Back to my regular routines after a hangover-induced day off, and it was good to be on the road again. For my morning walk, I decided to do the trek out to Waltermart. And since it was a special occasion, or felt like one anyway, I did the photo every 1000 steps thing. Here they are:
A good hike overall, except for that heavy breathing portion. Oh, and one of the straps on my backpack broke near the end of the trek, so I carried it on one shoulder the rest of the way.
Saturday evening, I took Swan to Treasure Island Resort on Baloy so she could enjoy some live music and beach views. It was a good time.
It was another good time with my sweetie. Swan enjoys live music and Engine is one of the better bar bands around this area. For shits and giggles I made a playlist of the songs they performed during their first set yesterday:
- Tequila Sunrise (Eagles)
- A Horse With No Name (America)
- I Don’t Want To Talk About It (Rod Stewart)
- Cat’s In The Cradle (Harry Chapin)
- Have You Ever Seen The Rain (CCR)
- Bad Moon Rising (CCR)
- Crazy Little Thing Called Love (Queen)
- Under Pressure (Queen)
- Paint It Black (Rolling Stones)
- Honky Tonk Woman (Rolling Stones)
- Brown Sugar (Rolling Stones)
- Satisfaction (Rolling Stones)
- Ain’t Talkin’ Bout Love (Van Halen)
- You Really Got Me (Kinks)
- Jump (Van Halen)
- Here I Go Again (Whitesnake)
- Beds Are Burning (Midnight Oil)
- Free Bird (Lynard Skynard
They played Free Bird at Swan’s request (and 100 pesos in the tip jar). They play a nice mix of classic songs that an old fart like me can enjoy. It is also nice to be able to see live music performed early in the evening (they start around 4:30). Live music offerings in Barretto begin at 9 p.m. or later in most other venues.
We did have one little bothersome event occur. I had a discount coupon from the SOB for a 10% discount on food and beverages for up to four guests. When the waitress brought our tab, we were not given the total discount to which we were entitled. The bill said I had ten beers, and Swan had two wines. Swan didn’t think I had that many beers, but I didn’t keep count, so I can’t argue with that. What left me shaking my head was that we were only discounted the ten percent for two of the beers and the two wines. According to our waitress, the “four guests” limitation meant that only four drinks would be discounted. Well, that’s a bullshit interpretation, but I’m not going to get too upset over a couple of hundred pesos. I did reduce the amount I intended to tip.
We headed home at seven after another nice date night. And so ended another Saturday in my life. I could do with lots more like it!
You know, back in the day, I could party with the best of them, and classic music from that era went hand-in-hand with that. And yeah, I remember some of my favorites who partied too much and died too soon. I didn’t realize until I came across this today that 27 was an unlucky number.
A political meme or three okay with you?
Speaking of memories that made me laugh, I posted this on Facebook nine years ago:
I can’t recall if I posted this YouTube video here previously, but for those of you curious about the Barretto bar scene, this is a pretty comprehensive exploration:
And now for your daily dose of humor:
Alright, it is Sunday and that means a feeding at Hideaway and a dinner date with Swan at John’s place are in my immediate future. I shall return tomorrow if I survive another night.
a cute little coffee shop in barangay Magna Vacca
Magna Vacca… “Big Cow”??
“Vacca” is where we get the word vaccine. Dr. Edward Jenner discovered that a small amount of cowpox made one immune to smallpox.
“Cow” in French is vache. In Spanish, it’s vaca. Both are derived from the Latin vacca.
Oh, and one of the straps on my backpack broke near the end of the trek, so I carried it on one shoulder the rest of the way.
Sucks. I can love a piece of equipment to death, but the moment it betrays me by, say, losing a strap or ripping a pocket, I’ll curse the thing out under my breath as a piece of shit, all love forgotten.
re: US Grant quote
I’m pretty sure the left sees patriotism as linked with superstition, ambition, and ignorance (“bitterly clinging to guns or religion”—Obama, slightly misquoted), while the O-so-enlightened left corners the market on intelligence. Yep, they’re the smart ones. Just look at Sniffy Joe Biden.
Enjoy dinner at John’s! How’s he doing these days?
Well, lazy bastard that I am, it turns out I spelled the barangay’s name wrong. It should have been Mangan-Vaca. My spelling does translate to “Great Cow” in Spanish.
The backpack was good while it lasted, but now it is trash. Luckily, I have a backup at home that I can use for the Hash today.
Yep, for smart folks, the left sure has fucked things up. Or perhaps they’ve destroyed the economy intentionally.
John wasn’t there last night. He’s back to playing in the pool league on Sundays, but I take that as a good sign.
Interesting bit of useless trivia about Janis Joplin. Jimmy Johnson, former coach of the Dallas Cowboys and now a commentator on one of the NFL shows, was a high school classmate of hers, and was pretty good friends with her during high school.
Re: discount coupon. Yeah, makes absolutely no sense. Although I probably would have done the same thing, decreasing the waitress’ tip doesnt really impact the management who made the stupid rule. I am sure that the waitress was just doing what she was told. In a way, unfortunate to punish the waitress for her bosses stupid rule.
Brian, I used to live in Prescott, Arizona. Shortly after Janis died, her parents moved there. I never met them though.
Yeah, I wasn’t really trying to screw the waitress (heh, my GF was with me). I asked if I could tip her directly, but she said everything has to go in the community tip jar. My attitude is if I can’t tip my server, I reduce the tip accordingly. Back in the USA I was a consistent 20% kind of guy, here it is usually 10%. Of course, lots of my fellow expats don’t tip at all and think I’m stupid for doing so.
Ive become more anti-tipping just because it seems everybody has their hand out nowadays.
Part of it is because the default when you use a credit card “tap” reader shows a tip page, but I dont get a place like Chipotle where they are on a regular hourly wage, dont provide any table service, etc., yet there is a tip jar as you get to the cash register.
Yeah, I would never tip in a place where I wasn’t actual table service. And that credit card scam thing would piss me off.