Author Archives: admin

Sad

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It’s an understatement.

My APAC head was pirated by our former APAC head to join her in her new consulting firm. She will leave us in three months. I had been pushing for people to move up; was counting on her to back me up.

But then, I can’t fault her. She has been with the company since forever and she needed a new challenge.

I feel bummed out today after my call with her.

And I’m having a hard time hiring in Jakarta, Bangkok, and Singapore. My manager isn’t exerting much effort to help. I need to fill up these vacancies before my APAC boss leaves. I am going nuts here; my ass is tied to my chair and couldn’t really actively hire in these markets due to travel restrictions.

stressed woman covering her face with her hands
Photo by Anna Shvets on Pexels.com

All the more that I shouldn’t move to Singapore; it’s too much of a gamble to uproot ourselves with this kind of leadership issues we’re having. Our former APAC head knows what my goals are and she knows that I’m not into client-facing jobs. I can chase stories and network like crazy but chasing contracts is a stretch for me. That’s why she hasn’t and she won’t pirate me.

One Singapore-based high school friend who is a lawyer for one of the big global investment banks told me I should grab the opportunity to relocate there. I pointed out to her the cost of sending children to school. She agreed that education for foreigners there is prohibitive but she said it’s doable. Well, with her income level it’s doable. Journalists don’t earn much in Singapore like bankers and lawyers and I would be pinching pennies there. I don’t want a lower quality of life just because we need to grab the opportunity to live in Singapore!

I hope I will feel better and optimistic tomorrow. Right now I’ll just wallow in frustration and sadness.

My flat’s proposed plan by my contractor.

So now we have the right dimensions. This is about the same as some mid-priced condos here in Metro Manila but I have a garden and more space to move about outside. I can build an extra office or studio in the garden. Besides, when we’re back in my hometown, we won’t be spending our time inside all the time because it’s so easy to be outdoors there. The mountain is just by our doorstep. Sports and recreation is literally walking distance. My high school friends are even planning a year-end camping trip in Caliraya–those things are easy to manage when you already live there.

And when I’m old and grey, this space is easy to manage. I’ll just have a two-person elevator installed.

Back after two years

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Waiting for my food at 3F Lasema. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

Since it’s Bonifacio Day today = no school, the girls asked me if we can go to Lasema. I was thinking of having a massage so, why not?

The staff recognized the girls and were happy to see that they have grown up, pimples and all. They also said I lost weight; I replied Covid is a good weight loss program.

We spent more than four hours there. The girls went back and forth the hot tubs and the dining area three times while I had my massage after spending an hour in the hot tubs. Then I went back again just to remove the oil in my body. It was an expensive Bonifacio Day outing so that’s why we made sure we got our money’s worth. If only the girls didn’t have to wake up early tomorrow, we could have napped there and gone back to the hot tubs for a final soak before calling it a night.

My back aches didn’t go away but at least my muscles have relaxed.

Meanwhile, my cats have gone crazy.

Laser!!! Photos by CallMeCreation.com

Been driving my cats bonkers with our new laser pointer. They have been chasing up and down that little red dot. It’s a good physical exercise for them, especially chunky Kimchi.

The trip to the onsen is now making me sleepy. G’night.

Back to singing live–online for now

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This was our livestream set-up last night. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

So we had our livestream last night that lasted 2.5 hrs. People were telling us this was our most enjoyable episode to date, with jamming sessions in between questions during our in-person and Zoom interviews. One of the interviewees was live from Texas. I had an amazing guitarist, while one of the co-hosts played the keyboard and I was singing and manning the Zoom meeting that was livestreamed as well. Other co-hosts also provided backing vocals or main vocals as needed. I played the tambourine-like percussion instrument in one song. Everything was spontaneous–and that was the most fun part.

The “studio”, which was a porch/wood workshop of one of our high school classmates/co-hosts, was messy but it didn’t show much in the livestream, but we gotta do something about it soon.

We had so much fun that I left the studio at 12:30 am and got home in Qc at around 1:45 am. I had black brewed coffee to keep me alert on the road and maintained my speed at 80kmph, except when overtaking.

Before the livestream, I visited my mom and brought her purple flowers, drilled some stuff in the upstairs bathroom of the main house and added a new shower head. Then visited one of high school friends who was back in the country and gave her more of my hand-made masks and some for her kids.

One of things that I needed to do during this visit was to get my old watercolors/pencil/charcoal drawings to hang in my room.

I resisted the urge to fill this gallery wall because I need some white space to let the room breathe. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
“Mommy, your drawing is nice but King Charles II is ugly,” Twin A said. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
My hand-sewn curtains provided a nice contrast to the modern black frames of the pictures. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
This watercolor painting is a reminder. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

As I wrote on an Instagram post:

I used to paint and draw in high school. I found these in my room in xxx (hometown) and framed them to grace my room here in QC to remind me of who I was before I lost myself in ugliness and sadness. I have found that girl again, even though she’s xx heavier now, she’s still the same old creative person, richer in experiences. (By the pond, watercolor, CallMeCreation 1994).

I was 18 years old here against the ruins of the Old Chemistry building that was gutted by fire when I was in elementary school. I always lugged my film SLR camera around campus during this time after I took photography for one semester. I processed and printed this b&w photo in our college’s darkroom. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I found this girl. The girl who balanced football, theater, school, her Greek-letter organization, and social life. She is her own person. Her heart was yet to be broken and become jaded in this photo.

Revenge shopping

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My new peach rose. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

Last Thursday I couldn’t help myself, I still bought a new rose bush and a sunflower.

I have yet to transfer it to a terracotta pot. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
My white rose blooming again. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

With careful tending, my white rose bush is blooming again while my mini pink rose and yellow rose are forming buds again. Roses require a lot of attention like regular fertilizing, deadheading, and trimming.

Sunflower past its prime. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

Meanwhile, this sunflower seems to be always thirsty. This big flower is past its prime but it has a number of buds at its back. Needs careful tending as well.

Today we went to Tiendesitas to buy Twin I a new bathing suit from Decathlon since the new one I bought a couple of months ago no longer fit her. They will be going to the beach with their dad during the Christmas holidays so I need to buy them new clothes. It’s hard to rely on home measurements or eyeballing shoe sizes and clothes.

Trying the archery set at Decathlon Pasig. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I went overboard though. Not only did I buy them new running shoes (because Twin’s growing feet could no longer fit in her months-old shoes), I bought them sports bras, running jerseys (to use when we go biking), duffel bags, and sleeping bags for our camping trip in January.

Then we ate ramen at Tenya, the first time we ate out since the pandemic began last year in March. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
I want to buy some Japanese lanterns. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
To make this little corner alive. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

We dropped by at Mr. DIY for some home improvement stuff and miscellaneous items that the girls bought as gifts to their best friend who is celebrating her birthday tomorrow. The girls will be picked up tomorrow by the their friend’s parent while I will be driving to my hometown because we have a livestream at 8 pm.

And I bought fake flowers because I couldn’t have real ones inside the house. Because cats.

We bought a laser pointer to play with the cats. They need more exercise. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

And I finally finished the last panel of my granny curtains for my room. I’m running out of projects to do.

My room is getting cozier. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

My high school friends said I should bring my new piano tomorrow so we could jam. I missed being in a band–mostly the jamming sessions with friends. The part where we were on the road for gigs…not so much. That part was exhausting and we had day jobs then.

Hmm I have to bring my camera to take a video, for posterity’s sake. Jamming session after 20 years.

Hiring woes

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I did nothing today but reach out to prospective candidates for hiring. Been trying to poach reporters from other news wires (tough) and other international media entities. Trying to hire locals with English skills in Indonesia and Thailand is so hard. Since I am the one training and editing the junior reporters who have come and gone from our bureau, I know what I’m looking for: Grit and willingness to learn and be down in the trenches.

It doesn’t matter if this person doesn’t have financial journalism background but as long as this person has the above-mentioned qualities, I am willing to take him/her under my wing and teach that person everything I know.

So far… I haven’t seen that, even in our recent hires. 🤦🏻‍♀️ It’s hard especially in this current tight labor market.

Some friends who had a dinner party somewhere in the metro yesterday had been talking about the difficulty of hiring new reporters. The Gen Z kids no longer want to be permanently employed; they prefer to be freelancers and not be tied in one place. These are the kids who grew up with the gig economy, with all those influencers working with their laptops by the pool side or by the beach. These are the kids who do not embrace the corporate culture and prefer the hipster lifestyle.

With this in mind, and the struggles I’m having with the hiring, I need to compose carefully the things I must say in the career orientation that my high school will be holding next month. I must be encouraging and not preachy, but I have to tell the students the truth that journalism is not glamorous. It’s 90% grit and intellect and the rest is the writing. The pay and hours are horrible. Before I became what I am now, I ate dirt and barely had vacations. I was eating and breathing news. I was like a walking deadline—every moment is a deadline—especially when I was in online news, which operates 24/7.

That said, I shouldn’t compromise on the quality of hires because in the end, it is me who is going to suffer if I have another lazy/slacker dude who would just slap information without being careful about it. I had experienced several take-down threats because our last hire had cut so many corners in pursuing stories. And this person was much older than me 🤦🏻‍♀️ I had a lot of headaches. Lord knows he tried my patience.

That’s the reason why once I take over, I need to keep an eye on each journo under my watch and visit them regularly in their home turf. To keep them on their toes.

But before that, I need to hire two three more people before the year ends.

To power me up today, I had this for brunch:

Scrambled eggs and spicy fish cakes on rice and a bowl of fern salad (with cheese, tomatoes, and onions) and home-made salad dressing. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

The girls and I did a little top-up shopping tonight at Save More. Bringing them with me to do errands to help me carry shopping bags keeps the cobwebs away and their minds healthy.

And we had grilled chicken in barbeque marinade for dinner.

Mmm, smells lovely. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

Happy weekend!

Slow progress

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Lying on my couch, staring at my festive windows. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I’m so tired. Last night before midnight I edited two stories because we’re trying to get ahead of official announcements, but the announcements didn’t happen. 🤷🏻‍♀️ Then I had to reach out to reporters in Singapore, Thailand, and search in Indonesia so that my pool of potential hires would be wider. Answering emails at midnight…

Then I had to deal with my stolen identity issues, filing my report/complaint with the Department of Justice’s Cybercrime unit. Then file evidence with my telco provider so they can track down the location of the scammer. Globe corporate comms people told me it’s hard to track down the scammer because it’s probably a prepaid SIM and that the number is under Smart.

So I talked to Smart and their people told me it can be done and good I have filed with DOJ because the order to investigate and open up the call logs and tracking down the criminal would be coming from them. It’s good I also have the call logs of the victim to the scammer.

But it will take some time.

It was draining. Mentally and emotionally. When writing my report to DOJ, I had to keep myself in check because I have to be clear and concise with my report so I had to hide the anger bubbling inside.

Then I finally sold my piano, not for the price I wanted. I just had to get rid of it. I delivered it this afternoon to the buyer’s house to make sure I’m not scammed. Finally, this guy looked excited with his purchase.

To cheer myself up, I bought a sunflower plant. And another rose bush. And PHP 1000 worth of vegetables and overpriced avocado. Spicy fish cakes, hopang, and Korean ice cream.

Kimchi killing my tissue roll. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Kimchi: What now?! Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Poor tissue roll. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I’m just frickin’ drained.