Yeah, I accepted her offer for a date.

Fifteen minutes later the big head was saying “told ya so!”. She seems like a sweet girl though and I was happy to help her out.

Walked her out of the neighborhood, then headed to Sit-n-Bull for an early supper. Had a nice chat with owner Ron then enjoyed a roast beef dinner. It looked (and tasted) so good I was almost done before I remembered I hadn’t taken a photograph. Just have to take my word for it this time.

After my meal, I went around the corner and up the stairs to BarCelona. They must have a lot of turnover because I didn’t see any of my favorite waitresses working. So, I just enjoyed my beer and the view.

Paid my tab after a couple of brews, then moved up the highway to It Doesn’t Matter for some more. A Hash buddy, Max (Nosey Bastard), came in and we had a nice chat. A bit later, the nighttime crew of waitresses arrived, including my pals Roan and Agnes. It’s hard to be lonely in this town!

Meanwhile, my friend Joy from the Hideaway bar was messaging that she didn’t have any customers and would I please come spend some money on her. Well, it was still early so I made the longish walk to help out a gal in need. A couple of more beers there and I called it a night.

So, I got an email from my landlord. The septic system and water drains have to be moved because the wastewater is intruding on the lot behind me where the house is being constructed. I can’t imagine why a bit of sewage would be a problem, but the new neighbors insist it be stopped. What that means for me is construction work in my backyard for the next 30 days or so. Oh well, maybe it will drown out the noise from the construction behind me. More concerning is there will be three days during the work where my toilets will be incapacitated as the switch is made to the new septic tank. Oh well, that’s what hotels are for, right?

And this is Hash Monday so another hike is in store. I did part of the trail on Friday’s walk, so I guess I won’t be too surprised. And I’m not shy about going my own way should I deem the work of the Hares not to be in my best interest.

Speaking of the Hash, Holy week is coming soon. That’s a really big deal in this predominately Catholic country. Our Hash tradition is to climb Easter mountain on the Monday following Easter. The photo I posted yesterday made the mountain look less challenging than it is in reality. I blame the camera! I did find a photo from the first (and only time) I made that climb. This one is looking directly down at where I was standing when I took this shot:

Stay tuned for some Hash photos tomorrow.

Other than grocery shopping, Tuesday is pretty much my lazy day. I take a break from walking and then usually just hang out until it’s time for darts. Yesterday wasn’t much of an exception, but I’ll fill you in any way.

On the way to the grocery store, we stopped by Baypointe hospital to pick up the results of my PSA blood test. I came in at 1.14 and the normal range goes up to 4.5, so it looks like it won’t be prostate cancer that kills me. In other health-related news, the meds I’m taking for my nasal polyps are having some positive impact. Still congested, but at least now I can breathe some air in and out of my nose again. A few days of pills to go, so hopefully, I can avoid getting surgery to remove the polyps.

I also had the mountain girl I’ve been helping to support give me a massage yesterday. It was her idea (she needed extra money for her daughter’s medicine). I ended the “friends with benefits” program because I felt like I was being exploitive of desperate women in need. I still hear occasionally from some of the past beneficiaries and they remain desperate. Now I feel guilty because I’ve closed the door on an avenue they had found to make life a little easier. Then I came across this article “why sugar babies do not deserve the negative stigma”. Hmm. The description of the relationships between a sugar daddy and the women he supports sounded eerily similar to my FWB offering. Two consenting adults assisting one another with their needs, why is that a bad thing? I don’t know if I’ll reconsider that program or not. I’m still kind of in an “I’d like to find a girlfriend” mode, but I am readapting to being single, and given my history, that might be the wisest choice. Being alone doesn’t mean you have to be lonely. Especially in this town! We’ll see.

A good night of darts last night. It was like old times in Alley Cats with the bar full of drunk Swedes. Yep, the part-timers and tourists seem to be back in force. Even had enough players to have a doubles tournament.

After darts, I crossed the highway and went to Mangos for dinner. I was the only customer.

After eating, I decided to drop in and say hello at Outback. It’s been a while since I visited that bar. Once again, I was surprised to see that I was the only customer. My friend the bartender and five waitresses with no one to serve. Maybe the tourist invasion has not hit in full force after all, although Bhel (the bartender) said they usually get a later crowd. Anyway, I wound up doing something I rarely do–buying everyone a drink. The gesture seemed appreciated. It set me back a little over1000 pesos ($20) but I reckon I can afford it. My beers alone would have cost me that much in Korea.

This morning I copied and scanned the documents for my income tax prep and emailed them to my accountant back in the states. Then I led the Wednesday Walkers group halfway through a hike. I left them on their own so they could tackle another climb, I needed to get back home to write this post and then head out to darts.

And now that I have, that’s what I’ll do. See you tomorrow!

…on another meaningless weekend. Hell, when you are retired even the word “weekend” is meaningless. Here’s are some scenes from my Sunday:

I got bored sitting around the house waiting for beer o’clock to roll around. At 3:00 p.m. I finally convinced myself that since it was Sunday it was perfectly acceptable to start a little early. How could I argue with logic like that? My original intent had been to start at the nearest bar to my house (not owned by my ex) and go from there. So, that would make Queen Victoria my first stop. But as I neared that venue I listened to the other voice in my head saying it was still too early and kept on walking. I figured the extra steps wouldn’t hurt anyway (I wound up with 18,000 for the day).

On the other side of town I reached John’s place and decided, what the hell, it’s a restaurant after all. More sound logic from a thirsty soul. Of course, I proceeded directly to the third-floor bar and plopped down on my usual seat overlooking the highway below. There was a pool league match taking place and I was surprised to see one of the female Hashers I know playing. It was nice to see a familiar face. The beer was cold and wet and I took in the view as I drank.

I found a break in the traffic and scurried across the highway, then made my way to Cheap Charlies.

After a couple of more beers, I decided to head on down the highway. There is a new bar called Sloppy Joe’s I wanted to check out. It’s tiny but has a nice outdoor seating area. Alas, the outside space was insufficient for me to comfortably join the other patrons already ensconced there. Another time, perhaps. I wound up ending my evening at the bar where I intended to begin–Queen Victoria.

The birthday girl I had met last Wednesday during dart league was there and seemed happy to see me. She goes by “Tin-Tin” in the bar, and without the distraction of darts, I got to know her a little better. Of course, I told her upfront that 21 was way too young for me. That didn’t seem to deter her at all. She was quite the touchy-feely type, which is fine, but I prefer it somewhere other than in public. After two beers, it was just past nine, which as you probably know, is my quitting time. As I was paying my tab, Tin-Tin came up with keys in hand offering me a ride home. Hmm. Well, I know she rides a scooter and I could tell she had been drinking, and I also suspected what she might have in mind at my place, so I thanked her and declined. I may be a fool but I ain’t stupid. Or at least I wasn’t this time.

And that was my Sunday evening entertainment. This is Hash Monday, so I have mostly been lazing around and surfing the ‘net all morning. Well, I did get an email from Google saying I was nearing maximum storage capacity and giving me the option to buy more space or delete some old emails and photos. I took the delete option, but I did look at some things to make sure I really didn’t want them. Glad I did because I found some pics from my first ever trip to the Philippines back in July 2008.

It was the day of the pool party I held with the bar girls I had met from Alaska Club in Angeles City. Hmm, looking up that link I see that most of the photos I “rescued” this morning I have posted on the blog. That post was written in 2017. What’s odd is that I didn’t do a blog post at the time of the visit in 2008. I’m guessing I was either still technically married to wife #3 or didn’t want my employer to know I was cavorting with prostitutes. Or both! Anyway, you can see the photos and the story of what led to the pool party at the link above. Here are some teasers:

You know, sometimes I wish I could go back in time. Even if I couldn’t change a thing. I’d just like to re-experience memories like these from the perspective of knowing I didn’t appreciate it as much as I should have at the time. I’m actually trying to do that in the present as well. When I start feeling down or disappointed, I remind myself that someday I’ll look back and this time of my life will seem wonderful. Enjoy it while you can!

Well, I’ve survived so far but I still have Sunday night to go. Here’s how it has been so far.

Decided to start my Saturday on the town with some food in my belly, so Sit-n-Bull was my first stop.

I was disappointed my waitress friend and potential future date, Samantha, wasn’t there. I sent her a message and she confirmed she was taking the night off. Alrighty then, saved me the cost of the lady drinks she would have consumed.

A couple of beers later I’d seen enough so I moseyed down the street a ways. Where was I headed?

A bunch of Hashers came in and occupied that table a bit later, but I maintained my counter seat where I shared company and drinks with Roan and Agnes. Always a good time with Roan, lots of laughs. Wish I could get her interested in something more than being a bar friend, but she’s been honest and upfront about her lack of desire for anything else. No complaints about that.

It was getting close to 9:00 and that’s when I generally shut things down, but I decided to up my game and have one for the road at Cheap Charlies. The place was really busy and that’s good to see. Well, all my favorites were otherwise occupied. Still, I didn’t have to drink alone.

When I got out of the trike at home I saw this unusual sight:

So, I pushed the envelope last night and wound up going to bed at the ungodly hour of 10:30! Wowza! Slept in until 5:00 this morning though, so all is well.

I did my solitary Sunday stroll this morning. Decided to do one of those “photo every 1000 steps” so I could get some practice with the camera. Here’s how that worked out:

You can always Relive the stroll if you have the gumption:

I made a discovery as I sat down to do today’s post. I always check to make sure I have a unique title. In doing so I came across something I had written back in November 2007 called the Korean cookie lady. I had totally forgotten about the events described in that post. So, maybe my blog isn’t totally worthless after all. It is a repository of memories from a life slowly fading away with the passage of time.

No idea what is in store for tonight. I was hoping for a first date with the teacher, but we are having a difficult time getting on the same page. So, it looks like another evening of beer and loneliness. Not that I’m complaining!

I led the group hike yesterday and we did about 7K up and over Black Rock, then roundabout back to Barretto. I was excited about doing the Black Rock hike because it has just about the best views from up top in the area and I wanted to give my new phone camera a tryout. The hike was great and the views were awesome on a sunny clear day. I took a shitload of photos but I won’t be posting any of them here. Here’s the convoluted story of why:

I mentioned that I bought a new phone. It’s a Samsung Galaxy A53. My old phone is an A50. I’d gone online to research which Samsung phone features the best camera. Of course, the best cameras are on the S-series phones, but they cost a thousand bucks. The review I read said the A52 had the best camera in the mid-price range. I went to the Samsung store at the mall and the salesman showed me an A52, but then pointed out that the A53 was this year’s upgrade of that model and it was on sale. Sold!

After the purchase, they helped me do the transfer of all my data, photos, and apps to the new phone. That went smoothly. Of course, the real pain in the ass was opening up my apps and programs on the new phone. Everything required a password and in a lot of cases it had been years and I couldn’t remember what some of those passwords might be. Well, the fix for that is the app will email me a code to insert in lieu of a password. I remembered my Google password, but not the one for my AOL account, so that upped the level of being a pain in the ass. But I eventually got everything functioning again on the new phone and I was good to go.

So, I did the hike, took my photos, came home. I’m going to donate my old phone to someone in need here, but first I had to delete all the data, apps, and photos there. Someone had shown me how to do the factory reset, and I set about doing it. The hitch came because Samsung required that I log in to my Samsung account before I could implement the delete function. Well, I didn’t even know that I had a Samsung account and none of the usual old passwords I tried were working. And when I tried the email recovery option, the emails from Samsung were in Hanguel–making them virtually unreadable to an ignoramus like me. So, I’m going back between my new and old phones–trying to respond to the emails on the one, and trying to implement the delete function on the other. And then somehow I finally got the delete function to work! And almost instantly noticed that I had mixed up the phones, both being the same size and feel, and had started the delete process on my new phone. And there was no way to stop it. Yeah, I’m that stupid. Probably karma for my mocking our demented President.

I was able to re-initiate the data transfer process from the old phone to the new one, just like I had done the day before. But alas, all those photos I had taken on the new phone were lost forever. This morning I successfully completed the deletion of data from the old phone and hopefully, that marks the end of the transition trauma.

You’ll have to Relive the hike without photos.

Going through all that crap with my phone put me behind schedule, so I didn’t bother with darts last evening. Instead, I went to It Doesn’t Matter and had a few cold ones to help me forget about my recent ordeal with the phone. My friend “Jenny” is heading down to Manila for her new job and I had promised her dinner before she departs. We agreed to meet at John Kim’s new place, so I moved my ass up the highway, climbed to the third floor, and waited for her there.

And here it is, the first picture from my new phone camera to be shared here at LTG:

Jenny and I had a nice meal (can’t remember what she ate now, I had fish and chips), shared some banter (she gets my sense of humor!), and had a pleasant evening together. I drank beer, she had soju. I was crushing on her when we first met, but she has convinced me to back off, at least for now. I’m back in my living for the moment mode, so I’m comfortable saying we have no future. Still, nothing wrong with sharing some platonic time and a few laughs when circumstances allow.

Jenny and I left John’s place together and went home and went to bed. Well, she went to her home and I went to mine, but you know what I mean.

Up this morning and took care of the usual business. I did a street hike through Barretto and listened to music on my headphones. Not much worthy of a photograph anyway. Well, I did take a leaving the neighborhood shot:

I had ordered some stuff on Lazada (the Philippines version of Amazon) and for some reason had the foresight to leave some money with the helper “just in case”. And sure enough, when I got back from my hike, two of the items had arrived:

Best of all, I was able to set it up, sync it to my phone, and get it fully functioning without incident. Hey, let’s see Joe Biden do that!

And that’s pretty much all there is to say for now. Let me leave you with these important facts of life I came across on the internet (so you know they must be true!)

Until tomorrow then. Assuming tomorrow comes.

Sorry for the lack of posting yesterday. My good intentions were overridden by laziness unforeseen events. Anyway, here’s what’s been happening.

Started my Wednesday in the usual fashion, including a pleasant hike with the Wednesday Walkers group. Photos from that event later in this post. Home in time for a shower and a quick post here, but no nap. Then it was off to the dart league match being played at Queen Victoria.

The lady in red told me her name is Cristina and that it was her twenty-first birthday. I asked one of the other waitresses if they were going to have a celebration later for her. Nope, nothing was planned, she responded. So, that didn’t seem right to me. After all, you are only 21 once. I sent one gal off to pick up a birthday cake and had another order a pizza. They partied while I played darts.

We wound up winning the dart match 9-4, although we should have done much better than that. Too many distractions–that’s my excuse! After darts I did a bit of a bar crawl, seeing Samantha at BarCelona and sharing a couple of drinks with her. I don’t expect that is going anywhere either. Popped into It Doesn’t Matter for a bit, then finished my night at Cheap Charlies. It was a long day for this old man.

And then it was Thursday. I didn’t do a hike. I took the morning off to prepare for my appointment with an Ear, Nose, and Throat specialist. The plan was for my helper to get there an hour before the doctor’s scheduled arrival at 2:00. She’d get me all signed up thereby reducing my wait time by having me near the front of the queue. Since my driver was picking us up at 12:30, I figured I’d spend some time at the mall. Why the mall? Well, my friend Joy needed a new phone and I was the sucker nice guy expected to provide it. Okay, I don’t mind helping a gal in need and I agreed, so no big deal. To her credit, she was happy with the cheapest decent phone available, about $150. And since we were there anyway, I did some shopping too.

The shopping excursion took a little longer than planned and we had to rush back to Baypointe hospital so I didn’t miss my place in line to see the doctor. I wound up waiting about 30 minutes anyway. I scheduled the visit with ENT doc because I’ve had head congestion for the past three or four months and over-the-counter meds were having little to no effect. The first thing I noticed when I walked into the doctor’s office was that she was pretty damn hot. I like that in a physician! Makes the exam much less stressful. The first thing she asked me was “what brings you here today?” I responded, “I came in a car.” Yeah, I know. She laughed politely though, and then we got down to business. I described my symptoms and she had me move to an examination chair. She put on her face shield, grabbed a tube-like instrument, and stuck it up my nose. I guess it was some kind of microscope. Then she did the other nostril. She did a tsk, tsk, and said that’s the problem–Grade II nasal polyps. Now what, doc? She explained that once you reach the Grade II level, surgery may be required. In my case, since I have to take meds for high blood pressure and an enlarged prostate, she couldn’t give me the stronger drugs she would normally prescribe (steroid-like if I understood correctly). So, we are trying a two-week regimine of lower dose meds and if that doesn’t work I’ll need to schedule surgery. Out patient? No, it requires general anesthesia. Damn it! Lets hope the meds work. As pretty as she is, I don’t want her poking around in my nose with a scapel.

After the doctor’s visit, I took my driver, helper, and Joy out to lunch at the nearby Seoul restaurant.

By the time we got back to Barretto it was already beer o’clock. Had my driver drop Joy off at her house and had him take me out to Baloy Beach. I started and ended my evening at McCoy’s.

And so ended another day in paradise. I had some more adventures today, but I’ll share those tomorrow. I need to head out for darts now.

Here’s the pics I promised from the Wednesday hike:

…another door opens. Or so it has been said. I’d like to see the scientific data supporting that proposition though.

Anyway, on the way to do my grocery shopping yesterday, I had my driver drop my weekend guest off at the bus station so she could return to her life in Angeles City. She has subsequently been messaging things like she misses me and wants to come see me again. I haven’t been brutal in my responses, but I think I’ve made it clear those feelings are not mutual. Again, I think she is a good-hearted woman, just someone who is completely wrong for me. I made her cry her last night here with my bluntness, I wasn’t even angry, okay, maybe a tad rude and impatient, but nothing like my worst behavior. Anyway, trying to have a relationship with her would be a disaster for us both. Not sure what lessons I can take away from the experience, maybe something to do with selectivity.

I did share my insights on caring about someone who doesn’t care for you with “Jenny”. I told her I understood better how she must have felt with me trying to worm my way into her heart when she had no reciprocal feelings for me. She told me she was sorry I felt that way and that I misunderstood her. She said she thinks I’m a nice and caring man with a good sense of humor and that she enjoys my company. She just does not want to be in a relationship with a “white man” right now. Yeah, that’s how she put it. She explained that she has some personal goals she is working hard to achieve and it is important to her that she achieve them on her own. Having a white boyfriend would diminish whatever she accomplishes because people would assume I made it happen for her through financial support (all us foreigners are considered rich in the eyes of the Filipino community apparently). Whatever her reasons, I’m not gonna chase or beg for her time and attention. Maybe I’ll be here when she’s ready for a relationship, maybe I won’t.

I was surprised to hear from another former love of mine yesterday. Her engagement to a foreigner has ended (she didn’t say why, and I didn’t ask) and she inquired about me providing a work reference. I did and it appears she will indeed be hired. Happy about that. And yes, the thought did cross my mind about trying to rekindle that old flame. I’ve regretted maybe giving up too soon during our first go-round and with the benefit of hindsight and getting to know her better during our ensuing years of friendship, perhaps we could make a go of it this time. Way, way too soon for me to even consider acting on that possibility. I need to stand back and give her some space and time to make the transition back to singleness. I can think about it though and let my imagination run wild.

Played darts last night and got knocked out early. First time in a long time we’ve had enough players for a doubles tournament. I’m not going to blame my partner for our poor performance though. Wait a minute, yes I am! Not that I cared. The blessing of an early defeat was that I had more time to do a bar crawl. I started at BarCelona and visited my new favorite waitress there, Samantha. Her only off-day is Wednesday and since my Wednesdays are whacked with hiking and dart league, I’m not sure what we are going to do to get to know one another better. We talked about doing a hike and perhaps we will next week. She works too late (midnight or later) to get together after quitting time. Maybe a lunch date prior to work would be possible. We’ll see.

After BarCelona, I dropped by The Green Room, hoping to see my friend Novi. She wasn’t around (I found out later she quit) so it was one beer and out for me.

Next stop was Alaska. I greeted the owner, Jerry, then took a seat. Three gals up on stage and not much else happening. Music is always good with Jerry as DJ though, so there was that. Still, no one I knew to talk to, so a couple of beers and I said my goodnight.

It was nearly my bedtime (9 p.m.) but I decided to have one more for the road so I headed down to Queen Victoria.

Queen Vic had a live band and they sounded surprisingly good. Also, some pretty hot waitresses who looked very thirsty, but I just wasn’t in the mood to engage. A couple of more beers and I called it a night.

Just before I went to bed, I got a message from the schoolteacher. I hadn’t heard from her in several days. As you may recall she got pissed because I didn’t respond to her messages fast enough. Anyway, I was too tired and drunk to deal with her last night. I’ll keep her in the queue notwithstanding some red flags she’s displayed.

That was my Tuesday. Did a nice hike this morning, and now it is time for dart league. I’m really tired, but I’ve got no choice, my teammates are relying on me. I’ve already announced that I’m not playing next season.

Finally, Facebook reminded me that today is the third anniversary of me acquiring my dog Lucky. Here’s how he looked when I brought him home that day:

It’s all good.

It’s Hash Monday, so just a quick update before I hid out to hit the trail.

Day 2 of my entertaining an out-of-town guest. Nothing has changed, although I do think my post yesterday may have sounded harsher than I intended. She seems to be a kind and good-hearted woman, just not the one for me. My epiphany I suppose was coming to understand that “Jenny” probably feels about me the way I feel about my guest. Doesn’t matter how good the other person may be, if they aren’t connecting with you on an emotional level it ain’t gonna happen. That’s just the way it goes sometimes.

Anyway, my guest didn’t want to join me for my Sunday hike because it was “too hot”. Well, I’m used to walking alone, but here is some of what she missed:

You can Relive it here if you have a hankering to do so.

Once back home, I had some time to kill before beer o’clock rolled around, so opened up my Netflix. She picked a movie called “Black Crab”. I guess it was okay and somewhat entertaining. Not sure I’ve watched a Swedish-made film before. Anyway, it killed a couple of hours so it served its purpose. Here’s the trailer if you want a taste:

So, it was finally time to head out and I decided we’d walk to John’s place for food and beers.

Wound up staying at John’s until it was time to head back home for my 9 p.m. bedtime.

Up early this morning as usual. My guest did join me for the dog walk.

Came home and put together the ingredients for some chili in the crockpot.

And there’s a snapshot of my life here in the Philippines. Don’t be too jealous! Facebook sent me a reminder of how life was four years ago in Pyeongtaek.

I really am making progress. This weekend was a good reminder to not settle for less than what I want. I’ll be just fine alone if that is what it comes down to.

Not a single trigger was tripped by my out-of-town visitor. Unless getting frustrated and irritated counts. She really doesn’t look anything like her pictures either, not that looks are the most important feature. Communication is a crapshoot as well. She doesn’t get my humor and I can’t understand what she is saying half the time. Even the sex was disappointing. Now, I have two days to fill with my new “friend” before she returns home. Wish me luck!

In a rather bizarre turn of events, the schoolteacher I’ve been chatting with got pissed because I didn’t promptly respond to her messages last night. I had told her I was going to be busy this weekend, but I guess I’m supposed to be at her beck and call 24/7. Glad she showed me this side of who she is before I wasted more time.

Looks like I’m on a roll. There’s a word we say here in the Philippines when you encounter this kind of situation. “Next!”

It’s been as hot as I can remember these past few days. I came across a picture that illustrates why:

Anyway, wish me luck getting through the next couple of days. Another example of “there are worse things than being alone.”