I sometimes order more beer in Spanish, but despite being a vassal of Spain for 300 years, almost no one here speaks the colonizers’ language. Not that it matters, although a lot of Tagalog words are derived from Spanish.

In any language, our weekly Decay Dance is a sweet undertaking.

Here’s the video I made of our trek through the first neighborhood. Holding the phone while walking down a steep and potentially dangerous path wasn’t as easy as it looks.

And a few other photos from the Dance:

When we headed out for our Saturday evening, we started with dinner at Mango’s: grilled pork chops, as usual.

After dinner, we headed down the road to Cyclone Bar to help them celebrate their one-year anniversary.

Cyclone had a nice turnout for the party. I’m guessing this bar is doing better than a lot of the bars in Barretto. In the spirit of the event, I splurged on several lady drinks for my regulars, lightening my wallet by 2,200 pesos. Congratulations!

Since it was Saturday, we did our nightcap at a bar we rarely frequent: Castaway at the Palm Tree Hotel. Back in the day, I was a semi-regular here. Swan used to work in reception at the hotel, but there were some unresolved issues when she left, and she normally doesn’t like to go there these days. Last night, some of Swan’s friends were there to see a new DJ, so we popped in.

The only downer during our visit was discovering that Castaway doesn’t have San Miguel Extra Light. Swan said she talked to the owner about that, and they’ll be ordering some soon. I always enjoyed spending time at Castaway in the past, and now it appears that Swan is willing to let bygones be bygones, so hopefully we’ll visit more often in the future.

As we departed I took a photo of the clock in the hotel lobby:

Moving on with the December 2022 LTG archives, I share the story of a charity event I participated in at an Aeta village in Old Cabalan, Olongapo. We try to do something like this every year.

Today’s YouTube video covers ten things foreigners say and do that Filipinas might not understand. Sorry for the AI narration, but I’m in a hurry today and can’t find anything else right now.

I apologize in advance for these:

I’ll be taking a yacht cruise on Subic Bay this afternoon. That’s a first for me and so I’ll have something new to share here tomorrow. See you then!

For the 1961 hit, I’m sharing a Patsy Cline classic. Some of my earliest memories are of my father coming home from work, putting an album on the record player, grabbing a beer, and sitting back in his easy chair to enjoy the music. Patsy Cline was one of his favorites. I was struck by the irony of “I Fall to Pieces,” because two years later, Patsy Cline tragically died in an airplane crash.