If you haven’t heard yet, Manny Pacquiao’s next fight  will be against British fighter Ricky “Hitman” Hatton  at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on Sat May 2 (US Time) or May 3 (Manila Time). This match could be one of Pacman’s toughest fights, much more tougher than the washed up Dela Hoya he fought last. Hatton is a young champion who has knocked out the majority of his opponents as has Pacquiao. He has about a 1″ height advantage over Pacman and a 2″ reach advantage. I hope everybody gets to see this possibly classic fight shown on pay per view starting at 9pm US time for a cost of $49.95.

A little advice to people who have a blog or are thinking about starting one. Remember everything you write becomes part of the information flowing throughout the Internet. Millions of people have access to your postings and if there is something you don’t want to be associated with you or you say something you don’t mean don’t write it in your blog.

Now the above paragraph is not part of a confession or an apology but it fits into the post. It just so happens that sometimes I think about things on that level. If you remember my post from yesterday I was telling about the problems my wife was having with her dual citizenship paperwork at the Philippine Embassy in Washington. I told of the problems we were having getting status on her application. I was bragging that I had finally got the attitude that I wasn’t going to act like many Americans are perceived and blow my top and lose my temper. This is all part of my education and preparing for my move to the Philippines. First thing this morning my phone rings and it is a representative of the Philippine Embassy letting my wife know that they had received her papers and wanted to arrange a date for her to take the oath. We made arrangements to go to Washington DC on May 6th for her to take the oath. Now I don’t want you all to think that I think so highly of my writing on this blog that someone would even notice but I ask: Do you think it is a coincidence or not?

In the past while living in the Philippines I adjusted to the way of life there. It was laid back and you never had to hurry anywhere because you were on Filipino time. But alas I moved to the states and got back into the rat race where you hurried from place to place and tried to be in two places at one time. You had to have fast food, fast cars, and an overall fast paced life. When I decided to move back to the Philippines I had to adjust my attitude and began looking at life as most Filipinos would. I am pretty well adjusted now and think that when the move happens I will be ready.

A test of that change came recently when working with the Philippine Embassy on my wife’s paperwork for dual citizenship and that test isn’t over yet. We submitted our paperwork February 16 and haven’t heard anything back from them. By talking to some folks that frequent this blog I have found out that 2 months is a long time compared to their waiting time. After waiting for two months I decided to call the numbers given on the application. I reached the Embassy switchboard and was given options and I picked the correct option. I was sent to a number that rang a few times and a message came on telling me that nobody was there, even though it was working hours, and that I was” being referred to a voice mail BUT the person at that extension did not subscribe to voice mail”. So I tried again and after getting the recording a few times I actually reached an operator that asked who did I want to talk to. I told her and was promptly sent to the recording about voice mail again. I tried for a few days and the next time I got the operator I explained my problem and told her not to send me to voice mail. Instead, she took all the information and promised to have someone get in touch with me, a week ago. I tried the email route and the email address provided in the paperwork is not a valid email address.

I’m not writing this post as a call for help but to brag that I believe I passed the test on attitude because previously I would have lost my temper and probably tried to get in touch with the Ambassador after spewing a few choice words. I’m getting there but I hope we hear from them soon as I don’t want to become the obnoxious American I used to be.

Many people are fans of the social networking site Facebook.com. I visit everyday to see how my friends are doing and this morning I got invited to a group concerning a Filipino. At first I didn’t know what to think but I did some research and feel this is a legitimate story. Instead of explaining let me give you what I got in Facebook.

Help save a life, help Dondon Lanuza !

Dondon is a fellow Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW) who was sentenced to die by beheading for crime of murder which happened more than 8 years ago. Details of his case may be provided to you upon request or you may directly contact Dondon at donlanuza@gmail.com

Joining this group will not cost you a single centavo but may mean everything for dondon and many other fellow filipinos now languishing in jail and awaiting execution.”

If you are in the United States it is a holiday that nobody enjoys. This is the day that your income taxes have to be in the mail. If you run into a friend who states that today is just like any other day, they are probably someone who is getting a refund. But if you are a business owner who will be paying taxes this is a day when your bank account shrinks a little. President Obama has even promised today that he is striving to make April 15th a day that U.S. citizens will not dread every year. Be aware that the post office will be open late for all of the procrastinators.

To go with tax day people around the United States are holding tax day tea parties to protest the out of control spending that our government is doing. For the most part it is members of all political parties getting together for the protests and I’m proud to say it is the first time in a long time that we have seen any Bi-Partisan action in the U.S.

I’ve been watching the news about the hijacking of ships like the Maersk Alabama by Somali pirates and heard that many of the crew memebers of these ships are Filipino. I’ve also read that of the hostages the pirates have right now, at least 100 are Filipino. I know of people in my family and my friends in the Philippines who are seaman on ships like this. These men have left home for months at a time to make a better life for their families and then they are confronted with thieves and thugs who threaten their lives. If any of you have family members or friends that are on these ships pray for their safety and well being.

As I shared with you I will be adding a bigger kitchen on my house in Binan, Laguna soon. I hope to be able to travel there and keep an eye on the biggest part of the work. We already have a kitchen in the house minus kitchen cabinets and appliances so I guess it’s not really a kitchen yet. We have extra room on our lot around the carport. The kitchen will extend into the back portion of the carport and will feature a terrace on top for us to have parties and if we can find a decent outdoor gas grill we will do the outdoor barbecues.

I was reading an article that R.T. Cunningham put on his site Untwisted Vortex entitled My Custom Kitchen-Cabinet, Cupboards, Counters, and Electricity. This article written a few months ago when he was building his own kitchen has helped me make some decisions about my own.

In his article he talks about having a modern kitchen or as best he can in the Philippines. He and his wife looked at many kitchen designs  and made some decisions that my wife and I faced also. As far as the cabinets he decided to go with custom built solid wood cabinets and cupboards. The point was brought up about the corrosion of metal in the Philippines and I don’t think metal even came into our thoughts. As far the counter tops we will be going with tiled countertops vs granite due to the cost.

As far as appliances we are shooting for going with as much 220 volt appliances as we can such as microwave, refrigerator, and stove. We did send 4 balikbayan boxes full of brand new things such as rice cooker, can openers, and other small elctrical appliances but we will be using regulators for them. Since there is a wall built where we are adding on we have the pleasure of cutting a new door in the wall upstairs for entrance to the terrace and one downstairs for entrance into the kitchen. I’ll leave that one to the engineers and builders to figure out.

We had an architect come out and give us an estimate and of course this would have been with the full blown best quality everything including granite counters and ceramic tiles. His estimate was PHP500,000 but of course will not be paying that much (pray pray). This has already been quite an experience for me but I just keep thinking about how many people never get to do something like this and it seems to make it all worthwhile especially when it is done.

I’m so glad the saying that “you learn something new every day” is so true. Of course, since the Philippines is one of my favorite places it is a treat when that something new is about the Philippines. All of last week Mindanao Bob has been running a feature on his website Live in the Philippines about things he has learned since living in the Philippines. Bob, if you all didn’t know has lived in the Philippines for quite a while since the 90’s I believe and many expats and people who are planning on moving to the Philippines visit his website daily for his insight on what it is like for a foreigner to live in that beautiful country.

Although all of the articles last week were very good, I picked two in particuluar that were my favorites. The first was an article entitled Where Do Pineapples Come From. Do you know where pineapples come from? You might be suprised at the answer. My most favorite article though, was an article entitled Culture is Important. This article deals with the main topic I believe over all of his website which is the culture of the Philippines is different than the United States or any other country for that matter. If you plan on living there you had better be ready for making some changes, especially in your attitude. If you have been on vacation there you may have had a taste of the cultural differences but until you make it your home you probably won’t fully grasp the differnces. I’m going to have to go with something you probably hear me say when I’m reviewing articles on Bob’s site and that is, this article is a must read for all planning to move to the Philippines. Check it out soon!

In my last post I updated you all with the news that I will possibly be going to the Philippines soon to supervise an extension on my house. I don’t know how much time I will have to visit and sight-see. I was just thinking the other day that I used to get out quite frequently in the Philippines but on my recent trips I have stayed close to home. Of course I’ve made the trip to Pangasinan to visit with relatives in the province but to truly get out and see the sights I haven’t had a chance to. The last real sight-seeing I have done was my trip to Tagaytay to visit the volcano. It was enjoyable and I hope to go there soon again but there are many places I still want to visit. I’ll show you a partial list that I hope to visit on my trip and even if I don’t get to any of these places, I will catch some when I return later in the year for Fiesta. The places I’m longing to see right away are:

The National Museum of the Philippines

The Malacanang Museum

Manila Zoo and Botanical Gardens I haven’t been to the zoo in years and have never been been to the gardens.

So that is the short list that I hope to accomplish next month. If not at least I’ll make it to Market Market in Fort Bonifacio, my favorite place.