I’ve been maskless for quite some time now, but President BongBong made me legal again by finally lifting the outdoor mask mandate. About damn time. I’d say about 30% of the population continues to wear their slave masks voluntarily, but that’s their choice, pointless though it may be..
The Wednesday Walkers had a very pleasant hike yesterday morning through the back streets and hills of Subic town. I’ll share pictures of that adventure later in this post.
I paid a visit to my doctors yesterday, but not on my own behalf. I brought my friend Bhel in for a consultation regarding her eight-year-old son. He has a severe heart condition that requires surgery, but she doesn’t have the means to pay for it. Bhel asked someone she knows at the Rotary Club if they could help, and she got a response saying yes, they would, provided she had the surgery done in India. That raised some serious red flags in my mind, and I knew Dr. Jo’s husband had done work in India, so I wanted her to hear their opinion. Not surprisingly, they didn’t think it was a good idea either and suggested some other options in Manila. Whether Rotary will pay for that remains to be seen, but Dr. Jo believes we can find local charities to help if need be. Anyway, the bottom line is that Bhel will schedule appointments in two different Manila hospitals to explore surgical options. It’s a start.
After leaving the doctor’s office, I crossed the highway to visit the shwarma shop at Thumbstar. I ordered up some chicken curry soup, some chicken on a stick, and some shwarmas for the Hideaway girls. I went inside the bar for a beer while I waited for my order to be prepared. I got to chatting with the guy seated next to me, a tourist from Florida. He was telling me about his trip so far, and I told him how much I enjoyed living here with the daytime hiking and nighttime drinking. He said he had read about the Hash and hiking groups on some blog he had found when he did a Google search before starting his trip. Oh really? He couldn’t remember the blog’s name, but when I suggested Long Time Gone, he replied, yes, that’s the one. Small world, eh? I never got around to confessing I was the author, though.
And then, I got approached by a friend from San Antonio (the one in Zambales, not Texas) who was in town for shopping and was having some beers before heading back home. I had a nice chat, and he invited me to stay at his place if I wanted to get out of town for a weekend visit. I love that area and could use a change of pace, so I’ll be making a plan to take him up on the kind offer. He’s got a great big house, and he says the wife will be our designated driver when we hit the beach bars in Pundaquit. Looking forward to that!
In another odd twist, the manager of Thumbstar was at Hideaway and recognized from the smell it was food from his place. He came over and gave me a fist bump. Manager Griff gave me a free drink. And so another Wednesday feeding ended successfully.
My next stop was a visit to Cheap Charlies. Same old, same old.
I guess that qualifies as a win-win. A couple of more drinks for me and I called it a night. My Fitbit says I went to sleep at 8:30 and was up at 4:00 to begin another day in paradise.
Here’s those photos of me hiking in paradise I promised:
As days go, it was a good one.
Death defyers
So close! But it’s “defiers.” I know that’s strange, given that we say “death-defying,” with a “y.” All the same: defy, defied, defying, defier.
The older lady in your “Friendly natives” pic has the sweetest smile. You ever get to wondering what the story is with each of the people you meet, especially the older ones? If you started talking to these folks in depth, I bet you’d never run out of interesting stories. Each person is a universe of experiences.
As for the offer of an out-of-town weekend trip: sounds awesome! I look forward to the pics of new sights and new food.
Oh, yeah—congrats to President Bong Bong for making the right call.
Damn—and I see I’ve misspelled President Marcos’s name: it should be Bongbong, one word, only one capital letter (reference).
Well, damn. I spelled Bongbong wrong, too, and somehow didn’t catch the “defyers” error. I’ll try to do better!
I don’t interact much with the locals I run into during these hikes beyond a friendly greeting. Scott’s been here for going on twenty years, and his comfort level in doing so is much better than mine. I have had some chats with mountain mama Olivia, and we are on a first-name basis. I’ve met her kids and grandkids but don’t really know the story of how she ended up living an apparently hard life isolated on a mountaintop.