Illness and food poisoning will not stop this meat-eater from getting some good chow.
I finally hobbled my way to BudgetMart last night for some real food. Monterey Meats changed companies and phone numbers to “Carne Bora” , but not employees, so I couldnt get anything delivered here.
- 21:30: I point at the huge hunk of beef in the display and declare my intent to get the whole damn thing. This confuses the guy so I said “the whole damn thing”. Also get apple juice and milk, frozen chicken, frozen pork tender loin, and bacon. Healthy stuff.
- 22:00: Make a drink of Tanduay in the kitchen but drink the entire liter carton of apple juice instead…then I drink the rum.
- 22:30: Cut the entire chunk-o-beef and marinade - only cook half. Drink more Tanduay.
- 23:00: Eating dead cow with lots of cayenne and Tanduay. Drink some of the milk.
- 24:00: My ‘cousin’ comes over and ask to turn on the aircon, says its hot. I decline. She doesnt like the spicy flesh of Mr. Moo. I drink more Tanduay and then some milk whilst attempting to do some college courses…I’m loosing interest in continuing my higher education. I remember that Cialis is a 3-day drug and put this to good use.
- 04:00: she tries turning on the aircon again, doesn’t happen but now that I’m awake, its time to build more international relations.
- 04:45: Treatise discussions are broken off as I rush to make a donation to porcelain disposal. Come back and she tells me I’m burning up…which is odd because I’m freezing and the aircon is off.
- 05:00 - 07:30: Multiple trips for Class I download. I can understand the Montezuma’s revenge as coming from a liter of milk, a liter of apple juice, and 2 kilos of really spicy beef. But I have no idea where the fever came from and why I’m laying in bed literally shivering while present company is visibly sweating lightly.
- 07:30: I wake up to turn on the aircon for just a tad, sitting in the chair for 20 minutes and turn it of before going back to bed. Shes happy now.
- 07:30- 16:30 I sleep deply, all day long. Aircon is still off and I’m actually hot now - time to turn it on. O’hai Mr Cialis, you’re still with me I see! Aircon proves to be a good idea.
- 17:00 - 18:15: Sleep like a baby, but not feverish this time..leaves the aircon on.
I cant believe I slept that long. The food thing was easy to ID because of the timing and duration and other qualities not mentioned here. But the fever of that intensity coming on so fast and only for 12 hours? I doubt it was the food.
Its not enough that Boracay has a brown-out every day but now there are these weird power surges and drops. Down in the dive shop, appliances have been blowing up. In the house here we have gone through three extension cords, an external hard drive, a camera charger, two cell phone chargers, a soldering iron, a hot-glue gun, and a set of bed sheets. All destroyed from these power fluctuations. Well, the bed sheets were burned when a drop-then-surge caused an extension cord to catch fire on the corner of a bed.
There is one good thing though, well its not so much good as it is just a lack of bad weather. By bad weather, I mean ‘normal’ hot and humid weather here. I don’t know why Filipino travel sites extol the virtues of vacations here during the summer. They use terms like escape to Boracay during the sizzling hot summer days. I’m thinking..uh-huh, its more humid here than in the cities and much clearer skies (read: hotter). But recently, there has been a lack of hot weather…oh its still hot at times but we have been having daytime and nighttime storms and the coolness has been accumulating a little bit to where I don’t use the aircon for most of the night.
But anyway, back to the power surges. A surge is always bad but most modern appliances can handle it. Even computer cords. These, however, are drops in voltage then you can hear in your fans and air conditioners that it starts fluctuating up and down really fast and finally spikes upwards before settling down. Not good.
And another thing to complain about while I’m at it: this has been going on for years from what I’m told. Do they sell surge protectors here? Not a single one to be found! I went to the only electronics shop on Boracay and two of the three staff members didn’t even know what I was talking about. Very nice people, but not very electronics knowledgeable. (dont ask them for a 200 gig laptop drive with external enclosure, they don’t have a clue what youre talking about and will try selling you a desktop IDE model).
The weather in Boracay is pretty bad right now. It will get really cool for about 10 minutes in the middle of the night, then it will rain a downpour, then get warm again. The next day it will be massively hot and humid. People who wish to travel here for now are going to really not like the outside weather. There is no wind, perfectly calm. No breeze of any kind. Humid and sticky.
Boracay is still having power outages also. Travelers dont ever get told that their hotels might have aircon but no electricity / power. I would be upset to travel here on a vacation and find there was no electricity. Even though the modern marketing electronic age is increasing tourism, its going to also make it easier for would-be tourists to find the truth. Power outage.
The water has also been really bad lately. For people that travel here on vacation, here is the trick … be sure they don’t open your water bottles for you. A lot of places advertise free bottled water for guests but its not bottled at all. They reuse plastic bottles and push down on the cap when turning so you can hear popping sounds as if it had been sealed. Truth is that most places boil the tap water and refill bottles for cooling. My point is this, the tap water from both sources has been having silt and dirt in it lately. In the small bottles, you cant see it. In a large container, it looks downright brown.
I was starting to feel bad about sleeping all day and waking only after sundown … not any more. I would be highly upset as a tourist right now.
