Going out and going back to my hotel involves a lot of walking. It’s fine if you’re not sick. But if you’re feeling crap, it’s hell. I should have taken the cab.

This is what I don’t like about my trips to SG: I always catch some bug and I end up with colds/flu. It doesn’t help that the central airconditioning in SG buildings are too cold. Ours is set at 18 C and we already requested the building admin to crank up the temp. And to think that this is already an improvement over the previous temp of 16 C. 🤦‍♀️

Another contributor to my ill health today is that last night my body was so sore from I don’t know what. Maybe it’s my back to back meetings that involved too much alternating heat + cold buildings. I was at Suntec City and I decided to go straight home to my hotel after my last meeting. I went first to Maxwell to buy takeaway dinner (yey Tong Fong Fatt!) then ate it in my room while I edited.

I took a long hot shower and by 8 pm I was already out. Then I got woken up by my phone that kept pinging at 11:30 pm. It was my friend who was inviting me to attend their firm’s conference on tax. But I don’t care about SG tax. 🤦‍♀️ Anyway, I couldn’t go back to sleep. I was awake until 2:30 am when I have a sit-in breakfast training/chat with a hedge fund guy at 8:30 am.

Long story short, I was late + I felt like crap. But at least I was able to listen to the whole sit-in.

During the rest of the day, I was vacillating between elation (hey, I got so many stories, thank you, my lovely sources) and feeling shitty (tired with runny nose) and cold.

I told colleagues I couldn’t join them for dinner at some seafood restaurant in the East Coast because I think I’m coming down with something.

To make myself feel better, I went to Raffles City for something soupy for dinner.

I think I’m ready to tuck in.

This is why our global CEO is warning us that the recession will be severe. The inverted yield curve has been deeper than in the tech bust of early 2000 and the global financial crisis. It has been deepest since the 1980s.

In the past, the inverted yield curves indicated that this will be followed by a recession. It will just be a question of how deep and long the recession will be. This graph shows a stock market crash will follow. The problem with this cycle is that inflation has been very sticky and there are no signs yet that the US Fed will stop hiking rates. The supply chain woes have supposedly been eased after Covid lockdowns and this inflation is supply-side, not demand-side so this should have started easing but it has not. It’s still so stubborn. The thing is, some macro indicators don’t make sense yet like jobs data indicate that unemployment has gone down despite the lay-offs in the tech sector. But then, how different is this inverted yield curve from others? Will this be the first time that an inverted yield curve will not be followed by a recession?

Meanwhile, I was so anxiety-ridden today that I woke up at 4:30 am for no apparent reason probably except for stomach acids. Yesterday, I had the painful job of saying to all candidates that we had called off the search for a fulltime reporter and even hiring freelancers is an uphill climb for me. I even had them go through difficult tests. One candidate from Boston practically begged to take her in because she liked how I mentored her during the test and that she will be taking care of her visa to HK since she can freelance there.

I didn’t know what to do with my hands. This anxiety is wreaking havoc in my gut.

As I said a few days ago, art calms me down. That’s why I brought my art materials for times like this. I finished this piece by inking it with Uni Pin fine liner. Perhaps I should bring my sketchbook today to my meetings.

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Stopped at Maxwell on my way to the hotel, where I will continue working. I don’t want to work at my office that is like a refrigerator. I don’t know why SG offices need to lower the temps to the depths of winter. ❄️

Well my instinct told me not to follow the crowd. I knew much better than the crowd I followed 🤦‍♀️.

I’m talking about hotel choices. The team (from the sister company) that I was following booked the hotel via our expense management system. They thought it was nice as it was falsely advertised in our booking system. However, something at the back of my head was nagging me, reminding me why for the past almost 9 years of flying in and out of SG I have not booked this hotel and its other branch. But still, hey, I thought it would be better for team spirit that I join them.

Well, crap.

Hotel service is zero. They haven’t cleaned my room since I arrived on Sunday. No drinking water; they just have a dispenser somewhere on the same floor and you fill the pitcher in your room yourself.

A member of the team from our sis company moved out. Others were like, ok we’re just gonna grin and bear it. Some of them came from hedge funds and global law firms so they are used to 5 star hotels. I, as a journalist, am used to crap since we’re mostly operating on guerilla mode and got to work with something we’re given with. So if I booked a substandard hotel because I didn’t listen to my instinct, I just bite the bullet and stay because it’s already paid for and hard to get refunds nowadays (it’s not immediately refunded in my credit card).

But then again, I deserve better, right? Well, I just charge it to experience. I will never ever book this hotel and its other branch. Blacklisted.

Really sleepy now.

I don’t remember exactly but I think I had 6 pints of beer. Colleagues were paying for it so I didn’t count.

And this is the first time I rode a taxi with curtains and neon lights inside. My colleagues and I were joking that this is a signal that we should be partying some more inside the cab. But being a Monday night, we questioned the wisdom of doing so.

Now that I’m in the hotel where other colleagues are billeted as well, I realized that I was not alone with my frustrations with the company. I got a lot of pats on the back for speaking up and for pushing the envelope. I told one colleague I was always in danger of getting fired for speaking my mind out and for operating outside the box. He said he was in the same boat and he said this trip is a good way of knowing that we are n the same page. Now we will keep pushing the envelope until we get fired.

I only had one hour sleep yesterday because of all the errands and packing I needed to do. I barely slept in the plane because the seat for some reason did not recline. I went about my day very groggy 😑

I regretted booking this hotel because it was very out of the way. I couldn’t check in early to rest so I went out again for forex. I wanted to go to Arcade near my office but guess what? The MRT from Outram going to Raffles Place broke down. No trains. Wow.

So I had to take the bus but I didn’t know which to take. I just took what seemed would pass through the areas near Raffles Place.

When it went through Chinatown, I jumped off.

It has been quite a while since I’ve been here. I have stayed away from this area because it was always crowded. Anyway, I got a good deal on the forex. UOB and DBS (via ATM) and at the airport offers PHP 42 = SGD 1. At some of the money changers at People’s Plaza, it’s about PHP 40.1 = SGD 1. I only got SGD 20 from the ATM to replenish my MRT card but the rest were exchanged in Chinatown.

Was debating whether I should go to Vivo City to buy myself a belt because the one holding up my jeans is falling apart. But I was already getting hungry at 1 pm and already sleepy. I just crossed to Chinatown Point and ate at Song Fa. Sadly this area is already taken over by restaurants and the stores I used to frequent were gone, like Hush Puppies and other apparel stores.

The Fairprice here is a favorite of mine because they have a lot of offers. The discounts are not that much but when you spot a good one, like a laptop bag (can’t remember if it was Targus) grab it. For some reason I was able to buy a laptop bag there when other Fairprice branches don’t carry items like that. Anyway, I bought the staples like 3-in-1 coffee that my bro and sis-in-law like so much. And I’m also a coffee runner for my friend from my old TV network for years. Same brand. I don’t know why they like it so much.

Found some stuff for my girls as well. They loved the matcha we bought at Mitsukoshi and they had been searching for it at the grocery stores but we weren’t lucky.

The rest are my spice mixes and drinks I will consume in my hotel because they cost twice at the vendo or at 7-Eleven.

I was debating whether I book Grab but I can’t remember where I can wait for such at Chinatown Point. In the end I suffered through MRT transfers with my grocery bags. I really regretted booking an out-of-the-way hotel.

It was old and big so there were a lot of people. 😑 But at least there was a 7-Eleven beside it but that’s it. The MRT station nearest it is quite a walk and it has been raining all day so it was very inconvenient.

I was again weighing if I should go out for dinner or feel sorry for myself eating noodles in my room. Then I realized I didn’t have chopsticks or a fork. That decided for me. Maxwell was just two MRT stops away.

I was hankering for a Tong Fong Fatt Chicken Rice but it was closed. So I thought about the much ballyhooed Tian-tian because it had earned a Michelin Bib Gourmand…

It was raining still when I got back to the hotel.

I think I was already out by 8 pm.

The prospect of buying a tube of white gouache revived me. The sight of artists making an alley near Maginhawa pretty lifted me (Alley 44). That’s how visual art, music, theater/movies, and literature give me life when the drudgery of everyday existence engulfs me.

But before I could sit down and make art, I needed to run errands.

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