Tuesday is my nothing day. Which leaves nothing to post about. Like THAT will stop me!

I did visit the immigration office in Olongapo and they graciously extended my stay in this fine land for another 60 days. Only paid 3100 pesos for the privilege.

Went to Royal for groceries. As usual, they had some things I wanted and didn’t have others. But it is astounding to me what I’ve been paying for groceries of late. Yesterday my tab was over 20,000 pesos ($400.). That’s for one week’s worth of stuff. I suspect the help is filling the shopping cart with items that ain’t for household use. For example, I noticed a bottle of men’s shampoo and asked what that was for. Teri said she wanted to give it a try. Hmm, that sounds like bullshit. Probably for some guy friend. Anyway, it really pissed me off. I haven’t said anything yet, but next week I’ll carry a shopping list to the store and leave them at home. We’ll see what my bill is then. I’m thinking about making some other changes as well. More on that once I decide.

Fended off a couple of new requests for me to give what remains of my money away. Saying no consistently does get easier. I honestly don’t understand the mindset of these ladies. In one case, it’s a gal I’ve known for quite some time. In the past, I even expressed some interest in dating her but that interest was never reciprocated. That’s fine, a friend is good too. Anyway, I have NEVER received any messages from her at all until this one yesterday:

Good afternoon jhon,,I’m going to Big Face to you right now.. Can i have big favor to you please Can you help me even 5k-6k pesos. Even put some interest but not to high can i pay weekly payment. Because i really need and I’m going to join for COOPERATIVE so i can loan for my Bussines. Please help me Thank you and I really appreciate that.

I ignored her and so she repeated her request. Twice more in fact. I finally just responded “I’m sorry, can’t help” and she graciously accepted that response. But had she sent a message asking me: how you doing, saw your post, wish we could go hike together sometime, want to do lunch? type of thing and then after we got together, she sprang her money plea, I might have been more receptive. Up your begging game, girl!

Walked into town to cash up at the ATM and then headed to the vape shop for some supplies. Stopped into McCoy’s for a couple of beers, then headed over to Alley Cats for some darts. Shouldn’t have bothered. Despite having a good partner, we were eliminated in the third round. A frustrating night at the oche for sure.

One good thing about being eliminated early I suppose was I had plenty of time to go out and get myself some dinner.

And that was pretty much it for the day.

A friend posted this on Facebook and I thought you English speakers might enjoy reading it. I did at least. It’s kind of long, so scroll on past if you prefer:

Why English can be difficult:

Homographs are words of like spelling but with more than one meaning.
A homograph that is also pronounced differently is a heteronym.
You think English is easy?

I think a retired English teacher was bored…THIS IS GREAT!
Read all the way to the end… This took a lot of work to put together!

1) The bandage was wound around the wound.
2) The farm was used to produce produce.
3) The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.
4) We must polish the Polish furniture..
5) He could lead if he would get the lead out.
6) The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert..
7) Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.
8) A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.
9) When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.
10) I did not object to the object.
11) The insurance was invalid for the invalid.
12) There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.
13) They were too close to the door to close it.
14) The buck does funny things when the does are present.
15) A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.
16) To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.
17) The wind was too strong for me to wind the sail.
18) Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear..
19) I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.
20) How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?

Let’s face it – English is a crazy language. There is no egg in eggplant, nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren’t invented in England or French fries in France . Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren’t sweet, are meat. We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.

And why is it that writers write but fingers don’t fing, grocers don’t groce and hammers don’t ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn’t the plural of booth, beeth? One goose, 2 geese. So one moose, 2 meese? One index, 2 indices? Doesn’t it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend? If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?

If teachers taught, why didn’t preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? Sometimes I think all the English speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane. In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell?

How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which, an alarm goes off by going on.

English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race, which, of course, is not a race at all. That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible.
PS. – Why doesn’t ‘Buick’ rhyme with ‘quick’?

You lovers of the English language might enjoy this.
There is a two-letter word that perhaps has more meanings than any other two-letter word, and that is ‘UP.’
It’s easy to understand UP, meaning toward the sky or at the top of the list, but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP?
At a meeting, why does a topic come UP?
Why do we speak UP and why are the officers UP for election and why is it UP to the secretary to write UP a report?
We call UP our friends.
And we use it to brighten UP a room, polish UP the silver; we warm UP the leftovers and clean UP the kitchen.
We lock UP the house and some guys fix UP the old car.
At other times the little word has real special meaning.
People stir UP trouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UP excuses.
To be dressed is one thing, but to be dressed UP is special.
A drain must be opened UP because it is stopped UP.
We open UP a store in the morning but we close it UP at night.
We seem to be pretty mixed UP about UP!
To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of UP, look the word UP in the dictionary.
In a desk-sized dictionary, it takes UP almost 1/4th of the page and can add UP to about thirty definitions.
If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways UPis used.
It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you don’t give UP, you may wind UP with a hundred or more.
When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP.
When the sun comes out we say it is clearing UP.
When it rains, it wets the earth and often messes things UP.

Anyway, I’ll just link to this article on the “30 sayings most people don’t know they’re using incorrectly”. Most of them seem obvious, but I’ll confess there were three or four that I might have messed up on occasion.

And that brings us to meme time. Here you go:

That’s probably as good a place to end this post as anywhere. Except maybe after the first paragraph.

Hasta la vista!