A Tough Few Months

Things have been tough for me and my better half these past few months. It started off well - my fiancée got promotion at work but then, on 17 August, her apartment was burned downed in a fire involving 150 other properties. Her grandmother's house was also burned down in the same fire. Everything was lost in the fire but, luckily, no-one was injured. No insurance of course and she has lost two months advanced rent paid and two months deposit. This was at a time she was still waiting for monies back from the bank collapse last year. Granny kept all her savings in her house - which were all lost of course.

Without notice, in October, I was without work because the company I worked for lost a major contract; there will be no work until March/April. I did work temporarily in a call centre but that work ended last Friday. So, I am now twiddling my thumbs!

My fiancée lost all the documents in the fire, including the annulment documents. The Judge agreed to an annulment but her lawyer promptly retired, leaving my fiancée in the lurch, so she cannot register any documents and then go back to court for the decree of finality. Apparently, the now ex-lawyer is almost 80 years of age but has gone gallivanting off with with his number two wife in a remote place where he cannot be reached by phone! He actually converted to Islam so he could take on a second wife!

At least my fiancée has re-established her identity with a new birth certificate and ID documents. She has no passport yet and I am not sure if it would be better for her to get another passport before we get married, or not.

Altogether it has been a very frustrating time, especially as we were hoping to be married by Xmas! My fiancée is still living with a friend following the fire, but I hope she will find a place of hew own in the early New Year so that I can visit for the first time in 2 years. - Her lawyer advised that we did not have a relationship until the annulment was over - as her husband would have caused problems. As it was, he did find out about me and my fiancée had to move apartments to avoid his wrath - unfortunately the apartment she moved into was the one that was burned down just a few weeks later.

Wow sorry to hear about all your troubles. I like to think that thats all your bad luck come in one hit for the forseeable future. You just need to stay strong.

Such a bad run of events, Howerd.
Try to keep your spirits up, it is the only way.
The agencies are always looking for people to do many types of jobs at this time of year.

Thanks for the opportunity Aromulus but I have never done any selling and, being T-total, know absolutely nothing about wines! My disability also limits me quite a bit and, for the last four years, I have worked from home doing telephone market research. There should be more work with the company I was working for, from March-October this year, so I will probably take a hiatus from working until then - that will give me a chance to spend some time in the Philippines!

A bit of news about my fiancée - she has been give a temporary manger's position at another branch on Siquijor Island. Apparently. the branch manager died 3 days ago and my fiancée was very surprised to be offered the position. But she is young and ambitious (unlike me) and I support her in everything she does. Since we got engaged - nearly two years ago - she has worked off her little cotton socks - 10-12 hours per day, 7 days per week!

In Market Research Xmas time is very quiet. The company I worked for temporarily, does have some government-sponsored social research over Christmas/New Year but I was not prepared to do the work as it involved harassing people to do surveys! Even if they said 'No, do not call again' we were required to call them again within days! As a member of the Market Research Society I would have been in danger of being found guilty of professional misconduct and refused to do the work.