Family news

The streets in Manila are flooded, but we are okay. Just heavy monsoon rain and bad sewer drainage, plus some neighborhoods built under sea level.  link2.

Kuya is supposed to be delivering rice today there, but I am not sure he will be able to do this since many streets are flooded and it's due to rain again.

Part of the problem? bad sewer drainage, and lot of plastic bags and other garbage thrown into the drainage system tends to clog it.

Which is why our new covered drainage system replacing the open small ditches might help here. The problem? the last mayor's portion near us must have used substandard cement, since they collapsed from traffic or parked cars.

Or course, it's not the cars: It's the dump trucks and rice trucks which are detoured around us in the new one way traffic. They need to make the streets wider, but the stores and small sidewalks mean that is impossible unless one tears down houses and stores.

Ironically, the downtown now has a fence in the middle of the two lanes: two lanes only of traffic, and there is a parking area that they enforce. Before, the tricycles going in and out, and the double parked cars cause traffick problems, so making fewer lanes actually helped.

For the last week I have had hives, and my sleep cycle is off thanks to the medications I was taking. The hives are better now but essentially I am a week behind in the news, and guess what: Nothing has changed.

Oh well.

Ruby had her teeth done here by the dentist, who replaced all her plastic fillings with a new set. She also bought new glasses, and needed clothing, and will replace her OTC medicines which are cheaper here than in Canada. She returns to her school in two weeks or so.

We are hoping that the airline will let her travel alone at age 17: they are strict, but since she has been back and forth twice, she should be okay.
If not, one of us will have to get a ticket to travel with her again.