Alfred Bruckner
Mitglied
71 and not a bit quiet ....
A varied and fulfilled life with 71
I was born as an Austrian on June 27th, 1946, in Altenfelden in Upper Austria.
So, I actually grew up with my grandmother in a house in the center of Altenfelden, a small town in Upper Austria. She really loved me and I was her darling. My mother was single and had to earn and was living in Aigen - twenty kilometers away, because my grandma received only a small widow's pension.
From three years on, my memory began. And that was the time when my mother got married on June 6th, 1949 .... and I was allowed - at times - to be at the wedding ceremony. A short time later my brother Franz was born.
With the baby Franz I could not “do” much - certainly not play .... And so I was "busy" with myself alone and was very happy on the neighboring farm - a wonderful "adventure playground"!
One and a half years later my brother Christian was born and I had - with the passage of time - another "playmate".
There was no kindergarten - at that time in the end-forties and early fifties and so I was then from 1952 in the Elementary School in Altenfelden. We had a teacher who had her first professional year and I liked her very much, which was mutual.
And then I was often called by my classmates "Russki".
Why? I had no explanation. Furthermore, I noticed that I had - according to my mother – the last name Nigel, and not Bruckner like my brothers and also Mom after the marriage.
The "Russki" had not been involved in the various groups of his classmates - many children of peasants in the village or businessmen and craftsmen. That did not bother me, because I had the farmhouse and another "adventure playground" in the neighboring forest with a brook, where there were fishes. So by and by my brothers were with me.
Already as a child I was very curious and always interested in asking questions hopefully to be answered. And I wanted to know what was going on with the "Russki".
"Unlike the Others" ....
For my mother was it "not easy" to tell me the background:
It was after the end of the World War II and the “Mühlviertel” in Upper Austria north of the river Danube had been occupied by the Soviet Army. Altenfelden was a road junction, where there was often a Soviet armor, and I liked to look there, because I was then allowed to climb on the tank. WOW!
So, in our house - as I learned gradually from my mother's tales - an officer was living there who, as was later known, had a very "bad" relationship with the local pastor in the neighboring parish.
And – one day - it "happened":
I was born on June 27th, 1946.
However, my real father - the "Russki" - had not known this, because the troops were moved very often and surprisingly to other locations.
So it was: I am the son of Vasily Andreyvich Makarov from Samara in Southern Russia .... And somehow I was even proud of it because I was "different from the others". I later always had a picture of my father with me which gave me mom.
Thus, the first question about the "Russki" was answered.
There was still my last name Nigel. That was logical, because I had the name after my - at time of my birth - still single mother. In 1954 my stepfather gave me his name Bruckner.
Well, at school it ran smoothly for me and I always got good grades. Only when something was broken, then it was "the Bruckner" .... Or - in the fourth grade - was "missing" a keyring of my Lady class teacher who did not like me. It was also her first “job” in our school. So we all had to stay in the classroom after school closure and it took us two hours to find out where the keys were not. They all challenged me, that I ought finally to "confess". And so the matter became too stupid for me, and I "said" that I throw the keyring the fire brigade pond. Then we were able to go home.
The keys were “found” later in the school building - not in the water, of course. Well!
And then - in the fourth grade, when it was scheduled a transfer to the High School – which would have changed my later life in a completely different direction:
I should apply in St. Florian near Linz to the "singing boys choir" where I could have been registered, but there were my “records” .... in grade four. So I had a “four” in "behavior", a "three" in "industriousness", a "four" in "religion" – and my other records werde alle “one” - the best note!
With this “paper” - my mother said - I could no longer go to St. Florian .... And, of course, with High Schoole it was nothing. There was a High School in Rohrbach, eleven kilometers away, and that was impossible for my mother and even my father was not exactly one of the "well-earners". There were also my two brothers. And a sister was expected.
For that I went to the Secondary School in the neighboring Neufelden. It was very good at school, but I was often alone with myself and enjoyed the "free time" in which I always found "entertainment" for me.
Well, I "left" - in an age of eleven years - the narrowness of my home place already one time or another .... And was then "on the road" instead of at school.
The longest journey I undertook when I wanted to visit my letter-friend, Manfred, in Solbad Hall near Innsbruck, and I travelled on board of a night-train to Innsbruck - without a ticket. It was “easy” because I was in a car with solders. Manfred and his family were not at home but “on tour”.... And so I wanted to continue to Bad Gastein, where the 1958 World Ski Championships took place.
I was not quite there, because before I was caught by a conductor on the train - without a ticket, of course - and handed over to the police in Salzburg, who ordered me to take me back to Altenfelden.
For a while I did not mind. And I listened radio and read about Hamburg and the harbor where ships from all over the world were docking. I wanted to go there! Maybe I could be hired. I thought.
So I travelled on board of a bus - without a passport or ID card - to Julbach near the border to Bavaria and at the final stop it was - for now, because the bus stopped there until the morning before it went back to Linz. To shorten it: In the local hotel I got, of course, no room .... But a "visit" by police. And so my "journey" ended.
Well, the school did not find my "Trips" funny .... And still less the Youth Office.
And so it was ordered in 1958 that I had to go to a boarding school in Gleink near Steyr, to stay there until the end of compulsory schooling.
All in all, I had a “nice” time there, often I was visited on Sundays, and was even allowed to go home to Altenfelden during the holidays. I had a very good relationship with the Director of the School. He recommended to attend the Commercial School in Linz and to complete a vocational training in the "Economy".
Well, my time in Steyr-Gleink ended in 1960.
And from then on, my life has gone completely differently than if I had been able to do my training with the "singing boys choir" in St. Florian.
From 1965 to 1966 I was first as a registrar at the Austrian Federal Railroad in Linz, later at the route management in Selzthal in Styria.
In 1966, I moved to Munich.
I was employed by the German Federal Railways on the station in Munich-Laim and married Monika on December 31st, 1966. And I moved to her to Landshut. We were divorced in 1968 - I was not the father of Baby Angelina, born on March 16, 1967 .... and the mother-in-law, where we lived, was very "dominant".
In 1967, I was back at the Austrian Federal Railways in the investigation service in Salzburg.
Also in 1967, I volunteered as a soldier to the Airforce in the Austrian Armed Forces, recently in the weatheer department and was deployed in various locations until 1971. From 1969, I got civil aviation licenses.
In 1972, I spent a short time at the air traffic control school in Munich, before I changed in August to Lufthansa in Munich.
During this time I met Rosmarie - a widow (her husband was deadly inured at the airport in Munich) with two lovely daughters, Petra and Monika, at the age of four and three years .... And I became her "daddy". From 1973 we lived in Haar near Munich.
By the way I was - beside Lufthansa - a while at American Express in the "card organization" and advised contractors in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Mittenwald and Oberammergau.
And I could also - by the way - fly in the civil aviation and had a small "travel service" in Haar and operated with one unit a taxi company.
From 1984 to 1986, I was sent to provisional pension because of a back problem after surgery and numerous rehabilitation measures. So I was glad to be temporarily in the American "pensioner paradise" Florida.
In 1986 I returned to my workplace at Lufthansa.
Rosmarie and I parted amicably and I moved to Glonn in the Ebersberg district. The very pretty apartment was right on the edge of the forest and was only 30 kilometers from the airport.
When I visited the Philippines in 1987, I met in Orion / Bataan the charming Filipina Catalina, and we married in Quezon City on June 23rd of that year. My wife came with me to Glonn. She learned German very quickly.
Already after two years - in 1989 - Ina was granted Austrian citizenship. This was excellent, because she could easily get visa for the USA, which is very difficult with Filipinas. And so she could have a job at Munich Airport with a large American airline. In 1992 we moved to Landshut - closer to the new Airpor in Munich.
Then came the year 1993, when Lufthansa offered an "early retirement model", which I gladly picked up and so I made preparations for a relocation in Catalina's homeland. And I got the status "Immigrant" in the Philippines.
Ina, however, preferred to stay in Munich because her professional prospects were always better than in the Philippines. And so we began - a very common practice in the Philippines - a "Long Distance Relationship".
Well, I could find in Badian Island in a very exclusive beach resort and hotel - where we had many times plenty vacations and we planted also there as "Honeymooners" a palm tree .... a "job" and was very happy about it.
During this time I met XXX(INCOGNITO) and her two-year-old son. She was looking for a "professional realization" and she wanted to leave Cebu. That was good, and so we decided to transfer to Negros.
Who is .... XXX(INCOGNITO) ??
My Partner .... in "Business" 1994 - 1998
She do not want to be mentioned by name
In La Carlota City - Negros Occidental - we founded a small transport company with two L300s:
LC T & T - La Carlota Tours & Travel
with - for the first time as such given - franchise as "Tourist Transport from Negros to any point in the Philippines".
In short: Business did not run "very well" and so we reduced step by step our operation.
Well, I have not written or talked much about - for example - that XXX(INCOGNITO) had "transferred" the money for selling of the first of the two L300 "somewhere" - but not on our business account in PNB La Carlota City.
By the way .... because there some "other stories" told, I was the only one bought both L300 in 1994 and paid 1,1 million Phlippine Pesos in cash, but I was able to "save" later the money after selling the second L300.
According to Philippine law I coult - as a Foreigner, even "Immigrant" - run the "Business" not in my own name. So, I invested - what later was in reality in"waste"ment - and set the financial basis ..... my partner "gave" just the name.
Nevertheless, because I was not "unforgiving" and did not made any further "research". Anyway, we continued our "private" relationship.
With the help of my friend and lawyer Constancio Legaspi, I wanted to adopt XXX(INCOGNITO)'s son to enroll him in the "International School" in Cebu.
Well, life is like that and "corrections" are not possible afterwards. You have to take it as it is! Fate .....
However, 1995 I was the first "Tourist Guide" to be accredited in Western Visayas at the DoT (Department of Tourism).
And 1996 I had "Business Certificate No. 1" in Bacolod City.
So I joined in Visayan media in Bacolod and Cebu, wrote and researched "background to the headline" for regional newspapers and AM radio stations - under my "brand"
A B N C - NEWS & COMMENTARIES
And I had a radio program in Bacolod: "Follow Me - the Travel & Tourism Magazine on Air". And another in Cebu: "Classics & More" - Classical Music and Stories about "My Country & Its People".
In 1995 my friend and city councillor Atty Constancio Legaspi invited me to join
Bacolod City Host Lions Club
I become a member and was happy to organize and / or supported projects of the club.
On December 21st, 1995, Catalina was "successful" because the divorce she had requested in Munich was "done" without problems after living "separated" for more than a year.
In 1996, I moved from Bacolod to Cebu.
Cebu and the Cebuanos I learned best hen I drove Taxi in Metro Cebu - by the way the first with telephone on board.
So I could accept pre-orders. And I was able to share my experiences with the Cebu City "Traffic Management".
XXX(INCOGNITO), who was meanwhile my "life companion", always wanted to go to Germany - I was not to her suffering. And so in 1998 she took the opportunity to get married by a German and moved with him to the vicinity of Hamburg.
By the way, I invited 2015 XXX(INCOGNITO) to join Bacolod City Host Lions Club.
XXX(INCOGNITO) left Cebu while I was in Munich, as I had been a year before, to work with friends in a personnel leasing company during the summer.
In the next few years, I also enjoyed the opportunity to earn a little "pocket money" in Munich and to receive the paid wage tax back in the following year.
In the state capital of Bavaria, I was very happy to work for various companies, including the MVV (Munich Transport and Tariff Association) and in a "Security" cpompany. So I had to work at the Munich Airport in the "security".
In another company, I was a "Security" in the Olympiastadion for football matches, in museums and in the Bavarian Nationaltheater / State opera as well as at concert events.
From 2002 to 2003, I was in the team of the "honorary staff" in the "Deutsches Museum" and had the fantastic opportunity to look after the special exhibition "Climate - the Experiment with the Planet Earth" and was there in about 500 guided tours able to tell visitors from my own experience in the tropics - about the effects of "global warming". It was very interesting. It is a pity that this exhibition could not go on "hiking" in other cities and regions.
In 2006 I became a pensioner at the age of 60.
The "commuting" between Visayas and Baern was a large part of me and I was mostly in Munich, because I came to the Bavarian Nationalmuseum and became a member - then I guided school classes "On the Dragon's Path" through the house .... free as a cooperation between Bacolod City Host Lions Club and National Museum.
In 2013 the 96th Lions Clubs International Convention took place in Hamburg. There was also a delegation from the Bacolod City Host Lions Club, with whom I met.
My Fellow Lions invited me to come back "home" to Bacolod, which I did. And then I became
Melvin Jones Fellow
Lions Clubs International Foundation
So I supported one of the projects of the Bacolod City Host Lions Club, the orphanage "Holy Infant Nursery".
In this way, I also collected donations for the children, especially in Munich.
And at every opportunity, "drove the pig out" and I received money, among other things - to set up a library for the children and to create playing opportunities. We have the orphans only at an age up to six years. They then move to other institutions, as long as they were not adopted or moved to nursing homes.
During this time I also met Lion Betty - a retired teacher with six adult daughters, some of whom had families and children. She was still married, but was living separated from her husband.
He died later and Betty had no longer a "hindrance" to marry again.
In contrast, however, I, because - after there is no divorce in the Philippines - I was still "married" with Catalina, even just "in papers" - but still continuiong!
Well, Betty and I engaged on May 18th, 2014 - with the intention of getting married, in case it should one day be possible to find a way to enter a new marriage.
So good advice was "expensive".
Caesar Distrito, my friend and president of the Bacolod City Host Lions Club, opened a court case in Bacolod in 2015 in order to "recognize" the Munich divorce in the Philippines and thus to be considered "dissolved". A marriage would then have been possible.
After the investment of around 5,000 Euros (about a quarter of a million Philippines Pesos) in "fees" and translations of documents, etc., the court finally announced on December 29th, 2016 that it "could not decide", because it did not seen to be able to recognize a foreign divorce in the Philippines. Well, the Filipina Ina had already become an Austrian in 1989 and I was also an Austrian from birth.
That's it!
Betty and I still felt like "Husband and Wife" and so we performed a "Long Distance Relationship" with numerous visits from me in Bacolod 2014, 2015 and 2016 .... until I decided to move finally to Betty's house.
This was on December 8th, 2016, when I gave up the Munich apartment in Schwabing and moved to Betty. However, I had to leave a lot of things in Munich - especially winter clothes and other things from the household, which I could not transport or send in "Balikbayan Boxes". A foldable bicycle did not arrive in Bacolod!
Also, there was a difference to our "Long Distance Relationship". A permanent living together is something else!
Well, we found out that Betty and I did not "harmonize" in some things and yet we had different views in a common marriage life.
Then, however, I have learned that - according to (some) Philippine opinion - the wife is "responsible" for the house and the household, while the husband "settles the financial affairs".
It might have been possible - "by way of detours" - that Betty and I would marry if the competent authorities agreed. All what I needed was a "last" paper from the Austrian Embassy in Manila, which I would have had to get.
And Betty was expecting it, but it was too hasty for me - given the "circumstances", so I answered with the Philippine word: "Later".
Then, Betty mentioned on March 16th, 2017, that we could - under this condition - no longer remain as "fiancée", which caused me to get a ticket to fly back home to Upper Austria.
In Steyr, I found a nice "single" apartment in a quiet location where I'm living since April 25th, 2017, located on "Tabor", 242 stairs steps of "Tabor Stiege" above the city center.
On my birthday in 2017, I decided to put my "Life Computer on Restart" and to change my life ..... especially with regard to the situation that Betty and I live - actually - separated.
In the meantime, both of us had plenty of opportunity to think about our life together, and in short, we decided on July, 25th, 2017, to resume our "Long Distrance Relationship" and live again as "Husband and Wife".
A varied and fulfilled life with 71
I was born as an Austrian on June 27th, 1946, in Altenfelden in Upper Austria.
So, I actually grew up with my grandmother in a house in the center of Altenfelden, a small town in Upper Austria. She really loved me and I was her darling. My mother was single and had to earn and was living in Aigen - twenty kilometers away, because my grandma received only a small widow's pension.
From three years on, my memory began. And that was the time when my mother got married on June 6th, 1949 .... and I was allowed - at times - to be at the wedding ceremony. A short time later my brother Franz was born.
With the baby Franz I could not “do” much - certainly not play .... And so I was "busy" with myself alone and was very happy on the neighboring farm - a wonderful "adventure playground"!
One and a half years later my brother Christian was born and I had - with the passage of time - another "playmate".
There was no kindergarten - at that time in the end-forties and early fifties and so I was then from 1952 in the Elementary School in Altenfelden. We had a teacher who had her first professional year and I liked her very much, which was mutual.
And then I was often called by my classmates "Russki".
Why? I had no explanation. Furthermore, I noticed that I had - according to my mother – the last name Nigel, and not Bruckner like my brothers and also Mom after the marriage.
The "Russki" had not been involved in the various groups of his classmates - many children of peasants in the village or businessmen and craftsmen. That did not bother me, because I had the farmhouse and another "adventure playground" in the neighboring forest with a brook, where there were fishes. So by and by my brothers were with me.
Already as a child I was very curious and always interested in asking questions hopefully to be answered. And I wanted to know what was going on with the "Russki".
"Unlike the Others" ....
For my mother was it "not easy" to tell me the background:
It was after the end of the World War II and the “Mühlviertel” in Upper Austria north of the river Danube had been occupied by the Soviet Army. Altenfelden was a road junction, where there was often a Soviet armor, and I liked to look there, because I was then allowed to climb on the tank. WOW!
So, in our house - as I learned gradually from my mother's tales - an officer was living there who, as was later known, had a very "bad" relationship with the local pastor in the neighboring parish.
And – one day - it "happened":
I was born on June 27th, 1946.
However, my real father - the "Russki" - had not known this, because the troops were moved very often and surprisingly to other locations.
So it was: I am the son of Vasily Andreyvich Makarov from Samara in Southern Russia .... And somehow I was even proud of it because I was "different from the others". I later always had a picture of my father with me which gave me mom.
Thus, the first question about the "Russki" was answered.
There was still my last name Nigel. That was logical, because I had the name after my - at time of my birth - still single mother. In 1954 my stepfather gave me his name Bruckner.
Well, at school it ran smoothly for me and I always got good grades. Only when something was broken, then it was "the Bruckner" .... Or - in the fourth grade - was "missing" a keyring of my Lady class teacher who did not like me. It was also her first “job” in our school. So we all had to stay in the classroom after school closure and it took us two hours to find out where the keys were not. They all challenged me, that I ought finally to "confess". And so the matter became too stupid for me, and I "said" that I throw the keyring the fire brigade pond. Then we were able to go home.
The keys were “found” later in the school building - not in the water, of course. Well!
And then - in the fourth grade, when it was scheduled a transfer to the High School – which would have changed my later life in a completely different direction:
I should apply in St. Florian near Linz to the "singing boys choir" where I could have been registered, but there were my “records” .... in grade four. So I had a “four” in "behavior", a "three" in "industriousness", a "four" in "religion" – and my other records werde alle “one” - the best note!
With this “paper” - my mother said - I could no longer go to St. Florian .... And, of course, with High Schoole it was nothing. There was a High School in Rohrbach, eleven kilometers away, and that was impossible for my mother and even my father was not exactly one of the "well-earners". There were also my two brothers. And a sister was expected.
For that I went to the Secondary School in the neighboring Neufelden. It was very good at school, but I was often alone with myself and enjoyed the "free time" in which I always found "entertainment" for me.
Well, I "left" - in an age of eleven years - the narrowness of my home place already one time or another .... And was then "on the road" instead of at school.
The longest journey I undertook when I wanted to visit my letter-friend, Manfred, in Solbad Hall near Innsbruck, and I travelled on board of a night-train to Innsbruck - without a ticket. It was “easy” because I was in a car with solders. Manfred and his family were not at home but “on tour”.... And so I wanted to continue to Bad Gastein, where the 1958 World Ski Championships took place.
I was not quite there, because before I was caught by a conductor on the train - without a ticket, of course - and handed over to the police in Salzburg, who ordered me to take me back to Altenfelden.
For a while I did not mind. And I listened radio and read about Hamburg and the harbor where ships from all over the world were docking. I wanted to go there! Maybe I could be hired. I thought.
So I travelled on board of a bus - without a passport or ID card - to Julbach near the border to Bavaria and at the final stop it was - for now, because the bus stopped there until the morning before it went back to Linz. To shorten it: In the local hotel I got, of course, no room .... But a "visit" by police. And so my "journey" ended.
Well, the school did not find my "Trips" funny .... And still less the Youth Office.
And so it was ordered in 1958 that I had to go to a boarding school in Gleink near Steyr, to stay there until the end of compulsory schooling.
All in all, I had a “nice” time there, often I was visited on Sundays, and was even allowed to go home to Altenfelden during the holidays. I had a very good relationship with the Director of the School. He recommended to attend the Commercial School in Linz and to complete a vocational training in the "Economy".
Well, my time in Steyr-Gleink ended in 1960.
And from then on, my life has gone completely differently than if I had been able to do my training with the "singing boys choir" in St. Florian.
From 1965 to 1966 I was first as a registrar at the Austrian Federal Railroad in Linz, later at the route management in Selzthal in Styria.
In 1966, I moved to Munich.
I was employed by the German Federal Railways on the station in Munich-Laim and married Monika on December 31st, 1966. And I moved to her to Landshut. We were divorced in 1968 - I was not the father of Baby Angelina, born on March 16, 1967 .... and the mother-in-law, where we lived, was very "dominant".
In 1967, I was back at the Austrian Federal Railways in the investigation service in Salzburg.
Also in 1967, I volunteered as a soldier to the Airforce in the Austrian Armed Forces, recently in the weatheer department and was deployed in various locations until 1971. From 1969, I got civil aviation licenses.
In 1972, I spent a short time at the air traffic control school in Munich, before I changed in August to Lufthansa in Munich.
During this time I met Rosmarie - a widow (her husband was deadly inured at the airport in Munich) with two lovely daughters, Petra and Monika, at the age of four and three years .... And I became her "daddy". From 1973 we lived in Haar near Munich.
By the way I was - beside Lufthansa - a while at American Express in the "card organization" and advised contractors in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Mittenwald and Oberammergau.
And I could also - by the way - fly in the civil aviation and had a small "travel service" in Haar and operated with one unit a taxi company.
From 1984 to 1986, I was sent to provisional pension because of a back problem after surgery and numerous rehabilitation measures. So I was glad to be temporarily in the American "pensioner paradise" Florida.
In 1986 I returned to my workplace at Lufthansa.
Rosmarie and I parted amicably and I moved to Glonn in the Ebersberg district. The very pretty apartment was right on the edge of the forest and was only 30 kilometers from the airport.
When I visited the Philippines in 1987, I met in Orion / Bataan the charming Filipina Catalina, and we married in Quezon City on June 23rd of that year. My wife came with me to Glonn. She learned German very quickly.
Already after two years - in 1989 - Ina was granted Austrian citizenship. This was excellent, because she could easily get visa for the USA, which is very difficult with Filipinas. And so she could have a job at Munich Airport with a large American airline. In 1992 we moved to Landshut - closer to the new Airpor in Munich.
Then came the year 1993, when Lufthansa offered an "early retirement model", which I gladly picked up and so I made preparations for a relocation in Catalina's homeland. And I got the status "Immigrant" in the Philippines.
Ina, however, preferred to stay in Munich because her professional prospects were always better than in the Philippines. And so we began - a very common practice in the Philippines - a "Long Distance Relationship".
Well, I could find in Badian Island in a very exclusive beach resort and hotel - where we had many times plenty vacations and we planted also there as "Honeymooners" a palm tree .... a "job" and was very happy about it.
During this time I met XXX(INCOGNITO) and her two-year-old son. She was looking for a "professional realization" and she wanted to leave Cebu. That was good, and so we decided to transfer to Negros.
Who is .... XXX(INCOGNITO) ??
My Partner .... in "Business" 1994 - 1998
She do not want to be mentioned by name
In La Carlota City - Negros Occidental - we founded a small transport company with two L300s:
LC T & T - La Carlota Tours & Travel
with - for the first time as such given - franchise as "Tourist Transport from Negros to any point in the Philippines".
In short: Business did not run "very well" and so we reduced step by step our operation.
Well, I have not written or talked much about - for example - that XXX(INCOGNITO) had "transferred" the money for selling of the first of the two L300 "somewhere" - but not on our business account in PNB La Carlota City.
By the way .... because there some "other stories" told, I was the only one bought both L300 in 1994 and paid 1,1 million Phlippine Pesos in cash, but I was able to "save" later the money after selling the second L300.
According to Philippine law I coult - as a Foreigner, even "Immigrant" - run the "Business" not in my own name. So, I invested - what later was in reality in"waste"ment - and set the financial basis ..... my partner "gave" just the name.
Nevertheless, because I was not "unforgiving" and did not made any further "research". Anyway, we continued our "private" relationship.
With the help of my friend and lawyer Constancio Legaspi, I wanted to adopt XXX(INCOGNITO)'s son to enroll him in the "International School" in Cebu.
Well, life is like that and "corrections" are not possible afterwards. You have to take it as it is! Fate .....
However, 1995 I was the first "Tourist Guide" to be accredited in Western Visayas at the DoT (Department of Tourism).
And 1996 I had "Business Certificate No. 1" in Bacolod City.
So I joined in Visayan media in Bacolod and Cebu, wrote and researched "background to the headline" for regional newspapers and AM radio stations - under my "brand"
A B N C - NEWS & COMMENTARIES
And I had a radio program in Bacolod: "Follow Me - the Travel & Tourism Magazine on Air". And another in Cebu: "Classics & More" - Classical Music and Stories about "My Country & Its People".
In 1995 my friend and city councillor Atty Constancio Legaspi invited me to join
Bacolod City Host Lions Club
I become a member and was happy to organize and / or supported projects of the club.
On December 21st, 1995, Catalina was "successful" because the divorce she had requested in Munich was "done" without problems after living "separated" for more than a year.
In 1996, I moved from Bacolod to Cebu.
Cebu and the Cebuanos I learned best hen I drove Taxi in Metro Cebu - by the way the first with telephone on board.
So I could accept pre-orders. And I was able to share my experiences with the Cebu City "Traffic Management".
XXX(INCOGNITO), who was meanwhile my "life companion", always wanted to go to Germany - I was not to her suffering. And so in 1998 she took the opportunity to get married by a German and moved with him to the vicinity of Hamburg.
By the way, I invited 2015 XXX(INCOGNITO) to join Bacolod City Host Lions Club.
XXX(INCOGNITO) left Cebu while I was in Munich, as I had been a year before, to work with friends in a personnel leasing company during the summer.
In the next few years, I also enjoyed the opportunity to earn a little "pocket money" in Munich and to receive the paid wage tax back in the following year.
In the state capital of Bavaria, I was very happy to work for various companies, including the MVV (Munich Transport and Tariff Association) and in a "Security" cpompany. So I had to work at the Munich Airport in the "security".
In another company, I was a "Security" in the Olympiastadion for football matches, in museums and in the Bavarian Nationaltheater / State opera as well as at concert events.
From 2002 to 2003, I was in the team of the "honorary staff" in the "Deutsches Museum" and had the fantastic opportunity to look after the special exhibition "Climate - the Experiment with the Planet Earth" and was there in about 500 guided tours able to tell visitors from my own experience in the tropics - about the effects of "global warming". It was very interesting. It is a pity that this exhibition could not go on "hiking" in other cities and regions.
In 2006 I became a pensioner at the age of 60.
The "commuting" between Visayas and Baern was a large part of me and I was mostly in Munich, because I came to the Bavarian Nationalmuseum and became a member - then I guided school classes "On the Dragon's Path" through the house .... free as a cooperation between Bacolod City Host Lions Club and National Museum.
In 2013 the 96th Lions Clubs International Convention took place in Hamburg. There was also a delegation from the Bacolod City Host Lions Club, with whom I met.
My Fellow Lions invited me to come back "home" to Bacolod, which I did. And then I became
Melvin Jones Fellow
Lions Clubs International Foundation
So I supported one of the projects of the Bacolod City Host Lions Club, the orphanage "Holy Infant Nursery".
In this way, I also collected donations for the children, especially in Munich.
And at every opportunity, "drove the pig out" and I received money, among other things - to set up a library for the children and to create playing opportunities. We have the orphans only at an age up to six years. They then move to other institutions, as long as they were not adopted or moved to nursing homes.
During this time I also met Lion Betty - a retired teacher with six adult daughters, some of whom had families and children. She was still married, but was living separated from her husband.
He died later and Betty had no longer a "hindrance" to marry again.
In contrast, however, I, because - after there is no divorce in the Philippines - I was still "married" with Catalina, even just "in papers" - but still continuiong!
Well, Betty and I engaged on May 18th, 2014 - with the intention of getting married, in case it should one day be possible to find a way to enter a new marriage.
So good advice was "expensive".
Caesar Distrito, my friend and president of the Bacolod City Host Lions Club, opened a court case in Bacolod in 2015 in order to "recognize" the Munich divorce in the Philippines and thus to be considered "dissolved". A marriage would then have been possible.
After the investment of around 5,000 Euros (about a quarter of a million Philippines Pesos) in "fees" and translations of documents, etc., the court finally announced on December 29th, 2016 that it "could not decide", because it did not seen to be able to recognize a foreign divorce in the Philippines. Well, the Filipina Ina had already become an Austrian in 1989 and I was also an Austrian from birth.
That's it!
Betty and I still felt like "Husband and Wife" and so we performed a "Long Distance Relationship" with numerous visits from me in Bacolod 2014, 2015 and 2016 .... until I decided to move finally to Betty's house.
This was on December 8th, 2016, when I gave up the Munich apartment in Schwabing and moved to Betty. However, I had to leave a lot of things in Munich - especially winter clothes and other things from the household, which I could not transport or send in "Balikbayan Boxes". A foldable bicycle did not arrive in Bacolod!
Also, there was a difference to our "Long Distance Relationship". A permanent living together is something else!
Well, we found out that Betty and I did not "harmonize" in some things and yet we had different views in a common marriage life.
Then, however, I have learned that - according to (some) Philippine opinion - the wife is "responsible" for the house and the household, while the husband "settles the financial affairs".
It might have been possible - "by way of detours" - that Betty and I would marry if the competent authorities agreed. All what I needed was a "last" paper from the Austrian Embassy in Manila, which I would have had to get.
And Betty was expecting it, but it was too hasty for me - given the "circumstances", so I answered with the Philippine word: "Later".
Then, Betty mentioned on March 16th, 2017, that we could - under this condition - no longer remain as "fiancée", which caused me to get a ticket to fly back home to Upper Austria.
In Steyr, I found a nice "single" apartment in a quiet location where I'm living since April 25th, 2017, located on "Tabor", 242 stairs steps of "Tabor Stiege" above the city center.
On my birthday in 2017, I decided to put my "Life Computer on Restart" and to change my life ..... especially with regard to the situation that Betty and I live - actually - separated.
In the meantime, both of us had plenty of opportunity to think about our life together, and in short, we decided on July, 25th, 2017, to resume our "Long Distrance Relationship" and live again as "Husband and Wife".