is there and you aren't (like a lot of OFW) and you're jobs gone why wouldn't you want to come back. And there are plenty of couples who've ended up separated (I'm one of them) because they got caught overseas when lockdowns started. In theory I'm entitled to a spouse visa to bring SWMBO here, in practice the government aren't granting many of them even for married couples let along De Facto ones. If I could go there then I'd consider it (subject to the difficulties, safety and expense of getting there). I find the airport procedures updates useful.

Red Horse?

I'm willing to bet you a case of San Miguel that we'll have not just one vaccine but alternative vaccines by the end of 2021

Before a few years a vaccine will almost certainly be available, although it's looking like it will be a 2 jab vaccine (1 initial dose and then another one 14 or 21 days later). By exposing more people now more people will suffer from the (uncommon but real) cytokine storm response and end up very sick in hospital or even die. But if cases are delayed for just another year then the vaccine will be available for those that need it and less people will die unneeded deaths from Covid.

The Catalinas (and others) that serviced the islands of the pacific were actually called 'flying boats' in English as well. Australia's major cities got the more luxurious Empire class flying boats but after the war mostly ex WWII Catalinas were the mainstay of island flying for a decade or more. And of course they were based there during the war as well. (I'm just wondering if the Fiji word resulted because of those particular planes, sorry for the off topic Tommy).

Most muslim people in Mindanao are friendly, I've come across a couple who definitely were not. One time I was sitting in the passenger seat of the Innova, we'd stopped next to a road side stall along the road between CDO and (eventually Davao) although we weren't going that far and there was a very uncomfortable vibe. One older guy walked in front of the car, stopped and glared at me then spat on the ground. I looked in the mirror and there were several younger guys looking at the car and then looking at a track up a hill and then back at the car. So we didn't hang around. That area is classed as 'unsafe at night but ok during the day', however these days we just avoid going that way (even though it's a shorter trip).