We arrived in Marilao at about 7am after a totally grueling 9 hour torture ride on the '319' bus from hell... I don't know if they even have such a conveyance in hell, but if they do, I'd not be surprised... this was I think a little older bus, the first thing that got me thinking about it was after we took off from the terminal, the driver hadn't gone a 1/2 mile and had to return to the terminal as there was a short in some wiring and evidently it showed up on his dash gauges... after about 1/2 hour of trouble shooting, some guy wrapped a wire with copious amounts of electrical tape and away we went...
As I remember from my driving days, passenger buses, especially for about the last 25 or thirty years have employed what is known as an airbag suspension system to cushion the ride the passengers experience... this bus, either failed the inspection and escaped the factory, or the air bags are blown and don't hold air, or the supply lines for the air are compromised or (lastly I hope) perhaps the air compressor that supplies the air was non-functional... What I think I might have seen on the chassis had I looked, would be the rear axels bolted directly to the undercarriage of the bus, sans any intervening suspension softening devices of any nature whatsoever... for Nine grueling hours we felt ever pebble, grain of sand and overly inflated air bubble that we transversed over. Bone jarring would be a galactic understatement when describing the sensation. Oh, did I forget to mention the absolutely sterling conditions of the roads in general in the Philippines??? shame on me... cattle trails are smoother.
Anyhow, we managed somehow and then finally arrived at the apartment about 7am as I said earlier. (Just from the curiosity side of my nature, I had Nora measure my height.. 5'6"... I fully expect to grow another 8" once my spinal colum decompresses itself. 'Tis my dearest hope that this was my last ride on such a vehicle...
We cleaned the apartments and Kenneth completely scrubbed and sanitized the referigerator and Joyce and I mopped with bleach water the floors after excavating the dust that had accumulated over the 12 days of our absence.
In the sleeper room bathroom, I found that rust had completely dominated the rubber water bucket and the new shower hose/fixture I had installed... looked like a pregnant earthworm of the rust color had cralled from the shower handset and meandered down the flexible chrome water hose... I had to take it apart and as best as I could eradicate the rust...the stain seems to stay forever and I'd have given some cash for a jug of CLR to soak it in... but it is now functional so that is good...
The money has not arrived from RemitHome yet, but I had a stash here and gaver her 5,500p for the first week in Jan budget... I will just take it back when the money arrives this week.
Nora tells me that Auntie Linda is in a cash flow circumstance again and wants an advance on the rent... I am going to offer to pay her thru the end of June, but at a discounted rent... if you play, you must play by my rules... instead of giving her 1,500p a month for rent, I will offer her a lump sum based on a rental rate of 1,300p per month... I save money and she gets a lump sum. Seems a good deal to me and that is how I handled the rental of the sleeper apartment too and there has been no issues there.
Nora left about 12:20 for St. Lukes clinic and then to shop at the supermarket... she will be home later than usual, but there is a lot go get as we ran everything low not wanting any spoilage to occur during our absence. I took down the kid gate that I had put in the front door to keep baby denny from escaping... but he is proving to be quite the little monkey so we may need to put some barbed wire on the top...
Later my friends, I just finished cleaning the fan in our sleeper room so I may drift off to a gentle snooze...
Sister, it was wonderful chatting with you this morning, Nora loved it also. I will probably call you again tomorrow morning when I get up...
Love and all that mushy stuff... Miss ya all and hope you are enjoying the continued blogs...
From denny's iPad...
(my demented mind)
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