01278: Domestic Achievements Are More Fun In The Philippines


The big news of the day is that the Department of Tourism has launched a new campaign entitled It's More Fun In The Philippines. Not exactly the most original campaign, but it nicely reflects the department's new focus on social media and trying to leverage the local internet user community to push domestic tourism and help build the Philippines as a social media brand. Admittedly I'm totally enjoying getting in the game and I see myself making attempts to regularly post updates with the #ItsMoreFunInThePhilippines hash tag to see how far this will go. I'm all for being a lot more positive about the country and trying to remind potential tourists (both foreign and domestic) of what makes the country great.

For the curious, you're free to check out my Twitter feed to see what quirky examples I come up with.



Fridays, despite the fact that Tobie's car can't go out on the streets, tends to be a day for errands for us. It forces us to walk around the area a bit more and get out of the Sietch even if only for a few hours. We left the Sietch today with a few minor goals including another of those trips to the bank and looking for some items for the Sietch that I couldn't find in Shopwise last Wednesday. And as strange as it sounds, our shopping list included a new toilet seat and a weighing scale.

The weighing scale is a bit of a no-brainer. In the almost three years that Tobie and I have been living together, we have yet to have a weighing scale at the Sietch. Clearly we're not that fitness obsessed, but it doesn't mean it's right not to have one at all. And given my recent efforts to eat healthier and try to be a bit more conscious about our lifestyle (except during the last two weeks due to the holidays, har har). It's weird to think about the prices of scales these days - for just a bit more you're better off getting some of the nicer digital scales. While we weren't comfortable with getting one of those seemingly more fragile glass scales, we ended up with a rather robust one that can measure weight, BMI and even fat and water percentage approximations. I have yet to figure out where to set it up though - will address that soon enough.

barney smith's toilet seat museum
by nats via Flickr
The other purchase, which must seem a bit weird to talk about, is a new toilet seat. As much as the plastic ones are definitely cheaper, their durability always seems a bit suspect to me plus there's the comfort factor to consider. On the other hand, both Tobie and I hate the soft cushioned ones since they feel weird and I always feel like it increases the risk of getting dirty by, well, unmentionables.

And while we had initially opted for a decent enough plastic one that seemed stronger than the others, it turned out they didn't have additional stock available in the plain white color we wanted. That led us to looking at the wooden seats which are coated with a water-proofing agent. Nicely heavy seats just like my grandmother used to have and it certainly seemed a lot more stable than the others. So despite the additional cost involved, we went for the seat.

I've already installed it as of the time of this posting - yes, toilet seat replacement is one of the skills I picked up as I grew up. It's times like these that such random domestic skills come more and more handy. And thus I'm totally glad that my family was never all that big on having maids and other household help to handle the cleaning and other chores. Because of that, I'm pretty handy with an iron, able to handle a washing machine and can clean a bathroom from top to bottom. Definitely fun stuff.

One more work shift to go! I can't wait to get past this work week. It has certainly been a weird one for me and I'm all the more eager to see the weekend at this point. I'm glad that I was able to get a lot done yesterday despite still not feeling 100% well and having missed a day of crazy work. But before the first half of my shift was over I had already dealt with the worst of the work fires and was already back to at my more comfortable steady state of work. With luck tonight will be lighter and thus I won't have to stress myself out too much.
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