been quiet of late

Very true

I might christen this PorkAdobo's Uncertainty Principle, It is impossible to know both the intent, location and state of heart of a partner with absolute certainty if the degree of separation is the internet.

( I could likley have come up with a better Heisenberg analogy if I spent some time on it but this one is good enough )

I'm not very interested in the forum when I'm abroad, I do check in but I can't be arsed posting a lot of the time.

I've not seen many new members joining of late - as Heathen correctly states, the new visa application fees will put off many DIY visa applications. I'm guessing information is out there on many other platforms, not just on forum like these.

On a more technical note, we've had to turn off new registrations due to the sheer number of spammers. These spammers are not human, they are software that leeches on to forum like these. If you look at the 'Members online' tally on the right-hand side, you'll see x guests, x robots. The robots are the good guys - they are search engines indexing the site. It's the 'guests' that are the problem. When we were accepting new registrations, there would be 200 of them at it, generating bounced emails for false email addresses and Dom, Jim and myself having to vet each new sign up as it will most likely be a spammer - sometimes 50 a day.

I've seen a lot of Europeans and Russians in shops over the last weekend, groups of Europeans 6 or more, more than once.

Where we live in Las Pinas I stand out as a fairly lone foreigner you don't see a lot down here but in Makati there are still quite a lot of foreigners and you see a broad mix arriving (and departing) when you go through the immigration desk.

I think it is becoming a more popular destination for many I'm not sure why this is but there is still a lot going on in Manila.

Took my daughter to the Ed Sheeran concert at SMDC festival grounds a few weeks back cost me well over £300 for the two of us but it was a great night and a good few foreigners at that too.

That's a transfer on her arm not a real tattoo, I've asked her to please never get a real one.

I've made that point several times over the last 4 or 5 years particularly when asked what I think will happen to this forum.

It's got bit of a future but the British are not rich compared to other cultures anymore, not only is the exchange rate a lot poorer than when I first came here in 2004 but inflation has raised prices to western levels as well, some things like electronics have always been on par with UK prices or slightly more expensive but everything else has almost caught up now too, the only thing I still see as a plus here is housing costs, rent and what you can get for a set amount of money.

I'm heading back to the UK in a couple of days, I'll still be back out here soon but part of me misses the UK, two months here has been a long time particularly this last couple of weeks as summer starts to kick in.

I do all the cooking for me and the kids here and most of the cleaning and clothes washing, sometimes like a Friday night we will order food in as I can't be arsed cooking but I bought a freezer this trip and have been cooking extra and freezing, made beef Mechado tonight for the first time and it was very nice about to freeze 4 portions, made myself a proper Kashmiri Chicken curry last week and that was the first time I replicated my curries that I make in the UK, managed to get all the spices on Lazada.

And I've discovered that I can buy a decent Sauvingon Blanc white wine from several local wine mechants via Grab, currently sipping a nice Barefoot it's a Californian wine but it's ok, found a number of good New zealand wines as well, hithertoo impossible for me to get a good wine here so that's an improvment only thing is I could get a better wine for a lot less money in a UK supermarket

You might find the 'love of your life' but it rarely turns out to be plain sailing for the next 20 years.

I got lucky and got a couple of great kids! (this was Easter Sunday up in Makati just phone pictures)

Yeah well we can talk about the bit in bold another time I have strong opinions.

James won't have a lot of choice he's an adult already choosing a university just now for the coming year, he is only Filipino and will only have a filipino passport I hope I can get him a holiday to the UK sometime but living there is another matter.

Janna has a British passport but I think she would find life in the UK dull and very boring particularly in Scotland, I want her to have the option of living and making a life in both countries but I suspect she would find it hard to break her ties to friends and family here in the Philippines.

Right now I don't know where I want to be either, it's not easy living here in the summer months and it's not easy living with older relatives, I think I want my own place with just me and the kids where I am in charge and get to be free to look after them and myself.

But yeah I'd like them to have the chance to travel to the UK and meet other family and see a bit of another country.

They are both still very young even with James coming up to age 19 and making big decisions is hard for them.

and they come from America, and their name is Joe.