It has only taken me less than 1.5 hrs to reach Makati yesterday afternoon or reach home early last evening. It’s astonishingly fast compared to my travel time from QC to Makati before when I was still a city girl, which can range from an hour to 2.5 hrs for less than 20 km. 🤦🏻‍♀️

After my meeting, I window-shopped a bit in Greenbelt 1 and saw this book in a second-hand bookshop:

I already have this book but I took a picture to send to a journo friend who was asking people on Instagram for book recommendations that are non-fiction. I sent her the directions how to find this shop. I told her that this is a good autobiography as it was set against the changing China…from Tianjin to Hong Kong. This is the story of her grandparents to her own journey as an immigrant in the US. I had a glimpse of how the wealthy of Tianjin and Shanghai lived in late 1800s until WW2 broke out. This is the story of how they escaped communist China, how people made money in Hong Kong, and how the territory transformed from a backwater in southern China to an economic powerhouse that it was to become. Adeline was a medical doctor but found solace in literature—reading to survive the loneliness of childhood and later writing books to heal herself as an adult. It was beautifully written and I had shed a tear or two at the end.

While I didn’t buy books (because I still have tons in my bookshelves that I must finish), I became weak and bought myself a new pearl necklace. South Sea pearls… 🫠 Why? Oh dear why? I justified my purchase by telling myself I will be attending an event at the central bank next week so…😂

Ah well. I shaved off the guilty feeling by telling myself that I’ve been investing every month in various instruments for years so I can be forgiven for indulging myself a little bit 🤣