On the Other Side of the World

Absolutely no workout related info whatsoever.

I am officially on vacation, the second part of my off-season and sleep has been in very short supply. Late to bed and early to rise, then there's that jet lag thing. Thank goodness for all the running, biking and swimming I've been doing, I can keep putting one foot in front of the other with the best of them. I finally had to wave the white flag last night, guys I'm sitting this one out - going to go zzzzz. Not that I'm complaining, it's all been amazing fun.

I'm in the Philippines, here to visit my aging grandmother (raised me till I was 12), relatives and friends. I enjoy being here, if money was not an issue I'd be here all the time. I've been catching up with family and friends, making new ones, playing with their kids, hitting the town, shopping for last minute x'mas presents, eating native foods that I've missed and a whole bunch of other stuff. I could go on and on but I also want to honor those who may not be having such a great time this holiday season. It happens.

I also finally caught up with my biological dad. He didn't have such a good year and recently I had to unload some truths that was hard to say and probably hard to take but it needed to be said. It was good to talk in person and keep the friendship going.

Today I leave Manila, the crazy mega city of 14 million people, for the small, quiet, slower paced province of my grandmother. Back in the day it was the sugar bowl of the country, acres upon acres of sugarcane fields. My father also came from this region and the family name is synonymous with sugar. This is where I was raised until I was a month shy of my 12th birthday.
Well if I don't log on before then, Merry Christmas! As my friend Jen would say; I hope it's a good one.

People watching and enjoying the native coffee (Starbucks)with my wingman, my cousin Ann.

Guy in the middle is my good friend Eric, one of the great graphic designers I got the privilege to work with - and they say nothing good comes out of Fresno:) We were junior designers for a firm a while ago, during the whole dot.com craze. Back then the only thing I piled on was the work hours, pints of beer and shots of tequila. He ended meeting up with an old crush, moved to Asia and married her. Isn't it usually the case with good friends, that a lot of time can pass between you but when you finally catch up it's like no time has passed at all. Good times, the only sour point was when we started talking about the sorry state of the San Francisco 49ers.