Month: March 2019

Greetings to one and all.  I am so happy to still be around to be able to keep in touch with you.  Regretfully I had to say farewell to people I have known quite a while:

TAPS:  Carmello Lazatin, past AC Mayor, Congressman and current Balibago barangay Captain.  I knew his father, a great AC Mayor and then his son.  While I was secretary of ACTA I had the opportunity to work with Mayor Lazatin (the son) for a few years and grew to admire and respect him and enjoyed attending his birthday celebrations and he honored me with his presence at two of my celebrations as well.  Many will miss him, especially me.

Clive Pollington – Clive passed away from a heart attack recently and his sudden passing was a shock to his many friends.  Clive was a first class gentleman who at one time owned Roy’s Pub, a very popular location to eat lunch and also to gather early evening for enjoying various brews and quietly interact with each other in not too loud conversation.  It was especially popular with the English expats in town.  I was surprised to learn a few years back that quiet gentleman, in his younger years, participated in professional side-car motorcycle racing in England.  Clive was proud of those days and many were amazed that this quiet, gentle man was once involved in such an exciting, dangerous sport. Needless to say, he will be missed by many especially those he worked and socialized with at the Orchid group.

 John Holmes – The owner of the Phoenix Hotel.  I do not have much information as it happened very recently.  It really was sudden and happened on site.  I remember when this hotel was built and Owen Dolan helped with on-site supervision.  Owen was it first manager and he and John made a good team. Sadly Owen was murdered in a robbery attempt and John was left in need of a manager.  Fortunately he found the only only man who could fill Owen’s shoes and that is Mike Evans, (Only old timers know his nickname so I will omit it here).  The team of John and Mike continued until the sad day of John’s passing.  The question now is what will the relatives decide to do with the Phoenix Hotel and will Mike continue on for now?
I know as I grow older and reach my 34th year here I know if I continue on I will have to bid farewell to more expats that I have known and with each loss I will feel that gray cloud of sadness pass over me and remember their friendships, close and casual, and as time passes I will remember them until my memory fades or I join them myself.  It is so much sadder when they pass on in December, a month so close to another year.  Hard to deal with so much sadness and also celebrate the holiday season.

27 March 2019 – Oh boy, I am in trouble.  I started this before Christmas and now, so much later I pulled up my draft.  Instead of going downstairs to watch the girls playing pool I am sitting my ass down to write a few lines.  I just finished a Rotary meeting.  If I go downstairs, here is what will happen.  I will watch the game, it ends after 5 PM.  I then would go out for a walk with my walker because my wife insists it will help my legs (I agree with her but never admit it).  After the walk, return to the bar, sit at favorite at my table, turn on the TV and start watching Netflix and think about going upstairs to write this column.  Nope, I will stay watching Netflix, eat dinner, continue with Netflix, then my friend Tony will come in for a chat at 8:45, interrupt my TV viewing, have 2 beers, then leave for home at 9:50 PM at which time I get my helper to help me out of my chair, get me up the stairs into my office to take off my shoes and socks.  At this time I should go to bed but I am not tired, time to check my Emails, FB and messenger.  All to often I get distracted into watching clips of America has talent, Britain has Talent, Sweden has Talent, Ethiopia has talent, Norway has Talent, India has Talent and a few doses of X Factor.  At the same time I am answering messages, messenger, etc.  Suddenly it is 1 AM and I force myself to take a shower and go to bed.  Of course, then I read in bed until my eyes get tired, turn out the light, and doze off thinking that I should have worked on this column.   This is my daily schedule and I have not even discussed my morning routine which is not good either.  I also go to Rotary once a week, Physical Therapy twice a week and Envy Sports Bistro 2 times a week.  I am suffering from TVitis  and well, a bit of laziness.  The result is, that at 81 my only talent is being able to fall asleep anywhere at any time, in fact, I feel my eyes getting heavy as I type this and it is only 4:45 PM and I am fighting off the temptation to go down and watch the girls finish their last few games.

I think listing those friends that passed away so close to the end of the year depressed me but now I have to mention one friend who was the Captain of one of my pool teams and a good customer as well.  His name was Michael Keith Rowell, AKA “Whisky Mike” and his demise was an example of how far too many Expats reach their final days in Angeles City.  Mike enjoyed a few drinks of Black Label each day and over the years the consumption increased and eventually along came a few medical problems as well.  Mike was well liked and yes, he was a nice guy with many friends that did their best to look after him.  He sort of had a girlfriend that was not all that dependable and quite often he was on his own.  Mike was 69 when he suffered from a serious stroke that caused him to lose his mobility and he had to lay on a mattress placed on the floor of his living room apartment.  Local Expat friends were able to pay his hospital bill and try to help him as much as possible on a daily basis.  He was helpless and needed help to get to the bathroom, get cleaned up, fed and at times place him in a wheel chair to get him out to eat.  Even then he still lived up to his nickname and ate very little.  There is a close net group of Expats that did all they could for him and a few in particular reached out to help him in a way that was so commendable and this is not a rare experience here.  Regretfully Mike passed away  and even thought we knew such an ending was inevitable we wondered if this situation could have been avoided.

The problem is that many Expats that live here for any length of time, including me, have established our senior lives here and this is home.  We have homes, condo’s, apartments, wives, relatives, friends and a type of community that does not exist in the US, Britain, Australia, etc.  Only if you live here could you understand what this feeling is and why, even when sick, we do not want to leave, even when we know it is ridiculous not to to do so.  It is easy to fall into a trap of drinking too much because of the environment and the affordability of liquor and cigarettes.  Another problem is that many settle here without an adequate monthly income and medical care is not cheap.  A month or two after Mikes death a local bank notified officials that Mike had an account with them but after consultations with the bank it was discovered that the account did not have and funds in it.  Why do I dwell on this subject?  Please, if you plan to retire here prepare yourself.  Have the funds in the bank to cover you or have a DECENT retirement check coming in each month.  When I first came here in 1977 living here was really cheap, in 1985 when I moved here permanently it was still pretty reasonable, now, 2019 try to have at least a monthly income of $3000 or more, depending on what life style you want.  Life is good here and Angeles City is one exciting town to live in as it is changing month to month.  Visit first, more than once, than decide.

BAYPOINT HOSPITAL, SUBIC – I just received information that based on complaints against Baypoint by Senator Dick Gordon, Baypoint has been downgraded by Dept of Health to an infirmary.  That means they currently cannot do surgeries, admit you to ICU, or do in-depth testing at lab/heart center or radiology.  You can get emergency care to stabilize and they can and they can do CBC’s but that’s about it.
This information came from Jack Walker, director of the RAO office at Subic.  This affects the many military retirees living in the Subic area who now will have to use either Medical City and Gordon are Tri-Care and only Medical City is FMP.  That is the only information available now but I suspect more details will follow.

DAVE (VEGAS DAVE) HAMILTON – was moved from ICU last week and is now in room 307, Medical City, Clark.  I will try to visit him tomorrow to see how his recovery is going.  From what I hear Dave suffered a fall serious enough for hospital admittance, complications led to an extended stay in ICU.  He is recovering and is undergoing in-room physical therapy.

QUESTION FROM “DIGBY” – Hi Harry, how are you, have not seen any posts from your side which I always look forward to. Is ThiHi still going strong with the same girls I saw in December and what of the old Porkys (Finnegans).  Keep well, Digby
(Good to hear from you Digby.  Not to worry ThiHi is going strong and since Dec they have added a few ladies but loss some of those you saw in Dec.  The new owners have made additional improvements that are very pleasing.  It remains my go to bar as it has been for many years.  The addition of outside seating was a popular choice even though City Hall forced them to cut back on the frontage due to encroachment.  So far Hang-out and Honey Ko’s has been able to keep their extended frontage.  All three establishments remain popular which is great.
I  Finnegans Bar is still there with a great sign out front and enjoying a lot of business.

Look, it is getting a bit late now and I had two interruptions.  Mrs Horse had her home manicure by Pearlie and I piggy backed on that and of course another break for dinner.  We ordered take out from the Siam Thai restaurant right around the corner from our hotel.  Had enough to be able to enjoy leftovers tomorrow night.

I hope I can publish this as I have never saved to draft before.  I do plan to write more often, I miss doing it.  Tomorrow physical therapy and head over to Envy for the Footie.  I have a lot more words floating around my head but will try to sort those out tomorrow.  Oh wait.  I have to announce that our little Pension House has now come under the umbrella of RedDoorz which means if you want to book a room now please go on the internet and look for RedDoorz Philippines, Pampanga and we are listed as RedDoorz Tamarind.  It is all new to us but it seems to be increasing our occupancy.  We have still maintained our name but now our 10 rooms are controlled by RedDoorz.  They basically rent our ten rooms for a monthly flat fee (after a 2 month trial period).  Now you can prepay a room booking which we were not able to do before.  What takes getting used to is that the price changes daily and at times can become extremely cheap.  We had raised our rates to P1200 daily now, depending on occupancy you might get a room as low at P700.  We are hoping that our regular customers will use this system, it is easy and convenient.

Good night for now and please remember to be kind to horses.