Family news update

We have been busy getting our papers in Manila...

Lolo has now become a dual citizen, so can live here as long as he wishes without giving up his US citizenship. And since he is again a "philippino" I will be able to get my permanent residency here so I don't have to do paper work every year, or travel home every year to renew my visa.

Luckily, there is a Starbucks across the street where we park...and it is located in what seems to bed a huge drain...stone walls in a semicircle that go into the hill...since the Immigration office is on the waterfront, it probably was....

The Immigration office is still a mess after the fire last August...the scorch marks are still on the outside, and when you are waiting in the hallway and look up, you see where they had removed the ceilings etc...

Luckily, Joy used to work there and walked the papers thru...

The bad news is that as we were packing up our papers, we got interrupted and Lolo left all the fee money on the table...halfway to Manila we found it out, and telephoned (It was still sitting there...our employees are honest, thank God) so there we were, no money...but Joy and I and one of her old work friends scrounged enough to pay the fees, and I had my emergency US bill tucked away, so we cashed that and had enough to eat.

We didn't eat fancy. In the Philippines, there are lots of fast food outlets (with good clean restrooms) or you can buy from street vendors...which is cheaper...

So we had "chinese"...In the US, Chinese is chowmein, but here Chinese includes stuffed dumplings (siopao) and wonton (siomai) and noodle soup and noodle pancit...

Usually Lolo loves the Siopao, but this time we all were so tired from the stress we had the noodle soup. (Think Wonton Soup with spaghetti noodles, and meat)

So here is a recipe for Siopao...LINK....(I've never made it, so I had to look it up)