I’ve been busy . .. no days off last week. It’s okay . I’m saving up for a GoPro and my vacation in the Philippines in February. I have one or two friends /co-workers coming with me. They will be my guests , so ….
I’m supposed to rant on this post but I changed my mind…. Instead, I donated to DailyKos, an online media and an independent news source that depends on donations from the public.
Also, please pay attention to what’s going on in Asia, specifically SouthEast Asia. It’s the world’s powder keg that shouldn’t be ignored anymore. Please, please read up.
I have nothing else to say, for now. I managed to restrain myself from ranting, thank goodness. To be honest, I’m bad at civil discourses and political correctness.
Never trust. Just do what is right and just, but don’t expect others to do the same thing. Be vigilant. The world is full of greed and evil.
I’ve been busy these past few weeks, with only one day off a week, and lots of overtimes. I’m glad for the extra work, though. I’m planning to buy a GoPro with a selfie stick { he he} for our planned vacation in the Philippines in February, 2020, with my sister and mother. Well, it isn’t really a vacation… it’s for some important “family” business we have to take care of. My mom needs our physical presence and ” signatures” so that she and my aunt can finally transfer family properties to us.( We are my aunt’s heirs , as well. ) They say they are already old and so they need to keep things in order to avoid “trouble” , when the “inevitable” comes….. like who will inherit what . My brother who can’t come with us jokingly told us” Don’t be greedy, or I’ll sue you. ” I had already shown you guys a photo of our vacation house on Boracay Island ,Philippines.
This is a 3level house ( the fourth is a view deck, shown above,) 7 bedrooms, 4 toilet/bath, all rooms fully air-conditioned.. The house is already furnished. Uhm, sorry for shamelessly promoting our house. Ha ha The tenants’ contract ends in 2020, and we’re planning to make it an airbnb. So, if you’re a reader living in the Philippines, contact me in 2020. (^_^)
We have another vacation house in Baguio City, the Cordilleras, Mountain Province. Baguio City is a mountain resort in the Philippines. Our house is a 3 level one with 4 bedrooms, 3 toilet/baths, and also fully furnished. It’s located high up, with a million dollar view of the Cordilleras.
That’s me sleeping in the photo above, all covered with blanket. ( It was very cold ) You can also see a great view of the mountains from the veranda, shown above. Also shown above is a row of townhouses where our house is located. There’s no one living there now, but we’re also planning to rent it out, airbnb, soon.
Okay, so this post is all about $$$$$$. We have 4 more properties, all tenanted, but they’re all located in the capital city of Metro-Manila in the Philippines. That’s why it’s very important that we keep things in order and organized .
Meanwhile, here’s an update on our tenant problem here in the US.. The tenants have promised to vacate our house on June 23., in a registered letter , signed by the tenant. My parents have decided to cut their losses and just wait it out… Our lawyer has warned us not to do anything despite the losses, because there’s always a possibility of a tenant filing a malicious lawsuit against a landowner. ( knock on wood)
Sorry, guys, I’m suddenly on a business mode… Boring, huh ! Whatever, I want to decorate ! ! !
We are hoping the tenant doesn’t pay her rent due in first week of May, so we can kick her out at the end of the month. If she pays, the 60 day Notice of Termination takes effect…. WHICH IS EXACTLY WHAT SHE IS AIMING FOR ! ! Bummer.
Meanwhile, my cousin and her husband are staying with us, all ready to move out at the end of the month. Hubby just graduated from university, and lived at the university dorm but had to vacate after graduation. His family lives in San Diego, Southern California… I guess they’ll have to live with us for 60 more days, he he. This white Italian American husband has to get used to the smell of adobo cooking in our kitchen. ^_^
” Kick her out”… Don’t think we’re heartless. She’s been renting for almost 9 years, and has never, ever paid on time ( almost at the end of the month, rent is due first week of the month, and more often then not, not a complete payment). The rent of $1550 is cheap. The going rate for a small 2- bedroom apartment here in our city is about $1,200 to 1,400 /month. This house has 4 bedrooms, 2 baths, and a nice swimming pool ( with a cute waterfall, and a slide. ) That $1550 rent just helps my parents out to pay for the house’s $2,250 monthly mortgage. Are my parents profiting ? Do the math.
There’s now a slight change in my perspective towards this kind of stuff. We have a vacation house on Boracay Island in the Philippines. Boracay is a resort island. Anyway, before construction, we discovered there was a family squatting on our property. They wouldn’t leave, and even harassed the construction workers who were already at the site with their hammers and spade…. the squatters , on the other hand, had machete in their hands. ( I leave the scene to your imagination. O_O ) The corrupt “barangay ” chairman suggested that we just pay the family to avoid trouble. We gave them 150,000 Philippine pesos. ( $3,000 ) If you’re Filipino reading this, you know these folks ( squatters/illegal settlers, or to be politically correct, /informal settlers ) feel entitled , right?… like the rest of humanity owes them something. I’m sorry for saying that.
Below is our vacation house. We’re lucky there are South Korean tenants living there whose contract ends in 2020. ( they pay one year advance…Nice ! ) Do you know that 7-bedroom, 4 baths , 4 -level house is just $ 1,500 a month ???? And we’re renting out our house here in the US for $1,550 ! ! Ha ha ha… Housing in the Philippines is so cheap !
Okay, I digress. My point is, my parents are not that inexperienced re rental business. They just don’t know US housing laws.
Anyway, we leave this to the lawyer. My siblings and I are going to help with litigation cost.
My family has a huge landlord – tenancy problem. My parents are the landlords. My cousin and her hubby would like to reside there because why not… We have “verbally” given notice to the tenant last March 15 that they should vacate the house by May 31 . My father again reminded the tenant about this yesterday… but the tenant said ” this is her house. See you in court,” then closed the door on Dad’s face.
This is the situation. The original tenants ( 2 ) who signed the lease had moved out in 2010. We didn’t even know they had taken in a roommate. The roommate who was left behind had asked for permission to live in the house. My parents okayed it, but unfortunately , they didn’ t make a new lease agreement. The reason…smooth transition. In other words, it’s a gentleman’s agreement… with a handshake and a smile.
My dad is now writing a formal written notice … the tenant threatened us with a lawsuit, and that would cost us at least $10,000. My father cried because he had been good and patient with her. She has NEVER paid on time, ( always one month late ) and more often than not, it isn’t even a full payment at the end of the month. ( We also pay the garbage fees and water )
Please,is there anyone of my readers who knows about this stuff ?
Last week , a Filipino co-worker asked me if I had ever encountered an official California document where Filipinos have to choose, identify and check their ethnicity off the following list: Asian, Pacific Islander, Filipino, Other. I said yes, I had, when I applied for a driver’s license, so Dennis, what’s wrong with it ? ” Look, Ren, aren’t we Asian ? ” ( By the way, Dennis is half Italian-American, half Filipino but identifies himself as Filipino. He was also born in the Philippines. )
Anyway, I was confused. I didn’t know what to make of it. I did some research about this issue, and what I learned surprised me. I do know about the Pacific Islander thing, but it’s never been an issue to me. But, why are Filipinos in a separate group ? Filipinos are Asians. To think otherwise is just so ignorant and stupid. Just look at the map.
Here’s something that I found on YouTube. Warning ! This video is highly inaccurate ( nevertheless , very informative ) because the person on the video delves more on Chinese heritage rather than the more accurate Indonesian -Malays who are actually the original settlers of the country. Heck, we cannot even tell a Malaysian, Indonesian, and Filipino apart… and yes, the Filipino language is very similar to Malaysian and Indonesian languages. Ex: Thank you is Salamat in Filipino and Selamatin Indonesian. ( Although about 40% of Filipino language is Spanish or has Spanish roots. Filipinos even tell time in Spanish .) Filipino historians say Filipinos are of Malay-Indo- Polynesian race. It’s true there was an extensive trading with the Chinese, and I’m sure there were intermixing of genes at one point. That’s a given. Heck, according to 23andMe ancestry, a part of my DNA belongs to Chinese Haplo-group.
Is it because of Filipino culture and its shared heritage , history and culture with Mexico ? Heck, both the Philippines and Mexico even call their money Pesos. In fact, at one point in Mexican and Philippine history, the Philippines was considered a province of Mexico. I was surprised to learn that the Filipino words for mother and father , Nanay and Tatay , tiangue/ palengke ( markets ) and which I’m sure all Filipinos consider pure unadulterated Filipino words, are actually Nathual in origin , an ancient Mexican language.
Anyway, I think I should write more about Filipino identity . There are more than 4 million Filipinos in the US, and this number does not even include half-Filipinos who identify their ethnicity as Filipino, like my co-worker Dennis, and Bruno Mars… or the wrestler Batista. Batista’s arm is tattoed with Philippine map, ha ha. That number is more than the population of Koreans, Vietnamese, and Japanese combined . Filipinos are not invisible here in the US, neither here nor there. Not all Asians look like Chinese, Japanese, Korean or Vietnamese, you know . Look at Indians…they are Asians, too.
Okay, this is all for now from a pissed off Asian. Bye and peace.
I forgot to write about the 16.1 Mile ( 25.7 km.) Run that I had participated in 3 weeks ago. My running time was 2 hours , 5 minutes, or about 8 minutes /mile, which was way above my record of 5-7 minutes /mile. The first 5 miles was easy peasy, the next 5 was a bit of a struggle, but the last 6 miles was brutal. I was ready to quit at that point , but those two elderly couples who were running waaay ahead of me inspired me to keep running. I did manage to finish the run, and got a medal for it . Yay me !
I was reading the history of the Manila- Acapulco Galleon Trade when I saw these 18th century maps of Mexico and other Spanish territories north of Mexico.
Texas was Nueva Filipinas during the Spanish colonial era.
Mexico ‘s original name was New Spain. After independence, it was changed to Mexico.
The Notre Dame Cathedral is burning. Holly Molly ! Being Dr. Brightside for a moment here, at least all the artworks have been saved. Thank God for small mercies.
That’s me at Notre Dame Cathedral.
The problem with joining a tour group is that our tour was regimented . We couldn’t hang around to get a decent photo. We moved with military -like precision. Bummer.
Also, we were not allowed to use flash inside the church.
Now , what about that ABC thing in the title ? It means Another Bloody Church. That’s what one member in our group called the last few churches that we toured, including Notre -Dame. Being Catholic, I thought that was blasphemous. * cough* I thought that was funny, though. Sorry for that. It did give me such great pleasure to behold these amazing, majestic , and beautiful churches all over Europe. I hope the fire damage is not extensive and irreparable
Am a Molecular Microbiology student, love to read books, and I play the violin. 
dreamsending
renxkyoko