25 Sept. 2011
Siargao Island

Last night was a bit of a blur. I was doing so well. Alcohol intake was vodka on the rocks. Until we moved the party over onto the boulevard.

It’s surf comp season in Siargao. (Currently ongoing is the Billabong Pro Junior competition.) Which means that there are nightly parties over at the boulevard. Where good vodka is not available.

I couldn’t very well stop drinking. So I thought Sue and I shared a beer. Apparently, not. I had my own. She told me today that she had bought me a Red Horse last night and, later, found me with a SanMig Light in my hands (– I must have been totally off my face to be drinking a Light!). So I had at least two beers last night. I have no recollection of finishing the first beer or how I acquired the second one especially since I didn’t have any money on me. I guess Emily The Strange, one of my Evil Twins (- the other one is Bianca Jaeger), was out and about last night.

She may have also had a few drags off a cigarette…

Come to think of it, how did I get home last night??? Nicolas had gone home ahead in the van and I remember Sue and Gerry sorting out a habal for me. But how did I pay for that? Gerry must have paid him in advance or given me some money…

Habal-habals are the island’s local taxis. They are motorbikes that have been outfitted to seat, well, believe it or not, sometimes whole families of five or six. The word is actually Visayan for a sexual position. Filipinos have a naughty sense of humor. (In this pic: Carlo Cajili and Raffy Garcia. May 2009.)

ANYWAY, so I woke up today, bright and early. Felt fine. No hangover. Of course, when I logged onto Facebook – egad! There it was. A drunken status update made from my iPhone at Godknowswhattime in the morning. I’m actually impressed that Emily could see, let alone spell. I think she also sent out a few drunken texts but since we both delete messages right away, I had no idea what she had been going on about so I had to send a few “I’m sorry for whatever I said last night” texts this morning.

Yup, sounds like a regular weekend night in the life of Gai Olivares.

This evening, Nicolas and I decided to have a nice, quiet dinner over at Kawayan Resort, owned and operated by David Frachou, another Frenchman. When we got there, we found some friends, Matthew and Alon, hunched over some seafood pasta that they couldn’t rate high enough. I buckled. We ordered one each. And a bottle of rosé.

I polished off that huge plate of pasta without any problem. And since I was already cheating on my diet, I had to go all the way. I ordered dessert.

Wow. David’s molten chocolate cake was so good, we had two each. We raved about it so much that Matt and Alon had to order it for themselves.

10 minutes later, my stomach started rumbling. Uh-oh…

Alon came by and started chatting to Nicolas. While they were talking, I could feel myself steadily getting sick. Mucus started building up in my nose and the back of my throat. I felt sluggish and drowsy. It felt like a full-on head cold had descended on me. When it got too uncomfortable, I finally had to interrupt Alon and Nicolas and ask to be taken home.

I’ve been on a, more or less, strict Paleo diet, well, since the last time I caved, which was 17 days ago. (I don’t count alcohol as a cheat. Okay, so maybe those two beers were.) So my system is pretty clean. Which will account for the severe reaction to all that gluten, sugar, dairy and whatever else went into the pasta and cakes.

It was totally worth it though.

Food recommendation at Kawayan Resort: The seafood pasta and molten chocolate cake.

Siargao workout update:

• Friday: 3 sets of 20 regular, non-CrossFit kettlebell swings (16 kg.), and some TRX
• Saturday: biking (9-10 km.)
• Sunday: biking (9-10 km.)
• Monday: I hope to go biking tomorrow before heading back to Manila but I hear a storm is on its way. Let’s hope it, at least, brings in the waves.

26 Sept. 2011

Got up to go biking. No storm here. Then I got hungry and ordered a huge breakfast instead. Doh! Ah, well… I am entitled to a rest day, no?