“Like sands through an hourglass, so are the days of our lives.” Here’s what yesterday’s pebble looked like:

It being Friday, the group hikers gathered at the appointed hour.

I had considered taking them up to Black Rock for the views, but not knowing their capabilities and fearing that steep descent might prove hazardous, I decided to play it safe and introduce them to My Bitch instead. I’ve done that trail so often it’s a little boring now, but for newcomers it offers a relatively easy and scenic hike.

My afternoon delight included practicing darts at home. I threw marginally better than before, but was still way too inconsistent. The dartbot on my app beat me twice again. Then it was off to Alley Cats to see if the Friday tournament was in my future. One of the waitresses, Mengie, volunteered to help me warm up with a practice match. She won. I wasn’t feeling very confident (or competent), but when only five other players showed up, I was up for participating in a singles tournament. At least no one would get stuck with having me for a partner.

In the first round, I drew a guy named Tobias, who had just beaten Mengie. It took him three legs (I won in cricket) to drop me to the losers’ bracket. I won my next two matches there, then faced Tobias again in the finals. Now, here’s the strange part: the tourney had been going on for over two hours at this point. Naturally, I’d been drinking beer throughout, and it seemed the more I drank, the better I threw. We darters jokingly refer to our alcoholic beverages as “aiming fluid,” but that proved to be the case for me last night.

So, the match began with 501, and I won that leg. Then it was cricket, and I won that as well. Since Tobias was previously undefeated, I had to win another match to win the tournament. And thanks to those San Mig Lights, good luck, or suddenly remembering how to throw darts again, I pulled off the victory.

Maybe I should quit while I’m ahead. It was nice to win, of course, but damn, I was feeling my age by the time it was over. So, we arrived at Alley Cats around 4:30. The tournament started at 5, and it was close to 8:30 before it was all said and done. And I hadn’t had anything to eat yet. Everything seemed a little off-kilter, I mean, it was practically my bedtime!

I needed some food, so we crossed the highway and popped into Mango’s.

And when dinner was over and done with, so were we. Grabbed a trike and headed on home.

I may need to incorporate pizza delivery into my dart tourney routine. Or quit playing again. We shall see.

It is now September 2017 in the LTG archives. I have to say, reliving the depression I was experiencing while living in Pyeongtaek has been painful. Oh, the photos from my bike rides and hikes are nice. Lots of time spent in the bars as well. But my mindset was almost pure misery. So, this post, where I share the story of Loraine, the gal I had hired in advance to take care of me when I moved to the Philippines, was refreshingly upbeat. Of course, I haven’t forgotten what was to come, but that’s still a month away.

For today’s YouTube video, let’s see what the Filipina Pea has to share about ten funny Filipino traits that most foreigners don’t grasp.

Humor time:

Sorry for all the lameness. It’s bound to get better. Or not.