Not that I had much of a plan to begin with. Still, sometimes things work out in unexpected ways. And now I have made some exciting plans, and I’m looking forward to pursuing them. I’ll fill you in on that later in this post. Seeing as how I’m a sequential blogger, let’s start with the morning group hike.

And now for good stuff. Swan was attending to some family business at the compound in Subic and said she would meet up with me later, wherever I was in Barretto. When I headed out from home, I was thinking about Mugshots as this week’s seldom-visited bar. But as fate would have it, right when I was passing Sloppy Joe’s, it started raining. Naturally, I went inside to take shelter from the storm. I messaged Swan and told her where I was, then ordered a beer. As I was enjoying my beverage, my next-door neighbors, Jeff and Davina, drove by and saw me sitting there. They parked and came by to invite us to join them at Hops and Brews for dinner. I told them I was waiting for Swan to arrive, and they went next door to Green Room for a drink. When Swan came, we joined them there.

During our chat over drinks, Jeff told me they were planning to go to Manila next week. I said that I was taking Swan to Pundaquit for a couple of days of beach time. He asked where we were staying, and I told him about the Wave Song Resort on the waterfront where we stay. He thought it sounded good and decided they would come along, and we could ride with them.. So that saves me the hassle and expense of arranging transport. That was an unexpected win.

Just before six p.m., we hoofed it up the street to Hops and Brews to rendezvous with another couple who are friends with Jeff and Davina for dinner.

Jeff’s friends will be traveling to Da Nang soon, so naturally the conversation turned to our shared experiences in that wonderful city (Jeff and Davina had gone just a couple of weeks before our trip). We both agreed that one week hadn’t been enough, and the next thing I knew, we were discussing the details of planning a two-week stay this coming January. In addition to Da Nang, we will be booking lodging for a couple of days in the city of Hue, a three-hour train ride from Da Nang. We also plan to stay in Hoi An a night or two, and also in the resort area we visited in the Ba Na hills. I’m really looking forward to going back and spending some quality time while exploring new areas.

Swan had her craving for the wood-fired brick oven pizza that Hops and Brews is locally famous for satisfied.

Table talk over dinner turned to bars we enjoy, and I mentioned that in my opinion, Queen Victoria is now the best girly bar in Barretto. Jeff wanted to judge for himself, so we agreed to stop by when we finished eating.

Riding in the neighbor’s car is by far the best way back home after a nice night on the town. Sometimes you don’t need a plan to have fun. And now I have two trips planned and more to come.

Speaking of plans, I’m in the early days of December 2010 of the LTG archives, and declared in a post that I have decided to move back to the USA in January. Not without some sadness, as this post of photos from my life in Korea illustrates.

Via Facebook memories, here’s something I don’t miss from Korea:

In today’s YouTube video, Reekay discusses four types of expat lifestyles. I’ve bounced around between a couple of them, but these days I’m living like a married man. Well, I am a married man, just not to the woman I’m living with. Life is complicated.

And you know what comes next:

That’s where things stand as of now. I got up to pee at two in the morning and saw this out the window:

And this is how the sky was looking at six:

It’s good to enjoy the simple things life throws your way.