u/Afraid_Flounder3840

1 - My wife and I own a house in the outskirts of Metro Manila. This was built on the property where she grew up, so the neighborhood is what you can call "typical Filipino Barangay". We have a dog. She is not aggressive or anything. I have also trained her to not mind children, and she don't. A sweet, medium-sized female dog that just mind her own business sniffing and doing dog things when I walk her.

Now, I'm the ONLY one in the neighborhood walking my dog in a leash, I pick up her droppings by bringing a dustpan and I also bring a bottle of water to dilute her pee. If it is close to the house, I get a bucket of water after to splash the area she have peed.

Now the other neighbors: They just open the gate and let their dogs run around freely, jumping people, pooping without picking it up, etc. There are also some neighbors down the street that have "stray" pet dogs. They just roam around freely 24/7 pooping everywhere, not picking it up.

What is really boggling my mind is that some of the neighbors are having a problem with ME. One woman really don't like me walking my dog telling me "You cannot let your dog pee here", "You are disgusting letting her pee here" blablabla, although it is on a public street, 30 meters or so from their property line and I flush it with a bucket of water every single time. One time I pointed out that I'm the only responsible dog owner in the neighborhood, and that her closest neighbors are literally keeping a pack of stray dogs leaving a minefield of droppings in front of her property every night, and that her alcoholic husband use to pee on our gate when he is drunk. She just walked away mumbling. She don't greet me and she clearly have a problem with me. My wife also told me that the others would most like take her stance because she is "the most Christian woman in the street". How that logic is working, I don't know.

There are also neighbors "hushing" at me and my dog when I walk her. Or shout "HOY", pointing their finger at my dog and having a facial expression like their eyes will come out of their eye sockets when she poop on the dustpan I place beneath her butt... Again, public street, she is in a leash, I clean up after her and she is a female dog. So she don't pee on objects as male dogs do. Again, they have no problem with their nextdoor neighbor wrecking havoc in the street when he releases his two big male dogs unleashed letting them do whatever they want...

2 - We also own a condo in an Ayala development. During the movein, I ordered most of the furniture flatpacked to be delivered in one go. I got the vehicle model and dimensions as requested by the condo admin to let them pass the gate and enter one of the parking levels close to the elevator. Now this was one of the many white utility vans you see on Filipino roads. 4 wheels, 2 axles. 2 meters wide and 1.95 meters tall if I remember correctly. Just a regular van size actually.

Now to the part that makes no sense. When the delivery arrived, the guard at the gate refused them entry into the parking level because the vehicle was "too big". I was present, and asked what he's meaning with "too big". "Sir, it is a 6-wheeler, it too big". I pointed out that the damn van have 4 wheels, 2 axles and there are SUVs in the parking floors that are larger than this van. Still, he refused the delivery van entry. So the courier and his partner had to bring everything on trolleys from outside the property and up to second parking level where they could take the elevator, instead of just parking next by.

Now the funny part. When they come to collect the garbage, they arrive in big freaking dump truck inside the parking levels, which clearly have more than 4 wheels.

3 - This one also boggles my mind a bit. Same condo building. I have signed the turnover documents for my parking lot long time ago. This is handled by Ayala corporate, not the condo admin. Taking processing time here in consideration, the admin have not been coordinated that I have signed the turnover documents yet. Still if I own it, and I have the Deed Of Absolute sale in my hand, they did not allow my wife's uncle to park there when he came over for a short visit. Just for a few hours. But the strange thing is that they let other people park at it and use it as a "visitor" parking space since it is conveniently located at ground floor. There are cars parked there almost daily. But the one who actually paid 1.2 million for that parking space, holding the Deed of Absolute sale in his hand, he is not allowed to use it since corporate have not given them the "green" light yet.

Edit: This post is about their behavior, which I'm questioning. Not "Why would you think 120$ is appropriate for a gold ring?" which seems to be very important for some.

So before our marriage a few years ago, we were checking out wedding bands in Manila's Chinatown, because apparently they are known for their gold shops. This was a suggestion by my wife's auntie, who had been purchasing a lot of gold there. She had been working in the Middle East, and everytime she went home, she would go there to buy gold jewelry as an "investment". Kinda understandable when you're in a place risking your bank account being wiped out all of a sudden.

So we went there, looked at the different shops her Aunt would purchase, etc. We specified solid gold wedding bands. Plain. No stones. but the rings they presented us didn't seem quite right. They were always light, almost like they were gold plated plastic. I have an 18 Karat gold ring from Europe, same size as those wedding bands, but it is waaay heavier. And there were no marks indicating purity or anything. If there are no markings, why did they tell "Sir this is 18 Karat", and "This is 22 Karat", etc. And they were all in the 20,000 peso range for a pair. We went to maybe 4-5 shops, and they were basically presenting the same thing. I rejected. Did not feel right.

Then her auntie brought us to the last store. Here, I found a pair. They were heavy, but still no marks indicating if it was gold. I asked if they were real, solid gold, and the staff told me "Yes Sir. All our jewelry is real gold". The price was 7500 pesos for a pair. Taking the weight and price into consideration, I bought them.

Now fast forward a year. I do some manual labor. Sometimes without gloves. I realized my wedding band has turned from "Gold" to steel color after being worn for just a year. Comparing it with my wife's who do not do manual labor, they do not look the same anymore. Hers is golden yellow, mine is like a stainless steel nut. So I was scammed.

Just trying to be helpful, I shared this discovery with the Auntie who showed us those places where she used to buy, and I told her that she might want to have her purchases checked out by some professionals, because our wedding bands are fake. She immediately walked away. She refuses to talk to me or look me in the eyes when we meet, and she blocked me on Facebook. She also told her relatives that I'm "rude" and that I think she is "stupid". I was just coming with a friendly suggestion.

It is like when I try to tell my wife something, and she always reply "I'm a college graduate, I'm not stupid.".

Am I saying things that are not culturally appropriate here, or is this how they roll the blinds down to escape reality?

TL;DR: Before our wedding, my wife’s auntie took us to several gold shops in Manila’s Chinatown to buy wedding bands, saying she had bought a lot of gold there herself. Most rings felt suspiciously light and had no purity markings, but one shop sold us a heavier pair for ₱7,500 and assured us they were real gold.

A year later, after normal wear and some manual labor, my ring turned from gold-colored to steel-colored, while my wife’s still looked yellow. So the rings were clearly fake or plated. I warned the auntie that she might want to have her own jewelry checked, since she had bought from those same places. Instead of taking it as a friendly warning, she got offended, stopped talking to me, blocked me on Facebook, and told relatives I was rude and implied she was stupid.