We are pretty much in a routine here. Tom plays basketball every week with guys that work for him.
I do a lot of sewing or making Christmas gifts. I have also become involved with a humanitarian aid group called DaysForGirls.org. Check them out. I agreed to put together the sewn part of 100 kits.
Let's just say, finding fabric here is a hard thing to do. But with the help of fellow members of our ward, I think we are going to pull it together.
The need was for over 130 yards of fabric of assorted types and colors. Plus another 40 yards of PUL fabric, polyester thread, a serger, snap setter and snaps, and a few other things. Fortunately here, if you can find it, you can find cotton fabrics and street markets cheap ($1.20/yard for cotton flannel and cotton fabric). When you need so much fabric, then cheap is good.
They actually don't use scissors to cut the fabric. These young men measure and then tear the fabric. It gets so bad back in this little area where they have rolls upon rolls standing up against the wall, that they actually put masks over their faces so they don't inhale all the particles in the air from tearing. It is quite an experience. We can't get the PUL here, so my visiting teaching companion who is helping me with the project is able to order it for me from the states. Now all the fabric has to be pre-shrunk. Before doing that, I need to zigzag all the edges of each pieces so it doesn't fray in the wash. I guess we won't start sewing until January until after we get back from the holidays.
 |
| Street market where we bought all the fabric. The front part you can see is mostly small quilts, leggings and a few odd and end fabrics. The back part (in the darker part of the store) is where all the cottons are. |
 |
| The 130+ yards of fabric. The middle row are all polka dots. Lisa who was with me thought it would be cool to make all the tote bags for this project in polka dots because they are girlie. |
Tom had posted awhile back about using Uber. It is rare now. Tom got his drivers license and actually did all the driving last week since our driver was sick. If you didn't know, Manila has before classified by Waze as the worst place to drive in the world. I certainly haven't driven here, and have no plans to, but Tom is doing a great job. It just gets a little crazy at times.
Tom and I try to go out to eat every Friday and Saturday night. Since it is pretty affordable and since there are only 2 of us it works within our budget. There are all sorts of cuisines here. However, Mexican is very limited and not that good. We will try a place, like it, and return a few weeks later and wonder why we liked it before. You always carry an umbrella here. Many nights we have returned from dinner in downpour. My poor leather sandals have had to dry out many times after returning back to our condo. It seems like it rains at least one of the two nights that we go out. I know they say that August is the rainiest month, but September was a lot worse.
One of my favorite things about living here is that we have the most wonderful views of the sunsets from our 40th floor condo. Unfortunately we have a building blocking our view for the sunrises.
As you can tell, I have learned from Tom, one of these has had a little bit of enhancing. The top picture I love that the clouds look like the city in the back, but it is really clouds. So cool!
Goodbye for now from the Hidden Gem of the Pacific.
