First day back at work so I decided to make a light breakfast for me and Twin I. Her sister skipped it because she, her sister, and friends will meet at McDonald’s this morning. Gotta start my work week right.

Last night, we did a big shop at the large supermarket that I had been patronizing since high school or college. That ought to last us for two weeks because carrying groceries up to our house is such a drag. That’s why I’m having a dumb elevator/dumb waiter installed at my stairwell, which will just be a simple pulley system. As for the LPG tanks for cooking, my contractor sub-contracted a company that piped gas into my house from the laundry/utility area (still under construction), which is how they do it for commercial restaurants.

So far I am 80% done with the unpacking and organizing. The last bits are the paintings and my physical files that I have to shove into the top-most part of my tall closet and my steel drawer.

OK, gotta start working now.

I am about to brief a top official in the next two to three days on how to be interviewed by a hostile media personality under payroll by an entity doing a demolition job. I consulted one of the country’s top crisis PR manager on how to do it and he coached me on how to coach this person I’m going to help. He had a brilliant strategy that I didn’t think of—mainly because I didn’t know the facts that he just told me. If you’re going to be a media strategist/crisis communication manager, it helps that you know each and every media worker within your realm, how they tick, and how to push their buttons. No wonder this crisis PR manager I consulted for free can command millions in acceptance fees. In exchange for his advice, I am giving him (or rather his wife) a favor, which is basically is just on a hobby of hers.

If I do this successfully (or this official I will be coaching comes out of the interview unscathed), I can do this communication strategy consultancy as an alternative career. I had been advising one of my sources on their comms strat—for free. Well, you scratch my back, I scratch yours—that’s how the way the world works in my field.

I just need to cast my net wider. Locally, I can pull strings because of my wide network. But regionally, I am barely scratching the surface. I need to be very visible and be everywhere.