[1078] Exercise

This week (June 24-28, 2024) was pretty successful for me. I was able to do a four lap walk Monday, Wednesday, and earlier today, Friday. Then Tuesday and Thursday I did a twenty-minute interval training involving cardio and a 20-pound kettlebell.

I'm hoping this helps me kickstart some consistency with regards to exercising (and hopefully it carries over to portion controlling my food). I really want to get below 90kg and I am currently around 92kg. It will be a challenge but I do believe I can do it (again) because I was already at 89kg last year. I just started eating too much again, I think.

Out.

[1077] Altamare

Last week, from June 18 to 21, I went back to Altamare Dive and Leisure Resort in Batangas. It was yet again a company outing, planning, and evaluation trip. This time though it was more work and less play / bonding.

I'm done with my evals and now have a renewed set of goals and motivations moving forward. It will be an interesting time moving forward as I continue to try to grow and stay humble as a human being.

Now back to Altamare. The place is great, if I'm being honest. It's not for families with people who will struggle climbing up and down a looooong flight of stairs. Think seven or eight stories worth of stairs. They do offer a boat to bring you to the beach, but that is an added charge and pretty expensive coming from me. You park in their parking area and their van will take you and the other people who will ride the boat to a dock somewhere where you get on the boat and get brought into the shores in front of Altamare.

The place is nice, the rooms have AC and heated water. And of course, towels. That's all I need. The TV and satellite cable are pluses that I actually used during this trip. I spent a lot of time alone in the room to nap and enjoy the AC.

The food is still excellent, exactly as I remembered it. This time around I ordered their famous Beef Tapa for breakfast everyday, just because I tried their other offerings and decided beef tapa was the best. For other meals we got served morning and afternoon snacks aside from lunch and dinner. These were buffet style and still awesome. Hopefully I was able to control my intake of food and not increase my weight too much.

So the big question and finale, would I go to Altamare with my wife and daughter? Sure, if they're willing to take the stairs down and up. I can see ourselves spending maybe 3 days and 2 nights there just to have a nice staycation.

Out.

[1076] The 2001 Rav4

The check engine light has been on, and the engine has been shuddering. The shop we send it to for servicing couldn't scan the OBD II port. We've decided not to use it until we can figure out what's wrong.

I asked my mom to buy an OBD II scanner from Amazon that I read about from a post in Rav4World. I am hoping that the scanner and whatever OBD app I'll get from Google Play Store will let me scan the Rav4. Then I can have the shop address whatever issue/s is/are found in our go to shop.

I'm sort of bummed out because while I'm doing my best to take care of the Rav4, it's also a 23-year old car already. Since this car is already relatively high tech with an ECU and sensors it's not an easy diagnosis, nor is it something my dad and I can guess at.

I want to have the Rav4 repaired and running, in the event that we choose to sell it we don't have to give a major discount because of the issues. If we choose to keep it a bit longer at least I know it will be reliable and keep running, despite not having great fuel consumption.

Out.

[1075] Tour de France Unchained Season 2

I started watching Netflix's Tour de France Unchained Season 2 a few days ago. I have finished episode 3.

It's a great series. I'm a bit wary of the drama being shown mainly because I don't know if it's video editing being done by the producers of the show or if it's an actual storyline that happened. One thing is for sure, the issues with the sprinters, namely Jasper Philipsen, were indeed happening during the 2023 TdF.

I was sort of following the 2023 Tour de France as it happened and I didn't appreciate the antics of Philipsen and Alpecin-Deuceninck. Watching the series up to episode 3 has made me dislike Philipsen even more. As for his more famous teammate, Mathieu van der Poel, I can respect him as a pro cyclist and amazing athlete but seeing the behind the scenes of the TdF 2023 has changed my views on him a bit.

For me they're painted as the villains, guys who are out to win stages and not make friends. They even said it in one of the episodes. I'd like to temper my bias against them with the fact that they're from a different culture, they wouldn't be elite athletes if they didn't have a competitive edge, and they're also human beings.

I still dislike Jasper Philipsen. I find him a dirty sprinter, though I've only started watching pro road racing the past three or so years so I have no idea if what he does is normal or not.

So give Tour de France Unchained a watch. I like the editing, despite the fact that they've reused shots multiple times in different episodes, and I like how it shows the human side of the pro cyclists.

Out.

[1074] Driving

Last night Maica and I picked up her mom in her house and drove her to the ER. It was nothing serious. What it did prove was that when push comes to shove I can drive. I just really, really dislike driving in Metro Manila.

Most motorists don't use common sense. They'll block intersections just so they know they can get ahead. Motorcycle drivers don't even wonder why a car is slowing down, they'll just speed up, usually to the detriment of the car or pedestrian being allowed to pass.

Even more infuriating was when I left the intersection to another hospital open last night and all public utility jeepneys changed lanes to my lane to block the road. Brilliant.

So what's the point of this blog? Well, I can drive. And I'm starting to trust Waze more. Enjoying the drive is another thing.

Out.

[1073] June

The first half of the year is almost done and as always, time seems to move so fast in hindsight. Living in the present though, time seems to move so slow. I guess that's life.

I can only look back in the past few years of my life and think how things might have gone differently had I done things differently as well. If I was more aggressive in my career or less patient with how events unfolded, things might be way more different now.

There are also a couple of what ifs I can ask, but I'd rather not write about them here. Some career changing things that could have happened probably would have led me to a different scenario now.

Would I change anything? I honestly don't know. I think I've reached that point in my life where if I trust then I am patient.

Out.