It was good to be back on familiar ground at yesterday’s Hash. The trail technically started at the VFW, but since we knew it was going through Alta Vista a group of us just met up at my house. It was actually a nice and pretty easy hike up and over Black Rock mountain, then on out to our On-Home at Hunter Jo’s Inn in Calapadayan.
There was a second hill we bypassed. The Hare’s had provided a rope to assist with the climb, but we said nope to that and took the long way around instead. Afterward, the Hare asked if we had done the rope climb and we admitted we hadn’t. He said he had considered marking the way went as an “easy” version of the trail, but realized anyone inclined to take the easy route would already know which way to go. He was right about that!
I don’t recall ever doing three Hashes in a row before, but I have now for sure. Today is my off day so I’m getting recharged for tomorrow’s hike with the Wednesday Walkers. Here are the photos from yesterday:
The path we walked.Gathering up and getting ready to head out from my house…This is only a three-foot drop, but that’s a bit more than I’m comfortable jumping. After contemplating my options and considering possible consequences, I sat on my ass and scooted down. All that I hurt was my pride.Across a mostly dry rice paddy…Ducks on a pond.A brief jaunt on the GOVIC highway.Beyond that gate lies the steep climb we bypassed.Courtesy of someone else’s Facebook page, here’s what that climb looked like.This is the way we chose to go. Can you see the difference?Almost to the top of Black Rock...Taking a rest and enjoying the best views in the Subic area.Selfie time. What do you mean I’m blocking the view?Fine. Happy now?Looking back from whence we came. That’s Alta Vista on the hill on the far side of the valley. And yes, I can see Black Rock from my upstairs bedroom window.Alright time to head to the bottom. Our way up was not nearly as steep as this way down.Steady as she goes. Actually, when it is dry out this rock face provides much better footing than a lot of surfaces. Not slippery at all.Still, unless you can defy gravity it’s a bit tricky in places.Cookies for the family living at the bottom of the hill.A hop, skip, and a jump over the creek.The narrow streets of Calapacuan.The neighbors shouted “one at a time!” at this crossing...But this bridge was sturdy enough for us all.A final push towards the highway…Then a leisurely stroll On-HomeHares on ice.Deflowering some virgins. The one in yellow was my favorite. Damn my imagination!And then the sun set on another day of Hashing.
I’ll be back tomorrow with some tales about the latest weirdness in my life. In the meantime, there is this:
I’m really not an anti-vaxxer and will be willing to get the shot(s) if it restores my freedom to travel. But still, I don’t get how the left says this isn’t okay…Please don’t trash this post.
Toe. Although I guess technically I walked a little over two miles to see a camel toe show.
Different Hash kennels have different personalities it seems. At the Subic Hash, we are irreverent and not PC at all. La Union, on the other hand, bills itself as a family Hash. They would never countenance some of the songs we sing in Subic. In fact, they asked some of us with crude names to not use them when we participated in one of their Hashes. This Corona group is WAY out there on the spectrum when it comes to sexual innuendo, and dare I say it, exploitation. The camel toe contest was an example of that. They also did a “big dickus” thing that I thankfully didn’t stick around for. Anyway, I’m no prude and I wasn’t offended, but some of the shenanigans were tiresome and made the circle last much longer than I like.
With that said, I’ll share some pictures I took of the camel toe event. It was hard to get good shots from where I was standing and the girls seemed more inclined to show their butts than their pussies, but here’s what I got:
The contestants.Participant #1backside.And upfront…#2 back…and side…didn’t manage a front shot on this one.Only shot I got of #3.Number 4 from a distance...And closer up…The only shot I got of #5.And the final contestant, #6.Yowzah!
Everyone has their own idea about what’s hot or not, but damn, #6 tripped my triggers. I’d actually noticed her long before the contest started and wished that…well, never mind. The other thing that stood out to me was her boyfriend, a guy who looks older than me and not in good physical shape, forced her to participate. She resisted and refused until he physically pulled her out of the chair and into the circle. Not a pleasant thing to see. Having said that, once she was in the competition she put forth some effort to win. Not in the slutty way some of the gals tried, i.e. twerking and the like, she just strutted her stuff with dignity. Let that hot body do all the talking as it were. Well, she did pull those shorts up some I guess to emphasize the feature that was being judged. It looked good from my perspective!
And the majority of folks in attendance apparently agreed, as #6 won the contest.
And there you have the promised camel toe post. You know, it seems to me cameltoe should be one word, But my spellchecker says that ain’t right. Sorta like this I guess:
Back home safe and sound. Well, as sound as I’m ever gonna be anyway. Now that I’m done with the Corona Hash weekend, it is time to gear up for today’s Subic Hash. So, let me do a quick down and dirty about yesterday’s happenings in Angeles.
We all gathered at the appointed time and place, the Premiere Hotel in AC. There were three Jeepneys parked in a lot and one nearby parked on the street. There was no one around from the Corona Hash to provide any guidance. At the appointed departure time of 1:30, a Hasher from La Union went over to the Jeepney on the street and the driver was heard to have said “this Jeep is for the easy trail”. So, the Hasher came back and relayed the information that anyone doing the short trail should board the street parked Jeepney and everyone else in the other three. About eight folks boarded the easy Jeep and five other people got in with me and my driver. I told my driver to follow the street-parked Jeepney to the trail. And so we waited. And waited.
As 2:00 p.m. neared I went over to the Jeepney and spoke with the driver. His English was very hard to understand, but I thought he said “waiting for 2 more”. That pissed me off, why should we wait on folks who couldn’t arrive on time? Still, nothing I could do about it, and not knowing where the “easy” was starting, we had to follow the Jeepney driver. When 2:00 passed I went over to a couple of Hashers sitting outside the sign-up venue. I asked if they could shed any light on the situation. They said we are Angeles City hashers and the Jeep is for Angeles Hashers, not the Corona Hash. Apparently what the driver had told the La Union Hasher was “this is for AC trail”, not easy trail. Well, fuck! I went and told the unhappy folks waiting in the Jeep that we were screwed. Now what? Went back to my car and discussed the situation with my riders. We had the GPS coordinates for the Corona Hash On-Home location, for all the good that did me with my non-existent tech skills. Well, not a problem for the Dutchman, Max (Nosy Bastard). I gave him my phone and in just a couple of minutes, we had a map to where we needed to go. I gave the paper with the coordinates on it to the other stranded Hashers and suggested they see if a cab could take them there. We pulled out and thirty minutes later arrived where we should have been 40 minutes earlier.
So we took off to do the short trail, which was incorporated into the long trail as was done on Saturday. There was steep, but not real long, climb to the top of the ridge. What made it more difficult for me was that the trail was covered in a powdery volcanic dust (Mount Pinatubo was only 11km away). Breathing that shit in got my lungs into full-on coughing mode. For the first time in a long time I needed to use the emergency inhaler that I carry for situations like this. A couple of squirts did seem to help, as did reaching the top relatively quickly.
After that, it was a nice hike along the ridgeline, then back down a not too steep path leading to the road that took us to the On-Home camp. Around 4.5K for the short trail Whatever temptation I may have felt to do the long trail was canceled by our late start. Probably a good thing because even the fastest of the Subic Hashers on the long trail arrived a good bit after we finished the short one, notwithstanding our late start.
And it the all’s well that end’s well category, those unfortunate Hashers we left behind in Angeles were able to contact the Corona Hash leader by phone. He sent a Jeepney to pick them up and they arrived in time to tackle the short trail as well.
The Hash circle on the other hand was another tiresome affair; longwinded, egotistical MC’s dragging things out much longer than necessary. My fear that this would happen is why I had my driver come a day early. By 6:30 I had had enough and bailed out early, forgoing the already paid for dinner portion of the Hash. There was one highlight, a camel toe contest, that I’ll cover in a subsequent post.
Here are some photos from yesterday’s adventure:
We are On-On! Everyone else was long gone, so just the 5 of us on trail.No pictures from the climb, it was all I could do to breathe.That’s Leech My Pussy making her way along the ridge.Goats on a hillside. Ain’t life grand?One of the mountain views I enjoyed.Proudly marching forward.You can perhaps see the powdery dirt we encountered in places. Felt like walking on a sandy beach. Each footstep kicked up a small cloud of dust which my lungs did not appreciate.The majority of the trail was good old fashioned packed dirt, just the way I like it.There was some tall thatch grass in places too.Alright, you already know which direction I turned…The long trail was reported to be extraordinarily scenic. Our trail wasn’t bad though…I rather fancied this flowering tree…A banana farm in the middle of nowhere...None of us had ever walked through a gully quite like this one before.We speculated as to whether its formation may have somehow been related to the volcanic eruption in 1991. None of us being geologists, the question went unanswered.Following Fuck Buddy on home...The Subic Bay Hashers in attendance to help the Corona Hash celebrate it’s first anniversary.The long and mostly boring Hash circle in progress…Here’s a little teaser–the camel toe contestants. I’ll let you speculate on who one for now. More pictures and commentary tomorrow!
And that was the day. I’m told the circle continued after the meal and the proceedings finally finished around 10 p.m. So glad I planned ahead. And now it is time to do it again here with the Subic Hash.
The title of this post pretty much sums up my first experience with the Corona Hash House Harriers here in Angeles City.
First to the good–I rather enjoyed the trail. I took the shorter version and found it to be just about right for me; one climb, a somewhat challenging creek side portion, and an interesting walk through a village of the Aeta native people. I *almost* regretted not taking the turn for the long trail until I learned later that it included a knee-high river crossing. Who wants wet shoes for today’s hike?
The bad part came after the actual Hash hike. The circle started late, and was overwrought and over long. Apparently, there is some bad blood between the breakaway Corona hashers and the original Angeles City Hash. So we had to listen to songs and commentary bashing the latter for a good portion of the circle. There were four other Hash groups in attendance (La Union, Subic, and two from Manila) and they all took turns doing their shtick, which rapidly became quite boring. And it just went on and on and on. I grew increasingly agitated because I was tired and hungry. When the circle FINALLY concluded, we had to walk up a steep hill to reach the Jeepneys for transport back to town. No fun after a few hours of drinking–I was pissed under two definitions of the word. Almost three, as I really had to pee during the ride back.
Anyway, we’ll see how it goes today. I had my driver arrive early so he can provide transportation back to town if I can’t endure another Hash circle reaching it’s conclusion. This is the big one-year anniversary event for the Corona Hash and will include an on-site after-circle dinner. Could make for a long day, let’s hope they keep it fun and interesting. Yes, I know I sound like a grumpy old man. I’m afraid that shoe might just fit.
Here are the photos from yesterday’s adventure:
The unique comfort of riding in a Jeepney.The Jeepney in which we rode. There were three all together.Written instructions left by the Hare. The long trail split off at about the 3.5K point. The junction wasn’t marked as well as it could have been. Some people did the long trail because they didn’t see the markers for the short trail. And we are On-On!It’s always nice to have some new vistas to enjoy.The first portion was on a road……which gave way to a path……through a mountain valley.A traffic jam at the first of several creek crossings. Jumping rock-to-rock made for some slow going…Still waiting my turn to cross…Once across, we followed the creek bed for quite some distance, crossing over from one side to the other frequently.The rocky banks were indeed slippery in places.The babbling brook in all her glory.Buddy Fucker, Fuck Buddy, and Jessa (no Hash name yet).One last crossing……then we left the creek behind for good.We climbed back up to the ridgeline…The entered this Aeta village…The native children were very friendly.Picture time with the strangers…Burn, baby, burn! ‘Tis the season.We didn’t miss this critical turn…On-Down!And finally the On-Home is in sight.Hanging out prior to the circle……standing around waiting for the circle.And at last the circle finally began. Then it seemed like it would never end.When the circle finally did end, we had to climb a big ass hill to catch a ride.
So, there was a group dinner back in town that I skipped. Had a mediocre chicken sandwich at a sports pub near my hotel instead. As usual, I was in bed by 9:00 p.m.
Time to grab some lunch now and get ready for today’s trail. I’ll try and keep a positive attitude and have some fun. If not, I’ll bitch and moan about it here tomorrow. Fair enough?
Or at least not working as well as it once did. I’m not a big fan of Angeles City, but it made me a little sad to see what the impact on the government’s response to COVID has done to the once-thriving bar district here. Almost all the hotels on Walking street were closed down. More than half the bars were shuttered as well. I guess that really shouldn’t come as a surprise since almost all the businesses here cater to an international tourist clientele. When even the Korean-owned bars and restaurants aren’t functioning, you know times are indeed hard. In a way, it is ironic that Barretto, always AC’s ugly little sister, is comparatively thriving now. The difference is that Filipinos are flocking to the Subic Bay beaches, there is no similar attraction to draw the locals here. Once international tourism is restored I expect Angeles will make a comeback.
In the meantime, I’m here and enjoying the change of scenery, sad though it may be. My hotel is probably somewhere between 2 and 3 stars, which is adequate. A little over $100. for three nights ain’t too bad I suppose. Signed up for the Hash activities which included a bar hop last night, a 7K hike today, and the big anniversary event tomorrow. I’m still a little nervous about being transported way out of town into unfamiliar territory, but I know several of my fellow Subic Hashers are old and slow like me, so if we stick together, things should be fine.
Here are a few photos from the trip so far:
My place of lodging for the weekend.The hotel bar with a Cuban theme.Not sure what this love affair for Che and Castro is all about. But the beer was cold and that’s what I was there for.Walking Street on a late Friday afternoon. It was shocking to see this once popular tourist area so deserted. Back again after dark and nothing much had changed.This bar on A. Santos street was where we signed up for the Hash. Back when I was a tourist here for the first time (2007), Santos was known for it’s blowjob bars. They are all gone now, which, ahem, really sucks.The first stop on the bar crawl. The gals weren’t too cute but there were lots of them, 50 or more. And they did dance routines that were quite impressive. Rather enjoyed the show.The bar also featured those gender neutral comfort rooms I’ve been hearing about.A Walking Street street scene. Still a big Korean influence here.The second stop on the bar crawl. This is one of the bars from my old tourist days that still exists. Nothing special, a few bored dancers doing a lackluster shuffle. Service was good though and I bought my waitress a lady drink.I was hungry so bailed on the bar crawl and came here–one of my favorite restaurants in town.I’ve been jonesing for some decent Tex-Mex for quite some time. These chicken enchiladas were done up right!This morning I took a walk in search of some breakfast. Saw the Hotel America was shut down. I’m not sure what this sign says, but it was displayed prominently on the side of the building.Found a place to eat and got a chuckle from this advice at the bottom of the menu.Loaded up on carbs with this serving of French toast. Figured I’d need them for today’s trail.And my Corona Hash anniversary shirt.
And that brings you up-to-date. Time to get rolling for today’s ordeal hike. Look for a full report on that adventure here tomorrow.
I actually don’t even like Angeles City. Still, after a year of being stuck at home, a weekend getaway to sin city is something to look forward to.
It felt good to drag the suitcase out from under the bed and fill it up in anticipation of a much needed change in scenery.
I guess I’ll find out soon enough what I forgot to pack. I literally just now got up and grabbed my hiking shoes. They won’t fit in the suitcase but I’m going to need them regardless.
I prevailed in my singles league match last night. Barely. I was disappointed that I threw as inconsistently as I did, but felt fortunate that I played just well enough to eke out a victory.
Nancy played her heart out though. I’m sure she felt like it was a missed opportunity, but I told her afterward that her game has really improved over the course of the season, and that’s what the league is all about.
Facebook reminded me today that 8 years ago I was making my debut as a darter on television. Well, I was in the background on a local news station story about a dart tournament in Augusta, Georgia. But, still.
Those were the days my friend, we thought they’d never end…
Got home early last night. How early? Earlier enough to see the sunset from my balcony. I can’t remember the last time that happened.
I do love my view here. I hope my landlady comes to her senses so I won’t have to move.
Did an abbreviated hike this morning with the Friday walkers. Only four of us out today as everyone seems to be saving their energy for the big weekend in Angeles. Still got a 6K trail in, mostly on My Bitch.
My hike mates worshiping at the altar of Mother Mary.A beautiful day with a nice valley view.Had the guys over to the house for some lunch and beers afterward.
I seem to be having some trouble with my eyes.
I could not remember this gal from the Hash so I asked Scott if he knew her name. Turns out she is a he. Man, I hate when that happens.
Perhaps I need to have a Rule #2.
Speaking of rules, I’ve been reminding myself to strictly adhere to Rule #1: Don’t be a sucker.
This might help. I’ll keep practicing.
Alright, that’s it from here for now. Time to head on down the highway to the City of Angels. Well, the gals I’ve met there ain’t angels, but you know what I mean.
I hadn’t really considered before all the ways you can take steps. There’s stepping out, stepping up, stepping forward, stepping back, stepping around, high stepping, and probably more that my tired old brain can’t think of at the moment. But the one that brings the issue to mind is about stepping down. Simon (Leech My Nuggets) was out scouting a trail for the traditional Hash Easter hike on, you guessed it, Easter mountain, when he stepped in it. Literally. And by it, I mean a hole.
Talk about getting shafted!
I don’t have a lot details, just the info from a Facebook post. Simon says (heh) that he was walking through some tall grass when suddenly he found himself at the bottom of a deep pit. He was very lucky that he wasn’t seriously injured, but the hole was so deep he couldn’t crawl out without assistance. He said if he had been alone he might still be down there. Yikes! That’s my hiking nightmare.
Just a couple of thoughts. I have no idea who dug the hole and what purpose it is intended to serve. But it is absolutely not surprising that there were no safety considerations taken to prevent what happened to Simon. Hell, there are similarly deep trenches right alongside the frickin’ National highway without any barriers or railings while construction continues on a drainage canal. This is the Philippines after all, and your safety is not a priority. The second thing is that this incident provides affirmation of my decision to not go hiking in the hills alone. Simon is one of those guys who regularly goes out scouting trails on his own, thankfully he had some folks with him yesterday. I’m honestly surprised that we don’t have more serious Hash-related injuries. There are lots of places, even on popular trails like My Bitch, where one false step will put you in a world of hurt. Or worse. I’m glad this incident turned out as well as it did.
Last night’s dart tournament had the largest turnout I’ve seen in quite some time. Over twenty players with only two boards made for a long night. Me and my partner Beth wound up finishing second. The only team we lost against all night was Billy and Mark. They put us in the losers bracket and we came back to face them in the finals. Beat them in the first round before succumbing to their superior darts in the final match. My partner and I both threw well, Mark and Billy threw better. No shame in losing in those circumstances.
My son, Kevin, is beginning his 43rd year of life today.
Happy Birthday!
Here’s the promised update on the begging females situation. Maria proved to be a disappointment. She’s the one I thought had consented to a reciprocal arrangement where we would take care of each other’s needs. I was 7000 pesos ($140.) in and had received nothing in return, when I finally heard from her. Except she wasn’t contacting me to see what I needed–she wanted MORE money. So that was that. I admit I was disappointed. Mostly in myself for believing she was different. I honestly don’t get it though. It wouldn’t have taken much effort to keep me on the hook and have her most pressing needs, like the rent, taken care of. Hell, if she had just asked to join me on a hike or provided some other form of companionship, she could have kept me believing in her. Foolish woman.
One door closes, and another opens. Or so it’s been said. I got a message yesterday from Joy, a gal I met long ago at the Hash and hadn’t heard from for many months. Except it wasn’t from Joy, it was from her sister Julica, using Joy’s account. I had a bad experience with Julica (another former Hasher) long ago and subsequently blocked her in Messenger. This is what she sent:
Hi john its me julica i need u your help my baby is sick
Well, I’m not an unsympathetic man and I hope her baby (if it is her baby) gets well soon. But it ain’t my problem and I’m not inclined to help a woman who fucked me over (not financially) previously. So, I ignored all of her entreaties. I guess the only questions now are who will be next and have I wised up? Stay tuned!
I’ve got a pot roast cooking in the crockpot. It’s been quite some time since I’ve attempted one of those. I had defrosted the meat early in the week and then blew off preparing the meal. Seeing as how I’m leaving town for the weekend tomorrow, it was kind of a now or never situation.
The beef comes in a slab-like form. I cut it up so it would fit in the crockpot. Last time I made it the meat came out tender, so hopefully, I can replicate that result.The requisite veggies.See you again in 8 hours!
Here are some photos from yesterday’s hike with the Wednesday Walkers. It was my turn to lead the group, but I didn’t get too creative. Did do a portion on the beach which we haven’t done for awhile.
Heading out to Baloy…Only five of us this week.Baloy Beach in all her glory…It was nice to see the Kokomo’s floating bar anchored once again in the bay. I’ve missed the ambiance of drinking on the water. A worker told us it would be opening on Sunday.I’m not sure what the other guys are looking at, but I distinctly remember watching a sweet young thing in a two piece bathing suit…Where the river meets the bay...Back on the National Highway. I had intended to walk along the riverside but could not find an access point.Follow me boys!Our only real climb of the day……but those steps seemed endless.Back on flat ground.As we were walking along we passed by a little roadside food stand and a young woman called out to us. I kept on walking, but Scott stopped and chatted. He told me later she used to work in the Hot Zone bar. He found her picture from those days and sent it to me. Damn, next time I’ll pay better attention. And walk this stretch of road more often!Hello, Easter mountain. I’ll be seeing you up close and personal in a couple of weeks. Hopefully, I won’t be falling into any holes though!A street in barangay San Isidro…Trading cookies for smiles. Although I admit I was distracted for a moment by that ass…The final push as we make our way towards liquid refreshment and lunch at Sit-n-Bull.Our friendly waitress at the end of the hike.
All told, just under 10K. If you want to Relive it, here you go:
https://www.relive.cc/view/vWqBnZZoXYq
I forgot to turn the tracker on, so missed the first 1/2K or so…
And that’s pretty much how I stepped through my day, I’ve got a singles league match to play this afternoon so I’d best be getting ready for that. Tomorrow I’m off for a weekend in Angeles City, so at least you can look forward to my boring drivel from a new venue. You are welcome!
I’ve said before that when it comes to darts, it’s often better to be lucky than good. That rings especially true in tournament play where the format is usually a “blind draw” or “luck of the draw”. Basically, all the players participating draw a number and are paired up based on that number. For example, last night I drew number 2 which meant my partner would be the player who drew number 1. That’s how it came to be that I teamed up with Cristy last night.
For those of you following my darts “career” here at LTG, you know Cristy is probably the top player in Barretto right now. And based on singles league stats, I’m in the top three. Anyway, once the teams were announced everyone assumed we would be unbeatable. I knew better though. There’s a different kind of pressure when you are expected to win which can adversely affect your game. And opponents who feel like there is nothing to lose often relax and throw better than they normally do. That’s why you have to play the matches to find out what’s going to happen.
Cristy and I won the tournament. It was a struggle at times. Two teams took us to the third and deciding leg, but in the end we finished the night undefeated. Neither of us threw our best darts, but we threw well enough together to bring home the money.
Well done, partner!
Speaking of luck, I did some walking around Baloy beach area looking for potential rental properties. I didn’t find anything. Well, there was this one:
Nope. Not what I had in mind.
I’ve got mixed feelings about Baloy anyway. I lived out that way for the first couple of months after making the move to the Philippines. The main road is rough and full of potholes, and when it rains it floods. I think they have made some improvements since that time, but not sure I want to deal with that again. We’ll see.
The potential house I was thinking about here in Alta Vista probably ain’t gonna happen either. Turns out my dart partner Cristy’s ex-boyfriend used to live there. She told me the owner of the house is a crazy Filipina who is trying to get her foreigner husband deported. When Cristy’s boyfriend made the mistake of taking the husband’s side, she went after him too. So he wound up moving out and leaving town. Don’t want that kind of drama in my life. So, the search continues for now.
More darts on tap tonight. I’ll tell you about my 10K walk today, tomorrow.
And here is how misunderstandings happen in today’s world:
I am happy to report that there were no casualties during yesterday’s Hash. Well, one guy didn’t finish until after 5:00 (we started at 2:30) and we got a little worried about him. He’s one of us slow oldsters, but that’s even slower than normal. He said he’d taken three falls along the way on loose leaves and the like and needed a rest along the trail as well. I was disappointed to learn he’d been out there alone the whole time too. His girlfriend, along with most of the other females, opted to not do the trail and stick to the pavement. I felt bad for the guy, but what are you going to do?
Feedback from the other Hashers was mostly positive, so there’s that. There were a couple of places we could have made the trail markings clearer, but that’s the way it goes sometimes. The Hash circle seemed to go well, notwithstanding the time I spent on the ice as one of the Hares. My chili sold out again and I got lots of compliments on that. People even noticed that I used both pinto and kidney beans. Maybe I’ll enter the chili cookoff competition this year! (kidding)
Chili con carne in the crockpot. With frijoles chilenos.Laying down that powder!Chatting with the locals…Climb every mountain…A Hare’s ass on ice.A view from our On-Home at the Alta Vista Community Center.Don’t let the sun go down on me.The ever-present Easter mountain.Free beer for all the Hashers!Chillin’ with my neighbor…With my fellow Hares–Blow My Pipe and Pubic Head.
Speaking of Hashing, next weekend I’ll be in Angeles City to help the Corona Hash celebrate it’s first anniversary. Kind of a last minute decision on my part to join a pretty large contingent coming from the Subic Bay Hash House Harriers. I’m a little nervous because the Corona Hash broke away from the Angeles City Hash in part, as I understand it, because the AC Hash wasn’t adventurous enough and had easy trails. Well, I don’t know the area very well so shortcutting might not be an option, but I’m going to give it a go anyway.
I must say though that just making a hotel reservation this morning proved to be quite the adventure in and of itself. First I went to the webpage of my preferred hotel (or at least the one most guys from Subic are staying at) and booked a room for three nights. Then I got a message that a deposit for one night’s lodging had to be transferred into the hotel’s bank by Thursday. WTF? Isn’t that what credit cards are for? Anyway, I don’t know the procedure for doing a bank transfer and I don’t plan to learn.
So, I booked through Agoda, which is how I used to roll in those long-ago days when I actually could travel and needed to make hotel reservations. Max, the guy who drinks poisoned water, is going with me and he secured a room as well through Booking.com. He shared the price he got and I wanted to compare the rate with Agoda. That’s when I realized that I had booked a room for Thursday night only–I’m arriving on Friday. Geez, not sure how I screwed that up. So, I went in a canceled that reservation and made a new one for the weekend. Then just before I left the house to go shopping, I got a message from Agoda that “something had gone wrong” and my reservation was canceled. I figured I’d deal with it when I got back home.
After finishing my grocery shopping, I checked with Agoda and still had no confirmation. To hell with that, let’s see how Booking.com does. Easy as pie! Had the booking, confirmation, and an app for my phone so I didn’t have to print the confirmation. While I was playing with my new phone app, I noticed something that seemed a little off somehow. So, I looked at the calendar. I’d been making reservations all morning for NEXT weekend, not THIS weekend when I’m actually traveling. Jesus. So, I canceled the Booking.com reservation and made the correct one this time. And it was actually about twenty dollars cheaper. Maybe I’ll use that money to get my head examined. Or change my name to Biden.
Groceries came in at $300. again, still too much, but better than $400 I was spending.
Now I’m going to take a walk to Baloy beach. Nothing too unusual about that except this time I’m going to be looking to see what’s available for rent. I think I’d rather stay in my overpriced house here than go through the hassle of moving, but I’ve made up my mind that I’m not going to suffer any rent increase whatsoever when the lease expires in June. So, if the landlady is to be believed, there’s a move in my future.
I’ve got some updated begging stories, but I’ll save those for another day.
Just back from a three hour jaunt in the mountains around Barretto to help mark today’s Hash trail with my fellow Hares, Pubic Head and Blow My Pipe. The regular trail is just a little over 6K with two decent climbs. By decent, I mean not insane. We also added a 1.5K loop with another climb for those who prefer a longer trail.
It looks like this.
I’ll need to shower up then head out to the VFW for the 2:30 send-off. Then I’ll make my way back to the Alta Vista Community Center for our On-Home activities. Makes for a long day, won’t even have time for my nap!
A couple of photos from the trail:
Good morning, Easter mountain!The lonely life of a Hare.But that trail ain’t gonna mark itself.One of my regular cookie stops. The kids were waiting, almost as if they had Hash radar…Anyway, we got it done and it all seemed to go well. Best trail ever!
In other news, I posted this on Facebook last night:
Along with the post, I wrote: “I’ve been saying this to the pussies and Karen’s from day 1”. I figured that would explode a head or two. The ex-wife #3 was one of them.
Carol responded: “I don’t think you have s good grasp on the concept of “Karen”.” Um, I can’t think of a better example of how Karens act. To better make my point I responded with an example I had personally experienced.
Oh, probably better than you. I posted a picture showing my dinner at a “speakeasy” that stayed open during lockdown for select customers like me. One of my facebook “friends” saw the photo and outed the restaurant by name. What a fuckin’ Karen! My being there had no impact on him while he hid like the pussy he is in his basement. I was born a free man and I choose to die as one should that become necessary.
Of course, when a lefty has no response, they just double down. Carol said: “yeah that’s not a Karen. You however are a scofflaw.” Okay, it was getting late and I had been drinking. So, I went “there” with a hypothetical: “Suedbeck [Carol’s maiden name}, that’s German right? Wonder if your ancestors had Jewish neighbors. I’m sure they wouldn’t be scofflaws and not report them. Geez, you’ve gone completely off the deep end.” Carol responded with laughing emojis and said she must have struck a nerve. Maybe I should have just let it go, but I didn’t.
That you could defend these idiotic policies makes me sad for you, that’s true. I will proudly wear the mantle of “scofflaw” whenever the government tries to impose strictures that imperil my freedom. It is what patriots do. So, run along now and keep doing what you are told by those who claim to know better than you.
Now, Carol and I have been fighting over politics since I abandoned liberal dogma shortly after 9/11/2001. It wasn’t the reason our marriage failed, but it didn’t help matters much either. What she said next was the typical crap I should expect, but it still surprises me that anyone could be so defiantly ignorant:
yeah Timothy McVey thought he was a patriot. And Benedict Arnold. And the idiots that stormed the Capitol. Being dumb, reckless and inconsiderate does not make you a patriot. It just makes you dumb, reckless and inconsiderate.
See what I mean? Oh well, it’s pointless to argue with someone who sees the world through those lenses. I closed out my argument with this:
keep telling yourself that if it makes you feel better about your surrender. That you would compare having a meal and a beer during lockdown with blowing up a building tells me there is no point in further discussion of this topic. Be a sheep if that is your lot in life. #donttreadonme#livefreeordie
And of course, Carol had to get in the last word: “baaa”. Well, at least she has embraced what she has become. Sadly, she is not alone.
Anyway, sorry for the detour into politics. I don’t engage often these days and the above exchange demonstrates the pointlessness of trying. Scary times.
Back tomorrow with more LTG goodness. Or whatever it is you call this crap.
But good enough I reckon. I played Billy in Singles League action yesterday and came away with a 9-7 victory. That’s as close as it gets, tied at 7 going into the last leg of a 15-leg match. Winning the eighth leg is worth two because you are awarded an extra point for winning the match. Billy and Cristy were the only players to beat me in the first round and now I have achieved my revenge against them both. Of course, I still need to play each of them one more time before the season is over, so I ain’t bragging (much) yet.
I’ve mentioned before that one way I measure my performance is how many marks I throw. My goal is one per leg on average or 15 in a match. I got a grand total of three yesterday which demonstrates just how off my game I truly was. I was lucky that my opponent wasn’t throwing up to her normal capabilities either. That’s the way the dart flies sometimes.
Here are the current standings for the league if you have any interest in that kind of thing:
I’m ranked second based on the average number of legs won per match. At the end of the season, we will use the total legs won. Can’t do that now because lots of players have played matches in advance (we just finished week 5 of 10 on the schedule).
I’m not sure if I mentioned that I had some custom dart shirts made in commemoration of the inaugural season of the Barretto Singles League. I have a singles league jersey from Columbia, SC, and one from Seoul, the previous venues for the league I created (yeah, I’m a little proud of my “baby”). Here’s how they came out:
The back of the shirt. No, I get no credit for the designs other than selecting them from things I found for free on the internet.The front.Left sleeve. Our claim to fame. Even if we can’t prove it.And the traditional flag of our host nation on the right sleeve.
What else? Well, I briefly met the daughter of my deceased landlady the other day. She didn’t say much but what she did say didn’t please me. She told me her mother had failed to institute the standard annual rent increases, but she intended to do so. She said “we’ll talk about it later though so as not to ruin your day”. I shrugged and walked away. I’m already overpaying for this house and if she really tries to raise the rent I’m outta here. Not sure how her mom could have done the increase during a three year lease anyway. Oh well, I’m paid up until June and I’ve already initiated a tentative search routine. You have to walk around and ask around, there is no central repository for finding rentals here. I did learn of a house here in Alta Vista that may be available and that I hope to get a look at soon. The bizarre thing in all of this is that this house I’m renting had been vacant for years before I moved in. A couple of other houses owned by my landlady have been vacant since I’ve moved in. I’ve done repairs and improvements here on my own and think I’ve been a model tenant in all respects. Why she would run off a paying customer and have this house sit vacant again for God knows how long makes no sense. But then again, this is the Philippines, and sense, common or otherwise, is not part of the culture as far as I can tell.
I’ve been eating more frequently at The Pub restaurant, run by Korean-American John Kim. He’s quite the foodie, sorta like that other Kim guy I know in Korea. The other day John announced on his Facebook page a major acquisition:
I just received 200 pounds of tenderloin this morning. I don’t think even many meat shops in Barretto has that much of Tenderloin. Yes, I am getting ready to make the most tender roast beef in town. Our rub came out really good, we wanted make it ourselves because we don’t like MSG and all other chemical contents in pre-made meat rubs. We should be able to come up with roast beef soon and will make whatever you guys miss the most: a. Beef and Cheddar, b. French Dip, c. Roast Beef Dinner.
I voted for the French Dip and stopped in after darts to see if I could get one for take-out. I could and I did:
Damn good it was too!
Now if I could only find a Monte Cristo sandwich. Maybe I’ll put a bug in John’s ear.
Facebook also reminded me that I’ve been a proponent of gun control since at least 1973. And I’ve got the photo to prove it:
I’ve got a pistol strapped on my waist as well. Alas, here in the Philippines, gun ownership is not a right afforded to foreigners.
Did a solitary 9K hike this morning that was quite pleasant. Only took one picture though:
The rarely seen bicycle tree in full blossom.
I’m probably forgetting something. Maybe it’s the age or maybe it’s the beer, but damn, I never used to be so absent minded. I try to do a mental checklist whenever I leave the house; phone, vapes, wallet, but invariably it seems I leave something behind. The other afternoon I made brownies for the girls at Alley Cats, and was halfway down the street before I realized I’d left them on the kitchen counter. Geez Louise.
That’s it for now then. I’m one of the Hare’s for tomorrow’s Hash trail and we are marking it in the morning. We’ve already done our scouting so it shouldn’t be difficult. It will definitely be safe and sane, that’s for sure.
Oh, I almost forgot. Stay safe out there everyone!
The dawning of another day as seen from my balcony…
My name ain’t Heinz, but let’s do some catch up anyway.
Tuesday morning I went grocery shopping without my helpers. Had to push my own cart, but the tab was $100. less than last week. That’s still too much, but I had some unusual items on my list this week. If I can get it down in the $200-250 range consistently, I’ll be happy.
I had partied harder than normal on Monday night, so was feeling like shit and pretty much unmotivated all day Tuesday. I showed up for darts anyway, but decided I wasn’t feeling up to playing. Then it turned out that there weren’t enough players for doubles, so they did a singles tourney. Well, I liked that better. Figured I’d get my ass kicked and be out of there early. It didn’t go as planned though. I didn’t throw particularly well, but I seemed to throw the big darts when I needed them most.
My sorry ass wound up taking first place. Well, it is better to be lucky than good I suppose.
And while we are on the subject of darts, I played in last night’s tournament as well. Drew a decent partner, but we both experienced one of those nights. As usual, I was either on fire or as cold as ice. Bizarrely, my partner was riding the same rollercoaster. Stranger still, we’d both go cold at the same time and then get hot together. Eh, well in a strictly platonic way of course. We got knocked into the loser’s bracket in the first round but we kept on scratching and clawing and eeking out wins until we found ourselves in the finals. A very tough match ensued (we had to beat them in two sets) and in the end, we prevailed.
It weren’t pretty, but we took home the money.
As soon as I finish this post I’m heading out for my singles league dart match. My opponent is a strong player and it is her birthday, so the odds could be stacked against me. I’m bringing some brownies to try and appease the dart gods and hopefully gain some positive dart Karma. We shall see.
It’s really important to know what out to throw and how to get there. I pretty much know what I’m going to shoot for from 101 on down. I had to do some coaching in that regard for my partner last night, but she was a quick learner and executed my advice well.
So, that covers the alcoholic and dartaholic portions of my life. I satisfied my walkaholic urges with the Wednesday walking group yesterday. One of the benefits of the group walks is the exploration aspect. We go places I wouldn’t attempt alone and actively seek out new trails and ways to get there. I mean, there are only so many mountains, but the ways to climb them are seemingly limitless. Of course, the downside is not knowing what you are getting into until you are into it. We almost never turn back. Hey, we have some pride! So, in that spirit, we attempted a new way up an old mountain yesterday. It was a steep and painful climb that I doubt any of us will want to repeat anytime soon, but we got to where we wanted to go. We stuck to more familiar ground for the rest of the hike, which is not to say it wasn’t challenging in places.
Fuck, the power just went out. I heard what sounded like a transformer exploding. Damn it. I’ll finish this post using my phone’s wifi hot spot. To the pictures then:
The first couple of kilometers were hoofing it down the National highway…I’m not sure if we are coming or going at this point…A small group this week. The gal in yellow, Linda, joined us for the first time. She’s been to some Hashes (her Hash name is Cum On My Boat). That’s apt because she lives on her sailing vessel and has been something of a world traveler. Don’t know a lot about her otherwise, but an older white woman in these parts is pretty unusual.And so our climb begins as they often do with seemingly endless steps.Would I have the “power” to make it to the top?“I think I can…”…”I think I can”…By golly, I made it to the top!Oh, it looks like I was the last one up. Been waiting long?A mountain dweller.A view for those who like to look down on Barretto…Dan keeping lookout on the Great Wall of Barretto…Way off in the distance you can see Easter mountain; no doubt anticipating our upcoming visit next month.A final view of the bay before we head back down the mountain.And what a down it was! Long and steep…And Scott didn’t fall once. Well, there was a real close call and an amazing recovery to keep his feet, but good on him!Damn, still not down!Now, I’ve been known to bitch about litter on the trail, but this was extraordinary. And not in a good way. There was a nearby shanty and apparently they just dump their trash right on the path. Ignorance abounds.Back at Cheap Charlies for our rehydration rituals…
Alright, I’m running late. Don’t want to keep my opponent waiting. I’ll be back tomorrow with more.
Alright, I couldn’t resist.I hope this post wasn’t a downer…
Another Monday, another Hash run. That makes 69 in a row if you are keeping score. I’m not, but Pubic Head posts the stats every week and that number jumped out at me for some reason. Go figure. Anyway, nothing else to do each week until I can start traveling once again.
So, I left the house at 1:30 to head over to the VFW, the alleged starting point of the trail. I noticed the Hares, Vienna Sausage (Guenter), and Fuck a Duck, were marking trail here in Alta Vista. I knew that had to be the end portion so I was hopeful that I’d find the beginning of the trail marked at VFW. Nope. Just more bullshit from the Hare. Anyway, I signed up and paid my fees, then waited for other members of the “safe and sane” group to arrive. I noticed two of the Angeles City Hashers departing early (prior to 2:00 and well before the “official” 2:30 starting time), so they clearly knew where the trail began. I asked Anal Receptive, one of the runners and part of the Hare’s “in-crowd” if he knew where the trail started. He did too. Now recall that when I specifically asked the Hare where to start he declined to answer, instead telling me to wait until 2:30 with everyone else. So yeah, I was taking this crap personally.
My group arrived and we took off. I already had an alternative trail in mind, but I wanted to check out the area Anal Intruder indicated was the starting point. And sure enough, it was. Seeing as how we were there, we took it. Almost straight up–over 60% grade according to Google Earth. We did the climb at a diagonal angle for the most part, but it was a slippery and treacherous mess. We got to the top without incident or injury though. I’d been on this mountain numerous times, but never knew the up we had just taken existed. Why would I? I know of at least two other ways to the summit that are not insane.
Our group consists of older gents like me, some womenfolk, and others who prefer to enjoy a hike without dealing with Hares who want to outdo each other in making things as difficult as possible. Now don’t get me wrong, I know there are Hashers who want the kind of challenge that Guenter provides, and that’s fine. I’d say that our group outnumbers those folks though and that’s why we band together and shortcut as we deem appropriate. Yesterday was no exception.
So, it was a little ironic that after our climb we found ourselves on the trail I was planning to use as the alternative had we not been able to locate Guenter’s path. All’s well that end’s well I suppose and we were On-On! Here are some photos from the hike (I forgot to turn on my tracker so alas, there will be no Relive video):
Guenter’s trail in orange, our alternative path in purple. As you can see the original trail has lots of ups and downs. Our group sliced most of those off. We probably did about 1/3 of the Hare’s trail, but still got in more than 5K.That first climb really was a motherfucker though.How we looked when we reached the top.A nice view of where we came from though…The “Safe and Sane” group of Hashers. Actually, we started with two more. Flaming Asshole and Western Union Sperm Bank got too far ahead of the pack and missed our first shortcut. Their nightmare tales of what they experienced confirmed that we did the sane thing.A good portion of our bypass was taking the familiar and comfortable “My Bitch” trail. Interestingly, towards the end, Guenter’s trail once again intersected with ours.Hello again, Easter mountain.Fucking Cupcake on trail.With Buddy Fucker close behind.Cum Together, Nosey Bastard, Nosey Angel, and Black And Dick Her, waiting on the slowpokes to catch up.On-On we go!Heading back down…Show us the way Pubic Head…Another decision point. Stay on the Hare’s trail or not? When in doubt, shortcut! And that’s what we did!
As we passed through Alta Vista on our way to the On-Home at Queen Victoria, the group popped over to my place for a cold beer and to kill a few minutes. The Hash tradition is no drinking Hash beer before the first runner returns. We needed to give the suckers who did the long trail a chance to catch up!
Oh yeah, there’s another group of Hashers known as “socialites”. They don’t do any trail whatsoever. They get rewarded with some time on the ice.
After the Hash circle rituals were completed, a few of us headed over to Palm Tree for some grub.
I had pork chops but they weren’t nearly as good as the ones Mango’s serves next door.
And after beers and food, the Filipinas with us wanted to go to a videoke place to sing. The one next door was closed, so we hoofed it up the highway to McCoy’s where we enjoyed buckets of beer and I treated the audience to my croonings.
I did my renditions of “Crazy” by Patsy Cline and “I started a joke” by the Bee Gees. Yeah, I must have been drunk.
As hard as it is to believe, I stayed out until well after 9:00. That’s a very rare event for this oldtimer.
Anyway, it all turned out for the best. I did a trail that was mostly enjoyable and I did it my way and at a time of my choosing. Better luck next time Guenter!
So, about that lunch “date” yesterday. I’m using the word date, although there were not any romantic implications to the meet-up. Maria, like many other folks, has been really struggling financially. Her salary and workhours were reduced so she’s only bringing home 600 pesos ($12.) a week. That’s enough to eat but there’s nothing left over to pay the rent. I told her I’d be willing to help her out with her needs if she would help with mine. She agreed, so I arranged for us to meet up at Sit-n-Bull for lunch prior to taking care of business.
It had been a while since I’ve had Mexican food, so I ordered up a chicken enchilada. Maria opted for a quesadilla, but I had to school her on the proper pronunciation–dee-ah not dill-ah. The enchilada was mediocre and served lukewarm. I was reminded of why I don’t eat much Mexican these days–lots of places offer it, few make it well. Anyway, I was looking forward to dessert at my house!
But here’s the thing. After thinking about the arrangement I wasn’t really comfortable with the implications. Maria is, I think, a good woman in desperate circumstances. I didn’t like the feeling that I was taking advantage of that fact. The other thing is, I really don’t like paying for sex; it is so much more pleasurable when both parties are enthusiastic participants. Or at least freely willing. So I decided to give Maria the money upfront rather than after the act. Her rent was taken care of so it would be a matter of if, and how, she might express her gratitude. I think that there is s subtle difference there, at least in my mind.
So, I slipped Maria the money and invited her to join me on the ten-minute walk to my house. She agreed. We sat at the kitchen table and chatted a bit then I said “let’s go upstairs to the bedroom.” She asked “why”, almost as if we hadn’t made a prior arrangement. I responded, “let’s see what happens”. She somewhat reluctantly followed me up the stairs. Honestly, I was okay either way–she had her rent money, and if that’s all she came for, fine. There wouldn’t be a next time. On the other hand, if she was willing to provide some satisfaction as a way of saying thanks, perhaps she wouldn’t have to worry about next month’s rent.
I laid down on the bed, she went into the bathroom. I heard her mutter something unintelligible, then she cracked the door and asked me to bring her her purse from downstairs. After I retrieved it, she told me she had started her mens and I could see the blood in the toilet if I didn’t believe her. Yuck! No, that won’t be necessary! She took a pad from her purse, went back inside the bathroom, and when she came out she laid down next to me on the bed. She apologized and I said she had nothing to be sorry about. We snuggled some and had a nice little chat. She told me she had never gone with a man for money before. I explained that this was more of a “friends with benefits” situation. We were simply taking care of each other’s needs. She seemed to like that concept and promised me we could get together again in a few days. We’ll see.
I walked her to the street, gave her trike fare, and said goodbye.
I don’t know, but I don’t care. I guess that makes me ignorant and apathetic.
Took a nap then hoofed it over to Mango’s.
Had a roast chicken salad for dinner……and a nice sunset for dessert.
Today is Hash Monday. Guenter is the Hare. He posted that the Hares will escort the Hashers to the trailhead at 2:30. He also said that he had added another kilometer and another climb to satisfy some folks making the trip from Angeles City. I responded that I am old and slow and wanted to start early, where does the trail begin? He responded that it begins at 2:30 at VFW with the Hare escort. It took all the restraint I had to not respond fuck you and fuck that on the group page. But I’ll say it here–fuck you and fuck that. I’ll do my own trail, asshole. Scott is going to scout around to see if we might be able to locate the trail on our own. Either way, I’m departing the VFW at 2:00 p.m. I’ll go when and where I want and I certainly don’t need anyone’s permission to do so. If I sound a bit angry about this chickenshit power trip the Hare seems to want to impose, it is only because I am.
Oh, well. It’s all good. Look for a full report tomorrow.
Started out like normal (or as normal as it gets for me), and finished in an atypical fashion. Not in a bad way though.
As seen from my balcony, it appears that burning season is upon us once more.And the morning dog walk revealed that construction on another new house is going at an impressive pace. Once again, though, I’m shocked that people would build right up against the neighbor’s fence. In this case, TWO neighbors. Especially with all the open space available.
Did a boring street walk in the morning and a similarly boring afternoon walk in the neighborhood. Achieved my step goal though, so there’s that. A commenter on yesterday’s post mentioned how the flat land of San Antonio looked like a Texas prairie, but the mountains in the distance resembled a New Mexico landscape. I thought that was an apt description and wondered if there was a Santa Fe nearby. And sure enough:
Of course, Texas, Mexico (old and new), and the Philippines were all ruled by Spain for hundreds of years, so it makes sense you’d find similar names in all those places.
I headed out for darts at Alley Cats at the appointed time. Was surprised to find the place almost deserted with a tournament imminent. Turns out there was a competing tourney at Lagoon on Baloy beach and a lot of the players and staff went there to play. It hurt my feelings a tad that no one informed me about the Lagoon event, although honestly, I doubt I would have played regardless. There were three waitresses present–one was playing darts with a customer, one was keeping score in that game, and the third seemed to be intentionally avoiding me. Yeah, I do flirt with her some, but that goes with the job. Anyway, my initial beer was empty and she never came around to offer another. After several minutes my patience was exhausted, and when I finally got her attention, I just paid my tab and departed. I was not a happy customer.
So, I didn’t get my darts workout to keep me in shape.
I headed up the highway to Cheap Charlies to drown my irritation. Three beers seemed to do the trick. Still, I just wasn’t feeling like hanging out in the bar, even though it was Saturday night. My downstairs neighbor, well, technically her daughter who stays with her, was celebrating her 27th birthday. I figured there would be a party going on, so I invited myself. Stopped in at the 7/11 and picked up a bottle of Emperador rum, the Filipino alcoholic beverage of choice, and headed home. I was surprised that no festivities were taking place, but when I handed over the rum, a small party did break out–mama, daughter, me, and the daughter’s boyfriend. Damn it!
That would be Geraldine, aka Inday. She may look familiar because she has attended a couple of Hash runs recently.I baked up a batch of cupcakes and one of my helpers deep-fried some chicken nuggets and calamari.
Despite living here for going on three years, I have very rarely partied with Filipinos. One thing that is kind of unique is that they share one glass for the rum and lemon juice drink. Pass it around and take turns. Seems like an odd concept, especially during a pandemic, but who am I to judge? I stuck with beer of course. Anyway, Inday seemed to appreciate the gesture and it was a nice change of pace from my usual nights out.
Once the full moon had risen, it was my bedtime so I said my goodnights and headed upstairs.
Did my morning walk on Baloy beach. The resort hotels were swamped once again, at least judging by the parking lots. On the plus side, I’m glad to see at least this sector of the economy thriving again. It’s all the more impressive because the crowds are almost exclusively Filipino. The downside is that some of my favorite places are too busy on the weekends for my taste. I didn’t have breakfast at Treasure Island because I figured it would be crowded. When I did my walk-by that feeling was confirmed.
Even in the “good ol’ days”, I don’t remember seeing this many people enjoying the beach.Filipino families were also filling the nipa huts that line the beachfront.
I have a lunch “date” this afternoon. I’ll report on how that goes tomorrow.
Yep, you read that right. Our Friday walking group decided to change things up and took a little trip out to a pleasant small town in Zambales province. Gary lives way out there and generously agreed to host our hike.
It’s about a 45 minute trip from Barretto (bottom right between Ologapo and Subic).
I’ve been to San Antonio a couple of times previously. Once, for a birthday party at Gary’s place, and then there was the time we got detained by the Philippine Navy. Nothing so dramatic this go-’round, thankfully.
We did almost 7K on mostly flat ground, not that we avoided hills, there just weren’t any. Still, it was very nice to get out of town and see something new while trekking. It’s a nice area but so far away from the bar scene city conveniences, I think it would be hard for me to live happily ever after there. I was surprised to see a sign that indicated a barangay was named Los Angeles. I was born in LA, and perhaps when the time comes I will move there so folks can say “he was born and died in Los Angeles. Eh, probably not.
Let’s tell the story of my day through photographs:
You can perhaps tell by this Google-eye view of our route that the topography is much different than hilly Barretto.Six total in attendance for this hike. We were limited by the five-passenger capacity of Steve’s car.A typical street scene in old San Antone…Got off the pavement and came across these boys playing in the creekbed…And then we were out in the wide-open spaces.See what I mean?Marching through an unplanted field. We did encounter some corn growing and what I guess is some type of beans or another…Trails were scarce in places, but we did our best not to trample any crops.No hills to climb, but we did have to scale this sandbag wall.The beach is on the other side of those mountains. We saved the ocean for another day.A river……and a river crossing. That bridge literally led to nowhere, no idea why it was built. And then we came to a fork in the road, so we took it. Then retreated and took a different one… But all paths seemed to lead us here. It really was the only viable place to cross the water. I was the first to reach this bridge, and regular readers know about my phobia for structures of this nature, but I really did want to make the attempt. Once I tested the handrail and noted how wobbly it was, I decided this would be a good time to test how waterproof my new shoes were. And I’m happy to report that they dried out well.So Gina took the lead and crossed first without any difficulty.Steve was next and he weighs as much as three Ginas. He made it safely too, but it was worrisome to watch.I guess all those years on a submarine made Gary the sure-footed creature he is today.Scott and I kept watch from the relative safety of the water below…We regrouped on the other bank and plotted our course homeward.We found our way through this small village in the middle of nowhere…The highway must be around here somewhere…And we made sure to give the Navy base a wide berth so as not to accidentally stray across its borders…We made it safely back to Gary’s place. One of the nicer houses I’ve seen, but man, the outdoor area is huge and quite beautiful. This flowering roof cover over the patio being just one example.Gary manned the grill to provide us a delicious hamburger luncheon.And the beer was cold and wet! A perfect ending to our hike.
You can Relive it here if you want.
By the time we got back to Barretto, it was too late to nap. I showered up and headed out to darts but changed my mind before I arrived. Instead, I crossed the street and had some beers with the sunset at Palm Tree. I made it an early night though. Came home for crockpot meatballs with a sweet potato I had bought from a farm woman on one of my hikes. It was all good.
A full and for the most part satisfying day yesterday. I made a long overdue shopping excursion in the hopes of upgrading my hiking footwear. First stop was Harbor Point mall on the old Navy base. They have a Merrell shoe store that has been closed since the onset of the pandemic. Alas, despite having a tantalizing display of hiking shoes in the window, it remained closed yesterday. I swallowed my disappointment and prepared to leave, then noticed that the American Outlet store across the aisle was open. I’ve not had much luck in that store as they generally have very limited selection. But, I figured I’m here, why not take a look?
Now I wear a size 11 which is either a rare or a popular size here. I say that because most of the time when I see shoes I like I’m told it is not available in my size. So, I was surprised that the first pair of Merrells I saw on display was size 11. Tried them on and they were a bit snug on the sides but had plenty of toe room. They were half price so I took them hoping for the best. The clerk brought another pair of size elevens over, some brand I have never heard of, but I figured they would make good “everyday” shoes. They were also half price. Also found some Jockey briefs in my size, another rare find here. Success!
Took my new purchases to the car, then headed to the SM mall next door. In a JCPenney-like department store, I was happy to see a whole section of Merrell’s on display. Of course, only one of the styles was available in my size. I liked the look and they were comfortable, so I bought them along with a pair of Skechers I fancied. Picked up some socks and shorts too.
My new shoes. And no, despite appearances, I’ve not gone into full Imelda Marcos mode.My new shoes are replacing these old ones I’ve worn out through heavy use.
After completing my shopping expedition, I told my driver I was hungry for some Korean food. He took me to a place on the old base I had never even seen before.
I’ve heard that name somewhere before though…And the view from inside was oddly familiar too…
It had been a long, long while since I had dined at a Korean joint and I was really jonesing for some samgyeopsal. I also noticed they had bulgogi the way I prefer, in a stew. I ordered up a bowl of that too. I was more than a little surprised to see that the side dishes that make a Korean meal Korean, were only provided a la carte–you had to pay for each one separately. What kind of insanity is that?
I ordered up my three favorites anyway. The kimchi was nice and spicy and the macaroni salad was quite tasty as well.I ordered the thick cut of samgyeopsal. Honestly, it was a little disappointing. Not flavorful at all.But the bulgogi made up for it. Best I’ve eaten outside of Korea.
The staff was all Filipino, so my attempt to practice up my Korean was wasted. Oh well, I’ll be back “home” one of these days.
The other big happening for the day was my solitary Thursday walk. I always try to make that one a little longer than usual. I was quite surprised that the walk came in at exactly 12 kilometers, door-to-door. What are the odds of that?
The proof is in the pudding. Well, in my tracking app anyway.
I decided to photograph street scenes on the highways, byways, and pathways I traversed during the walk. Here they are:
On the National highway…A street scene in Calapacuan.A view from the Govic highway…On the road to Naugsol…Sawmill Road at bridge #4.A pathway through the valley…A backstreet in San Isidro…Almost home on Alta Vista Drive.
Here’s the Relive version:
https://www.relive.cc/view/vevYXJooryq
For some reason on my pleasant but lonely hike, I remembered this Sara Teasdale poem:
A diamond of a morning Waked me an hour too soon; Dawn had taken in the stars And left the faint white moon.
O white moon, you are lonely, It is the same with me, But we have the world to roam over, Only the lonely are free.
There are worse fates than being alone!
So, it was a good day. How about I close out with something humorous and something political? Hell, it’s getting hard to tell the difference these days!
I’ve noticed this is spot on those occasions I engage my lefty friends on Facebook. Total waste of time, especially when they resort to “whataboutisms” I have more Native American blood than Elizabeth Warren, so this was especially funny to me.
And as a bonus, here is something very insightful about how relationships work here in the Philippines.
I was drafted to set the trail for our Wednesday Walkers group. I didn’t have any fresh ideas so I just resorted to doing My Bitch, then a descent into the valley, and around about on the GOVIC highway back to Barretto. A little over 8K all told, mostly flat. The only real “excitement” was attempting a new way down, losing the trail, then blazing our own until we reached a creekbed for easier going. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? Anyway, it was not that big a deal. Well, Steve and Gary both fell on the trailless downhill and there were some red ant bites, but otherwise, it was all hunky-dory. Here are some photos:
Follow me!The largest turnout we’ve had in a while… A pleasant day for a hike..My Bitch is not particularly challenging… …which allows you to just enjoy the great outdoors.Resting up at 4 Corners…Picture time…I think it came out pretty well…Would you like some cookies, little girl? (yeah, that sounds f’d up. For the record, I only give out the sweets when a parent is there and approves)Scott getting a helping hand from Steve as he deals with a dropoff…This woman marching along the trail with those poles on her shoulder was pretty impressive.The mountain family’s house is another My Bitch landmark…The Old Man’s house used to be, but neither the man nor the house exists anymore.That part of the trail where there no longer was a trail. We all found our way down though.Thank you for keeping us safe, Mother Mary.Not sure what these are but they were in abundance.Almost down…At last, we are in the warm embrace of the valley.Back on pavement…Over the bridge we call #3.There is something familiar in this photo…Hiking the highway…Entering Santa Monica subdivision…And exciting onto the National Highway…What? You’ve never seen a dog being bathed on a tricycle alongside a major highway? Welcome to the Philippines!Chillaxin’ at Cheap Charlies after our not-so-challenging jaunt…
Relive it if you want:
https://www.relive.cc/view/v8qkjBDrR36
It was a nice hike and the highlight of an otherwise mundane day. More to come tomorrow!
Tuesday is my nothing day. Which leaves nothing to post about. Like THAT will stop me!
I did visit the immigration office in Olongapo and they graciously extended my stay in this fine land for another 60 days. Only paid 3100 pesos for the privilege.
Went to Royal for groceries. As usual, they had some things I wanted and didn’t have others. But it is astounding to me what I’ve been paying for groceries of late. Yesterday my tab was over 20,000 pesos ($400.). That’s for one week’s worth of stuff. I suspect the help is filling the shopping cart with items that ain’t for household use. For example, I noticed a bottle of men’s shampoo and asked what that was for. Teri said she wanted to give it a try. Hmm, that sounds like bullshit. Probably for some guy friend. Anyway, it really pissed me off. I haven’t said anything yet, but next week I’ll carry a shopping list to the store and leave them at home. We’ll see what my bill is then. I’m thinking about making some other changes as well. More on that once I decide.
Fended off a couple of new requests for me to give what remains of my money away. Saying no consistently does get easier. I honestly don’t understand the mindset of these ladies. In one case, it’s a gal I’ve known for quite some time. In the past, I even expressed some interest in dating her but that interest was never reciprocated. That’s fine, a friend is good too. Anyway, I have NEVER received any messages from her at all until this one yesterday:
Good afternoon jhon,,I’m going to Big Face to you right now.. Can i have big favor to you please Can you help me even 5k-6k pesos. Even put some interest but not to high can i pay weekly payment. Because i really need and I’m going to join for COOPERATIVE so i can loan for my Bussines. Please help me Thank you and I really appreciate that.
I ignored her and so she repeated her request. Twice more in fact. I finally just responded “I’m sorry, can’t help” and she graciously accepted that response. But had she sent a message asking me: how you doing, saw your post, wish we could go hike together sometime, want to do lunch? type of thing and then after we got together, she sprang her money plea, I might have been more receptive. Up your begging game, girl!
Walked into town to cash up at the ATM and then headed to the vape shop for some supplies. Stopped into McCoy’s for a couple of beers, then headed over to Alley Cats for some darts. Shouldn’t have bothered. Despite having a good partner, we were eliminated in the third round. A frustrating night at the oche for sure.
One good thing about being eliminated early I suppose was I had plenty of time to go out and get myself some dinner.
I opted for my weekly fix of pork chops at Mango’s. As good (or better) than they look!
And that was pretty much it for the day.
A friend posted this on Facebook and I thought you English speakers might enjoy reading it. I did at least. It’s kind of long, so scroll on past if you prefer:
Why English can be difficult:
Homographs are words of like spelling but with more than one meaning. A homograph that is also pronounced differently is a heteronym. You think English is easy?
I think a retired English teacher was bored…THIS IS GREAT! Read all the way to the end… This took a lot of work to put together!
1) The bandage was wound around the wound. 2) The farm was used to produce produce. 3) The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse. 4) We must polish the Polish furniture.. 5) He could lead if he would get the lead out. 6) The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.. 7) Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present. 8) A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum. 9) When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes. 10) I did not object to the object. 11) The insurance was invalid for the invalid. 12) There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row. 13) They were too close to the door to close it. 14) The buck does funny things when the does are present. 15) A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line. 16) To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow. 17) The wind was too strong for me to wind the sail. 18) Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.. 19) I had to subject the subject to a series of tests. 20) How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?
Let’s face it – English is a crazy language. There is no egg in eggplant, nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren’t invented in England or French fries in France . Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren’t sweet, are meat. We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.
And why is it that writers write but fingers don’t fing, grocers don’t groce and hammers don’t ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn’t the plural of booth, beeth? One goose, 2 geese. So one moose, 2 meese? One index, 2 indices? Doesn’t it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend? If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?
If teachers taught, why didn’t preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? Sometimes I think all the English speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane. In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell?
How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which, an alarm goes off by going on.
English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race, which, of course, is not a race at all. That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible. PS. – Why doesn’t ‘Buick’ rhyme with ‘quick’?
You lovers of the English language might enjoy this. There is a two-letter word that perhaps has more meanings than any other two-letter word, and that is ‘UP.’ It’s easy to understand UP, meaning toward the sky or at the top of the list, but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP? At a meeting, why does a topic come UP? Why do we speak UP and why are the officers UP for election and why is it UP to the secretary to write UP a report? We call UP our friends. And we use it to brighten UP a room, polish UP the silver; we warm UP the leftovers and clean UP the kitchen. We lock UP the house and some guys fix UP the old car. At other times the little word has real special meaning. People stir UP trouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UP excuses. To be dressed is one thing, but to be dressed UP is special. A drain must be opened UP because it is stopped UP. We open UP a store in the morning but we close it UP at night. We seem to be pretty mixed UP about UP! To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of UP, look the word UP in the dictionary. In a desk-sized dictionary, it takes UP almost 1/4th of the page and can add UP to about thirty definitions. If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways UPis used. It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you don’t give UP, you may wind UP with a hundred or more. When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP. When the sun comes out we say it is clearing UP. When it rains, it wets the earth and often messes things UP.
Perhaps I’ve posted this one before, but it seems true now than ever!When I read some of the shit going on back home, I just change the word white to black. That’s how I can determine if it is racist. It always is.Me too!
That’s probably as good a place to end this post as anywhere. Except maybe after the first paragraph.
Made it through another Hash alive. But before I get to that, here’s a quick update on the “mama” situation. The landlady gave me back half my money and says if and when she rents the place again she’ll give me the other half. That’s more than I expected. I saw mama last night camped out near the local 7/11 store and I provided her the standard 100 pesos to buy food. We did our usual greetings and acted as if the room thing never happened. So, it appears that all is well and right with the relationship.
To the Hash then. We had nine folks in our “lame, lazy, and sane” group. We met up and headed out for the trail an hour before the official start time. In fact, we walked from our meetup to the trailhead, thereby adding about 1.5 kilometers to the original trail. We fixed that by shortcutting one of the loops of similar length–the one going down the mountain then back up again. It’s always a hard climb when you do the big mountain, but our version of the trail was just about right–one big up and one smaller one. With our earlier start and our shortcut, we arrived On-Home just about the same time as the first runner returned. The beer flowed, I ordered take-out from Sit-n-Bull, and all was good.
Here are some photos for your viewing pleasure:
The green line is the trail that Leech My Nuggets laid. The purple shows our enhancements.The “WHIOW” group (We’ll Hash It Our Way) waiting to get started. A fresh coat of asphalt had just been laid (you can see the rolling machine above). The road was still hot and sticky as we commenced our hike.And we are On-On the wet asphalt.We arrived safely at the official starting point of the trail. The main body of Hasher’s would follow an hour later in the Hashmobile…Let’s get this show on the road!The climb began with some steps…Lots and lots of steps.The steps gave way but the climb was just beginning…Then we did a diagonal walk across a jagged rockface.Even within our small group, you’ve got the fast ones and the rest of us. Nice of them to wait on us though…Finally made it to the top of our first climb, only to encounter a dreaded checkpoint. We sent someone ahead to find the true trail while we rested.Yep, I do believe this must be the right trail! Props to Leech for always making his intentions known.I always find it disconcerting to be going down in the wrong direction (which means we’ll have to climb back up), especially after just completing a tough uphill.But passing through this yard did afford the opportunity to make a cookies delivery…Another thing about downhills, they can be treacherously slippery. Just ask Pubic Head after this fall. He must have skidded five yards after landing on his ass.But the good news is he got back on his feet again and carried on…Geraldine, one of our newer Hashers, seems to be enjoying herself…At least the second climb was mostly steps and not too long…Back up top with a view of home…“The beer is thataway! Let’s go!”Coming back down the mountain…Nosey Bastard is heading for our On-Home at the VFW…And Buddy Fucker ain’t far behind…Be careful, Geraldine…it’s slippery!At last, the final few steps of our downhill journey…It does tend to be more scenic on the mountain though…
Anyway, it was a good trail, hard but not insane. Feel free to Relive it:
https://www.relive.cc/view/v8qkjBYxy36
It’s showing 9K because I started the tracker from my house. The actual trail was around 7.5
An interesting side note, by my count there were at least three other groups from the Subic Hash yesterday doing their own thing on the mountain. People seem to be voting with their feet. Maybe it’s always been that way. The feedback I’m getting from long-time members is to just keep on doing what we are doing without making it an “official” alternative. That’s fine with me. Vienna Sausage (Guenter) is the Hare again next week so I will once again be free to roam as I please.
