Yesterday morning I made the trip out to Baypointe hospital in order to get the required COVID swab test done prior to my cataract surgery scheduled for tomorrow. You’d think this should be easy enough to accomplish, but then again, I am in the Philippines.

Outside the main entrance to the hospital is a check-in table. You tell them the purpose of your visit, they ask some questions about any symptoms you’ve experienced, then they take your temperature, and you get a pass to go inside. That’s how it’s gone on all my previous visits. Except the COVID testing is done in a tent at the end of the driveway. You still have to go inside to pay prior to the test though. Except if you are being tested for COVID you are not allowed to enter the hospital. A classic Catch-22 situation. Well, I had my helper along so she went inside to pay using my credit card. That’s a little scary too. At the grocery store, they check my ID to make sure the card is mine. Anyway, it took a while because there was a long line at the cashier, but after about twenty minutes she came back with the receipt I required.

I traipsed over to the tent and was tested immediately. The actual procedure was not as invasive as I feared. I mean, it is never fun to have something poked up your nose and down the back of your throat (two different swabs, just to be clear), but it didn’t hurt at all and didn’t take long to complete. And when I woke up this morning the results were in my email inbox.

Turns out the lab is positive that I am negative for COVID. No real surprise there. That means tomorrow morning I’ll be heading back over to Baypointe and getting my eye fixed. Hopefully. We’ll see if I can see clearly again.

Last night, I changed things up a bit and started my beer intake at Blue Butterfly. It’s an okay bar and the bargirl who latched onto me upon arrival was nice enough. At least she seemed to really like my jokes. Then again, I was buying her lady drinks, so that may have impacted sincerity in that regard. Thirty-nine years old and no kids, which is almost unheard of in this country. I seriously asked her if she were a lesbian and she said no. She didn’t trip my triggers much but we are Facebook friends now.

While I was at Blue Butterfly, Marick sent me a message to come visit her bar and meet the new waitress she just hired. Turns out Marick’s eyes are much better than mine. Her place is diagonally across the highway from BB, but she saw me sitting in the outside seating area. So, I stopped in for a couple.

The new girl is named Joy (yikes, another one!), 23 years old with two young kids. Claims to have never worked in a bar before. So naturally, I bought the first lady drink of her career.

This morning I had a very pleasant chat with Paula. Except it turns out her name is not Paula. It’s actually Paul Pearl, and she goes by Pearl. She says her mom just calls her Pau. She wasn’t able to join the hike today but is looking forward to future adventures–wants to climb the mountains. She seems smart and witty. Also doesn’t appear to be needy at all. No idea why a woman like this would like a man like me. Not saying she does, but based on our conversation this morning, there might be some kind of connection to build on. Time will tell I suppose.

As far as the hike goes, it was raining again this morning so we opted to just stay on the back streets of Barretto. The rain stopped before our meetup, and we managed to get in a 6.5K hike before it started again.

You can Relive the journey here if you want:

That’s about it from here for now. Hopefully, I’ll be back with more tomorrow. If not, it’s been nice knowing you!

…so I just used the couch.

Yep, another low-energy day. I had a 10:00 a.m. doctor appointment to attend to, so that forced me to get my lazy ass off the couch and out the door. Looks like the eye surgery is going to take place next Saturday. Oh, and prior to the operation, I’ve got to get the dreaded COVID swab test. That means another trip to Baypointe hospital on Wednesday. Oh well, I really need to get these eyes of mine working again. Doc says I might even be able to function without eyeglasses. That would be a treat, I’ve been wearing glasses for over 20 years now. But I’ll settle for just being able to see clearly enough to read with both eyes open and without getting fatigued. I can’t say for sure, but I’m thinking my recent laziness bout might be related to my declining eyesight. Thirty minutes on the computer and I need to take a nap it seems. One more week.

After completing my office visit, I decided to push myself a little by walking home. It’s only around 6K and mostly on the highway, but it was at least several thousand steps in the right direction.

Relive it here if you please.

For lunch, I had some leftover spaghetti and meatballs I made last night. Then took yet another nap. This post took a goodly portion of my remaining energy, but it is Saturday night and I must persevere!

How about some funny shit before I go?

How about this?

Alright, this is an old school, non-political, funny story:

VOTED BEST JOKE IN IRELAND

John O’Reilly hoisted his beer and said, “Here’s to spending the rest of me Life, between the legs of me wife!” That won him the top prize at the pub for the best toast of the night!

He went home and told his wife, Mary, “I won the prize for the Best toast of the night.” She said, “Aye, did ye now. And what was your toast?” John said, “Here’s to spending the rest of me life, sitting in church beside me wife.” “Oh, that is very nice indeed, John!” Mary said.

The next day, Mary ran into one of John’s drinking buddies on the street corner. The man chuckled leeringly and said, “John won the prize the other night at the pub with a toast about you, Mary.” She said, “Aye, he told me, and I was a bit surprised myself. You know, he’s only been in there twice in the last four years. Once I had to pull him by the ears to make him come, and the other time he fell asleep”.

You are welcome! Back with more soon.

…where it stops, nobody knows. And just to be clear, I’m not in any hurry to find out. It may not be much of a life, but it’s the best one I’ve got. I actually kinda like it, and for me, that’s saying a lot. Here’s a sample:

You can’t see where you are going by looking backward. And I have gotten a lot better at living in the moment. But Facebook likes to remind me of moments I’ve lived in the past and the people I’ve shared them with.

Funny story behind that picture. It was our first night in Angeles City. We went into this bar and we were the only customers. All the girls came down off the stage and surrounded Eun Oke like she was a movie star. I guess they’d never seen a Korean female before. They were stroking her arms and touching her hair, talking K-pop and K-dramas, and Eun Oke was loving the attention. “Buy them all a drink!” she announced. I leaned over and advised, “you should pick one and buy her a drink.” She wasn’t having it. “Nope, drinks for everyone!” The next morning she says “so, how much did we spend last night?”. Around a hundred dollars, I told her. “How much do we spend when just me and you go out in Seoul?” she asked. I smiled and said around a hundred dollars. Anyway, it was a fun trip and she had a blast. On our last night there she broke up with me, but that’s a different story.

Last night, I did my weekly trip out to It Doesn’t Matter bar and spent some time in the company of my current favorite bargirl, Roan. Great sense of humor and she can hold up her end of a conversation. I like that! I told her last night I was going to take her to Seoul. For dinner on her day off. At the Korean restaurant named Seoul on the old Navy base. Should be fun!

I heard from Judy today. She’s currently the only remaining friend with benefits in my stable. Unlike the recently fired Joy, Judy didn’t beg me for money. She begged me to let her give me a massage. Yeah, it may be a subtle difference, but that’s the way the FWB program is supposed to work–I help you, you help me. I wasn’t really in the mood for a massage but I let her come over anyway. After we were done, we cuddled some on the bed. I liked that.

Here’s a good example of why Judy is not girlfriend material, despite being very attractive, sweet, and kind. When I agreed to the massage I asked if she could come at noon. She said yes. And then she asked me “what time is noon?”. Seriously, that had me shaking my head. The Philippines has a reputation of being an English-speaking nation, but there are very few Filipinas that I’ve met who can actually engage in any semblance of a meaningful conversation. And yeah, I know it likely has as much to do with the type of women I meet in the places I tend to frequent, but still, I had better conversations with the Korean bargirls I met over the years. I think the quality of education in the Philippines has really deteriorated. The sex is good here though, so there’s that.

I mentioned in yesterday’s post that we have officially entered the holiday season here. I came across this article today that sheds a little more light on that unique cultural aspect of life in the Philippines. Read it if you care.

So, that leaves the Wednesday Walkers group hike to talk about. It was kind of like deja vu all over again. And a little ironic I suppose. One of the reasons I hadn’t done the Monday Hash trail was not wanting to take the uncomfortable ride out to Olongapo. So, of course, that’s what we did yesterday. Not as far out as Monday, and no need to make a transfer to another Jeepney, but still. We also climbed up a steep-ass hill to Kalaklan ridge. Not as long and hard as the climb up on Monday’s Hash, but plenty challenging for this old fart. And once we reached the top of that climb, I found myself back on the ridgeline road that I had hiked as my alternative trail on Monday. And there was still a good bit of uphill to complete. Anyway, it was still good to be out and about. Here are the photos:

That’s the way it is around here. And it suits me just fine, thank you!