ahh volleyball youth girls competition

what can i say, after i came back from the beach i spent the last couple of days goign to watch the volleyball competition. its been great, heaps of young chicks. been following team australia, vietnam, china and japan. got some photos with a few pf the chicks because they are training at the university around the corner frommy house and my suntie happens to be the pricipal there so that helps. gunna keep it short but went out drinking on fri night because im going to bohol on wednesday, but got drunk on sat night too at my cousins house at mactan.

There are a few cities here that are built on reclamation land, ie land that was previously the oceanand they dumped half a mountain on it and made it a city. So that is what mactan is. Mactan island is actually a huge coral island that they converted to living space. more than 80 percent of this island is mountainous and unlivable so they made a space to live

ahh having fun. later

last day at the beach

well this day was uneventful just filled with fun times and swimming and this great beach, eating, no drinking, had a strange ice block, more swimming more eating and then travelling back to the city. The most interesting part of the day was taking photos of people as they were asleep on the way back, i got about 4 photos out of the six of us sitting in the back - me, patrick, aling, mattel, leewan and rabi. the trip was ok up untill the last 30 minutes where the three boys in the back who all had our shirts off because you do, its hot here. then it started raining and then we were freezing our arses off. fun though, and then the took photos just so we dont forget. yay. beach soo warm soo good. ahh beach, we will miss you

beach. saturday

had to wake up early for the wedding and wasn't feeling that well. Spent the night in a restless sleep because of the storm i suppose and it was uncomfortable where i was sleeping. Went to the wedding and on the way we saw and old lady who was lying on the side of the road. We stopped and picked her up making sure she wasn't hurt and then gave her a lift to the hospital. She was fine ein the end and we think that maybe her family had left her behind or that maybe she had no family to look after her. also that she had probably fallen from heat stroke rather than been hit by a car or something. she did have a nasty bruise on her cheek bone i noticed that looked as if she had gotten it from the fall. poor old lady, i hope shes alright.

wedding was uhh well a wedding what can i say. not the biggest fan but there is a pretty good feast at the end of it. Theyre all very devout over here and strict too. If you pick up a chick and she falls pregnant then you are obliged to marry her because abortion is illegal here. It is also taboo to have a child out of wedlock so the last two weddings i went too were because the woman was with child and the wedding was rushed. So what do we learn from this, if your gunna get jiggy jiggy with a chicky yove just met, use a dong because other wise *pop*, and then your married. have fun boys and girls.

oh yeah where was i, after the wedding we all went to the reception at that hortel resort but then left after the feast, oh yeah they do the whole wedding thing with the throwing of the whatever and that catching and they guy thing too. whereas we just get to the drinking. but any way after the feast we went back to the beach for more swimming. High tide was great, white sand beach but there were some areas where theyre were rocks which was annoying. This time we got to drink and i stayed up by candle light playing a card game called tong-it while drinking tagay style before crashing out in the tent again.

weekend wedding and beach

thursday saw me trying to rest. that didn't happen but i didnt do anything interesting.

Friday we got up early and travelled to the very north of the island. The total distance is only 130kilometers but the traffic and the windy two lane hills means that you can really only travel at 60k per hour max otherwise its too dangerous, so it took four hours to get there. The trip wasn't that bad but was alot different than what you can imagine. Here they have these half ute half open bus things called cabs. There is a two seater cabin in the front but the back has usually a half roof with two long chairs where people sit and then a open tray like a ute where people usually sit too. I sat on the seat but the roof was too tall for me so i was leant over the whole time leaving me with a sore neck. I travelled with my mum whole was in front with my uncle we call tito gary while i was in the back with leewan, and the two girls mattel and aling (sisters).

Once we got to the beach the view was great, i took heaps of photos while we were down here. We ate as usual and set up all our stuff in a large bamboo hut which has two resting areas but we somehow managed to fit in arond twenty people into one room. I slept in the tent after having the best swim in the beach. alot of people went to a hotel resort because they had to get ready for the wedding. But me and kitt stayed back at the beach so we could drink. After alot of stuffing around we got started drinking only to find that the case of beer (red horse very much like VB) had been hacked into by our uncles and they were kind enough to leave us a whole 3 bottles. yay. so we drank them anyway.

We finished the beer and then got to sleep inthe tent. i was awaken about 1/2 hr later by massive storm like winds beating against the tent. This sudden storm came in and rain us out. We waited but and realised that we would get blown away so we made the short dash for the hut. It was about a 3meter dash but in that short time i went from warm and dry to completely saturated and cold. We then took downm the tent in the most unfavourable conditions. which was fun. sleep unfortunately wasn't.

wednesday the 18th

star wars revenge of the sith: nuff said

monday nights fiesta kick off

Monday is the aniversary of my lulu's (grandfathers) bday but also the official start of the fiesta. I spent most of the day with kitt, patrick, kennith there little brother and leewan. We went bowling again which is always fun and i also bought the other 9 start wars tickets for wednesday night. 100p each. in the end i think it cost me for 11 people here what it would have cost me for 3 people in AUS. After a long day of shopping and having a good ole time that you do in supermalls like games and food and buying cheap shit went went home and got ready for fiesta.

Me kitt patrick and leewan were all tired as beacuse weve pretty much been pissed everyday since i got here. Kitt had a fight with his gf and only drank for a bit then went home for some takui i hope. We (me pat and leewan then continued with drinking and eating at my uncles place and more tagay for every one. They were feeding me drinks. I was sick as but i still kept drinking. In the end i was overtly pissed and then danced all night. One of my cousins taught me the cha cha which i still cant do. i danced with heaps of chicks but i think most of them were my cousins. Here there is a very close bonding between family. Everyone lives so closely together and the family unit is so strong that every one is close. No one ever lets another family member fall too far ito the shit. So when every one parties the whole family gets involved. there is no legal age for drinking and the party/ disco as they call it here was held by the chapel. It is very strange getting pissed and dacing with a few hundred people that are 80% family and of all ages and sex preferences. There a kids as young as 8 - Kennith and uncles and lulu's as old as 70 plus dancing there with us younger generation of 16-30's and the gays too. They are very open about there sexuality and they are accepted for who they are and not what sex they choose to sleep with.

I danced until 3am but i started getting sick and my stomach was killing me. This was the start of a long night and day of pain which as i type is still continuing.

p.s. foreigners beware - dont drink the water (im not sure but i think that it most likely was water that i drank from the ice in my drinks, but it caould also be the beers) Its oll good cause they feed me like crazy here.

enjoy.
chesh

sunday night sing off

so sunday i felt sick as. I think at this point the water i had ingested from the ice or the beer had finally breached my last defences so i was starting to drop off a bit. Also tired as from lots of partying.

Once again i woke up very early at around 7:30. Me and the boys Kitt, patrick, rabi and leewan all went and played badminton. That game is a lot harder than i though and it didn't take me long to get the hang of it. Me and kitt played most of the time but we did swap and change a bit. In the end i won every game i played. Pretty good for a first timer. I seem to be like that, naturally half decent at anything, and the pike once it get too competetive.

So after a long 2 hours of play i went home and slept feeling not so good. I woke and then went to Tito's (meaning uncle) house. Tito is the father of mattel and lin ling(i think, cant remember her name). So there were heaps of chicks there all good looking and we all had a great time singing along to karaoke. i did ok considering i cant sing that well. Its really big over here. Every Filo sings. I didn't drink at all, i felt way too sick and tired, everything catching up with me. But i still had a great time.

saturdays courtyard entertainment

saturday was once again a great night filled with drinking and partying. It was the night that the chapel held the little miss lahug competition but i didn't go to that because i had other plans. In the afternoon me and my mum, my aunties, and my cousin went to SM (super mart) where we had a challenging game of bowling. This compromised of one hours play which was 200 piso per lane. We had two so it cost us 400 piso -translated to 10 bucks for 6 people. wow and cheap, love it.

Earlier in the week i bought a phone and i got free tickets to a MTV rock cebu concert. It was held in the carpark of the largest shopping centre SM (Supermart). I was surrounded by 30,000 asians. It seemed so different because im used to big day outs. The best thing is that even though i was at the very back i could still see the stage because i was taller than every one else. lol. that so funny because im not that tall at all compared to australian standards.

We left the concert early beacuse my cousins had been there since 3pm and we only got there at about 8. And all the other bands were from manilla. Theres this rivalry between manilla and cebu that is filled with passion and competetiveness.

After the boys and mattel we all headed out to a place called the village which is the place i went to the other night and played pool. The village is the name of the block of clubs and pool houses. The club i went to was called the courtyard. Very nice girls dancing there. All the music is like that of a night club but its all done by a live band. Got heaps pissed but stared feeling sick so i had to stop and slow down a bit. I bought a screwdriver and its was the worst thing ive ever had, they used mandarin and i think its supplement or something, like made from a powder of dried oranges. Oh well i was pissed by then already so it was ok.

friday nights entertainment tantilisms

this day marked one of the strange but cool nights in chesh history. First of all i was hung over from the previous nights drinking. I also had to wake up at 9am so i could travel to the mountains to the south of cebu city where i was to attain a wedding. There is way to describe what it is like travelling along that road. Matt if you think that its dangerous going down the clide then you aint seen nothin because this road was steeper, longger windyer and one lane two lanes where the driver is constantly taking over other drivers. The othe half balances this however because the view is probably the best thing i have ever seen. Mountains for all the eye can see. So beautiful i had to take a whole roll of film to document the momentus occasion.

After the wedding and a short feast of lichon (roasted pork on the spit) we travelled back to cebu city and i had the pleasure of being asked to be one of 5 guest judges for the local Miss Teen Lahug beauty pageant. And well ive gotta say that it didnt take much convinceing for me to accept. very beautiful girls, but the one i thought should have one came second and the girl i thought should of came second actually won. The top two chicks were hot as though. Ahh what a great night that won was.

intro to a long list of post

well its been nearly a week since i posted last and to tell you the truth ive found it hard to get enough time off to actually sit in front of the pc. But atm im a bit sick and im trying to recover from the drinking water that is plagueing my stomach as we speak, so i have to say enjoy the next few posts as they will fill you in on the great time ive been having this last week. gotta love fiesta.

Cebu city

I tried to remember what it was like when i was 12 when i first came to this city. It is very different now to what i thought i knew about the place. Things are more crowded and there are about 500 more chidlren here than when i was here. Its weird because im so much older now. Every one i was friend with is pretty much married with kids.

Well what you are all asking about is if i recommend this country to all of you. Well for me its a family cultural discovery about my past and reconciliation with my family members that i met when i was a child. The other main things for me is to pay my respects to my lulo/ granda father. I will get this opportunity at the height of the fiesta. Oh by the way is fiesta, so that means that there is a celebration nearly every night. The first night there was a dance competition and last night there was a singing competition. I however didn't go to the singing competition because me and a few of the boys (cousins) all went out drinking and playing pool.

So about last night - they have a system of drinking called tagay (tah-guy). this incolves buying heaps of beer. They then only get one glass, half fill it and then skull it down. They take it in turns and follow the same circle each round. This when i asked is done because it creates more of a bond between the drinkers. Its a trust thing. But you also get really drunk. I kicked there butts at 8 ball but they beat me at 9 ball. We then went to a place called halo which is pretty much like a cool nightclub but everyone there is asian instead of being white. And i felt like the token white dude, actually the only white dude. One of my cousins who is cheeky was tryingt o get me to dance with this chick. Its didn't feel right and nothing happened, then later i found out it was a guy. That the fucking heavens. Bloody cousins, gotta watch them.

Anyway there is a concert tommorrow and a wedding and im sure some day im going to the beach but im spending money way too fast.

Just one last point for clint. The mayor of the town is fuendes as they are a ruling family that own half the CBD. Every mayor is from that family and has always been. Like america you need lots of money to run for mayor and they have more money than anyone. Cant complain with democracy hey america. Thank you for freeing us from the savage and primitive lives we once led.

phillipines

gota say that the first plane trip to manilla was crap as. 8 hrs flying in a really uncomfortable chair sucked, but i did see two movies 'coach carter' and 'some other movie with scarlett johanssen' arrggghh drool. Yeah anyway.

the best part of the trip was when i was elaving manilla for cebu, 1 hr away, and i had the best seat which was directly over the wing on a window so i could see out. We took off and it awas raining and mad lighting blast light up the sky. As we got to about 10,000 feet the plane turned and revealed to me the entire citys lights and the intricate network systems that consisted of and extremely densly over-populated metroplolis. Also its good to see what a tropical storm on the horizon looks like from 30,000 feet. One crack of lightinig i saw was horizontal and chanin light about 5 or 6 times across the night sky lighting up the mass cloud formation that were raining down heavily on the city.

oh and its hot here, very hot.

stuffed up my template somehow and now it all looks like shit, couldn't be bothered fixing it now im on my holiday but i thought id post just to make a mention

sat pre phillipines trip

in syd at the moment and its a sat night. Me and jojo went and picked up Genos and went to panthers. Its was shit i tell you now. Apparently the cops came a few months ago and threatened to close them down because of all the fights that went on. I ran into george papas who works there now. Been a long time since i saw him. Miss those days just after high school when we used to go to the red and would know the whole pub. Every one was a mate including the people behind the bar. Ahh even now in wagga everythings changing. Everyones getting younger each year while im getting older. While at south during the week i was talking to a few really nice girls and they were all 18. They were really shocked when they found out i was 23, they couldn't believe that i was that old. Doesn't seen that old to me. Also got confronted by heaps of south people about their auras. K told phil and he was pissed so he mentioned it to south people. Wonder why every one is so worried about what colour it is. Really thats nothing that important. The sense is much more important. What feelinghtey have inside and how they send that out to everyone. Even if you are pissed off and not enjoying yourself and hateing everyone sending out a red aura but still have a genuine nice soul inside that make s all the difference. Be yourself is the key. Do what you want to do and not what others tell you to do or expect you to. 'what was the point of all our ancestors fighting for our freedom if we encage ourself in our self made prisons' - chesh in reference to material objects over the enjoyment of our lives

post canberra

so after recovering from my weekend out in wagga with my canberra crew i headed over to faithful south and hung out with ormo and the boys and girls at x and w blocks. i pretty much spent my whole week there until thurdsday when i went and saw kylie at her palce and watched some more movies. Saw two again, 'vampires: out for blood' her choice, by far the worst movie i have ever seen. and my choice 'bondi tsunami' jap/aust cult arty film that was weird. neither offered real entertainment or satisfaction for pleasure but in the end i still preferred my movie. Sorry K but vampires was crap and you know it. Its now friday night and im in sydney waiting till wednesday before i can go to phillipines.

sat last day of canb life

woke up early round 9 hung over as all shit and got my stuff ready for moving. By the time everyone got there i had packed my car. After sellingm y car we changed our minds and packed all the shit into dave and matts cars and then took two cars and left mine in canb for bevan. By the way i sold it for 350. cheap but i need cash for phillipines. anyway drove to wagga and after realising some shit was going down at jareds house the other made an executive decision and hired a hotel. Thank you people. That being matt, dave, joel, jess and michelle, plus me totaling six great drunken smashed people at capital that night. I have to admit it was one of the best nights ive spent at the palce but its still a shitty club for me. Been there too many times. Crashed on the floor at the hotel and woke up at 10:30 when they kicked us out for cleaning. yay. we all had a sad departure, but i am certain that i will always have those few wonderful souls in canberra that i can always call upon if i need them and that i would do anything if they asked me too. Love you all.