When I went out late this afternoon for some errands, I realized that Smart’s threat of cutting off my service came true. I didn’t have data so I couldn’t check emails and MS Teams messages. Damn.

So when I got back home, I paid the partial amount they were charging me. I refuse to pay the whole amount; not until I get the breakdown of why I incurred those charges.

These guys…🤦🏻‍♀️

---

I just spent an hour of mindless bingeing on Iron Chef Dad on Youtube. Yes, I remember Susur Lee in Food Network’s show, Iron Chef. I think he’s part of the batch that included Bobby Flay.

I was fascinated with Susur Lee’s interaction with his son in these videos and with how he can transform junk food into gourmet ones.

I’ll try this rice cooker chicken.

I swear, I will buy that Japanese rice cooker that sings. 🤣

Ever since I was a child, I had been a fan of cooking shows like Wok With Yan in the 1980s, Cooking It Up With Nora (Daza) in the late 1980s to 1990s, and all the cooking shows in The Food Network. The only thing I watched on cable before were The Food Network, HGTV, The Asian Food Channel, and NHK World.

This is probably the reason why I can cook. My mom tried her best to cook for us but she’s a better scientist than a cook and she knows it 🤣. Her brother told us he was her guinea pig when they were living in an apartment in Manila when he was still a student and my mom was already teaching at Arellano University. Oh the concoctions she came up with!!! So my kitchen education did not come from my mom; I learned how to cook in school because we had a comprehensive home economics program in high school. And of course, those cooking shows are a big help.

When we were moving our stuff from QC, my sisters and my contractor were shocked to see that half of the things I brought were kitchen items or are related to food. I’m still not done yet; I will still have to buy myself a new slow cooker because I have yet to make this 18-hr tonkotsu broth for ramen. It needs a slow cooker because using Instant Pot for that would drive my electricity bill to greater heights.

Yes, that’s my holy grail, the perfect tonkotsu ramen.

---

So what did I learn today? Some reporters told me that the freaking breakdowns in NAIA are actually a form of sabotage. Some dark forces are pushing Transportation Sec. Jimmy Bautista out of office because they are after his chair. Imagine, you can have all the kickbacks in the world, in true Marcosian fashion. For example, this unsolicited proposal to rehab NAIA is worth PHP 267bn—even a small fraction of that is already a huge kickback.

It’s because Jimmy Bautista (or we call him JJB) came from the private sector so his propensity for corruption is less. He was also part of the consortium that wants to rehabilitate NAIA and as the former CEO of PAL, he knows how much of a headache NAIA is for airlines. In all of my interviews with him, he never said that the NAIA rehab will not push through…it’s just there are other hands that are pulling strings… the Finance dept is favoring the Bulacan Airport of San Miguel. People behind the scenes are trying their best to sabotage NAIA so Bulacan Airport or Sangley Airport would no longer have to compete with the primary gateway.

But I certainly would not want to drive all the way north to fly abroad from Bulacan.

I trust the reporters—they have good sources.

Some friends like L attended the presscon, so finishing articles was a bit of a challenge because we always end up talking and talking, laughing, and crying. By past 5 pm, we called it quits and no freaking story is worth being left behind at the hotel.

---

I got a warning from Smart that they would be cutting off my service because my bill is running over the 3k limit and that I need to pay the almost 5k running balance in three days. Like whuuutt???

I called them up, complained to customer support rep that I pay my bills regularly and I am never late. She couldn’t get into the breakdown of why incurred almost 5k worth of charges. I said I won’t be paying until I get to the bottom of this.

Then I remembered to ask if dialing toll-free numbers of let’s say Philippine Airlines could trigger that kind of spike? The agent said 1-800 numbers aren’t toll free on Smart if you’re roaming.

Fuck it. It’s all PAL’s fault again. I needed to call PAL last Friday because I couldn’t understand what they were doing, like booking me to a flight with a duration of 24.5 hrs…and the customer support even put me on hold 🤦🏻‍♀️

I have complained to the top corp comm officer of Smart and told him that they have an idiotic billing system; they also lack transparency.

---

So I tried the pulley system that my contractor installed for me to handle my laundry and groceries. It’s hard going up and down my stairs while carrying heavy stuff.

The water pressure pump has its own pedestal there made of steel. They’re just doing the final touches on the electrical because the house next door will be installing a power gen set that would kick off when Meralco fucks up.

My girls and I went to church for the first time in a very long time. They usually go with their aunt/my SIL and cousins. I just attend online service via Zoom because I tune in to the Singapore branch, not the local one, which six to seven years ago hurt me so much because of the pastor’s misogynistic judgment.

I’ll write about it one day.

After church, my girls went browsing in a craft store and a gift shop but it was me who ended up buying something. 🤦🏻‍♀️

I wanted to try the chicken wings place that my older sister was telling me about, where she brought my girls when I wasn’t at home. We bought one pound of the wings to go and I cooked white rice for the girls while I made kimchi fried rice out of leftover rice from this morning. I need to finish the kimchi in my fridge because my girls didn’t touch it while I was away—of course they don’t like kimchi.

Thank God for sleeping pods at the basement of the Suvarnabhumi Airport. If not for them, I wouldn’t have been able to drive home today because I would be a wreck. Imagine hanging out at the airport since 6:30 pm until boarding at 4 am the next day.

It was expensive at THB 1,400 for four hours but I was already dropping and the alternative is a THB 700-massage for 60 mins, which would be more expensive if I need a shut-eye for four hours. THB 1,400 = PHP 2,240 and that gets you a double bed, a bathroom for an overnight stay in a Go Hotel or Red Planet in the NAIA vicintity.

Anyway, these sleeping pods are just at the basement of the airport, next to the State Railway of Thailand station. You’re paying for the convenience.

This capsule hotel is cheaper at THB 250 per hour and has a queen bed inside. The problem was I didn’t reserve a slot (because I didn’t know that my flight will be pushed back to three hours later) so walk-ins were not possible last night.

The four hours that I slept were so needed. I say the THB 1400 was well spent.

I was messaging my TV reporter friend who happens to be a transport reporter and he was the one who has been telling me about what was happening back home. Cebu Pacific and PAL had been cancelling flights. I will get back to that later.

So we were talking about sleeping pods and he sent me a photo of the sleeping pod he used at the airport in Zurich, which he said was just bigger than a coffin. It cost him an equivalent of PHP 2,500 a night, which is still cheaper than the Box Hotel I used in Bangkok.

I know that there is a similar sleeping pod in NAIA but I think that’s in Terminal 3…ah yes, The Wings Transit Lounge. I think I would be able to use this now that I need to drive myself to the airport whenever I travel abroad. I can leave my car at ParkNFly or at the Terminal Car Parks and then sleep at these lounges if needed. The capsule is only PHP 1000 for 8 hrs, which is not a bad deal.

I slept for a bit in the plane but once the sunrise hit my face (I always take the window seat because I don’t want to face people), it was impossible to go back to sleep.

There will be a senate inquiry next week about the cancellations that PAL and Cebu Pac had been doing this week. The consortium of conglomerates bidding for the rehab of NAIA will be having a press conference on Monday as well so I think this will be a lobby presscon and I would be able to get dirt on MIAA why the heck are we having this nightmare. I would have to borrow the Toyota Vios again because my car is banned on Mondays in Metro Manila streets.

If I would have to fly to SG next month, I would be booking Singapore Airlines. I checked the fares yesterday, the late returning flight to Manila on a Friday is much cheaper than PAL.

But I just need to double check with my boss if this trip is still on because I just got a rejection email from S&P because the networking event they invited me to didn’t want media people there. 🤷🏻‍♀️ Well, they were the ones who sent the invite…

It’s just so nice to be back home. My cats had been sleeping in my room for the entire week, my kids told me. Sushi has been missing me so much. Twin A said that cat wouldn’t budge and insists on sleeping on my bed.

Seriously, PAL?! You emailed me to say that you have transferred me to a flight that looks like it’s going to make several stops (BKK-CEB-MNL) before I can go home to Manila?! BKK-MNL is just 3.5 hrs and yet the new sched says I’ll be traveling 24 hrs!!! It’s better if I should have just booked a flight going to Europe. And now if I change flight and try to book my original scheduled flight, you will charge me extra PHP 12k. What kind of fuckery is this???

So I went to have a last foot and neck, shoulder, and back massage for 90 mins. I was thinking of doing longer massages but at the back of my mind there was this nagging voice that kept on saying something is amiss and I shouldn’t linger because PAL may fuck up some more.

UPDATE: THEY MOVED MY FLIGHT AGAIN, FROM BAD TO WORSE WHEN I’M ALREADY IN A GRAB CAR TO AIRPORT. My original departure sched is June 16, but look at this!!!

But when I did my online check-in my itinerary online stayed the same.

I don’t trust PAL so I just went with the original sched…and what do you know, the schedule on the board at the departure area says the flight is on schedule! This is confusing!

So despite doing the online check-in, I’m still here 1.5 hrs later, trying to drop off my bag. What’s the purpose of an online check-in if it doesn’t streamline the process and you still queue for hours?

I’m so pissed. I’m hungry, tired, and the massage is just a memory. My back is aching again.

---

So yes, I just checked in my bag but the flight is still at 4:50 am. I don’t know if there’s a capsule hotel here…

Good night, cruel world!

The company is paying for all these so that we can have decent headshots for all the promotional materials that we will be having from hereon (i.e. conference brochures and backdrops). As I am part of the “ambassador” program (i.e. the face of the company especially in conferences), they are investing on the image of its ambassadors. So no more selfies for the headshots in our conference promo materials hahahaha!

Right after the shoot, I rushed to the Sathon business district for a meeting. I was 10 mins late because my Grab was late and it took the car forever to reach my hotel. Pffffft. Good thing the guy was nice.

I needed to finish an edit so I decided to have lunch in the same building.

Went immediately back to my hotel because I was so sleepy and I needed to wait for another time-sensitive story I must edit. I was already snoring before that story arrived in my inbox.

---

I was so pissed yesterday and I had to go out with colleagues to erase the bad taste that lingered.

I was supposed to interview a candidate for the Bangkok freelancer position but at the last minute my bosses told me I CANNOT HIRE A FREELANCER, even on a per-article basis, because I had no business case. Like Thailand is not an important market—that’s what they’re saying. I do not believe that and I have data to back me up. The only reason why they say there is no business case is because 1) subscribers already gave up on our Thailand coverage because we had crappy reporters in the past; 2) we haven’t had any reporter here for three years; 3) it doesn’t help that this market is very secretive and opaque and the military government compounded to it.

I didn’t have the temerity to cancel the appointment with the candidate. So I still met her but had to tell her that people in London do not understand that Singapore is not representative of the whole Southeast Asia and Southeast Asia is not Singapore. They think that you can cover everything in Singapore. That’s what my sources had been telling me the past two days—you cannot do business here in Thailand sitting in your office in Singapore. You have to be on the ground because everything in this market is hush-hush.

I like the candidate and told her that as much I want to keep her to myself, I must not waste a talent like her so I will be sharing her CV to my friends in competing news wires as they still have positions to fill in Southeast Asia.

I ranted to a fellow editor this afternoon about the narrow-mindedness of those sitting in London.

That’s how they view Asia. They think Asia is China + others. I wanted to scream at them and tell them that the world does not speak English.

Ok ok, I should let go of things I cannot control…

But at least I could give them a piece of my mind. If I get fired, so be it.