A Royal pain

I meant to post this yesterday, but forgot. Happy Cinco de Mayo!

One aspect of living a life filled with everyday routines is the unexpected disruption that occurs when those routines are stymied. Tuesday is my grocery shopping day. I’ve been shopping at the Royal supermarket on SBMA since moving here almost eight years ago. Yesterday, this sign was posted on the door at Royal:

Refreshing the store? What does that mean?

I assumed it would be repainting or something similar. Nope. Once inside, I started encountering signs like this one throughout the store:

I’m not clear on what constitutes a “household consumable,” but the reality was that they had rearranged most of the store items to new locations.

So, those old habits of knowing which aisle to find an item in were worthless. I used to have a routine pattern of aisles I’d walk to fulfill my shopping needs. No more. I’ll have to relearn and readjust my shopping methods. I’m not sure what motivated these changes, but I noted that many of the non-food items (appliances, toys, etc.) had been eliminated, and the grocery items expanded. They have also widened some of the aisles, so there’s that. Anyway, I’ll adjust, but it was a shock not to be able to find my way around the store. Yeah, if that’s the worst thing to happen to me, I’m doing alright.

I got my third high-dose injection of Ozempic, and things are trending in the right direction. I lost three pounds last week, which puts me down eleven pounds overall since I began the treatment. No severe side effects other than occasional bouts of acid reflux. My appetite remains noticeably suppressed. So, I’ve still got a long way to go, but so far, so good.

Then it was on with my Tuesday routines. That currently includes participating in the dart tournament at Alley Hideout. My inability to regain any passion for the game has been disconcerting. I was on the fence about attending the tourney yesterday, but I still had four beers already paid for on my beer card. So, I went to Alley Hideout, drank my beers, but didn’t play. I’ll have to make a decision soon about whether darts will remain a part of my life.

With the beer card exhausted, we said our goodnights to the crew and players, then moseyed across the highway to Mango’s for dinner.

My beer buddy joined me…
…along with that winey girl.
A Mango’s beach view.
And from another perspective.
A pretty nice view inside of Mango’s too…
Our standard fare: grilled pork chops with mashed taters and mixed veggies. And we share one order.

After dinner, we paid a visit to Gold Bar.

The “dancers” at work. To be fair, it was early, and there was no one there to dance for.

We moved on to Queen Victoria for our nightcap.

There was a pool tournament taking place, and the bar was packed like I’ve never seen before.

And as 8 pm approached, I successfully maintained my routine of going home.

Still exploring the January 2019 LTG archives, I reminisced in this post about all the Filipinas I had loved before. Well, maybe love isn’t the right word. And there were several more to come before I finally found a worthy partner in Swan.

Today’s YouTube video talks about eight “strange laws” in the Philippines that most expats don’t know about. I don’t know, none of them surprised me. I don’t smoke, drive, carry a pocketknife, nor do I have any desire to marry or own property here. Guess I’m safe.

Yeah, time out for humor:

Finders keepers, losers weepers.
Good to know!
Damn, I can’t remember the last time I heard that song. Hmm.

Okay, now I heard the song about a minute ago. And you are fixin’ to as well (assuming you care enough to hit the play button). I honestly didn’t understand the darker meaning of the lyrics until I read about the song here. It’s nice to learn something new at my age.

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