I wasn’t having the best of days yesterday, so I decided to do something about it. My preferred method was to drown my sorrows. It seemed to work just fine. I was starting out much earlier than normal, leaving the house at 1:30. I had the bright idea of doing an old-fashioned bar crawl–I’d start at the first bar on my side of town, and then go bar-to-bar until I reached the last one or couldn’t go any further. That plan got stymied immediately when the first bar–Outback–hadn’t opened yet (most bars here open no earlier than 2:00). Well, why not do it in reverse? I’d walk to the other side of town, then make my way back. I knew Dive In opened early so that would be my first stop.
A traditional bar crawl usually entails one beer then moving on to the next bar. I threw tradition out the window. For one thing, my friend Jessa came and sat with me. Of course, I bought her a drink. Gerlie was also at the bar with her boyfriend, and she bought me a beer in memory of her beating me at darts Friday night. Then a customer who remembered me from somewhere, but I didn’t remember him, sent over another beer. Jessa suggested we play a game of pool, so we did that. It was also another bar employee’s birthday (19, yikes!) and pizza and chicken were delivered for the celebration. Naturally, I bought the birthday girl a drink. By now I had been in Dive In for several beers and I knew the bar crawl idea wasn’t going to happen.
I decided to start making my way back to my side of town. Along the way, I came upon Cheap Charlies and decided to have a quick cold one upstairs. I was surprised that I was the only customer.
Just a couple of beers there, and I moved on up the highway. And then I came to Beach Please, and thought “why not?”.
I was also the only customer here. I’m pretty sure Beach Please is targeting the locals market–no girls at all.
A couple more beers, then I walked on the beach for a bit until I reached Mango’s.
This was my last stop of the day. I know I took a trike home from there, but this morning I couldn’t remember if I had paid my bar tab before leaving. I may have been a little inebriated by then.
It’s Mother’s Day today, so naturally I’m remembering my sweet mom.
In other news, I signed the lease for my new place today. I received no response from the current landlord to the email I sent. The message I sent asking if he’d received the email was also ignored. I’m probably going to have a fight on my hands. My move-in date for the apartment is June 1. This current residence is paid for through the end of July. Absent a refund, it looks like I’m going to be maintaining two places. It’s nice to be rich!
I snapped some photos of the apartment this afternoon:
Anyway, it’s smaller than what I have now, but it will suffice. Too bad my current landlord thought raping me for a hundred bucks a month was a good idea. Glad that I had this option.
So that’s where things stand as of the moment. Going to make a run out to the floating bar this afternoon. Yes, I made some brownies for the brown knees there. But before I go, let me leave you with this:
The bottom sign is awesome, but putting scare quotes around “free” inadvertently implies “not really free.” People need to stop using quotes in place of boldface, italics, large font, all-caps, and underlining when they’re trying to emphasize something. Aside from that quibble, I agree entirely.
Good luck with your upcoming landlord fight. You gonna lawyer up, or is it just not worth the trouble?
The new place looks pretty good. Congratulations on (1) making the firm decision to move, and (2) actually moving. I hope your dogs like the place as much as you do. And I hope you’re not “maintaining two places” for too long.
What’s a CR? A crap room?
Yeah, the quotation marks are wrong for sure. At least that’s not MY mistake. This time.
CR stands for “comfort room,” which is what they call bathrooms here in Filipino land.
The dogs will do alright, although I’m going to need to do their outside time outside the fence. I’ve got a plan for that too.
My fervent hope is that if I don’t get a full refund on the rent/deposit, this place sits vacant for months or years. Also, I’ll make sure the expats know not to rent from them. I probably won’t go to court over it though. In the judicial system here, it is always the foreigner’s fault. An example: a Filipino ran a red light and hit a foreigner’s car. The judge found the foreigner at fault because “if you hadn’t moved here it wouldn’t have happened.” No shit. That’s why I never want to drive in this country.
“In the judicial system here, it is always the foreigner’s fault.”
Yeah, that sounds familiar. “Our tribe” über alles.
I hope your “not the best of days” is over and done with.
Re: your new place – looks quite nice. For one person, the size definitely should be enough. Looks clean and pretty well maintained, which is a plus. Like the view also! Do the helpers you had at the old place stay there or are they coming with you? 😛
Re: your old place – Can you use something like registered mail to send your landlord a letter with the same info that you had in the email? Dont know if it would make a difference, but if you have proof that they received your letter, it is better than them claiming, “Mr. John, we never received your email.”.
Re: the business sign – funny, but I will repeat the tweet I saw and mentioned earlier. “A man who carries a gun into church tells me I am afraid because I wear a mask”. Personally (and statistically), I am pretty sure that there was and is a much higher chance of me dying from COVID in 2020 and 2021 than being the victim of a random attack on the street that would leave me dead. Does that sign apply to those that either open or conceal carry? 😀 But a funny sign nonetheless. LOL
Brian, I expect I’ll see the landlord (one of them anyway) between now and my moving date. They come up from Manila most weekends. I’ll hand-deliver my email contents then.
I’ve just got the one live-in helper now and she is coming to the new place, so no change there.
The open carry folks are merely asserting their rights, just as the non-mask wearers are doing. We disagree on the severity of COVID, but regardless, I think it is fair to ask people who want to avoid catching the virus to stay home while the rest of us get on with our lives.