Tag: Cebu

Living in the now?

People keep asking me how my trip was… and I keep having to pause to think about it, realizing that I’m not sure what to say, and then I end up just kind of shrugging saying generally that it was good… and not entirely convincingly.

Thinking about it now, I find it to be a lot like Mondays.

People ask me how my weekend was, and I have no idea… That was last week… I’ve already reset for the new week, and last week is all the way I’m the past now.

Being back in Houston again, living in my own house again…, I can help but feel I am right back to where I left off from here.

Second week of December, Christmas is coming, then New Year’s… more cold weather for a while…

Not the third week of January, Christmas over and Nee Year’s over and the weather likely to be ok the warmer side more and more already…

I felt the cool air this evening – love 20s and low 70s – blowing a perfect temperature over my leather jacket while riding, and I realized I expected it to grow colder over the next several days…, and also that it would do no such thing.

This is Houston – it gets warmer from here.

And so, as I look back on my past month, I feel almost that it never happened… not recently, anyway.

It feels miles away (which it actually is) and so long ago…

Just like my weekends feel on Monday mornings.

Looking at photos and telling my cousin this afternoon about part of our trip, I know that t was an absolutely spectacular trip.

But it just doesn’t feel so much like it, and I think that is mostly due to the fact that I have moved onward and am focused on what I have to do here and now, not on what happened last week or the two weeks before that, or even further back than that…

Yeah…

P.S. I keep writing 2019, though…, so maybe I’m not too much in the now, but in a fairyland dreamscape instead… haha 😛

Post-a-day 2020

The rain in Spain

Stays mainly in the plains.

But, in Cebu, it pours everywhere, and with all it’s got, albeit only in approximate 5- to 20-minute increments.

The wind grows cool, and the temperature feels like it drops almost ten degrees Celsius, and it seems like the impending rain will last forever, until, when you turn your back for a moment, it suddenly starts pouring, and you turn back ’round and notice the rain…, then it clears up within two minutes, the clouds part and clear away, and the sun shines with all its glory once again, as the temperature pops back up that same ten degrees again to a warm – oh, so warm – 29-35°C.

As I write this, just that has happened.

The air was cool and windy, the sky was dark, but no rain had started.

I turned my attention here, and then, as I looked back up after a few minutes of writing, I saw the rain falling all around.

It is not quite finished yet, but the sky is already brightening… it will not be much longer before the sky is clear of this rain once again.

P.S. There are far too many flies for me to be comfortable here (in addition to all the other huge dislikes), but I am rolling with it and hanging in there.

Post-a-day 2019

Happy New Year!

Thus begins the actual longest year of my life!

Cebu, Philippines, has begun the new year, the year that seemed so absurdly far away when I first considered it that it felt as though it would never come… 2020.

The music was actually really great at the celebration here at the hotel, and we all kind of fell in love with these two songs called “I love Cebu”.

My brother kept calling, unintentionally, the adorable little boy an approximation of the Japanese word for “tuna”, instead of his actual yet similar name.

We all talked and played and then, just after midnight, danced on the beach.

It was a good night, and now I am beyond ready to pass out, hard core.

Akemashite omedetou, everyone – I wish you all a happy new year.

🙂

Post-a-day 2019

20:35

Did I mention that we saw an eclipse the other day?

Didn’t even know it was going to happen – my brother just happened to look up and notice while he was out from under the hut-bar, taking photos of the sky and stuff.

It was awesome.

Separately, I learned a Tagalog term today: Askal.

Think the British “ask”, combined with “Jal” from the Spanish “Jalisco” (a rather silent English H sound).

My mom asked a lady what the kind of dog was that we kept seeing everywhere around the Cebu area.

We are somewhat convinced that they are all just the same dog in disguise… at the furthest stretch, they could be all just related to one another… very, very closely, and with minimal cross-breeding, though they are definitely mutts.

Anyway, my mom asked the lady what kind of dog it was and the lady replied with, “Askal.”

I then learned how to say it, and asked about the word.

She explained that “as” comes from “aso,” which means “dog,” and that “kal” comes from “kalye,” (pronounced much like the Spanish calle, if you only pronounce it with one l, and change the second to an i), which means street.

“So, it’s ‘street dog’,” I say.

Yes.

We then proceeded to laugh heartily that the Cebuano dog is not a specific breed, but really just a street dog. 😛

(You might not doke this entertaining, but we certainly did, and I still do.) 😉

So, yeah… lots of askal around here.

Post-a-day 2019