One of the first things I noticed with friends was that a lot are paranoid about visiting the Philippines because of Kidnappings, terrorism and just general security issues. But what I find in the Philippines is that unless your looking for problems its unlikely anyone will bother you unless the obvious “your in the wrong place”. Which is why if your going on holiday or making the trip to meet a loved one its important you research the area you are going to especially at the moment with the elections underway. There is a gun ban currently in place in the Philippines to reduce some of the killings prime example of “political murders” was the story that hit the media earlier in the year in Maguindanao which resulted in the bloody murder of 57 people. It isnt normal on such a large scale in one area but it is normal for killings involving politically motivated people running for power to attack each other so just be aware of it and stay away from anything politically motivated.

Almost 100,000 police and soldiers are being deployed across the Philippines in an effort to prevent political violence ahead of May’s elections. They will staff checkpoints aimed at enforcing a total ban on guns and limiting the size of the security escorts necessary for politicians. Their efforts will be focused on more than 500 areas identified as hotspots. Hopefully this will help reassure you in the next few months your trip will be pretty safe. But also be aware most people have little interest in foreigners except to sell you something, proud that your visiting the Philippines and want to know about you and where you come from. Or romantically interested pretty much everyone I have met have been friendly only grumpy or annoyed people I have met have been Expats whining about trivial matters.

Although people complain about corruption in government offices and the Police you “dont” have to feed the problem I see a lot of people at immigration paying for “express” routes for visas but often wonder why they bother. Because if you arrive early your processed quicker before it gets busy. If your inpatient and in a rush all the time the Philippines isnt for you. Also if your going to slip one of the crocodiles money (called crocodiles by Filipinos because they generally wear Lecoste polo shirts). You might as well pay a travel agent to do it for you and just collect your visa from them instead. Because most of the people who do use these services are ripped off even for a bribe because the people involved are very aware they are “first timers” or tourists. Either way people they can double or treble the normal fee. You can also organise all the Visas via the Philippines embassy in your home country before you leave but it does involve paperwork doing it “locally” in the Philippines can bypass most paperwork just because of the more relaxed attitude.

The important factors are to stay out of trouble this is election year and you could end up as the bad foreigner being prosecuted by the local knight in shining armour a local politician. Just stay safe and avoid things that your not 100% about.

Popularity: 67% [?]

Construction started yesterday on our first apartment in Minglanilla. I have heard a lot of people say Minglanilla is too far from the city compared to Li-Loan which is in the North but I think its actually closer than Li-loan in travel time due to us having the SRP on our doorstep which is a quick road into SM Mall bypassing all the traffic in Pardo and central Cebu. The northern end of Cebu seems to have had a construction explosion of properties but nobody has increased the road size to compete with the demand now needed on it. But here in the South although we have our rush hour chaos like everywhere else we do seem to get a lot less “hourly” traffic. Couple that with Gaisano Fiesta Mall a quick jeepney ride and 5 minutes from the main road heading south we can be in Naga within 10 minutes and onwards to Argao and Moalboal for beaches and diving.

Getting back to the Apartments what sort of rent should we be looking to charge? I have been looking at comparisons with local rents and “general costs” and I think P7,000 a month is a reasonable rent although the apartments are fairly compact they will be inclusive of :-

• Television.
• Wi-Fi /internet.
• Water supply cold + drinking.
• Furnished.
• 2 gas hob inc gas.
• Inclusive of Electricity.

There are also other things available as extras :-

• Vehicle hire.
• Driver+Vehicle hire.
• Fully operational net café facilities.
• Guide service.
• PC hire for the apartment for P300 a month.
• Sari-Sari store for food stocks (opening soon).
• Laundry Service.
• Grocery delivery service.

Another reason the apartments could be handy is for those of you not only visiting Cebu looking for cheap accommodation short/long stay. But also if you have a partner awaiting visa processing we can receive international transfers by remittance or bank transfers to save you on Western Union costs. On top of that we are happy to help with advice or information as always.

If interested please feel free to drop us an email at mattwilkie@tropicalpenpals.com

Popularity: 81% [?]

As most of you are aware after having and still got problems with the internet connection the internet cafe was going to be a problem for sometime. So what has changed in the last week to really get things moving? Firstly the net connection has become more stable but still very slow. I’m tempted to just cancel one of the connections and run it on 1mb simply because it will save me P1000 a month for a service that isn’t working properly in the first place. The other reason being that most people have gone about 90% split onto Xbox machines as I worked the Xbox’s on 2 players for the price of one. As lets face it there is only one bit of electricity being consumed regardless if its one or two player so why not let them take advantage of the situation. End result being we now have 3 Xbox’s running which are pretty much on all of the time as the players seem to split the cost or should I say pay twice. Counter strike has taken off finally after a few bug fixes which now has people spending half the time on PCs and half on Xbox. Which pretty much means most people actually don’t use the internet connection at all except for Face book. We still have a long way to go but the point is the income is going up and more players are coming as we are the cheapest in the area. I haven’t invested heavily I’m marketing and advertisements simply because most of the players it wouldn’t make any difference with. What does though is that we are cheap and will keep the same price structure for as long as the internet is poor. The other major factor we have got is that we can expand by another 3 Xbox’s and 2 Nintendo Wii which I’m looking to phase in over time to allow the customer base to build. We are running the machines on P10 an hour compared to P15 by the cafes on the main road. Difference being obviously they have got a fast connection due to location. Bad news for them though is we don’t have rent costs and will continue to upgrade. There has been a lot of cafes opening in the area and no doubt the fierce competition against each other will take its toll. But people are already complaining of the charges at the other cafes if we can build on the customer loyalty and fill the seats for at least 5 hrs a day I will be happy. What is a bit disappointing is most people don’t buy snacks but seems we end up with the money in the machines anyway. There is also another add on I’m currently looking at which is the peso-peso coin operated attachments to the Xbox’s as this would no doubt maximise the income on the machines even if I just buy one and leave the others on regular timers. This project has taken a lot more time to setup than I had expected with travelling to the city for parts as well as generally waiting for customers. But now its in full swing I am getting to the point another couple of weeks and we can sit back as things develop around us and start looking to the printing and photocopy side of business. As well as starting to advertise “free" training for off peak hours to get some of the older generation people in and start teaching how to do accounts, emails, web chat etc. as I think the 40+ age group would be hooked into using the cafe once they get over the initial shyness of not knowing how to use the PC.

After all that we will look to the PC sales and repair business as well as Wii, Xbox, PSP upgrades and unlocking mobile phones as well as uploading games onto the phones. But currently the customer base is young and mainly don’t have phones or money to buy any equipment. But it doesn’t mean we cant run some trials locally and look to open up in a mall.

Popularity: 48% [?]

I have just got up at 4am to talk to my daughter Nicole online as my Skype phone went off. As I sorted my morning coffee I was starting to think am I turning into one of those miserable guys who just write negative things? The conclusion I came to is not that I have become negative but just a lot of negative things have been happening recently. Take yesterday pre-called Nu-Tech in E-Mall for two IDE hard drives, an IDE DVD burner and a printer. Not difficult as we explained exactly what we wanted before I spent thirty minutes in rush hour traffic getting there finding the only thing the had was the 1 IDE drive everything else they didn’t have. Why did they tell us the complete opposite on the phone?? who knows.. did they misunderstand me on the phone your thinking. It wasn’t me that phoned it was April with a list of exactly what we wanted. So I will cut the negative chat off there as hopefully its the last negative thing to happen for a while and concentrate on what positive things have been happening.

The net café is starting to become viable as word is spreading we have a few advantages and disadvantages. First one being we don’t have a great internet connection but we do have Xbox’s which none of the Cafes nearby have. We have also noticed that sorting 2 player games out allows the players to double up and spend more money on the machines the result being that we are looking to put more Xbox’s in as currently they are full most of the time. The cafe itself we stocked with some treats this week and lolly pops seem to go well at P1 each but the bigger stocks we think the kids prefer to stick the money in time instead of spending on food. I’m hoping it will be seriously viable within three months so that Jovie can do this full-time. Jovie by the way is my sister in-law. The internet cafe is part of a project we are developing. At the moment we are seeing how it develops as word of mouth is bringing people in from a lot further than I had expected. Initially I thought we would just be busy with our neighbourhood but what is really happening is people are coming from probably upto a mile a way you might find it funny that we are concerned with people that sort of distance which in Western terms wouldn’t mean a lot in a village. But there are thousands of homes across that distance here and that is what counts. The reason we are waiting for things to settle down is that the base of operations for more cafes will run from the main one as we can soak test equipment and pre-install ready for an opening as well as the other things we are looking at doing. For example “free” training in Basic computer usage as well as small premium package training like the ECDL (European Computer Driving License) to train people in the use of day to day packages they can use for work. Even better can do the work at the net café. It will in essence turn from a net café to a multimedia business suite with business support services. Wont happen over night and wont happen with a small budget but it will happen phased in over the next year.

Above that we have just received the delivery of the first loads of concrete, hollow blocks and sand which are for the apartment that will start construction next week. Hoping that will be a success as the next 2 stages are relying on the net café and apartment to get them complete. Which is Apartment 2 and the Sari-sari store.

A lot of people will tell you Sari-Sari stores cant make more than a living but as I have said before everything is down to time management. For example the internet cafe I am looking at converting the machines onto timed cash slots as this would pretty much do away with the need for a teller unless customers need assistance as even on training nights/days it would be upto the user to feed the machine as that is the reason for the “free training” as the machine hire is seperate. But freeing up Jovie from having to log the machines in and out allows her to operate sales on the Sari-Sari. Which in reality means the profits/salary can easily double due to two ventures in one. Top that with the two apartments above and the business is viable and likely to stay a float for a long time in the future. The other reason we are doing it like this is it fits into our budget. By the time all phases are complete I would have expected a price tag of around P1m and a return of around P20,000+ a month may seem a small amount as the repayment will be several years but its not because it creates a full-time job for Jovie and at the same time we will be receiving a regular income towards our next projects which currently stand at two P1m houses which at this moment in time seem a bit far to reach financially but only thing holding us back is time as things are moving forward and viable already. There are lots nearby that if they become available I would love for us to get them as they would be ideal for apartments. Infact one already has a block of 6 apartments which has never been completed due to financial restraints and illness on the owner. Ideally would love to be renting those out at around P5,000 a month including internet + Cable TV each which may seem cheap because it is. But my prime objective is keeping people happy and the building full same as the net café. Its the regular incomes that generate the ability to move forward financially. But its not yet ready for sale so will just have to wait and see.

I have spent the last couple of days looking for a couple of water pumps for the Aquaponic experiment. Haven’t been so lucky yet but just a quick note to say the idea is still in my head and I do have two large plastic bins for the fish ready and also visiting a professor who deals with fisheries in the area shortly. Also I might do an expat video while there as I think others would find it interesting to see what goes on.

So as you can see not all things are negative but we do have the odd day where I go home closing the door and thinking tomorrow is another day. Not sure how April is on those days as she generally keeps quiet because of it being a bad day. Anyway this is the last update for today its now 5.30am Nicole has gone off to the Pub back in the UK with her step dad and mother so I’m heading back to bed for an hour as I seem to leave the net café around midnight most nights these days.

Popularity: 50% [?]

I have recently started to look at medical costs as with small children its not really something you can avoid. But speaking with other expats its not just the fact that overpricing is used a lot for foreign nationals but misdiagnosis and tests for 101 things just for the sake of charging for it seem to be the norm. Top that with the “commission” that doctors are making off medication. It starts to make you wonder if your best doctor is in fact Google. A friend of mine was seriously ill and it took four different doctors until he got the correct diagnosis what if he had believed the first one? at worst it could have killed him. Another friends child was sick and was suffering a basic stomach bug but was taken to the doctor just “incase” it was more serious once they got there the child had improved but the doctor was still keen to run lots of tests with charges attached to them. What about something a bit more serious such as heart surgery? someone else I know went initially and was diagnosed with medication to be quickly upgraded to surgery after a more senior doctor had pulled his doctor to one side realising there is a lot more money to be had in the surgery than just giving out medication.

   I reported before about April and Zoei`s doctor who was proud of the fact she got free cruises from a vitamin manufacturer for meeting her “sales” targets just before ripping April off for P5,000 for vitamins not worth P500. There is no silver lining in these facts as I have yet to find one. Ok its cheaper than you would get in Western countries and its available quickly if you have the money. But my question would be what if you didn’t need it? or are doctors doing it just for profit?

Funny thing is even in the UK I have been misdiagnosed with a sprained ankle which was actually torn tendons. A friend of mines mother was a bit more severe she was diagnosed with indigestion and should sleep it off. When she was actually having a heart attack and died.

For me I will stick to my Google and finding our own remedies as it seems more reliable and definitely a lot cheaper. Its a sad state of affairs when your worried about your health being taken care of and if it will be really taken care of or exploited. Aprils finds me a bit odd with letting the body heal itself as I often do and my refusal to go to a hospital even with serious illnesses such as Dengue but a quick Google and you will find that Dengue “doesnt have a cure” so why would I want to sit in a hospital bed with a little counter wracking up a bill for people who cant help me? In reality though the “milk milk” plant which grows locally is a cure that worked for me. Why isnt it a cure you can buy on the market already? you asked the right question because it needs to be able to go into a form that can be sold such as tablet or injection form and they havent managed it yet.

Popularity: 54% [?]

Im normally very positive and upbeat but my constant battle of trying to use common sense isnt working as to planned. The last few weeks have kept me constantly bugged about something. The internet connection that is barely connected to the internet, the PC company that doesnt even understand why I am annoyed about them sending broken monitors to me and me having to pay to send his junk back to him. Or the difficulty of sourcing various equipment parts that seem to end up a day in the city, money wasted on fuel and eating out to find we cant find it or its out of stock. Is it time to go back to the UK?

Personally im bloody minded and stubborn. I will just sit back have a beer or two and wake up in the morning and keep going until it eventually works. But I do understand why so many others do give up and head home. I hear regularly “this is the RP not the UK” when I ask why some things are so difficult when its just plain common sense but nobody ever says im right or its about time it did get updated, fixed or replaced because culturally people are used to things being so dis-functional and long winded. By the way this isnt a gripe on things “locally” on my day to day life this is business related as having a few things done are critical to making the netcafe a success and its the problems generated by a poor supply chain and quality of service which could kill the business. I dont mind failures that are of my own making because I can say “at least I tried” but when its down to poor performance such as Smart Bro or the lack of supply of certain components it is frustrating to say the least.

So if your looking to open a business in the Philippines there is an extra factor that isnt normal to business which have these extra issues :-

1. People arent in a rush to sell you products and often you will struggle to locate certain things.

2. Service is more like “self service” as often they will try to just get you off the phone rather than deal with the problem.

3. Some services dont exist in certain regions due to the way permits and regulations work. So dont assume because just down the road they have something that it will be in your area as well as you could well be in a seperate town etc. under different permits.

4. Time is not a measurement unless you mean “sometime”.

This has been about my most negative post I have written and although its airing frustrations I think its also important to share that not all life in the Philippines is easy going and straight forward.

Popularity: 57% [?]

We were advised by Smart Bro to go for two of their smart Bro share it systems for an internet cafe :-

The only people smiling on this product are actors and sales reps. It shouldn’t say up to 2mbps but “Nowhere near 2mbps”. Ok speed is poor inconsistent and unreliable but that is only part of the problem. The way the system operates by what seems like a “shared IP” address creates problems I have never seen before. Firstly you cant open a new hotmail account for example as “you have already reached your daily limit” which actually means the thousands of other customers have reached the limit for you. Then there is the Ping problem. I visited a site for Counterstrike to test this and it came up with a ping of 1000 maybe some of you out there who are on dial up can confirm its lower on dial up?

Advantages of the product is you can “share it” but if you take a smart bro canopy system you can “share it” by simply adding a router. The problem with my dilemma is that the internet cafe was based on INTERNET connection and due to Smart Bro not holding up their end of the bargain is it time to visit a lawyer for selling a system that does not reach its customers needs and requirements?

One thing is for sure I’m not being locked into an 18 month contract that is already breached by Smart Bro. Worth a visit to here if your already stuck with this service.

One thing I do have on my side is spare time and if they get awkward I will be standing outside their sales offices giving away free T-Shirts with don’t buy Smart bro -  Share it but with a slightly modded version of the advert with the logo don’t buy Smart Bro Share it.

I rarely get annoyed with things but I was relying on this service as we currently don’t have DSL available on the telephone lines in the area unless I move to the main road which isn’t something I am planning to do in the near future.

Popularity: 63% [?]

Today was a bit of an odd day as we decided to stay at home and look at getting the apartment built on top of the internet cafe. This year we have decided to look at buying two homes to rent out if we can get find the right properties. After scouring the net and being in realtor hell for a few hours it has become very apparent I need to put my shoes on and go and look myself. There are also private sellers and crazy prices online as they are always trying to rip people off for a profit and where better than online.

So I came across a couple of small deca houses which are small to say the least with a price of P600,000 and loan available through PagIbig so I thought great as we could transfer the loans over could be easier than trying to get a direct mortgage as well as the fact we could actually pay P300,000 up front giving us P300,000 to pay. So started doing the maths….

Ok something seriously wrong here they actually want you to GIVE THEM P600,000 for the 5 years they have lived at the property and take on the remaining 25 years of the loan. I sat and done the maths on what they are asking :-

P600,000 up front

Monthly loan of 4,625.00 for 25 yrs = P1.387m

Total = P1.987m just shy of P2m for a house that is worth P750,000

So for them having the property for 5yrs they have paid P277,500 and want a P322,500 golden handshake and I get dumped with their debt of a loan. I really cant understand the logic behind this although speaking to April she said they expect to make a profit for having a property.. Im still scratching my head.

Popularity: 60% [?]

I have noticed an upsurge on the number of people looking to drive in the Philippines but there are a few things you should be aware of before looking into doing it. Firstly if your going to be here ongoing you will need to get a Filipino driving license as your license is only valid for the first 30 days of you being in the Philippines. Secondly there are problems with insurance companies in the Philippines that make it difficult if not impossible to get a payout. Which not only could it leave you out of pocket with your own vehicle but with some hefty medical bills for an injured party. Several times I have heard it here about killing injured parties as paying for someone who is dead is a lot cheaper than ongoing medical expenses may sound extreme but its true and I am aware of some companies operating on those policies with their drivers.

City driving is completely different to provincial. In the city generally traffic flows like fish winding together as most 2 lane roads quickly become 4 as generally a “Car wide road” becomes 2 cars wide and a motorcycle. What I try to do is just take my time if going into the cities as traffic is generally busy and just grid lock at rush hour. If your caught in the city after 3pm better to go to a mall until around 6pm as getting out the city is going to take you an extra hour with the heavy traffic in a hot dusty environment. Being aware of your surroundings are always important but in the city I try to avoid wearing a watch or anything that attracts attention. Not because im expecting theft or robbery but always reside on the side of caution for safety and the fact we ride an open Jeep. There are generally few road signs and roads under “maintenance” have been like it for a long time literally years which often means a straight road is diverted through areas that cant handle the capacity of traffic trying to get down them. Traffic enforcers appear around rush hour for a few hours and generally you wont get any problems with them purely because the roads are too busy and they have more important things to be doing. Traffic lights dont always work but I actually think this is being done on purpose as switching off the lighting outside rush hour periods actually speeds up the traffic.

Would I advise anyone to drive in the city? Personally its upto whoever is going to drive as it is not like normal driving in most countries. Motorcycles weave between cars, jeepneys will stop without any warning or break lights to pickup/drop off passengers and generally its more like people all pushing to get to a place first than traffic flow. If your stopping in one of the Philippines cities personally I would go for a taxi for runs of over 15minutes and jeepneys for shorter journeys. The reason being taxis are air conditioned and know the cities like the back of their hands and Jeepneys are quick to get on and off and constantly available.

Provincial driving is a completely different kettle of fish. Generally most laws such as wearing motorcycle helmets get ignored the further you get away from a major city. Heavy trucks and buses will often be heading towards you on the wrong side of the road and if there are two near each other they begin to race against each other for picking up the next customers. Best thing with the buses is let them past and put a bit of distance between you and them as they are nothing but a pain. If you overtake them eventually they will catch up with you in traffic and the headache of them trying to get passed you begins. Motorcycles weave in and out of traffic at speed and every time we have headed south for the day there is always a motorcycle accident of some kind. You can also imagine the mess of someone being hit by a vehicle with nothing more than a T Shirt, shorts and a flip-flops. Generally the roads are easy going during the day mind except for the speeding trucks and buses. Once you get used to them and just let them passed you are pretty much able to relax.

But at night things are very different. Often you will come across vehicles with little or no lighting. Which not only are difficult to see but often they have no break lights and often drive if they are the only vehicle on the road without any due care and attention. Tricycles will often be driving without lights and will wave for you to slow down as they cut across in front of you trying to go the other way in traffic. Pedestrians often walk straight out in front of traffic without looking or only looking one way. Not sure why there is such a disregard for safety but I have had a few near misses over the last couple of years and they could easily have been prevented by people looking where they are going as often with the misaligned headlights of most vehicles or on main beam coming the other way you are blinded to shadows crossing the road.

Rain in the Philippines is something that turns driving into more of an arcade game because as you know in rain you should slow down and be more cautious right?? Not here.. people speed up to get home faster and everything starts moving about 3 x faster than normal even though its difficult to see or drive as often you get light floods across the road of about a foot high. So I advise anyone when its raining STOP and go to a restaurant or something else until it stops.

FOR ANYONE WANTING TO DRIVE IN THE PHILIPPINES

you really need to decide if you NEED to. As hiring a vehicle with driver is pretty cheap and you will gain someone who knows the roads. If your here long-term I would start by using Jeepneys to get familiar with the routes as often most things dont make any sense so heading in a direction to a favourite store  can actually be heading somewhere completely different due to road layouts or there is a development smack bang in the middle of where the road should be.

For Hire of vehicle and reliable driver please feel free to contact Aprils uncle one thing I will say if its not a vehicle he has personally no doubt uncle Dems will be available to organise it for you. Either way if on Cebu Island he is ideal for the area and knows the region well.

Popularity: 55% [?]

The amount of times I have had to explain about wealth in relation to inflation and relative cost of living has been pretty countless since I moved to the Philippines. The majority of people who understand what it really means are either Expats themselves or/are OFW`s. I will be the first to admit I have a fairly good standard of living and our life here in the Philippines is not only a lot more stable than others but expanding financially aswell as venture wise. What a lot of people don’t understand is my background. My father was in the Army and I got to travel around the world to where my father was stationed along with my siblings and mother. Army life is an experience that doesn’t really match with civilian life as your used to working together and your friendships are generally for life. The majority of my friends were in the same situation although when we lived in Germany we had a large mix of local friends aswell. Life in a military family also means things like schooling is at army schools which to be honest its not until you experience “general” UK schooling that you realise how much higher the standards at the Army schools are. I’m not talking financial but just how the schools operate and standards of education. We eventually moved back to the UK in 1989 when I undertook my last year of school and exams. Big problem with that was most of my subjects were different and learned what most students had been doing for 2 years in 6 months. After leaving school I then moved into Youth Training and became an electronics engineer working for a cowboy outfit A.S. Alarms with my old boss Barry Smith who eventually spent some time in prison for paying for contracts with brown envelopes. He got rid of me on my second year because I wanted a full-time salary as at that time a long time friend of mine now Ken was employed to drive me round as I could install the systems were Ken had no electronic/electrical background and I was too young to drive. He is the only person I know who everyone literally hated. When he went to jail I received phone calls off different people happy to see him jailed. Which was many years on by then. After I finished my electronics I then went back to college and studied again micro processing paying my way by working in a nightclub several nights a week.

I wont give you too much of the boring details but after my electronics I went back to study Carpentry and Joinery as I had become a cabinet maker during the recession of the early 90s. It was also a hard time family wise as my father had come out of the army and was struggling to find work. Especially in the Worcester area which as a farming City has very low salaries which is why to this day I generally work in Birmingham or London areas. The salary difference can often be 2 or 3 times that of Worcester. I remember these times very well as I was flat broke financially most of it. Doing a lot of crap jobs and getting through college. Having my own flat (apartment) and sometimes having to miss meals for 2 – 3 days so that I could pay the rent.

It was during this period that I then re-trained as a Business + Bar manager at the same time as going through my worst times in my life with the ex from hell. Looking back I just think she was plain crazy and I am glad our paths haven’t crossed for over a decade. Why bar management? Simply because I couldn’t find work so the governments solution is to stick you on training courses (If you want to learn). Which I was trying hard to do anything to find work. I always remember college days of not having enough petrol to go to college and back so used to park halfway and walk the rest each day.

By the time I met Peggy who is my ex-girlfriend of 11 years things had started to improve and generally work was getting easier to find and the long hours began I was a carpenter for a company that built houses in flat pack form that was erected on site. It was at Purpose Built in Malvern I started to get the real taste of hard work and money. Working overtime each day and weekends I was already earning 3 x that of most of my friends and generally I have been the same upto date. I work an average of 16 hours a day and 7 days a week if its available. When I’m in the Philippines I’m sitting doing things like this at 3am because I struggle to switch off.

Am I lucky? If I filled in a lot of the hard times above you would see more of a Dickens novel life has been pretty hard over the years and everything I have I gained through hard work. There was no silver spoon in my mouth and its the fact I will brush myself off when things go wrong and get back up again to fight another day. I don’t think luck played a part of my working career but it did play a part in how I met my wife April. There were times in my life before which edged on suicide to get out of my hell of a life. Some people would say that is the easy option but its only from experience of those thoughts its more to do with lost hope and despair. If I was someone considering it now I would just say get back up and brush yourself off. When things get really bad polish off a bottle of brandy to forget and go back to life in the morning.. with a clear mind. There is always something round the next corner and if you put the work in you will get the rewards out. It doesn’t always come quickly but it will eventually arrive.

Popularity: 72% [?]