What you can learn from a women's magazine.

I picked up a Filipino "Good Housekeeping" magazine from the shop yesterday. After getting over what that said about my age (i.e. I didn't choose Girlfriend or Cleo or whatever) I started reading through it to see what I could learn about life in this country.

The ads are different.

There are ads for Fabric Softener. Have I ever seen an ad for F.S. in my NZ magazines? Judging by my total lack of interest in said F.S., probably not. Not only their presence interested me, but the thing about the F.S. in these ads are that they are anti-bacterial. Why, I asked myself, would one need anti-bacterial fabric softener? Surely if you are using F. S., you have just washed your clothes, and they are therefore clean. Then it dawned on me. The "anti-bak" is not for cleaning the clothes, but it is in prep for the huge amount of sweat you and your family members are about to pour into the clothes when you put them on again. And we all know that it's not the sweat itself that is a problem (fresh sweat doesn't smell) but it's the bacteria that get into it that make the smell. SO "anti-bak" is a smell-prevention thing!

Welcome to tropical living 1: I need to start getting into fabric softener.

There are ads for diarrhoea medicines. Now I'm quite aware that such things exist, but I have to say they are definitely not an every-day item in my NZ household. But it seems that in the Philippines, they are a regular part of life.

Welcome to tropical living 2: Stock up the medicine cabinet.

There are ads for New Zealand milk. I smile. In NZ, we buy according to different brands of milk, but here, they advertise according to different countries of origin. But I see that the company which imports it is Nestle. Nestle is not a NZ company, or is it? How does that work? Ah well, at least the farmers in NZ will be getting something for the milk that is currently in my fridge.

Welcome to tropical living 3: Question: Do they not have cows in the Philippines?