Author Archives: admin

Armageddon came early

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On the first day of 2023, the Philippines fucked it up.

Screengrab from FlightRadar24

A technical glitch at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport yesterday has closed the Philippines off from the rest of the world. Nobody could come in and out. All flights were cancelled/delayed until today. Our Manila reporter is stuck somewhere in the province and she’s still not sure if her flight tomorrow night will push through.

I am part of this department’s group chat and nobody from the government could shed light immediately what was going on 🤦‍♀️. Talk about competence. Ghad.

Anyway, this has long been overdue. The redevelopment/modernization of this airport has been in the PPP list since forever but the Duterte administration ditched all unsolicited proposals from the private sector to improve the Philippines’ main gateway to favor San Miguel’s Bulacan Airport, which is very out of the way, and Sangley Airport in Cavite, which requires more infrastructure development (read: impassable narrow roads) to be of any use. I’ve written about it so many times over so many years.

Now this administration has been sending conflicting messages to the world; camp 1 says no, NAIA will no longer be redeveloped because we already have two airports in the works (well, they won’t be operational until 2032), while camp 2 says, it is already up for bidding. <<<< This was the last story I wrote in November and I was ahead of everybody else in publishing that the bids will be opened up this first quarter, with the TOR being drafted with help of ADB.

This is why we’re so fucked up. Too much self-interest reigning over what is good for the country. If only they had let this redevelopment push through in 2016, we already would have had a better and functional international airport by this time. Six years had passed = enough time for construction. This fucked up airport has four terminals disconnected from each other. If you’re flying in from abroad and have a connecting flight to the provinces in another terminal, better make sure you have enough time to make the transfers because you have to hail taxis or whatnot to transfer you to another terminal. No fucking sky trains.

I see some friends on social media ranting that they are still stuck and couldn’t come back home.

Good job, Philippines, good job. 👏👏👏👏👏👏

Kimchi’s gift. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I drifted off to sleep very early last night and I just found myself surrounded by cats at midnight. Then at around 6:30-ish, I woke up with Kimchi’s favorite toy on my bed, as if she was offering it to me. She and Sushi occasionally give me love offerings like small dead rats 🙀 back when the other unit was harboring too many pests that they cross over to my unit.

Thank God I am moving out. I don’t have to deal with pests, messy neighbors, and inconvenient parking situation.

Speaking of moving out, my girls and I went to Wilcon Home Depot after getting cat supplies at Tiendesitas to buy proper curtain rods and curtain rod brackets, shower curtain rods, shower curtains, towel bar, toilet paper holder, bathroom hooks, and behind-the-door bedroom hooks. I chose the expensive brands as these were made of matte stainless steel, feel solid, and will last for an eternity or until I get tired of them and have them replaced.

My girls and their shopping cart. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I was about to chuck a Birke toilet paper holder into the cart when Twin A said, “MOMMY, WHY ARE YOU BUYING A TOILET PAPER HOLDER FOR ONE THOUSAND PESOS?! We just buy it in Ikea, it’s much cheaper.”

But I want this stainless steel beauty. 😟

So ok, I changed it to the cheaper Pozzi one to appease her. But I didn’t relent with the other fixtures because they all must go with the Hamden, Birke, Kohler, or Grohe ones that my contractor bought (pre-approved by me).

We were looking at tubs and I really, really want this upright soaking tub:

But it won’t fit in my shower area to have a bath/shower combo. I also did away with the glass enclosure because based on the few condo bathrooms that I’ve seen and used (mostly with J), it’s hard to remove the water stains when you have hard water. Using acid (citric acid from lemons or acetic acid from vinegar) to cut the water stains don’t work if they have already set in. Plus it’s too much work to wipe down the glass enclosure every time you take a shower. A good shower curtain will be a better option since you just chuck it in the washing machine and you’re done. Plus you can have more artistic choices with shower curtains. I can even commission a local artist to create a shower curtain on polyester fabric cloth.

I still have to complete my shopping before everything becomes permanent e.g. tiling work.

Forward march

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One of the fountains I bought from Farmers. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

My kids and I welcomed 2023 with our neighbors and we shared sparklers, fountains and fire crackers.

It’s kinda bittersweet. This is the last new year’s eve with the neighbors. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

My girls enjoyed the evening, which was capped by viewing the fireworks of central QC from our neighbor’s roofdeck.

360-degree view of fireworks in central QC. Video by CallMeCreation.com

So for 2023, we will be embarking on a new adventure… Sort of. We’re going back to the place where my girls were born and where I grew up. Very familiar ground and yet it’s full of uncertainties. I will be in danger of making my world smaller because I will be back to my old stomping grounds. I’m in danger of regressing and throttling the growth that I had painstakingly nurtured. I’m scared of stunting.

But I’m doing this for my kids. They will benefit from growing up in a more protected and unpolluted environment. They’re now the priority, it’s no longer about me.

I say, I need to go forward, march to the tune of the band, and hope for the best. This new year will be a transition period for me, not only because I’m moving houses; I feel there’s a bigger shift that’s going to happen. I don’t know what exactly that is.

I’m out of therapy for 6 months now and 2023 will be a new start for me. I’ve been held back for two years and it was like I was loitering around purgatory longer than I should.

What will I be targeting to do this year?

  • More diving; it will be easier since travel time will be cut because I would already be in the south
  • Learn kiteboarding in Boracay
  • Go to Moalboal or Coron
  • Go surfing in Siargao, La Union, Zambales, or Baler.
  • Go camping again with my kids either in Caliraya again or Tanay, Rizal
  • Prepare for travel to Morocco or Spain in 2024; in the meantime I will bring my kids and mom to Singapore since it’s the easiest place when I have a brood to herd.
  • Travel to the Bangkok, Hi Chi Minh, and Phnom Penh for work.
  • Push for promotion of my two or three reporters
  • Build my small homestead
  • Start court proceedings for my annulment as I’m already out of therapy. I can finally battle it out in court

I’m sleepy.

Wishes

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At JB Music Store in Araneta Center, Cubao. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

Twin I finally bought her acoustic guitar that she has been wishing for half a year. She saved up her weekly allowance and her Christmas money and deposited everything in her Maya e-wallet/bank account. She had applied for a Maya debit card and got it a week or two ago. Today she proudly used her very own debit card to purchase her guitar.

I was the one who chose the guitar (a mid-priced Fernando) and it sounded good, even better than the RJ guitar I tried at the Guitar Center in Mall of Asia.

Good luck to your future callouses! Photo by CallMeCreation.com

After the guitar business, we went to Farmers Market to buy fruits and veggies for tonight’s media noche feast. I’m supposed to grill some marinated porkchops later.

Then off we went to buy sparklers/fireworks. Over PHP 2000 worth of them.

At Parolan, Farmers Market, Araneta Center, Cubao. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

Of course, for maximum noise, we bought horns for the three of us.

Toy horns for PHP 50 apiece. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

Went back to Gateway Mall where we parked to buy a cake from Conti’s. However, they ran out of cakes. 😑

Let me nap first…

Burgers and pork chop for dinner. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Drinks after cooking. Whew!

Growing exponentially

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Our enormous shopping bag and Twin A. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

My girls are growing exponentially.

They have already outgrown their new clothes–even if the ones we bought already had been one size bigger–only a few months after we bought them. 🥴 We culled the clothes that no longer fit (and there were a lot) and I realized that we needed to buy new of everything, from underwear to pants.

So went clothes shopping again today.

We just took Grab because my car was stuck in the garage because our neighbor’s other car was behind it and the entire family was out. There was no way I can get it out. Good thing that traffic was light; it only took us 10-15 mins from our apartment to the nearest SM.

Late lunch-early dinner of sukiyaki at Botejyu. I don’t know why they serve kimchi but, ok, if that’s how you roll, then fine. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I told my mom a few days ago about this constant growth spurts and said, “Oh yes. That stage where children are growing like blow-up balloons.” Her tone was like “glad I’m no longer in your shoes haha.”

My little ladies.

I’m so thankful that I can provide for their needs as a solo parent. I get zero financial help from their dad.

THIS! This!

I’m just thankful I survived this year, just like I did in 2021, when I was just holding on. This year was a vast improvement over 2021 but it was still a struggle. I had to confront so much trauma to the point I had to continue taking tranquilizers to stabilize my trauma-induced anxiety. So that I could sleep. Staying weekends by the seaside and by the forest (my hometown) helped adjust my body clock as well. I had so much unpacking to do the entire 2022.

I remember in December 2020, around this time (specifically, I wrote on 26th of December) that I don’t know where I was going, but it’s ok.

It’s ok not to know what’s at the end of the bridge. For me it’s the journey over the bridge that’s most important. Make every little thing count. Enjoy the beauty in the simplest things: Preparing meals for my family. Watching sunsets. Watching the sunlight being filtered by my bedroom curtain while I am tucked between the sheets. Hearing my children’s squeals of laughter. Being by the sea and under the sea. Going up hills and mountains. Walking among flowers in Hitachi. Going to onsens. Taking hours-long train rides to somewhere. Discovering the best teppanyaki in the middle of nowhere in rural Japan. Walking around UP Diliman campus. Petting my cats. Sipping coffee in a coffee shop while I write or watch people. Writing.

Two years after, my words still hold true. I don’t know where I’m going but it’s ok. I am enjoying the simplest things still. I am enjoying the domesticity and at the same time I am still excited by my work: meeting new people, being challenged intellectually, and learning new things everyday. I’m not getting rich but I have more than enough. At least I have a home now and building more permanence for my kids. I am giving them a sense of belonging, like a warm hug that greets you every time you come home from roaming around. So that they will have roots and something to anchor them when they drift away from me someday. Even when I’m gone, they will still have a home and it’s theirs. No one can take that away from them. They will have always somewhere to come home to when they need to hide and lick their wounds and retrace their steps back into the wide world.

I wrote on 27 December that my simple dream was to build a small house or a cottage by the sea.

Anyway, I still hold that dream of living small by the sea. I’ve always wanted to live by the sea or by the mountains (I grew up by the foot of Mt. Makiling so it makes sense). Since I was a child, we always went to the beach at least once a year. My love for the sea is coupled with my interest in snorkeling and now freediving.

I never wanted to live in a big house. I’m a simple provinciana girl who just wants to manage a small but comfortable household; a small homestead growing our own food and keeping a few animals. I want to live sustainably. A cottage by the sea is perfect. I never tire of sunsets by the sea; it’s one of the most beautiful things to witness in life. Staring at the horizon, wondering what’s beyond it. Hearing the splash of water against the shore is calming at night, rocking me to sleep.

I am fulfilling that dream now. It’s not by the sea, though, but it can come later. At least I have checked that one item on my list. One step at a time.

This year I rediscovered that I could still draw. I wish the circumstances were different, of how I went back to it but…oh well. 🤷‍♀️

Am I healed? Not yet, I guess. I’m still angry. But I’m healthier in a way that I no longer get triggered (*fingers crossed*). I haven’t cried since February. And I promised myself I never will cry over that person. Ever.

So this year I climbed the ladder. Do I want it? I don’t know. Well, the pay raise was nice but I’m still severely underpaid compared to peers in the same position (thank you, ex-boss, for suppressing me like that). I’m still fighting for it, though. Let’s see how I can push the envelope this coming review.

laughing businesswoman working in office with laptop
Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com

What will I do next year? I don’t know.

I just need to keep happy, healthy, and sane. Everything else will follow.

Hello, Samsung Tab S8!

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When you buy online, you get a free slim book keyboard worth PHP 7k. Free delivery via LBC. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I think I finally achieved a happy compromise. Portability with bigger screen compared to iPad mini 6 that I had been initially planning to get. I checked my sister-in-law’s iPad mini 6 that was newly purchased by my bro—it was losing charge quickly and it heats up. They had to bring it to the Apple store/reseller for possible repair. Aside from that, the screen was so small, even for watching Netflix. I want something that I could chuck in my handbag, but it should not be that small.

It was hard to satisfy my requirements. 🫥

I can hold it with one hand, like when I read daily news in bed. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Now I can read all my newspaper/magazine subscriptions away from my desktop. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

It has an 11″ screen, but it’s narrower and easier to handle than my old 10.2″ iPad 9. It’s also lighter.

It can easily be shoved into my medium-sized handbag. This is great for when I leave the house, like for a coverage or a meeting, but I’m not expecting heavy editing work in between. Or when I go out of town for leisure but I need to bring a machine for “work emergencies” without lugging my Lenovo laptop.

It can fit in my handbag! Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I have installed this with all the apps that I usually use for work like MS Outlook, Office, Teams, Zoom, etc. It can do multi-tasking without freezing (unlike my old hybrid tablet Lenovo Miix 3) or slowing down. It also has DeX, which is a special feature of Samsung tablets that can change the tab’s UI into desktop mode.

The keyboard is a little tight but serviceble and tactile.

I can use my Logitech mouse for this but it’s more cumbersone to shift machines with one mouse. Just use the damn pen! What’s the use of a touchscreen if you don’t use it?

I can draft an article here on the fly if needed. Well, I used to work a lot on the first netbook, Asus Eee PC 701 (with a 7″ screen), and used it as my main word processing machine in the field, therefore, I can live with this Samsung Tab S8 tablet/keyboard combo.

I guess some gadget reviewers were right; this is how Chromebooks should have been. Google could have just stuck with Android and optimize it for tablet/hybrid laptop instead of going for the Chromebook OS where everything is done via browser. I mean, where’s the versatility in that?

I’ve always been chasing the holy grail for journalists everywhere: a word processing machine powerful enough for our daily tasks in the field but can fit into our handbags so we can be free to literally chase people for interviews.

I remember way back in 2006, one journo pulled out her Palm (or a Handspring?) with a stand and a folding keyboard and started typing away during a press conference. I turned green with envy then because I was lugging everywhere with me my 15.4″ Toshiba laptop that weighed a ton. Anything that would help me reduce the size of my bag was welcome. Since then, I had been looking for a word processing machine that can send emails that I can bring everywhere with me.

This brought me to investigate HP’s iPaQ and Handspring Visor. I had wanted those things so badly because that meant I could leave my humongous laptop behind and just carry with me that handheld device and just connect it via infrared to a small keyboard. Of course, I couldn’t afford those things at that time (early 2000s).

So when the Eee PC came to Manila, I grabbed one (PHP 18,000 retail price in 2007) and left my Toshiba at home and turned it into a “desktop”. I finally was able to carry one bag with me in the field for the first time. 😉 The other business journos followed suit.

But the tiny keyboard caused my carpal tunnel syndrome. I had to go to an orthopedic surgeon because my hands and wrist were in so much pain. When the doctor asked how I worked, I pulled out my netbook and showed him how I typed. Bingo, he said. He told me to change my machine and prescribed to me a nerve pain medicine (Pregabalin) and a combo of Vit B complex. And oh, wrist supports when I slept. I think I did that for several months until it no longer hurt.

So my remedy for my tiny keyboard? I upgraded to a bigger netbook. I can’t go back to huge-ass laptops! Then netbooks went out of favor (they were so underpowered), so I had to search again for a middle ground: thin laptops/ultrabooks then hybrid tablet-laptops. The last one was the super underpowered Lenovo Miix 3 that eventually Twin I destroyed. I had to go back to the traditional heavy laptops.

Let’s see how this Tab S8 would fare in the field.

Adjunct

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And just like that, I was roped in to re-join my undergrad college to be an adjunct faculty member. When they learned that I would be transferring back to my hometown, my friend, who is the graduate school secretary, said I’m now in the list of prospective adjunct faculty members. 😂 They need media practitioners with extensive field experience to teach undergrad and grad courses.

How did I end up in this situation? We were drafting the training curriculum for “data journalism for practitioners” with the institute of computer science and this snowballed into something bigger… so I ended up having my ass being hauled back into academia.

This data journalism training is a separate matter since I also need this as I have zero coding and data viz experience (except for the basic HTML coding that I learned by myself 22 years ago). I need this for my current job since we are now going big on data analytics. Dashboarding and machine learning need more intensive training i.e. non-degree or degree program so I have to devote more time for this.

What have I gotten myself into again???

I told my friend that maybe when I retire from the field I can go full-time into academia. In the meantime, I cannot commit (checking papers is hell on earth for me) since it looks like I need to be in Singapore every two months. Our managing director in HK is asking me to go back in mid-January. When I was teaching in UP Diliman from 2013 to 2015, I had difficulties in managing my time during my last semester since I had to travel overseas quite a lot. It’s unfair to my students.

I can only devote xxx number of days per semester these days because I need to fix the Southeast Asia bureau and that’s a Herculean task. On top of my editing duties and journo duties >>> chasing stories.

What have I gotten myself into again? 🤦‍♀️

Eventually, I will need to get myself into a PhD program overseas. Ugh. A sandwich PhD program could work.

Ghad, I need to hire an accounting service for tax because this complicates matters. I hated filing it when I had two different tax forms.

TO BE CONTINUED…

We arrived here at home at around 3:30 pm yesterday and haven’t been out since then. My girls had been boasting to me that the cats preferred them over me as these critters had been sleeping on their beds instead of mine. I, who had spent four days alone this Christmas to feed them and clean their poop boxes, did not get any cuddles from these ingrates. 😑

But, but, but…

I fell asleep early. Around midnight, I felt a very warm blob on my left side. It’s Kimchi!!! Cuddling with me, finally.

Red eyes from sleep.

I took this photo and sent this to the girls via Messenger to prove to them that my cats still love Mommy. 😘