HOTEL activities 101. Breakfast buffet at 6 am. Coffee at the cafe at 4 pm. Dinner buffet at 6 pm. Coke Zero at the pool bar from 8 to 11 pm. Coke Zero again at the roof deck bar from 11 pm to 1 am.
At 12 midnight on a slow day, the roof deck bar’s vacant chairs and tables would “crawl” to the middle part of the bar where they’d stay until the next night. There I was with my Coke Zero, writing this column, as the racket of the “crawling” furniture got louder than the Muzak. At least the furniture achieved the smartwatch’s Move goal.
As the staycation continued, I found myself wandering to the hotel’s gym on a Wednesday to ask about its Zumba sked. The receptionist said it’s only on Tuesdays and Thursdays. So, I already missed Tuesday. When I asked why it’s not daily, he said the Zumba started only in that week when I was there. Wow. Talk of serendipity.
As for the three books I brought with me, I had not even reached the middle page of the first book by Thursday. And all along I thought I’d have all the time to read.
On Thursday evening, instead of drinking Coke Zero and writing this column again at the pool bar, I was finally swimming in the pool.
The carbo-loading that week made me realize I’m not used to high-carb food anymore. I was now running on glucose instead of ketones. And I was always bloated, thus, the need to swim pa more.
On Friday evening, I went swimming again, and the pool bar wait staff told me, Ma’am, you haven’t ordered Coke Zero yet. Haha. By this time, I was having water instead, for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and also while listening to live music at the lobby lounge.
I knew I was somehow already overstaying when the wait staff of the hotel’s restos, cafe, pool bar, and bar were now greeting me with, Welcome back, each time I arrived.
By Friday evening, I was asking a friend to please stop me already from indulging in high-carb food. And if she had to kick me out of another high-carb indulgence, she should do so. We both laughed but I was already serious about this resolve to not touch any high-carb food anymore.
On Saturday, I did behave at the breakfast buffet—absolutely no more carbs. Yay. But for lunch, I had some bread to tame the chorizo’s rich taste. Tsk tsk.
Then, I went to Nustar Resort & Casino to…watch “Kung Fu Panda 4.” It’s funny as usual but some parts made me fall asleep. Perhaps it was the comfy seat. Perhaps it was boring. Perhaps the carbo-loading that lasted for almost a week was finally making me sleepy.
After dinner at the hotel’s pool bar, it was time to watch the band at the roof deck bar. This was the band for Saturday nights that played all music genres most probably to please everyone. So, there I was again, sleepy while watching them. This was definitely my ho-hum Saturday. But I continued watching the band until their last set. Why, oh, why?
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