Nothing much to speak of on this pre-Hash Monday morning. That won’t stop me though.

Played in the dart tourney at Lagoon Resort out on Baloy Beach yesterday. The good news I guess is I threw relatively decent darts. The bad news is I had maybe the worst partner ever. Listen, I get it that some people are less skilled than others, but if you miss the board entirely with two out of three darts, maybe you ain’t ready for tournament play. That was frustrating enough, but what really irritated me was giving her advice on what to aim at and then having that advice completely ignored. I can forgive a lot if you are striving to improve but to not even attempt to learn the game is bullshit. So, it made for a less enjoyable than it should have been experience. I honestly wanted to lose and be out early. But somehow we made it to the finals. I think the dart Gods were fucking with me because that required a LONG wait for the losers bracket to play out. And then we promptly lost our match to finish second on the day. Oh well.

The other day I ventured into a fish store on the Subic side of the bridge. Walked by it a hundred times and paid it no heed. To be more accurate, it is a store that sells Norwegian salmon and not much else. I’m not really a big fish eater, but the guy I was hiking with wanted to drop in and see what they had. He wound up getting some salmon steaks and I bought these:

Nikole, my masseuse, went on and on about an incident that occurred out in the Baloy beach area. Apparently, she has a client there and he falsely accused her of stealing his phone and 80,000 pesos (over $1500.). He even went to the police to report her as the thief. She was upset to the point of tears as she told the tale. Of course, without any evidence against her, the police took no action. She was concerned though that her reputation had been soiled and that she would lose customers as a result.

Those fears were confirmed as I waited for the dart tourney to start and witnessed two guys talking at the bar about the woman who had stolen from their friend. Damn, this is such a small town! Oh, and here’s the fucked up epilog to the tale. Nikole sent me a message today that the accuser had found both his phone and the money, apparently having hidden them so well he couldn’t find them earlier. What a loser. As Nikole noted, he has dropped the charges but her reputation isn’t as easily repaired.

Not that it is pertinent to the story, but my impression is that Nikole is not servicing these customers with massages. I think she might actually be a freelance prostitute. Still, being perceived as a dishonest hooker can’t be good for business either. Oh well, hope it all works out for her.

I’ll have the report from today’s Hash here for you tomorrow. The trail is starting in Alta Vista and finishing at Hunter Jo’s in Calapadayan. That’s a good long hike even as the crow flies. Should be interesting to see how the Hare’s get us there.

Until then, peace out!

As is my custom, I finished yesterday evening beachside at Mango’s. Took a couple of photos attempting to capture the beauty of one particular moment in time but can’t decide which one is best. What do you think?

Well, I reckon beauty is in the eye of the beer holder, right? Although I’m faithfully sticking with my new diet of gin and soda water.

Tough but satisfying hike with the Friday walkers. We had my driver drop us off in the Gordon Heights section of Olongapo City and headed out (and up) from there.

A good day on trail all and all.

That’s it for this time, folks.

So may the sunrise bring hope where it once was forgotten
Sons are like birds, flying upward over the mountain

Super typhoon Rolly must have encountered some Kryptonite on the way to Olongapo. Just a little rain but no winds, flooding, or damage in these parts. This is not to say there wasn’t death and destruction where the storm did make landfall, just noting my good fortune that it apparently bypassed us.

So unless things dramatically change I’ll be making an appearance at today’s Hash. Not as sure I’ll be doing Guenter’s trail though. I don’t know for certain what he has in mind but from our start point on Banaba street, I’d wager the long, hard, and steep climb up what even he calls “Motherfucker” is a distinct possibility. None of that for me, thanks. Once I get there I’ll just wing it I suppose. I’ll likely just stay on the pavement today.

I did make it out for a bit yesterday afternoon before the rain hit. Started at Cheap Charlies and had this in lieu of beer:

I was successful in avoiding my mid-day meal yesterday as well. Quelled the hunger pangs with a slice of turkey lunch meat and some processed cheese. It worked. But by 5:30 I was definitely ready for dinner. Foodies, the restaurant downstairs from Cheap Charlies, had their Sunday special on offer–roast beef. Tempting though that sounded, I had a hankering for the pork chops at Mango’s. So off I went.

Ordered up another gin and soda upon arrival and told the waitress I wanted the grilled pork chops. She came back a couple of minutes later with the disappointing news that the chops were not available. Hmm, now what? I asked if they had roast chicken and she went off to check. Upon return, she advised that I could get half a roast chicken now, or if I was willing to wait 40 minutes I could get a fresh whole chicken. Hmm, something about the way she emphasized the word “fresh” compelled me to ask how old the half chicken was. “A couple of days”. Although I didn’t need a whole chicken I had no problem waiting for it to be freshly roasted.

Then when I got home I had a strawberry-banana smoothie, likely eliminating any benefits I may have derived from my good behavior throughout the day. Ah well, it’s a process.

Had an abbreviated walk in the rain with the dogs.this morning But not to worry, I still managed to capture this image:

And here’s a bonus for you litter maniacs:

See y’all here tomorrow!