Rate the last thing you ate

Rate the last thing you ate Jun 6, 2018 10:07:48 GMT

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Post by hardball on Jun 6, 2018 10:07:48 GMT

Jun 5, 2018 8:31:47 GMT @deblovesbeccy said:

Jun 3, 2018 15:52:17 GMT hardball said:

It's ok Deb, I don't know much about Australia either lol. I have relatives who live and work in Sydney and they say the city - and country - is indeed one of the most beautiful in the world. They do point out that things are expensive there - everything they do seems to cost money - but it's a great place to live and work.

About the languages here, yes it can be a barrier at times in the rural provinces. The three biggest islands are Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. Luzon is where you'll find Manila the capital and the other urban cities. English is widely spoken there, and also in tourist spots like Boracay and Palawan.

And speaking of communication, the Filipinos' favorite way of communicating is via text messages / SMS on mobile phones. We send about 400 million text messages a day or 142 billion a year. More than Europe and the US combined.

Yeah. The money is a problem here and it apart from the prices of food and drink going up and shrinking and us having to pay close to double (and sometimes more than that) for items like albums, books, crafts, movies, TV shows and video games we also have to pay some of the highest electrical and water bills in the world. It is not surprising so many people are struggling at the moment 'cause we have a useless government that sits back and does nothing or causes more problems by selling everything off to private companies. I have lost count of how many times our state and federal governments have lied to us and said something was going to be cheaper 'cause they were selling it to a private company and it was going to benefit Australians only for those companies to slowly put it up and put it up until it is double the price we were paying before. It is ridiculous how many things have gone up here in the past decade alone and all the government care about is giving tax cuts to big businesses so the rich can become richer and the rest of us normal folk have to pay more. The Liberals are a bunch of con artists who are only it for themselves and if Labor doesn't win the next election it won't be long until we go the way of China and they think we don't see it.

I look forward to going to the Philippines one day and seeing what everything is like over there. You have taught me so much more than I knew about it before in two posts and wow, I did not know you sent more text messages than America and Europe combined and that is a heck of a lot and I always thought America would have sent the most texts. Is music popular in the Philippines and do you go to many concerts?

According to this article

leadingedgeenergy.com.au/highest-electricity-prices-world/

Australian power bills are the most expensive in the world today. Cost of living is the 12th highest in the world whereas the US is ranked 21st. I can relate though because inflation here is at its highest in 5 years and our electricity bill is the highest in Asia and the 5th highest in the world. Oh, and our govt also uses the same "privatizing services and utilities will make everything cheaper" line. I guess politicians are the same everywhere.

I haven't been to many concerts, but I can tell you music is definitely big in the Philippines. Arnel Pineda, the new lead singer of Journey, is Filipino. Bruno Mars' mother is half Filipino. Apl.de.ap of the Black Eyed Peas is Fil-American. The local music industry is doing good too.

Some of the biggest foreign acts have also performed here. Katy Petty has been here 4 times. Taylor Swift, Bruno Mars, Mariah Carey, Linkin Park, Metallica, Rhianna have done concerts here. Beyonce had a show here several years ago and 70,000 people showed up.

Madonna's concert in 2016 was the most expensive ever. Tickets cost up to 57,000 Philippine pesos, equal to two months' salary of most Filipinos. But the show sold out lol. Years ago Stevie Wonder held what was supposed to be a one night show, but demand was so high he performed 2 shows. The same thing happened when James Taylor came to town.

And when Michael Jackson had a concert here in 1996, there was controversy because the mayor of Manila wouldn't allow him to hold the concert. This was at the height of the child abuse allegations, I think, but another city welcomed MJ and the show was a huge hit. Michael had a freaking tank on stage.

Back in 1966 the Beatles performed 2 shows and more than 80,000 people watched, but a terrible miscommunication almost got them lynched by a mob at the airport.

www.philstar.com/entertainment/2011/10/09/735189/real-story-about-beatles-fiasco

And one more thing. Filipinos also love classic acts, so Tom Jones, Engelbert Humperdinck and other artists from the 60s and 70s and 80s come here regularly. One of the most popular is the Australian duo Air Supply. I don't know how big they are back home, but here they're very popular with both old and young people alike, as Filipinos - most anyway - like love songs. Seriously I think they hold concerts here every year.