Another day, another darts tournament.

And another 1st Place finish! Hey, like I always say better to be lucky than good. Although I do seem to be improving.

In other news, there was a little hiccup with the house. And by hiccup I mean a major miscommunication. I met the landlord yesterday to review the lease agreement. Now, what I recall being discussed was two months rent up front (the security deposit and first month of a 12 month lease). The contract I was presented said two months security deposit, plus one year rent in advance on a three year lease. WTF?

The landlord said that it was a standard practice to pay the rent on an annual basis. Which made some sense seeing as how that was the way it often works under the “key money” concept in Korea. Still, it was a little different when Uncle Sam was footing the bill on my behalf. Anyway, I told the landlord I didn’t have that kind of cash on hand or readily available. So he offered a compromise–the security deposit plus 6 months advance rent. Well, I might be able to swing that.

Anyway, there is work to be done on the house (primarily termite damage in the kitchen and downstairs bathroom). A few other minor repairs as well. He called his construction guy out to the house (a retired American) and we all did a walk around the house together. Really liked the Yank and he will be a good source if and when I need to find some help fixing shit. I won’t be turning over any cold hard cash until I see the place is move-in ready, that’s for sure.

So today I busied myself exchanging the American dollars I have on hand and started the process of getting additional funds wired in from the states. I gave Remitly.com a go, and they actually called me here to verify some identity information. That was cool with me. Apparently, the service is primarily intended to be used within the USA. They wanted to know how long I planned to be in the Philippines. I told them I had a flight out on June 8. Which is technically true. I just have no intention of being on that flight.

I also gave Xoom.com a try. I thought that went smoothly, but just got an email saying they needed a copy of my bank statement and passport. I wrote back and said who the hell gets paper statements from the bank anymore? I did send them a screenshot of the account I want the money transferred from. Also sent the requested copy of my passport. Well, a picture of my passport anyway.

I next went to my old standby, Western Union. They seem to have a bad reputation with the expat community here for some reason. I’ve used them quite a bit in the past, but only for hundreds of dollars, not thousands. They are the only ones (so far at least) who haven’t given me any shit requests for more info yet. They did want to know my log-in and password for my bank account for “verification” purposes. That was disconcerting. I finally went ahead and gave it to them, and they verified whatever they needed to verify. Then I went in and changed my log-in ID and password. So I should be okay. I hope!

Anyway, if all or most of that money from the above outlets comes through, I can pay the rent. We shall see.

More darts on tap for tonight. Life is good.