Author Archives: admin

Concert machine

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My concert machine. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I moved around furniture in my room, trying to figure out how I can best accommodate my piano that has been stuck in the huge closet with no purpose. I’m not getting my money’s worth if it’s just hidden there. Well, after some huffing and puffing, I reverted to the previous set-up and adjusted my worktable and the Ikea drawer.

A little bit tighter now. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

This set-up works for now; that area was dead space anyway. I tried playing for an hour and I think this will do for now. I mean I will just roll away from my desk to my piano to de-stress.

Prior to this room reconfiguring, I washed the girls’ old running shoes using the mini washing machine. I will give these away when we go home to my mom’s this coming weekend. They turned out clean! Yey! I no longer need to brush shoes manually. I am getting my money’s worth from this tiny machine. I now always have clean rags and foot mats.

Sushi ruining my bag. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

My cats are happy that I’m home the entire day. They have this separation anxiety that I find endearing; but I have mixed feelings regarding this when it comes to humans. Good thing my girls outgrew this because it causes me anxiety; there’s always this guilty feeling that I need to come home soon or I always had to bring them with me wherever I go. I couldn’t have my “Me” time.

same thing now with my cats. When my girls tell me that my cats are waiting for me in my room and they don’t leave my room because they miss me, I couldn’t help feel that I needed to come home immediately. Sushi especially has this weird separation anxiety. They told me that while I was away in Singapore, Sushi never left my room and she rarely went down to hang at the living room or elsewhere. She just stayed in my room and slept. I told them not to wash my bedsheets until I arrive so that my cats can still smell me and be comforted.

They always wait outside my bedroom door everyday and wait for me to open it so that they can sleep with me. But of course I don’t want them inside my room when I retire for the night because of their 3 am or 4 am zoomies.

I guess they’re joining me tonight.

I’d rather have cats sleep with me than have somebody who disdains me and was just forced to share my bed because he had nowhere else to go.

Well appointed

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By accident, I came across Kirby Allison as I was searching for a solution to my bags that had been scratched by my cats, among other things. I’m mourning the lost immaculate look of my leather laptop bag so I went to search for some solution or bag restorer to do it. I’m not exactly sure if Blackwing would be able to do it although they posted on Instragram they will be launching bespoke leather bags for women (yey!).

So anyway, while I was searching for some answers, Kirby Allison popped up in my search and I watched his video of how to restore his Italian leather portfolio bag (which is essentially an overnight bag) and got sucked into his world of being a well-appointed gentleman. Reminds of the movie Kingsman, but just the well-dressed part.

Now I am no longer skimping on the important stuff because I see that I spend more if I buy the cheaper brand (hello, American Tourister!). If I can afford it, I will have most of my things custom-made or local so I can have them repaired so they last for decades. My black leather Our Tribe is still going strong even after 8 years and I just had the hardware repaired for minimal cost. Their HQ/factory is just 300m away from my apartment. It’s not showing any signs that it’s about to give up on me and I think it will outlive me.

My pleather binder/Filofax is custom in the sense I chose the color and the hardware and the style. Made in Mandaluyong. Going strong and it still looks new. I’m so happy with it that I want to buy this item for family and friends for Christmas. I want to buy their real leather notebooks and binders next but one thing at a time…

So this afternoon my girls and I went to SM Marikina to buy them sports shoes because the ones we bought from Decathlon no longer fit. Yes. No longer fit. I should have gotten them pairs that are one size bigger. Oh well.

We also bought other stuff in preparation for the face-to-face school comeback, which will happen next month. So they have been completely online since last month and then they will transition to hybrid next month. By November, everybody should be physically in school.

Back-to-school shopping. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I also bought my nephew (my youngest sister’s son) a new backpack because I saw that National Geographic backpacks are 50% off. It’s lightweight, waterproof, and has good padding on the straps and the back—essential for students carrying heavy school books. This isn’t technically a school bag but rather it’s a travel bag for roughing it. But there’s no difference between the kind of abuse school bags and travel bags of backpackers receive when in use.

New spill-proof luncboxes ✅ for the girls and new bedsheets. ✅

Then we had dinner at Calle Reyes again because 1) I don’t want to cook anymore; 2) that’s the restaurant that’s not crowded.

My girls are already ladies. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Reyes Barbecue. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Buko pandan for dessert. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I gave Twin I my new red Himawari backpack that I used as my hand-carried luggage for my trip to Singapore. I realized I can no longer use backpacks for traveling because my back nearly killed me on my way back to Manila. The entire time I was walking around Changi, I just pushed my backpack on a trolley, which defeats the purpose of using a backpack. LOL! So for future travel, either I just carry my light-weight laptop bag or bring my Rimowa cabin-sized four-wheeled luggage so I will not be lugging my heavy laptop around.

Or buy this.

We are populated by idiots

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Dateline Philippines: Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino issues an internal memorandum calling on schools and public libraries to pull out books that contain ‘anti-government’ text.

Who the hell does the Commission on the Filipino Language think it is? We must resist all this historical revisionism and dumbing down of Filipino students.

We must expose these assholes and bring them down. Public torching should be the SOP for such things.

OMG I’m so incensed today.

An asshole editor, who is trying to be relevant, is looking to pick a fight today. Just because he no longer has any reporter left since they all quit and could no longer stomach him, he intrudes into my turf when he clearly doesn’t have any basis and grabs stories from my own backyard. We had a long email thread about his arresting stories on the backend/CMS because I stood my ground and told him that next time he should inform ME first if he is going to poach and mess with a story that I painstakingly edited for four days. I did not back down and told him I will not tolerate such discourtesy and I made sure I cc’d relevant people. Even the reporter who wrote the story couldn’t understand why he was dipping into this story that doesn’t concern him. It’s not even his turf.

He could not even understand how joint ventures work.

What a way to end the week.

I should really pick my battles but damn, this dude really is public enemy number one. And as I promised myself, I will not let anyone disrespect me anymore. Ever.

Ice cream to calm me down. It’s the weekend! Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I was too exhausted, too agitated to relax on the last working hours of Friday. I should have been happy because I had so many scoops this week, especially today. But nhooooo, this asshat idiotor had to rain on my parade.

Ghad, I’m working too hard.

Meanwhile, my mom is super happy that my older sister gave her this:

And I was just thinking about having my own massage chair. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I think I will be a frequent customer of this thing next weekend. Hohoho!

Lemme see, tomorrow we need to pickup the girls’ school uniforms, new PE shoes for Twin I (she already outgrew *again* her PE shoes that we just bought from Decathlon), pick up their Kumon sheets, and let’s see where else we can go to…

Rethinking

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Pizza for dinner. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I am thinking twice about going to S.Korea this October. A lot of people I know now have Covid and the cases are rising exponentially again. The girls said their dad has Covid since his sister and her entire family caught it on their way back from Switzerland.

Data from the Department of Health.

Some friends and colleagues abroad are sick with Covid. My cousin in Ireland and her husband got hit, too.

Data from the DOH

The positivity rate does not tell the whole picture because a lot of people I know just used antigen test kits at home so these positive cases via antigen don’t get reported to DOH as they just elect to self-isolate.

Today just broke me.

Too many things going on and this added to my busy-ness. I was uploading a digest, I had to chase after a deal that I had been after for months years will soon be announced (either tomorrow or early next week). At the same time, I am tracking some news across the region, which my team and I are trying to piece together. And on top of that I was editing three stories at the same time…To my annoyance these were badly written ones, with missing context or ownership structures are not explained well, details missing, etc. It really tested my patience.

On top of this, I was having an argument with our company database keeper in London. I told her we cannot have the UK entity of the global company that is based in Luxembourg to represent the whole group because that is just the UK entity. The one who made the deal is not the UK entity but the Asia one and since we don’t have the proper company record for the Asian entity of the private equity firm, we must use the global one, which is the Luxembourg one. BUT NHOOOOOOOO! These guys in our London office are UK-centric—thinking that the world revolves around them—so we must use the UK entity. WHAT THE FUCK?! The funds used in the deal are Asia-specific funds, therefore, using the UK entity, with its own UK-EU funds, is legally wrong. Why can’t they understand that???

My boss in our Seoul office said I shouldn’t reply anymore because it was not going anywhere. I replied that I no longer have the energy to do so, yeah I will let it end there. And if the global entity sues, I will show them the long email thread of our argument.

By 4 pm I was so exhausted that I fell asleep despite drinking teh tarik. Caffeine was not enough to keep me alive. I woke up 2 hrs after and ordered pizza for dinner.

I think a beach trip is in order.

Here we go again Part 2

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When will zoonosis stop? Perhaps never. It’s nature’s way of flashing the dirty finger at humanity.

Can we just keep them within their borders??? I mean none of their citizens can leave the country now since their passports are held or are no longer renewed (Zero-Covid policy of China). This ought to stop the spread of this new zoonotic disease, methinks.

Time check: It’s 10:45 pm and I’m still working. Replying to emails, uploading stories, picking up stories to edit first thing in the morning…OMG why am I doing regular OT? I am burning myself out.

On the side, I’m having an exchange with a former presidential spokesperson regarding nuclear power on Twitter…

I need a life. HAHAHAHAHAHA!

Have paper bag, have cat. And another cat. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

My life now revolves around my children–the twins and the cats.

I should probably take time off…drive to Zambales with gay extraordinaire K and dance on the beach and have drinks by the bonfire. He messaged me today to check up on me. I said I may go to S.Korea in October while he said he has no travel plans yet. I said maybe we should go on a roadtrip. Then he suggested we go to Zambales by the end of this month…Will have to check my calendar as I have to bring the girls to my hometown on the 19th to prepare them for the simulation entrance exam to be conducted by their review school. It is yet to be decided if this would be conducted F2F but I have to prepare just in case.

Now I wonder how I would fit the buffing and polishing of my car into my schedule.

Tonight I made cold soba with zaru soba sauce and flaked roasted chicken. We’re laying off red meat for a while after that high blood-inducing, 10-hr bulalo that tasted heavenly but deadly. I still have the bulalo broth that I can use for pho, which I plan on making this week as well.

Zaru soba. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

My girls like the cold soba and the ready-made sauce that I bought from SM Hypermarket in Marikina. Since it is a hypermarket, it has more imported food items like Japanese sauces and noodles.

I wonder what I would serve for lunch and dinner tomorrow…

Ah the men in my life didn’t know they had it good with me because I can cook. Idiots.

Need some inspiration

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New keycaps. The keyboard is cuter now. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

To inspire me to type long passages today. LOL. As if.

This arrived late in the afternoon. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

The keys feel much better than the stock keycaps that came with RK61, less clackety but still has this satisfying clicks since they’re blue switches.

However nice my keyboard looks and feels like, I’m still not inspired enough to finish what I need to finish as I’m not done with the things I needed to write and publish today. TOO MUCH ADMIN WORK! Then a reporter got stuck; couldn’t access our system and I had to act as a go-between her and our IT guys in HK and Mumbai. Then an application for our job ad in Bangkok came through so I need to schedule calls…

It’s already 7:03 pm and I’m not yet halfway through with the digest I need to publish soon.

Some cuties to keep me company during this bed weather day…

These fluffies refuse to leave my side. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

Entrance exams

My kids and I are preparing the entrance exam requirements today. We’re filling up our applications for Philippine Science High School as it turns out their grades have qualified them to take the entrance exam (above 85%). However, we need to wait a little bit because we still need to submit their 1st or 2nd quarter grades by November before they can take the exam in December. Our target school’s exam will also be in December.

I was also looking at the requirements for Quezon City Science High School and it looks like we need an endorsement from the principal to certify their grades will qualify them to take QSci exam.

The girls are complaining that their classmates in their review school could keep up with the advanced lessons because it seemed like they have already taken up those in regular school (and their school is based in my hometown). In contrast, my girls said most of the lessons/concepts tackled in the review and practice exams were alien to them at first—they only encountered those for the first time in review school. That was why before I left for Singapore, I had to help them answer the sample tests to supplement the lectures given to them by review school.

Just as I suspected, the schools in my hometown are advanced compared to Metro Manila counterparts. This was first observed by my bff C, whose niece first went to an elementary school in our hometown. After her parents split, this niece transferred to St. Paul Pasig to live with her mom. She later complained that the lessons in St. Paul were late–they have already tackled those in her old school in our hometown. So when she passed our high school’s entrance exam, she went back to live with her maternal grandparents to study there. I think she already graduated college from UP.

I don’t know why this is so. Maybe because we are a university town, thus, basic education around the area had to be competitive? Maybe because of the existence of my high school, so other competing high schools had to level up? I will know later when we transfer there. All I know is that the kids there have more school days than their counterparts in Metro Manila as class suspensions in my hometown are not as frequent compared to Metro Manila. We didn’t have to contend with epic floods and horrendous traffic then. Kids here in the city have to wake up at 4:30 am so they can leave for school at 5:30 am and reach their school at 7 am. Imagine that horrible commute everyday. The kids are always tired.

This is the primary reason why I chose to live where I am now so my children will just be within 2 km radius of their school even though it would make my own commute for work horrible. I want them to be less stressed about the commute so they can stay awake in school.

I remember in elementary we only had to wake up at 6 am so we can take public transportation at 6:30 am and be in school at past 7 am. But in high school, our family transferred to a new house within the university campus so our school was just 100 meters away from our house. LOL. Living near our schools made a huge difference in terms of our scholastic performance and participation in extra curricular activities. It was just I had different priorities in high school. Hahahaha! Well in the end it served me well since it was the arts that saved my ass.