The rare early morning post here at LTG. And shorter than usual, too. I’m one of the Hares for today’s Hash and we are meeting to mark the trail at 0930. I don’t expect there will be time for blogging afterward. So, here we go.
Another Sunday, another Candy Walk through the streets of San Isidro. Swan says we sweetened the day of 211 kids this week. Don’t ask me how she keeps count.
He’s not in the picture, but a grumpy old man told Swan not to hand out candy here anymore because the kids throw the wrappers on the ground. While I admire his anti-littering zeal, it seems unfair to punish all for the actions of the few. Swan says she wants to skip this street next week.
Later in the day, I did my feeding at Hideaway. For a change, there were actually a few customers in the bar, which certainly enhanced the vibe. We’ll see if that continues.
Then, I crossed the highway for my dinner date with Swan at John’s place. Our old waitress, Em Jhae, was back from Pampanga for the weekend and working a shift for some extra coin. It is always nice to see her again. We took our usual seats in the third-floor open-air bar and got down to business.
I was too late for the lunch special, but was willing to pay full price to see what this Pacific pomfret John had been raving about was like.
We did our nightcap at Alaska Club. Coincidentally, John was there playing in the pool tournament. I did my usual thing of rewarding the dancers with a fifty peso note each for actually dancing while on stage. And I also bought a lady drink for our waitress, of course. Then Swan recognized one of the dancers as someone she knew from way back in 2010, so I called her down to join us (and bought the requisite lady drink for her). So, Swan had a nice time catching up with her old pal. When I was ready to go, I paid the tab and waited for my change. When the waitress returned, she had another beer in hand, courtesy of owner Jerry. While I enjoyed my freebie, I was shocked to see Swan order two more lady drinks for our company. Good for her! I paid, of course, explaining to the girls that Swan and I have a 50-50 relationship–she buys, I pay.
And that was our Sunday.
Eight years ago, I took my new girlfriend on an Itaewon bar crawl. I have a picture from each bar in my Facebook memories for today. This one was taken at the 7th and last stop, Debut Bar.
I promise, after the elections I’ll stop posting this political shit.
Today’s YouTube video discusses the fact that foreigners are not allowed to own property in the Philippines. There are workarounds (like putting the property in your Filipina’s name), but those can be perilous if the relationship goes south. One friend of mine put his house in his ex’s name, but has a twenty-five-year lease. He’ll be dead before that’s up, and he won’t care.
Humor time:
Anyway, our trail today will include a climb up Kalaklan Ridge. I’ll let you know how that works out for us tomorrow.
He’s not in the picture, but a grumpy old man told Swan not to hand out candy here anymore because the kids throw the wrappers on the ground. While I admire his anti-littering zeal, it seems unfair to punish all for the actions of the few. Swan says she wants to skip this street next week.
Skipping the street will also punish all for the actions of a few. This could’ve been a teaching moment, an opportunity to show the kids proper waste disposal and make new, better habits, not to mention a way to validate the old man, who may be crotchety, but who is right to want his neighborhood to look nicer without having a bunch of litterers. He could’ve been recruited, in front of the kids, to keep an eye on them and to report any future littering. Any more litter = skip that street for candy deliveries from now on. Kids might then try to develop a system where, if their street is interdicted, they appear on different streets. Recruit more adults in the Clean Street Watch in response. No matter what system you develop, some little asshole will try to get around it. Show the kids why that won’t work.
The pulled-pork sandwich and the fish both looked great! I’d never heard of “Pacific pomfret” before now, but the fish at least looks familiar. I still think cod is the best and most classic for fish and chips, but given the lack of chips (you had coins or medallions of some sort), you were already headed in a nontraditional direction.
Good luck with what sounds to be a full day.
I was going to make a comment similar to @Kevin’s.
Tell the kids that we have heard that you guys are throwing your wrappers on the street. When come by here next week, we will give you candy only if you give us a bag of empty wrappers. That way you are sure they are cleaning up. Etc.
Good idea, Brian. I’m not sure it is logistically feasible. Some of these kids are toddlers, and when they come at us in large groups, just keeping the distribution organized is challenging. We’ll remind the kids that littering is not acceptable. We had a kid drop a wrapper while we were still standing there, and I told him to pick it up. He did.
I was standing up the street in the shade, so I didn’t witness the old man’s wrath directly. Still, it seems it would have been better directed at the kids, who are, after all, his neighbors. We are just passersby trying to do a good deed. The old man’s rant killed Swan’s happy vibe, that’s for sure.
I think the idea is to take a week off from that street, then return and tell the kids if they litter, we won’t come back. We’ll see. We have until Sunday to decide.
Other venues serve fries as chips, so those medallions seemed nice for a change. Tasty too. I just did a quick search to see what authentic chips look like, and I see they are like thick-cut fries. This cooking blog had a good explanation of the difference between a “chip” and a “fry.”