Bogo City is a beautiful place. I walk nearly every day and almost always take a camera. Bogo City is a fishing community. No, not everyone fishes but a large part of the city uses the sea to make a living. There is a wharf near my home. I don’t really know the name of it, I call it Bogo City Wharf. There is a larger Bogo City Port to our north but I have not been there. It is to far for me to walk.
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I’m an American expat living in the north of Cebu Province of the Philippines and having the time of my life!
An Ebook from Cebu Experience by Rusty Ferguson
I've been living in the Philippines for almost three years. During those two years, I've gained a lot of first hand knowledge about living here. In this book, I will share the basic of what I learned. It will help you prepare for your move. It will help you decide if you should consider such a move. It may not be for you. It will also help keep you out of trouble once you're here.
Copyright © 2010 Cebu Experience.
Oh, and I forgot to add, they come back with the same pole twice, that is, after they’d been on the left side, they go to the right, then back to the left. So I should say triple dipping, he,he
Of course we felt obliged to give again, so I secretly just rummmaged for some coins maybe about 60cents worth of 5,10s and 20′s because they jingled a bit. I gave them $5 before and they came back for seconds!
If you ask me, I think they send some of that money to Rome to maintain the Pope’s palace. I remembered watching Pope Paul II in his last days. Poor fella, I think he was barely there, and they still made him perform. Anyone could see he was even too weak to wave.
we are talking about a beautiful city… Why very opinionated? We don’t need more opnions coz we do already have.
You know, the one thing I am currently “grateful” for is that I was not dragged to a Catholic church every Sunday growing up. I was dragged to a Presbyterian church instead. I whined and moaned about having to go, but I suppose it was a good experience for me. If I was Catholic and some priest ever told me that I was a sinner for [beep], I surely would have punched him right on the nose
I’m 100% sure that we can blame the Catholic church for many overpopulated areas in the world, including the good ol’ US of A. I know plenty of friends who are from huge families, and I’m plenty glad that my parents chose to only have 2 kids, my sister and me, because they were not living in constant fear and implied guilt-trips. I feel sorry for people who live in constant fear of going to hell, but at the same time I also admire their strength. So as much as I malign the Catholic church, I also must acknowledge that it does seem to make many people stronger. Although it does bug me that they dump so much money into the Vatican, instead of doing more with it to help the needy. I mean, does the Pope really need all that crap? There are plenty of over-paid pro athletes here who would be envious of all the cool stuff that the almighty gets..
Terry, I’m going to take a trip to the Phils to see some of the different areas before I pick a place to call home. I keep hearing nice things about Bogo, and I’m more than intrigued about that place because my last name is Bogo
Oh, and one trick I use when typing longer messages to send over the web: After I finish typing, I highlight the body of the message and just right-click copy it before I submit/send the message. I don’t go as far as actually pasting and saving it into notepad/wordpad/etc, but it gives me the peace of mind that, if I get burned by some error, I can always just start over with the blank typing box and simply right-click paste the entire body of the message and then re-send it. It’s a real life-saver, since there’s nothing more annoying than typing a thousand words only to get burned by some lame error message
sorry i had to beep out small part of your message. An advertiser might get ofended and then I would likely have to shut down the site.
Bogo is a peaceful and quiet town then when I was a young kid. Its people are marvelous, friendly and charming. If you are writing a blog, don’t say a lot of words about yourself. Talk about a nice Bogo. Thank you
Joe B. Hello! you’re second name is Bogo? You are going to get a lot of teasing in PI!
Do you know what Bogo translates to, if pronounced the American way?
I think I’m lucky that I got off from going to church as often as the Catholic church would have wanted. I mean in Mactan back in 70′s, they want you there every day, if you could. Luckily, my Grandma refuses to go to church, unless she had a new dress. And she only ever got a new dress on her birthdays, so that was the extent of my church attendance – until I started going to school, and they rammed religion onto our throats! – well not literally. By the time I was grade 3, I stopped going. I think they gave up on me then, coz they didn’t notify my Grandma. She wouldn’t have cared anyway.
Yeah, it does bug me how much money they pour into the Vatican. I mean, how many silky robes does the Pope and his cohorts want?
I do the highlight and copy before sending as well. Prevents you from having to type again if you lose it. Terry, I would have liked to know what you’ve written.
Yeah, what sucks the most about losing a long message to a gay error is the fact that you can never type up the same message again. It might be similar, but just not the same, hehe..
And yeah, I’m looking forward to introducing myself to the lovely Pilipinas as Joe Dull, Joe Dumb, Joe Stupid, I’m sure I will get quite a reaction from them. I really do think that Bogo City might be the perfect place for me, like the mother ship is calling to me to come home
Wow, you got out of church when you were 3? Nice! I kept getting dragged there til I was well into my teens, maybe around 16-18. What a sucker!
My friend and I were just chatting over ym, and I think I came up with a great tongue-twister: Say “The beautiful spider bites the beautiful spider.” in Tagalog..
I got off from Church when I was grade 3, so that’s when I was 9. Somehow, even at that age, I wasn’t really into Catholicism. Here in Oz, whenever my friends invite me to join their Catholic stuff, like Easter prayers, etc. I tell them I can’t join because I’m not Catholic. Over the years they’ve accepted it.
I think you will fit into Bogo landscape nicely.
Don’t know what’s the Tagalog for spider. I forgot. Can you ask your friend? I know the meaning of the rest of the words.
Have to get my sleep now. Have to make a living tonight – and no, not at the club! I’ll be saving lives
I try to remember that, seems the only time I don’t do it is when I should have ad then I’m really angry at myself.
If you use Firefox there is a really nice addon called Lazarus Form Recovery…. If you loose what you type in the form, you just go back to he page and right click and in most cases, the addon will allow you to pick the lost information and put it right back in there, or at least most of it.. I found it a week ago and I’ve used it several times already
Spider is “gagamba” in Tagalog. So it becomes quite the tongue-twister, or at lesat I think so
I would love to go see at least a small piece of Oz someday, using the phils as my home base to travel from. I think I read somewhere that it is maybe a 10 hour flight from the phils to Sydney. I don’t know if that’s correct or even close, but I am curious about how much that flight might cost. Any guesses on that?
Thanks Joe, I knew it was something which ends in “a”, and I kept thinking “palaka”, but also knew it was wrong because “palaka” is frog. Yeah, it could be tongue twister, but probably not as good as this; “ang relo ni Leroy rolex”. A Filipino saying this fast will quickly become tounged-twisted
The word means “Leroy’s watch is rolex” and it is the same word used in Visayan and Tagalog.
Manila to Sydney could be 10 hours. Our flight from Brisbane to Cebu is 14 hours. I think it is about 8 hours flight Brisbane to Cebu. Stopping at Singapore for 3 hours, then direct to Cebu. Last year I paid AU$1350 each for our tickets. About AU$400 of this is govt tax. I think the Aussie govt figured “if you can afford to travel, you can afford to pay tax”. This year I only paid AU$1,124 each. It seems the closer to travel time you buy your tickets, the cheaper it gets. My guess is, they are discounting tickets heavily to fill the plane. I could have got cheaper fares if I’d go via Manila, but with the limited time we have in PI, I’d rather pay more and cut travel time. Some of the flights I’ve looked at via Manila takes 23 hours. So Brisbane-Cebu 14 hours is about the most direct.
Yeah I grew up Catholic, and still is. It is my religion and I love it. It is also part of my heritage. My family is involve with the church’s activities back in PI and nobody is complaining. I also went to catholic schools..both high school and college… worked for a catholic university. I do not minc if people talk bad about the catholic religion…I understand and it is their prerogative.
Anyway, it is not religion that will save you, it is your faith…no matter what religion or no religion you belong to.
Am I too preachy here?
Joe, Christine is right about your last name. Just tell them that Bogo city is where you were born , and you like the place, that’s why you use to be your last name…ha..ha..ha…
Bogo to the chinese means special..
I will be out of the loop for few days here…my daughter has a soccer camp in Erie, Pensylvannia and I have to chaperone. I am not bringing my laptop because nobody is allowed except your Ipod or MP3 and cell phone. Talk to you again guys
I’m glad you’re not offended Terry. We knew you’re a good sport. And no, you are n ot preachy at all. I agree with you, it is not the religion that will save you (the Catholic Priest will probably disagree), but your faith.
Man must really have a compulsion to worship, because even before Christianity, man worhipped nature, the sea, the sky, the stars, animals etc. At least, Christianity, for all its shortcomings does not require human sacrifices, especially baby sacrifices like the Incas used to do.
We look forward for your return Terry….
That has crossed my mind too Christine. its almost like man tends to have a little bit of magical thinking as they say in your profession. I will stop short of being negative toward organized religion though.. Its made up of people and we people are all fouled up. Hard to expect more of the institutions we build.
It doesn’t bother me how much money goes to the Vatican, what bothers me is I don’t actively see the church doing much for the poor here. I know His grace is sufficient but that doesn’t mean the church should not help with the suffering that is going on. The church is lavishly decorated and there are three year old child bedding down on the streets of Cebu City. Can have both, but what is the church doing? Maybe its doing a lot but I can’t see it and I’d like to see it.
Some are turned off by the churches involvement in government here. One Filipina that is close to me says that she doesn’t go to church to hear about politics. She rarely goes for that reason. Yet, she’s pretty stern about Holy Week, especially Good Friday and Black Saturday. She’s not a zealot but she doesn’t like to hear celebratory music blasting during that time. Even I have issues with that. Not that it offends me so much but because I’ve got at least a limited understanding of how important the remembrance is in the Philippines.
Preach on Terry!
Can’t take notebook? Haw, and you’re a volunteer?
I’d stay home.
Terry, I live 3 hours’ drive south of Erie. Are you living up there or just spending some time there?
Rusty, have you had a chance to play around with that camera yet?
Yes, I’ve used it. Its nice. But I still have much to try with it.
I’m way behind on pictures. I haven’t even uploaded march photos!
Hello Christine, Rusty and Joe, I am BACK!!!
Just arrive from Erie, PA, took me 5 hours to drive one way. So tired but it’s worth going and helped out with the team.
Joe, I did not know you live south of Erie. I like Erie but we were just visiting for the weekend for a soccer camp. Where are you located? We have been to Cleveland and Columbus, Ohio to watch the US national soccer team playing against china two years ago. Yeah, we are big on soccer. I hope someday my daughter can play for the Phils. naitional team.
Welcome back Terry
Okay Terry, you’re not allowed to leave again, everything got quite when you did!
Hi Terry, welcome back! yeah everything got quite when you left. I’d just been busy filling up those balikbayan boxes. I would like to put a hex on whoever invented Balikbayan boxes
Sorry guys, after I got back I had to make lesson plans which I was not able to do when I left. It will be quite here for a while on our end, we have 2 Saturdays to ourselves-no travels, so I will be able to post. We will go to the movies and watch X-men and star Trek. yeah my husband is a Trekker, not me. i love the X-men movies though.
So Christine, how long are the balikbayan boxes to arrive in Cebu? I have been sending thru FOREX and it takes 1 1/2 months to Bohol and it cost a lot. Lately, the guy who is in charge here for forex switched to another company and my friend had a bad experience with the switch. they opened her boxes and a lot of broken stuff happened, like coffee, shampoos, lotions, etc. How many boxes you’re sending? I know it is almost June and probably you are excited to go home.
Where is Joe?
Russ, what is new in Cebu? I miss the sutukil-sugba, tula and kilaw. Ask jessie what is this. Also the mangoes in Cebu. There are a lot of these in Carbon market but it is scary to go there now. My former co-teachers told me that snatchers/robbers will not take just your money or jewelry now but the whole pocketbook/purse. I got scared so I did not go to carbon when i went home. There are a lot of treasures—FOOD in there.
it is about time you came back.
I’m now writing about Cebu on another website. Please visit here: Living in Cebu
I’m pretty sure I’ve been to Carbon but I might be getting it mixed up with another C name’d town. I ate fish there. We didn’t go to the public market. The fish was excellent and cheap! I had fish. We stopped there or near there when I was moving to Bogo last year.
I will be sending this particular box through a friend who is sending Balikbayan boxes as a business venture. She charges US$4.15 a kilo airmail, takes only a week to get there, provided I drop it before Saturday. If I drop it at her shop, say Fri. My bro. will get it following Sat. I will send it air-mail because I’ve got other things in it that we will need there. The slow shipping is a flat rate of US$148, but it’s unlimited kilos. Will get there in six months. I imagine it will be a bit dearer from US to PI because of the distance.
I think you might have gone to Colon Rus. And mind your pronunciation on this Rusty. It is not pronounced like that body part!
I knew the dangers of snathcers even in Colon, so I made sure I kept my bag close to my chest, and just put a small amount in it.
Terry, what is sutukil and tula? Are they fish? Just sounds like something edible.
Yeah, where is Joe? maybe he is on his way to PI, luck chap.
Chris, sutukil is a shortened version of sugba, tula and kinilaw. People use the word because it is short. You can tell your brother you want sutukil…that if you like kinilaw…CAUTION…do not eat this on your first few days.
Wow, your box costs a lot…it is only USD99 here for us and it is a lot cheaper in California or any other parts of the US closer to the shipping docks.
Rusty, I have not check your new website but I will do that after posting here. You did not go to Bohol? Everyday of the month in Bohol a place/ town has a fiesta. Ours will be the last Saturday of the month and people just go to houses to eat even if you do not know them. That is a tradition. You will not go hungry. It has been a joke that Bohol sinks a few inches below sea level during May because Boholanos go home for the annual fiesta. I could not go home because I just went last january/February. I am broke
!!!
It’s okay Terry, make your way over when you can. This site is noot going away but until i get where I can handle all three sistes, I will be posting mostly on heyjoe.ph its not a new site but moving my experiences in Cebu over there.
Ii ahve to stay up long enough to post any place. I slept most of the day today. Ihope I don’t stay up all night now. Doesn’t feel like I will.
I understand broke. i would love to go to Bohol but it is not in the near future because of limited funds.
That sounds like a wonderful tradition and truly Filipino! ‘I shy” i probably wouldn’t do that but I would love to visit the floating restaurants.
Joe sometimes disappears for a while, hopefully a hottie belly dancer will keep him coming back for more….
I know its not pronounced like the body part but I still probably don’t have it quite right, the pronunciation that is.
There are several places that do balikbayan boxes for flat rate based on size that do it in six weeks but that is from t he US. I don’t know about Oz at all. Your using something else and the speed that you are getting is nice I might want to talk to your friend on that six month thing though. That is if she does them from the US. I plan, hope to get a container to ship my stuff over.
Hello, all. I’m still here, I just haven’t checked this page lately. I’m still here in the USA, south of Pittsburgh, sweating out this social security debacle. I’m anxiously awaiting a resolution, because I’m planning on going camping on Samal island at the Hagimit Falls. My friend who lives in Davao is gonna take me there. She’s going there in a few days for her birthday, and I wish I could join her then, but oh well
Nice, the Penguins just won in overtime. They were down 2-0 in the series, now they’re up 3-2.
Hot belly dancer?? What?? Really?? Who?? Tell me more
I’m thinking about buying myself a personal, hiker-style water filter. I think it would be nice to have with me in the Phils. REI has a nice sale running now, and I think I’ll go ahead and order one. I’m planning on doing some camping in the Phils, so I’m sure that will come in handy. It’s a hand pump design that filters a liter of water per minute. Even if I’m in town and just don’t trust the bottled water, I think it will be a nice option to have on hand. I want to get a digital camera too, but I’ll keep waiting on that until I am more certain about the outcome of the social security run-around.
I just got done with manually renaming my entire mp3 song collection, one-by-one. It took me a few days and nights, but I’m glad I got it done
Christine does a bit of belly dancing.
The bottled was here seems to be okay.. Some is better than others. Distilled is the best. Sounds like the pump is an osmosis type filter and that’s the only kind of water I’ve been able to get in Bogo.
Will be handy for camping i suppose probably bottled water around though.
A girl in Davao? Was hoping you were Bogo bound, not likely now.
You should check out heyjoe.ph
Christine, nice, I didn’t know you do that. Wow
Do they have belly dancing in the Phils, or is the concept not conservative enough there?
Rusty, I’ve been talking to a few lovely ladies, all of whom are very nice. I’m planning on spending some time in Davao and also in Cebu. I’m definately going to Bogo, no doubts about that. No way is Joe Bogo flying 16,000km to the other side of the world and not going to Bogo
The filter I want seems to be a pretty nice one. It’s the Katadyn Hiker Pro. I’m gonna get it since it’s on sale now, and I’m sure it’ll come in handy when I’m camping in areas where I might not be near bottled water sources. The water at Hagimit Falls looks great, but I’ll feel alot better having a filter on hand if I need to refill water bottles while there
Hi Joe, welcome back! We thought you’ve gone to PI already. I think there are bellydancers in PI. Didn’t see any when I was there. Wondering if it’s confined to clubs there. I would guess it might be considered adult entertainment there. But not here. I only dance for friends these days. Sometimes, I tell them others had to sing for their supper, but I had to dance for mine
Hmm, looks like the thread cooled down again. I think I’ll go check out the new page now…
that is were you need to go.
http://heyjoe.ph
Liked the pictures
show u r hving a great lifestyle there
I to like / hobby photography
so your picture sets were excellent
Given extracts of youe site to my Miami friend who wants to move 2 Pi
lots great tips 4 him
Thanks John, your friend doesn’t have a computer? Send him on over!
hello rusty…yea id like it too…ill be home nxt month..if ill see u at the wharf,japer’s disco or bbq stalls there ill say hi to u…its jst easy to look people there its the famous place where people loves to go to…
Hi Janice,
I sent you an email with my cell phone so you can text me if you like and we’ll make a point of meeting you and your husband if you like.
yeah sure…yep ive seen it already and i save ur number..im jst alone going home my husband will jst follow maybe on dec. he’s pretty mch busy at his work at the moment…im excited to go home now i missed bogo mostly to go to the wharf and sing the videoke there hehehe
Send me a text when you get here and Jessie and I will meet you at the BBQ.
We go to the wharf a lot too, though I’ve not been going much. I’ve probably gained all the weight I lost back because I have not been exercising.
Stay in touch until you get here though. Your coming this month?
nope nxt month…september 6 but ill be at bogo maybe on 10 i will stay at manila for a couple of days i want to go shopping at divisoria and go to baclaran church…
I would like to spend some time in Manila myself.
hi rusty hows bogo??? whats new
by the way its fiesta in cogon try to go there and watch if u like…
Hi Janice,
Bogo is fine except for poor internet stability.
We had another small earthquake on Friday.
I spent the night on Bantayan on Friday and had a great and restful time.
Thanks for the information on the fiesta!
ohhh nice… have u been to the floating bar there in bantayan island? i forgot the name of the resort ive been there last year with my hubby.. nice to go there in holy week…hope everything is fine there in bogo…c u soon huh???…
Yes, I’e been to the floating bar, one of my favorite spots there. Check out http://bantayanislandtours.com its one of my sites.
Yep, let me know when you’re in town!
Rusty,you might already have answered the question I have in mind somewhere else but why did you settle in Bogo? Your girlfriend doesn’t appear to be from there so what was the reason?
I have been in Bogo to take the ferry there but I can’t remember much of the place. On Cebu island the nicest place I remember is Dalaguete though that “Little Baguio” on the nearby mountain there is a dump (in the Philippines they seem to call any somewhat elevated place “Little Baguio”). But they do get some fresh vegetables from there.
At one stage we were planning to settle in Dumaguete, Negros Oriental, which attracted us because of the nice seaside boulevard and all the flowers. Also, that American founded university there, Silliman, seems to have had a civilising influence on the place. The main drawback was the infernal din and the pollution caused by the tricycles there. But if these become electrified in the future (they seem to have already some of those in Puerto Princessa)the place will gain a lot in attractiveness.
I had a personal obstacle there. Every time we got there I got sick. Only mildly but enough to give me some trouble. I figured that there was a virus population there to which I had little immunity.
Talking about Negros: in 1993 I travelled around there for the first time and stayed for a few days in San Carlos, the place where you take the ferry to Toledo in Cebu. I came to speak there to a few businessmen who were sitting near to me in a restaurant and they tried to persuade me to invest some money there because, they said, San Carlos was a go ahead place. I had to laugh because back then it was a real backwater where you paid seven peso for a cup of coffee with cake and the local cinema didn’t charge much more (to my surprise the film that was on then was quite pornographic).I was there last year again and these businessmen turned out to have been right. The place has changed quite a lot. There is now a sort of mall there with a Gaysano and a Jollybee, if I remember correctly, as sure signs of “civilisation”. There is a beautiful plaza where you can get some unpolluted air and, lo and behold, they even have a kind of gated subdivision almost in the middle of the city.
Why Bogo?
Why Bogo? Its not polluted at all, in fact, it wins cleanest and greenest often. It did so in the last three years. They’ve been cleaning the place up a lot in the last month or two. Might be time for the people that make that certification to show up.
There is very little crime. I wont say no crime because there are people in the jail. They wave and want me to take their picture just like many other Filipino do. Safety is a primary concern.
Its a very friendly place too. We do have a Gaisano here. I knew the expat that use to live in this home and thought it was very nice and that was the main thing that drew me up this way. Once we got here, we loved the place. When he moved out, we grabbed it right up. Hard to find a place this large which I like. Jessie loved it so that was a big part of it.
We are close to several resorts and Bantayan Island being close by is also a factor. I would like to live on Bantayan. Maybe someday. I need my own car though before I do that. Long trip to Cebu City would be even longer with the 1 to 1.5 hour ferry trip across the Visayan Sea.
It has just about anything I need but we make a trip to Cebu City, usually once a month to get some things we can’t find here in Bogo.
Jessie has two kids, great place for them to grow up. I’m not a party guy, I tend to be a home body so the lack of a rich night life is not a factor for me.
Bogo is growing too but seems to have stalled a little bit. Loosing its city status didn’t help that.
The cost of living is a good deal less than in Cebu City, especially rents.
It does sound attractive.
About Bantayan Island: according to my spouse the time the ferry takes is not the only obstacle. She claims that sometimes (often?) the sea is so rough that the ferry can’t function at all. Is that so?
I belong to the age group that is plagued by strokes and heart attacks. So I fear neither of those places would be a real option for us.
Sometimes the ferries cannot make the trip, that is true. I doubt it is often. In the year and half I’ve lived here, I can recall only three times people are left stranded in ports in this region. Luzon that happens much more because they get more storms. Last year a ferry sank during a typhoon so the government changed the rules. They can’t sail at all now during a typhoon. They use to let really large ones sail during a signal one storm. I’m glad they changed that rule.
I’ve been over there during mild storms and significant winds. No problems. I’m sure there are times the waters are too rough, I can’t say for sure how often that is.
Bantayan Island would likely be a bad idea. However, I’m in pretty bad shape. I’m a stroke waiting to happen I guess. My heart is enlarged and weak. I’m here. They do have a hospital in Bantayan but if they have the drugs needed to fight off a stroke that is needed, I don’t know. Some people warned me about moving here because of my health. I doubt living on Bantayan would be a good idea for either of us. I’ve spent too much of my life thinking I am about to die. I am not going to live that way any more. I like this way a lot better.
You might want to look into Bacolod and Dumaguete or even Davao though I am pretty sure Cebu City or Manila would have the best care in the country. When the Cebu City mayor was diagnosed with cancer, he went to the USA for treatment! On the up side of that, he has vowed to develop a hospital in Cebu that is up to the same capabilities as the one in Houston that may have saved his life. He’s still alive for now.
What has come of that hospital plan?
Some years ago there was talk of an international group wanting to develop a hospital in Cebu which would also be covered by American insurance.
The plan came to nought then because the land chosen for it was claimed by two cities, if I am not mistaken Cebu City and Talisay.
Perhaps you are right in ignoring health hazards. My wife works (as a nurse) and our adopted son goes to school every day. In other words, if I get an incapacitating stroke when both are absent I might be lying there for hours before any action can be taken. This might cause a delay greater than you having to be transported from Bogo to Cebu. In the Philippines one is at any case always surrounded by people.
One tip: if you need serious hospital treatment try to arrange transport by ambulance, if any are available in your environment. When one arrives by ambulance at a Filipino hospital one doesn’t have to wait endlessly before being admitted.
Two days ago we made this arrangement for a little nephew of ours who is suffering from dengue fever. Sure enough, he was taken in straight away. Compared to prices here the ambulance was cheap: 500 peso. But this was all innercity work in Cebu. From Bogo it would be a good deal dearer no doubt.
I don’t totally ignore them. I just limit how they limit me.
There is a new treatment for stroke. I think it is only used for clots but I’m not sure of that. It has to be used in a certain number of hours or it doesn’t work. If it works, many people walk out of the hospital a few hours later with no lasting effects at all.
I know of a woman who had a stroke, couldn’t speak but still totally conscious. They gave her the drug and she walked out that day? Maybe the next day. Completely normal. It is a clot busting agent if I remember correctly but I don’t think its just a blood thinner? I could be mistaken. I take aspirin now due to TIA’s and some bell’s palsy which they thought was a mini stroke but never found evidence of it.
I need to get back to my exercise in a serious way! Just put on a shirt I had made and it is tight.
I don’t know about the hospital plan. It may have died. My insurance will pay for hospital stays, doctors and meds.
Rusty, you talked of drugs for the treatment of stroke – but, as a matter of fact, the only drugs that might be needed in the first instance are aspirin or other blood thinners (such as Plavix). I said ‘might’ because it all depends what kind of stroke one has. As you probably know the two main causes for stroke are thrombosis, a blood clot, in or near the brain or a hemorrhage due to the rupturing of a blood vessel. Only when the stroke is due to a blood clot are blood thinners advisable. In the case of a hemoorrhage they would only aggravate the situation. But since the great majority of strokes (87 % if I remember correctly) is due to a blood clot you can play Russian roulette and take a blood thinner before going to Cebu.
The importance of speedy admission is that scans are needed to determine quickly what kind of stroke you have and whether surgical interference would do any good.
Do you take a 100 mg aspirin every day? I do (and so does my doctor who is only fifty).
Last year, after reading Gary Taubes’ great book “Good calories, Bad Calories” (obtained at the SM National Bookstore in Cebu)I went on a low carbohydrate diet and had three identifiable positive health results after only a few months: my blood pressure went down (last measurement was 110 over 85), my lipid profile improved (lowering of triglycerides and an increase in HDL – the good cholesterol) and I lost a lot of weight. I do not suffer from diabetes or pre-diabetes but this type of diet is also strongly recommended against that disease. In addition to the links I gave you I can recommend the blog of Michael Eades, M.D. and all the information on the “Optimum Diet” by the Polish doctor Jan Kwasniewski (who claims that he has cured Diabetes 1 sufferers – or at any case made them non-insulin dependent).Filipino doctors are not well briefed on these matters. A friend of mine in Cebu, who has diabetes 2, was advised not to eat bread but to eat pasta instead. Presumably his doctor was thinking of all the sugar in Filipino bread but pasta too leads to a hefty increase in blood glucose levels and with that to the secretion of an overdose of insulin which deposits fat in the fat cells and increases insulin resistance.
One more tip for that ambulance ride which hopefully never will be needed. Tell your girlfriend that they should not lie you down on your affected site and, that in general, they have to move your position after two hours or so.
The bread here is extremely good but far worse for you than regular bread. Probably worse than thee pasta.
I take an adult dose aspirin a day. I thought it was 125, not sure.
I don’t take it now as I’m taking Norgesic Forte that has more aspirin than that in it. I keep aspirin around though just in case something happens.
My weight is what is going to kill me.
Sorry so short, I’m late for a meeting.
Hi Rusty,
Do they sell good bread in Bogo? Normally, Filipino bread has about 15% sugar as compared to 5 % in “Western” bread (that is at least what a professional European baker working in the Phils wrote on another site).
In Cebu we often used to get bread at Gustavian in Banilad (near Gaysano Country Mall). Gustavian is a select retaurant where they also have very tasty whole wheat bread for sale. It is not cheap (the average price used to be 130 peso per loaf but it is probably a bit more expensive now)but it doesn’t poison you.
Now I have gone off bread altogether because of my low carb diet (that I strongly recommend to you if you really want to lose weight). The Philippines is a good place for a low carb diet because there is plenty of pork belly available for a comparatively low price (the fat of the pork belly is important – the Atkins diet is geared too much to protein).
I loved the sight of your chocolate bread but that stuff is forbidden to me as well. The pure cocoa (unmixed with anything else) one can get in the Phils (but not here in Australia)is , however, extremely healthy. We get it sent to us from the Phils and use the traditional iron pot and “batterole” to prepare it. For some strange reason Filipino medics are wont to warn against it because allegedly it increases your blood pressure.In fact it does the very opposite (check it out online). It is true that Filipinos tend to mix it with a lot of sugar and sugar is of course “the silent killer”, “pure, white and deadly”.
Where did you read or hear of the new treatment against stroke?
yeah, they sell awesome bread that should be illegal.
After feeling like I nearly killed myself by eating that “chocolate bread” I have no problem resisting. Jessie brought some home the other day, I had no desire to eat it.
I don’t really know what is going to become of dieting for me in the nesxt month. I will likely run out of cigars tomorrow and I have not ordered more. I love my coffie tasting cigars but I am spending too much money on them and they are gonna kill me faster than the weight.
I’m not looking forward to the next week. I need to replace my cigars with walking but I’ve got a heat rash that is painful so until that clears up, I’m not going to be walking much.
No cigars here, so I can’t buy more but I’ve been coughing for sometime now and my heart is weak anyway so I really need to quit them. The more I buy the more I want more. LOL
Gonna miss them, if I even pull it off.
Hi Rusty,
Yes exercise is recommendable for a host of things except for this: it doesn’t make one lose weight. Taubes has devoted a chapter to that in his book and recently Michael Eades wrote about it in his blog. To lose the caloric equivalent of one slice of bread, quoted Taubes from somebody who had done the research, you would have to climb 23 flights of stairs.
The whole debate about weight loss has been bedivilled by this mechanical model of calories in – calories out. But it is not as simple as the gas use of a motor car. Taubes made the point that the whole matter of obesity is one of hormonal disturbance. The continuous secretion by an overworked pancreas of insulin, triggered off by carbohydrate consumption, creates all kinds of mischief in the body including weight increase. Ron Rosedale M.D.has written a very instructive essay about that as well. Here is the link:
http://www.biblelife.org/rosedale.htm
Sorry about the cigars. Our son goes through a similar ordeal. He has to give up Coca Cola. Yesterday he made his first visit to an Australian dentist who declared his teeth to be almost a lost cause. He needs 14 complicated fillings and one root canal. The Cebu dentist never told us that. He is only 14, for chrissake
Thanks for the info.
I had a few more of the cigars than I thought I did. So It will be tomorrow when I run out. It wont be pleasant.
Causes one to wonder about the quality of dentistry here.
hi george ive read some messages from christine and she is from oz, do u know from what part of australia she is??? maybe were jst close in
here
opppsss sorry i write george instead of rusty im reading the story of george when he came up to ur life thats why maybe i dnt noticed i write george and i submit it already..
Its okay, sorry for being so late in replying to you. I’ve had a few problems in the last few days and not been on my blogs much at all.
Go to http://wwww.heyjoe.ph and hopefully Christine will show up and tell you herself. It wouldn’t be proper for me to do so. Privacy issues and all that.
hi again…ive talked to my daughter today and i asked here if she see a foreigner in bogo city that has a monkey and she said yeah she saw u w/ ur monkey jst walking hehehehe ur very famous there huh…ur like an actor waaaaaaa
Tell her to say hello and tell me that Janice is her mom. I don’t get out as much as I use too. I have to start walking again. Juliet, my new monkey is wilder so I’m hesitant to take her out.
Hi Rusty, You probably don’t need convincing about the uselessness of exercise for losing weigth but here is an additional piece by Dr.William Archibald Campbell, another proponent of a low-carbohydrate diet:
The failure of exercise
Dear Friend,
If “I told you so” was a muscle, I’d have sprained mine ages ago.
By now, I’m used to the funny looks and eye rolls people give me when I tell them they don’t need to exercise to lose weight. But something even funnier has been happening lately: I don’t get those looks as much anymore.
It seems the cat’s out of the gym bag — more and more research shows that pricey gyms and human-sized hamster wheels do little to help you lose weight. Add that together with all the injuries and even deaths that are caused by exercise, and I can’t help but wonder why people voluntarily put themselves through this self-torture in the first place.
Take a recent report in Time magazine — you don’t get much more mainstream than that. Yet there it is, an article titled “Why Exercise Won’t Make You Thin.”
The author of this piece, John Cloud, admits to being a self-punishing workout fiend. But unlike many of his ilk, he’s started to notice something: Working himself into a sweaty lather hasn’t put a dent in that “fat gut” that’s still hanging over his belt.
Now, I know that’s just one man’s experience — so don’t bother sending in a bunch of emails telling me how wrong I am.
The bottom line is that Cloud’s story just highlights what thousands of others experience every single day — and what more and more research is showing, too. Despite the fact that more people are exercising now than in the past, more people are overweight than even before, too.
Take a look at this study published earlier this year in PLoS ONE. The researchers followed four groups of women who did varying amounts of exercise, from none to nearly three and half hours a week.
After six months, the researchers found no big difference in the four groups. The women who exercised may have lost a touch more off the waistline, but their overall body fat was virtually the same as that of the women who didn’t exercise.
I don’t understand why people still stand around scratching their heads over this issue. Sure, you can burn tons of calories when you exercise. But what happens once you step off the treadmill or get home from the gym? You can’t wait to stuff your face!
Your body is simply crying out for something to replace what it lost, and in the end, most folks end up consuming more calories than they would have if they had skipped the gym and watched Jeopardy instead.
That means the bottom line is right where I left it: food.
Eat better, and lose weight. That’s all there is to it.
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Adrianus, I’ve lost 30 pounds but in a bit of a slump right now. I’ll get back to it.
I’ve had issues keeping me off the blogs over the last few days.
hi rusty …looking forward to meet u im in manila at the moment now having fun here see u after 3 days
I noticed that there are a lot of Bogohanons here. And im happy to know that aside from us, there are some Bogohanons who grouped together.
Well, im inviting you all to join the social network of Bogohanons at BOGO CITY LOVERS SOCIAL NETWORK
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Thank you Dante, it is a nice place to live!
Bogo is about 2-3 hours away from the City. I can personally say that it is a good and peaceful place indeed. Well, most of the provinces here in cebu could be peaceful. But bogo has its own thing=)
This is one beautiful blogsite for City of Bogo. Though I have yet to go over all posted comments…But i’m sure its pretty interesting. This site is a good avenue for discussion about the place and for sharing information. I also came upon bogo’s official website lately… its http://www.cityofbogocebu.com …. it also has a lot of ‘official’ information and other fun stuff about the city. Go try visit the site as well.