Another dart tournament last night and another victory. That’s my partner Espie pictured above. She’s recently returned from several months in Sweden where she was visiting her fiance, Pierre. I guess on those long winter nights they passed the time throwing darts because her game has improved exponentially since the last time I saw her play. She was en fuego last night, certainly better than I was.
It was funny, when I first arrived at the bar she said to me “I hope we can be partners.” I responded, but you have a fiance! She clarified that she meant darts partners. And as fate would have it, that’s how it turned out. And yes, we beat Steve, the Englishman who doesn’t drink, along the way. In fact, we never lost a leg, winning all our matches 2-0. It was a lot of fun.
Today’s “interesting” photo from my walk:
This sign was posted at a sari-sari store on my route.
At first glance, I read it as “big ass frozen foods for sale”. Of course, what they mean is they have bigas (rice in Tagalog) and frozen foods for sale. I like my initial reading better.
Speaking of which, I’m not sure if I should be worried about the onset of old-timers disease or not. I re-read yesterday’s post this morning and noticed where instead of writing “feeling sorry for Lucky” I wrote “filling sorry”. Damn, how ignorant does that make me look? I mean, I make plenty of writing and grammatical errors out of pure ignorance. But trust me, I do know the difference between feeling and filling. Like after I read that post the feeling that I’m a crappy proofreader was filling my mind. Oh well, thanks for your indulgence dear readers.
No real updates on the Kung-fu virus here in the Philippines. A few more reported cases, but nothing in my neck of the woods. Although as an indication of just how powerful this plague truly is, I noticed this morning that it is actually changing the character of litter. I shit you not:
There’s just no masking what this virus can do!
That’s all for now folks. The road is calling to me, so walk I must.
…keeps on turning. And so the Journey continues. *ahem*
More of the same around here. Nothing wrong with that I suppose.
Before he was Lucky. Facebook reminds me that is was just one year ago that I was feeling pity for this poor pup. Tied up all day with no food or water. No love either. A couple of days later he was mine.Lucky seems to be enjoying his new life.He looks dead in this one, but that’s one of the ways he likes to sleep. Fat and happy.I’m pretty sure he learned this position from Buddy.
Something “interesting” from yesterday’s walk:
Three new houses under construction here in Alta Vista subdivision. There are four others being built nearby. It seems to be a boomtown these days around here.
I couldn’t feel the burn yesterday, but I could sure as hell see it.
Not sure what was going on here. Normally the burns are white smoke. It makes me wonder if this might be a house or a building on fire.That’s what a thatch grass fire looks like. I guess folks are sick and tired of all this clean air we’ve been experiencing…
Well, they warned us that if Trump wasn’t impeached he would have limitless power. And now he’s gone and changed the twenty-dollar bill into a 2020 note.
Works for me.
And what are you doing for Valentine’s Day?
Won’t be a problem for me!
I’m actually going to return to Baguio City for the Valentine’s run with the La Union Hash House Harriers.
And that’s all I’ve got for today boys and girls. Thanks for dropping by!
I never apologize. I’m sorry, that’s just who I am.
A satisfying evening of darts yesterday. Win or lose I want to throw well, and last night I was at least decent. Far better than the last time I played. I drew a solid female partner and so did my friendly rival, Steve the Englishman who doesn’t drink. And as seems to frequently be the case, we went head-to-head in the winner’s bracket. The match went all three legs and I’ll confess to being somewhat surprised when we prevailed. Unsurprisingly, Steve and Jo came back up through the loser’s bracket to meet us again in the finals. And once again, Liza and I managed to eke out the win after three hard-fought legs. Heh, it’s fun to win a well-played tourney.
Good job partner!
In other news, Scott (Pubic Head) asked me if I’d do Monday’s trail with him (he’d missed the Hash). Well, I was planning on doing the Wednesday Walkers group hike anyway and I figured the devil I knew could be no worse than what those guys may have in mind. So, there I was again up on the big mountain. We did bypass one of the downs and ups, but still had 5K+ by the time we were back on the pavement. Neither of us wanted to complete the remainder of Leech’s original trail that I had failed to do on Monday.
That would be Scott navigating his way down through a dry creek bed near the end of our hike yesterday.
I did however finally finish the final portion of the trail for my morning walk today. It was a familiar stretch that joins up with My Bitch eventually.
The climb up consists of these tires……and these steps. Plus a bit more uphill on the trail. A good climb by itself, but at the end of a long-ass hike, it would have been a killer. Glad I had the good sense to quit on Monday while I was ahead. So, here is the entirety of Leech My Nuggets’ Hash trail which I managed to complete in only three days!
My offerings for today’s “interesting” photo feature:
I observed this kite-astrophe in Alta Vista.
I know I promised to bring you something other than flowers, but these were irresistible:
Not a leaf on this tree. I’d call it dead but for those three flower blossoms. Maybe that was Mother Nature conveying a message of hope–all is not lost!
So, I listen to music while I walk. I’ve created some “mixtapes” on the Spotify app, but sometimes I’ll just play a set of “created for you” selections Spotify thinks I’ll like. Now, at my age, I’ve heard just about everything (except the new stuff those punk-ass young folks listen to). And most of the songs Spotify chooses for me are familiar. But then I heard one that was completely new to me and I actually liked it! Great musical beat, but the lyrics really grabbed me for some reason. The song is San Francisco B.C. by a group called Silver Jews. Never heard of them either. Anyway, give it a listen if the mood strikes you.
Old San Francisco, San Francisco B.C. I lived with my true love and she lived with me “Romance is the douche of the bourgeoisie” Was the very first thing she imparted to me We had sarcastic hair, we used lewd pseudonyms We got a lot of stares on the street back then
Since her dad, a local barber, had been beaten to death She had become a vocal martyr in the vegan press The cops had failed, they couldn’t catch a bus They were looking for a male with a bad hair cut Enter tumbleweed, exit love and our affaire d’amour Was set on self-destruct
She said “you don’t make enough to provide for me” I said “what about the stuff that we quote believe?” She said “I left that on the sands of history I’ve found a new man to take care of me He dresses for success and emergency And he moves a lot of concrete on the QVC”
Middle-aged and deadly, like a cobra in the shade Sat in the midst of the smoke that he made His name was Mr. Games and he owned the place It was a lonely bar and grill in the Lower Haight He had a jeweler’s hands and a blurry face He knew I needed a chance so he gave me a break
“If I hire you now, can you start today? I got a high-rise job down by the bay Just a couple of rocks and some firearms There’s not many locks and just one alarm My step-son Gene will pick you up and drive Try to be his friend, he’s got a friendly side”
Doll-house lightning and the next thing I knew We were back at our point of rendezvous I was in the possession of burglary tools Children’s fur coats and diamonds and jewels Gene’s talking about insignificant shit Just like crooks in the movies when they do that bit
He said the power of metal will never be harnessed I thought the wages of metal should be heavily garnished We were waiting for his dad to meet us there Gene took off his hat and I noticed his hair It was neatly trimmed but a patch was bare I knew it wasn’t the wave, it was human error
Before I knew what I said, I said “killer cut” I watched him silently putting out a cigarette butt Then he came at me with some fist cuisine I had to duck aside and that was bad for Gene ‘Cause when he went by me he tripped and fell Through the glass coffee table at the Wong hotel
Right there and then Mr. Games walked in With my ex-true love on his gamy limb So her dad’s killer’s dad was her new beau And Games had a wife, whatta you know? She got real real quiet till we chucked the kid Then she went her way and I went his
Tuesday is the day I restock the larders here Casa Rosenda. That means taking a ride out to the Royal Duty-Free grocery store on the old Navy base. I was in for a couple of surprises yesterday. The first was discovering that after more than a month, shredded cheese was back in stock. Here was the second surprise:
Now, I’ve always had to pay a premium to get imported foods I crave. Last time this cheese was in stock it was selling for $6.50, which is about double the USA price. But over ten bucks? No way Jose!
Luckily for me, they had an off-brand available for half the price of Kraft, so I bought four bags of that. I was also pleased to discover that the long-absent tortillas were back on the shelf. I snatched four packs of those as well.
Together again at last!
The shopping excursion wasn’t a total success though. No fresh milk, so I had to buy the Filipino brand that sits on the shelf unrefrigerated. Truthfully it tastes fine, but I just can’t get my mind around milk that hasn’t been kept cold. I have no idea why it doesn’t spoil. I don’t think I want to know.
It looks and tastes like fresh milk. I bring it home and put it in the fridge. It’s fine, I’m sure. I just prefer to get my milk in the dairy section.
I was also disappointed that my favorite brand of cornbread mix was not in stock. Hell, I searched and searched and couldn’t find ANY cornbread on the shelf. I was about to give up when I turned the corner in the baking goods section and spotted two lonely bags sitting on a shelf with unrelated items. I carted them both.
Marie Callendar’s is my second favorite brand so I felt lucky to be bringing her home with me.
And that’s the way it pretty much goes here. I’ve learned to buy in quantity when something is in stock because invariably it will all be gone on a subsequent visit. So yeah, I’m lucky to have a supermarket nearby that even carries these imported goods. That doesn’t mean I can’t bitch and moan when they can’t seem to have the foresight to order fast-selling items far enough in advance to keep them in stock. And yes, I’m living a blessed life if I can devote a blog post to my disappointments at the grocery store.
Anyway, I was finally able to enjoy one of my favorite treats for lunch today:
A homemade burrito! It’s been a while, I’ve missed you, baby!
Yesterday’s walk took me out near Easter mountain:
It was a beautiful afternoon for a hike. It’s actually almost cool (relatively speaking) this time of year. Low humidity and a very nice breeze. Barely broke a sweat on a two-hour walk.
And here’s my submission for the “interesting” photo from that hike:
That’s one way to take out the trash I suppose. Those white bags are a good 8′ above street level. Certainly out of reach for any trash collector who might happen by. Maybe the person responsible is trying to make some kind of statement. Whatever that statement might be, it doesn’t seem to translate to English…
And finally, I’m glad to have found some confirmation that the brain exercises I perform on a nightly basis have some scientific foundation. Cliff Claven can’t be wrong! I used to be a mailman too after all.
Survived another Hash despite the best efforts of the Hare, Leech My Nuggets.
The Hashmobile ride out to the trailhead is always my least favorite, and arguably, the most dangerous part of the Hash.Stretching our legs after disembarking from what was thankfully only a 15-minute ride.And we are ON-ON!
Actually, at first, I was pleasantly surprised. We did the big mountain but the climb up was via the ridge road, the easiest way to the top. Relatively speaking anyway.
I always enjoy hiking the ridgeline (once I’m up there). Look left and you can see Olongapo City……and look to the right to see Barrio Barretto and Baloy Beach.
So once we were up on top, a couple of us were openly speculating about what lay in store for us. When we started heading back down a little-used trail, Buddy Fucker said: “this can’t be right, it’s too soon”. Well, I’ve always given Leech credit for being the best there is at marking a trail, so there was no question we were on the intended path.
And so down we went.
Honestly, it was a reasonably pleasant hike down. Still, in the back of my mind, I knew we were a long way from our On-Home at Baloy Beach and I feared that meant at least one more climb was in my future. Nothing to be done about that now, so I decided to just enjoy my unfamiliar surroundings.
About three-quarters of the way down, we came to a land of broken dreams. Several houses had been destroyed. This one still had some contents like clothing inside. Speculation was it was a government eviction of squatters, but who knows?I’m not sure how this photo came out so wrong. That tree limb was actually a handrail for a rather steep climb down to that rickety footbridge at the bottom. Ah, I think I had my camera on a zoom setting without realizing it…Another abandoned/destroyed house. The trail actually took us THROUGH this one…The pleasantness was about to end as sure enough, Leech had us climbing back up to the ridge road.
It was a tougher uphill than the first one, but certainly nothing as bad as Günter likes to put us through. Of course, if we had been more forward-thinking we’d have just stayed on the ridge road and avoided the additional ups and downs. But where’s the fun in that, right?
After marching forward for a good bit, the powder on the ground indicated it was once again time to descend from the mountaintop. My group determined that regardless of the Hare’s intentions, this would be our final trip down for the day. Ha Ha! What did we know? Leech’s path meandered down for a while, then up again, then down–and there was seemingly no logical place to exit this roller coaster. Good one, Leech!
How do we get out of here? Just keep plodding forward and hope for the best…
As per usual, I was at the back of the pack. We’d been on trail for an hour and a half with no end in sight. Well, the end of daylight was fast approaching and that always makes me nervous. It took another thirty minutes to finally get off the mountain and back onto the pavement. Some of the group took a trike to Baloy but I was too stubborn to ride back. As it was, I was shortcutting a good 3K from Leech’s trail, which included another climb. Had I attempted that I’d be walking in the wilderness in the dark. No thanks!
I made it back to Da’Kudo’s on Baloy about five minutes before the circle activities began (I usually have close to an hour to drink up some free beer and eat something beforehand). Once again my bitch this week is that the trails are just too damn long for this time of year. Even with the shortcut I took, the sun was almost down when I arrived On-Home. I know I’m old and slow, but damn it’s getting ridiculous.
The long and winding road. Right at 9K according to my Strava app.
Alright, enough grumpiness. Except for being too long, I enjoyed being out there for most of it. I’ll try and do the part I missed tomorrow.
On-On!
UPDATE: Well, that’s a hoot. I used the “Too much of a good thing” title back in May 2016. That post was all about me achieving a 25,000 step goal. And I did it on the flat ground of the Han River bike path. Ah, those were the days. Some nice pictures brought me a flood of memories as well.
Another day in paradise. What can I say? Well, how about this:
We had our first virus-related death in Manila over the weekend. In what may or may not be related news, yesterday a “Chinese-looking” man collapsed on the sidewalk in Manila, and the passerby wouldn’t go near him. I about laughed out loud when I read that after the authorities arrived it turned out to just be a drunk Korean. Fun times!
When I was out surfing this morning I came across this article in Reason: “How the War on Sex Crushes Underprivileged Women”. It mirrors something I’ve been arguing for years–prostitution is not automatically sex trafficking, in fact, that is rarely the case from everything I’ve seen. Especially here in the Philippines. The “go-go” bars are dens of prostitution but I have never met anyone here who was not engaged in that profession by choice. The bars are always advertising for “dancers” and the pay is decent by local standards. Once hired, no one is forced to go with a customer and there are no repercussions for refusing to do so. In fact, I chuckled this morning when I read on one of the local forums about guys complaining the girls are asking for too much money for their puki. I chimed in with this:
Girls get to set their price subject to negotiation. It’s their body after all. Don’t like their final offer? Walk away. If everyone refused to pay more than 2,500 it wouldn’t be long before the price was 2,500. I’m not saying it will be easy. These highly educated bargirls are savvy negotiators. They’ve probably all read “The Art of the Deal”. Still, stand your ground. Or pay their price. One of those.
Anyway, periodically the police will shakedown a bar for bribes raid a bar and arrest the manager and mamasan for prostitution crimes. The girls are carted off to some shelter and a press release says they were “rescued”. Rescued from what? A job that enabled them to support their families (whether they went with customers or not)? And when the bars are closed down, those rescued girls wind up selling their wares from the street, without the comfort and protections (like weekly health checks) provided by the bars. I’m no fan of prostitution and rarely partake myself, but these adult women should be able to sell their ass-ets if they choose to do so. If a man can sell his body carrying bricks on his back for a living, a woman should be able to make money laying on her back. Fair is fair.
In other news, I made up a batch of chili yesterday.
I thought it was a little too bland for my taste. The cornbread though was outstanding!
Regular readers know that I’m no Kevin Kim–I don’t make anything from scratch. But living here in the PI I don’t always find my preferred brands of baking mixes. Last time I went shopping for a cornbread mix, this is what I found:
Never heard of it before. I used to find Marie Callender’s here. That didn’t require me to add melted butter, but oh well.I was really surprised when I opened the box and saw these packets. The box flaps said, “we measure–you mix”. Well, okay then. And as I say, it’s the best damn cornbread I’ve ever baked. Hope I can find it again!
Things of interest from my walk include:
A big ass carabao with a “don’t fuck with me” look on his face.And this sari-sari store.
What was interesting about the sari-sari? Yeah, I walked by at least 50 of them this morning. But this one caught my eye because of the name. And now my mission will be to search until I find a store named “Mortis”. Hey, it’s something to strive for, right?
I’ve got the Hash this afternoon. Leech My Nuggets is the Hare, so I’m sure there will be a mountain or two in my future. Coincidentally, Facebook reminded me that I was climbing mountains two years ago today as well:
It’s a tad warmer today though.
Dance, they said Life is only for the moment The light is brief, Don’t waste it. The taste is sweet so taste it. So I said I understand, I’m dancing as fast as I can.
Well, the hoped-for return of some darts glory on the ten-year anniversary of my best game ever was not to be. Despite actually practicing some this week I played like shit last night. Felt bad because my partner came all the out from Angeles City just to play some darts. When he drew me someone told him I was a good player. I’m sure he was disappointed in the way I played too. Ah well, that’s how it goes sometimes I suppose.
The day wasn’t a total bust though. I found the motivation to try and discover an easy way back to My Bitch from Alta Vista. I was stymied at first when I tried to blaze a path through a field next to the house construction that blocks my old route. The construction workers waved me over and showed me a way behind the house. That works for now, but once the place is occupied it’s probably not going to be a viable option. We’ll see.
Once back on the familiar turf of My Bitch, I was resolved to explore the way down I hope to use when I Hare again next month. As I approached the junction I was looking for I entered an area where they’ve been doing some pretty significant burning.
It pollutes the hell out of the air, but I must admit it’s a lot easier walking without being encumbered by thatch grass. I just hope the burning accomplishes some greater purpose, but I have no idea what that might be.
So, I knew the junction by the stand of banana trees but there wasn’t much of a trail that I could see. I dove in anyway and started making my way down to the valley. I hit a couple of dead ends and nothing was looking real familiar, but I trudged on hoping I’d get lucky. Apparently no one is using this path these days. In the past, it was much more defined and I could see evidence of people harvesting bamboo or doing other work up here.
Now it looks like this. And in places, there had been tree falls I had to climb over. Well, I knew where I wanted to go so I just kept looking for the easiest possible way to get there.
And get there I eventually did! Despite the hardship, I’m still hoping to incorporate this section into my trail as Hare. One potential problem is that it appears someone is building a fence at the bottom. Will they complete it before March? I’ll have a Plan B just in case.
But it was good to get back to my roots yesterday. This big ass tree is just barely holding on, but it is a good landmark. Until the next typhoon anyway.
And finally, I found this item of interest on my morning walk today:
I didn’t look to see what was under the hat. Maybe that concrete is really quicksand. Poor bastard!
And there you have another installment from my so-called life. Isn’t it grand?
One of my routines within a routine is to hand out chocolate to the kids I encounter during my Saturday morning walk.
Get it while it lasts!Sweets for the sweet!
Anyway, the kids look forward to my passing by on Saturday. It’s the little things in life, right?
Later on during the walk (long after the chocolate was gone), I was a fair piece upstream on the shitty creek I posted about yesterday. And I encountered this boy fishing:
He was shy about getting his picture taken, but I took a lousy one anyway. Afterward, he asked me for money. I told him no. I’m the candy man, not the money man.
In other news, Facebook reminded me that I was at one time actually pretty good at darts.
A 15 dart out, my best game of 501 ever! That was 10 years ago today. I’ll try and replicate it tonight. Truthfully, I’d be happy to be half that good.
The folks who brew Corona beer have maintained their sense of humor during the virus outbreak (assuming this is real):
You gotta laugh when that happens, right?
Like the time I woke up next to some ugly bitch I met at the bar. I had a godawful taste in my mouth. Got up to wash my face, looked in the mirror and saw a string dangling down between my front teeth. I groaned and said, “please God, let it be a teabag!”.
Yeah, yeah. I won’t quit my day job. Oh wait, I don’t have one.
Thanks for reading!
Champagne don’t drive me crazy Cocaine don’t make me lazy Ain’t nobody’s business but my own Candy is dandy and liquor is quicker You can drink all the liquor down in Costa Rica Ain’t nobody’s business but my own
