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Tag: Philippines

240 Pesos Too Much To Save a Life?

240 Pesos is worth about USD $5 240 Pesos,or to be exact 239.99, is how much my book How To Drive Like An Idiot In Bacolod is selling for. It is $4.99 on Amazon.com. The world is full of eBooks. Many are priced at $0.99 or are free. Some are priced at $8.99 and more.  The book world is saturated with eBooks. I offer two free eBooks of my own but there is good reason for that. [You can find details of them here on this blog and you can find the other on my author website.] Both eBooks were never written for publication. They are promotional gifts to thank subscribers to this blog and/or my author website. The eBook world may be saturated but it is also full…

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How to Create an Amazon Author Page

Amazon Author Page An Amazon Author Page believe it or not is for authors of books that are listed on Amazon 🙂 I’m celebrating because my first book How To Drive Like An idiot In Bacolod is now available on Amazon Kindle for $4.99. Yay! Yay! 🙂 I am sure you will all buy it. Click below and it will take you to my book on Amazon where you can purchase it. Here is a closer look at the book cover – And here is a link to my Page. I would ask that you please leave a review of the book in the event you do buy it. Reviews are vitally important in the world of publishing and I would truly appreciate you leaving a…

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How To Drive Like an Idiot in Bacolod

How to Drive Like an Idiot in Bacolod How to Drive Like an Idiot in Bacolod is the title of my new eBook shortly to be published. I acknowledge that the use of the word ‘idiot’ was inspired by a  Bacolod Facebook Group called I Park Like An Idiot. It is based on the series of articles that I posted here on my blog last year. There are additional chapters including one dealing with issues like corruption at the LTO and how it adversely impacts upon our safety on the highways, byways and streets of the Philippines. Of course, the use of the word ‘idiot’ in the title is tongue-in-cheek! There are plenty of drivers in the idiot category without anyone telling them how to become an…

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Bein Sports, Bacolod and the Hat Trick Sports Grill

Thank goodness for the Hat Trick Sports Grill  Bar in Bacolod run by Miguel Luis Rivero. He’s my hero! Some of you may know that I have been waging what seemed like a solitary campaign to receive Bein Sports channels in Bacolod. Bein Sports hold the rights from the English Premier League to broadcast English footy in the Philippines. It not only shows English football but also games from all over Europe including Champions’ League games.  Europe is where the best players in the world ply their trade. Think Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez, Neymar, Christiano Ronaldo, Aguero, Yaya Toure, Eden Hazard and Philippe Coutinho. My campaign is a long and weary one met with frustration at every turn. Read here  for the full story. I…

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Moving to the Philippines – What to Pack?

What to bring with you when moving to the Philippines? The answer to this question when moving to the Philippines in my case was relatively simple. Just myself! Yes, I had a small suitcase packed with bare essentials such as hot weather clothing. I also had my laptop but very little else when my plane touched down at NAIA, Manila. For the previous three years or so I had lived out of a suitcase for most of that time. It came with me to Thailand, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Australia. Then back to England once more. I had divested myself of many worldly goods as a result of a divorce. True, I would have liked to have kept hold of many of those goods like my bicycle, power tools,…

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Takatuka, Sugar Beach – Heaven on Earth

Takatuka Lodge and Dive Resort This resort is as close to heaven as you can get on this world. Seriously! I just love Sugar Beach and the Takatuka Lodge and Dive Resort. I mentioned it before here following a trip there back in June earlier this year with Zabrina. I vowed to return and so we did, in November 2015. I intend to be a frequent visitor. I find the trouble with many reviews of tourist destinations and resorts are that I often ponder just how independent and therefore credible those reviews are. I have no angle in writing this review, in fact, I do not even consider it to be a review, simply a case of “I must share this.” However, keep it to yourselves as I…

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Driving in Bacolod, Philippines: Part 3

Driving Filipino Style – No Fun No Joke No Common Sense I have previously written here and here about my perspective on driving in the Philippines as a foreigner.  I really thought it was “out of my system” and had fully acclimatized to the “different” way of driving and lack of traffic discipline here. Hell! No! I may have acclimatized to driving about Bacolod, the City of Smiles but on the laughably described national highways you would have to be brain-dead to get used to it! My first two posts on this subject went a little viral (20k + readers on Medium for example), certainly here in the Philippines, and were met in some quarters with criticism. “Who the hell is this foreigner telling us what to…

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Football Philippines

More Filipino Football but a bit Flat … You will all know I watched the first day’s play in the Philippines  Football Federation Regional Under 22 Play-Offs. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Today I returned for the third and final day anticipating quite a ding-dong match between the two best, and physically strongest, teams Cebu and NOFA (Bacolod). It was disappointing. I don’t blame the young men who were playing. It was their third match in the space of three days. That was far too much to ask especially in temperatures of about 30C. In fact, it’s ridiculous to ask players to perform like that in three consecutive days. They had to cope with a hard, bobbly pitch, high temperatures and an even stronger wind than on…

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Bacolod Normal: “Very Traffic” in Manila

We, Zabrina and I, just got home to Bacolod after three days, two nights in Manila. We went there as my sister and friend arrived from England on their first ever visit to the Philippines. Naturally, I was delighted to see my sister and we now have over two weeks together to show her the “sights” on Negros Island and slightly further afield.  We plan to go to Mambukal,  DS Benedicto, Sipalay and Boracay to just name a few places. It was  both interesting and amusing to hear and observe my sister and her friend’s reaction to witnessing the chaotic traffic in Manila. The “oohs” and “aahs” were so funny as they witnessed the usual antics displayed by the typical Filipino driver in Manila. It also served…

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Cinco de Noviembre

I have a penchant for discovering the history and the culture of places in “foreign” lands that I have had the pleasure of living in for any length of time. The Philippines is rich in both history and culture. I was grateful recently to have an interesting chat with one of Zabrina’s family members, Butch, about the native sugar industry here in Negros Island. I learned a lot. I am also grateful to Butch for sharing this link on Facebook. It was such a fascinating piece of history that I thought it only right and proper to share it further afield. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.   The 5th of November is a special day in Negros Island.  The Negros…

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