Well, more of an acquaintance and a bit of a bitch. That’s right, this morning I found the motivation to hike the length of My Bitch, from Rizal Extension to Alta Vista subdivision. It had been months since I’ve done so, what with being both sick and lazy. It went pretty well, in fact, the path was marked with chalk and powder as it had been incorporated into last week’s Hash trail. The part I missed when I lost the trail. So it was in a sense like closing the loop.

One big change since my last visit was this:

So, I guess I’m getting back to normal in my routines and health. In the realm of the abnormal, I actually practiced darts yesterday afternoon. It was a pretty good workout too. I was anxious to see if it would carry over into last night’s tournament.

Well, I drew Derby, a fellow Hasher and an average caliber darter. Steve, the Englishman who doesn’t drink, drew Alan. Steve is the best expat player in town (there are some Filipinos who play pro-level darts, but they are not welcome in our amateur tourneys). Alan is in the top five, and throws a game similar in quality to me. So from the get-go, I was thinking the best I could hope for was a second-place finish. And that’s how it turned out. Steve and Alan dominated throughout the tourney but we managed to take one leg from them before we were dispatched to the losers bracket. We beat Billie and Gerlie, two strong players, twice. That was pretty much the highlight of the night for us. Steve and Alan kicked our ass with no trouble in the finals. The practice didn’t hurt, but all the practice in the world won’t overcome superior darters.

But at least Alley Cats had stocked up on San Miguel Zero. It was good drinking with my old friend again.