Typhoon... Part 4

(* - I wrote a Lot on Monday the 20th of Dec, so continuing...)

I have a half hour before I head out in search of water, #1,

and a meal at the Robinson food court, and whatever else we might find

I did score some cute little cigarette lighters last night along with the "Pope" magazine. I had to buy that!

Logic, or, lack of...

water coming out into the hallway from the stairwell

asked one of the maintenance workers with flashlights on the stairs 

"Where's that water coming from?" 

"They're cleaning upstairs"

and dumping the wastewater in the stairwells? 

we have one inch of drinking water left in our five liter water bottle

we are saving the little water left after washing a few dishes. We used very little water for that.

Our toilet smells like an "outhouse"

they're dumping water in the stairwell when we don't have enough water to flush our toilet?  whine whine

scored some bread from a small bakery in the Robinson Mall!! 

one loaf whole wheat, one loaf cream bread and one French for p 120 ($2.25)

all small in size - one half loaves by our our regular bread standards, but Bread!

the lines for charging phones are competing in size with the lines for the ATMs. The line for the grocery store outside was shorter, but when they let a bunch of us in, we ended up at the end of the next line for getting into the grocery store itself. Once you finish shopping and have your cart or basket filled up, our average wait times in the checkout lines have been around 30 minutes.

we got some "Leylam" take-out and coconut water at Robinsons

continuing our quest for water.

The main problem is power. We're told they have water, but getting it upstairs?

the power people are supposedly about a block away and moving towards us but we're guessing it could be another week or so?

I feel like an ignorant dummy about how cell phones work here, and the different cell carriers

(* But, I am getting better. See later in this journal)

I'm also embarrassed about how much I miss the internet and my tech tools. 

Information is gold. It's like it's just luck, and word of mouth, to find out anything...

I walked, or creeped in slowly, into our building's reception area yesterday.

  completely dark, except for one small, lit votive candle on a coffee table by a couch 

I was bragging about having good vision in the dark and I took Inday's cell phone (without a light app) to climb the stairs ahead of her. Feeling my way along the glass wall in the downstairs second floor looking at the dimly lit setting screen on her phone reflecting in the glass trying to find the entry to the darkened stairwell...

I forgot that we just came in from the bright sun outside. 

Well, Braggart be gone! 

Sitting up on my bed getting ready to do my meditation. There's a little sparkle of light shining back at me on the sheet by my feet. Another itty bitty piece of shatterproof glass.

I swear those little buggers are hiding in the nooks and crannies everywhere!, and just coming out to intimidate and scare us! Yesterday, even though I was wearing my rubber sandals, I felt a poke of pain in the bottom of my left foot. A little chunk of glass got in there and cut my foot.

Inday went up to Oprra yesterday to check on Lenie.

Many homes have have their own little "sari sari" stores where they have small snacks, little bags of oil, this and that for cooking... for a few pesos over cost. Another way to make ends meet. They often have a little opening where you can hand in your money and they hand out your purchase. She told me she saw a man's feet sticking out of one of those windows when she was walking to Lenie's place :)

Thinking to myself - I miss reading. I've had that thought many times in recent years, and I did not bring one book to read! dum de dum dum... I can see one of my favorite stores from here - the National Bookstore. I'm going to go over there tomorrow. Two things to look for - a good book, and one of those favorite pens I remember from Japan. 

It's already 2:41pm and it'll be dark by six so. I'll wait until tomorrow morning. Also, reading by candlelight for me is difficult. I think a kerosene lantern would be a good purchase for the next big one

Christmas is in five days

Inday left on her second excursion search for water trip of the Day. This one is for toilet. Flushing water. It's getting pretty stinky. A nice Christmas present would be to get our power and water back by then...Saturday, five more days...