Goodbye, amihan. You helped me bring down my electricity cost as I didn’t run our airconditioners for three months. You were awesome.

But today I had to turn it on at noon because it was irritatingly hot. There goes my Meralco bill… 😵‍💫

Today is the end of Ramadan (Eid al Fitr) so most of us in Southeast Asia didn’t work. I worked so hard yesterday, churning out three stories, because a long weekend was upon me. One day less, less stories for me.

I got tortured again by that editor. Actually, she was torturing two of us. That other journo is our Manila reporter, who has been ranting to me for more than a week now about the editor from the land of bubblegum pop. I really, really couldn’t stand it any longer. I’ve already told friends that I’m quitting so that they can watch out for job openings for me.

The one who wanted me to be a comms consultant for their firm told me that they already had a comms team in place (got tired of me to make up my mind). The job notice given to me by a friend suddenly closed only after a day of posting. I was about to work on my application last night after work when I saw this.

The other job posting at the central bank given to me by that same friend was a dud because the post was just for formalities since there is already an internal hire for that. 😑

The two posts I applied for at a multilateral agency are still at the “screening” stage. Friends told me that institution is notoriously known for a long hiring process that can last up to 6 months. I applied for it in January so it’s likely I won’t hear from them until June. 🫠

I hope I’m still sane by then. Because the way that this editor ia driving me nuts is going to push me into depression again.

Editor from the land of bubblegum pop admonished admonished for such a trivial thing last Monday.

I was working even though I was sick, emailing my colleague for the story we were working on, talking to sources on the phone. Then I I became feverish at around noon, so I had to message the team that I wouldn’t be able to make it to the 1 pm call because I was down with fever.

I took a nap so that the fever would go away.

I woke up to a Teams message ping, with the K editor scolding me for just messaging on Teams, for skipping the call, not filing for leave if I don’t intend to work, etc etc.

I told her I was working and didn’t intend to skip work, it just so happened that at noon I was down with fever and had to sleep it off.

Where is the humanity? Where is the empathy?

So even though I was not feeling well, I drove all the way to Ortigas yesterday to attend a week-long conference. I was coughing and sniffling — I was a danger unto humanity.

@channelnewsasia

With oil prices climbing past US$114 a barrel amid escalating conflict in Iran — and traffic through the Strait of Hormuz at a standstill — here are some measures Asian governments are rolling out to shield their economies from volatility at the fuel pump and rising costs for consumers. #iranwar #oilprices

♬ original sound – CNA – CNA

What did I say last year? Trump will lead the world into recession in 18 months? I hate it when I’m right like this. 🤦🏻‍♀️

The last time oil spiked this high was in 2008, when it hit USD 147 bbl. That brought Philippine Airlines down to its knees because it hedged its jet fuel and lost a lot of money. It filed for bankruptcy later. It took a decade for the flag carrier to emerge from that bankruptcy and… here we are again. 👀

At that time rice prices also spiked and I interviewed Jollibee what it planned to do to keep prices from blowing up. You see, Jollibee is the biggest importer of rice next to the government. We also use the company as bellweather for consumer spending since it caters to a wide market segment. I remember I spent a laborious afternoon computing and comparing Jollibee’s profit margins across several quarters after they released their numbers when inflation hit 9-10.5% for an article on the crisis.

It was a good thing I was driving a Japanese kei car (I miss my Suzuki) that sips gas so I could still afford to drive to work at that time despite my meager salary. It is underpowered but that 800cc engine was a lifesaver during those lean days.

We’re so cooked right now. USD 200 bbl is unthinkable. Net importers like the Philippines should suspend VAT on oil. The Dept of Finance in 2008-2009 had a sliding excise tax mechanism to ease the pain. I’m not confident with the DOF now. 💀

After that inflation crisis, we hit the Great Financial Crisis, a decade after the Asian Financial Crisis.

Are we ripe for another financial crisis? Yep. We will call this the Trump fucking crisis.

I moved furniture around for better Netflix/Youtube bingeing. Twin A suddenly had an urge to do anime marathon yesterday and today we watched some cycling travel Youtube series because I’m still sick. It made our living/dining area feel extra cramped but this way we get to use our TV more.

I told Twin A we could change the dining table into a circular one for better flow but she said she liked thia better. Well, it’s true that a circular table won’t allow you to spread when working on projects.

Donald Trump doesn’t know how to end this war. He was counting that Iran is not going to retaliate so he thought this will end in a few days.

Iran had always threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz but it hasn’t really closed it off in a literal sense. Missiles and mines were just enough to spook tankers, hence, the “tanker war” in the 1980s during the Iran x Iraq war. The US needed to escort tankers that wanted to cross the Strait of Hormuz because the Oil Crisis of the 1970s was not yet a far-off memory that time.

Now Iran is doing the same with drones. Insurance companies do not want to underwrite these tankers that needed to cross the Strait so the shippers decided that it’s not worth the hassle and financial risk. And a little fact check: the US hasn’t escorted any tanker despite claims by Trump administration that the US Navy did.

Such liars, these bastards.

And financially, there’s a reason insurers balked at covering ships through the strait. “Even if you were to offer a subsidized price,” Henagan says, “it’s a war zone. Certain boats are going to sink, and DFC is going to have to pay out the insurance.”

The agency has a finite budget. It can’t feasibly insure “all maritime trade” in the area, he says. Approving applications will also take time, Henagan notes.

And, of course, even if they can get insurance coverage, many companies still won’t want to risk losing their ships. — NPR

Diesel at PHP 100/liter by next week? This is insane!

We only have 30 days of fuel left.

This. This.

A Hiligaynon lullaby sung in an American hospital drama, finally recognizing that Filipinos exist in US healthcare system. My aunts and uncles who migrated to the US were all in healthcare. Isa Briones (who plays Dr. Santos in The Pitt in this video) is the daughter of Jon Jon Briones, The Engineer in Ms Saigon when Lea Salonga was still playing Kim.

The Pitt also have two Pinoy nurses — Perlah and Princess — who gossiped in Tagalog about their colleagues right before their faces. They were even doubting whether the resident doctor, Dr. Santos, was even Pinoy because she’s so white. They just had a hunch that Dr. Santos could understand their chatter.

But this Hiligaynon lullaby cemented that Dr. Santos, indeed, was Pinoy.

The Pitt just recently won an Emmy.

The criticism that ER received years ago was that everyone was white. Where were the Indian doctors? The Pinoy nurses? About a third of foreign-born nurses in the US are Pinoy and 18% of all the nurses in California alone are Filipinos. We keep losing Filipino RNs to US, Europe, and the Middle East. There is also a growing population of healthcare workers in Australia. My cousin-in-law is a nurse in Ireland so my cousin, who had a very good job here, had to quit and follow her husband in Cork, Ireland. A Harvard Medical-graduate cousin of mine is a pediatrician and is still practicing there in Boston together with her Indian physician husband, who also graduated from Harvard.

Finally, a medical drama with some POC.

I’m sick.

The very cold forum venue yesterday did me in. Driving home was an ordeal because I just wanted to go to bed and sleep. My throat hurts.

I need to work. I have published one story and I have one in editing hell. I need to push out two more. 🫠

I wasted gas and toll for this yesterday. Some journo friends and I were trying our best to angle a story from yesterday’s briefing but we really couldn’t force ourselves to produce anything. We didn’t get anything of substance.

However, the more important coverage is today so I decided to book a room at Red Planet so I won’t have to leave home at 4 am the following day just to be here by 7 am.

I don’t want to be stressed by traffic and anxiety over getting to the forum on time.

Because there were no distractions in my sparse hotel room, I was able to write two stories that had been stewing in my to-do list since last week. So in a way booking a hotel room was worth it because I was able to get these things out of the way and not have these nagging at the back of my mind.

After I finished writing, I walked around to see what else was there besides the coffee shop and snack bars at my budget hotel. Uptown Mall and Mitsukoshi are just walking distance. I chose to go to the former to check out which restaurant would interest me.

None.

After a small purchase from an Issy stall, I decided to go back to probably munch on a burger or something. I ended up eating a hotdog sandwich from 7-Eleven because I was just too sleepy to bother with a full meal.

My sis-in-law joined me later at the hotel after an afternoon of “malling” at BGC. She’s still there, comfortable under the covers, making the most of my hotel booking. I left my car at the hotel and just took Grab to the venue so I won’t have to stress over parking problems.

Hoping for better story yield today.