Originally Posted by
jonnyivy
Hi to you all today,.... I'm just sitting here at the computer on this rather cold "summer day" here in Scotland and thought I'd find something to do by sharing a wee story from my very first visit to Philippines about 14 years ago...
I'd just arrived at the Cebu airport to meet my "interesting" lass whom I have no hesitation to say I met online one day, maybe 2 months previous.
I left Scotland on a whim,... having never been further than Tenerife in my 40 years on this planet thinking, what the hell, lets take a giant leap and head for the other side !
Anyway, I gets to meet my gall at the airport with her sisters and aunty in tow,... not being allowed to be alone with her in the city or indeed the first night in the hotel...she slept with her sister in one bed,..I slept on the single bed next to them. Dont think I slept much that night in-case my usual "night -time habits" were heard from beneath the very thin light sheet over the bed !
That was no problem for me being in separate beds as I hadn't come over for that purpose, maybe old-fashioned, but it was two more visits before we ever got close with each other, I just wanted to know about her and her family.!.
Okay,...so next day we set off in a hired car to her village away down the southern tip of Cebu island,..4 long hours driving, a little scary at first but soon got used to the beeping horns and those black-smoked turbo mini-buses screaming past.
Eventually we reached her home, a beautiful little village where I was made very welcome by the family and the locals,...first experience was an old man next door thrashing a scabby dog out of his dust-bin with a big stick !!,...he stopped what he was doing to give me a hello and welcome hand-shake !! lol...
There was a small path up to the families houses (like a settlement),...and thank goodness the house I was staying in had been built by an uncle who had been an OFW many years ago and was kinda built more to my liking.
I was so relieved to get out of that car,..my back hurt, my leg was getting cramp and my trousers ( not shorts) were sticking to my sweaty legs..
Its was good to meet the family for 15- 20 minutes before her aunt suggested that as I looked rather warm I would be better to take a bath to freshen up.
The bathroom was just a longish corridor with tiles on the walls and tiles on the floor and this small concrete "bath" at the far end with crystal clear water in it. Think it was about 3 ft square and 3 ft high.
My gall then ushers me into the bathroom and squeezing past each other she explained where to hang my clothes and handed me a nice clean fresh towel, a bar of new soap, then dis-appeared.
So I gets undressed,.while half-concentrating on these little lizards skitting along the walls over my head and out the holes in the walls (air-vents I presume).
I lent over naked, past this bucket and ladle thing to feel how cold the water was,......it was freezing !! Well, that's where I went all wrong,.... I thought to myself "how the hell does a 6ft grown man get in there" ??? I stepped into the water,..gently lowering myself down to the parts that take your breath away,... and that's about as far as I could go. Then I spy the ladle thingy,.... Ahhh, so that's what that's for,...to pour the water over your head.... must say it was so damned cold but I managed to get a good lather going and rinsed it off fairly slowly.
By now you folks in the know will realise my mistake,...but not me yet !
I gets the towel wrapped round me and head back through to where they were all sitting waiting on me. First thing I say to my girl is " I cant find the plug to let the water away"..... they all kinda looked at me confused and she runs into the bathroom to see what I was talking about. She returns giggling away telling uncle I had just used about 3 days worth of fresh water and it was now sitting with soap scum in it.
Think we all shared it as a good laugh once I too realised that I was only supposed to stand NEXT to the bath and ladle the water onto me and let it drain away through the small home in the floor !!!
Was a good memory to talk about for the next 10 years of visiting them, always reminding me when I went for a bath .." don't get in it !! "
Jonny
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