Hello, my name is hopefully obvious. It is my user name. I found this site via the vBulletin forums for the cool theme the owners here offer. I started looking for the site since I wanted to see the demo. Then I saw you were Filipino connected and I knew I had to join. I'm from Memphis Tn. I have been living in the Philippines for the last four years. Probably will die here. I'm a blogger and no I won't mention the site now. One of the bigger expat blogs in the Philippines but I'm totally new to vB. I've had BB off and on since the late 80 but have not used them consistently and not in a long time so I'm wet behind the ears again. I just bought vB two days ago and now I can't sleep trying to figure this beast out. I briefly looked over your pictures from the Philippines. I'm going to head back that way in a bit. Are you two living in the UK or PI? Looks like UK or elsewhere and not the PI. I'd be broke if I lived in the West so I moved to a place where I could actually have a life. haha Thanks for the site. I look forward to looking around. Forgive the typos, I'll make more but it is worse than normal right now because I haven't slept much since I bought vb.
Hi Rusty and here I have visited Memphis and had a great night listening to the blues. It was a bit of a shock arriving in Nashville and not being able to get a beer though I always knew the blues was better for the soul Where do you live in Phils? I am presuming your questions were for Kuya?
Hi Rusty and welcome aboard Some of us here are interested in eventually settling down with our partners in the Phils, so it's great to have people that are already living there join up, particularly someone who is going through the 'ex pat' experience, we have other members who are living in the Phils as well but more experience is always welcome!
Hello Rusty, welcome to the forum. I think many more will consider moving to the Philippines soon, if changes go ahead to UK immigration policy.
I miss the blues of Memphis. I got a little homesick over missing Beale Street at first but I'm over that mostly now. This is my home now. Yeah, bluesmen and women feel that stuff. The BBQ is great too. Unless your Jewish and don't eat pork. I live in Bogo City. A small city in the northern tip of Cebu. I really need to move back to Cebu City for medical stuff and avoid that three hour bus ride. I really like Bogo though, clean air, almost no crime. Its a good place to live until you need something that is three hours away. Three hours to go see a movie or buy a freaking hand made Filipino cigar. haha
Hi Ozz, I'll come buy as often as I can. Right now I'm immersed in trying to get my VB board right. I've never been so far behind. haha It is coming up on 4am now. Heck of a way to run a retirement. Huh? Yeah, I've made the transition now. I had never been out of North America and boy did I get shock when I first got here. I'll be surprised if I don't take my last breath here. I looked around and saw all the happy people and the hot lady at my side and thought, if they can do it, so can I. I'm still here. Four years ago this week! I'll help all I can. I have a mostly positive outlook on the Philippines. Not sugar coated though. I was sorry I waited so long.
Thanks for all the welcomes. I took 700+ pictures at Sinulog. I still have about 550 to process. LOL If I ever get through them and I've gained upload permission, I'll add those here once they are ready. Today was the first day I took some time to work on them. Time for me to go to bed. I hate being dog tired (I'm from the southern USA, our sayings are almost as colorful as the Brits) and not sleepy.
Hi Rusty, I know Bogo. My wife and I met in Malapascua and we married in Daanbantayan in 2008. When we are up that way we like to visit Bogo for the supermarket etc. Yes, that bus ride to Mandaue can be gruelling, especially if it is not the limited stops one
I was not well travelled either when I first set foot on Philippine soil seven and a bit years back, sadly I'm not in a position to retire for a long time but I have spent well over 400 days in the Phils out of those 7 years (I have two kids with my partner). In the last 18 months I met a fellow Scot over there, a chap named Sammy Smith who had decided to spend his retirement over there about 4 years back, he was a very happy bloke He had been an ex pat Scot retired in Australia but grew sick of being poor over there, went for a holiday in the Phils and never looked back, same as you he saw all the happy smiling people and thought this is for me It was strange hearing another Scottish accent in the middle of Paranaque No need to sugar coat anything Rusty, it serves us all well to go into things with our eyes wide open, I too have no illusions about the Phils but like you have a generally positive outlook on the place as well.
Ah you're in northern Cebu, I have a good Filipino friend on Flickr who has done some wonderful photography at previous Sinulog festivals. And yeah post processing while fun can be a drag as well I think Kuya has set the posting limit for advanced features somewhere around 15 posts so you should be able to post pictures and stuff soon.
Hi Rusty, Welcome to the forum.. As oss pointed out you need to post more than 15 posts before you can access all of the features like images and links and stuff. It keeps the spammers under control.. I am currently in Mindanao in the city of Valencia, Bukidnon. I will be in Cebu in about 5 weeks.. But my exposure to the Phils is like many on here - limited. So it is nice for an ex pat like yourself to come on and make a few comments about life in the PHils from an outsiders perspective. New to Vbulletin as well? It took me a while to get to grips with it myself and I need to make a few more modifications to this site soon, though I am not doing that until I am back in the UK and on a safe internet connection once more (I downgraded myself in case of any bad software on these internet cafe lifting my passwords). Also, some recent changes have happened with Vbulletin which I have yet to get fully up to speed with.. Look forward to hearing from you and those pictures..
