I went to the pet expo yesterday, hoping I could get one interview. Surprisingly, there are more homegrown petfood brands now compared to Indonesia, which relies on Thai imports. Not even their local FMCG have tried entering this lucrative segment, which has a compounded annual growth rate of 30% for Southeast Asia.

The evidence is here: the first day of the expo is crowded. Many furparents were queuing up for discounted pet food, pet care goods, and medicines. I also spent a lot of money for cat food and treats. I even hauled a 7kg bag of Maxime kibbles from SMX to Ikea parking because they were discounted.

Having pets, however, is still cheaper than having kids. In this economy, only the rich can afford to have kids!

Birth rates across Southeast Asia are dropping and we choose to have less kids or go child-free. Pets have taken the place of children because that’s what we can afford and they’re more manageable. The region’s average fertility rate has fallen to around 1.89 births per woman, well below the global replacement level of 2.1.

It’s too expensive to buy a house and to send kids to school. Most Southeast Asians in mid to low income segments belong to the sandwich generation: supporting ageing parents or siblings financially while struggling to build their own families with their spouses.

It’s a financial trap that stresses my peers so much.

Pets have somewhat taken the place of kids or having partners. Many are opting out of marriage to pursue single-blessedness because of so many factors but primary is (un)affordability of just surviving this economy.

Yes, pet food and pet supplies are expensive but having kids is so much more.

I was at another expo last Thursday and checked out some EVs for public transport. The iconic Sarao Motors, the maker of Philippine jeepneys, has resurrected by pivoting to EV jeep manufacturing.

I got one interview and secured another one this coming week. Whew!

At least I have enough to tide me while I accompany my mom for her hernia surgery next week. Oh hello, PGH, again.

I’m waiting for a seminar to start. I don’t know what I’m doing here but I was kinda hoping I would be able to network well and get some stories.

I’m jumping through so many hoops just to be able to get varied stories in a very small and chaotic market.

Yesterday, as expected, I was a zombie as I tried to catch the tailend of the World Cup finals.

At 5 am, after 100 mins into the game, that’s when the adrenalin started to shoot up. Argentina’s game was too dirty, so it was raining yellow cards.

One goal was offside so it was such a downer. I thought we will have penalties by the end of the extension.

And then finally, Spain was able cleanly shoot one.

Spain just bid its time and did their best to exhaust the Argentinians.

But it’s clear why the Spaniards won. The Argentinians weren’t even trying.

Ok the seminar is starting.

Weekends should be three days. First day is dedicated for chores/errands, second day for family, and third day is for rest and recovery. Since we only have Saturday and Sunday to cram those must-do (errands and family), the rest and recovery is sacrificed so we end up still exhausted when we battle our way into Monday.

My shortcut to that is to outsource what I can so I can steal moments for rest and recovery. I buy all our Sunday meals from the weekend community market while I have a cleaning lady come on Friday-Saturday to clean and do laundry for me. However, that cleaning is just surface cleaning and the real deep cleaning and cooking is still done by moi.

This weekend would have been a perfect opportunity for us to go back to Anilao but, oh well, I missed an opportunity.

I’m still debating whether I should sleep early so I can catch the World Cup finals. I don’t want to be a walking zombie on a Monday. 😶 Yesterday I did nothing but sleep. I had to recover from a week-long cooking at 5 am for my kids. I’m old. I need my sleep.

Sailing by Christopher Cross is one of the songs that I always, always had to have on my phone, mp3 player, or my cd collection. It’s one of my top 5 songs of all time and it really transports me to another place, a nostalgic place that I haven’t been to. The funny thing is that the beautiful intro was an accident, an accident won Christopher Cross “Best Arrangement” at the Grammy’s several decades ago.

And now, he plays it here and I love, love, love how it sounds.

He created that song on a kitchen table. The key change was perfection and I totally get it why Cross had to do the key change, to lift the song out of the loop of the stanza/chorus guitar.

Before the pandemic, going around Japan solo was fine. I mean, foreign tourists were not obnoxious and there were no idiot influencers/content creators like Logan Paul, who featured the body of a suicide victim in Aokigahara.

I go to Japan for work and also to find peace. Back in 2009, it was still possible to go around Kyoto during Golden Week without running into hordes of foreign tourists in major sites like the Golden Pavilion and Silver Pavilion. Most tourists during the Golden Week then were locals. In the subsequent years, I avoided Kyoto and Nara because Instagram-addict people were starting to crowd these places. Of course, I can’t avoid Tokyo since our office is right smack in the center of Otemachi. But generally, I avoid the touristy places.

These days it seems like even trips to rural areas in Hokkaido will still be blighted by unruly tourists.

Because of the influx of tourists, applying for visa is taking longer and the embassy has become stricter. My multiple entry visa expired in 2022 so… And I’m so lazy reapplying for a new one.

And I screeched while everybody is still sleeping.

Well, it did rain.

And the rain reminded me that Bavi was battering China yesterday en route to Japan.

This is literally my nightmare. What the f*ck am I going to do with 900 snakes swimming around me?!