It will be 24-23 degrees later so I don’t think I will need the AC on tonight.
And my four-legged children are cozying up.
Kimchi is not letting me finish folding the clean laundry. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
What shall I cook? Should I cook???
UPDATE: I just had beef pastrami, some cheese and red wine. No need to stress myself.
The last Christmas in this living room. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
A bit bittersweet. This has been home since 2018. Despite the difficult circumstances, I tried to make this apartment into a home. You know, the home that you want to rush back to when you’re tired from being out in the harsh world. It’s so old that everything crumbles, but I tried to make it the most comfortable home. I tried my best to keep vermin away but I have no control over my messy neighbors so their vermin crosses over to my unit 🤦♀️. At least when they slip, they’re only confined to the laundry area. Then I trap them there with whatever pest control device/chemical I have.
The last Christmas holidays the girls will be sleeping on this bunk bed. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
I’ve been playing Christmas songs in piano via Spotify all day. This is so lovely.
Traffic jam everywhere! Photo by CallMeCreation.com
I braved the horrible traffic today. First, I needed to fix my bank accounts because the bank has frozen them. Apparently, I didn’t do an update of my personal and professional info for xxx period… So I couldn’t withdraw from the ATM and couldn’t do online banking 🤦♀️. I have five accounts with them that needed updating so it took a while. But at least it’s done now. 😑
Then I braved Greenhills to sell my iPad. Finally, it’s done. I’m not really maximizing it anyway.
While I was waiting for them to finish testing the unit and for cash to be paid to me, I was flicking furiously on my phone and doing something sinister…
I finally pulled the trigger. 🫠
Now I’m waiting for it to get cleared… Hopefully by Dec 27 it’s on its way to me. Why did I do it instead of reinvesting almost 40k back to my house?
Because I’m a fucking tech junkie 🤦♀️ I need saving from myself.
Ok, I promise myself this is the last big-ticket item I will buy that is not for the house.
Gyoza for hunger pangs. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
After having a very late lunch (almost 3 pm), I drove back home via the maze that Waze has directed me to use because freaking EDSA was not moving.
To come home to this:
Kimchi playing with a rubber band. Photo by CallMeCreation.com Sushi watching me watching over them. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
These cats are the crazy reasons why I’m spending Christmas Eve and Christmas day alone. Because of the cats that cannot feed themselves and clean up their poop.
I will be leaving early 26th because my family will be checking into this resort.
Hot springs in December!
The ponds become a lagoon from October (typhoon season) as these converge with Laguna Lake. Then these will go back to being ponds when the dry season sets in by Feb.
I will try sketching here but on Monday I’m on editing duty 😭
If it weren’t for my cats, I won’t be rushing back to the city tonight. But then I miss my bed. There’s nothing like sleeping in your own bed, customized according to your preference and sleeping habit/s.
My room is almost finished. We still need to finish the metal works for the security grills and screens. Photo by CallMeCreation.com I think they will put another coat of white paint before they start sanding my wooden floor to its natural color and then stain. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Everyday I’m closer to having a home of my own. ❤️ A home that is customized according to how we live and I can change it however I want without having to deal with another entity who would object to my plans.
I had everything painted flat white so artworks would pop out. This clinical look can also be softened with curtains, beddings, books, or tchotchkes (if my cats will not destroy them). I still have the woven runner from Zamboanga/Sulu that I’m still figuring if it’s better to hang it like a tapestry or have it framed.
Kitchen viewed from the girls’ room. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Still no upper cabinets yet since the lower cabinets are complicated. I have a pullout garbage disposal unit under the sink.
They haven’t tiled the bathroom yet. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
I could still hear the grinder cutting tiles outside. But I think all the tile work will be done by end of the month.
I had worked on the documents that I need to submit for my application for a new Meralco line and for a new water line. Our water utility people will be coming over on Monday to check the water pressure and configure if I would still need a water pressure pump and tank and if I do, what horsepower and how many cubic meters are needed.
After I got my barangay certificate of residency, I went to the mountain bypass road to buy my friend from my old TV network bird of paradise plants. The ones I gave him last year died because they were battered by winds on their condo balcony.
Photo by CallMeCreation.com Photo by CallMeCreation.com
And I went to the flower vendors along the national highway to buy my mom her favorite flowers.
Lighted up acacia tree in front of the Student Union building. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
I met with our water concessionaire’s shareholder (company AVP) and the OIC GM of our water concessionaire today. Because of my advocacy and continuous fight, the shareholder company was forced to change the management and suspended the 🤬 top officials until investigations are finished and proper charges are filed.
We met before 10 am at their corporate office and then I toured them around to show them the areas that are experiencing low pressure, mud coming out of their faucets, etc.
I told them that they have a reputational issue with the customers that’s why they’re still coming to me for complaints and are not going straight to them. Even though they are now fixing the shit left by previous management, the people still don’t know about it and thus they need a proper comms person to fill that gap–a proper community relations manager.
I recommened to them the steps that they should do, how to tap the local government units (barangay officials and their facilities) to conduct focus group discussions and needs assessment from these engagements. Monitoring and evaluation of information campaigns. I said that people should be properly informed and the knowledge is correct so that when the time comes the water concessionaire files a petition for tariff adjustment to help finance the network upgrade and other capex needs, we the customers will not be up in arms. I also told them they should take advantage of the local media in their information campaign by engaging with them.
They asked me to help in looking for a comms consultant to help them with that. I’m waiting now for a text message from a schoolmate so I can discuss with her this headhunting chore.
We parted ways at 3 pm. It was a long day.
My kids, on the other hand, went to a nearby city in the south to have early dinner in a bed and breakfast/art gallery with my sister and their cousin Kuya P. They sent me lots of photos.
Twin I looking at the exhibit. Watercolors. One of the dining areasAnother dining area
Meanwhile, I went to the semester ender Christmas bazaar inside our university campus.
Students are up and about before they go back home for the holidays. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
I have all windows open right now to feel the cool December provincial breeze. I will leave tomorrow evening to be with my cats.
First coat of paint in the girls’ room. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Painting, cabinetry work, lights and switches… Will soon be a home ❤️🏡
My sort of walk-in closet. More of a walk-out closet. Photo by CallMeCreation.com Prepping my room for painting. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
I’m taking photos of areas in my house to see what I need to buy more of (curtain rod hooks, TV wall bracket, clothes hooks, towel bar) and what I will no longer use or can’t fit in my house (a lot).
A Christmas tree won’t fit in my house, too. Photo by CallMeCreation.com Looking over a neighbor’s backyard. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
It was raining/drizzling the entire day yesterday so I couldn’t do a campus walk. I’ve been out of exercise for almost 3 months and got bloated again. 🤦♀️
So I went out under the rain last hight to buy an eyeliner from Watsons. My girls were out with friends from 2 pm and only came back at 8 pm after dinner with friends (with a friend’s parent, who remembered me from high school).
In front of my undergrad college. Photo by CallMeCreation.com The strays that are taken care of by some faculty members of my undergrad college. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
My walk wasn’t enough so treadmill it is.
Burned only 188kcal. But I ate so much. 🤦♀️
Got tired, uneven sleep = early night. I fell asleep holding my phone.
Staying here is helping me adjust my body clock again. Listening to forest sounds and having more fresh air lull me to sleep. Now I’ve woken to early bird chirps that you hear from forests.
I’m still love struck with how the game last night was played. It’s a fitting retirement for Messi, who is now elevated to Diego Maradona level.
I miss playing football. At least Twin I now understands why I love this sport because we watched it together last night and she was equally excited as I was. She said she is now interested in joining the girls’ team once we have transferred here in my hometown. I told my nephew, who teaches football under xxx team, that his cousin wants to join.
This sounds wonderful because they will be more exposed to team sports and more physical activities.
Meanwhile, my sister expressed her defiance against this government through the Christmas decor she installed in my mom’s house.
They’re so pink!
I plan to go back to QC on Dec 22 because Ate C will be leaving for her home province so I need to come back for the cats. In the meantime, I’m bringing something to read with me while I laze around my mom’s house.
Kimchi wants to come. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
I packed books this time as should be reading physical books instead of doom scrolling on social media. I missed reading but I get easily distracted now by my phone. I should have a digital detox and do analog things like drawing and reading. I’m a bad example for my girls. 🤦♀️
This has been with me for quite some time and I never quite found the time to open my hoarded books. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
We left QC at around past 10 pm tonight because we fetched my nephew, his gf, and my sis-in-law from Araneta Coliseum after the UP-Ateneo basketball game. Araneta Center was clogged with cars and traffic was terrible. It took us about an hour to extricate ourselves from there.
