argh! when i got home yesterday morning, i went to the bathroom to freshen up. and what was the first thing that i saw??? alas, an ipis! hwaahhh! i was too tired to engage in another battle with this roach so i just let him be. so this'll be my next exploit.... this time though, it's not gonna be as pathetic as the previous. i'm gonna take mai's advise and buy an insecticide instead. i'm gonna spray perhaps a quarter of the bottle on the roach and inside it's lair (hole at the bottom of the door jamb), and watch it wriggle its body to death. *evil grin and gleaming killer eyes* i swear, by the end of this week, i'll become a seasoned ipis exterminator! ha!

i've been trying to kill a nemesis for quite sometime now, but to no avail. then came yesterday, and i was finally succesful in my attempt. yes, i admit; i am now officially a murderer. the nemesis and the victim: a cockroach!!! bwahahaha!

for weeks, i've been seeing this roach running around our bathroom. i've been so adamant to kill it but i couldn't just squish it with a rubber slipper. that's so gross! imagine its innards spilled around its body with blood all over. eeewww!!! and then, you would have to pick it up (with tissue or paper of course) and feel it’s crispy exoskeleton. double eeewww!!!

and so, what i first tried to do was spray it with water using a hand-held shower, trying to drown it. but no! it couldn’t be drowned! it just runs around the bathroom. imagine me holding the hand-held shower and following it around the bathroom while spraying it with water. how stupid must have i looked?!?! bad plan….

on to plan b…. i tried using the hand-held shower again. however this time, i would lead the roach to the drain – hoping that it would slip through the drain’s slits and gush down the pipes with the heavy flow of water. but no! it would just anchor its cilia-covered legs to the slits and maintain its balance. argh!!! it has become so frustrating to me….

our final match: yesterday, when i entered the bathroom, i again saw the infuriating cockroach. this time, it was lazily resting on the toilet bowl seat, staring at me - as if mocking me. then, bright idea!!! why not flush it down the toilet??? and so, i picked up what has become my favorite weapon, the hand-held shower, and led the roach inside the bowl. but then, it became nowhere in sight!!! i thought, it might’ve hid inside the space with holes where the water flows when you flush the toilet. thus, i reckoned that i finally have an opening to outwit the creepy crawler. so… flush!!! whew!

it didn’t end there though! the damn roach is one hell of an opponent! when i flushed the toilet, the roach wasn’t caught by the flowing water and it’s still out of sight! where could it be? oh, where could it be??? then ever so stealthily, it revealed itself from its hiding place, with that pair of antenna mocking me again. in some mysterious way, it came out from the back of the tank. all the while, i thought i was able to lead it inside the bowl! so i again grabbed the hand-held shower, sprayed water on the roach, and led it towards the bowl. this time, it went directly to the water. yes! i can now smell victory! bwahahaha!

as i waited for the tank to fill up with water, i continued spraying water on the cockroach. alas! my theory still held true. it couldn’t be drowned!!! i was spraying water directly on its head so it’s actually submerged. i was doing this for like three minutes but it kept on moving! is it possible that cockroaches can breathe in water??? (a friend told me later that cockroaches can actually live with its head decapitated for about a week!!! interesting….)

when the tank finally filled up, i pushed the plunger and satisfyingly watched the cockroach get caught in the water’s coreolis effect. and then there was no cockroach. whew! finally!!! what an endeavor?!?! no wonder cockroaches have survived thousands of years in this world….

i wonder what my next pathetic exploit will be…. hehehe! =)

destination:
pandan island, occidental mindoro (closest island to the apo reef that has a resort)

when:
april 29 to may 1, 2006

how to get there:
- departure time - 3:30 am
- 2-hour bus-ride from manila to batangas pier (okay, i think i'd still be fresh during this leg although sleep-deprived)
- 3-hour boat-ride from batangas pier to wawa pier, abra de ilog, occidental mindoro (i wish i won't be sea-sick.... start of my litany of whines and rants)
- 5-hour bus-ride (mini-bus! non-airconditioned!!!) from abra de ilog to sablayan (from a website that we checked: "be prepared for some of the roughest and dustiest roads!" translation: 2 inches of dust on my face! harsh!!!)
- 30-minute boat-ride from sablayan to pandan island (by this time, my whole body'll be as limp as my wrist! ha!)
- arrival time - 2:00 am

gosh! nearly 11 hours! what an endeavor! i just wish that the journey would be all worth it since there's no backing out now.... well, judging from the pics that we've researched, it seems promising.... come to think of it, i'm actually quite excited. i bet it's gonna be one hell of an experience.