Tennis anyone?

After Alex Eala's win at Washington, D.C., I suddenly had the urge to check out my old rackets. I had kept them at one of my offices at U.P. and had removed the grips, which have already started disintegrating. I have kept two of three rackets that I purchased while in Japan in the 1990s and early 2000s. I gave the newest one (at the time) to my father who also played tennis at our village every Sunday with his buddies.

One my rackets was a Sledge Hammer from Wilson. 

I like to joke that at one time, I wielded a hammer - a Sledge Hammer to be exact. This is somewhat a dad joke referring to Thor, of course, but with some truth to it. Will I go back to playing tennis again? I do have access to tennis courts at UP but there seems to be a scarcity near our home as a lot of people have taken to pickleball instead. We'll see how it goes but I am leaning more towards badminton or table tennis. Magku-kuwento na lang muna ako about tennis.

More about tennis in future posts. 

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Local delights for merienda

After lunch at the resort last weekend, I had the idea to go out and see if there were stores that sold food other than the usual junk food found at sari-sari stores. I also wanted to see if there was a 'tinapayan' or bakery to get some of my favorite breads. There were only the small sari-sari stores selling the usual stuff and no bakeries. Fortunately, there was a roadside store selling turon, kamote cue, biko and other local, more traditional snacks.

Turon or banana rolls (friend banana with the wrapper coated in brown sugar)

Kamote cue (fried sweet potato coated in sugar)

Their version of biko, which is sticky rice cooked with coconut milk and brown sugar.

We bought turon and biko from the store to take back to the resort for our merienda. They turned out really good and we got to enjoy these local delights as an alternative to the food at the resort. 

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Another Panglao sunset (during Habagat season)

We couldn't get a nice sunset photo last Friday because it was overcast. Yesterday somehow made up for Friday with a nice sunset over the sea.

Sunset over the Cebu Strait. One can see the cranes at the left. These are for a construction project in the Alona Beach area. There are many resort projects now in Panglao Island.

 

We walked to a floating platform across from the beach to get this photo. It turned out well-timed as the clouds covered the setting sun as soon as we walked back to the beach, obscuring the sun and depriving others of a nice sunset shot. 

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