Rather a disastrous day!

I mentioned in my previous post that Nomel had hired a small motorbike but in fact she took out the rental mid-afternoon and it was due to expire at 1am the following day (meaning Saturday - I am writing this with a beer at 7pm Saturday evening). She decided to take full advantage of the bike and, after supper, she and Joshua went out for what Nomel called a "stroll". They said that they would be back by 1am which was far too late for me anyway. I wanted to go to bed at 11pm because I slept very little the previous night due to their late return from the disco. Instead I sat with mum until about midnight and we went to bed. I fell asleep but, almost as if by a clock, I woke at 1am to find the room totally empty, not even mum was there. I started to get anxious about the two girls; I had no idea where they were. I thought that maybe mum had gone out to look for them. I sent a text to Nomel, no reply. I rang three times, no reply. I started to become very anxious. At 1.40, Nomel sent a text message to say that they were in the home of a friend, the phone was muted, sorry to make me anxious, back soon. Why was the phone muted? Normally it is to avoid receiving calls. Mum had in fact been in contact with Nomel by text but she didn't tell me and she wasn't in the room to reassure me. I think, I am sure wrongly, that I had intentionally been left out of the loop. He saw his mother's text but not mine.
Unfortunately by the time they calmly drove up to the hotel, I was ready to explode. And much to my regret, I did so. At that point mum walked up the street, she had gone out to a bar being very frustrated about the missing girls. The argument continued into our room, I said repeatedly that I didn't know where they were and that I was worried. This is the Philippines and, although this is a small island, my imagination had been running riot. Nomel got very angry, at one point throwing things across the room. His voice was very masculine and aggressive. Then mum joined in. It was crazy. I pleaded with Nomel to make up, forgive each other - I apologised for being so angry with him but to no avail.
I think we all finally got to sleep around 4am. Mum was talking angrily at Nomel about his attitude, "arrogant" is probably the best word.
We woke at around 10am and peace prevailed but I had been very shocked by Nomel's bad temper (but I can talk!) I postponed the boat trip to the next day because we were all so tired.
I went swimming and then the staff came out to call at me, the friends wanted to go on a "land tour" of the island and was that OK with me. I agreed but it was a total nightmare. I should have known what to expect. The roads are terrible, some are simply tracks, and the transport was a trike (the correct term is tribike, a motorcycle with sidecar which takes up to four passenger). It was a truly awful jarring experience. Two places we visited, an eco-park and nature reserve were totally boring, there was nothing happening. (I have some photos in my Nikon camera - I will add them later). This was funny, we stopped by this blue tarpaulin sheet which obscured the sea beyond.

We left at 2pm and arrived back at 6.30pm. I said to the hotel staff who suggested it that I wouldn't recommend it to my worst enemy. We were very lucky because a big storm has rolled up as I write this and the rain is pouring down. Imagine if that had happened when we were in the nature reserve or simply travelling in the tribike. I should be grateful for small mercies.
Now I know you are going to be asking me again.... What am I doing in the Philippines with an arrogant, ungrateful ladyboy when I could be having afternoon tea with that nice young woman who does the flowers at St George's? And my answer is that it is an exciting adventure. It hurts sometimes, a holiday it is not. I had the same experience with Nini in Colombia but I would not have swapped that visit for the world - so many fantastic memories. The same here. And I'm going back to Colombia for 2 months on 27th December - a devil for punishment! But she is married now so maybe that has calmed her hispanic temper. And I think I know why the experience is very similar between the two. I give them money (to pay for rent basically) but I think it injures their pride and ironically, they take it out on me. And both have fathers who have flown the nest. I had a long chat with Nomel's mum while we were waiting for them to return from their bike ride and Mila said that he missed having a father. It has rather inflated his importance because it is as though he has taken the place of his father. But Mila is still head of the family and I will be communicating with her more in the future. The money goes to her bank account.