Homeless Diver

For some reason, the brown outs haven’t been happening like they said. It’s not like it was a rumor mill that came up with the ideas, I personally called them and was told YES every day from 8:00 am to 6:00 pm would be a brown out for the entire island of Boracay. And it was going to last two solid months. But yesterday, it went out for 5 minutes in the afternoon and today for about 3 minutes around noon.

I’m not complaining… much the opposite. But I now suspect either they did a poor job of describing the outage (as being island wide) like they did the water issues a few months ago - which turned out o be only a few small areas and only from a certain distributor - completely unlike their public announcement that the entire island would be without water. Also, they could have put the fear of god into everyone in the beginning by making it sounds horrible (which it did) but then we would be relieved when its just a lot of spotty occasions of brown out - and no one complains much.  Yea, I think that last one would be the way to go.

now….. for a random picture:

Ole's: some of the prettiest girls on the island, just waiting for a person to serve.

food treasure - salvage rights being exercised in Red Pirates on Boracay

The new kittehs’ at Red Pirates have laid salvage-rights claim to Rods bag of leftover food. They might need to have some breaching tools lowered to them.

way too lazy

the new ice-company suppliers on Boracay. do you really want to buy your ice from a cart with the word "Yellow" in the title?

It’s 07:50 am leaving 10 minutes until the official start time of the power outage. They say they’re doing a substation installation and its gonna take 2 months of daily outages. But yesterday, it only lasted about 4 or 5 hours, perhaps less. I even called them and the guy answering was audibly weary of answering that question - yes, there would be many more such outages.

In Baghdad, we supplied a good deal of power to a ton of locations and I can think of a single area that consumed about 10 times more electricity than all of Boracay. It only took a handfull of electricians less than a half day to bypass every existing substation and generator to reinstate power. But Akelco, a government regulated firm, cant get this simple task done with the might of the Philippines government behind it for a tiny island like Boracay? Not for two months? Boracay only has a few single trunks… why not locally installed 1.5 MW generators? they’re pretty much standard every where else in the world… yes, even in third world countries. (but not here apparently). They’re even designed in shipping containers for ease of transport.

Oh well, lets see if the juice goes out again today…during peak usage times.

I have to ask this because I’ve not left the house much in a few days. A few hours at Cocoloco’s and at Red Pirates…some of which I remember, but other than that its been time spent in the aircon. Now it looks like the night will be wasted again trying to fix a cell phone whose updates broke the link to the PC.

Before, I had a good excuse: my leg. Now its become pure laziness.

Sleep all day, wake after sunset. It’s a good thing there’s a rather large supply of rum in the kitchen. Tanduay to the rescue.

I woke up around noon today and promptly did nothing but some more laundry. Bleaching all the whites in the house that seem dingy after the house was empty for almost a month. Haven’t been shopping since I got back so I made some instant oats as food, not that I was hungry but I need it with my meds or I get indigestion really bad. Got a lotta paper crap I’m clearing out so rather than haul it up to the mainroad next week (only 1 day trash service) I put the unused hibachi standing grill on the back balcony and burned a bunch of it today.

Pretty much did that and puttered around on the internet until an hour ago when I got some daMarios and talked with Jaqi and Rod down at Red Pirates.The weather on boracay is really nice right now with a solid constant breeze comming off the sea.

I have no idea why, but this is the 3rd night in a row that ladyboys have been hanging out in Red Pirates at the bar. I guess it makes business sense for them since a lot of the older guys at Casa Camilla are into that sort of thing….but c’mon, no need for them to be hanging out on this end of the island so much! And especially not in there. It’s too small to accomodate that scene…its like a nippa hut version of Cheers. I dont mean to go on about this but, until now, I never realized how discreet and low-key the gays on this end of the beach are. There is nothing at all discreet about a ladyboy. I dont think I’ve ever seen them hang out in Angol before.  You want a partner of either of the sexes or transgendered (i think?) ladyboys…fine. Go to Summer Place or walk around Station 2 later in the night. Just want girls? They’re all over Station 1, Station 2, D’Mall, Cocomangas, Gilly’s, Andoks, Bamboo Lounge, Regency, or any friggin where you walk on the beachpath in that area… but down here at Red Pirates. Anywhere past Station 3 is not a good place for them to be hanging around. Luckily, this might be short lived since they seem to be getting picked up by the newer retirees as ’sowing their hedonistic oats’ in their early days here. Ok, I’m done with that.

now its past midnight and I never finished this post.  Been looking for a picture of a “bag of Andoks” online…they closed the one near here and opened another one further down the beach…not exactly close walking distance…still noy too far but definately not an option for a quick trip. The hole in my leg is still jacked up so I’m not moving about very much.

Just a quick note.

My leg looks like it was shot with a .22 pistol and got infected. Hell, it happened when I was 19 or 20, got shot with a .22 and didnt know it till later. Now its infected and swollen but the Doc says it’ll be fine and to stop walking on it.  Not easy to do living on this hillside.

I’m 2 weeks expired on my visa but its normally OK since they have instant service here on Boracay and have no problems collecting the 500 peso penalty. Never any issues as long as I’m not a toublemaker - but this time, they’re not coming back until the middle of next month by which time I will not only be a month expired, but also lacking a certain “1 year” special visa stamp. Breaking 2 laws at once might get me thrown in jail…damnit! How do they get away changing their immigration tourist visa requirements 3 times in less than a year with out telling anyone?

The landlord is going to be in a legal world of hurt soon. I know he’s going to ask me for rent even though they have 90,000 pesos of deposit already for the last 3 months rent. Its just about to be the last 3 months. They already lied to me once before about owing them money and trying to change the original contract. I know for a fact they have no money left over to EVER return that deposit. And thats the rub. Of course they’re gonna ask for more rent…but before I leave this country, I’ll put a few thousand US Dollars into a lawyers hands and tell him to bleed them dry. I would rather pay thousands more and have these people feel the hurt of being lying scammers, their kids without food, their electricity turned off, etc…than to just quietly keep my money.

I think someone was staying in the house..theres a ton of daMarios take-out containers and also Andoks rice in the frige. I have never, ever, bought Andoks rice. The place is trashed and my bed looks like someone was sloppily eating beef stew on it. God, I hope its a food stain and not bloody skidmarks. Actually, there are several fluit stains on my sheets - the white sheets I bleached to perfection the day before I left.

I have someone telling people that I owe them a bartab at a bar I never drink at.

Apparently the house flooded while we were gone. Godamn typhoon winds.

There are 3 bars of soap in my bathroom. I have never had 3 bars of soap at the same time. Never. Not even a spare still in the package. Only 2.

UPDATE: whoops, not everyone had power restored like I had said earlier. I went down to Red Pirates and sure enough, they were still without. Several bars/resorts along the southern end of White Beach didnt have power still…guess I was lucky. As far as I can tell now, everyone seems to have it restored. Honestly, I have no idea why I have it or even internet considering all the cables are under the remaining fallen palm tree.

I was going to post this on Yahoo Answers but screw em…its mine!

Heres the scoop:

Cell phone: Globe came on this morning, Smart has been stable for the past day. “Sun” is still showing up in the networks although no-one knows what that is…possibly some private venture someone let out of the bag during the emergency.

Land lines: the land-line phones are PLDC and never went down as far as I can tell. I have heard them ringing in houses even when the power was off and no generators connected…dont ask me, I profess ignorance on how that happened.

Electricity: Went down sometime early friday am, came back yesterday (Tuesday) about 5pm. Many resorts have generators but it was obvious that fuel was getting in short supply after a few days so usage was rationed to foodservice areas and rooms at night.  Sometimes. A great many places have no form of generators like Red Pirates bar, but that did not stop it from being full of patrons until early in the morning. I do not have generator access either, it sucked.—UPDATE—Seems like several places did not have electricity. I just assumed I would be one of the last ones to get it restored. I noticed Red Pirated was still out lastnight and gave Joey and Jen a good ribbing about it…Sorry guys!

Beaches: water came high on all beaches. Tambaasan is where the boats went to drydock but the water came all the way to the palm line and smashed a lot to bits. one person died the first day by trying to line a boat when he was smashed between it and another. I can get some pictures of this and post them. All the resorts have done an excellent job of cleaning up their respective areas. Even the kids scrounging for recyclable stuff to sell have made a windfall of this.

My Balcony: I have been thinking of chopping down a few recently overgrown banana and coconut palms that grew to obstructing my view of the sea.  Now I don’t have to, the exact ones blew down!  I have my view back!

Fuel: was in low supply. Rationing was enacted voluntarily because people were afraid they couldnt get it. The only formal gas station, Shell, refused to sell to people with jugs knowing that it was resorts getting the fuel and not for motor transport.–UPDATE—several people told me this was not accurate. Others told me this happened to them personally. I can only assume it was hit-n-miss for different people.

Water - household: BWSS ( or whatever its called now) was out for several days. There are conspiracy stories going around about how they selectivly shut off water to all but the highest bidders…this will prove devistation if true. Right now, its just a rumor because certain high-end places DID keep water while residential areas were without (smaller resorts as well). The Tubi water system was only out for a day and then only to certain areas. It was really low pressure for a few days so we all filled every spare bucket and container we had. This is all speculation and I’m sure everyone will deny it happened either way.

Food: never an issue except for those clueless people like myself that had only an electric burner…not a gas tank burner. Cooking is kinda hard. But food was never in short supply and yes, the stores were always open. They did keep the doors closed but hey, its a friggin typhoon! Just knock!.

Booze: Never a shortage of that on Boracay.

Flooding: a few nights everything was flooded. D’Mall wetmarket was about 10 inches deep. Back alleys were much worse. Main road between Station 1 and 2 were so deep that motor bikes couldnt get thru at one point… the water was halfway between the wheel axle and the upper section of tire!  Some areas, you simply couldnt see the road, sidewalks, dirt, nothing…just where the water met the buildings.

Clubs: one night, everything along the beachside closed. I found out why - sandblasting wind and crap falling off palms left and right. It was physically impossible for me to see where I was walking. I HAD to put my hand infront of my eyes to keep the horizontal onslaught from hurting. Over and over, I would run into other drunks just as stupid as myself to be walking along White Beach in the middle of a typhoon just as the inner wall was near us at night.

Cocomangas - you guys are troopers! Never once did they stop partying and on top of that, made some SPECTACULAR pizza! John, Scott, Chico, Sean, and staff…..you guys know how to keep it alive!

Ya know, theres been so much drama this past week, I’m gonna turn off the SEO entry for this one. But sure enough, I’m still not going to list the details here. In the US, we call that “Pleading the 5th”. Or drinking a 5th….or something that somehow connects alcohol and legal issues…..

Well, the nice weather is gone and the sun came back out yesterday, after raining for almost a week. That creates humidity. OK class, all together now lets pronounce humidity….” DAYMN!” I can see how the different pronunciations might be confusing…in in the mother tongue of fat-crackerese, DAYMN! said loudly is a valid expression of painful humidity.

Lets see…

• I found out my cell phone is jacked up. It sends messages out to people not intended. The clicky sound for the camera also stopped.
• I have been drinking myself stupid recently, worse than normal and I hit black-out drive before 10pm last night.
• I used FaceBook to find a long-lost best friend I had back in the Army.
• I am single again and could sell my sheets to a sperm clinic.
• I found out that I can pack everything I need into 2 bags and a backpack…not bad considering my scuba stuff is in there too.
• I also found out that I can swim in stormy water at 05:30am using a mask with no strap.
• I got my visa renewed, late as usual.
• I found out that I have been here so long that they will not let me leave when I want. I am required to now pay 500 pesos for paperwork a week before and another 1400 pesos at the immigration office in the airport. So, if theres an impending death in the family, basically I’m screwed. Thanks for visiting the Philippines and spending more money than my family makes in a year!…oh and be sure to leave your wallet on the way out. Bye now!
• I have had the feeling of hair-in-the-back-of-my-throat for a solid week now.
• I shaved my head back down; sweating in that mop was not doing me any good.
• I accidentally sent a few hundred emails to people by mixing up the merge of gmail addy books and adding people to Yahoo messenger.
• I had a deep conversation with a guy who spent 5 months in a mental wing of Philippines prison last year…then agreed to have him teach me some diving specialties.
• I cleaned the house spotless last week; now it looks pretty unsanitary.
• I spent way too much money this past week.
• I am going stircrazy on this island. I dont want to dive. I don’t want to see the same people over and over. I dont like tourists anymore. Nothing blows up here. I need to get back to work just to have something to do.
• We have had more and more power outages.
• A big part of Boracay island was without water yesterday. Apparently one of the suppliers were low on supply so they sent people to sneak out and turn off the lines to certain areas so the ‘big guys’ could have water. Small businesses, residential, public…no water. Resorts and spas and anyplace with a swimming pool - lots of water. I watched the guys fan out to turn it back on later. They denied doing it even as about 20 of us watched them. While the denial words were coming out of their mouth, they were kicking sand back over the access cover so it wouldn’t look disturbed.
• I got heartburn last night for the 1st time in months.
• Got a sunburn on my head, neck, and shoulders.
• Looks like I’m losing weight again.

As I type this, leaning on my bed, I look around and cant stand the sight of the inside of this house anymore but really dont want to got be around any one else either. That means I have to wear clothes. On the brighter side, I have a new outlook on finding a better quality of female companion. Not that this will actually happen, but hey, its a start.

She knocked on the door loudly for 5 minutes, every 15 minutes for two hours. Thats not determination, thats fucking stupid. I have one rule about the ‘outside’ here - don’t ever do anything that will create any kind of attention. Pretty simple huh? This list is pretty much a breakdown - applies to friends, not paying guests.

• no knocking on doors unless its really quiet
• no crying
• no loud conversations
• no ‘loudspeaker’ function on the cell phone
• no bringing people up here w/o prior notice
• if it’s daylight, generally stay the hell inside
• no talking to neighbors
• no-no-no talking to the landlords downstairs, just smile-say you don’t know-and don’t stop walking
• no cigarette butts on the ground (all trash included)

Pretty easy stuff. But the door knocking is my peeve with her. Every time she’s done it, I lose my temper in an embarrassing way. But it happens all the damn time. She looks up with these puppy dog ayes and says ‘I’m sowwy..” And that just makes me madder. Its a massive wooden door and a person has to beat the hell out of it to be heard inside the rooms. But by then, it sounds like construction going on nearby…which is exactly what I though it was today. You can tell I’m in a bad mood these past few days.

She knows its a pet peeve of mine, but still never connects the dots as to why I get pissed off.

Lets start from the beginning, around midnight or so. I was still sick and pissing from my arse. Ole girl was pissing me off with silly little stuff like making childish whining groans and saying “baybeeeee! I’mmmm sooo hungreeeeeey!” Couldnt opt for a simple “do we have something to eat?” or even “I’m hungry”. No, she has to do it in that so fucking annoying voice like a child wanting candy at the supermarket checkout line.

Then the power goes out from 01:00 until almost 03:00 am. No where even close to peak usage/consumption times. Sleep until around 17:00 in the afternoon. Get up and clean some more, going after the kitchen that time. Find a spider in the bag of carrots that I’ve been bitten by before. I really hate them - look mean and hurt like hell. Then an army of ants come out to eat him.

Shave my head again because this cracker just isnt doing so well in the heat these days. But for today, the weather was really nice. Opened the windows to let the wind in.

Our guest stops by and we had a good discussion about biology and genetic sequencing. Quite refreshing since it’s a rare treat on Boracay to have conversations about anything more complicated than sports on TV. Imagine the school geek being sent to a football/baseball summer camp. Thats me, here. I’m not saying that diving is anywhere close to being a ham-fisted knuckle-dragging sport like american football, but lets just leave it by saying that I really enjoyed the hell out of the conversation even when he was way over my head, (he’s a University Professor).

We had a few drinks, he sprite and coke~cola, myself coke/rum and a bottle of 2003 something white wine from Napa Valley. Started on hot-gluing the framework of a paper-mache’ lampshade project hobby of mine. Sealed a floater-jar as part of my personal artificial reef that I’m putting together without telling anyone. Its gonna be small and, erm, well odd. I guess it would more readily fall into an Art category. But by calling it an artificial reef addition, it becomes legal to put it where I intend on putting it. Screw it, if the Rotary club here can get away with dropping a bronze plaque of their chapters seal and call it reef restoration, then I’ll use their excuse too.

ole girl starts cooking a ton of bacon and ham while were talking and fills the kitchen with grease smoke. Talk about a non-cooking person. I cleaned the HELL out of the kitchen during this time. Manage to put a bloody fingerprint on the wall again. Drops of blood on the floor. Don’t know how I cut my finger so deeply.

This whole time, the weather is so nice that I’m not using the aircon and don’t really stand in front of the fan either. Apparently I told him that I would go snorkeling with him in the morning. He leaves around 2 or 3 or 4, I forget. By this time, I’m drunk and take off walking to get some cigarettes. Came back and for some reason, decided that it would be a good time to fry some ham slices, poach a few eggs in hot oil, slap it on a sammich with cheese, and grill the whole damn thing! I barely remember eating it. But my nicely clean kitchen? no more.

This girl is so damn messy that I was openly talking shit to her face about personal hygene.

It’s bad enough that she made a mess on the table afer making a sandwich, spilling soup and leaving it on the counter, dropping a pickle on the bed and leaving it as it bounced off her leg and under the bed. Gum and candy wrappers all over the computer table in the bedroom. Chip crumbs at the foot of the bed. Cant get her to take a shower before going to bed so my sheets/pillows always have makeup on them.

Finally I kicked her out of the room for some serious cleaning. The spot where she sits had a white towel that reeked of puss as soon as I moved it. And whats this?? ass-crack stains? Or puss drippings? WTF?!? oh HELL no! I’m not having this, get the hell in there and wash the fuck up. Then get out.

I bleached the crap out of everything and pulled the mattress out to the sunlight. Even the pillows are fully washed. I don’t get it, I have seen her clean this house before and it took her no time at all to make a room spotless…cant wash dishes any good to save her life but otherwise, she has mad cleaning skillz. And then she does something like this…go figure.

How the hell do Filipino girls manage to keep hair on their heads? I swear it seems to fall out like rain and stick to everything. Long black threads all over the room.

I think it started out poorly since I didn’t even leave the house until about midnight, after half a bottle of Tanduay rum. I recall Red Pirates closing down and moving in a northern direction. I ended up everywhere and nowhere. There was Isla Bayla, Bamboo, Juice Bar, some other place I don’t really remember much about except everyone there seemed preoccupied with acting like aristocrats but still managed to use the body language of trailer trash. I got the distinct impression that they were all uneducated people in nice clothes. So I staggered onward. Boracay party places needed my presence.

Once I headed to Station 2, one point was reinforced last night: being nice to people has its benefits. I got free drinks everywhere I went except for Summer Place, (not only will this NEVER happen, but they’re some of the most expensive around). Bartenders and managers that recognized me were like, forget it and give me some dap! (dapped)_ I only mention this because there were a few people I know that were snotty towards the staff at a few places and have since had their bills padded by other peoples drinks and almost always full-tourist price. Normally, my drinks are discounted to a more local rate, which is pretty cool.

There was Summer Place, Hey Jude, Sumer Place again, Isla Bayla again, and I forget where else I was at but I do remember closing down Summer Place and my body chemistry was fairly toxic by then. Is it bad that I’m straight but still know most of the ladyboys working the crowd? I found out one thing though: the professional transvestite entertainers that work at the Amazing Show, well, they don’t mix with regular ladyboys and seem to look down on them…well, I shouldn’t say ’seem’ because thats exactly what one of them told me. They’re still cool as hell, but I guess I never realized there was a classist mentality in that group.

I ran into a party girl I remembered from my early days here. She seemed coked out of her head and couldn’t stop talking for more than a few seconds. I assume thats what it was, but I didn’t ask.

I found out that Andoks had bottles of Red Bull. Whoops. They should have kept that secret from me.

I even stopped into a few places at daybreak to hang with some of the working girls that didn’t get any business…kinda like all the drunks going to IHOP in the states, only this was with prostitutes at bar-lounges that don’t close, so yea, more drinking.

I didn’t get back to the house until around 7:30 this morning and tried staying awake but that was a lost cause. I started freezing for some reason and killed the aircon around 0830. Very fitful sleep, stomach was having a twinge. My phone started blowing up with calls and text messages from a girl out here and finally I texted her back to leave me alone to sleep and turned the ringer off. She wanted to come over at noon.

Finally I woke up around 20:00 tonight and found a lot of texts and missed calls on my phone. Damnit! My good friend was having her 21st birthday party down on the beach and I missed it. Other people even texted me to say how good the BBQ and beer was and to get my ass down there. Honestly, even if I had been awake early enough, I don’t think I would have made it…it’s now 1:00 am the next morning and I’m still feeling like crap.

Damn–there went a power surge and drop…airconditioner is making funny noises now. See? just how the hell are we having a brown-out at 1:00 in the morning? It’s not even hot out tonight. What the hell?!?! I went to unplug some appliances and come back to find a cockroach on my floor - I friggin hate those things and we rarely ever see them here. I keep the house nice and poisoned.

Anyway, I’m still feeling ill and am sipping on a salty chicken-ramen soup while at the computer. Thats my big Saturday night. What the hell was I thinking! I could have partied like a rock-star tonight with my closest best friends but noooo…I had to go out last night by myself and just meet friends along the way.

Apparently today is the Philippine Labor Day holiday. From what I can tell, no-one got the day off except government workers. And today was the day I was  walking all over the island trying to pay bills. I even worked myself up ready to refuse to pay for a 6000 peso bill because our house cant possibly use 6000 pesos of electricity in a month. But nooooo…they were all closed and I didnt find out about the holiday until I was on my way back.

As usual, I didn’t buy the few things that I actually needed while down there.

I have to wonder though, not to be rude or anything but just what is the holiday symbolic of? The Philippines is one of the most labor intensive countries that I have ever been to. Among the lowest paid in the world and I don’t believe they have much in the way of labor laws. Something about getting paid once a month or so.

I looked it up and learned this is an international holiday and also called May Day. But they all have one thing in common - it is a holiday based on the movement to create non-slave like working conditions of basic workday hourly schedules without people losing pay. I dunno about that, I see the same people here making the same daily wage regardless if they work 8 hours or 14 hours. And most of them seem to work from around 0700 am to 2200 at night. As hard as people work in this country, I think that if the government workers (obviously not even close to being considered labor-class) can get a paid day off, then that same government should subsidize the wage of every person in the country for that day that is not offered the opportunity to take the day off by their employer.

One bit of humorous trivia about this holiday:

” In Germany, Labour Day was established as an official holiday after the Nazi Party, or NSDAP, rose to power. It was supposed to symbolize the new-found unity between the state and the German people. However, just one day later, on 2 May 1933, all in 1933 after the free unions were outlawed and destroyed” Source:wikipedia

I ended up asleep by 2230 last night. Deep sleep then I couldn’t sleep at all after an hour when the sinus acted up really bad. I’ve never had that happen before. I took some methol/camphor vaporub stuff and slathered it all over my face and a little up my nose. Hurt like hell but after an hour, I drained a lot out and was able to sleep again.

I also got up at 0730 today, which is not normal, at all.

Gonna be a busy day today. I have some college courses to finish this morning, again, since the puter locked up on me yesterday and the autosave didn’t seem to be working…..lost all my work. The I have to clean out the maids quarters room, clean the spare CR, move the washing machine, reattach the showerhead, clean the fridge, sweep and mop the floor. I’m not turning into a bitch or anything but we are about to have a full house and it never hurts to spruce up the place.

Personally, I dont mind the gecko shit everywhere. Except on the table.

I’m going to open this blog for my general musing. I know I kinda do that already on the main website www.homelessdiver.com but this will be a general outlet for just pure crap from my mind. Why crap? Because thats just about all my mush-brain is good for these days.

News and relevant stuff will still go on the site but this will be a general blog - they way blogs were supposed to be before crappy marketing people started making fake ones to sell their products and hotels…..as seems to happen with Boracay like an infectious disease. My beef with those is that they completely misrepresent their places. Some even use pictures of who-knows-where.

See? the above is the crap I was referring to. Dont want that on a respectable site. Semi-respectable.

I probably migrate it over to a wordpress dbase on my own server sometime soon, but again, I’m just too lazy for that at the moment. I’ve even been putting off my courses all morning.

See this guy? He wants to sell you watches and pearls. Supposedly they’re real pearls (from a resort owner here who tested a few). But the watches, yea, they’re fake. Damn good looking fakes…but fake nonetheless. Gawd how I dislike a vendor.