1st Day of Work, Kenny, Trouble

My new office on my first day of work. Life's a beach.

Today I was excited about the arrival of my friend Kenny who is visiting me from the US. Like me, he quit his job in Los Angeles and decided to take an extended amount of time traveling around and exploring. He was scheduled to arrive in Tagbilaran at around 6 or 7 PM and I planned on meeting him at Coco Vida. In the morning, I cleaned up my place a little because Kenny was planning to stay at my place. I got an inflatable mattress from my landlord for him to sleep on.

After I ate lunch at home, I went to Alona Beach to go to work at Genesis. At first, I wasn’t really sure if I needed to there at any particular time. I noticed Sander pretty much makes up his own schedule as to when he wants to go in. From my understanding, I can go in whenever I want to unless I have something scheduled with a student or diver. Of course, if I don’t go into work I can’t get work from customers. I definitely like the casualness and non-bureaucratic nature of the job.

Since I wasn’t sure exactly when Kenny was arriving, I decided to go to Coco Vida early at around 4 PM. There I just went on the Internet and wrote in my journal. By 7 PM, I heard a loud noise and saw a big smile; it was Kenny! He arrived and still had all his bags with him. It was the weirdest feeling seeing a friend from back home out in the Philippines with me. I immediately bought him a rum and Coke.

Kenny and his first Tanduay and Coke.

I introduced him to all my friends at Coco Vida including Mae and Ren. He was so excited to actually meet them because he’s only read about them on my journal. With a few rounds of rum and Cokes, we caught up on a little on what’s been happening in Los Angeles for the past 5 months since I’ve left.

After Coco Vida, Kenny, Mae, Ren and her two friends, and I went to Trendis to shoot some pool. I ordered a large beer to share with everyone. On the pool chalk board at Trendis I noticed Martine, Sara, and Erich’s name still written on the board; seeing their names was nostalgic. Behind the bar, I noticed a schedule of movies that Trendis shows everyday.

Remnants of my good friends Martine, Sara, and Erich playing Killer before they met me in Palawan.

What caught my eye was that they scheduled to show the movie “The Big White” which was a film I did visual effects for at my last job. It’s a movie with a lot of good well known actors, a good story, but never sold to a major studio so it went straight to DVD. I was surprised to see it on the list because I haven’t heard of anyone who’s heard of the movie. I would have never imagined to find the movie being shown in the Philippines.

Mae taking a shot at Trendis.

While playing pool, one of Ren’s friends had issues and left abruptly. Ren followed and so it was just Kenny, Mae, and I playing pool. We played for a long time and well into the night. It was raining so we tried to schedule a time where we could leave without getting too wet. I cautiously drove all three of us back home on my motorbike. It was a little scary to do in the rain with two others and Kenny’s large backpacks. Back at the house, we decided to go for a swim in the pool. My landlord wasn’t too happy about us in the pool at 1:30 AM and complained we were too noisy. Oops.


- jason