Not a bad Tuesday as Tuesdays go. Got through the grocery shopping without blowing a gasket over the insane prices and frustrating “out-of-stock” issues. I just don’t understand how a major grocery store like Royal is so inept at ordering products before they sell out. Often, weeks or months go by before the next shipment arrives. Ah, well. If that’s all I have to complain about, I’m living a pretty blessed life.

After loading up the groceries, I paid my driver and walked a couple of blocks to Harbor Pointe Mall.

One of the purposes of my visit to the mall was to find out why the data plan I purchased for my phone wasn’t working. I went to the Globe store (my cell phone provider), and they checked the SIM card and settings. After about 30 minutes of fiddling with my phone, they said I had the wrong connection link and fixed it. Okay, I don’t speak technology, but at least it is working now.

Since I was already at the mall, I went upstairs to the Merrell store, hoping to acquire some new hiking shoes (my old ones have worn-down soles, and I like a good grip when doing those ups and downs on the mountain). I’m not sure what is going on with Merrell, but they didn’t have ANY traditional hiking shoes in stock, just like the last time I visited the store a few months ago. Weird. Not wanting to give up without a fight and having nothing better to do, I hoofed on over across the river to the SM Mall in Olongapo City (less than a kilometer away).

The department store shoe section had some good-looking Merrells on display, but when the sales clerk returned from the backroom, he advised that there were no size 11s available. He suggested I look at the Skechers collection. That’s been my fallback shoe for a while now, and they fill the need, even if they are not really designed for the dirty trails I walk.

On my way to the checkout stand, I saw some backpacks on display, so I went for a look.

So, I’d had enough of shopping but worked up an appetite. SM Mall has a Jollibee, and there was a McDonald’s just up the road, but I was craving something else for some reason, and I walked back to Harbor Pointe Mall to get me some.

I finished my lunch and caught a cab for home.

Did my usual afternoon routines (blogging and napping), then it was once again time to head into town. I started with a visit to the barber and successfully had my ears lowered. It Doesn’t Matter bar is just across the highway from the barbershop, and I had some amends to make there, so that was my next stop. I found the waitress I had been rude to the night before, apologized, and bought her a lady drink. She was gracious and happy that there were no hard feelings.

I only stayed for one beer, then went back across the highway to enjoy the ambiance at the Annex bar.

Where to next? It wasn’t 6:00 yet so that limited my options somewhat. Cheap Charlies was packed with RSL guys, so I risked life and limb and crossed the highway again to plop my ass down at The Green Room for a bit. A pool league match was going on, and it was quite entertaining to watch–the players I saw were outstanding. I had some Sit-n-Bull chicken wings with my beer and got my waitress some lumpia to enjoy.

Enough time had elapsed that enabled me to visit Alaska and see Virginia, so that’s just what I did.

Virginia is easy on the eyes, but I have difficulty understanding her English. That problem was exacerbated last night because the music was so loud I may as well have been deaf. Owner Jerry was doing pool league somewhere else; he would not have been playing those songs at that volume, not his style. Well, Virginia got a couple of lady drink commissions at least, and perhaps we can talk another time.

Sloppy Joe’s is right next door to Alaska, so I popped in there for my nightcap. I was pleasantly surprised to see my pal Chris and his gal were there, so I pulled up a stool and joined them. Chris was controlling the music and videos, so we did a pleasant stroll down memory lane with an emphasis on Bob Seger. Enjoyed the hell out of that.

Oh, the Belgian chocolate guy came by, and I bought five of his 100 peso containers and took them to the girls at Alaska for a special treat. Better than cookies!

It really did turn out to be a fun night out; everything Monday night wasn’t.

There were some interesting discussions regarding alcohol use/abuse in the comments to Sunday’s post. I don’t speculate as to where on the spectrum the medical community might place me but freely admit I imbibe several low-alcohol brews every night. While the “science” had previously said two a day or several a week weren’t bad, I came across this article saying that alcohol in ANY amount isn’t healthy. Well, fine. No need to try and cut down on consumption then–I’m going to die anyway. In all seriousness, I’m doing just fine. The gin was a mistake for sure, but as long as I stay away from the hard liquors, I’ll be okay.

Ah, and those Facebook memories. Today is my wedding anniversary with wife #4.

And how about this one from eight years ago:

The book is titled “The Accidental Citizen Soldier” and tells the story of a born and raised American getting drafted into the Korean military. Here’s how a Seattle newspaper reported that story.

Alrighty then, another feeding day at Hideaway is coming up. And I’ll have some photos of today’s Easter mountain climb here tomorrow. BLUF: We found a much better way down the mountain today by going up it first. Things are coming together for Easter Monday!

…so are the days of our lives. Not to mention the women.

I had an interesting chat with Nerissa (the Cheap Charlies girl I fancied if you are keeping track) yesterday. Here’s the cut and paste from Messenger:

Nerissa: Haven’t seen u for a while

Me: Well, wasn’t sure I was welcome there anymore…

Nerissa: It’s fine if u don’t want to go… Just want to say hi to you is fine..haha..maybe your other girl will see u here..haha..not a good move…

Me: I don’t have another girl…and honestly, I had my eyes opened to the fact that I’m better off alone.

Nerissa

If that’s the best for u, then go for it…

Me: Yeah, I don’t deal well with rejection these days…

Nerissa

That’s normal, I guess

Me: Especially when you get older. Takes too long to recover.

Nerissa: It depends if a person is serious…If he is not serious, I guess he gives up easily.

Me: Maybe so. In fact, that was the message I received when you unfriended me…

Nerissa: Correct

Me: Thanks; I appreciate your honesty.

So, the joke was on me all along…she was never serious, so blowing me off was easy. But as I said before, she did me a favor. No need to waste time and energy on a drama queen who doesn’t value me. And it led me to begin to learn to embrace the comfort and safety that comes with being a “player.”

How’s that working out for me so far? Well, there’s Mary. I enjoy her company, but one night a week is plenty for me. The age gap is real, but at least she has enough intellectual curiosity to occasionally make for an interesting drinking companion. I did get a chuckle on Friday when our waitress at Thumbstar asked Mary if I was her boyfriend. She responded, not really. The waitress said, “more like a sugar daddy?” and Mary replied, “kinda.” To be clear, we are not in a “pay for play” situation; I don’t think either of us wants that. She doesn’t ask me for money but will tell me when I ask what she needs to make her studies go smoother. This week I sprang for the internet at her house, which facilitates her ability to research for papers and other homework. So far, I’m comfortable with our informal arrangement.

I see Joy at Hideaway on Wednesday and Sunday. I know she’d like to visit me at home on her day off (Thursday), but so far, I’ve resisted. She’s a sweetie, but I just don’t feel the urge to take things further, especially in exchange for money.

Then there’s my mountain momma friend, MJ. I’ve been providing support for her and her kids since her ex-husband died last year. That’s with no strings attached; she’s one of my charity projects. Once a month or so, she wants to give me a massage for extra money. She’s good at it, and it usually ends happily, so I’m receptive. She’d probably be an excellent taking care of you kind of girlfriend, but not much good at conversation.

Another bargirl friend I enjoy spending time with is Jen, a waitress at Whiskey Girl. She’s a natural-born snuggler, and I do enjoy a nice cuddle now and then. Might be the least physically attractive of the gals I drink with, but she’s quick with a laugh and fun to be around.

And last night, I got a message from Aine telling me she is back to work at Wet Spot after being absent for several months. I plan to drop in to say hello again tonight.

Anyway, it’s not the life I imagined I’d have, but it’s the one I’ve got, and I’m planning to enjoy it as long as possible. Who knew embracing emptiness could be so fulfilling?

Despite the disconnect with Nerissa I described above, I decided to make a return visit to Cheap Charlies to start my evening out. Nerissa sat down on my left, and I politely greeted her. Alma sat on my right and stroked my arm and shoulder. Some other gal sat behind me and rubbed my back. I enjoyed my beer and watched the world go by with only occasional interaction with Alma. I wasn’t inclined to purchase a lady drink for someone who had just admitted I was nothing to them, but so as not to be rude, I didn’t buy anyone a drink. As I suspected, Nerissa and the other gal moved on after I ordered my second beer. Once they were gone, I bought a drink for Alma. I guess I sent a message too.

Proceeding with my bar crawl, I decided to pop into Annex bar for a visit. This is another place I almost never visit, but they’ve recently made a significant change–they opened up the front of the building and made it into an open-air bar–my favorite kind.

Since I didn’t do the SOB this week, I didn’t have any coupons. But Whiskey Girl is offering a “buy one, get one” promo every day from 5 p.m. until 8:00. That’s a pretty damn good deal, and I decided to take advantage of it and enjoy some snuggle time with Jenn.

I enjoyed my time at Whiskey Girl. Queen Victoria is right across the street, so I decided to make that my nightcap venue. My old favorite Irish and my new favorite Rein were both in attendance and joined me at the bar. I noted that Rein had not accepted my FB friend request, and she said her account was “blocked.” Whatever. Irish took my phone and sent herself a friend request from me, but as of this morning, she has not accepted it either. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t have a Facebook fetish about making bargirls friends, but it is a simple indicator of whether they see you as a customer/drink provider or potentially something more. I just like to know where I stand; it doesn’t change anything.

When I got home, I was excited about my post-drinking snack awaiting my arrival in the fridge.

On one of the forums I visit, I came across this post-mortem from someone who saw the bus-jeepney accident scene.

We were stuck in the n/b traffic jam and it took about 20 minutes to reach the accident scene.

From what I saw, It appears that the white van either suddenly stopped in front of, or suddenly pulled out in front of the s/b bus. The bus was most assuredly speeding as usual.

The bus hit the van from behind, knocking it out of the way, and went out of control traveling across the center line and into the n/b jeepney.

The bus struck the jeepney just behind the driver and as you can see from the extreme damage, the poor student sitting directly behind the driver was mortally injured. In one of the video’s going around you can see blood spurting from his carotid with each heartbeat.

It’s a shame there were too many videographers instead of someone to help by applying direct pressure to his carotid. Filipinos are professional bystanders/gawkers… 

Someone commented that brain matter was visible but I couldn’t tell from the video I watched. In that case, first aid may not have saved this guy if his skull was cracked open but if I was present I would have tried.

It’s a shame, R.I.P.

I mentioned in a recent post a man named Karl who hikes the hills and dales in these parts alone, despite being in his late 70s. Quite the inspiration. Anyway, he posted some cool pictures of Barretto from a webpage he has of Barretto back when it was nothing more than a Navy rifle range.

I survived my scouting expedition to the top of Easter mountain this morning. I’ll tell that story tomorrow with a slew of pictures from the climb. I’ll also feed the girls at Hideaway tonight, so we can see Joy enjoying whatever she puts in her mouth.

Good to have something to look forward to, right?

No real surprises at the ENT doctor visit yesterday. Put the scope up my nose, shook his head with a tsk tsk sound, and said the blockage was stage four–complete. He prescribed some steroid medication which might result in some shrinkage, but surgery to remove the polyps is really the only option.

So, we discussed what was involved in getting the surgical procedure. Dr. Tolentino confirmed that I would have to be completely anesthetized during the operation. I would also have to be admitted to St. Jude’s hospital for an overnight stay after the surgery.

Doctor Tolentino won’t be available for two weeks, and in the interim, I’m supposed to get cleared by a cardiologist that I can safely undergo the procedure. I’m still not comfortable with the idea of being put to sleep, especially with my COPD issues. I’m also not wanting to be confined to a hospital room overnight. I’m considering a third opinion from the highly rated Clark Medical City in Angeles. I’m also toying with the idea of leaving the country for the surgery. Stay tuned.

Like a good ENT, Dr. Tolentino checked my ears and throat during my visit. He removed a clump of wax from my right ear that was as big as a fingernail. Hmm, maybe that was causing my deafness.

After the doctor’s visit, I took a trip to Seoul. That’s my favorite Korean restaurant in these parts, located on the old Navy base.

When we got back home, I took a nap, and Mary joined me. That was nice. Later in the afternoon, we walked to Baloy beach and visited the floating bar. I stuck with my beer diet, and Mary experimented with different mixed drinks, gin and soda, and then a margarita.

I didn’t actually enjoy this visit to the floater as much as I had previously. They were blaring the music so loud I couldn’t even hear Mary talking right next to me. I asked them to turn it down some, which they did, but I noticed the volume increased little by little as time went on. I had two beers and headed for shore.

Next stop, Johan’s. Mary continued her drink smorgasbord with a Tom Collins and then a Bloody Mary. She said she had never had a Bloody Mary before, and I challenged her, saying she has one monthly. Yeah, I’m a funny guy. Mary was surprised at how spicy it was and needed a bottle of water to stop the burning in her mouth.

When it was time to move on, we took a stroll down the beach to McCoy’s. I ordered her an apple beer while she was in the CR, and she was surprised because it was just what she wanted. Well, it had to be better than the Bloody Mary, and McCoy’s doesn’t serve mixed drinks, so it was an easy call.

I put Mary in a trike for home, but I wasn’t through just yet. That’s one of the benefits of beer consumption; my staying power is elongated. I popped into Snackbar for a couple of drinks with my old bargirl friends, including Lydell. She had seen me walking earlier with Mary but only asked about the floating bar. Yep, I’m proudly flaunting my player reputation these days!

I still wasn’t quite ready to call it a night, and I had a “buy one, get one coupon” to exploit before its expiration, so I made a rare visit to Queen Victoria, the nearest SOB bar to my current location. And that’s where I met Rein. Well, I had met her before. She briefly worked at the old Dive In Bar, which is now Hideaway. She had also been involved in the ill-fated Posiden bar in Calapadayan that was out of business after a few months. Anyway, I had a great time getting reacquainted with her; she’s quite the conversationalist.

Two beers, two lady drinks, then home safe and sound.

Speaking of Facebook, Nerissa from Cheap Charlies sent me a new friend request, and I accepted it. Of course, it’s a little too little and a little too late. Happy to be her friend again and feel comfortable returning to Cheap Charlies occasionally, but she has shown me a side of her character that foretells the drama that would come with a relationship. No, thank you! Or maybe I should thank her for teaching me to embrace being the player she thought I was.

And the Facebook memories feature reminded me just how damn happy I was to be living the Itaewon life back in 2006.

But things can certainly always be worse.

Speaking of accidents, there was a bad one this morning on the National Highway in downtown Barretto. I didn’t witness it, but someone sent me a video, and it was pretty gruesome. I understand the bus driver was killed, and many passengers in the Jeepney were severely injured.

Alright, well, let me leave you with something to cleanse your palate before I go. This is a children’s video, and it is hilarious when viewed in context.

The punchline is the definition of “Pekpek” in Tagalog.

I guess that’s about enough for one day’s reading here at LTG. I’m skipping the SOB tonight and escorting Mary on her continued journey of exploration in the bars of Barretto. We’ll start the night in Sloppy Joe’s and take it from there. Back tomorrow with a full report.

I set up a new hosting service with an outfit called Bluehost. I hope the migration goes well, would hate to lose 18 years of blogging history. The domain should activate within hours; moving the history might take a week.

I checked reviews, and Bluehost is supposed to be good, especially for WordPress blogs like mine. But whatever is wrong with Hostgator these past few days is bad enough, but their non-responsive customer “service” was inexcusable.

My other big thrill this morning was dealing with my Chase credit card account. I had cleaned my cookies in an effort to resolve the blog issues, and Chase no longer recognized my device, so I needed to enter a verification code. No big deal; in the past, they have always emailed the code. This time that was not an option; it had to be by phone. Except they had an old phone number from the USA. So, I had to call them, and that was a nightmare. When I finally got through, the person I was speaking with disconnected. When I got through again, a security question asked me what was my address in Fort Smith, Arkansas. Um, I lived there in 1982, and that’s about all I remember. A follow-up question was, who did my mortgage on a house in South Carolina? Does anyone remember crap like that? I don’t. Like I told the agent, I’m lucky to remember my name these days. Oh well, we finally got it resolved, and I have access to my account again. The first thing I did was update my phone number. They can contact me next time.

Anyway, rant over. For now.

I’ve had no luck contacting Hostgator’s alleged 24-hour chat help desk. And the accessing my blog issues continue. I mean, I can eventually get back online, but it takes several tries. No idea what the problem is. Anyway, I’ve decided to move to a new blog host service. Not sure how long the migration takes at this point, but if I’m offline, don’t panic; I’ll be back!

Shouldn’t be down for more than a few hours I’m told.

I looked all over San Antonio and didn’t find it. We did come across the Philippine Navy base, where we were detained during a Hash run back in 2019, but wisely did not breach the perimeter this time. The purpose of the trip to “not the one in Texas” was to scout potential Hash trails for an outstation run in May.

Speaking of bars, the feeding at Hideaway went fine, although I really need to get my spending under control. The pizza was 890 pesos, Joy’s lasagna was 420 pesos, and the fried chicken was 500 pesos…that’s almost $40. My bar tab after a bunch of drinks for the ladies and me was another $50. Oh, well. You can’t take it with you, I suppose.

Hideaway was my first and last stop on the night. As I stumbled down the highway thinking about “where to next?” a trike driver pulled up and said, “Sir John, I’ll take you home now.” I figured my guardian angel must have sent it, so I hopped in and called it a night.

It was a full and fine day.