NewYearsCebu2022

This is some video I took last night, New Years 2022, in Cebu, Philippines. It's nothing like years past, with Covid hanging around and Typhoon Odette etc, but Cebuanos know how to celebrate New Years 2022! The first part is looking West - there's a larger fireworks happening on the left, but if you look close, there are all kinds of small flashes throughout the city. The second part is looking down towards the National Book Store street below us. Happy New Years!

motorbike attire...

Typhoon... Part 6 - Last typhoon post

Wednesday morning 20 December

It's 10am Now

our day started at 5am

I meditated for 5 or 10 minutes, dressed, I had mini cup of cold instant coffee and one piece of bread...

with flashlights in hand, we headed down the stairs. Word on the Street was the SaveMore store down towards the Colon area had water, if you line up by 6am

got a taxi

 

it was so nice at 5:40am - cool, relatively speaking. 

Another huge reason for me to get out and start my early morning walks

so nice, and less people

6:20am - got in line outside of SaveMore and looked up to see it was the grocery store on the ground floor of the E mall where we've driven by many times. Actually I confused it with a different mall, with the same name?, when we go to Ayala I think. I don't know.

I stopped taking photos pretty soon after the typhoon

the destruction and damage is everywhere. And one reason we didn't see help in our building is that workers had their own families to take care of. One guy who works downstairs in our PMO office, property management, lost his whole house. He was here, and his wife and child survived somehow, probably with neighbors or other family. 

Anyway, we were in line at the SaveMore from 63:0 to 7am. When they let us 30 to 40 people in (the line was shorter than previous days), we queued up the manager gave us two bottles 32 ounce bottles of water each. We got to shop for groceries, toilet paper, coffee for me, wet wipes, canned tuna and sardines, etc. Inday waved at me at one point and the manager was giving us each a third bottle because there were less people this morning. We hit a gold mine! Also, being down towards the Colon area where most regular folks shop, and everything else  was less expensive. My instant coffee or luxury was at least 20 pesos less than Robinsons. I'm limiting my coffee to four maybe five cups a day the first two caffienated, andthe last two or three decaf.

I know I/we are spoiled. I know that I am. We are privileged...life isn't that hard for us.

But, I keep seeing the British officer from the film "King Rat?", sitting on the shithouse seats on the hillside in their POW camp, dipping his one tea bag into a cup of hot water... his one special luxury in his day. A little later in the film. If I remember correctly, someone says old officer whatever died sitting on the shitting seat. 

Day number five, and we're still finding little jagged squares of broken glass that have come out somehow from their hiding places.

I felt sad for the young man with the flip flops in front of me at the grocery store. He only had three bottles of water in this basket. At the last minute he put his basket down and rushed back into the store. He added some aluminum foil dishes to his purchase.

Info a valuable commodity in this situation. Information I got from people was that Manila was sending more power people to help with our electricity situation. 

When we were outside standing in line outside of the SaveMore, there was an old guy diligently sweeping garbage off the sidewalk into the gutters and roadway. When he got aggressive at one point, a bunch of plastic, empty water bottles went flying out into the road, and Jeepneys rounding the corner would run over them pop pop pop!

chuckles in the waiting line

3pm - Inday just left for another swimming pool on the ninth floor run,

for showering, as we call it, five gallon plastic buckets three fourths full one floor at a time, coming back up to the 16th floor...

fairly clean looking water, with a few leaves. The plan is to scoop up the water and pour it over our heads and then catch it and another but more shallow large plastic bowl, which we'll use for flushing the toilet. That's the plan Stan

-----------------

3:30pm - Wow! Ecstasy! sitting in the shower...

poured water over my head

cold but felt soo good

washed...

more cold water over my head and body

finished with a little clean bottled water on my face

such pleasure...

I really want to walk early tomorrow morning

logic says we have to combine function with pleasure. My hope was to walk over to the Citidane's Hotel, the lit up "castle on the hill" we look at each night where people have electricity and water. Oh well. Our my walk instead will be the other direction towards Colon again and the SaveMore store again, for more water. The available water bottles for sale are getting smaller and smaller with each passing day

 

-------------------

Day six 3:45pm

It'll be dark in two hours and my stomach is growling. Time to eat. I'm thinking a small can of tuna with spicy chili or something. Maybe an apple and or a banana. Yum. 

-----------------

Day seven Thursday 23 December

Christmas Eve is tomorrow night

I was thinking electricity by Christmas. Not so optimistic right now. We left a little later this morning, around 6:30 or6:45am 

We decided to walk because it's so nice - it was cooler in the shadows on the east side of the street when we headed to the SaveMore grocery again. 

Zero drinking water today

but we scored a coke and some coconut water!

I bought a few bottles of soda water with less sugars than the Gatoraide drinks left on the shelves. We found a small Carendaria with some yummy chicken pork veggies and rice for p280 ($3.33)

Next door to the Carendaria was a small sari sari store, which had some reasonably priced bottled water. Inday smiled and said they couldn't raise the prices because they were next to a police station.

Back to our "island in the sky".

The stair climb up mostly dark stairwells is a pain. We're thinking the electricity is getting closer. Last night, when we were watching the world below, Inday said "look, the lights are on now in that building", pointing down.

I looked to where she was pointing, and I said "I think that's my Bo's coffee". "And the intersection by the National Bookstore has their traffic lights going again!" I'm not buying coffee out much anymore since I perfected my formula of instant coffees, but....Bo's coffee has power!

Inday bought a six page newspaper today in Colon. Duterte is supposedly coming to Cebu today. The typhoon affected a wide area of the Visayas, even down in Mindanao. 

I just got out my Cannon and put on the telephoto lens. Yep, Bo's coffee is open and there are customers sitting outside enjoying their coffee.

Even the beggars weren't putting their hands out as I walked slowly by with my backpack this morning. I was purposely walking slowly, not so much becuase I'm old or it was too warm. I was thinking about that 16 stories of darkened stairwell, and preparing myself mentally.

I got in a little wood carving yesterday. Just as the sun was close to disappearing behind the foothills, a small shaft of sunlight shown right on my little box just right. I could carve little bits with my numbers 11 and 17 Xacto knives

2:55pm - we just made a swimming pool run with one 5 gallon bucket each

shower time! 

more cold water over my head...

I've been staring at this page for a while

nothing

just listening to a generator from somehere, the dog who barks all day when his owners are gone, all the different sounds of the city. Holy cow! that felt good, my shower. I took my time today 

a Tabo scoop of water over my head, but with my head tilted forward over the plastic shallow pan catching the extra water for flushing the toilet. It's cold, and I'm a weenie. I would I would pour water scoops of water with the Tabo, a plastic mini bucket with a handle, over a wash rag and use of the wash rag to scrub my body

having dinner around 4pm today

just remembered the carinderia food we got this morning...veggies, chicken and/or pork, a splash of soda water and/or coconut water. And my fourth cup of my instant coffee formula, but more decaf than Caf. With sunset around 5:30.

the battery on my Kindle is dwindling. So I'm only reading aloud a half chapter of the John Sanford novel each night. Inday is getting into the story more as well, and not falling asleep as fast. 

I really don't want to be in one of those super long ATM bank lines and or the "load" lines for cell phones etc. I'm turning on my main cell phone once a day just to see the words "no internet connection". We are spoiled.

------------------

6:05am Friday 24 December 2021. The day before Christmas

I didn't wake up until 4:25am

went to bed last night around 8pm

these words, in Visayan and Tagalog are pronounced phonetically

eg - Carbon is not pronounced "carbun", it's pronounced Car-bone

Negros Island is pronounced Nay-gross, etc. 

After seeing the debris crumpled metal and broken glass when we walked to SaveMore yesterday, we're no longer thinking power by Christmas tomorrow. 

Nope,  not going to happen...

thinking about going to Ayala today and getting some SaladStop take-out for us. I'm thinking maybe they have internet over that way over towards IT Park, where all the banks have their headquarters.

We're limiting my trips down and back up to one one time a day but if there's internet over there (praying hands emoji here)...

after a week of drinking my wonderful coffee formula, it's not so wonderful anymore. Thinking a cup of hot Bo's coffee

The Hills northwest of us are really beautiful. More so when the sun is rising and slowly casting yellow bronze colors over the Greens, and pushing the darker shadows down lower during the day. And the wonderful shapes of shadows that move across the landscape, shadows of the puffy white clouds passing over.

Some quotes from a lady Inday was talking to in the SaveMore store line:

"Biden wants to eliminate the Bible"

"Bongbong" Marcos, yes that Marcos's son "wants to eliminate corruption"

Say what?! Just like the Trump lover hillbilly saying "re-dik-u-lus" when arguing against some some left wing comments, showing his eh-dyu-kay-shun...

we're going to the Ayala "Terraces" this morning. My fantasy dream is that they have internet over there. We will see... 

TYPHOON - LAST ENTRY IN THIS JOURNAL BY LONGHAND

to be transcribed soon

10:30am 8th? day after Typhoon Odetta

I was headed to the garbage room with two days of garbage bags

as I turned the corner by our elevator, I noticed the digital elevators light was moving

it didn't register...

I turned the corner and noticed the hallway overhead lights were on

What?

I opened the door to the garbage room and it wasn't dark!

The light was on

goosebumps...

I almost RAN back to our apartment and yelled "Inday, come here! I want to show you something." She told me later that she assumed the hallway was flooded or something. Just another problem to deal with. As she approached our apartment door, I pointed up at the light above our kitchen area and turned on the switch...

It's now at 1:47pm, and we have our electricity back. Still no water, but we have our one bottled water left and Inday's going to make a run later for supplies. I'm the tech guy, recharging everything, making my first cup on a hot water coffee yada yada...

I am not a writer. 

This is the journal I started last Friday, the day after Typhoon Odetta rode through and left us without electricity and water for a week

"The End", 

as Addie and Claire say,

after telling us about their favorite stories...

One of my favorite things since arriving in Cebu is to watch the sunsets and sunrises. I never thought much about moonsets until I came downstairs once in the middle of the night in November? There were these wonderful shadows of our window frames on the stairwell. Full moon. Recently I got this Moonset photo, and then by chance the next late afternoon/early evening, we were standing on the overpass on the N side of Robinsons and I got a shot of the Moonrise...  

we went for a walk through the neighborhood yesterday...in spite of reminders etc, and you can see/feel positive vibes...

these photos - Jackfruit, trees, signs, lines, and the crumpled remains of our Fuente Osmena Xmas tree, at the right rear in the last photo...

Typhoon... Part 5

7:15am Tuesday morning 21 December

we just reviewed our rendezvous plans for the fourth time and Inday left for Ayala Metro, next to Rustans for water - drinking kind. Ayala Metro has five litre liter bottles for sale when they open at 10, and Inday is going to get in line early.

Next door, the Rustans (Cebu's Nordstroms, more expensive stuff) has 10 liter bottles. #5s are better because of our 16 flights of darkened stairs when we return. 5 liters are better because of our 16 flights of darkened stairs when we return. I want to surprise her and leave earlier than she assumes I will head out. She's worried about my hernia.

Part of me loves this mini crisis stuff. It's an adventure, keeping in mind that we are more fortunate than many other souls...starting with the rainfall of glass when the window exploded above me. Pure luck I think.

My first victory the day was coffee. I remembered that we might have some ice trays still in the fridge. Voila! enough water for two small cups of my super duper instant coffee formula. And I already had my main dump of the day... sorry...

 

That reminds me of victory #2, maybe. A separate trip by Inday is planned for later, where she will go up to Oprra where Lenie lives...more lines, but they have water for non drinking etc, including toilets. Like Jack Webb from an early US TV show dragnet said "just the facts ma'am"

when we were in Tukwila, with our own with our year round Creek in the backyard, and I had to replace the waterline between the House and the main line out by the road, I just got buckets of water out of the creek for our toilet.  

I think I mentioned the crown in my mouth coming out. That means until I get to a dentist after this business is over - no hot coffee for me for a while. Also it bugs me here just like in the US to pay two or more bucks for a cup of coffee. Even tho it's good coffee, I was telling Inday the other day I was going to start bringing a thermos of my own scientifically developed instant coffee with me. The average cost for a cup of cup here is p120? That's 2.33 US

I've been thinking about a little line of bird poop that was on one of our windows. There's a thin line on the outside of the window where it was before the typhoon, and I was hoping to see that the bird poop was gone the next morning, but now that I'm looking at it, at a small line that is either some tenacious bird boop remnant, or, it's a scratch on the outside surface caused by flying debris

Inday's list of goals today also include a trip to Palais? street down near Colon, where she heard there might be a hotel with electricity and water, and a room available. She's going to just walk around and look for power and ask people. Can't hurt.

I've turned on my new Samsung phone a few times each day just to see if there's an internet connection.

It must have been good karma that my last two messenger messages got through/were sent out before the power grid failed - to Andrea and Nathan... (*emotions...)

It's still two hours before Ayala Metro opens at 10am. Inday is probably already standing in line, people watching and talking. Waiting with her, her line neighbors

I'd better start getting ready. Will look for one of the number 14 D buses, P 15 pesos 15 pesos instead of 100 pesos or more with a taxi.

5 hours later - what a day!!

11:10am Tuesday 21 December

We're both back home and and we finished updating each other about our adventures. Inday waited in one line A Metro before a "No More Water" sign went up.

She then went next door to Rustan's and stood in line for another hour before Rustan's put up a "No More Water"

she came back with three small bottles of thirsty brand water. Thirsty is really good coconut shakes chain and they haven't raised their prices. They're limiting the numbers per customer, still charging only p20 each. The food stand near them always has higher prices, and their price was p50. No wonder they have shorter lines at Thirsty all the time!

I had things happen in my two hour excursion. Our plan was for me to leave a little later and meet up with Inday so I could carry back one of the two five liter jugs of water we hoped to purchase. Instead, I went downstairs about 40 minutes after Inday left. I watched buses and Jeepneys filled the capacity go by for 15 minutes and let multiple taxis pull up and honk at me. After giving up on the buses I started waving to taxis, which dwindled in numbers suddenly, and when a vacant one did finally pull over, I said "Metro Ayala Rustans?" He gestured with his hand to his mouth (*need food gesture) while nodding No, and started to pull away. Not far enough. Not enough money. I reached in with my hand and said "how much?" First mistake.

The following 30-40 minutes was traffic gridlock, et cetera, giving up on joining Inday, negotiating up to p350 (the average cost would be around p120?). (* -I'm a foreigner and p350 is still only $7 US, but Inday was pissed at the taxi driver. In the English language Cebu paper yesterday, there was article about price gouging etc, and governement penalties. Too late for me. I just wanted to get back home...)

Back at the Ultima, I pulled out my flashlight and started my trek back upstairs. I was wearing my little forehead strap headlamp today - really cool. Had it pointed down at the stairs as I climbed. I met up with one of the workers on our stairwell, and I as I've been doing lately, started asking questions

"wastewater anywhere. We haven't flushed the toilet in three days"

"17th floor"

"17th floor wastewater?"

"Yes"

"Thank you!"

the first thing I did after I unloaded my backpack and took off my shirt was grab a bucket and head up head one floor to the 17th floor

Voila! I loaded up to one large bucket we use for laundry and made several trips up and then downstairs, one step at a time downstairs to the apartment. After three tanks FILL TANK fills attempts and one plumbing snake creation using some some heavy duty electric wire - success! This was a victory I shared with Inday after her return, about 12:31pm.

POOP be gone!!

Next,

water...

A few other people I met up in our darkened stairwell earlier was a young woman with a "Colliers" company tag on her light green uniform. And a little older guy. Colliers is the group that bought out Ultimate Residences or the Crown Regency Hotel or whatever. 

The typhoon hit around 7pm Last Thursday and today, Tuesday, five days later, somebody was checking on us. I gave her our apartment number, told her my wife was gone in search of water. I also said it would have been nice or helpful if someone had told us or let us know that there was some wastewater on the 17th Floor, one floor up... that we could use for our toilets. Some people closer to the swimming pool under renovations on the ninth floor were using that the swimming pool water. 

I couldn't help myself and after I thanked them, I said "there could be dead people up there", pointing up. There are 28? floors here. I don't know. I saw them again later when they knocked on our door before Inday got back. After our pleasantries, because we were already checked off on their list, I asked "find any bodies? ...sorry. Thank you."

There are 1000s? of people on the streets, many walking in search of whatever, trying to get somewhere. Walking costs less pesos. 

1000s of people in lines everywhere - ATM lines, grocery store lines, "load" power for cell phone lines, water lines, gas lines. 

Day five and counting...

Coffee...

I would not recommend mixing instant coffee with your favorite energy drink. I tried a  Nescafe instant coffee and Gatorade combination. I drank the whole cup. The only good thing I can say about it, it was liquid.

5pm Tuesday 21 December continued...

Inday just left for her second foray of the day

I'm holding down the fort.

Two things we've done as a couple the past several days is

#1 - talk, have conversations...

we've always communicated well as a couple. I can be verbose to a fault sometimes, but our mutual sense of humor has always been part of our marriage.

#2, we've been watching the world go by down below. We're on the 16th floor, high enough to see birds fly by below our windows, but low enough that we can see the people walking by below

5:20pm - the sun will disappear behind the hills to our west, looking out of upstairs window, in a few minutes

and it will be dark before 6pm. I think between 6 and 6:30 our one candle might come out. We're in the middle of the city, so even with the brownout, there's still light coming in from outside. 

Filipinos love to gossip and it's so much fun listening to Inday and other line waiters visiting. There's always a little English sprinkled in, and I'm understanding one or two words of Visayan every day.

I saw this magazine when we were standing in one of our 30-45 minute long grocery lines last week - a "My Pope Philippines" special back issue from June 2018. 2018 was when we were here last, and I was thinking "a kind of a back-to-the-future" thing going on. I thought the smaller magazine was an advertisement for Vespa until I turned it over - it was the "My POPE Kids" insert. I HAD to buy it!! Also, I scored these cute little cigarette lighters for our candles...

https://www.rappler.com/nation/typhoon-odette-cebu-queen-city-in-ruins/

"one thing is clear: While the Queen City and the island province are battered, they are not broken.

Cebuanos are used to helping themselves. History has proven time and again that Cebuanos can – and will – overcome..."

I didn't want to reference the article itself on FB. It's critical of the government's response...

Typhoon... Part 4

(* - I wrote a Lot on Monday the 20th of Dec, so continuing...)

I have a half hour before I head out in search of water, #1,

and a meal at the Robinson food court, and whatever else we might find

I did score some cute little cigarette lighters last night along with the "Pope" magazine. I had to buy that!

Logic, or, lack of...

water coming out into the hallway from the stairwell

asked one of the maintenance workers with flashlights on the stairs 

"Where's that water coming from?" 

"They're cleaning upstairs"

and dumping the wastewater in the stairwells? 

we have one inch of drinking water left in our five liter water bottle

we are saving the little water left after washing a few dishes. We used very little water for that.

Our toilet smells like an "outhouse"

they're dumping water in the stairwell when we don't have enough water to flush our toilet?  whine whine

scored some bread from a small bakery in the Robinson Mall!! 

one loaf whole wheat, one loaf cream bread and one French for p 120 ($2.25)

all small in size - one half loaves by our our regular bread standards, but Bread!

the lines for charging phones are competing in size with the lines for the ATMs. The line for the grocery store outside was shorter, but when they let a bunch of us in, we ended up at the end of the next line for getting into the grocery store itself. Once you finish shopping and have your cart or basket filled up, our average wait times in the checkout lines have been around 30 minutes.

we got some "Leylam" take-out and coconut water at Robinsons

continuing our quest for water.

The main problem is power. We're told they have water, but getting it upstairs?

the power people are supposedly about a block away and moving towards us but we're guessing it could be another week or so?

I feel like an ignorant dummy about how cell phones work here, and the different cell carriers

(* But, I am getting better. See later in this journal)

I'm also embarrassed about how much I miss the internet and my tech tools. 

Information is gold. It's like it's just luck, and word of mouth, to find out anything...

I walked, or creeped in slowly, into our building's reception area yesterday.

  completely dark, except for one small, lit votive candle on a coffee table by a couch 

I was bragging about having good vision in the dark and I took Inday's cell phone (without a light app) to climb the stairs ahead of her. Feeling my way along the glass wall in the downstairs second floor looking at the dimly lit setting screen on her phone reflecting in the glass trying to find the entry to the darkened stairwell...

I forgot that we just came in from the bright sun outside. 

Well, Braggart be gone! 

Sitting up on my bed getting ready to do my meditation. There's a little sparkle of light shining back at me on the sheet by my feet. Another itty bitty piece of shatterproof glass.

I swear those little buggers are hiding in the nooks and crannies everywhere!, and just coming out to intimidate and scare us! Yesterday, even though I was wearing my rubber sandals, I felt a poke of pain in the bottom of my left foot. A little chunk of glass got in there and cut my foot.

Inday went up to Oprra yesterday to check on Lenie.

Many homes have have their own little "sari sari" stores where they have small snacks, little bags of oil, this and that for cooking... for a few pesos over cost. Another way to make ends meet. They often have a little opening where you can hand in your money and they hand out your purchase. She told me she saw a man's feet sticking out of one of those windows when she was walking to Lenie's place :)

Thinking to myself - I miss reading. I've had that thought many times in recent years, and I did not bring one book to read! dum de dum dum... I can see one of my favorite stores from here - the National Bookstore. I'm going to go over there tomorrow. Two things to look for - a good book, and one of those favorite pens I remember from Japan. 

It's already 2:41pm and it'll be dark by six so. I'll wait until tomorrow morning. Also, reading by candlelight for me is difficult. I think a kerosene lantern would be a good purchase for the next big one

Christmas is in five days

Inday left on her second excursion search for water trip of the Day. This one is for toilet. Flushing water. It's getting pretty stinky. A nice Christmas present would be to get our power and water back by then...Saturday, five more days...

We spent the first two days after Typhoon Odette in our apt, until our supplies started dwindling, and curious about how it was down below. While the window blowing out was scary, followed by several more hours of banging, howling winds, we were very fortunate. No injuries for other family members as well, but two different households lost parts of their roofs. A guy in the PMO (Property Management Office) downstairs lost his entire house.

In this kind of situation, Water, for drinking, is a big deal. We didn't venture out into the world below for 2 days or so after Odette. It went from 6 liter jugs to 3 liter bottles (not shown), to 32oz?, to the two "Thirsty" brand bottles. We were mixing in what "energy"? drinks we could find, and one thing I do not recommend for you coffee drinkers out there, mixing instant coffee, no matter how good it is, with Gatoraide, is not for the feint of heart...Haha. The last photo was from last night, when we got our first delivery of the large water containers for our water doohicky. We had water coming out of our faucets by xmas eve?, but sort of cloudy, etc, and we were boiling it. Now we have electricity, and Elevators! And filtered water.

We are Very fortunate, lucky, favored...

Typhoon... Part 3

day four? the morning of day #5? Monday morning 20 Dec

WATER - Our #1 goal today

we're planning on cleaning up the apt

We only have the five liter bottle of water left

I just made my second cup of instant coffee with powdered creamer and a little bit of the cabbie "side job" organic instant coffee (* another fun story, for another day)

thinking we'll wash some dishes and then use the same dishwater for the toilet. The toilet smells like a mixture of my memories from Vietnam when the shit burning detail came around, 

and out-houses I've used over the years

being from a more successful country, this is more of a novelty?

something you used in the more established campground on your on your "hiking" weekends

Inday's guess for how long this no-elec no-water lasts is two weeks

Wow! 

I read chap 3 of John Sandford's book "Neon Prey" last night. Just long enough to hear Inday's quiet breathing of sleep, and my eyes got tired

 

I haven't been using my glasses very much here

except for editing photos

which I haven't done for the past few days because I wanted to conserve the computers, and phones batteries

(* more information than you may want to see/read alert)

my hernia situation happened about a week and a half ago

right about the time I posted a comment about Cebu's increased number of buses (* a result of Covid, and social distancing being difficult in Jeepneys...)

I liked it, the buses - more space, bigger windows, some AC, some with music, and only 3-5 pesos more per ride

one thing I noted though was the absence of good shock absorbers and/or springs

we would go over a speed bump in IT Park for example, and it would jar your whole body. In fact, I think my hernia happened with one of those speed bumps. I came back down so hard that I felt it travel all the way up my spinal cord - like a lightning bolt

not long after that while we were walking around Ayala's new "Bloc" mall, I felt the pain

so much that we stopped in at a Watson's pharmacy where I bought 2 Tylenol pills!

Foreigner in front of me at the Robinson grocery yesterday. He saw a guy with a loaf of bread and looked at me. I said "go for it...I'll watch your stuff"

he left is 4-pack of Gatorade on the floor between us, and rushed off...

he came back empty handed :(

Inday and I have a half loaf left - rationing to 2 slices a day

speaking of bread, we got a small bag of freshly baked "elorde"? rolls last night (*sort of like mini "Butterflake" rolls, ones we used to bake at Gais/Franz Bakery)

people were lined up as the bunches came out of their little oven, and people bought them

the price went up from p5 per piece to p6

really yummy!

instead of bread in the morning, I had two and a half of those with my cold instant coffee

one of my tooth crowns fell/came off last night

Inday said "oh no, you're falling apart", and we laughed

sprained left wrist, hernia, tooth crown falling out...

well, I am 76 years old haha

(* - inspite of this, I feel good. I'm a happy camper!)

Daylight has become more and more important to me. I just pulled out my wood carving supplies. I'm excited! I boldly threw out the #16 and #11 knife blades  already attached to my Xacto knife handles. I usually use them until the sharpness and cutting becomes a challenge

I'm cheap

I prefer the word frugal

anyway, since I'm excited about this activity, I'm going with fresh brand new blades. Also, this teak wood box is special. Number 1, the wood is from one of the boxes I made on Lopez island in the San Juans. It was a clunky fat box that I blocked out with a router-cut top lid sitting on top. It didn't sell, so I adopted it for my own. I ended up cutting thinner slices of wood off for several smaller boxes. This is one box I put together in our "Shag" apartment in Bothell earlier in 2021. The inside part of the box was made out of some pine I think, or some lathe wood I had, and my main tools were a small Japanese pull saw, some wood glue, and rubber bands for the clamping...

necessity is the mother of invention

* Typhoon Odette hit on Thursday evening, 16Dec...

Part 2

some photos soon...

---------------------------------

Sunday 9 am-ish

Day 3 - no elec no water no internet

we scored a cig lighter last night

for our one candle

and a 5-Liter jug of water

little 1/8" chunks of "shatter-proof" pieces of glass keep appearing

like they've been hiding somewhere the past few days

and sticking in places like the bed sheet I use on the old leather lounge chair they didn't steal during Covid...

I HATE leather! In this climate it sticks to your body when you sit on it

Dumb! dumb!

I found the best place with a little breeze, to sit and write

there are workers out on the top of Metrobank below us, cleaning offices I guess that were inundated with debris and rain water during the typhoon

little red spots on my upper body where miniscule bits of glass embedded until I scratched at them thinking they were bug bites

eeeuuuu...

after 2 days, making the trek down 16 flights of stairs

the condo reception area completely dark

one or two workers

"no updates..."

lots of walkers on the streets

when many people here live on p400 a day, even 11 pesos for a Jeepney ride when your job has shut down is too much

many walking W/SW to the old downtown Colon area - cheaper goods

Japanese fountain pens

nostalgia

"...pretty things..." (short phrase wrapping around the pen)

SCORE! since "WRITING" here has become one of my main vehicles of enjoyment during daytime hours

- writing tools have become more important

SCORE! again - I found 2 of the "207 Signo" uni-ball ball point pens I bought before leaving Bothell

a clipboard, some Japanese "pretty..." fountain pens and a bottle of ink, and some better paper

this, while in my mind, thinking I will dictate these words into my computer whatever

transcribe? (* fail)

our main mission today

water

AM/FM radio

candles

INFORMATION

EATING OUT AT A FOOD PLACE

thinking about pulling out my Xacto knives and blocked out boxes, and doing some carving

during daylight hours

1:52pm Sunday

just back from water search and lunch at Robinsons Food Court

saw Lenie, Inday's sister on the street

worried about us

no elec, etc in Oprra too!

also X = cell phones/internet

best to Not towel off sweaty body

even though No sweat smell

still damp

instead of wiping wet body down, just take off my shirt - if fortunate enough, catch a breeze - feels so good!

"I'm not a Writer, but I play one..." with this writing.

there was a fly who was BEGGING to be dispatched from this world when I was meditating this afternoon - trying to anyway!

Sunday - Day 3 continued - notes from sitting in R food court basement

only candles at Handyman are "scented" itty bitty candles for p150 ($3)

no thank you

I actually like this going back in time

to WRITING

down thoughts

before computers

we "ate out" at R Food Court before standing in line(s) at R Grocery Store, and the little bakery on the Fuente Osmena Circle (*FRESH! hot out of the oven fresh!)

SO happy just now

I found a plastic zip-lock bag I had packed, w some sandpaper & my #11 Xacto blades

I remember thinking when I was packing - "I might want to do some "wood-carving" or whatever when we get to Cebu

Voila! as the French say

although limted by the shorter daylight hours here, that time has arrived!

my hand and forearm are all sweaty

sticks to the paper

I like the occasional wafts of breeze that float by, and cool my damp body

(* - this transcribing my longhand by typing is a drag. I'm considering splurging on a Speech to Text app. Man! I had some "Dragon" software on one of my older computers way back when. Oh well...)

today's impressions/thoughts

dark staircases going down and up 16 flights of stairs

and with our apt's 15' facades (w/lofts), the stairs between each floor are 4 flights of 8-9 steps each...

part of Lenie's house in Oprra was blown off, and they had to cover it with a tarp

Chung Hwa Hospital is now Hung Hwa Hospital. The "C" was blown off in the typhoon.

Also, I'm sad to say, the Amazing, beautiful Fuente Osmena Circle Xmas tree was destroyed

I had planned on getting my Canon SLR out for the first time w an xmas tree photo shoot

some YouTube videos from earlier this month will have to do

what is left is this small mountain of crumpled metal and lights in front of the original base where it stood

sad...

it was amazing, with all the lights, colors, and blinking & syncronized movements, etc.

and beautiful during the day as well, with the wonderful metal work and sculptural designs, and colors...

I got photos of the moon-rise last night

I forgot to look at the time this morning, but I also got some photos of the moon-set

Very cool...

a first for me I think...

--------------------------

--------------------------

* Typhoon Odette hit us last Thursday evening, the 16th of December... 

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** I forgot to share this first. I wrote this Friday morning:

Wow! Although Cebu is sort of protected by outlying islands, etc, the three hours it took the Odette Typhoon to pass over/through us was sort of scary. I had a sneak preview earlier when I was standing by the front windows and I felt the frame jiggle a little. Ok, I thought at the time, let's back off a little.

Fast forward to a few hours later, after we lost our electricity and water, etc, I was downstairs surveying the situation with a flashlight, the top right window blew out, and I was showered with glass. Sort of a fast, slow motion kind of thing. Fortunately, I turned away and leaned towards the space under the stairs. I was wearing my rubber slippers just in case anyway, which was good. Going back upstairs, there was a strange crunching sound of broken glass with my footsteps. I knew I wasn't hurt, but I had a few cuts on my left leg, and one toe was bleeding. A little melodramatic :) There were even some drops of blood on the floor when I shined my flashlight down, and Inday had to pick off some small fragments of glass from my back. The next two hours was a cacophony of howling wind banging against the building facade and windows, and fortunately no more broken windows. Being from the NW, we don't have this kind of stuff. 

We didn't sleep very much of course.

Today is cleaning up day, and wondering about less fortunate souls than us. There's no internet right now, so I'm writing this on Notepad, and I will share later.

--------------------------

"I'm not a Writer, but I play one..." with this writing.

This is journal of sorts that I started last Saturday I think, the 18th of December, two days after Typhoon Odette roared on through here...

and left us without electricity and easily accessible water for a week.

Disclaimer/Acknowledgement: I am a privileged, fortunate, lucky individual, and I know it.

(Transcribed on my laptop on Friday, 24 Dec, 2021, the day before xmas. Typing these words right now, because like Everything nowadays, I guess I need to be connected to the internet in order to transcribe my audio reading to print. Whatever...)

--------------------------

Saturday 18 Dec  -

writing by hand

instead of using Notepad or something on a computer

last night I was reading a John Sanford book out loud, on my Kindle, for mine and Inday's entertainment

I miss reading...

I miss good writers

we've been corrupted by computers...

my pen's ink is running out

thinking/remembering my wonderful, little Japanese fountain pens I used before computers improved

(a few hours later)

going to transcribe this later

I'll probably use the "mic" thing, and just correct the mistakes of my audio diction

this "Combo Pack" of lined tablets of different sizes, was a super deal!

at the National Book Store

I like writing by hand, but just like my wood-carving, arthritis is rearing it's ugly head...

We're going to "make a break for it " today

into day 2? only of no elec, dwindling supply of water, no internet, going through the food we prepared ahead of time and losing food we had in the frig, etc...

the exploding window in the typhoon dark was something else!!

We've delayed our departure back down (16+ floors) into the world in part because of my hernia. Not uncommon here, hernias, which is a good thing I guess, in terms of health care. But something to consider...

our plan is to pack up Tech stuff, a change of clothes, etc, and go find a place with electricity and a shower, And (hands in prayer) some internet

AC would be nice, and access to groceries and/or restaurants

I have a slew of photos to edit

I even pulled out my Canon finally!

just like the Reading, using my good camera has been delayed

"Management", or lack of, has been nowhere!

(* - we found out later that many of the workers here went off to help or check on the their families. A guy in the PMO, Property Management Office, lost his home...)

There was a statement of preparedness issued a few days before Odette - a list of to-dos for impending typhoon. The only two things I regret not getting/having are matches for candles, and an AM/FM radio.

We could go another few days or more if we needed to, but I want to take a shower

speaking of showers, and body oder, I'm not sure why, but I don't stink like I would in this heat back home

I have no idea why that is, but it's nice

and

I still want to take a showere!

There have been Zero notices or updates coming forth from downstairs, from the PMO, etc

nada, nothing!

We met up with a caregiver this morning in the darkened stairwell. She was coming up to  the 16th floor to help her client/employer (* they Evacuated several days ago)

Besides reading my Kindle books out loud

we've been gazing out at the world below

our first night after dark we were looking for hotels, etc with lights - who still had electricity!

also, looking for, and counting, blown out windows

using my Canon's telephoto lens has been helpful in this pursuit

we had a plan

cleaned up the apt

loaded up one backpack each, and one bag, water and umbrella (they use umbrellas here for sunshine too, not just for rain)

we were going to take a taxi down to two hotels where we saw lights on

we met up with a lady at the 11th floor

"where are you going?"

..."hotel"

"nothing available

all booked up..."

"even in Mandaue", a larger city NE of Cebu

the backpacks were too heavy anyway

filled up with Tech stuff

had planned to charge up everything etc

New plan, after trudging back up 5 floors in the dark

empty our backpacks

food and water run when it cools down a little more

maybe ask ?s of somebody in the lobby

when are we going to get elec and water pressure back???

--------------------------

These shots were from on our ride home from Ayala Terraces last night. The facade is outside the SM Dept store which anchors one part of the mall, and the colors are actually animated. I'll graduate to videos one of these days. The National Book Store is near our place, and it always reminds me of the wonderful small bookstores in Japan.

I've always liked walking in the early mornings. This from my walk along the Green River in Tukwila WA, on this date in 2014. That's our bank, BECU, just around the bend of the Green River Trail, walking south...

more Malls...

Walking around an area near IT Park the other day, I saw this nice old looking building from afar. It's not that old actually. It opened in 1998 as the Waterfront Cebu City Hotel & Casino. There's no water nearby, but I had a good cup of coffee, and an almond croissant. A little pricey, but good.

taxi/bus ride photos #2...