Desperate Measures

Siargao Diary

1 April, Tuesday 

• Biking (10+ km.) - I finally tried my new bike today and fell on my ass twice.  Nothing bruised but my ego.  Well, okay, I've got a scraped knee and my back isn't very happy.
• Swimming (1024 m.)

2 April, Wednesday

Nicolas is off to Cebu and I am officially starting my detox.  Am juicing the whole day.  Gaah!  I'm starving!  Ate some mangosteens.

• Taekwondo - Dominic came over at 7 AM and we trained for an hour.  I told him to go easy on me.  He could tell that I'm "out of condition".  
• Swimming - My body hurts.  Am not sure if it's from the bike ride, from the spills I took yesterday, from the taekwondo - or all of the above.

3 April, Thursday 

David Nugent (- yes, he's related to the rocker, Ted) came by with potential buyers of his family's land, whom, it turns out, I know from Manila.  I showed them around the place and now have an invitation to a meal when I am back in the city.  Yay!

I invited Sue over so that I could practice massage on her.  As I was getting ready, I realized that I was already starting to forget the massage.  I panicked.  Well, not really, but I thought I should be.  In the end, I forgot a few things but nothing major.  I just have to be serious about getting more practice.  Sue loved the massage and has volunteered for more sessions.

David and Elsa joined us for lunch afterwards.  Uh-oh.  The escape clause.  While everything we had was vegetarian, it was hardly Paleo (- we had pumpkin and snake beans in coconut milk, vegetarian spring rolls, and crepes).  Elsa brought a bottle of red which, of course, I couldn't decline.

• Swimming

 4 April, Friday

I invited Mark and his posse over for lunch.  So I finally met his sister, Fleur, who will soon be a Siargao resident with her boyfriend, David, who grew up in the U.K. but traces his roots to Jamaica.  And Mark's mate, Adam.

Yes, I ate.  A lot.  No, it wasn't vegetarian and it wasn't Paleo.  (Adam said our fish cakes might be the best food he's ever had.)  And I had two shots of Patron XO and a bit of white wine.  It could have been much worse, because Mark can be a pushy bastard.

Before lunch, I practiced massage on Fleur.

• Biking
• Swimming - It's not advisable, swimming whilst tipsy, with body pain kicking in.  (My hamstrings and arms are painful.)  I kept wanting to pass out in the pool.

I declined invitations for the jungle disco and spent the evening playing with the dogs. 

5 April, Saturday

Time to behave.  I decided to ditch the whole vegetarian thing and just do regular Paleo.  I had French-style stuffed aubergines for lunch - and that was supposed to be that.

And then my regular habal driver invited me to dine with his family for fiesta.  How could I refuse?  I had a second, very non-Paleo, lunch.  <groan>

• Walking - How lame is that?  I couldn't even be bothered to work out!  But I did walk home after lunch.  That must have been 1.5 to 2 kilometers.

6 April, Sunday

For lunch, I had a large Philippine-style stuffed eggplant.  It was soooo good.  And Paleo!

And then I went to Sagana to give Sue a massage.  Afterwards, we chatted over red wine and bruschetta.  Mark sent me a rather sketchy invitation to dinner earlier but I couldn't reach him to confirm.  Then Hoze Arando, whom I met a long time ago when I first dabbled in yoga, turned up for dinner with other people who were friends of friends in Manila, and we ended up having a wonderful evening together catching up.  (I had the saltimbocca.)

On my way back home, I saw Fleur and David walking along the road so I stopped and apologized for not making it to dinner.  It turned out that they had been out drinking at Buddha the whole time (- I knew the invitation was sketchy!), so we made more solid plans for tomorrow night.

• No exercise.

7 April, Monday

In an effort to make up for my excesses, and because someone at the table last night said that kale was best eaten rather than juiced, I asked for a green salad for lunch.  Blech.  It would have been better with some fruit and nuts.  And some meat.  I barely ate half of it.

• Biking
• Swimming

Dinner at Mark's turned out to be a dinner party with more than a few guests.  David is a cook by profession, and made very succulent pork ribs, fried chicken, and a potato salad.  He even made dessert.  I had too much food.  And more red wine.

8 April, Tuesday

Lunch was Paleo:  Fish with parsley butter and a green salad.

• Biking

Then I went to Sagana to practice massage on one of Sue's guests.  She was very thankful afterwards and her husband told me that she kept saying over and over how her body felt like new.

I was all set to head home for a swim when Sue offered me a grilled ham and cheese sandwich, which is only my favorite sandwich so, of course, I accepted.  Then her daughter, Lily, asked me to help her with some puzzles so Sue asked me to stay for dinner.  We had more red wine and bruschetta, and I had the pork schnitzel for dinner.  After dinner, we went to Kawayan where poker night was in session.  We said hello to the boys and Sue and I shared a chocolate cake.

9 April, Wednesday

I gained one kilo.  Dammit.  I really shouldn't have clauses when trying to detox.

• Biking 

So far, I had stuck to the clauses and had Paleo meals when dining by myself but, yeah, I entertained and ate out a lot this week.  Since there was no detox going on, I had a very big non-Paleo breakfast and a very big non-Paleo lunch before leaving for Cebu in the afternoon.  Will try again next week.

I'm in Cebu now to look for tiles for the house with Nicolas.  We'll both be back on the island on Friday.

A New Month, A New Start (Well, Sort Of...)

I've decided to TRY to get back to being healthy this April.    Which means a return to a vegetarian version of the Paleo lifestyle for the first month, with the following exceptions:

• when entertaining at home
• when dining out

I figured that I entertain/dine out frequently enough in a week to meet my body's protein requirements.  Not that I would have any idea what that would be, but I do know that I cannot live on vegetables alone.

Re drinking, I'm hoping to limit my choices to the acceptable Paleo cheats of red wine and tequila/vodka sodas.  Which would be a challenge at the jungle discos.  Have yet to work that one out...  (Hip flask?)

And, hopefully, I will be nicotine-free this month.

If all of this sounds vague and non-committal, it's because, well, it's April 1st and who's going to take me seriously on April Fool's Day?  Or on any other day for that matter but more so today?  And it is a Tuesday, which is neither here nor there in a week.  Nobody starts anything on a Tuesday.  Wednesday is so much more definitive.

And there are - were - three cupcakes in the fridge that I had to finish.  Gaaah!  But I am finally out of chocolates and sweets, which means that I can be serious about this tomorrow.

<groan>

Well, I should be stepping up the exercise too and if the bike seat on my new bike is replaced with the old, reliable, padded one from my old bike this afternoon, then I'll be biking into town before my afternoon swim.  And I already set an appointment with Dominic, the taekwondo instructor, to restart my training early tomorrow morning.  And I've hung my TRX to the bathroom door, even if I'm not sure what to do with it...

So I am sortakinda serious about this.  Sortakinda.

Gai's Siargao Food and Exercise Diary

Sunday, 15 December

Another sleepless night.  Had to force myself to get up in the morning.  It was too hot to jog so I took the bike out.  Two kilometers in, I got a flat tire.  I went to the nearest house and asked if I could park my bike in their yard until someone could come and get it.  I tried jogging back but, even with The Prodigy on full blast, it wasn't happening.  I walked.

• Biking, 2 km.
• Walking, 2+ km.

Nicolas was in the room the whole afternoon so I couldn't do the Jillian Michaels workout.  I really didn't want to anyway.

• Swimming, 32 laps, possibly more because I couldn't concentrate and kept losing track of my count and starting over.

Had a bit of chutney with my fish cakes but, apart from that, was still on track with Paleo.  It's a struggle though, knowing that Joanna Ongpin's espresso chip cookies are sitting in the fridge.  Nicolas had two.  Gaah!

Joanna Ongpin-Duarte's espresso chip cookies, available at the Rafik Shawarma/Pizza di Gracia booth at the Saturday Salcedo Market and the Balesin Club gift shop. 

Monday, 16 December

Still no sleep.  It's really difficult to be motivated when all you want to do is sleep.  The thought of moving right now isn't the most appealing.

I think I'm too scared to do Jillian Michaels' "6 Week Six-Pack".  I watched the rest of the video and she goes through the first part without any rest and then does everything again in DOUBLE TIME!  If I was already huffing and puffing at the warm-up, then I'm sure to be dead at the end of this workout.  Maybe I should do parts of the Shred workout again so that I can get back to that level of fitness first...

I've been told that my bike needs a new tire.  I think I need a new bike.

<twiddles thumbs>

Can you tell that I'm procrastinating?

Noo nee noo nee noo nee noo...

I ended up wrapping Christmas gifts for the staff.

I only had breakfast today.  Mr. Delicious applewood smoked bacon and fried eggs.  Yummy.

• Swimming, 32 laps

Tuesday, 17 December (Cheat Day)

Big lunch and some bubbly and cheroot cigars with friends, then a pizza dinner.  Oh, and I finally had some of those cookies.

• Swimming, 32 laps

Wednesday, 18 December

Groggy.  Was kept awake the whole night by a farting dog.  I don't know what he ate but it was nasty.

Asked for a green juice then tried to go back to sleep, but the leftover pizza from Kalinaw was calling me.  I reheated the last four slices and had them for lunch.  So much for Paleo.  ARGH.

I've lost my will to exercise.  It's too hot outside and Jillian Michaels scares me.

• Swimming, 32 laps

Had another green juice for dinner.

Thursday, 19 December

Rainy morning.  Chicken-vegetable soup.  One cookie.

• Swimming, 32 laps

Dinner:  More chicken-vegetable soup plus the leftover mustard-tarragon chicken and green salad from last Tuesday.  Plus one more cookie.

Friday , 20 December

I woke up starving and with a craving for Spam and fried eggs so that's what I had.  I had some green juice with it so my breakfast wasn't entirely unhealthy.

For lunch, I had meatballs soup.  With a bit of rice.  And then I had some dark chocolate.  And a cookie.  And another cookie.  Doh!

Tonight, for the first time in my 14 years in Siargao, I am having dinner at Lalay's, the local barbecue joint at the boulevard.  I only had their food once before, some years back when Nine Bar had a party there for their staff, but that was when they relocated to the side of the road.

• Swimming, 32 laps.  I've begun timing myself and I average about 39 minutes in the pool.

Saturday, 21 December

I can't decide if I am hungover or just lacking sleep or both.  I got home from the jungle disco at about 3:30 AM and was awake and playing with the dog four hours later.

I had a mango when I finally got up and what was left of the meatball soup.  No cookies yet.  (There are only two left.)

Lalay's was nice.  Aussie guy, Brent, was there and we had a good laugh.  I had the pork barbecue and the chicken barbecue and, although I didn't have rice, I did order a plate of fries.  My total food bill came out to P200.  Not bad.

I did drink a lot though.  We started with gin tonics at Lalay's (except that I wasn't drinking the tonic), then we had piñacoladas at Pontus and Frida's, then shitloads of very strong rum cokes at Tattoo.  There were a lot of cigarettes too. In my recollection, I was calm but, by other accounts, not so.  It's a good thing Andrew was there and made sure I got home okay.

The staff is having their Christmas party tonight.  I wonder if I am expected to attend.  I don't think I can remain upright for very long.

There will be no exercise today.

7:30 PM - So I ate a massive dinner with the staff and the workers.  It's a good thing they get shy around me so I left the table as soon as I finished so that they could eat comfortably and speak more freely among themselves.

I'm tempted to have a cookie.  Part of me is saying, "No exercise, no cookie."  And the other part is saying, "You're going to have to eat it all before you leave on Monday anyway so you might as well have it now."

I'll have a cookie.

Oh, joy!  There were still three in the box!  Well, two now...

Sunday, 22 December

Watched a TV series till 4 AM and was awake 3.5 hours later.

Lunch at Maya Villas.  Alon has a short menu out now, but I didn't know this and ordered the hummus, baba ganoush and shawarmas in advance.  Must visit again and try out his burgers.

We started with white wine, then Pale Pilsens - and then this is where my memory gets foggy, but I have pictures on my camera that I do not recall taking.  We ended up at the Christmas party at Palaka Dive Center where I jumped around and danced with the girls while they karaoked.  I vaguely remember eating lechon.  And, judging from my throat this morning, I'm guessing cigarettes were involved.

Watched "South Park" reruns with Liam while I waited for the habal driver to pick me up.

I had a cookie when I got home.

Monday, 23 December

Didn't get to sleep till around 3 AM again and then, because I'm leaving for Cebu in the afternoon, I kept waking up every hour.  Finally gave up trying to sleep at 8 AM to play with the dog.  He knows that I am leaving.  He ignored me the whole week but, this morning, he is unusually needy and overly affectionate.  We'll both be very sad when I leave.

I think I'll have more of the bacon before I start getting ready to leave.  And I might as well finish the last cookie.

I think I'm back on track with my weight, but tomorrow is Christmas Eve and Nicolas will be with me for nine days in Manila and I'm already planning where we are going to eat...

Trying To Get Back To Good In Siargao

I left Siargao last November 18 and returned yesterday.  I only resumed working out again today.  Well, there was that one day in Bagan, in between sunning myself by the hotel pool, that I swam 20 laps.  And then Nicolas and I biked to and from lunch, which wasn't really very far, so I'm not sure if that counts.

In less than a month, I managed to do so much damage to myself - purely from overeating - that I felt like shit and looked it.  I was hardly even drinking or smoking.

I missed working out so much that I seriously had fantasies of doing push-ups, walking lunges and box jumps.  But I was either too busy or too tired - or both - to do anything.  On one flight, I tried to do air squats by the lavatories but it was a small plane and I got curious looks.  In Bangkok, I was looking forward to using the gym at our hotel because, from the photos I had seen, I knew that it had the Technogym personal Kinesis machine and I so wanted to do Kinesis again.  But even with 24-hour access to the gym, the spirit was eager but the flesh needed to sleep.

Today, I finally found the will power to get off my ass and start again.  Even if I got up late and the sun was glaring, I did the following this morning:

• Jogging, 2 km., time:  16:29 minutes
• Biking, 10+ km.

I felt totally elated afterwards.

In the afternoon, I watched a few new Jillian Michaels' workout videos and tried doing Level 1 of "6 Week Six-Pack" and nearly gave up at the warm-up.  I got as far as the burpees and a few of those squat twists before I gave up.  Will try again tomorrow.

I went to the pool instead.

• Swimming, 32 laps (1 km. + 24 m.)

I'm also making an earnest effort at returning to Paleo and intermittent fasting.  I only started yesterday but I'm already feeling better.  Let's see if I can maintain the regimen in the ten days that I am here.

I can't tell you how much I am dreading Christmas in Manila and the usual excesses that come with it.

The Stormy Week in Siargao

Monday, 4 November

Gloomy day.  Nicolas is wondering if his flight back to Cebu might get cancelled.  I made him some bacon and cheese sandwiches to bring to the airport in case he has a long wait ahead of him.

I'm trying to be good today.  Will have green juice the whole day, and only have dinner.

Went to the market.

Nicolas called.  The plane circled overhead a few times but it couldn't land and it returned to Cebu.  Of course, as he is telling me this, the weather had cleared and it was bright and sunny.  He rebooked his flight for tomorrow and scheduled an afternoon game of golf with the Frenchies.

There's talk of a very strong typhoon coming this week.

• 30 Day Shred, Level 3
• Swimming:  32 laps

Nicolas and I had a nice, simple dinner of grilled panga (tuna jaw) and guisadong monggo (sauteed mung beans).  With rice, of course.  Doh!

Tuesday, 5 November

Breakfast:  green juice.  Then I went biking to General Luna (GL).  So far, so good.

When I got back, there were fresh crabs being delivered.  Nicolas asked the maid to prepare a crab omelette and the claws for us for lunch.  How could I resist fresh crabs?  I had to have lunch.

After lunch, Nicolas left for the airport.  At the airport, he called me.  Apparently, the typhoon was a serious one.  He made arrangements for me to evacuate when necessary to Villa Maya, Alon and Venus Dassa's hilltop resort, so that we could, at the very least, be safe from the storm surge.

• Biking (10+ km.)
• Shred, Level 3
• Swimming:  32 laps

Had dinner with Liam and Carl at Kalinaw.  It was my third time there in the space of a week since I rediscovered their pizza, particularly the one that they call "Campagnola di Parma".

It's a white pizza with parma ham, tomatoes, basil and parmesan shavings.

I think I'm addicted to it.  We ordered four pizzas and a bottle of wine.

The best pizza in Siargao.

Wednesday, 6 November

It's a beautiful day.  We spent it preparing for the storm.  Boarding up the place, elevating machinery and sending all the construction workers home.

I got in touch with Chona Ayson of Homemade Treasures and asked her to send the ensaimadas and cheese rolls I had ordered to my mom in Manila instead.

I went to the grocery and the bakery to buy some food.  When I got to the bakery, the "German" bread was being brought out from the oven.  It was delicious, although I'm pretty sure that I didn't have to have that second piece of bread...

When I got home, I cooked some chicken-tarragon macaroni, a slightly more posh mac and cheese, to take with me to Villa Maya.  I had been craving a good mac and cheese forever so, of course, I had to have a plate of it for lunch.

• Shred, Level 3
• Swimming:  32 laps

Skipped dinner.

Thursday, 7 November

It rained through the night, but this morning was just a little bit cloudy.  I wanted to take my time at our place before having to evacuate.  The typhoon wasn't scheduled to hit till next morning anyway.  I told the staff we'd leave after lunch.

• Shred, Level 3

While I was working out, it started to rain very hard.  I worried about the staff that had stayed on because they live nearby.  They still had long walks ahead of them to their respective houses in the fields.  I immediately arranged for transport for me and my dog to Villa Maya, since I knew that the staff wouldn't leave as long as I was still there.

When we got to Villa Maya, the rain had stopped.  While it was a bit cloudy, it seemed like a perfectly good day.  The calm before the storm.  With nothing to do, we began to drink and eat.  I tried reading for a bit but eventually joined the boys at the bar.  Typically, I was the only girl drinking.  We had a few beers and rum cokes.  Before the storm had even begun, we had gone through most of the junk food we had brought.

We had been there so long that we started to laugh about the typhoon being a non-event.  As we sat there, cracking jokes, Typhoon Haiyan (a.k.a. Yolanda) was developing into the strongest storm in recorded history.

We went to bed as the winds picked up.  I couldn't sleep.  My dog, Apollo, and I were sharing space with Villa Maya's guests on the second floor.  The windows were all boarded up so we left the door open and Apollo chose to sleep out on the balcony.  At around 2 AM, with a tempest howling outside, I tried to get him to come inside but he was dead to the world and I had to drag him in.

The rain was coming through the window next to the sofa bed I was on, so I laid out the small mat I had brought with me and lay on the floor, listening to corrugated iron sheets rattle in the wind.

Friday, 8 November

As it started to get light outside, we got up to watch the storm from the balcony.  David Frachou of Kawayan Resort and Alon were there too.  All of a sudden, a big gust of wind lifted something from the floor above us and smashed it along the stairs.  Glass broke at our feet and sent us scurrying back inside the room.

Then the wind started to die down.  I promised Gerry Degan (of Sagana Resort) that I'd make him breakfast so I did.  Later, I took a walk with Apollo and the resort's guests over to Cloud 9 to check out the waves.  The waves were monstrous and there was a lone kite surfer out.

Aussie Kyron Rathbone kite surfing at Cloud 9.

Apollo and I were back at our place by noon and I made myself a second breakfast.

Apart from fallen coconut leaves, everything seemed to be fine on the island, considering that GL was only about 60 km. from the edge of the storm's eye.  We were very lucky.  In the meantime, other parts of the country were being turned into wastelands.

Mobile phone signals were intermittent the whole day, but the electricity was finally restored in the early evening.  I hadn't slept and was exhausted but it was also the eve of Liam's birthday so I went  to Drop Inn where we had pasta and finished a bottle of Patron XO.

Saturday, 9 November

• Swimming:  32 laps

I had twisted my foot in Alon's kitchen on Thursday night, while heating up the macaroni in the microwave, so I skipped doing Shred, but the pool was finally cleaned and I did my laps today.

Given that I had eaten a lot of junk on Thursday and ate two breakfasts (that involved rice) and pasta on Friday, I decided to be good today and only have dinner.  But, when it was served, I still wasn't hungry and ended up feeding most of my dinner to the dog.

Which was a mistake, because Liam was having a few people over for his birthday (including Pontus and Frida, my hosts when I was in Sweden) and it meant that between my first drink over at their place at around 8 PM and 4 AM, when I found myself sitting opposite where I originally was on the balcony, watching movies with Carl, I have absolutely no recollection of what happened.  (Since Pontus and Frida arrived some time during my blackout, it means that I have no recollection of having seen them although Frida has confirmed, through text messages, that they were indeed in the company of the Evil Twin.)

Sunday, 10 November

I wasn't hungover but I hadn't slept much since the typhoon so I decided that I wasn't even going to think of exercising today.

Nicolas wisely had his flight to Siargao moved from Friday to today.  (He leaves for Cebu on Wednesday and will no longer be returning to Siargao until after the project he is working on in Cebu is launched.)

After he arrived, I went to the market to buy some vegetables because we had, apparently, run out.  On my way back from the market, I stopped at Maridel's in GL to buy myself some lunch.  I'm so tired of our own food that I am quite happy to eat at Maridel's any time.  I bought about four different things, heated it up at home and devoured it like I had been starved for years.

I asked Nicolas about the damage to the house.  He said he estimates it at about P30,000.  Which, in the grand scheme of things, is really nothing.

I am finally catching up on the news and am horrified by the destruction that Haylain has left in its wake.  Which is the nature of the beast, isn't it?  Every time we heave a sigh of relief that Siargao was spared from being devastated by a typhoon, it only means that somewhere else, there's another village, another town, another city, another province that is being leveled to the ground.  And we turn over in our beds at nights, knowing full well that it could have easily been us.

***

Please click here to find out how you can help the typhoon victims.

The Debauched Week That Was (Part 2)

Tuesday, 8 October

• Walked the dog.  Yes, I am now counting this as exercise.

• 30 Day Shred, Level 1
• Swimming:  30 laps

I crashed the guys' poker night at Kawayan.  It was supposed to be my big experiment on "drinking moderately" and I got to figuring out that about three Red Horses, nursed throughout the night, would be just about right.  And then I proceeded to drink double that.  Stopped for more beer at 101.

Wednesday, 9 October

Got up at 5:30 AM to go to the market.  Yes, I am doing this now.  This is my attempt at "responsibility".  Let's jusy say that I now have three freezers full of meat and seafood and that I won't have to go to the market at 5:30 AM again for a while.  (The meat is freshest around that time since they usually butcher a pig around 5 AM everyday.)

Then, I biked to Driftwood for lunch.  It was the first time I crossed over the Kilometer 0 marker in General Luna going towards Cloud 9 by myself!  (Mommy, mommy, looky!)  I was so proud!

It was also the first time in a long while that I biked without any music on and I realized a few things:  (1) that my cheap-ass bike makes quite a racket and (2) so do I.  It's actually quiet out on the road when you're not on a motorbike, or on a bicycle singing at the top of your lungs.  And maybe yelling "good morning" at everyone I pass might be jarring for the old folk.  Sigh...  Sometimes ignorance is truly bliss.

Driftwood is under new management (and, as of last week, has changed its name to The Curry Pot - revised 21 Oct. 2013).  It offers all-day breakfasts, and deli meats that you can have in subs or toasts.  I had a sub, which was just okay.  It would have been better if they had grilled the bread and melted the cheese.  I only found out later that I should have ordered toast instead.  (Duh.)

It's a weird sort of joint because it's a small space with only one big table.  We were the only guests at that time and the serving girls and the owners were hanging around and, of course, they could hear all of our conversations, and we were three girls girl-talking and catching up.  We weren't too comfortable with that.

Before I left, I joined the girls for coffee.  Big mistake.  I felt worse than if I had a hangover.  I collapsed in bed and tried not to die.

 

Thursday, 10 October

• Walked the dog.  I learned today that when walking one's dog in a short dress on a windy day, one risks broadcasting one's bottom to the world in pursuit of a wayward hat.

(Internet file photo.)

• 30 Day Shred, Level 1

Friday, 11 October

• Walked the dog.
• 30 Day Shred, Level 1
• Kettlebell swings:  3 sets x 20 reps
• Swimming:  20 laps

You do know that all that activity was in anticipation of a massive hangover the next day, right?

Saturday, 12 October

I woke up at around 8:30 AM.

Last night, I had dinner at Nine Bar with the owners, Swedish couple, Peter and Elsa, and tried their Indonesian specials by their new Indonesian cook.  I had about three glasses of wine.  And then the Norwegians showed up.  They ordered a pitcher of some nasty concoction and started pouring shots.  The DJ started to play...

And that's all I remember.  I had no idea what time I had left, how I had gotten home...  I panicked and texted people.  Of course, no one was up at 8:30 AM.  So I went down the check list:

• Body - A few nicks and cuts on the legs, but nothing too weird.
• Phone - No drunken texts or calls.  No calls to the habal (motorbike taxi) driver too, so I still didn't know how I got home.
• Computer - No drunken posts.

So far, so good.

My clothes were in the hamper.  The shoes though were strewn all over the place.  I had a lot less money, which meant that I must have paid my bills.  I had also let the dog in so maybe I wasn't that much of a basket case when I got home.

By 10:30 AM, I got my first text.  Apparently, I had gone off with Nine Bar's DJ after his set to the jungle disco, where I ordered more drinks but kept dropping them.  He said he didn't see me leave.  He gave me a new nickname:  Messy Beaucoup.

I had the maid make me some vegetable soup and crawled back into bed.

Then I got a text from Elsa.  Was I coming to lunch?  Holy shit!  I made lunch plans?  On a weekend?!  What a bloody amateur!  Someone's birthday party and I didn't even know whose.  I commandeered a habal and made it to General Luna in record time.

It would turn out that the birthday lunch (for the Indonesian cook's daughter) wouldn't be ready till "oh, three or five.  Not now.  Too hot."  Peter, Elsa and I walked over next door to Driftwood.  The toast was definitely much better than the sub but I still would have liked the bread more toasted and the cheese melted.

This time, the serving girls were in uniform.  I don't think they had them on before or I would have noticed, and I am quite notorious for not noticing things, but these uniforms were kinda hard to miss.  They were wearing what looked like school uniforms with short red skirts and black see-through thigh-high stockings.  Without any shoes.  It was just wrong on so many levels.  Especially in the day time heat!

I went back home late in the afternoon, hoping to catch some z's before heading back out again for dinner, but that didn't happen.

I swam 20 laps. 

I went out again with the Swedes and the Norwegians.  Some wild wind had kicked up quite a fuss earlier and the power was on and off.  In the blackout, we tried to find a place to eat.  Kalinaw was fully booked.  The generator at Kawayan was down and David didn't want to accept orders until the power came back on.  Sagana couldn't accommodate us.  So we headed back to Nine Bar for the same Indonesian fare we had the night before.

The Norwegians filled in what they could of the previous night for me.  They said they had ordered two pitchers of the shots we were doing.  They said Jagermeisters were also involved.  (No!  That means Bianca Jager was out and she's the nastiest Evil Twin of all!)  They followed to the jungle disco, but didn't see me there.  They were pretty messed up too.  They didn't get up till 3 PM that day.

On my way back from a trip to the loo, I ran into the Indonesian cook.  I almost didn't recognize her, all dolled up.

"Why you don't come to my dinner?"

"Because I thought it was lunch and I already had dinner plans."

"I still have siomai."

"Okay."

"You come to my house and taste."

"I'm really quite full, thank you.  I just ate your food upstairs.  It was very good."

"Come on, you try."

So that's how I ended up at the Indonesian cook's house (which was right behind Nine Bar) and met her Australian husband and two children, and her maid who insisted that I try the buko (coconut) salad.

When I got back to the dinner, the Norwegians were already settling their bills.  They wanted to be ready for the surf the next day.

It was a quiet night at the bar, so I kept Peter company until midnight.

Sunday, 13 October

I thought I had made it home without the appearance of any of the Evil Twins.  Until I got up to search for my phone.  It wasn't anywhere.  I would have tried to call it except that it's on "Do Not Disturb" mode from 11 PM to 10 AM.  I must have blacked out when I got home.  My money was strewn all over the place.  I peeked outside.  Sure enough, there it was.  Lying face down on the grass.  (Thank god for the Life Proof casing!)  It must have fallen out while I was paying the habal driver.  It's a good thing it didn't get squashed by the motorbike.  Or get stolen.

I lay in bed, hungry.  It was a Sunday and all was quiet at the staff house.  I had a very specific craving for arroz ala cubana.  When the maid got back from Church, I asked her to defrost some meat.

While I was cooking, I got a text from Peter and Elsa.  Could they come over for lunch?  They could bring pizza.  Sure, why not?  I was cooking enough for six anyway.  I opened a bottle of cava to celebrate the day.

By the time they had gone, the heat had zapped my energy.  All I wanted to do was sleep.  But I weighed myself again and I hadn't lost a single kilo.  I forced myself to work out.

• 30 Day Shred, Level 1
• Swimming:  30 laps

I really should stop drinking.

The Debauched Week That Was

Sunday, 29 Sept.

I arrived back in Siargao in time for the Awards Night of the surfing competiton.  I must have had about a dozen Red Horses.  Caught up with a lot of guys I hadn't seen in a while and danced with Sue.  Nicolas sat outside one of the barbecue stalls, patiently waiting for me with the dog, so I didn't make too much of a late night out of it.

Monday, 30 Sept.

Breaking Bad's finale.  Some friends cooked chili and I brought over dessert, a chilled bottle of cava,and a bottle of red for good measure.

Tuesday, 1 Oct.

Starting again.  Finally, an attempt to shed the three kilos I gained in Manila.  Green smoothies, a Paleo dinner.  And an earnest attempt at giving up smoking.

• 30 Day Shred, Level 1
• Swimming:  20 laps

Wednesday, 2 Oct.

I invited some friends over for lunch and opened a bottle of white, which I ended up consuming myself.

Was in no condition to be jumping around.

I took a disco nap, then headed to Sagana for a tataki dinner, and drinks at Bones' Sports Bar where, in the course of the evening and more than a few Horses, I had a box of pizza and a whole cake delivered.  I deposited the remains of the cake with friends on my way home.

Thursday, 3 Oct.

Had Sue and the surf comp. judges over for crepes.

Still lazy.  Only did the 30 Day Shred.

No smokes, despite being around smokers in the evening.

Friday, 4 Oct.

Ditto.  30 Day Shred.  Still no swimming.  Had a massage after dinner.

Saturday, 5 Oct.

Big burst of energy today.  This, of course, is in anticipation of Bones' closing party on Sunday and the big hangover on Monday.

Morning:

• 10 km+ bike ride
• 3 sets of 20 kettlebell swings

Afternoon:

• 30 Day Shred
• Swimming:  20 laps

Sunday, 6 Oct.

Gearing up for tonight.  

Morning:

• 10 km+ bike ride
• 3 sets of 20 kettlebell swings

Afternoon:

• 30 Day Shred
• Swimming:  20 laps

I made arrangements to head over to Bones' at 6:30, and then Nicolas and I got invited to dinner over at Dedon.  How could I resist?  Dinner turned out to be just cocktails and I was hammered by the time I left at around 9:30.  Wreaked havoc over at Bones' till sunrise.

Monday, 7 Oct.

As predicted.  I was dead or dying.

I have no idea what time I got home but I was up at 8:30, having breakfast with a very angry Nicolas.  Apparently, I had skipped out on him and the Dedon cocktails with the key to our room and he was locked out for the night and very unhappy with me.

After he left to catch the flight to Cebu, I lay in bed the whole day and night, only getting up to eat and go to the toilet.

Oh, I did manage to walk the dog.  I tossed a toy for him to catch in the water, but he wasn't that into it and, frankly, neither was I.  So we walked along the beack towards Union and then back on the road.  That should count for something.

Checked my weight.  I haven't made a dent.

For breakfast, I had Spam, eggs and fried rice.  For dinner, I had a bowl of bulalo delivered to the house, which I had the maid recook with potatoes and vegetables.  The bulalo lady said that the portion was for three people.  Yeah, right.  Maybe three vegetarians.  I ate it all with a big bowl of rice.  Yes, I had a lot of rice today.  Needed it to soak up the alcohol.

On the plus side, I came back with everything in my bag intact, although my hip flask was yawning wide open and empty.  When I left the night before, it was full of Stolichnaya Blue, which is 100% proof vodka.

<flashbacks of vodka-Red Bulls>

I texted Bones to ask what I owed him and he sent back crazy messages about how I owed him a gazillion pesos.  I checked my money.  I had obviously paid the bar bill because I only had P40 left.

I recall having a drag of a cigarette last night but, from the state my throat is in, I suspect I may have smoked more than that.  Nooooooo!

I am still a non-smoker.  I am a non-smoker, I am a non-smoker, I am a non-smoker...

Some guys rang up in the afternoon.  Bones' Bar wasn't closed yet.  Did I want to join them for a few drinks?  I didn't think I could part with my bed, the air-conditioning and the toilet at that point.

Will start again tomorrow.

Drinking, that is.  (I'm kidding.  But you never know with me, right?)

Where I'm At

So I'm back in Siargao.  I flew to Cebu last Thursday (March 7) then to Siargao the next day.  I'll be here till April 1.

I've resumed doing my 20 laps (minimum) in the pool everyday.  I've only had one cheat day (which was in Cebu) since resuming Paleo but, for as long as I don't have any wheat, I still consider that a good day.  Although - whoa! - I must confess that I am, once again, back to being extremely sensitive to lactic acid.

I also resumed intermittent fasting last Monday.  Although I've had to revise my schedule.  I now realize that I wasn't really fasting before by taking all those smoothies and juices during my supposed fasting state.  Now my feeding time is from 1 PM to 7 PM so I have six hours to consume all the calories I need in the day (including the smoothies and juices); digestion should be up to 1 AM, and I should be totally food free and consume only water from 1 AM to 1 PM.

I'm struggling a bit with it because I find that, by the time I swim at 5 PM, I'm so full of liquids that I feel like hurling in the pool.  I really prefer working out on an empty stomach.

I know this doesn't have anything to do with anything here.  I just find it funny.  And it kinda goes with the lactose intolerance pic.  ;-)

The great thing about the time though is that I can have lunch at 1 PM and dinner at 6:30 PM, although I must confess that I've only been having one main meal a day, mostly dinner.

Yesterday, I had a big raw food lunch with Susan in the afternoon, then I went biking with her (- I probably did around 6-7 km.; I had to cut my ride short because of the rain) and then I still had my swim at 5 PM.  I only had one smoothie in the afternoon and didn't feel the need for anything else the whole evening.  (I normally try to have two smoothies a day.  One is a green smoothie and the other is that all-natural antioxidant mix* that I get from Cebu.)

I do have a stock of snacks in the refrigerator in case I get hungry.  I have my nuts and berries trail mix.  I have my fried plantains (which are really just unripe cooking bananas, sliced thinly then fried).  I have multiseed crackers.  And, yesterday, there was still some leftover raw pancit.  But I really didn't feel the need to eat anything in the evening.

Now this has absolutely nothing to do with anything in this entire blog.  Although surely you must get the whole "spoiled" and "hog" connection, no?  No?  Whatever, it's funny.  And, no, I'm not smoking anything funny.

What I did feel the need for was a cigarette.  Yes, I'm still social smoking but I was a bit too social in Manila that I was wanting to smoke even when I didn't have any company and, um, may have had a cigarette or two in my bedroom.  (Eek!  Definitely a bad sign!  If I can't be bothered to go outside and don't mind the smell of smoke inside my room and getting on all my clothes and things, then I have problem.)  I was planning on trying to control it here in Siargao - but I brought a whole carton of cigarettes with me anyway.  So far, I've only smoked twice.  At dinner at Kalinaw Resort on Friday (which was when we arrived) and during the soft reopening of Nine Bar last Saturday.  But, today, I'll be in the company of smokers and, well, the reason why I'm typing this now is to keep me from getting started on a pack already.

Why can't I quit you?

Since I've started doing IF properly, which was only last Monday, I've already lost all the weight I wanted to lose.  I started at around 54.75 kilos (according to the scale here) and now I'm at 53.5.  I really should try to maintain that now and not lose any more weight because then I'll look too gaunt, which I don't really want.

Energy levels are fine.  I'm actually thinking of adding kettlebells and TRX to my daily routine but, yeah, so far, I'm just thinking about it.  I don't think there's a cure for laziness yet.

***

*Organic Herbal Tonic, available through Healing Present Nature & Wellness Farm.  Contents:  A blend of organic turmeric, ginger, basil, oregano, lemongrass, guyabano leaves, passion fruit and calamansi.  It's a vile concoction, so I have it blended with fruit.  It comes in a medium-sized jar but a small amount goes a long way, so it's best if you transfer the contents into smaller jars and freeze the ones you're not using.

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The Week in a Daze

My last five days in Siargao were a complete disaster.

First of all, I spoke too soon and the weather went from perfect to end-of-days pretty quickly.  Also, I got the body pain that I had been craving and couldn't do more than swim on Monday and Tuesday.  And have massages.  On Wednesday, however, I cranked it up again and went running (2km. only since it started to rain), biking (10.3 km.), then I did three sets of 20 two-hand kettlebell swings (16 kg.) and went swimming (20 laps x 32 m.).  I never did get to do taekwondo again as Dominic got busy with holiday guests at Buddha's Surf Resort, where he works part-time.

Food-wise, even my maids didn't even bother to pretend that I was on some diet or fast anymore and stopped bringing me my morning green smoothies, the cheeky bastards.  Well, their excuse was that they knew I wasn't sleeping much and they didn't want to wake me so early, in case I had finally fallen asleep.  Good thinking, ladies.  Gotta love 'em.

On Monday, I gave in to my burger craving and invited some friends over for lunch, to help me partake in what I call "Gai's Dirty Burgers" - bacon-cheese beef burgers, topped with mushrooms, onions, more bacon and melted cheese.

I had two for lunch on Monday and one for lunch on Tuesday.  <groan>

On Wednesday, I invited another set of friends over, for dinner this time, and, while I didn't eat too much (- a whale doesn't eat too much compared to these guys), I more than made up for it in alcohol.  Let's see...  We started off with wine and a shot of Patron XO.  Then we moved to a restaurant where they had more food, the pigs, and I had beer, tequila out of my flask, some drink that some guys donated to our table, more beer...

I was dead the next day.  I felt so sick, I couldn't even eat.  Really!  When I can't eat bacon and eggs, especially when I'm hungover, then I must be seriously ill.  

The weather went from bad to worse and, although I love swimming in the pool in stormy weather, there was just no way I could get in the pool and hope to live.  I didn't bother swimming either the next day, before leaving for Cebu.

In Cebu, I declared myself officially on holiday from my madness, and began my REAL descent to madness.

Since then, it's been unrestrained eating and drinking, with absolutely no exercise apart from hands-in-the-air-woo-hoo dancing.

I got back to Manila yesterday afternoon and am still in a bit of a daze.

Weight as of 8 AM this morning:  52.7 kilos.

The Week in Review

FOOD AND DRINK

Last week, I only did IF three times before finally giving up.  I think it's because I'm bored.  I'm isolated with a snail-paced internet connection and no books.  I don't know how I managed to read so many books off my iPhone 3G before (back when Stanza still worked), but I've been trying to read using the Kindle app on my laptop and I can't do it.  It doesn't feel like I'm reading a book and I lose interest very quickly.

So I find my mind wandering to food and what's in the fridge that I can eat or what's in the freezer that I can cook.  Last Monday, I made chili and hotdogs, which went down very nicely with a few bottles of red.  Then, on Wednesday, after having leftover crepes, I decided to try the local pizza that everyone's been talking about.  I've been told it's somewhere near the church in GL, and I don't know what it's called but I have their number (+63-918-338-8961) and, apparently, they deliver.

Thin crust pizza (- yes, there's a thick crust choice, but I've been told the thin crust is better) with bacon, ham and extra cheese, please!

I didn't have to wait too long.  The pizza cost P135, the extra cheese P20, and the delivery P50.  Excellent!  It wasn't the best pizza on the planet (- the tomato sauce is a bit too sweet for me, but it wouldn't be a local pizza if it wasn't, would it?), but it wasn't bad either, and now I'm curious to try it when it's fresh out of the oven.  I ate it like sandwiches and wolfed down the lot of it.  Yes, on my own.

I tried to make up for it that evening by having only raw food for dinner, but then I went out and partied like a frat boy, stumbling back home at six the next morning.

When Nicolas arrived on Friday, I ditched IF completely and ended up joining him for every meal.

Last Saturday night, I decided to put my brain cells to the test and see if I could remember how to make one of my favorite French dishes, oeufs en meurette (eggs poached in red wine sauce).

I first tried it in a restaurant in Paris, but the dish is really from Burgundy, where one of Nicolas' sisters also happens to live.  A few years ago, we went to visit her, and her husband, who - ahem! - also happens to work at Chassagne-Montrachet, made us his home-cooked version, which was excellent.  He introduced us to a couple who, later, visited us in Siargao and they taught me how to do a local version of oeufs en meurette, which I was able to replicate successfully several times.  But since I've been, well, jobless and homeless for the past two years, I haven't been cooking much (- I think the last time I made it was for some friends in San Francisco two years ago) and was worried that I had forgotten how to make it.

Like the chili, I decided to make this using all-natural ingredients (- only real tomatoes for the chili, and no flour to thicken the red wine sauce and no chicken cube for added flavor).  It turned out pretty well.  It could have used more onions and I could have watered down the wine a bit more, but I think I, more or less, remember the recipe.

Tonight, I'm going to let Nicolas try the tahdig with potato.

EXERCISE

While I swam everyday this week, on Friday, it occurred to me that it was my last week in Siargao and, although it's supposed to be the rainy season, we've had nothing but glorious weather with a beautiful, unending sky of blue since the storm, and I had been wasting all that time cooped up inside my room.  I got on my el-cheapo, brake-less, gear-less bike, and with Alice in Chains in my ears, rode to GL and back (total of around 10.3 km).

I had forgotten how much I enjoyed biking!  There's still that tricky section where they're concreting the road (- such a shame!) and I arrived back home all splattered in mud, but I had the biggest grin on my face.

On Saturday, Dominic showed up here before 8 AM and I was forced to do taekwondo, even though I was exhausted from another night of battling insomnia.  I still had a good workout though and, afterwards, invited Dominic to join me for breakfast of fresh fruits with mint and coconut milk.

Today, I went running (4 km., 35:55), biking (10.3 km.) and I did three sets of 20 two-hand kettlebell swings (16 kg.), all before 8:40 AM.  Of course, while on my way back from the bike ride, I stopped to text one of the girls:  "Please make me a bacon, potato, onion and basil omelette."  You gotta love technology!

I would have gone to taekwondo at the Pink House in GL at 3 PM, but Dominic said the waves were looking good and he wanted to go for a surf.  We rescheduled for early tomorrow morning back here instead.

I'm still going for a swim though...

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