I woke up at 5 am to get to the venue at 7 am. The sun wasn’t up yet.

I kept praying that everything will go well and thank God it did go well. The first session I moderated was good, if I can say so myself, because I had been interviewing the keynote speaker since 2007 so the rapport is there and I asked the right questions to get interesting answers because I know their history.

The second panel I did had some last-minute substitutions but I was able to transition from online to onstage and back and I threw curve balls that elicited candid answers. I ended up exactly on time for both sessions.

I was just so relieved that it is done. The pressure is high because top management in London was watching. If I do well, I can push the envelope and ask for favors for my team in the future.

I am so tired though. I took advantage of the open bar at the end of the conference and the waiters kept refilling my glass with white wine until my manager and the rest of my team mates are laughing hard at each other’s drunkenness. 😂

Then we walked to Lau Pasat to cure our alcohol-adled brains.

Tomorrow I’ll just relax and network to death.

I started the day at 5:30 am, began the training at 9 am, and we ended at 5 pm. It was all business the whole day and it was exhausting. I ignored all emails except for concerns about the conference tomorrow.

One of my panelists pulled out at the last minute because he got Covid. Luckily one of my sources volunteered to be one of the speakers. I connected him/them to the main program organizer so I don’t know if they’re going to replace that poor guy. 😔 I did all this coordination while I was doing the trainings. My brain was actually split three ways today. 😵

I need to be extra early tomorrow to be ready for the last-minute change/s.

To reward ourselves for the hectic day we had, we went to dinner at Blue Ginger and everyone liked it. I pre-ordered during the training session, the usual multi-tasker that I am, so we didn’t have to wait for the food when we got there.

I’ve taken antihistamine because I don’t know what are in those sauces and soups so now I am drunk with the narcotic side-effects of diphenhydramine.

Good night, Universe.

I don’t think I can sustain this monthly visit to our Singapore office. If I continue with this, maybe I’ll just stay for less than a week? It’s exhausting. I mean, I cannot just lock the door to my house and leave—business trips entail much prep for the household, from logistics to food and medicine…I am a hands-on mom and a full time manager at work. It’s a tough balancing act everyday.

Because I was multi-tasking all the time, I left my mobile phone’s fast charger *somewhere*. I was agonizing over buying a new one at Challenger at The Jewel or should I just stick to the slow, braided charger I had brought *in case* something may happen (and it did happen). I was hanging around the chargers and cables section for quite some time that the salesperson had to help me. 😶‍🌫️

After my much-delayed exit from Changi airport, I dropped off my things with the hotel reception and went to Chinatown to have my pesos exchanged for a more decent rate. The rates I saw at Changi and other moneychangers are too costly, like nah, I’ll make that extra effort. Did some grocery shopping and had a one-hour Chinese-style massage, you know, the hard, bone-cracking kind. It was sooo good after going without Zennya for weeks. The lady reflexologist said my back was stiff as a board.

I may come back next weekend. It was reasonable at SGD 40 compared to other places I had checked out.

No carpets! Yahoo! Carpets make me sneeze and they feel unclean. I like that this hotel is not that far from my office, near an MRT station and it’s relatively quiet.

Went to meet the ex-colleague for dinner at Funan with my team as they haven’t met each other in person. Except for one long-time reporter that we still have on our team.

We ended up in a restaurant that we wrote about a month ago 😂.

I had a food coma after this. We ate too much. 🤣

I couldn’t sleep earlier because I had a long afternoon siesta. I just tossed and turned in my bed so I gave up and cooked myself a meal (I forgot to have dinner). I’m running now on pure carbohydrates and zero zzzzz. I tried packing much earlier today—at 5 pm—but I still finished late. I don’t know why it takes me so much time to pack. 🤔

Earlier today was freaking hot. It felt like 40 degrees. The longer I stay here in Metro Manila, the hotter it gets.

Despite the dreadful heat, I had dragged myself out of my airconditioned room because I needed to bring my girls to their Kumon class and do my meat and vegetable shopping. When I came back for them, the thunderstorm came.

It was raining hard while I drove them to their classmate’s swimming party nearby. If the rain lasted a little bit longer, it could have clogged the streets of Metro Manila, the usual thing during RAINY SEASON, not during the hot and dry season. Climate change really flipped things over. 🫠

The Manila Airport Authority (MIA) has started shuffling flights/transfering airline-terminal assignments so now I ended up in Terminal 1 instead of Terminal 2, which was exclusively used by Philippine Airlines. MIA now converted the much smaller Terminal 2 for domestic use while T1 and T3 are for international flights. T4 used to be for AirAsia and turbo prop planes, but now I can’t remember what they’re going to use T4 for. I seldom read the Viber group chat for transport reporters these days.

They really, really should privatize this now. This airport is horrible.

I chased the deadline for the special window for Citibank/Unionbank credit card holders as we are given the privilege to have the first dibs on tickets since the bank is a major sponsor of Hamilton’s Philippine run. I didn’t try my luck booking when the window opened last Monday because Ticketnet was wonky. It turns out, the website was crashing because everyone was trying to book. I told myself, nah, let them go nuts, I will just do it before the window closes.

So I just finished booking at midnight, which is an hour ago.

Well, the tickets I was able to buy are for November—that’s how in demand this musical is. I couldn’t get tickets for orchestra seats that are next to each other during the September to October runs. I don’t want to watch from the balcony…it sucks. I did that with Les Miserables (I was late in booking). Good thing about Les Miserables is that it’s an ensemble musical, so I really didn’t have to be close to the stage. Besides, I knew the musical by heart.

But Hamilton is different in a sense it’s not something I am super familiar with compared to other musicals that have been here like Miss Saigon, Phantom, Les Mis, Cats, Wicked, Mama Mia, etc. I need to be in the orchestra seat. Unfortunately, the seats I got for Hamilton are not at the center…because again, I was very late in booking tonight. It almost slipped my mind because I was too busy with so many things.

And since Hamilton is in November, that meant I would no longer be a Metro Manila citizen by that time. Ergo, I would be driving all the way from my hometown 😢 and God knows what kind of weather we will be having that time. My sister already gave up her condo in Mandaluyong and she can’t drive her car on the day we are scheduled to watch because its plate number is banned every Tuesdays…So our recourse is to book a room at Solaire (next to the Solaire Theater where Hamilton is going to be shown). This is proving to be an expensive affair 😂.

Well, my sister flew to Sydney from Brisbane to watch Les Mis on her own…so that one is much more expensive 🤣.

If I would need fly to watch these productions, I might as well go straight to Broadway in New York. But I’ve never been that enamoured of the US and if I were, I would have been there a long time ago. I haven’t found any compelling reason to go there except for one instance…which I don’t want to think about right now.

So anyway, the other reason that would propel me to go to the US is to watch theater productions in Broadway and off-Broadway. Of course, this former theater actress has to have her priorities in life straight 🤣. To make my trip worthwhile, I might as well go to museums and go food tripping, in that order. Other than that, there’s no reason for me to go there. Europe is more of my thing.