Well, nothing stopped me from Hashing yesterday anyway. The lunchtime downpour let up, so I headed out to the highway to catch my ride to the trailhead at the end of Rizal Extension. My “sane” cadre of Hashers opted to do the second half of the trail, and that worked out just fine. Oh sure, there was a very steep and slippery climb involved, and it was slick going back down, but otherwise, it was a pleasant enough hike despite a brief rain shower. The views up top were amazing and worth the effort of getting there. Here, see for yourself:
Last minute guidance from one of the Hares. I’m already thinking, “where’s the shortcut?”You go your way, we’ll go ours. Doing the last half first.As rickety bridges go, this one wasn’t too bad.Although those handrails were so wobbly as to be useless.Moving upwardThe climb wasn’t so bad in the beginningGetting back to my rootsIt got a little jungle-like in placesThe worst of the climb is just ahead. I couldn’t get any pics, it was all I could do to keep my feet.And yes, some people live up here. The way we went down would be a much easier up than we took. I’m sure that’s the route the hardy souls residing here take.My first and only cookie delivery on this hike. I can’t imagine what your life with three kids is like up here, mama, but I admire your fortitude.What is everyone looking at?Oh, nice!Easter Mountain had her head in the cloudsTime to head back downBack on flat ground with muddy feetThe Hares were fucking with us with messages like these.Our On-Home venue was at the residence of Hasher Always Wet.Our gracious hostess (in orange shirt) even prepared food for the hungry HashersThe trail as the Hares intended. I liked it in bits and pieces…
Like last week, I opted to skip the Hash circle and hoof it back down Rizal Extension to town.
A Rizal Extension view. You can almost make out the bay in the distance. This trek added another 3K to my day and made up for some of the Hash trail I skipped.I saw this poster on a wall during my Rizal walk. That eleventh commandment was funny enough, but the DO NOT LITTER admonishment was hilarious. Most Filipinos are going to hell, I fear!
As usual, I finished my journey at It Doesn’t Matter, the after-Hash hangout.
I was pleasantly surprised to see my old pal Chris and his lovely lady there. Nice to share some beverages with you both again!
I brought home some apple pie from Myleen’s and satisfied my sweet tooth cravings before bedtime. And so ended another day.
Some memories weren’t sad at the time, but make you blue later in life.
Eight years ago, Sohee and I celebrated a dart tourney victory. Two years later, she killed herself. She was a special woman, and her loss was a shock to all who remember her laughing nature.Three years ago, I provided the funds for Marissa to open a small eatery. She told that had always been her dream. A few months later it was closed and gone. Last I heard, Marissa is living in Manila. She unfriended me on Facebook when she left.
More and more it seems the Land of the Free is becoming a new version of the Soviet Union.
And Orwell’s “1984” was meant to be a warning, not a how-to guide.
Today’s YouTube video comes from a Filipina vlogger I’d never watched before. She adds some context and perspective for those “Philippines is great” vloggers who don’t tell the whole story. The photography is especially well done. I was impressed enough to subscribe to her channel. Have a look for yourself:
To the humor we must go:
No reason to squawk, but that sounds like birdshit to me.Who let the cat out of the bag?
Alrighty, then. This is my lazy Tuesday and I’ve got the shopping out of the way. Swan went to meet a friend at It Doesn’t Matter and I’ll be joining her a bit later when they finish their girl talk. We’ll see where we go from there.
6 thoughts on “Nothing stops me”
The Hares were fucking with us with messages like these.
Seeing such messages at the beginning of a long walk might not be so bad, but at the end of the walk, they could sap the will. But you knew they wuz jus’ funnin’.
For me, when I would walk 30K, it would feel like a stroll up to about the 20K mark, then after that, it got exponentially more draining. The final 5K were always the worst.
Our gracious hostess (in orange shirt) even prepared food for the hungry Hashers
Did you have any? Or were you holding out for what Uncle Roger calls “white-people food”? Filipinos seem very proud of their cuisine. Try some! You can always hit a convenience store and get white-people food afterward if the Filipino cuisine isn’t rib-sticking enough.
The trail as the Hares intended. I liked it in bits and pieces…
The red outline looks vaguely like a chicken being stretched out by a black hole.
I opted to skip the Hash circle
Are there any penalties for skipping? I mean, I know of your tendency to slack when there are no consequences to motivate you!
re: “You should start wearing longer skirts.”
Star Trek was definitely a product of its time: the miniskirts, the go-go boots…
Have fun at It Doesn’t Matter.
Thanks, John. I find rubbibg a raw onion on helps just as well as Aciclovir once the stinging dies down.
I hope I didn’t cause any offence by misidentifying the gentleman in the middle of yesterday’s photo with Warren. Sorry to read he passed away. I have got say you seemed to have been friendly with lots of people who have passed away over the years at a relatively young age including the lady and her son in Korea and the bargirl that committed suicide. Sad.
Maybe Griff is Really (Hunter S) Thompson in disguise and writes to you after his afternoons nap and sobering up from the morning’s excesses. He writes well. I enjoy it. Very entertaining. It is almost like two blogs in one the way he piggybacks on to you. Great stuff.
Oh, which reminds me: my mate Kellie (he reads your blog too after I told her about it) reminded me it was Ricky not Dickie. Dickie was a crooner in the 50s. Speaking of 50s crooners reminded me of a song from my youth which opened by reminiscing about how ‘our mothers used to sing along to Johnny Ray as he broke a million hearts in mono’. I paraphrase here but the actual originality of that actual lyric was almost as good as Julian Cope’s opening line “Bless my cotton socks . I’m in the news.” Were you ever in the news, John? Did your mother siing along to Jonny Ray? I always felt left out as my mother only ever sang along to Jim Reeves. “Put your sweets lips a little closer to the phone”, de dee de dee…
Back in the present, John: glad that phone nicker got his comeuppance. Being invited into someone’s home and behaving like that. Piece of shit.
I ain’t no homo but you look really well in that photo with Sohee. It is only 8 years ago. So maybe you could get back on track. Perhaps stick that photo to your refrigerator door for inspiration and start eating just one healthy, balanced meal a day between noon and 7pm.
I hope you have good news from Dr Leon tomorrow. I am off for a salt bath now.
Sorry, John. Me again. I recall you’re foray into the restaurant trade but was Marissa your first love there? The short girl from Alley Cats who used to a regular hasher in days gone by? If so, I aways thought she was the prettiest of all your girlfriends. Just goes to show you they are like all the rest. I mean, that girl from Snack Bar was a stunner but you could tell she thought her shit didn’t smell and was only out for what she could get.
Ted, to be clear, it was Marissa’s business, I just provided the start-up money and had no other involvement. Yes, we met at Alley Cats and Marissa was the first relationship I had in the PI. On and off for over the years, we were just never on the same page. I still care about her and it hurt when she ended all communication and moved away. But life goes on.
Ted, no offense taken. I didn’t know the guy beyond seeing him around sometimes. I guess having people die around you more and more frequently comes with growing old. It makes you wonder, “Will I be next?” Oh, and Sohee wasn’t a bargirl; she ran an animal rescue business.
Yes, I, too, look forward to Thompson’s comments. I’ve had that same thought: People come to LTG for the drivel and stay for the literature in the comments. Okay by me. I’m sure Thompson can’t be Griff because he doesn’t write with an English accent.
Nope, I don’t recall my mom ever singing Johnny Ray. I know she worked as a carhop for a while in the late 50s, so maybe she did. I was the editor of my high school newspaper and wrote a column called “A few words on…” about current events around campus. I had my name mentioned in the sports section of the Prescott Courier during my softball playing days and once in the Fort Smith Times-Record business section when I got promoted for the first time. That’s all I know about. Perhaps there will be an obituary in the distant future.
I seem to have lost the self-discipline required for one of those fasting diets. And I think to lose the beer belly, I’d have to lose the beer. That’s been a lifetime relationship, and I don’t want to let it go. We’ll see.
I hope the salt bath helped!
Kev, yeah, we knew we were near the beer, and the Hares were just trying to be funny. I remember once a Hare did the “beer is near” mark, but it wasn’t. That sucked.
Yeah, for me, it is the hills. I can handle a climb early in the hike, but the ones near the end are ass-kickers. I can’t even imagine doing one of your 30K treks.
I had some of the pork goulash (which I guess isn’t Filipino) but had no interest in the grilled chicken feet. Sorry, not sorry!
Well, the only penalty for skipping the circle is missing out on the “free” beer. We pay a 300 peso fee to participate in the Hash each week, and that includes all you can drink, but I usually get my money’s worth of beer before the circle starts. That’s what I did this week.
The Hares were fucking with us with messages like these.
Seeing such messages at the beginning of a long walk might not be so bad, but at the end of the walk, they could sap the will. But you knew they wuz jus’ funnin’.
For me, when I would walk 30K, it would feel like a stroll up to about the 20K mark, then after that, it got exponentially more draining. The final 5K were always the worst.
Our gracious hostess (in orange shirt) even prepared food for the hungry Hashers
Did you have any? Or were you holding out for what Uncle Roger calls “white-people food”? Filipinos seem very proud of their cuisine. Try some! You can always hit a convenience store and get white-people food afterward if the Filipino cuisine isn’t rib-sticking enough.
The trail as the Hares intended. I liked it in bits and pieces…
The red outline looks vaguely like a chicken being stretched out by a black hole.
I opted to skip the Hash circle
Are there any penalties for skipping? I mean, I know of your tendency to slack when there are no consequences to motivate you!
re: “You should start wearing longer skirts.”
Star Trek was definitely a product of its time: the miniskirts, the go-go boots…
Have fun at It Doesn’t Matter.
Thanks, John. I find rubbibg a raw onion on helps just as well as Aciclovir once the stinging dies down.
I hope I didn’t cause any offence by misidentifying the gentleman in the middle of yesterday’s photo with Warren. Sorry to read he passed away. I have got say you seemed to have been friendly with lots of people who have passed away over the years at a relatively young age including the lady and her son in Korea and the bargirl that committed suicide. Sad.
Maybe Griff is Really (Hunter S) Thompson in disguise and writes to you after his afternoons nap and sobering up from the morning’s excesses. He writes well. I enjoy it. Very entertaining. It is almost like two blogs in one the way he piggybacks on to you. Great stuff.
Oh, which reminds me: my mate Kellie (he reads your blog too after I told her about it) reminded me it was Ricky not Dickie. Dickie was a crooner in the 50s. Speaking of 50s crooners reminded me of a song from my youth which opened by reminiscing about how ‘our mothers used to sing along to Johnny Ray as he broke a million hearts in mono’. I paraphrase here but the actual originality of that actual lyric was almost as good as Julian Cope’s opening line “Bless my cotton socks . I’m in the news.” Were you ever in the news, John? Did your mother siing along to Jonny Ray? I always felt left out as my mother only ever sang along to Jim Reeves. “Put your sweets lips a little closer to the phone”, de dee de dee…
Back in the present, John: glad that phone nicker got his comeuppance. Being invited into someone’s home and behaving like that. Piece of shit.
I ain’t no homo but you look really well in that photo with Sohee. It is only 8 years ago. So maybe you could get back on track. Perhaps stick that photo to your refrigerator door for inspiration and start eating just one healthy, balanced meal a day between noon and 7pm.
I hope you have good news from Dr Leon tomorrow. I am off for a salt bath now.
Sorry, John. Me again. I recall you’re foray into the restaurant trade but was Marissa your first love there? The short girl from Alley Cats who used to a regular hasher in days gone by? If so, I aways thought she was the prettiest of all your girlfriends. Just goes to show you they are like all the rest. I mean, that girl from Snack Bar was a stunner but you could tell she thought her shit didn’t smell and was only out for what she could get.
Ted, to be clear, it was Marissa’s business, I just provided the start-up money and had no other involvement. Yes, we met at Alley Cats and Marissa was the first relationship I had in the PI. On and off for over the years, we were just never on the same page. I still care about her and it hurt when she ended all communication and moved away. But life goes on.
Ted, no offense taken. I didn’t know the guy beyond seeing him around sometimes. I guess having people die around you more and more frequently comes with growing old. It makes you wonder, “Will I be next?” Oh, and Sohee wasn’t a bargirl; she ran an animal rescue business.
Yes, I, too, look forward to Thompson’s comments. I’ve had that same thought: People come to LTG for the drivel and stay for the literature in the comments. Okay by me. I’m sure Thompson can’t be Griff because he doesn’t write with an English accent.
Nope, I don’t recall my mom ever singing Johnny Ray. I know she worked as a carhop for a while in the late 50s, so maybe she did. I was the editor of my high school newspaper and wrote a column called “A few words on…” about current events around campus. I had my name mentioned in the sports section of the Prescott Courier during my softball playing days and once in the Fort Smith Times-Record business section when I got promoted for the first time. That’s all I know about. Perhaps there will be an obituary in the distant future.
I seem to have lost the self-discipline required for one of those fasting diets. And I think to lose the beer belly, I’d have to lose the beer. That’s been a lifetime relationship, and I don’t want to let it go. We’ll see.
I hope the salt bath helped!
Kev, yeah, we knew we were near the beer, and the Hares were just trying to be funny. I remember once a Hare did the “beer is near” mark, but it wasn’t. That sucked.
Yeah, for me, it is the hills. I can handle a climb early in the hike, but the ones near the end are ass-kickers. I can’t even imagine doing one of your 30K treks.
I had some of the pork goulash (which I guess isn’t Filipino) but had no interest in the grilled chicken feet. Sorry, not sorry!
Well, the only penalty for skipping the circle is missing out on the “free” beer. We pay a 300 peso fee to participate in the Hash each week, and that includes all you can drink, but I usually get my money’s worth of beer before the circle starts. That’s what I did this week.