It’s cold, but words about respect keep me warm and fuzzy

It’s only 24 C today but it feels like 21-22 C because of the mountain breeze. I haven’t turned on my aircon in two months. Probably longer.

My kids are out with their friends at the February Fair, which is an annual event organized by the university student council. It started as a Septmeber Fair, a protest against the first Marcos regime. Because September is a stormy/rainy month, they moved it to February, which is generally a dry month. They continued to hold the fair every February in two campuses of our university for several decades now.

Meanwhile, here is one of our foster kittens.

Eyes already open. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I already set up an appointment with a vet who specializes in trap, spay, and release cats. She told me mommy cat has to rest for a month before she could spay her. I hope in between she won’t go in heat.

I also answered a journalist survey and this is what I answered:

Number 12 is just too 🤦🏻‍♀️. They’re the most difficult to deal with. Too many demands, too many conditions, they want to control the narrative and behave like we are paid PR writers 🤬 Good thing that we are no longer covering them as HQ deemed they’re a waste of time.

The most annoying thing is they get so much media mileage from us given that we’re global. Really annoying.


M, my friend who consulted me about career moves, was finally convinced to set a definite deadline when to give his notice. I told him that as an editor, I would appreciate it if my reporter would give me a heads up so I can finally move on and search for a replacement. Any sane editor should always be prepared for this because our industry is so stressful and the pay is not commensurate to the amount of anxiety and stress we get. An editor is lucky if the reporter sticks around for more than two years. This friend has been hospitalized several times due to anxiety (palpitations, high blood pressure) and time and time again I told him to quit and move on.

Because I already gave him my perspective as an editor and manager, he now feels less guilty if he tells his editor he is now bailing out. I told him to give his boss two months’ notice so he can train his replacement. I told him that two weeks’ notice is acceptable in our industry, but just to make himself feel less guilty, opt for 30 days to 60 days—enough time to show the newbie the ropes.

This guilty feeling was one main reason why he kept putting off his resignation.

Now as for his next venture, he was offered a position in a startup. But the catch is he will be giving up any semblance of impartiality or clean journalism because…I better leave it like that. I told him to consult R, the well-known (to us) crisis PR who is on the speed dial of all conglomerates here.

So he did.

M told me that my name cropped up in their lengthy conversation over dinner last week. M said that R respects me so much and that I am top of mind when it comes to the best journo to hire to pull in readers. And I have a clean name.

That was nice of him. ❤️

M said it seemed like R was scoping me that’s why he drove all the way to Sta Rosa to have dinner with me to pick my brains a few weeks ago. No wonder it felt bizarre. Anyway, he was already looking for someone to take over his business. R also offered to teach M the ropes if he decides to go to the dark side.

I would have been tempted because the money is really good. Like really, really good.

But I love journalism. I don’t know if I can stomach being a spinmaster for the likes of, let’s say CEB, which is the worst airline you can take. I’m too combative and too much of a crusader to switch to the dark side.

But then I told M, that if he decides to go to the dark side to be trained by R and not take that startup gig, he should wait for me in a couple of years because I’ll join him. One day I will get tired of this and just decide I just want to get rich. Anyway, I already know how to strategize media communication and do PR work. I’ve been giving advice for free anyway. J, the ex, has benefited from my network and expertise for free.

Speaking of which, I will be a resource person for a workshop on comms to be conducted by a global organization this month.

Maybe I do really have a knack for it, no? 🤔

Working with hands

Asia today is very quiet. Only one journo from Australia submitted a story and that’s it. I just spent the day scrolling through artworks and videos on Instagram, trying to learn their techniques so that I would be inspired to make some more paintings and improve myself.

But I am creatively spent. I didn’t realize that you could be drained of creativity if you keep painting everyday. I just wonder how those artists with deadlines make it through….

I had chicken rice in my fridge and heated it up, less work. I am so lazy today; it seems like the stress of the past weeks has not seeped out of me still.

Left over chicken rice and sparkling red grape to make me feel better. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Meanwhile, I placed this in the girls’ room until Twin A makes a better painting to be placed here. Art and photo by CallMeCreation.com

I needed to do something with my hands today but I couldn’t bring myself to paint. So I took the garments to be repaired and sewed. You see, we are a wasteful society and to keep me from throwing garments into the landfill, I have to repair some of them over and over until they can no longer be used as they were intended.

Repairing the one of my girls’ pillowcases. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

Speaking of working with hands, this video popped up in my feeds on Youtube and now I want to make my own soap. Goat’s milk soap with essential oils sounds heavenly.

Since I have an outdoor space, I can mess around with lye in my utility area downstairs and make these. I’ve been using lye before to unclog the ancient plumbing in our old house (not the apartment) in Quezon City so I’m no stranger to this dangerous chemical.

Another video I’m immersed in right now is how Hermes makes its bags (by Vogue). As a bag hag, this is lovely to watch. I’m in awe of artisans and their craft. While I could not and would not be able to afford an Hermes in this lifetime—a new Birkin costs a minimum of USD 10,500 each while a vintage one costs a minimum of USD 25,000—I still appreciate this video for the craftsmanship and the process of creating these leather goods.

Which brings me to my original intention of enrolling in a bag-making workshop with Soulflower Co. What’s tragic is that their studio used to be within my old neighborhood in QC, in Teachers Village, to be precise…So easy to make time for when I was there. *Sigh* Now I have to drive back all the way there.

I want to do too many things, but I have too little time.

While we’re on the topic of Hermes, this is a fascinating story of how LVMH sneakily tried to wrest Hermes from the founding family—through the global financial crisis. As a business journalist, this is very, very interesting indeed.


Follow your heart bullshit. I just counseled two friends about careers at the same time on different occasions last week. In the process of eliciting their deep-seated desires and parsing them, I also had some kind of epiphany myself.

Lotus by the lakeshore

Art and photo by CallMeCreation.com

I found that I have more trouble making flowers via gouache compared to watercolors. I realized I could easily make this on wet on dry technique with watercolors but on gouache it has to be layers upon layers of alternating colors until you get the tone right.

Invest in more expensive brushes because they pick up color better. Most of my brushes now are the better kind but I still couldn’t bring myself to buy Escoda. Perhaps one of these days.

I would really love to have a studio like this.

Perhaps I would not be able to work on my day job if I have my own studio.


Exhausted and failed animé-inspired painting

Let’s start painting again. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I was so exhausted yesterday that I didn’t do anything. Today I just slept the day away as the antihistamine I took knocked me out. My battle with pollens will be a lifetime one because I can’t do anything about the flowers and the trees around me and I am living here permanently. I promised Twin I we were supposed to drive to Caliraya today but I just couldn’t. I needed to sleep.

Let’s start painting.

Trust the process. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I’m not really that happy with it. Art and photo by CallMeCreation.com

I couldn’t even make a decent animé-inspired version of Hitachi Seaside Park. 😶

I should stick to small format gouache paintings for the meantime.

Long weekend = carmageddon

South Luzon Expressway at 1 am. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I was at Maginhawa until 12 am because EDSA was horrible, a friend messaged us. He was driving from Greenbelt in Makati to Quezon City. I told L that we can hang out at Bo’s Coffee until 12 midnight and supposedly traffic would be much better by that time.

Nope. SLEX is…😭

Got home at 2 am.

And our friend who was driving from Greenbelt to QC? He never made it to Maginhawa to see us.

I’d better sleep this off. But I had three 12 ml coffee cups today. ☕


Not yet done…Tadaaaah!

Still fixing this monstrosity. Art and photo by CallMeCreation.com

I tried to push the envelope yesterday by attempting to paint another scene last night after producing that starry sea scape in the afternoon. Because I drained my creative juices to the hilt, I ended up with a less than desirable interpretation of my photo of a tree at Hitachi Seaside Park. I stopped and slept.

I said I will sleep and fix it today.

This is how I work; little space for everything else. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I used an old chipped ceramic plate as a mixing palette because plastic ones get stained and it’s hard to remove the paint that could contaminate my other colors. Since I told myself that I would be continuing this tonight, I didn’t bother cleaning up but it was sooooo wrong. I ended up working on my day job around this mess. And to think I was so busy today editing time-sensitive stories, one of which is a follow-up to our market-moving story two weeks ago. I was editing until 7 pm tonight…

In between edits, my seamstress arrived to make a final fitting for the sofa covers. I needed to have my covers custom made because 1) I want sturdy but comfortable fabrics that are resistant to my cats’ nasty claws; 2) they have to fit perfectly to my sofas for a more elegant look.

Yes, it’s grey. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

Yes call me boring but I had no choice in terms of color because the material that I wanted is not available in other colors. My priority is comfort and strength rather than aesthetics. Once I have more fabric options, I will have another set made for my two sofas. I need two sets because I can’t leave the sofa bare while I have the covers washed.

Meanwhile, I was doodling, practicing on making human figures while I was on a call.

I suck at drawing human figures. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

Ok let’s see how my rehabilitation efforts on my disaster of a painting would look like…


Tadaaah! Art and photo by CallMeCreation.com

Tree in the sea of nemophila at Hitachi Seaside Park in the style of Van Gogh.

Hitachi for me was like Arles for Van Gogh. I cannot capture its beauty but I can translate on paper how I felt about it.

I can now sleep.

Tomorrow I can try painting á la Studio Ghibli.

I need to drive first to Quezon City for some banking KYC stuff and meet a friend who needed career advice. Actually two friends needed career advice, both asking whether they should stay in journalism or not.

I both told them leave their respective companies now if they’re not growing. It doesn’t matter if it’s still in journalism or not.