After I finished my last edit for the week, I went out my front door and looked at the sky and breathed fresh air. I watched the sunlight fading. It’s Friday.
In years past, Friday meant I would be going out with friends and go to some watering hole. We sometimes went to bars to hear live bands. These days, Fridays mean sitting outside my semi-porch to gaze at the sky with the breeze tickling my cheeks.
I have relaxed a bit today (but still I haven’t written a story) as I learned from our APAC head that a new journo/editor from Singapore will be on board on the 19th. I will be training her as well. That means I have extra eyes and ears in SG and my frustration with missing out on a lot of stories in that market will be lessened (crossing fingers!) So I need to fly back to Singapore on the second week of July to train my freelancer and the new journo/editor. Twin I was disappointed because she thought we will be diving that week. I told her, don’t worry, we will go to Anilao before I fly back to Singapore. Just let me get through this coming week and do my duties in Bangkok…
I finally bought online a water filter that I can attach to my kitchen faucet.
I figured having filtered water delivered to me every week is unsustainable given the height of my stairs and the distance of my door from the gate.
Speaking of disaster, my youngest sister is a walking disaster or rather it follows her. First, she got stranded yesterday at Changi Airport because their plane in Jakarta had troubles so they got delayed. Since she took Singapore Airlines, they would have to stop at Changi but they missed the connecting flight to Manila because of the delay in Jakarta. At least SQ booked them at Days Hotel to spend the night. Then when she arrived at NAIA Terminal 3 this afternoon, there was no power. Again. It was like an apocalyptic scene at the immigration.
Since I am a member of the DoTr Media Viber chat group, I was able to communicate with the Transport dept comms people about this and this is the update I got:
[ Friday, 9 June 2023 6:12 PM ] Dom Consulta (DOTr): PRESS RELEASE
POWER INTERRUPTION AT NAIA T3
June 9, 2023, Pasay City – A power interruption occurred at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 3 today which lasted for 37 minutes.
The MIAA, led by OIC Bryan Co immediately met with Meralco subsidiary, MServ, to be enlightened about the circumstances that brought about the situation. MServ was tapped to lead the full electrical audit of Terminal 3 as part of MIAA’s improvement initiatives after the 01 May power interruption that affected the same terminal.
MServ was quick to identify that an oversight occurred when one of their personnel inadvertently left a testing cable attached to one of the electric equipment that caused the power interruption. Shortly after power went off, the MIAA generator sets kicked in causing minimal disruption in airport processes.
No flights were cancelled but a total of 7 flights were delayed due to the 37 minutes interruption.
The MIAA and the riding public were assured by the MServ technical team that what happened today is not equipment related but a procedural lapse on the part of the MServ personnel. MServ assured that the erring personnel will be dealt with accordingly. Meralco also immediately responded and assisted in the quick restoration of the power supply to NAIA Terminal 3.
In closing, MIAA OIC Bryan Co apologized to passengers for any inconvenience that the situation may have caused them.
In another disaster, Albay declares a state of calamity as Mayon Volcano threatens to erupt any day/hour now.
So yeah, driving a manual transmission in this country that is perpetually facing disaster—man-made or natural—makes perfect sense. It definitely pays to be analog when you constantly face situations that would cut you off from modern conveniences like car shops with computers to adjust/fix your automatic transmission and your toasted computer box.
That’s why we already have the power generator downstairs, a Honda gasoline-fed engine that can power up our water pressure pump that can draw out water from our drinking water reservoir. We estimated that tank can sustain us for three days but that can be stretched if we will use the rain water from the new tanks to be installed plus the old existing ones for flushing the toilet. The Honda power gen set can also energize one or two laptops, an electric fan, a few led lights and a modem.
I need to buy a solar portable power generator like this as the typhoon season is already here.
This will do until I have a permanent hybrid solar power gen installed on my roof. That will require a huge investment.
This must be PMS. I’m being hormonal again as I feel melancholy creeping again. I only have cats to comfort me, while my exes have must have found their true love. What did I do in my previous life to be given this fate? I hate this feeling of being weak and vulnerable. I must really be a hateful person to be stranded like this…
Ok snap out of it.
Oh Lord, I want my period to be over. My body is out of whack.
