My yesterday included a hike and lots of beer, so what made it different? Mainly the timing. The semiannual 7-11 Hash begins earlier—in yesterday’s case, at 11:07 a.m. See what we did there? We visited seven 7-11s on our 7.7K walk (wish we’d found a way to make it 7.11K) from Mangan-Vaca in Subic town back to Barretto. Oh, and there was beer drinking along the way. The 7-11 Hash ethos includes having a drink at every stop. I personally don’t like mixing my two favorite activities, but I did indulge in one beer at the fourth, sixth, and last stores on our trek.
It was around 2 p.m. when we finished the Hash, but the drinking fun had just begun. We convened at It Doesn’t Matter for the after-Hash rituals, which included crowning the “Wisest Wizard”—the person who drank the most impressively during the Hash. Congrats to Online Bargain! Buddy Fucker bought three buckets of Jollibee chicken to feed the hungry Hashers, and of course we washed it down with copious amounts of beer.
An early start doesn’t always mean an early finish. When it was time to leave IDM, a group of us joined Hasher O-69 at her karaoke bar. Yeah, I know I’m not a big fan of bad singing at high volume, but somehow drinking enough beer eases the pain. And I drank enough to join in the singing. Hey, it’s all about camaraderie, right?
At the karaoke joint, it dawned on me that beer o’clock had just arrived. Shit. Now what was I going to do? Despite having already reached my normal intake limit, it was too early to go home. So we left the karaoke group behind and headed up the highway. I didn’t have a destination in mind, but as we passed BarCelona, I decided to climb the stairs and see what was happening at that third-floor venue, which is now under new ownership and managed by a guy I know.
Upon arrival, I thought my worst fears about the “disco bar” signage were confirmed: crappy music playing loudly. Manager Nelson greeted me, and I confronted him about the music (his Facebook post said it was a “rock bar”). He immediately changed the playlist to classic rock, so I’ll give him credit for that. It was still uncomfortably loud, but we escaped to the adjacent rooftop to finish our drinks. When we were done, I wished Nelson good luck with his latest endeavor, and we left.
I had one more stop in mind: the newest bar in town, Garnet. It was formerly Nipsey’s bar, and as I understand it, it has the same owner as before but has undergone a complete remodeling. It’s nice enough inside, but I liked the Nipsey’s setup just as well, so other than the red (garnet?) walls and ceiling, I’m not sure what was accomplished. Well, they moved the dance stage from the center of the room to the corner and relocated the bar. We were the only customers during our brief visit, but Swan knew one of the waitresses, and I was surprised to see my old friend Nancy from my dart-playing days at Alley Cats. She’s now the bartender at Garnet. I jokingly asked if she wanted to play a game, but there are no dartboards at Garnet. They do still have a pool table, at least. Anyway, I bought lady drinks for our servers, and we enjoyed our visit. I doubt it’ll become any more of a regular stop for us than Nipsey’s was.
And that’s where I finally ran out of gas, and we headed home. My sleep tracker says I was in bed at 8 p.m. And so ended a different kind of day for me.
And now for the photographs:
But the fun wasn’t over yet!
It’s called videoke here. And it’s bad. So, let me just share a short version of what you missed:
Maybe you’ll like hearing Swan instead:
Had enough? I did too, so we moved on down the highway to BarCelona.
Time to move on, so we went to the new bar in town:
And so our drunken day came to an end at last.
Continuing on with the June 2023 LTG archives, I tell the story of my first and only (so far) experience with the Pattaya Jungle Hash House Harriers. We ventured to an island seven kilometers offshore and commenced our hiking there. It was a beautiful experience.
Something different as well for today’s YouTube video, a recital of one my old favorite poems by William Butler Yeats. Short and sweet.
Yes, I really am going to go there again. Deal with it!
And now maybe you see things differently. Or not. Either way, I’ll be back with more tomorrow.
It’s now 1981 in the lifetime of music journey, and I’m gonna keep on lovin’ this one: