Sorry if the title of this post misled you into believing I had something significant to share with you today. Hey, this is my life we’re talking about after all. So, I’ll get to what is changing in Barretto a bit later in this post. Stick around!

The skies were threatening rain, so Swan and I decided on confining ourselves to a street walk. I suggested we do Matain, and she countered with walking the Santa Monica subdivision. Being the nice guy that I am, I declared we’d do both. And that’s just what we did. How interesting was our trek? Well, I took a grand total of two photos during our 6K walkabout.

Speaking of excitement, in the afternoon, I got a money request from a bar waitress I’ve known for several years, saying she needed medicine. She was only asking for 250 pesos, which is chump change, so I figured why not? Of course, the only way to get her the money was via GCash, which I don’t use. I asked Swan if she could make the transfer; she looked at me like I was stupid, but agreed, saying, “You never learn.” Well, I’m not gonna fret over five bucks, but then I remembered a while back this same waitress said she got hacked and opened a new FB account, adding the word “Real” to her name. So, I sent a message to that account asking where she was. She responded, “I just woke up.” I told her about the money request, and she said it wasn’t her. So, I sent a message to the scam account saying the money is on the way. Figured I might as well waste their time too.

We kicked off our evening at Red Bar, and it was there I heard of the latest changes taking place in the Barretto bar scene. The owner of Thumbstar Bar finalized the purchase of Red Bar yesterday. Hopefully, he will retain Cliff and Ashley as the bar hosts.

After we’d had our fill at Red Bar, we planned to make our regular stop at Jumpin’ Jacks. It was 6:30 on a Friday, and Jumpin’ Jacks was closed when we arrived. WTF? I feared another bar had bit the dust. We walked on to Queen Victoria, and I sent a message to the manager at Jumpin’ Jacks asking what was up. She responded, everything was fine; they had just opened late. Well, okay then.

During our visit at Queen Victoria, I learned that the owner of Thumbstar was also in negotiations to buy Queen Vic. It seems so strange that with the bar business at a low ebb, these “tycoons” are buying them up. Seems like they have more money than sense. There’s another guy in town who is building a bar empire, and now owns Whiskey Girl, Tryst, BarCelona, Crazy Horse, and the former Redz Pub at the Arizona Resort. He’s also in the process of reopening Voodoo Bar. I wish them well, but I’m not seeing a successful outcome.

Anyway, nothing else has changed that I know of. I headed home at 8 pm and was in bed by 9. I’m not the bar customer I used to be.

From Facebook memories:

It was also thirteen years ago that I posted these words of wisdom:

One of the annoying things about believing in free will and individual responsibility is the difficulty of finding somebody to blame your problems on. And when you do find somebody, it’s remarkable how often his picture turns up on your driver’s license. – P.J. O’Rourke

Well, my driver’s license expired long ago.

It is now September 2020 in the LTG archives, but the drama in my life never seems to stop. Filipinas even have a word for it, “chismis,” which is a nasty form of gossip. Anyway, things got nasty among the Hash gals and brought an end to any potential future with Iline (aka Janey). Things turned out for the best, I suppose.

Yesterday’s YouTube video was about “evicting” the American military in the Philippines. Today, the same vlogger explains why we’ve been invited back. I’d say they need us more than we need them.

Try these on for size:

Some things never seem to change, so I’ll plan on being back with more tomorrow. You are welcome!