For some reason, I slept very well last night. I didn’t wake up at 5am, as usual, but rather 7+ am.

I just wanted to savor the cosiness of being at home, without any agenda.

This is what weekends are for.

(ALMOST) BUDOL 1:

After attending a boring press conference and interviewing a Japanese company president, I went straight to SM Mall of Asia to meet my sister in law who wanted to check out the Manila International Book Fair (MIBF) at SMX.

While waiting for her, I tried to have my old Lenovo laptop that I handed down to Twin I repaired at some random shop at SM Cyberzone. Its battery (even if I just had it replaced) was shot and some keys on the keyboard were not functioning. I was quoted at least PHP 7k for it. It’s about 3.5k for the battery that must fetched from their warehouse, 3k – 3.5k for the keyboard, and 1.5k for the reinstallation of Win 11 because the guy said it needs a fresh install since the OS is a upgrade from Win 10. He also said that he needs to check if the hard drive needs replacing because it’s booting up really slowly.

Right there — that part about replacing the hard drive made me think twice about this guy. First off, the HD is SSD and it’s not like the old HDD technology with spinning disk, which tends to slow down as it ages.

I said it’s too much, might as well buy my daughter a tablet that can be a laptop substitute (kinda like my Samsung Tab S8.

I checked out Samsung, Honor, and Lenovo tablets and they were all viable alternatives. But my girl decided against buying a tablet because “it’s too much money” and said she’ll ask her dad for a hand-me-down laptop.

Knowing that their dad is kinda slow when it comes to such things, I decided to do the repairs myself.

I took out the battery and did a fresh reinstallation of Win 11. The guy at the repair shop was BS. I was able to reinstall without reverting to Win 10. I’m currently waiting for the updates to finish and see if the laptop still lags. If not, I will install the latest Ubuntu on this thing.

I just checked Lazada and Shopee, the replacement battery is only 1k while the keyboard is less than 1k.

BUDOL 2:

I parked at Ikea parking area, so to cross to SMX, I must use the bridgeway at the second level. That meant that I would land at the second level of MIBF, where most of the stationery vendors were.

And that’s where the budol began and ended.

I bought all those pens and markers and all other art materials that I could haul.

I’ve already spent so much money and I haven’t even gone down to the ground floor where all the major publishers were. 🫠

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I just stayed at home yesterday and was still surprisingly productive. I just got tired from all that driving plus it was raining. Better reserve my energy for Thursday and Friday…

So here I am, back in the city. I spent 15 mins looking for parking space 🤦🏻‍♀️. Good thing that the forum I covered this morning started late.

After drafting my 3rd story for the week, I dumped my laptop in my car and window-shopped in Glorietta.

I wasn’t looking for anything in particular; I was just waiting for traffic to ease up.

I will not be tempted by Nitori. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope.

But I somehow ended up here.

Nope. Nope. Nope. I need to sock away money because the US is headed (if not already in) for a recession. Yield curves are getting steeper while growth is tanking. Tough times ahead for the rest of the world.

I decided to book a hotel because I don’t want to wake up at 5 am just to be at a presscon in Makati at 9 am on a Friday. 🫠

I’ll take it easy tomorrow.

USD 160 (PHP 9,000+) for a tube of beeswax and coloring?! Come on, LVMH, you gotta be kidding me!

I have a million lip products in my bags and drawers and there are only a few times that I managed to finish a tube (shout out to Happy Skin!) and those things cost less than USD 20. I already grumble if a lipstick costs me USD 20.

Pat McGrath, NARS, Urban Decay or Clinique don’t even cost USD 40 per tube and they’re some of the nicer ones in the market. Just because you have Louis Vuitton stamped on the tube, you already have the audacity to charge USD 160 for that?!

Ah but this is the brand that makes Neverfull in China and charges USD 3000 for it. It’s not even made of leather—stamped canvas for thousands of USD.

I literally rub elbows with the richest people in this country (can’t avoid it if I regularly do ambush interviews with them) and I casually check out their accessories because I’m nosey like that. I seldom or never see them toting LV-stamped bags. They may be carrying inconspicuous brands like Loro Piana, Berluti, or Moynat so that’s why I couldn’t decipher them.

Or they’re more practical people than those who buy screaming logos.

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Last night I went ballistic on my daughters because they can’t hear me with those giant earphones and ear buds jammed up their ear canals. I kept shouting and slamming doors.

My fuse always short-circuits these days.

I easily get tired and sluggish. I hate the world.

Welcome to the world of perimenopause.

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I’ve been awake since 5 am, cooking breakfast and lunch to pack for school. I also cooked for Twin A because she needs to bring the food to Technology and Livelihood Education class. I can’t go back to sleep. I will be groggy all day. And cranky.

I don’t want to deal with so many interview rejections today.

I hate my hormones.

I don’t want to people today. No people-ing for this week. My social battery was never recharged this weekend.

Ghad, I hate my hormones.

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I’m so wrong. I need to people today. When I messaged my friend L if there are important coverages today and tomorrow, she told me she was on the way to a CEO conference. I quickly jumped and took a shower and rushed to BGC. Our Manila reporter is sick (and has been out of commission since last week) so I am pinch-hitting for her this week.

Good thing I left at 9 am, already past the rush hours so it only took me 1 hr and 38 mins to reach my destination. 🫠

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I’ve been playing for 7.5 hrs now. 🤦🏻‍♀️ I need to sleep.

It started with WRC 8 on my laptop. I was getting frustrated because my wrists were getting tired but I couldn’t budge out of my ranking.

Because my wrists were already hurting, I decided to play a more casual cosy game, Stardew Valley. It turns out, it’s more addicting than I anticipated and Twin I has been laughing at me because I couldn’t get out of my gaming chair.

This is dangerous.☠️

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Jon Batiste may be my favorite individual musician to date. His enthusiasm and joy for life is infectious. And he plays one of the most difficult genres for me: Jazz.

The foley part of this video is just the start of something magical. His entire collaboration with Josh Harmon here is a joy to watch. Jon Batiste explained exactly why I’m having a hard time playing jazz on the piano: it drops beats in unpredictable ways. There are so many technically proficient pianists around who can play Franz Liszt flawlessly, but jazz… it comes from  the artist’s feelings that can’t be taught in any conservatory of music. Either you have it or you don’t.

With Jon Batiste, I’m convinced he can see colors when he hears and plays music. It’s similar to how Tori Amos is affected by music. They both have chromesthesia, I think.

Whatever. Jon Batiste is a joy to watch or listen to.

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JOSHUA JACKSON WILL ALWAYS HAVE A PLACE IN MY HEART.

I was a forever Pacey girl. I even wrote a short story based on Pacey/Joshua Jackson when I was in college. ❤️ 😁