Money and Living

Happy Mother’s Day to all Great Mothers Around The World!

admin — Sun, 13 May 2012 10:42:46 +0000

“Nobody knows of the work it makes,
to keep the home together.
Nobody knows of the steps it takes,
nobody knows but mother..
Mom’s smiles can brighten any moment,
Mom’s hugs put joy in all our days, Mom’s love will stay with us ever
and touch our lives in precious ways..
A mother understands what a child does not say..
Happy Mother’s Day means more than flowers and gifts,
it means saying thank you for everything.”

Happy Mother’s Day!

Special greetings to me dearest and beloved Mother, Mama Rosa!
Thanks a lot for bearing and nurturing us into this world.
I wish you always good health, loved peace and happiness.
I love you Mother.

God bless you always.
God bless all Mothers around the world!

Did Shopping Today

admin — Thu, 10 May 2012 20:35:56 +0000

Hello folks! It’s been awhile since I am away from here. Life is just so busy especially this spring time. There are a lot of tasks and projects that are still waiting for me. Back to the main topic. My friend asked me to go with her to a hardware and at the same time a garden store. She was looking for something but sad to say, the store don’t have it. We indeed up shopping for home decors and garden stuffs. I did not really planned to buy something but I saw this China Vase with colorful paintings and decorations. I was thinking to bus it as present for myself.

Something also happened as I asked my friend why she paid quite a bigger amount with her stuffs. I reviewed her receipt and bingo, I found the item. He daughter picked another stone with solar lightning instead of the other one. The price difference is 5.00 euros each. Since she bought two, it is already 10.00 euros. I asked my friend if she want to exchange it with the lower price and she did it. Ten euros is quite a big amount already especially for me who is always looking to save every cent when I shop.

I am quite happy with my China vase. I would love to decorate it in our patio when the flooring is done.

We Need More Pellets

admin — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 13:51:08 +0000

It is already spring time but we still need to use the heater in our house. We are actually using two kinds of heating, the electric heater and the pellet oven. During cold winter time, our pellet oven is running 24 hours a day except when it is time to clean it. The electric heater is only use in our bedroom and computer room. Since spring this year is still quite cold, we are still turning on our pellet over for some hours in the day but it is always on during the night.

We almost run-out of pellets so we decided to go to the nearest store that sells it. We went there last Saturday and bought 10 sacks. Each sack contains 15 kilograms of pellets. You can see and image here of how pellets look like. I hope I can find an image of our pellets heater, so that I can show you how it is really working as heater during winter time. Each sack costs 4.55 Euros, quite expensive but it is still cheaper that using electric or oil heaters.

We are very thankful that we bought this pellet over. It cost around 3,000 Euros last 2010 but it was really worth-it. It keep us naturally warm during winter time.

Incredible Gasoline Prices

admin — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 22:03:47 +0000

This is really unbelievable! Before I left to Spain last month for a quite a long trip, the prices of gasoline in Germany was still around 1.659 Euros per liter. Last week when I was tanking my car last week, the price went up to incredible 1.729 Euros per liter! Can you imagine that. I heard some American friends around who are complaining when their gas price go high to $4.00+ a gallon.

Let me find a conversion table from gallon to liter first??wait a moment..I got it now.It says, 1 Gallons (US) = 3.78541178 Liters. If I have to divide $4.00 divided by 3.78541178 Liters, that is around $1.0566 per liter. Now let me compute how much is 1.729 Euros to US dollars. Mr. xe.com says 1 EUR = $1.30777 vice versa or 0.76466 EUR = $1.00. It simply means that in German gasoline prices when converted to US dollars, is equal to $2.261 per liter (1.729 Euros x $1.30777 = $2.261). It also means that German gasoline super unleaded is $1.205 more expensive ( $2.261- $1.0566 =$1.205) than American gas prices.

Being a former banker and accountant, I can still remember Accounting and can still compute and calculate a bit.

Imagine it is more than double the price if you have to look at the difference. The prices of the gasoline in Germany is really terrible! Here is an image of the receipt that I had last week.

receipt when I tank some liters of super unleaded gasoline in one of the ESSO stations in Germany.

The gas prices in Germany is exploding too high! I hope the government will do some things to lower it back…or else they maybe have to increase the salary also! I believed we have to tighten more our belt for this. This is also the reason why I just drive my car if I must really drive. You know what I mean folks! It simply means that I just use my car if it is really important, if not better stay at home!

Till next time again!

Life is Short

admin — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 15:27:56 +0000

Today is the first day of March 2012. There are already a lot of news and happenings today. I am quite on busy mode since this morning. The phone rang a lot of times today. I got some phone calls from friends reminding me of some appointments and get-together today and in the coming days. A family of Philippine American friends will be leaving soon in one of the U.S. training areas in Bavaria, Germany. This evening will be their despedida or goodbye party. I should not be attending but another friend just called me and convinced me to come with them.

And yes, life is truly short. I just checked my facebook and found out that one of my friend’s mother just passed away. I could not imagine that. I know it hurts and I pray for the soul of her mother to rest in peace with our Lord.

Life is short! That is why I am doing my best to always cherish it whatever I do. I won’t stay too long for now. I have to get ready for the goodbye dinner party that I will be attending in an hour.

Lastly, I want to wish everyone a wonderful and more fruitful month of March 2012. Live life to the fullest!

Change of Flight Schedule to Madrid, Spain

admin — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 17:20:50 +0000

I am having a countdown now for my trip to Spain. Eleven days more to go and I will be visiting Spain again. I received last Sunday an email from Iberia.com telling me that there was a changed of my flight schedules. I need to confirm the new schedule or else? I really don’t know what will happen if I won’t confirm. There are actually some minutes differences but it don’t bother me. In short, I confirmed the changes they made.

I am hoping to have a wonderful time in Spain during this trip. My last holiday there with a friend was last December 2011. We were together with a group of most retired people from Germany that time. I would say, over all the trip was great. Everything was almost perfect and I can’t complain about it. Our tour guide named Lothar, who was with us during the whole duration of the trip was very organized and very knowledgeable about the different places and cities we visited in Spain.

Here are the flight schedules for my Spain trip next weekend. This is only for my records. It is good that I understand and speak German and also understand a bit of Spanish. I wish to learn Spanish in the future.

“viaje de ida Ida
Sonntag, 11. März 2012
12:05 h / München
München International , Terminal 1 Sonntag, 11. März 2012
14:50 h / Madrid
Barajas , Terminal 4 IB3539 Vuelo operado por Iberia
Direktflug
Iberia Basic
Bestätigt

viaje de vuelta Vuelta
Mittwoch, 25. April 2012
16:20 h / Madrid
Barajas , Terminal 4 Mittwoch, 25. April 2012
18:55 h / München
München International , Terminal 1 IB3564 Vuelo operado por Iberia
Direktflug
Iberia Basic”

Planning for My 2012 Travels

admin — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 12:22:55 +0000

There are just a lot of travel plans for this year. I hope that most will be materialized. I already spent some short distance trips since January of this year. February has also been a busy months fort me searching for cheap airline tickets and hotels in Europe. There are also tours that I am eyeing and waiting for its special offers in the internet. Some of these travel agencies are also sending me their monthly travel offers where you can really have it cheaper.

I have some niche places and countries to visit this year. Most of it are in Europe like Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark. In less than two weeks, I will also flying to Spain again. I will be staying most of the time in its capital city of Madrid. Up to now, I am still finalizing the sidetrips that I will be doing while in this city.

Maybe in summer June of July, I will be backed to the United States of America again. I am just waiting for the signal of my sister who is in Las Vegas. Canada is also on my list but I have to see if there are enough time and money for this travel. Some of me friends and former classmates and schoolmates in my college days are inviting me to visit them. Board and lodging are actually not a problem because they told me that I can stay in their homes when I am there. This is one of the advantages when you have some good friends around the world. I am truly grateful about it.

Planning for your travel is sometimes not easy. You need to plan it ahead to save time and money and also hassles and stress. These are the reasons why we need to plan our trips ahead of time.

Have a wonderful and memorable travel! Cheers!

Happy Birthday Dear Father

admin — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 21:52:47 +0000

I am happy to have a connection with my father yesterday. He is thousands miles away from me and I am happy to talk with him once again. It was his 76th birthday yesterday. I am always wishing and praying for more days and years in his life, good health always, love, peace, contented and happiness.

Thanks a lot dear Father for all the great things you had showed and taught me. I hope to see you all again next year. God bless you always. God bless us all!

Busy Month of February 2012

admin — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 21:53:15 +0000

This months seems to be a very busy month for me. There are a lot of things to do both online and offline. As a blogger, I need to always update my blogsites and as a homebody, I need to do some things at home. I am just happy that January ended as a great beginning of 2012. There are a lot of good things that we need to be thankful of.

I am also happy for many wonderful things that are happening at the moment. Despite of some trials and testing last year-end 2011, we are thankful that mostly everything are slowly having solutions now. Life must go on and I always believed that “At the end of the tunnel there is always a light”. Thank you dear Lord for everything!

Wonderful Trip to Spain

admin — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 21:08:09 +0000

It was so far another dream come true! The trip we had in Spain especially in the region of Andalusia was truly a fantastic one. That 8-day trip from December 5-12, 2001 was truly a wonderful and memorable one. We saw a lot of places including Seville, Granada, Cordoba, Toledo and Madrid.

I fell in love with this country and I can’t wait to see it again on March 2012. Yup, I already booked my plane ticket and I am ready to visit it again. This time, I will have more time to explore Spain’s capital city of Madrid since I will be staying there for over a month.

See you soon again Spain!

The Plaza Mayor in Madrid, Spain. I was so happy to visit this country.