This was the year that the internet quit on me.

I was in Siargao for almost half the year and, over there, I need at least one bar of 3G to send and receive text messages and, sometimes, I can’t even get that. I need at least two bars to get online, and that damned elusive second bar only ever makes its presence felt at the worst possible spots around the house. Just when you think you’ve got it, as soon as you make a move to get comfortable, it disappears.

It can get pretty frustrating.

The best two-bars can be found on the steps outside the house, where the dogs slobber all over me and I get attacked by mosquitoes.

No, not on those steps, but their equivalent on the opposite side of the house, facing the road. Those, however, are the monsters that like to hover over me with drool.

And in the bedroom that I am currently using (- the main house is still under construction), it only works at strange angles from the bed. It’s my new Kamasutra, and I am quite adept at a position called “Refresh”.

As a consequence:

• I have ceased playing online Scrabble and my Scrabble mates have scattered to the wind. 🙁

It wasn’t chess, it was Scrabble. It wasn’t at a park, but online. But we’d go to our Scrabble boards everyday, sometimes several times a day, and play our moves. Sometimes, we’d chat. Most of the time, we didn’t. But it was our ritual for years. Sadly, that’s all over now. (Online file photo.)

• I’ve, more or less, stopped writing and abandoned my blog. Mostly because whenever I do have an internet connection, I spend all my time online downloading movies or TV shows to watch in Siargao, now that I have all this free time from no longer having any internet.
• I’ve watched a helluva lot of movies and TV shows. Here are some of the shows I’ve been watching:

Downton Abbey: Highly predictable plot, excellent dialogue. I watch it for the costumes and for Maggie Smith’s lines.

Yes, Scandal. This is how horrifyingly empty my life has become. Terrible dialogue, good plot. Written by Aaron Sorkin-wannabes. Everyone keeps grandstanding on this show that it’s impossible to watch without worrying that your eyes will permanently lodge themselves at the back of your head from all the eye-rolling the show provokes. (If I hear the phrase “gladiators in suits” one more time…) But just when I think I can no longer stand any more of the verbal diarrhea, the writers come up with some plot twist that keeps me coming back for more. It also helps that there is some male eye candy in the cast, specifically Tony Goldwyn and Scott Foley.

The lead actress, Kerry Washington, is gorgeous, but acts too much with her lips. We get it, they’re pouty, now cut that out already! Oh, and for a cold-blooded killer, that ex-CIA guy sure is chatty. You don’t need to guess the inner workings of his tortured mind because, trust me, he’ll tell you. Over and over and over again. Somebody please put him out of his misery already.

Grace and Frankie. With that cast, how could they go wrong, right? Wrong. The acting and awkward dialogue can be painful to watch but if, like me, you have nothing better to do with your life, if you stick with it, it does get better. Or maybe I’m just numb now…

I really, really wanted to likeJessica Jones. The first episodes are cool and creepy, and kept me totally riveted. But maybe the plot was too thin to be stretched over 13 episodes, so there were useless subplots involving pesky neighbors that were, obviously, fillers. And then all that whining from the reluctant hero got annoying.

Halt and Catch Fire. Excellent show. I thought that the first season was a lot better than the second, although I’m so used to season ender cliffhangers that these understated ones take some getting used to.

Better Off Ted. It’s too bad this series wasn’t more popular than it was, and that it got canceled before the second season’s finale was aired. The first season is hilarious. Brilliant writing and casting. Portia de Rossi is hot hot hot, and her comedic timing is impeccable. Definitely not one for the politically correct.

Much as it was tempting to lie in bed the whole day and let my brain turn into mush from watching all these TV series, I did manage to work out this time around in Siargao. I was there from December 1 to 22 and only played hooky from exercise for four days. Mostly, I did my usual ten-minute routine on the rebounder, and swam the usual 35 laps x 32 meters. Because it’s the rainy season and the roads are muddy, I couldn’t cycle anywhere. In the last ten days though, I finally started using the stand-up paddle board a friend lent me. And, in the last six days, I added a three-minute inversion on the Anti-Gravity Yoga hammock to my daily activities.

I recorded everything on my phone for later inputting into Garmin Connect while on holiday – which begins tonight! I had to return my vívosmart fitness tracker to Garmin when I was in Manila last month because there were problems with the display. The replacement unit only just arrived, and I now have to reconfigure the settings (when I’ve forgotten how) and get used to wearing the tracker again (when I’ve only just stopped tapping my wrist to check the time). Grrr…

I’ve quit smoking. Again. I was doing so well before, and then resumed social smoking. Now, I hope to quit even that. Nicolas is joining me – again – so I hope that, together, we will be much stronger in our resolve to kick this thing once and for all.

And, no, the weight gain (- there it is!) isn’t because I’ve quit smoking. It’s because I am hopeless when it comes to food.

At first, I tried to get rid of all the bad stuff in the house in Siargao…

Doh!

With it, went all my resolve to do Paleo. (I’m lying, of course. That diet was over before it even began.)

And then I was non-stop going out and entertaining. ‘Tis the season, as they say. Except that, with me, ’tis always the season, dammit.

Sleep is still a problem and I tried taking melatonin for a while, which seemed to work. Not sure why I discontinued it. Right now, I can’t remember the last time I had a good night’s rest, and would kill for a full six hours of sleep.

But it doesn’t look like it’s going to happen any time soon. Nicolas and I are on a plane from Manila to Paris tonight, and I’m pretty sure I’ll be staying up during the entire flight to watch all the films I’ve missed this year.

With that, I bid you adieu. I must finish packing so we can be on our way. Enjoy the rest of the holiday season! And don’t do anything I wouldn’t do. Which really isn’t much. Cheers!

Update
28 December 2015

Our Etihad flight last night was canceled due to technical problems. Our new ETD is at 6 PM tonight. In the meantime, the airline has booked us at the Manila Hotel. Not too shabby.

4.5 hours of sleep, so far. (Flight was scheduled to leave at 12:20 this morning, but we didn’t get to the hotel until about three hours later. Finally got to bed at about 4 AM.) I think that’s the longest sleep I’ve had in a while.