I like Tori Amos’ covers of well-known rock songs. She gives them more depth and female angst. Here is my simplified version of her Nirvana cover, Smells Like Teen Spirit. I couldn’t match Tori’s piano playing because I’m lazy and I want the easier way 🤣
Smells Like Teen Spirit
On the perky side of life, here is my version of Sweet Child of Mine by Guns N’ Roses. A staple during my high school days.
I kept playing the piano to cool down after my 7+ km walk tonight. Yep I just rested for two days and back again on the saddle.
It took me a little bit longer today because I didn’t pressure myself. But I think I didn’t change my pace that much since I still average 15 mins per km.
When the girls were much younger, this path was their playground. They pretended to go on a journey, like in Pokemon, climbed trees and explored the winding paths. Photo by CallMeCreation.comI wanted to catch the sunset again. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
No need to reach goals, no need to work on self-improvement, no need to be a ray of sunshine.
I cooked, cleaned up after myself and the girls, cleaned cat litter boxes, ruminated under a hot shower, and tidied up my room so I can spend the rest of the day watching videos on my tablet comfortably…
I hadn’t realized that this past week exhausted me, especially since I needed to rein in my temper and not react immediately to a number of BS I encountered.
My body is protesting so I needed to rest a bit. Tomorrow I don’t have to hit 9 km.
Just be.
I attempted to watch a Korean drama.
I still can’t.
I should cancel my subscription to Viu. I’ve been on it for a year but I haven’t watched a single thing there. Maybe I’ll just stick to Gokushufudou and the like in the meantime.
Trauma doesn’t get erased in a couple of days, months, or two years.
Yes, I did say I didn’t want to post anything political or anything to do with current events but of course I couldn’t help it.
Who else could it be??? Like as if any Korean presidential candidate would be as brash as this… Or I could be wrong 🙄 But then the most obvious candidate is…TADAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!
Your guess is as good as mine.
Meanwhile….
The top rice importers in the world 1) China; 2) PHILIPPINES
And hellooooooo! Who is the concurrent agriculture secretary? The president who could not even make head nor tail of the economy and government.
👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏
Bravo! Bravo!
And this government cut the budget for health; we no longer have budget for Covid vaccines and support for cancer patients. All went to the confidential funds of the Department of Education Secretary, who is the Vice President, and should not have confidential funds because what does she need “intel” funds for as education secretary? Then the office of the president has billions in unwarranted “confidential funds” that can be disbursed without state auditing.
👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏
*Sigh* I shouldn’t have clicked on Twitter. 🙄
My desk on Friday night chaos. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Been busy emailing people for meetings in Singapore in November so I can have my trip approved by London. Kinda stupid that I had to justify my trip to my own office. As if I’m there to have a holiday. 🙄 Good thing the people I reached out to were very willing to meet me and have already ordered their secretaries to send me an email invite to table the meetings.
I need to book my hotel and flights next week since the rates are already going up.
Because I was attending to these things, I wasn’t able to get off my table and to start walking again at 4pm. I opted to have indoor workout, which I’m not really a fan of. The usual core exercises and dumbbell workouts. Then stretches.
After planking.
I can’t NOT have exercise these days because I love home cooking. Just look at this!
Instant Pot 45 min kare-kare swimming in peanut sauce. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Fall-off-the-bone beef kare-kare in 45 minutes. This is part if the xxx number of kilos of beef I bought from my hometown. It’s cartilaginous but it just melted. The peanut sauce became peanut soup since it is pressure cooked, no steam escaped/no evaporation, hence, the sauce remained watery instead of transforming into a gooey sauce. I remedied this by plopping more Reese peanut butter…ah well. Lesson learned. But the kare-kare is excellent. *Chef’s kiss* 👌😘
And to cap off the weekend, here is 12-year-old Yoyoka, wowing me again with her wicked drumming skills in 1970s classic heavy rock. She’s just one year older than my girls and yet her mastery of the instrument is that of a 45-year-old professional drummer.
I’m glad that heavy rock is still alive and kicking in Japan and has not been swallowed up by Kpop/Jpop. Japan has always produced very skilled guitarists and bassists, especially women bassists, like Madoon who complements Yoyoka here.
Monoral was in heavy rotation in my iPod a decade ago.
Speaking of bassist, the best bassist for me is Billy Sheehan >>> he’s a big part why I loved Mr. Big. He could make the instrument really sing and compete with the lead guitars in terms of melodies. And with Yoyoka’s drumming, it was ear candy.
My kids are starting to appreciate some of my music now that they started listening to Up Dharma Down and Radiohead. We’re on Spotify family plan so they have started to discover music on their own. However, I don’t think they’re ready for nu metal like Korn and P.O.D. but they have an entire lifetime of listening to discover those.
Oh Up Dharma Down…smooth jazz fusion music on a Friday night. I miss them and there’s a huge void when they disbanded. I’ve only seen them live once 😥 but Armi Millare is still there creating beautiful music and she provided me with the most poignant soundtrack of my life.
Nope, I couldn’t make it to 1.5 hrs 😂 Doing so would be suicide. I decided to take a more leisurely pace and enjoy the fresh air. My ave heart rate is just about right, based on the formula by Mayo Clinic.
A bit cloudy today. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
I decided to cut through the park infront of the Main Library so I can feel the trees.
This pathway is finally completed. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
This is the park where we found puppies. One puppy wanted to come with us but we couldn’t take it home at that time because somebody owned them. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
I would have wanted to take a water break here but if I sat down, my motivation to keep going and walk back home would have diminished. I opted to keep going.
When I was near the College of Arts and Letters after cutting through that park, I had cut across again to pass through the winding paths of the Lagoon. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
I missed being under the trees so I went through the Lagoon and walked through the UP Ampitheater to go back to Delos Reyes Street then come out of CP Garcia so I can go back home.
Of course, I shouldn’t stop there. I must stretch myself into oblivion and try to earn back the sculpted abs I had when I was 20 years old 🤪
Streeeeetch!
Nope, we must stop this insanity.
No, I will never go back to my old body. My legs are screaming in protest. 🤣🤣🤣🤣
But I feel good. At least I know that my stamina is still the same. If we’re talking about playing football for an hour, yes I could still do that since my endurance is still intact despite my age but my knees will no longer cooperate. That’s why footballers—we’re talking about the very fit ones—retire at past age 35. It’s because of knees and other injuries on the shin bone and tarsals. David Beckham retired at 38 and that’s considered a ripe age already in football.
Egg drop/Nido soup for dinner. Must keep calories down.
The beautiful thing about getting tired this way is that I can finally sleep for 7 hours straight. It could be more than that but I needed to go to the bathroom so I had to get out of bed. Plus this morning I needed to work early as I was set to present updates about Southeast Asia, especially on the legal front, to the commercial team. Good thing I already finished my power point presentation a day before.
I couldn’t go home tomorrow to my hometown to talk to my contractor since they have started preliminary works on the construction of my house. The auto shop where I brought my car for the final paint job, buffing, and polishing did not start on time 🤬. They said I could only get it back on Monday—the day my plate number is banned on major roads. So instead of getting it tomorrow, I’m getting it Monday evening then I drive on Tuesday very early morning to my hometown then Wednesday I drive to BGC to meet bankers for lunch.
So I’ll take it easy tomorrow since I published a big scoop today. Or maybe I can be a little extra and write another story.
*I choose to refrain from writing about current events this week because my stress levels shoot through the stratosphere whenever I open Twitter. I should choose my battles.
Today I walked 7 km, 9447 steps, 317 calories burned = entitles me to two cups of ice cream. Wow. 7km for 2 cups of ice cream 🥴 No wonder it’s so easy to gain weight.
I walked farther this time because I want to watch the sunset from Quezon Hall.
It’s nice to be out again. My younger sister said it takes her 2 hrs to walk 6 km so she just uses the treadmill to exercise. But that kind of exercise bores me to tears, that’s why gyms don’t work for me. I need to be out. That’s why I loved football when I could still play because I could be out in the field, rain of shine, under the wide, wide skies…
Looking down University Avenue. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
It took me 1.5 hrs but it involved a lot of stops because I was replying to emails on my phone and I rested a bit here at Quezon Hall/Oblation to drink water and take a little breather.
Underneath The Oblation. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
It’s windy up here.
I feel good about myself when I walk or bike. I still can’t jog because of my busted knee. I need to see a doctor for this 😥 But for a 42-year-old woman, I look ok. I still don’t look old and wrinkled like leather like some people. My back though feels 50 years old 😆 My face looks puffier, so that means I gained so much weight ever since I stopped biking (when the heavy rains started). I have exactly 15 days to get in shape so I can dive two weeks from now. I have ruined my breathing because of the extra weight I gained but my stamina is still there.
Next time I will target 10km for 1.5 hrs or less. 🤪
This is the reward for cozying up with despots like Duterte and criminal families like the Marcoses. Manuel Villar acquired the franchise of ABS-CBN (after the latter was stripped off it by the demon Duterte) in a midnight deal with the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) that surprised us all.
The bastards.
Meanwhile, ABS-CBN and PLDT had to call off the x-deal between them (PLDT’s acquisition of a stake in SkyCable and in return ABS-CBN gets to acquire TV5) because of political pressure from the House of Representatives.
This is to make sure there would be no opposition media.
I never thought I would live to see such things happening again.
I was set to attend Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR)’s meeting with journalists about “what next?” and how we can maneuver in these dangerous times. However, I was too busy that I forgot about it 😶 Geez.
On the brighter side of life, I was able to cook a dish in my Instant Pot this morning. Chicken curry (using an Ottogi curry mix) for 5 mins only in the Instant Pot. Five minutes. Perfect for very busy homemakers.
Chicken curry on rice. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
The potatoes and carrots were soft and easy to eat, as is the chicken. It was lovely to have lunch within minutes of putting all the ingredients.
I’ll just have to check my power consumption since this gadget consumes 1000 watts of power. 🥴🥴🥴
Finally issued a manager’s check to my contractor for the 50% down payment through my mom this morning. Construction materials will be arriving tomorrow and I’m scared and at the same time excited that this is finally happening.
I’m scared because I will be going back home and I’m afraid of shrinking my world again. My hometown is like a nice cocoon that is very comfortable that will also stifle my personal growth.
While I was walking from my apartment to UP yesterday, I felt melancholic that I would soon be leaving the scenes I had been seeing for the last 20 years or so of living here in QC. I felt a tug in my heart when I watched the sunset and the colors that painted the sky. I will be leaving the memories of walking there in the evenings holding hands with someone, as well as the heartaches I had whenever I remembered those times while I was already walking alone. I will be leaving the pain that tore through me when I biked or walked around the campus when I was trying to recover my lost self.
Biking along University Avenue, UP DIliman. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
UP Diliman was home to me, a substitute for my hometown, minus my nosy family. I started graduate school there in 2003 and it has always been my go-to place when I wanted some comfort. It was where I brought my girls when they were still babies until now, to spend the weekend running around the grassy fields because we don’t have enough open spaces here in the city.
I will miss the convenience of having two grocery stores within 100m-200m away from my house and the many restaurants/food kiosks that dot the village. I will miss having Grab delivery just within minutes of me. Lazada and Shopee deliveries are easy because the QC hub is probably just near here.
Suddenly I have an epiphany…
I’m sad because I will be exchanging my freedom for convenience of having family nearby so my girls will grow up in a village, with a male role model (my brother), with cousins, grandma and aunties. They will help keep an eye on them while I’m away. I’m scared that I will be forfeiting a chance to have someone new in my life because my family is nosy.
I’m exchanging my personal growth for what is best for my girls.
Because it’s no longer about me. I want them to have the best childhood and teenage years I could offer them with my meager resources. I want them to have the best education I could afford and manage.
So children, if you’re already reading this when I’m already dead, I hope you realize now that I gave up my life and personal growth for you so you can have the best.
In the open fieldnear UP MassComm. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
