11 April, Friday

Nicolas and I were at the airport early. If I were alone, I would have been having an hour-long massage with one of the blind masseurs, which is my all-time favorite thing to do at the Mactan Airport. But since I wasn’t alone, we had pizza and pasta. And more pasta. And, as if that wasn’t enough, while waiting for passengers to board the bus to the plane, I ran back into the airport to get us some Magnums.

• It was raining when we got to Siargao. Raining and miserable. I couldn’t muster the courage to swim. No exercise.

Now that we’re back in Cebu, I hope to get back on track with our diet. Dinner was Paleo. I had Nicolas try the stuffed aubergines. I keep forgetting that he’s never been a fan of the dish.

The constant downpour made us cancel our plans to go to the re-opening of Nine Bar. (Nine Bar has been leased from the Swedes, Peter and Elsa, by husband and wife, Andrew and Rhoda, who were formerly leasing and managing Boardwalk.) Of course, after we had made up our minds not to go, it stopped raining.

12 April, Saturday

I started oil pulling last April 1. With the exception of those two mornings I spent in Cebu, I’ve been oil pulling every day. I started out using one teaspoon of cold-pressed sesame oil, but it made me gag, so I switched to virgin coconut oil. I now pull two teaspoons. I don’t think I can handle any more.

I can’t say that I’ve noted any significant changes in my body or my well-being, but I’ve gotten used to it and it can’t hurt to keep doing it.

I bought three bottles of virgin coconut oil in Cebu. Since I use it every day, I’ve decided to also start ingesting it (- right now, am only taking about one teaspoon a day, but I hope to increase that to two tablespoons soon), coat the ends of my hair with it before a swim, and to use it as a moisturizer. At least, whenever I remember the last two. I’m not in the habit of moisturizing and I’m certainly not used to applying product to my hair before swimming.

I should probably learn how to make my own virgin coconut oil. I’m only completely surrounded by coconuts. It’s the cold-pressed bit that is tricky…

I went to Sagana to practice massage on Sue’s Spanish guests (- yes, plural), whom I had met the week before. Yesterday, I texted them two time options (an early one and a late one) – in case they were planning a late night at Nine Bar. The chose the early option. And then had a late night at Nine Bar and the jungle disco. So, when I showed up for our appointment at 11, they had just gotten up and were in the middle of breakfast. Inevitably, the husband canceled his massage because he had somewhere else to be, so I rescheduled his wife, Judit,’s massage to 1 PM to give her time to digest her breakfast before I stepped on her back.

While waiting for our appointment, Sue had me try one of the sample cupcakes that she had gotten from Cecile. (Cecile is from Bohol but now lives in Siargao.) I texted Cecile to find out if she had any more sample cupcakes left for me. Five cupcakes later…

And, with that, went my resolve to do Paleo.

For orders, please call +63-917-703-4405. I recommend the banana cupcakes with chocolate chips and the chocolate cupcakes. Cupcake prices range from P500 to P600 per dozen.

After the massage, I had two grilled ham and cheese sandwiches and got this really great tip from frequent Sagana guest, Jeremy, on how to take grilled ham and cheese sandwiches to the next level. I’ll let you know what it is after I try it. In the meantime, take a look at this: “31 Grilled Cheeses That Are Better Than A Boyfriend”.

Stopped at the market for some fruit before going home. I don’t think I’ve ever been so busy without alcohol being involved.

• Got home in time for a swim.

Skipped dinner and just had some of the mangosteen that I picked up at the market.

Started watching Season 3 of “Suits” with Nicolas.

13 April, Sunday

Nicolas and I had a massive non-Paleo breakfast to get ready to watch the Pacquiao-Bradley fight.

We got to Bones’ Sports Bar at about 9:30 AM and the place was still empty. It started to fill up about an hour later. While Nicolas had tea, I had vodka-sodas.

Tip for foreigners: If there’s a Pacquiao fight going on while you are visiting the Philippines, go out and watch it in a pub where there are a lot of Filipinos. It’s quite an experience.

After the fight, Nicolas had scheduled a game of golf with the Frenchies, so we picked up some food at Maridel’s on our way home. Just as we started to eat, Fred and David arrived, and lunch was postponed for dinner.

• Went for a swim.

Nicolas and I agree that Season 3 of “Suits” may be their best season yet.

14 April, Monday

Breakfast was very healthy. A salad of mangoes, bananas, papayas with sunflower seeds and cashew nuts, and my attempt at kefir.

For lunch, I asked the maid to cook the leftover aubergine stuffing in an omelette. She misunderstood and turned them into patties. Paired with an avocado salad, it was excellent, and we now have a new dish called “Linda’s Special”.

• Swimming. The water’s been bitingly cold with this weather and I almost didn’t swim. I walked around the pool and contemplated heading back to the room for a while.

Just because breakfast and lunch were Paleo didn’t mean that I was back on the straight and narrow. Nope. There was another golf game going on (- this time, with the non-Frenchies: Alon, Fox, and Gerry) and where there’s golf, there are crepes. I had two crepes – with Speculoos crunchy cookie butter – after my swim.

So good in crepes! (Internet file photo.)

Dinner was the French Fisherman’s Soup (- with croutons and cheese so it isn’t Paleo at all) and some grilled pork chops.

Okay, I take back what I said about Season 3 of “Suits”. The last six episodes ruined it. What happened? Did they change writers mid-season? Too much focus on ho-hum love lives and, for the first time, the supposed smartest lawyers in the firm exhibited behavior inconsistent with their characters. Terribly annoying. What a let down after such a great start.

15 April, Tuesday

I got up early to go to the market and get some meat and bones for the dogs. I got there before 7 AM and there was hardly any meat left. I forgot that it’s Holy Week which means that all the resorts are fully booked so they are stocking up.

Got back home and had a big non-Paleo breakfast with Nicolas since he’s catching a flight to Cebu.

I had been talking about making hasselback potatoes with Mark’s sister, Fleur, for a while so, today, I thought I’d finally give it a try. I couldn’t be bothered to make fully loaded ones because that entailed frying bacon and the maid had gone for the afternoon and I couldn’t be asked. I did slip some parsley butter and some cheese between the wedges, when Nicolas called. The flight was canceled and he was on his way back from the airport.

The potatoes turned out to be very good. And now I know what to do to (1) not burn them – don’t bake too close to the grill – and (2) make them better – bacon and sour cream!!!

• I went for a swim while Nicolas went off to Poker Night at Kawayan Resort.

After my swim, I went to Kawayan. Elsa and Gwen (former manager of Nine Bar, now managing Peter and Elsa’s resort, Chillout Siargao) also arrived and we ended up having dinner together. Elsa and I ordered the seafood pasta. Sue joined us later for some wine.

Around 9 PM, we all left for Palaka Dive Center for the full moon party.

16 April, Wednesday

I checked my phone. It registered a call to the habal driver at around 3 AM. I guess that must have been the time we headed back home from Nine Bar. While I remember leaving Palaka for Nine Bar, I cannot remember actually being at Nine Bar. I heard that Andrew and Rhoda had made some changes to the place and installed a pool table upstairs, but I couldn’t describe it to you simply because I wasn’t there. The Evil Twin was.

I remember coming home though and opening a can of corned beef (- the new Angus beef one that I wanted to try).

I have blisters on my hands. Must be from the cooking.

Of course, I couldn’t remember how the corned beef tasted, so I asked our maid to prepare the same for breakfast this morning. Because we had asked for a green juice before it, she must have thought that I was trying to be healthy again and served breakfast without rice. What was that all about? It’s impossible to eat corned beef without rice. (And I still don’t know if the Angus corned beef was any good because the maid fried the bejeezos out of it. But I did give Gerry a can and he said he liked it because it contained chunks.)

My throat felt funny. I asked Nicolas if I smoked. “A lot,” replied. DAMMIT. I was being so good. I was holding up so well in the company of smokers. I wasn’t even looking for it anymore. I really hate the Evil Twin.

Nicolas left for the airport again to try catch the flight to Cebu. And, again, he was unsuccessful. Damned rain.

We had adobo for lunch. Well, I had the adobo and Nicolas had a salad. I’m not sure if I mentioned this before but I am now obsessed with trying out different styles of adobo. This one, I made with balsamic vinegar. Unfortunately, I watered it down too much. Must try to make it again soon.

• I wasn’t brave enough to face the cold and swim today. No exercise.

Nicolas slept the whole day and skipped dinner, so I turned the leftovers into adobo fried rice for myself. Yum.

17 April, Thursday

Nicolas and I seem to have exchanged roles. He asked for a green juice for breakfast. I could barely drink the one yesterday without gagging. I don’t know why but these green smoothies have become more and more bitter everyday. He said the one this morning was worse than yesterday’s so I left mine untouched.

For lunch, he wanted to check if Linda could recreate “Linda’s Special”. While it was good, it wasn’t superb. Too much pork, not enough eggplant. Will have to try it out again next week.

After lunch, I went into town to buy some dog food. At the shop, I bumped into Alyssa, the manager of Kawili Resort.

“Did I see you at the full moon party?” I asked

“Yes! But it was very late.”

“Well, then I didn’t see you.”

She laughed and understood what I meant.

At the market later on, a curly-haired woman greeted me enthusiastically from her motorbike. When she alighted, she gave me a hug and a kiss. I had no idea who she was. “You weren’t at the bar last night,” she said. I guess this was her way of reminding me where we had met. Except that I had no recollection of being at the bar. I mumbled something and left.

I asked the habal driver what time we had gone home the other night. “5 AM,” he said. It turned out that the 3 AM call I made to him was when we left the full moon party to go to Nine Bar. Geez!

On our way home, we stopped at Maridel’s where I picked up some Magnum Gold?! Seriously. That’s what it’s called. Magnum Gold?! Punctuation marks included. It’s gold-chocolate covered and my new addiction.

Since the rain and the muddy road – that has been further ruined by heavy trucks that pass day and night, dumping rocks, sand, gravel and godknowswhat onto the property next door – has prevented me from riding my bike, I’ve decided to take on “The 30-Day Squat Challenge”. I’ve seen different versions online, but my target is to be able to do 100 a day. I thought that I’d start conservatively since I would still like to enjoy the use of my legs tomorrow.

• 30 squats.
• Swimming.

For dinner, Nicolas had the green juice that I didn’t drink this morning, while I had yet another big, greasy breakfast. Yes, I am PMSing.

18 April, Friday (Good Friday)

Nicolas was finally able to get on a plane for Cebu. He left after having just an avocado. Who is this man?

Today, I had TWO big, greasy breakfasts (one for breakfast and one for lunch) and, for dinner, I went to Nine Bar because they were launching Steak Night with a special promotion. (I had the Angus beef rib eye. Regular price is P950.)

Now I know what the bar looks like and the name of the curly-haired girl. (Her name is Leslie and she works there.)

Since it’s Good Friday and music isn’t allowed until midnight, it was an early night for most everyone, myself included. I also wanted to get my hands on more Magnum Golds but all the shops were closed by the time I left the bar.

• 60 squats. I had zero pain in my legs so I thought I’d do double today.
• Swimming.

With Nicolas gone, I was planning on having the room all to myself and keep the dogs out, but Drago has been following me around like he’s my dog. How could I let him sleep outside? So I let both him and Apollo in and the bed is covered in sand and drool and a whole lot of dog. Sigh…

19 April, Saturday

Today, I am only having fruit for breakfast and lunch. Mangoes, avocados, papayas and bananas. Mixed in with some sunflower seeds and cashew nuts. And my very runny kefir. Yum.

I definitely feel those 60 squats today. Ouch. Of course, I have to do at least 60 today.

• 60 squats.
• Swimming.

I keep forgetting that it’s Holy Week and the workers are off so I don’t have to wait for the end of the day to use the pool. So, today, I went for an early swim and then spent most of the day poolside, working on my tan. Except that all these trespassers kept going through our property. Even when I’d inform them it was private, they wouldn’t leave. Am now Googling if it is legal to shoot trespassers in the Philippines.

Yup, still PMSing.

Oh, and my back is fried. Doh!

Had crepes with some friends visiting from Manila, then cooked myself another big breakfast in the evening. I think I’m finally over the all-day all-night breakfasts.

Went to Nine Bar in the evening. It was packed with people who were looking to party after a dull Friday night, but the bar had live music on, which most everyone ignored as they chatted or watched surfing videos on the telly. When they finally played some dance music, everyone got up to dance but, by then, I was over it and just wanted to go home.

20 April, Sunday

Took six caps full of virgin coconut oil this morning. I thought that would be about two tablespoons. Now I know what to do if I need a laxative. Ayyyy…

So now my tummy hurts, and my legs! How will I do 60 squats today when I can barely walk?!

I spent the morning preparing lunch for friends. I did a pork loin with mushrooms, a vegetable biriyani, and some hasselback potatoes, with the option to make them fully loaded. They didn’t quite go together but I didn’t have too many options since current stocks are running low.

• In between preparations, I went for a swim.

Spent the rest of the day eating and drinking with Mark, Fleur and David.

David made us a delicious banana-lime cake. We sat by the pool and talked about everything and nothing. Then day turned into night, and we had the leftovers for dinner.

What was I thinking? We were drinking wine, doing Patron XO shots, and then had a pitcher of mojitos. Of course the Evil Twin was going to come out. I do not remember the end of the evening except that the Evil Twin left me cross-eyed in bed with the two dogs and still very hungry.

I gained another kilo. Gaah!

• Did 60 furious squats and scared the dogs.

Sorry this was so late. I thought I was having connection problems with my internet provider but it turned out that Typepad, my blog host, was having some problems of their own.

I got this e-mail from them yesterday:

Hi there,

Thank you for reaching out. We were recently hit with a massive denial
of service attack and we’re in the process of recovering. We are
continuing to work to restore all blogs, including those with mapped
domains. This requires a configuration change due to adjustments we
needed to make to mitigate the DDoS attack. Of course, this is not
ideal, and we improving our process as quickly as possible to update
all blogs at once. We do not yet have a timeline for when all blogs
will be fully available and we apologize for that.

We apologize for any inconvenience caused by the problems over the last
several days. We are considering how best to compensate our bloggers
and thank them for their patience. Right now, our focus is on making
Typepad stable and restoring all blogs. As soon as we recover, we will
have more information on what we have done and what we will be doing
for the Typepad community. We appreciate your patience and
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We will have more information on Everything Typepad –
http://everything.typepad.com/ – about what happened and what actions
we are taking to prevent further issues soon. Due to an increase in
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tickets or emails to us, but we will get to all your questions!