I had only four hours of sleep. Then I had to finish an edit that was left hanging yesterday because I was too busy and tired with meetings. I opted to take Grab this morning because I needed to be at the conference an hour before the opening talk and I don’t want to be harassed jumping train stations.

The slide presentation to kick off my intro spiel was wrong so I had to improvise—I got a bit rattled. It was a tricky balancing act keeping within the time limit while drawing out some substantial comments from the speakers but making sure everybody is given airtime. I had to do a lot of quick thinking because I had to adjust by picking which questions to ask while ignoring the rest of what I thought not as important as the main points I want to bring to the table. I had to restate and chop-chop some questions right there and remix.

Problem is my brain is working faster than my mouth.

But at least I achieved the goals I’ve set for myself. I didn’t want to dwell on the flaws of how I handled the session.

I just…want to comfort myself. I wanted to eat chicken rice as self-care.

I just want to get through this moderating thing. It sapped the life out of me.

Then there’s this guy (a source) whom I invited for free to the event. At the end of the day, he had the temerity to “make suggestions for improvement.” What the hell, bro?! I just wanted to get this over and done with and the last thing I want at the end of a tiring day is for someone to bring me down to say I was bad. He could have told me that tomorrow because I had zero bandwidth to deal with that at that hour. You know, after my session I had to do my thing again as a journalist, probing people as I’m asking about so many leads I needed to be verified. I networked to death. IT IS FREAKING TIRING! Then this!

I know I’m overly sensitive right now because of raging hormones and exhaustion.

I had a long hot soak in the tub to relieve my aching legs because I was on my feet all day. Talking nonstop to people. Networking is a bitch when you’re tired and hormonal.

I’ve had non-stop meetings today and my brain is fried. No more, I will never do this again. I was rushing from one train station to another, had five cups of coffee and tea. Now it’s almost past midnight and I’m still awake. Too much caffeine in my system. This is bad because I need to be at the conference at 7 am today for prep work.

Dress, bling + sneakers 🤣. Well, I have back-to-back meetings so a lot of walking is involved.

Since I’m not driving, I can’t behave like a privileged princess so I have to wear comfortable shoes because public transportation is not kind to feet in torture shoes.

I dropped by our office first for some admin stuff I needed to take care of. So gloomy. 😐 And huuuuummmmiiiiiidddddd! I can tolerate the heat back home but the humidity here is unbearable. 🥵

Jumping to another meeting now…

And at this hour, NAIA Terminal 3 is on fire. Well, the parking lot outside of it, 70 19 cars burst into flames. 🤯

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/mUAhwajgof36kdMW/?mibextid=jmPrMh

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Meanwhile, the breaking news here in Singapore is:

It’s so boring here. 😂

An airport on fire is just like a normal occurrence for us Filipino reporters. There was a time the MRT overshot at Taft Ave station… I kid you not. It went skidding into EDSA in Pasay. And the sad thing here was we were not surprised.

Over a decade ago I did a story about a bus flying from the Skyway then landing on the cars below along SLEX. I stalked the Land Transportation Office the next day and investigated and reported on the erring bus company and the economics of bus operations. This happened the same week as the shooting at NAIA and I can’t remember if anyone died. I think a volcano also erupted that week. 🤣

It’s never boring in the Philippines. There so many things to keep us reporters busy.

I know I shouldn’t laugh at these tragedies because this shows how broken this country is. But you know, if we don’t laugh or keep our sense of humor, we would be as grouchy reklamador as the Singaporeans.

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Our Indonesia reporter (but he’s a Filipino) and I were having lunch in our office dining room when another Filipino from a sister company came in. This guy was among the few Filipinos in our Singapore office who I partied with during our Christmas dinner in December last year. Anyway, we had traded stories and all that. He told us to go to IMM at Jurong to check out the outlet stores there. Indonesia reporter wanted to see the sneakers because he has trouble finding size 13 shoes.

After we had our last meeting, off we went to Jurong and… We didn’t buy anything. Stuff there wasn’t cheap like in HK. Some of the items are as expensive as those in Manila. Cabin Zero backpacks are still equivalent to PHP 5000. Samsonite Factory Outlet was a letdown—the Lipault bags were ugly and no great deals to be had for laptop bags or backpacks.

I was tempted to buy this but I realized that the laptop bag I got for free from the conference in HK last month was more comfortable and durable. However, the name of the bank that hosted the conference was embroidered into the front of the bag so I can’t use it or else friends from rival global banks would chide me.

Shopping deals here look good on paper but once go to the store, you will suddenly realize they aren’t good deals.

I continue to fly Philippine Airlines despite the horrific service because there are no long lines at the immigration at Terminal 1. That’s the only reason. Cathay Pacific was fine last month (going to HK) since the seats were roomier and there is in-flight entertainment. However, I had to beg my way into skipping the line at the immigration at Terminal 3 because it was already 15 mins to boarding, I was still at the end of the queue. Lines there are always long and messy. 😑

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Had a long lunch date with my SG-based friends later today and I provided them with Manila gossip.

I’m taking a break again on my balcony as I had been checking my clothes to pack for my trip to Singapore tomorrow. I will be leaving at 2 am and thankfully I was able to book my mom’s driver. I don’t have to be wide awake and glug a mug of coffee before leaving.

It’s gonna rain. Let it rain. It has been so hot that I haven’t turned off the AC since yesterday. Two of my potted plants have died already. 😢

She just wouldn’t get off my bag when I need to put more stuff in it. 😑

I finally caved in. Bought myself a mid-priced fountain pain for watercolor sketching or ink sketching in general.

Drawing is a lot smoother with fountain pen compared to using fine liners. I have resurrected this pencil sketch of the UP Carillon I initially drew last year when we were still living in QC.

I’m happy with this purchase but boy, it pulled me into a rabbit hole I can’t get out of now. I have watched videos of how to refill the cartridges with ink using a syringe and why this method is better than using a cartridge converter. I also researched on various inks and which would be the best for watercolor/washings and which inks would not clog the pens. There were also videos of how to clean fountain pens. It’s all so… tedious and yet fascinating. You bet I’m going to buy blunt-ended syringes and a bottle of Pilot blue-black ink. Once it’s completely dry, it won’t bleed when you watercolor, they said.

And knowing me, once I get enamored, I will upgrade to a better model and damn it, it’s going to be a very expensive hobby. 😩 I remember my father having a lot of ink bottles on his desk because he was refilling his own pens. He just loved pens like I do now.