So I had my meeting this morning at the so-called Sinigang Valley, which is just a strip in Poblacion, Makati and spitting distance from Rockwell Center. The execs that Kr and I chatted with told us that their area is dotted with tech startups and VCs like them. Their office looked like a neat townhouse that sits in the middle of a residential area in Poblacion but is actually an office. I liked it and told them so. I said it’s better than occupying a co-working space in BGC or along Ayala Ave and cost-effective, too. The ground floor is the reception area, which is like a hip reception area of a resort with an open-concept conference room. The top floors are the staff and exec offices. They have a small garden with outdoor sitting area, conducive for meetings.

Poblacion is really the old downtown of Makati (hence the name) that’s why the streets are old and narrow, the lot and house sizes are small. It became notorious in the past decades as it became the red light district (along Burgos St) where dirty old men (local and foreign) from the CBD area flock for some unholy entertainment, which included mud wrestling of women in teeny-weeny bikinis.

The area is now gentrifying as real estate prices continue to climb. A prime spot like that shouldn’t go to waste just because of the presence of seedy establishments. A lot of watering holes have sprouted in the area, and along came the hoteliers. The area where Century Mall and the Century Property condos stand now used to be the campus of International School Manila and I still remember playing a friendly football game there with their girls’ team in the mid-1990s.

Since the Poblacion is very near Ayala—the general CBD area of Makati—it was a good spot for startups and VCs to locate without breaking the bank. There are also decent places to eat that aren’t as expensive as those in BGC. That’s why you have Sinigang Valley there—friendly on the pockets.

Anyway, we finished our meeting at 11 am, had a leisurely lunch at Powerplant with Kr, and I decided that it’s better to drive home early and not be stuck with Friday traffic madness.

By 2:30 I’m back at my hometown. Then I realized I should have my oil change today because I don’t think I would have the time nor motivation to do it next week.

It was quick and I managed to buy new oil and fuel filters next door, which made my life easier.

During the time I was at Powerplant, my sis-in-law told me they were at my house and Kimchi bit my bro. It was my bro’s fault, SIL said, because he was irritating Kimchi.

Of all the strangers that Kimchi had met, it’s only my bro whom she allowed to pet her. For some weird reason, she thought he was familiar. That was the case when they first visited the apartment in QC. Kimchi didn’t run away from bro; she even went near him and smelled him. She probably thought he was J.

Animals do remember. It’s kinda sad though.

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I super miss Zennya massage 😭

Now I have to physically go to the spa and schedule according to available time slots, which is tomorrow afternoon. 😭 In the meantime, I have to content myself by having a robot massage my back. 😭😭😭😭😭

I drove my sister to Sta. Rosa yesterday as she bought an Ogawa leg and knee massager, which was on promo. If you buy that, you get a mobile back massager for free. Anyway, for some strange reason she couldn’t drive the Vios, which was her old car before she bought a Corolla Altis. The reason why we needed to bring the Vios is that she had to have another automatic toll collector RFID installed in the car and only the owners can have a car installed with the RFID strip, she was told.

So I was a driver for the day. In between I was picking up and editing stories. I agreed to do the driving because I needed to go to the nearest Converge office to permanently disconnect my Quezon City line. If I didn’t do it today, I will billed for another month starting 1 June.

Then we went to Wilcon Depot because sister said we need to canvass for a power generator, in case shit happens during a very strong typhoon that cuts off water and electricity. We just had the water reservoir and water pressure pump and pressure tank installed so my water supply and pressure have become decent two days ago. When power is cut off, goodbye water.

When we got home, we suddenly craved for ramyun and I no longer have it at home. Twin I and I went to look for a Korean grocery store to buy our supply of ramyun, tteokbokki, seaweed, and ice cream.

For today, I need to look for a reliable shop, preferably Shell, for oil changes. Shell has my service records and it is centralized so it doesn’t matter if I had my car serviced in QC or here.

The other day I saw a Motech service center so that solves my underchassis maintenance needs.

It’s like I am starting life in a new environment even though I have lived here for half of my life. I needed to search for suppliers of goods and services because things have changed in the last 20 years since I left to live in Metro Manila. My reliable mechanic has died several years ago so I am at a loss and I don’t know where I should bring my car for maintenance and repair.

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Last night’s claypot ramyun.

And for lunch I grilled liempo using my casette griller on top of my stove. I just had to put my range hood at the highest setting to absorb all the smoke. I still can’t grill outside because of the construction work.

And my fascination with rain has come back. It’s no longer a nuisance to me because I no longer live in the city. I have loved watching the rain while I was growing up. It inspires so many creative thoughts within me; it was a perfect time to write or read books while curled up in bed.

This is the view from my window this afternoon.

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After editing xxx number of stories, re-writing one story, finalizing the hiring of one freelancer, I sat on my front steps this afternoon to savor the breeze outside MY house. It hasn’t sunk yet that I own this house. Construction isn’t finished yet (they’re still spray-painting my stair handles and building my laundry area) but I’m here, living in it. It may be small but it’s mine and I can do whatever the hell I want with it.

The view is still messy but I own that view. This moment is a reward for all the shit I’ve been through.

My eyes are watering right now…they’re tears of joy and appreciation. I was already crushed to death but here I am, able to rise from the dead by myself.

I couldn’t have done this without the support of my family, especially my mother. They also put up with almost 10 months of construction craziness.

And to God. It wouldn’t have been possible without Him. I would have been a depressed alcoholic wreck if not for Him.❤️

It’s raining like crazy now outside. I no longer have to feel anxious about a leaking roof or flooding. I would just have to make sure that my screens are tight so that bugs wouldn’t get in.

Do I have to go through hell to be able to do this for me? Probably. Because if I still had a partner, I would have prioritized him and his goals and not mine. I would have made sure that he is happy first before I become happy. This is the first time I had loved myself and the first time someone gave me this kind of gift. No one could have given me this but myself. Because apparently, no one would be able to love me as I had loved my partner. 🤷🏻‍♀️ This is not a pity party; I’m just stating a fact.

So lesson learned: invest in myself.

It has been a long time since I’ve been to Powerplant at Rockwell Center. It only took me 1 hr and 25 mins to get here from my new home—which is not bad given that it was a Monday morning at rush hour.

I woke up really late, like 7 am when I needed to leave at 7:30 but I drove off already at past 8 am. I wasn’t able to cook for the girls so I left cash so they can eat out for lunch. I stopped at a gas station for more coffee on-the-go and gas, but I still arrived before the AGM started. My drive was surprisingly smooth, except for the fact that I was still familiarizing myself with the Vios so I had the engine die on me twice in the middle of a traffic jam because I didn’t floor the clutch pedal hard enough. It has been years since I drove that thing. And yep, none of my siblings drive an automatic transmission because we’re badass like that. When you always have to contend with floods and natural or man-made disasters regularly, you better have a stick-shift so that you can have your car fixed even in the middle of nowhere. I’m a veteran of Ondoy—that crazy tropical cyclone that submerged Metro Manila for weeks. A lot of AT cars were toast at that time but many MTs were fine, including my kei car, which I had used to plow through high water.

Anyway, I had lunch with fellow journos at Grace Park at One Rockwell after the AGM and we all worked at Starbucks at Powerplant after that. It seems like nothing has changed in my work routine except that I now need to pay for toll on expressways. And I have to do this again on Friday because our Manila reporter and I are meeting execs from a firm who we met in Singapore last month.

By chance, we met that friend who lives in Acqua (a condo very near Rockwell) who happened to be buying coffee where we were working. We went, “heeeyyyyy you from across the river!” We gossiped for a bit and laughed our butts off talking about her horrible ex-manager from a long time ago. She didn’t stay long, knowing we are trying to beat deadlines.

It’s nice to be part of civilization when I need to, but also nice to retire to a peaceful home environment in the province. It also took me 1 hr and 30 mins to get back home, even during rush hour (5:30 pm).

Today is all about the cats. I showed the kitties today their cat balcony, which was supposed to be a catio but was badly executed. Obviously, my contractor doesn’t have pets, especially cats.

My contractor and I were not able to understand each other because I wasn’t able to draw the plans on paper 🤦🏻‍♀️. Eventually, I would have to rectify this by adding a wire fence.

My stairs are nearly finished, probably this week it’s going to be fully painted. The tiles are done but are just covered now to save it from the spray paint. I’m still debating whether I should put a bistro table and chairs on that halfway landing or should I use that as a station for my garbage bins 🤔

After I have recovered from the cost of this build, I will have a huge canopy installed to protect this staircase from the rain. My contractor is already drawing plans. But it seems like the solar power system would be more urgent than this so my savings would have to be diverted to solar power installation.

This is the best time to do a bit of small item-shopping. At sunset. Not too hot and not too busy.

Tomorrow I need to drive to Makati to attend a stockholders meeting again. I will drive the Toyota Vios though because my big car’s plate number is banned on Mondays. 🙄

For a change, I woke up at 7 am but stayed in bed for two more hours before getting out of it. I was forced to because my cleaning lady arrived early to do our laundry and clean my tiny house.

It was already 5 pm when Twin I and I went out of the house to buy cat litter. That’s how lazy we are today.

Just as we left our compound, we encountered the Santacruzan to end at the church. So that’s where the marching band sound and firecrackers came from 😂 While I was getting ready to go out I could hear them, thinking that there was a funeral procession going out of the church. It totally escaped my mind that this is the Flores de Mayo season—the whole month of May celebrated by the Catholic Church as a devotion to the Virgin Mary. It culminates in the Santacruzan.

The tradition of the Santacruzan is a semi-religious one but it’s mostly a beauty pageant of sorts in the local barangays. In the olden days, it is the only time the conservative mamas are able to show off their beautiful hijas to the public.

It is said to be a commemoration of St. Helen’s search for the Holy Cross. The queen (a.k.a. Reina Emperatriz or empress) is the mother of Constantine, the first Christian Roman Emperor. So normally, the Reina Elena in the Santacruzan is accompanied by a boy in white, representing little Constantine. The Reina carries a small cross throughout the procession, which she will have blessed by the priest once they reach the church. More often than not, the one chosen to be the year’s Reina Elena is usually the prettiest girl in the barangay, but it has evolved into whoever is the daughter of the rich or politically connected.

I had been a sagala (a girl participant in the Santacruzan) with my younger sister as one of the angels when we were in elementary, years before we moved inside the university campus. In those days, we were deep in barangay activities—we were pretty social with our neighbors.

When I was in high school, we always had our summer vacations in our parents’ hometown in Batangas. One summer vacation, I was invited to be a sagala but I don’t remember accepting the invite because I didn’t know where to get the ball gown and I didn’t want to be fussed over since I think I would have been one of the reinas. I certainly didn’t want to be Reina Elena and be the center of attention. I didn’t know if I was invited because I was pretty or because I was a new face in town.

I also remember when we were kids, my father often brought us to my paternal grandma during Flores de Mayo so we all can offer flowers to the Virgin Mary. The old church (where I was baptized) had a procession of flower girls and my grandma (actually, both of my grandmas were devotees of the Virgin Mary) would join us in the procession of flowers.

It’s kinda sad that my girls didn’t get to grow up with these old traditions because they grew up in Metro Manila. When Twin I and I encountered the Santacruzan, she asked, what’s that?! Not that I want them to be steeped in Catholic traditions but I just want them to know about these as part of the colorful Filipino culture.

May is the month of festivals in the Philippines. There are a lot of fiestas celebrated this month, especially since it is was the last month of the dry season, a time of harvest and plenty. The last month before the rainy season starts. But because of climate change, the seasons have gone haywire and we have super typhoons ruining our fiestas.