beer

This is "Part 2" of my "Cost of Living in the Philippines in 2008" series. This part consists primarily of food and beverage. Pardon me for putting "creamer" inside "beverages" as I don't know exactly what category it should be included in. Anyway, the prices indicated below are SM Supermarket prices (particularly SM Manila's) gathered on August 18, 2008 (Monday) unless otherwise specified.

Gathering all these information took me about a little less than two hours of running up and down the aisles and listing down the prices manually (with pen and paper), with people staring at me much of the time (also, I think some of the supermarket personnel were suspicious of me... either that or I'm just being paranoid). For this, I would like to emphasize that although much care is taken in assuring that all information provided herein are correct, some errors MAY still be present... after all, I'm only human. As such, you SHOULD subject the information contained herein to further verification before using them for whatever reason. And, as should be expected in things such as these, all these are subject to change over time.

Just for the record, I did buy a few things during my wandering... a carton of Cowhead Pure Milk (1 liter carton), a 300-gram bag of Milo, a 170-gram box of Nestle Coco Crunch, and a (big) refill bag of Joy (Antibac) dishwashing liquid (the price of which I didn't bother to take down anymore).

(Just to give reference points, I’ll be including the latest monetary exchange rates and the minimum daily wage in every post I make regarding this matter)

Philippine Peso Exchange Rate:
to the U.S. Dollar = P45.59527 (as of August 20, 2008 – 1:27 pm)
to the Euro = P67.01274 (as of August 20, 2008 - 1:28 pm)

Minimum Daily Wage (as of August 20, 2008): P382.00

Rice:

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I know there's a joke in here somewhere, but I'll let Sire and the other Aussies come up with it instead.

DARWIN, Australia (AP) - An Australian man has been fined after buckling in a case of beer with a seat belt but leaving a 5-year-old child to sit on the car's floor, police said Tuesday.

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Today it is raining. Again. Me and a friend are making homemade beer bread; it smells GREAT!!! It's been a good day and hopefully will be a great night. I have a lot to do and am just getting started. The cloudiness is relaxing and I enjoy listening to it rain. Here is the recipe for beer bread. It is out of the recipe book entitled "That's Amazing Cookbook" GTE

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Last night I went out to a local bar with a few friends to just relax and have a good time. Everything was great, the beer was cheap and the music was good. I usually recognize a few people that come into the store on a weekly basis. Most times we both just give a smile and a slight head nod that represents, "hey, I know you from the record store and its good to see you here", but on some occasions they want to talk business. Don't get me wrong, I am all about having a conversation about music, but when I am having a good time with friends I like to leave the business side of things at the store. So it's the average night at the bar, I see all of the usuals and give them my hello and "nod", but this time one of them feels the need to get up in my face. I couldn't decide if she was mad or just drunk mad, because you know there is a difference. I didn't hear much of what she said since the band was so loud, despite the fact that she was leaning so close to my face that her dreads were soaking in our fresh pitcher of beer. Something along the lines of, "You f*ing don't know how to run a f*ing record store and I have helped to going the everytime I come in tried f*ing...". It kind of went on like that for five minutes or so. The last thing she said was, "I want you to f*ing write a five page paper on your goals, ...(missing words here)...", then she disappeared out the door. After all of that, everyone sort of sat in silence for a moment trying to figure out what had just happened. Part of me wants to write the paper, but then my senses kick in and I buy another pitcher of non dread soaked beer.

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The NBA playoffs are set to start tonight. I picked the Mavericks to make it this far. However not many, me included, can say they saw this coming from the Heat. During the regular season they were 1-11 versus the top 3 or 4 teams in the association. The only win was a huge come from behind victory at home versus the Pistons. I believe the final score was 93-92. I remember this so vividly because I bet this game on my final day in Vegas before I moved to San Diego. We left before the game was over because you can mail in your betting slip. I listened to the game on the radio. I took the Pistons as one point favorites. It was heart wrenching. I think Detroit was up 20 or so points at one point in that one.

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Some of you might remember a beer ad awhile back that portrayed an arrogant, pompous, and selfish athlete named Leon. It was an obvious exaggeration of the modern day athlete’s attitude. Awhile back there was also a minor league trade that I meant to report to you guys where a man was traded for, get this, 60 cases of beer! That is one thousand, four hundred, and forty shiny cans of sweet hobo elixir. That's not even the best part. The best part is that these guys are the same guy. Even if the team charges 5 bucks per beer at the park, that still only comes out to $7200. They could have traded him for a used 1999 Honda Civic. Mostly high way miles; xclnt condition.

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Here’s another one of my funny stories (this stuff only happens to me)!

About three years ago my husband, my friend Tubby, a few other people and I go out to this ghetto bar. We like this place because the entertainment is hilarious. They have a country band that is so terrible! The band only has a guitar player and a singer so they play along with the jukebox! It’s a sight to be seen! In addition, they have 25-cent draft beer so you can’t beat that.

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As some of you may or may not know today’s date is April 20 otherwise known as 4/20. I am sure you all know what today's date is, but just bear with me for a moment. This day is supposed to be a celebration of weed smokers. I do not know who picked this day, but as long as I can remember 420 has been National Get High (on weed) Day. I alluded to this in my betting blog earlier today, which some of you may or may not have picked up on. Since I have long given up that hobby I needed to find a way to still partake in the festivities. Prior to thinking about this I dropped my cell phone and it snapped in half. At the time, I just paced around and took deep breaths while I looked for something to break on purpose. (Woo-sah...) The pacing and deep breathing was supposed to curb the urge to destroy my own valuables and it did, but coincidentally enough it conjured up the urge to have a drink. Go figure. That is when I decided I would invent a drinking game.

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Just so you know, beer bottles are not crushed like other sorts of bottles. They are washed and reused. People do some aweful things to beer bottles, but I'm here to tell you that you might be drinking out of that same bottle in the future. The bottles are obviously washed in really high temperatures, so any germs will be killed, but just the same, the thought of drinking out of a bottle that someone used as an ashtray is rather disgusting. (and that is not near as bad as other things I've seen in beer bottles)

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We left Tulsa around 6 am this morning. Right now I am in Amarillo, Texas at a restaurant appropriately named the Big Texan. It offers a 72 oz. steak. If you can eat it within an hour and not die it's on the house. Mountain oysters are also on the menu, which are really BULL TESTICLES. I am glad I did not order the sampler platter. The inside is like an old saloon. There are pictures of guns everywhere, and deer heads and long horns hanging up. However it is not so authentic that it doesn't have wi fi as well as suprisingly expensive food prices. I'm talking New York City restaurant prices. I settled on a $9 cheeseburger. My friend was bold enough to try a buffalo burger. We both sort of regret not trying the rattlesnake, but I don't know when the next time we will stop to eat so it wasn't worth the risk. As we speak I am drinking a 23 oz beer out of a souveneir boot-shaped mug. I wanted to taste a local beer and what better than Arrogant Bastard ale. I can definitely understand how it earned its name. It tastes like Guiness mixed with cheap vodka and terpentine. With that being said, let me get into the betting section of the blog:

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