Hello Bebie!!!


     Well I guess you thought I must have died and gone to heaven! 
I certainly owe you a great big fat apology for not writing 
sooner. Well I did write you letters while I was in Cebu but 
getting stamps there was such a frustrating experience at the Post 
Office that I just became very impatient and figured I'd write to 
you when I returned home. In fact Cebu was a real bummer. Cebu was 
very dirty and polluted. The pollution made me quite ill and I 
never really recouped until I returned home. The air is just too 
dirty in Cebu. YUCK. But the stamp experience was very similar to 
so many other similar experiences that I had when I was there. 
Everywhere I went there was such an inefficient protocol for even 
the simplest of things. There were managers for everything. And 
you had to see just the right person for even the smallest of 
things. To get stamps I had to wait in a long line at the post 
office. Then when I got to the window there were no stamps readily 
available. A person behind the window had to contact an office 
manager. The manager would then go to fetch the official stamp 
person. And then the official stamp person had to locate the 
person with the combination to a safe where the stamps were kept. 
It took an incredibly long time. And when they finally opened the 
safe they spent a lot of time talking about something and filling 
out stamp forms. After almost a half hour I figured the whole 
thing was just far too complicated for a silly stamp and the day 
was wasting away. I encountered the same thing when I wanted to 
obtain a box to put some things in. I went to town to find a 
packing box. Inside a store, that had some old boxes, I again had 
to see a manager who had to contact the official box person. Then 
when the official box person arrived they asked me so many 
questions; like where I was from, how long I would be staying in 
P.I., what I intended to use the boxes for, what would I be 
shipping in the boxes and on and on. So after a long question and 
answer session I finally had to fill out some Official Empty Box 
Removal Forms and pay about 50 pesos a box!  The whole thing was 
completely nuts. Anyway, I didn't like Cebu at all. I was ill a 
lot of the time from the pollution and was actually quite happy 
when I left.



      So how is my little cutey from Magellanes??!!I can tell you 
for sure that our time together was really wonderful. I LOVE your 
little town and your friends are really great. How is my little 
buddy Archie? I'll bet he can hardly remember me now. So many 
things I liked about visiting with you; your family, your friends, 
the wonderful town of Magellanes, the little boat rides to see 
you, and strolling around town. I think all your family and 
friends are really terrific. Yet I must admit that the best time 
for me was when I was with just you. You know something Bebie? 
When we first met and you were with your friends all the time, it 
was like being with girls. But when you decided to come with me on 
your own you really began to flower into a wonderful young woman. 
Maybe it's just the chemistry between a man and a woman huh? I 
must say that the time with you was the very very best. And my 
time with you in Butuan and Magellanes was the finest portion of 
my whole vacation. Really, Butuan and Magellanes are really cute.  
I just like being with you, hanging around, strolling, and just 
doing whatever we felt like at the time. To me that was a little bit 
of Heaven. Thank you Bebie. I really enjoyed my time with you. I 
just wish that I had much more time to be with you. Oh well, I 
must admit that the time was wonderful and we could NEVER spend 
too much time with each other. Every moment was a really wonderful 
time that I will remember forever. Do you remember as well as I 
the Museum and the fat lady at the tourist office? The museum was 
really fun. And do you remember the videos we saw of Indiana Jones 
at the restaurant? Wow it was really quite fun.   


     And let me not forget the wonderful hospitality that you and 
your mother showed me while I was visiting in your house! Your Mom 
is real nice and your brother is a real COOL GUY. I liked seeing 
all your friends when we were all together in the big house. I 
have watched the video over and over and I always have a lot of 
fun doing that. It will be a little bit before I can develop all 
the photos that I took. When I returned home I started to finish 
the payments on a motorcycle that I purchased just before I left  
on my trip. 
So I put all other expenses on hold for a while. I still have a 
big pile of film sitting on the table waiting to be developed so 
maybe I can do that soon. How are all your friends? I still think 
it is so fun to see all of you in the videos. Wow it's really 
great! Do you remember the video we did in your friend's house 
with all the people around? Well that is really fun also.



     Well I guess I should really apologise again for waiting so 
long to write. I know I had made a promise to write to you when I 
went to Cebu. I still have the letter with me that I wrote to you 
while I was there. And it still does not have a stamp on it 
because I thought it was too late to send OLD NEWS. How nice it 
would be to be back in the Philippines but NOT in the cities. I 
really love the islands and the natural areas but the cities are a 
bummer. Manila is really yucky also. Do you remember those baskets 
we got in Butuan? Well mailing them turned out to be a real 
disaster in Manila. I went to the airport with the boxes and the 
airline said I was over my limit. So I went to L.B.C. to ship the 
boxes home. L.B.C. is the fast and (usually) responsible mail 
service as you know. Well anyway, the cost of mailing a box, like 
the ones I had is about $25.00 each from the  U.S.. But at L.B.C. 
Manila it is quite a different story for a tourist with only one 
hour before departure. When I went to the officer behind the 
counter I said that I had to catch a plane in one hour and would 
like to know the cost of mailing the rather light boxes. Do you 
know what he told me? You won't believe it Bebie. Are you ready?  
He wanted $540.00 U.S. to mail two very light boxes!!!!! Well I 
guess he saw me coming. Anyway, what it all amounted to was that 
he knew I didn't have that kind of money so I had to leave the 
boxes there at the office and surrender all the boxes to the 
employees. I was so angry you can't believe it. It was such an 
obvious rip off. So I said Merry Christmas #!@$%^&#@*&^&! and left 
the boxes of baskets there at the L.B.C. office. As soon as I 
walked out they all dove into the baskets that we bought and took 
the baskets for themselves. This kind of thing always happens to me when 
I visit the cities in P.I. and this year it was real bad. Even at 
the airport, at the very last minute, the people at the airport 
took me for money just to let me on the plane. There is a posted 
airport tax of 200 pesos which is normal. But this time the person 
behind the counter said I had to pay 400 more pesos on top off 
that! When I began to ask what the extra charge was for a man 
wearing two pistols came up to me and said "When you are in 
Philippines you obey our rules".  In other words "pay up or I 
would be stuck". Bebei the whole atmosphere of the cities has 
changed from the time I was there last year. And this type of 
thing only seems to happen in the cities. The islands are 
wonderful but the cities are a real bummer. I think it is only a 
reflection of the political unrest that seems to be growing in P.I 
and the controversy there over anything foreign in general. But 
who knows? Maybe when Cory is replaced then maybe things will be 
better for visitors. I just don't know. I can only guess at what 
the cause of the changes have been. But enough of the yucky stuff.


     I think that I could live in the remote areas of the 
Philippines forever if I had the chance. The beauty, peace  and 
sexy island women (like Bebie!!) are really something I enjoy VERY 
much. I did notice something interesting while I was there. All 
the Filipinas have little mangoes! Maybe it's the way they dress!



     Anyway, when I returned home it was nice to be back.
The weather here in Crockett has been the best it has been for 
years; very mild and sunny. It's great for those weekend trips to 
the mountains, the coastline,or just hanging around being lazy. As 
I mentioned I recently  purchased a very nice BIG motorcycle for 
traveling around on the weekends. A friend of mine, who is 
married, was harried by his wife to sell it because of his 
responsibility as a husband and father. Poor guy, he had to sell 
it to me VERY CHEAP. Gee, I feel sooooo bad for him-hee hee. Gosh, 
you know Bebie, I'm still going to feel bad for him while I'm 
cruising through the mountains on a nice 1100 cc Honda Gold Wing! 
Gosh. Boo Hoo.


     So what else has been happening around here? Oh yes. When I 
returned home I received a phone call from some friends I have in 
Germany. The only thing was that they weren't in Germany anymore. 
They were only 20 miles away and were coming to visit! Wow, talk 
about short notice. That's almost like me showing up at your house 
days before I was supposed to arrive! And believe me, I felt the 
same way as you probably did; surprised and a little embarrassed 
because I had to prepare the house so fast for the visitors. And 
you know what Bebie? They only just left. They have been here for 
over a month! But it was a lot of fun. My voice has been horse for 
days because we would sit up all night talking about things like 
world politics, the new emerging Germany and how people (like my 
father) view the new Germany in the light of World War Two. 
Germans are really great people but they have a very bad conscious 
about their past. I think you may know why.You see, Germany was 
the country that began the last two world wars, in the same method 
that Saddam Hussein started the situation in the Middle East. 
Germany would take one country, then another and another, under 
Hitler, and the rest of the world waited before they did anything. 
The next thing that happened was global war. And Saddam used the 
very same tactics that almost destroyed Russia  and the world in 
the 1940's. First you make a promise that you won't attack then  
attack. But this time the world has learned it's lesson and 
sent all kinds of ships and things to the Middle East before 
things got out of hand. So far things have been at a standstill. 
But at least no one has gotten hurt and the aggression has 
stopped. Anyway, the children in Germany are taught, from when they 
are very young, that they are the Bad Guys in the world. As a 
result the German children are completely pacifist, with no 
national feelings for flag or country. Yet they are extremely 
proud of their economic prominence in the modern world as they 
should be. Germany exports almost 90% of all it produces because 
the demand for German products is so high. I use a lot of German 
software in my studio because, in the music field, the German 
software is  by far the most advanced. You know the song I wrote 
for you? Well I used German software to compose the piece. I think 
I'll send you a copy of part of the score along with this letter 
ok?



     Anyway, the Germans (Germs-for short) have finally gone home. 
And I am back to my all time favorite hobby of writing music. It's 
really great these days. I'm up to eleven synthesizers with 
various other equipment and two computers. The new software in use 
here is really quite involved and the users have meetings every 
month just to discuss it's finer details. I am 
very much involved in it now and the enthusiasm to return to 
school is quite high. And it is nothing but fun. I really 
hope to produce some good stuff in the future. But even if the 
stuff does not hit the top charts it's a lot of fun anyway. I mean 
if it ain't fun then what the heck!


     Well Bebie I want to thank you very very very very much for 
writing to me during all this time that my letters have become a 
mystery. Yes I am doing fine. I am alive and well in world famous 
Crockett, California. I want to apologise for being so very late 
in responding to you. Yet I guess I've learned that we can't plan 
everything in our lives. We just do the best we can. I also want 
to thank you for remembering me on my birthday. I really 
appreciate the fact that you remembered such a small thing. And 
could you write to me and tell me your birthday date again also? I 
would really like to send you another little something when that 
special day comes along.      


     So for now I would like to say adieu and wish you the best of 
everything to come now and forever. I don't know when I 'll be 
able to come back to the Philippines. I think I may have to wait 
until the political situation mellows out a little. In the 
meantime I am thinking of you, my wonderful wonderful, cute and 
darling friend from Magellanes. And may the Good Lord bless you 
and your family each and every day.



                         Your Good Friend From Crockett,


                                        Donald.