Just like during Marcos Sr’s martial law. This has a chilling effect on us in the industry–except of course this doesn’t affect media workers who are Marcos supporters. 🤬 Asshats!
My mom always reminds me to be careful and keep safe. She lived through the killings of the first Marcos era. Now I’m living it now.
I no longer know what’s or who’s next. 😔
We’re so fucked.
While we were in the boat going to the spot where I can dive last Sunday, Twin A accidentally dipped her sling bag that contains her mobile phone into the water. She wanted to take pictures, she said. It got wet and she kept on turning the phone on and off. Expect that some short circuiting will ensue.
They would be going to Cebu by the end of the month so I need them to be accessible via phone ALL THE TIME because I do not trust their dad. I had to have that phone fixed.
I went to Greenhills yesterday to have the LCD replaced.
Painful to watch. Photo by CallMeCreation.comThis is how a wet LCD panel looks like. It still has some salt deposits on it. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
It hurt my wallet. PHP 2,000, including a screen protector.
I will have that kid hung upside down to teach her a lesson.
We stayed behind this morning at the resort so the girls can attend school online while I can have my weekly call with my team and edit some stories. We left at around 12 noon and I decided to have lunch at Twin Lakes Tagaytay because I was hungry.
Taal Volcano. Photo by CallMeCreation.com Lunch at Mary Grace. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
It was windy and the temperature was much lower there. We stayed there for an hour I guess…
And Waze told me to take the Talisay-Tanauan road so it seemed like I took a Taal Loop road trip. The views from Talisay are as pretty, if not prettier than in Tagaytay. The volcano island is much closer to Talisay so you can see how desolate that place is.
From Tanauan, I drove through Sto. Tomas and then Bay, Laguna. We took the MakBan Geothermal route.
Steam from the Mak-Ban Geothermal Power Plant.
Those pipes transport the steam and it runs for several kilometers.
We arrived at my home town after 4 hrs (4:20 pm) because we stopped in Tagaytay for an hour or so. I signed another check to my contractor and looked at the construction progress.
Large windows. Photo by CallMeCreation.com More large windows. Photo by CallMeCreation.comI was told I will have a giant door. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
So far so good. ❤️ I think my father would have been proud of me.
But I think he would have meddled with the construction, just like when he messed around with his brother’s (who is an architect) design. 🤣 Our house turned out differently… And my uncle told me when he first stepped into our house after we moved in, he scratched his head and said, ummm this is not how I drew it. 😱 Since he was 8 years younger than my father, he just didn’t raise an issue and kept his mouth shut forever.
So after my father died and my mom decided to renovate the house to change the layout, my uncle redrew the plans and he put everything to its original position 🤣
After I finished editing the last article for the day, the girls and I went out to have dinner with my sister-in-law and nephew.
With Kuya P. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
We left at 9:30 pm and it took me only 1.5 hrs. to reach the apartment via Skyway 3.
Basicall, I’ve been driving for most of the day. 😑
After several months, I finally had a chance to freedive again. Even though there was nothing to see except for some dead corals and some fish, I was glad I was able to practice again and my lungs had a good workout. My long fins really made a huge difference because they allow me to dive deeper with less effort.
Photo by CallMeCreation.com
It was difficult though because we had with us my indescribable nephew. So after an hour we had to leave.
The rest of the morning was spent in the pool.
Twin A. Photo by CallMeCreation.comTwin I. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
To satisy Twin I’s deep desire to get thrown in the middle of the sea, we hired a banana boat driven by a jetski. It was fun but it was difficult to lift myself out of the water because my legs kept slipping off the banana boat; I blame the sunscreen.
Photo by CallMeCreation.com
We were rewarded again with a beautiful sunset to cap our weekend here.
Next time, it will just be the three of us when I’m freer to book Layag Resort in Anilao. It’s difficult to enjoy the weekend if a kid keeps on throwing tantrums.
Putting photography skills to the test. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Fujifilm XQ1 Focal length 25.6mm Aperture f/7.1 ISO 100 Auto white balance Exposure time 1/600 s
We left QC yesterday at 6:30 am and took Skyway 2 to exit at Mamplasan then Silang, Cavite.
I’ve been writing about CALAX since forever but this is the first time I used this Cavite-Laguna Expressway.
It was a smooth drive and we were ahead of our original ETA that I decided to have coffee along Aguinaldo Highway in Silang.
At Starbucks Downhill, Silang Cavite. Photo by CallMeCreation.comLovely breakfast and we’re getting a good dose of vitamin c.
We arrived at the resort at 10:30 am, so minus the Starbucks stop, it took us 2:45 hrs of driving from QC to Lian. Our family room is huge, it was as big or bigger than a two-bedroom condo unit in Makati.
Photo by CallMeCreation.com Photo by CallMeCreation.comPhoto by CallMeCreation.comPhoto by CallMeCreation.com
I left the kids to do their thing while I checked out the rest of the property.
I don’t want to walk around in my swimsuit. Photo by CallMeCreation.comPhoto by CallMeCreation.comPhoto by CallMeCreation.comPhoto by CallMeCreation.comPhoto by CallMeCreation.comPhoto by CallMeCreation.com
I had hung out in one of those floating rafts. And got stranded the rest of the morning there until I got hungry.
Photo by CallMeCreation.comPhoto by CallMeCreation.com
After lunch, we had hung out at the pool because I was tired from the drive to go diving somewhere.
Tequila Sunrise at the pool. Because why not? Photo by CallMeCreation.com
The rest of my family arrived. It’s my mom’s birthday on Thursday and my nephew’s last week so that’s why we’re all here.
Photo by CallMeCreation.comOne of my sisters. Photo by CallMeCreation.comPhoto by CallMeCreation.com Fujifilm XQ1 Focal length 25.6mm Aperture f/9 ISO 100a Auto white balance Exposure time 1/1300 s My sister and nephew. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Oppo Reno 7 Z 5G focal length: 4. 71mm apperture: f/1.7 ISO 100 white balance: auto exposure:1/873 s
Too much sun, two rounds of alcohol, and a too early drive knocked me out flat at 8 pm.
The peso fought back to close higher today but the stock market continued to slide and we are now in bear market territory. The next support level now is at 5,700, which spells disaster for me. I should pray for the market to fight back next week (with some good news that UK economy registered growth in 2Q22) because I need to withdraw some investments in the next two to three weeks. While I have cash so I can issue a check to my contractor by next week, I need to decide soon if I should draw down one fund now (with the outlook that it will not get any better until December) or wait for the corporate Christmas window-dressing. Or before the corporate earnings season around Nov 15.
Meanwhile, the social media universe has exploded when Shopee revealed that its new endorser is Toni Gonzaga, the hypocritical, Bible-quoting actress who blatantly endorsed lies and enabled the Marcoses and Duterte. To make matters worse, the announcement came on the heels of the news that Shopee axed a lot of jobs because it is losing money. People pushing back said, if they’re losing money, why are they even hiring an endorser who is known to charge millions upon millions of pesos at the expense of employees.
So people began uninstalling their Shopee app and deleting their accounts. The noise and the loss of accounts might have been a lot since Shopee started an impromptu survey about endorsers then they started issuing press statements. Then came the dummy accounts that claimed they were former Shopee employees, saying they were well taken care of by Shopee because they got a bonus pay—And we started pushing back against the crisis PR by saying under the law, Shopee is obligated to give retrenched employees separation pay and THOSE ARE NOT BONUSES. Caught their bullshit.
I’ve been calling out the other BS that the crisis PR team had been coming out with. Because I know how PR works and only a few here in the Philippines specialize in that. I’m friends with one crisis PR guy who is on the speed dial of many conglomerates in the Philippines and he has been telling me some tricks of the trade. One of these days I should have drinks with him again.
I should really finish packing now because I would be driving early morning tomorrow—about 5:30-ish???—to go to the beach. I hope it doesn’t rain much this weekend. ❤
