Davao Blogspace

For those of you who don’t know, Miss Philippines scored a big result last week when she placed 5th place in the Miss Universe pageant.  I don’t normally follow beauty pageants, but I am very happy for Miss Maria Venus Raj, the 4th Runner Up in the Miss Universe contest last week in Las Vegas, [...]

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Last year, we had the Maguindanao Massacre, where the Ampatuan family allegedly murdered around 60 people, mostly from the Mangudadutu clan in Ampatuan town, Maguindanao Province.  The legal part of that massacre is still unresolved, but now we have another massacre to talk about, the Manila Massacre.  I’m talking about last week’s hostage situation in [...]

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Today, I’ll be sharing a new podcast with you, but that will have to wait until the end of the story. It’s been a while since I did a podcast, so it feels good to put one up again. Over the past 3 weeks, I have been having examinations as part of my Bisaya Class.  [...]

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When buying a major item like a car, a new PC or an appliance, most of us always consider what kind of warranty is being offered.  The longer the warranty, the more likely we are to consider buying the item if it meets our needs. In my time living in the Philippines, more than a [...]

Filed under: Bob Martin, Davao, business | Comments Off

This weekend was a great LiP get together!  One of our popular LiP writers, John Miele, and his family came to Davao for the weekend.  John was accompanied by his wife, Rebecca and their son Juanito. John came to Davao to sort of enjoy a get-away from the city, and all that is associated with [...]

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I admit it.  I’m a Parrothead.  Big time. Oh wait… some of you are asking… what the heck is a “parrothead?” Well, a Parrothead is a fan of Jimmy Buffett.  For the uninitiated, Jimmy Buffet is an American Singer.  His music is hard to categorize.  It is not quite rock.  It’s not quite country.  It’s [...]

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As you may recall, last week, on Feyma and my 20th Wedding Anniversary, we took a trip to Samal Island for the day.  It was a nice day, as I told about in my article last week. Something unexpected happened, though, on the way home. When we arrived at the Ferry terminal for the boat [...]

Filed under: Bob Martin, Transportation, travel | Comments Off

I had an experience last Friday that really made me feel good.  I thought I’d tell you about it today. On Thursday evening, my oldest son, Chris, mentioned to me that he wanted to go get a haircut on Friday.  I needed a haircut myself, as I had not had one in 2 weeks.  I [...]

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The other day, I set out to go to Samal Island.  I was excited to go, because it had been a while since I had gone to Samal, so this was indeed a journey for me!  For regular readers, you will likely remember that I used to write relatively often about Samal and the time [...]

Filed under: Bob Martin, Davao, Samal Island, travel, weather | Comments Off

Do you like corn?  I do.  I especially enjoy a really fresh piece of corn on the cob.  There is just nothing quite as good as a fresh piece of juicy and sweet corn on the cob!  Problem is that it can be quite hard to find a decent piece of corn here in the [...]

Filed under: Bob Martin, Davao, Food, Mindanao | Comments Off

Well, August 9 comes around each and every year, I am pretty sure about that.  August 9 is a special day for me every single year too.  This year, though, it has even more meaning.  It’s a milestone even for Feyma and I this year. Why do we feel that August 9 is special? Well, [...]

Filed under: Bob Martin, holidays | Comments Off

Over my years of living in the Philippines I have adjusted to many new and different things.  Almost everything in life is a bit different here, but on almost everything, even when it’s been difficult, I have made the adjustment. I’ve adjusted to different types of foods. I’ve adjusted to a totally different style of [...]

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As the title of this article says, pilots are flying.  And, what I am saying is that Pilots for Philippine Airlines (PAL) are flying. Well, Bob, of course the PAL pilots are flying… that is what pilots are supposed to do, fly planes! Well, yes, pilots are literally supposed to fly airplanes, but I never [...]

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Corruption, corruption!  Corruption is terrible in the Philippines, didn’t you know that?  I mean, you can hardly go an hour in your life without facing some terrible kind of corruption. Or at least, that is what people say. In my life, I simply have not experienced such terrible things, though.  Maybe I am different than [...]

Filed under: Bob Martin, travel | Comments Off

LiP Reader Daniel Huseman would like to share his Flickr Photo album with others who read our site, and we are happy to oblige Danny. I hope you enjoy Danny’s photos below.  To view the next photo, just click on the large photo.  To view the next photoset, select the photoset from the small images [...]

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You hear it all the time – One person can’t really make a difference. When it is election time, a lot of people don’t vote, and when you ask why they say… One vote can’t change anything.  Frankly, I don’t think it’s a good habit to get into having that kind of attitude. How does [...]

Filed under: Bob Martin, Mindanao, travel | Comments Off

Often times here on LiP, I like to share e-mails that I get, along with my answers.  I get a lot of e-mail every day from readers, and I am happy to answer them as best I can.  It’s part of having a popular website to get such inquiries, so I am always happy to [...]

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I’m not sure if there is such a word as “denguephobic” but if there is not there should be.  I’m sure that most of you know what I mean when I use the “word” – I have a fear of dengue. Dengue Fever is a tropical disease that is caused by mosquito bites.  It takes [...]

Filed under: Bob Martin, Health, Schools | Comments Off

I believe that John Miele and I have entered in to some kind of mutual zone of conscientiousness.  A couple of weeks ago, John wrote about body hair, and I followed him when I wrote about shaving in the Philippines.  Lately, I’ve been wanting to write an article about being an expat and that causing [...]

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On Monday, I wrote an article entitled Round Two, in which I told about our seemingly endless battle with our idiotic neighbors.  It seems that for almost the entirety of 2010, we have had continual problems with one of our neighbors, and I promised in the article that I would be writing a follow up.  [...]

Filed under: Bob Martin, Davao | Comments Off

I’ve been told many times that the stuff that is made in the Philippines is nothing but cheap junk.  I usually agreed with that, but I did so without giving it too much thought.  As I think it over, though, next time somebody tells me that, my response will certainly be… Are you sure about [...]

Filed under: Bob Martin, Mindanao | Comments Off

I had a situation last week, and particularly on Friday which absolutely infuriated me.  I kept my mouth shut for the most part, though, and simply avoided the confrontation.  That situation, though, caused both Feyma and I to make some re-evaluations about our future.  I will explain how this will affect our future in a [...]

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I just did something, which ordinarily I would not consider a good thing, but this time, well, I think that what I did, and the way I did it was just right. What did I do?  I got mad at our maid.  I did it in a sort of different way, though. Lately, we have [...]

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One of the nice things about living in the Philippines, combined with working from my house is that I sometimes go a couple of days between shaving.  Just yesterday, John Miele wrote an article about body hair, and this article was not planned to be in competition with that, nor in conjunction with it.  I [...]

Filed under: Bob Martin, Davao, shopping | Comments Off

Happy Fourth of July to all Americans!  Including myself!  Yes, as I write this article for LiP, today is July the fourth, Independence Day in the United States of America.  When you read this article, it will already be July 5th here in the Philippines, but still July 4th in the United States, though. Although [...]

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