Saturday, 4th September .....

Today’s plan was to take Rex to Manila to see his mum and, at the same time, get a couple of things we needed for our hectic social calendar. We’ve been caught like this before: on our first trip in 2004, we arrived with a suitcase full of clothes to be told we are invited to a ‘do’ and the dress is Hawaiian. At that time, I had to rush out to the local department store to buy a shirt, which caused great excitement in the menswear section as they dug around for one which might fit me. By the end of the process, I had nine young women and a couple of young men serving me. We finished the exercise with a group picture of the team who served the foreign giant. I ended up with a suitably lairy shirt which was OK but just a little tight under the arms. It did the trick, went back to Tasmania, and lived in the bottom of the wardrobe, never to be worn again, until it was donated to Vinnies at the beginning of 2010.

So, here we are in exactly the same situation. I have to find a Hawaiian shirt and Marilyn a long, floral dress. It’s mad, I know, but it gets worse. We’ve also been invited to a function where the men have to wear a black suit. I’ve double-checked, but I don’t have one of those in my suitcase either. We might have to miss that one, or I’ll turn up in my flash barong and put them all to shame. They’ll look like an undertakers’ convention, anyway.

Back to the Hawaiian shirt problem: Kit tells us that we will be near a store called Landmark where we’ll be sure to find exactly what we want. Well, maybe it’s not exactly what I want but it will pass. It’s orange, floral and a reasonable fit -715 pesos, about $18. I also tried on many polo shirts sized from XL to XXXL. The marking seems to be random because only one fitted me – 429 pesos, about $10.70.

One thing we have noticed here is the large number of staff who work in the stores. There seems to be an assistant lurking at the end of each row. They all have their own section so when I asked for a Hawaiian shirt I was directed to a young man who looked at the meagre selection and informed me there was nothing to fit me. In fact, I did find one which was marked Large but was more generous than that. When I took it to the counter to pay for it there were 7 young women operating two tills. One took the item, handed it to another who rang it up on the till. Another put it in a bag and a fourth checked the transaction. The last person seemed to be overworked because she was checking the transactions of both tills. She was obviously senior too because she had a red pen to tick off the sale docket.

The malls in Manila are fantastic. It’s a national pastime to go to the Mall, for a movie or a meal, for shopping or just meeting your friends. They are enormous and there are great open spaces to accommodate the crowds they get at particular times. You can see a movie for $4, have a meal at Jollibee for $2.50, a burger at Maccas for 60c, so it’s not expensive to have a family night out occasionally.

After the shopping, a meal at Yellow Cab – 5 adults andd 1 three-year old, 1169 pesos, less than $30, Kit decided we would drive Rachel home. That was fine but it was in the wrong direction so made the trip back to Calamba interminable. The traffic is unbelievable and there are few policemen so everybody ignores the rules. The lines on the road are just for decoration and the rule about driving on the right-hand side is only a suggestion. However, traffic snarls are so regular, people have just become used to them.

One interesting feature is the number of enormous billboards along the main highways. They tend to be tall rather than wide and are lit up at night. At the moment, there seems to be a great number advertising new homes (more about that later) but there are a few gems like the one pictured which suggests you might find true love in a can of corned tuna. I suppose that is as good a place to look as any.

It’s 9.50pm as I write this. Rex is still up and I can hear him singing his national anthem just one more time before he goes to bed.

Tomorrow, we’re going to see a new residential development close by. Kit and her daughter Rhoda are agents for the developer, involved in the sales and want to show us the sorts of houses which are being offered in the market.