Pulp Fiction (1995 – Miramax films)
The weather has been nice here the last day or so with no rain or even much wind, Today is Wednesday and after our Commute down the coast yesterday we are feeling a little Lethargic as riding a scooter for 2.5 hours around a winding costal road can be quite demanding.
with riding the time doesn’t pass you like it does in a car, every Kilometer feels like a work out as you have to judge the corners with much better car, the thought of braking lines, top of the apex acceleration, avoiding slick surfaces and put holes make the whole endeavour very taxing.
i forget how much of our daily driving is done on some form of Auto Pilot in New Zealand.
this is Day 3 of my light sickness and i have tested Negative yet again so i don’t think this is covid… and if it is… i only have around 1 week left in the Philippines so I’m not isolating.
the Morning i have allotted to get up to date on my Blog as every day i skip is just putting me a day behind on posting, so I’m going to be allotting time each morning to do so.
We didnt get a chance to go to the white Sand’s Beach yesterday so we will take a trip there around 12PM and see what that is all about.
the waves are lapping against the shore Infront of my room and there is a light sea breeze coming across the outdoor table, Marge sits opposite me playing Solitaire on her phone and I am having a Nightmare trying to get photos off the iCloud server to my Laptop which has now ended in multiple swear words and me sitting here looking septic about why Apple make interface with Windows devices so Difficult.
however after2 hours of flapping about i have what i need.
we hop on the scooter at 12:30 and make our way up our winding hill road to the main street and turn Right, traffic is light here and doesn’t cause us any problems to take our 20 minute ride to the town of the beach.
Marge finally has the hang of leaning in to the corners and helping the bike corner which is making our rides more comfortable and faster which helps when we have a longer commute, we drove past the crash site from yesterday that had a nice Ford Ranger Smashed in the side of a street stall. the remnants of the crash can be seen and there is just really a pile of sticks and debris.
To get to the White sands Beach you have to pull off the main road and drive 300 Meters down a narrow drive way. at the end you park the bike in a carpark and some goons watch over your bike for 25 Peso’s for a day…. probably more likely help yourself to parts off your bike… but oh well not my bike.
after that you walk through narrow passages between old apartment buildings until you come to a narrow access way where you can see blue sky at the end.
the beach is exactly what you think it is a white sand beach with a beach front that is scattered with Bars, restaurants. Surprisingly there is not a lot of people here…. more of a ghost beach.
i must admit I’m not a huge fans of beaches, i love walking my dog on the beach as there is no distractions from the job at hand. and spock just things its a sniffing paradise of all the great ocean smells, but the sand gets everywhere and also there is very little shelter on a beach to hide away from the rays of ionizing radiation.
That aside what makes this beach famous is actually a drink called the “Mindoro Sling”
it consist of: Tanduay Rum, Mango and Orange Juice, Grenadine and Sprite.
the colour of the drink looks like blood orange and it has a sweet fruity taste and as the ice melts it gets less and les sweet. they way you buy it is in the following quantity’s
– 1 Tall glass 150P
-1 Pitcher 500 Peso
We decided on the Pitcher and waited Patiently for the jug of devils water to arrive.
in the process of waiting the local street sellers pass by in there flocks trying to sell us bracelets and pearls and all kinds of stuff, eventually we give in and get a man bracelet for me and marge gets one too.
at that point our jug arrives and we have our first swig of the Sling.
The sling is cold and refreshing but as i said earlier it is sweet and as the warming effects of the alcohol take hold I have some idea to go to the tattoo shop next door and have a look.
the gentleman in there is nice enough and understands a bit of English.
over the past couple of weeks i have been thinking about extending my tattoo from its Japanese roots to a more classic black and white shaded tattoo of a nautical theme to acknowledge my love of sailing…. i also think my mothers high blood pressure is not hight enough its my job to make sure the blood pressure medication is doing its job effectively.
so after 2 minutes of deciding …. i know as per usual, a real thought out step… but hey alcohol made me do it 😉 . i was sitting in the chair wating for my new friend to find the dirtiest needle he could possibly find to start embedding black die in to my skin.
Tattoos here are held to a standard, all needles are in surgical wrappers and are brand new, the artist took the image i wanted and started transferring it onto his copy paper.
this took about 30 minutes to transcribe over and then put the stencil on my arm. i pulled out my Bluetooth speaker and asked what he liked to listen to…. he responds “heavy Metal”….
great……. just what i love listening to…..
I asked if he had a second favorite and he said “Linkin Park” and that we can work with.
so Linkin park blasted out of the Bluetooth speaker as i drank my Anesthetic and the tattoo artist started his incisions into me.
while i was immobile in the chair every street sell walked past and tried to sell me anything and everything, and these street sellers had everything
one seller who thought he was gods gift to to the street market tried to sell me 1877 US Silver trade dollar…. which you can buy from a coin collector in Manila for 2499 Peso……. he was offering off the side of the road the same dollar (well supposedly) for 3000 Peso.
i told him it was fake otherwise he would just go sell it to a coin collector…. he didn’t take this to nicely and walked off…. he then came back with his boss and said i could have it for 500 peso… and i yet informed him im really not interested and they left again.
2 minutes later a young man comes past and asks if i want to buy weed or mushrooms…. and yet again not interested…. but for some reason these guys think no means “stay around i might change my mind “….. so after 30 minutes of them hassling me eventually the tattoo artist tells them to move on as they are distracting him.
the Tattoo takes 2 hours from draw time to last needle in the arm and once it is done we have covered a good proportion of Linkin park hits and the Sling is pretty much gone. Marge has the last cup of Sling and i pay the Tattoo Artist for his great job and we decide its time to hit the road back to the resort.
on our way back we get some gladwrap and supplies from the pharmacy to just protect the pores onthe skin to dust and dirt for the next couple of days. supprisingly the pharmacys out on this island dont hold stock of clear burn pads…. gauze…. or even strapping tape, so Gladwrap and tape it is!
here is an interesting statistic……
Philipines ranks 83rd in healthcare globally…. and here is some countries above it that might amaze you
Mexico – 68
Panama – 49
Chilie – 37
Estonia – 21
so goes to show that with poor helathcare comes poor Pharmacutical supply lines.
I remind marge to let Andy the Bike rental man know that we are wanting the bike for thursday aswell incase we want to go somewhere.
and also we need to find a place for dinner because im not paying top dollar at the hotel for rubbish food.
I have to get some posts uploaded and when we return to the Resort i take my place outside on the deck area tapping away. as i type bright flashes are appearing in the sky towards the east and as timeticks by the lightening storm gets more intense.
by 6:30PM the wind is howling and the lightening flashes are a constand strobe light in the back ground.
I say to marge we need to hit the road to get dinner before the world tears apart in two by Thor’s Hammer.
we husstle our selves back to the bike and the streets are incredibly busy with people trying to beat the storm. we make our way to a pizzaria we had past on the ay back from white sands beach and park up.
at the first outdoor table there is an older american gentleman talking to hi Filapino girlfriend, he acknowleges me and i ask where in the states he if from. he responds “portland” and returns the questions.
i tell him a Kiwi From New Zealand and while marge is on the case of food i talk to this gentleman (forgot his name all ready). but we spoke for an extended period of time. he is a Retired welder and moved out to the philipines upon his retirement, he is also a tattoo artist and noticed the amazing gladwrap job on my forearm and asked about it.
Marge was talking in tagalat to his wife and Daughter…. well what i assumed was his daughter…. turns out the Daughter who is actually a Son…. and is wanting to become a girl… Mr Portland rolled his eyes and said dont get me started on it…. if he was 25 no problem…. he is 16….. he doesnt even know what he is doing tomorrow except video games and school……..
I sit there in silence with that awkward feeling in the pit of my stomach and say “as my father says , some times its best to say nothing at all “. he says
“amen to that man”
Marge Befriended the wife relatively quickly and turns out they live in an apartment near by and we will go visit them around 1PM tomorrow . Mr Portland has found some bikini bar to his wife’s disgust but he is very enthused to show it to me…. i think he wants an excuse to go and not be told off when he gets home, so tomorrow we are off to Sabang and that is where a lot of the tourists go.
Dinner is a Salmon pizza on a thin crust and to be honest its actually a very good base with not too many toppings, we share it and as were finishing the last slice the rain starts to fall from the heavens above.
i check the Açu-weather app and its meant to rain until midnight. luckily its just normal rain and not tropical as i had expected it might be with no rain for the last few days.
My arm hurts and its time for bed!
Today we leave this writing on the note of Nikola Tesla, the brilliant mind behind Alternating Current
Every living being is an engine geared to the wheelwork of the universe. Though seemingly affected only by its immediate surrounding, the sphere of external influence extends to infinite distance.
-Nikola Tesla- 1856Ad – 1943AD
Quantum Entanglement 