As the military guys would say, making the bed would be your first accomplishment of the day, which would start the ball rolling. It would also discourage WFH people like me to lay on the bed because it would get ruined. Plus the view of something neat and orderly would keep my mind clear and not be distracted by the chaos of hastily strewn pillows and sheets/duvet.

A neat workdesk would also help me have a clear head while I forge through my tasks, most of which are back-to-back calls today.

One of those calls would be with my manager and another one with our APAC boss…

Keep my temper/motions in check…

---

I had dinner in Nuvali with one of the veterans “of the other side of the fence” earlier tonight as he consulted me about several things. One of which is a sort of social impact and sustainability projects that he wants to pursue before he dies. So I promised him I will connect him to some of the key people in my network in the academe plus my mom. And another is the Aeta community that I had been helping together with a fellow journo. I already told Ayala Foundation about this one but I have to devote time on this so that I can connect them and help them chart the future of the collaboration. I have to make that trek to Tarlac one of these days.

Along the road while I was driving to Sta Rosa, I was thinking about how to lie low from my current job. I realized that if management is successful in changing my grandfathered contract, then all my stress and frustration are not worth it. I am thinking of just stepping down from my managerial position and just go freelance with them and do other things. Now the question is, can I afford to have variable income every month when I am sending two kids to a private school for the next five years?

But I’m enjoying the journalism aspect, I said. It is facsinating to learn about new things everyday.

But at what price must I pay for staying, this friend asked me. The fact that you got hospitalized last month for too much stomach acids due to stress and unhealthy living is already a sign that you have a lot on your plate, he said.

Needs a lot of reflection.

I should have done my prayer and fasting two weeks ago as my week-long meditation exercise to start the year right.

I wish to spend the rest of my days reading and being surrounded by books all the time. Imagine that, your job is to be surrounded by books.

Because right now I want to quit my job because of the changes to our contracts that they would want to implement.

There’s an ad from my university, from my college, in the department that where I came from, which says they have a tenure track faculty position. I know I fit very well but it would kill me. It would slash my income by half or more, I would be checking papers (the most detestable thing), and I won’t be able to practice journalism anymore.

I know I’m just considering this because it is a knee-jerk reaction to the email I got from our head of APAC this morning.

Angry is an understatement.

Weekend is ruined. I need to go hiking today.

---

And this is what I meant when I say you will feel when you are the “wrong kind of Asian.”

I’ve had several of those. Sometimes, I want to punch them in the face and make their noses bleed but my mother raised me to be a civilized human being so that always wins over my more Neanderthal tendencies.

---

Take a hike, I said. Hike I did.

It took me an hour to climb up and make a loop in the upper campus and walk down to the lower campus. About 5,000+ steps and 200+ calories burned.

I started late, at exactly 4 pm so it was a bit dangerous for me to go deeper into the forest through the rougher trail. Dangerous in the sense there could be malaria/dengue-bearing mosquitos or poisonous snakes lurking in there.

When I was going up, I passed by the older faculty housing, many are empty and in various states of disrepair.

A long time ago when my parents were lowly instructors, they applied for faculty housing but the slots were full. They were at the end of a long list. So my parents resorted to extreme saving to build a small house far from the university campus. It was a bungalow about 100 sqm. It initially had two rooms but father had it extended to build a room for my brother. The neighborhood was ghetto but we had a very good childhood there.

Maybe it was a good thing we didn’t get the faculty housing because the upkeep of the yard was tedious. If you don’t cut the grass for a week, it will become a jungle fast. Plus snakes. Lots of snakes. Public transport was also a pain because only a few jeeps ply that road. Students that lived in the dorms in the upper campus had to hike up or down to attend classes in the main campus.

I imagine it’s hard to have a proper garden in the middle of a rainforest. I had been a regular in one of the houses like these because my piano teacher lived in one. For years, I had to go up the upper campus on Saturdays for my lessons either via jeep, if I’m lucky, or rode at the back of my father’s large motorbike, or I hiked. After piano lessons, I would knock on the door of my elementary best friend’s front door whose house was just further down the road.

Anyway, after my upper campus hike, I walked around the park and walked to the usual road I took for my regular afternoon walks.

In total I walked more than 8 km for less than 2 hrs at a leisurely pace.

Quite satisfied with my exercise today. My head cleared up a bit and I am not going to quit my job yet.

It has only taken me less than 1.5 hrs to reach Makati yesterday afternoon or reach home early last evening. It’s astonishingly fast compared to my travel time from QC to Makati before when I was still a city girl, which can range from an hour to 2.5 hrs for less than 20 km. 🤦🏻‍♀️

After my meeting, I window-shopped a bit in Greenbelt 1 and saw this book in a second-hand bookshop:

I already have this book but I took a picture to send to a journo friend who was asking people on Instagram for book recommendations that are non-fiction. I sent her the directions how to find this shop. I told her that this is a good autobiography as it was set against the changing China…from Tianjin to Hong Kong. This is the story of her grandparents to her own journey as an immigrant in the US. I had a glimpse of how the wealthy of Tianjin and Shanghai lived in late 1800s until WW2 broke out. This is the story of how they escaped communist China, how people made money in Hong Kong, and how the territory transformed from a backwater in southern China to an economic powerhouse that it was to become. Adeline was a medical doctor but found solace in literature—reading to survive the loneliness of childhood and later writing books to heal herself as an adult. It was beautifully written and I had shed a tear or two at the end.

While I didn’t buy books (because I still have tons in my bookshelves that I must finish), I became weak and bought myself a new pearl necklace. South Sea pearls… 🫠 Why? Oh dear why? I justified my purchase by telling myself I will be attending an event at the central bank next week so…😂

Ah well. I shaved off the guilty feeling by telling myself that I’ve been investing every month in various instruments for years so I can be forgiven for indulging myself a little bit 🤣

Wall Street was too excited at the prospect that the US Fed will start cutting rates. Nope, sireee, uncertainties still linger. Just look at the 10-year Treasury bond rates that climbed to reach 4%. The monetary policy easing may be slower than anticipated.

In addition to that is Trump’s likely return to the White House.

“Investors were also parsing a raft of other political and geopolitical developments, including Donald Trump securing a resounding win in the first 2024 U.S. Republican presidential contest in Iowa on Monday, and developments in the Red Sea, Gaza and Ukraine,” Reuters reported.

Well, it’s not just investors. Europe is also wary.

With that, I bought some ETFs to take advantage of the selloff. However, I was premature…the price even went lower later today.😒 Meanwhile, the mutual fund I bought several weeks ago has now given me dividends. I just received the notice yesterday. Hoping that the sell off will continue until the end of the month so I can buy more ETF and mutual fund shares.

---

This will be another circus. Trump may win again as Biden is not really stellar, plus the Gaza massacre has not helped him a bit.

If I were the Democrats, I will ask Biden to give way but that doesn’t work that way, does it? Plus Biden will not do that. So happy landing na lang to the US. 🛬

What does it have to do anything with us? Well, we have a narrow strait separating Taiwan from us and God knows what Trump will do as the situation north of the Philippines is becoming more restless. China keeps flying over Taiwan in a bid probably to intimidate the island-territory or for reconnaissance or both. A chance of an actual war is high under a Trump government and this will disrupt global trade and drag markets, if we still have any room for that kind of thing these days.

This year is getting more interesting and highly stressful. I didn’t start on the right footing.

I hope it won’t get worse. 🫠

---

Van life in Philippines is hard but doable.

This is one pipe dream of mine, to drive to different provinces in the Philippines and explore them. I had experienced some long drives like from Manila to Leyte for journalism or when we went to my ex-in-laws every Christmas. That’s around 1000 km one way. I had been a member of a volunteer group so I can travel. One time I ended up in Mindoro. I also took the ferry (Superferry) and stayed there for three days to reach Mindanao and it involved stopovers in Iloilo and General Santos City. That was in high school.

There are many beautiful places in the Philippines that you can only truly appreciate when you travel on land and sea.

However, living full time in a converted van is difficult in the Philippines. Remote jobs are not plentiful like in the US and our mobile internet sucks. As this couple said, they are sustained by consulting work and grants so they can document the flora and fauna nationwide.

A Reddit board discussed the difficulties of living this nomadic lifestyle in this country because we don’t have national or RV parks like in the US where people who live in their vehicles can station themselves, use the bathrooms, and be protected at the same time. We don’t have public bathrooms. We don’t have infrastructure for dumping grey or blackwater properly.

When we went on roadtrips, we had to spend nights in BnBs in major cities (like Legaspi or Naga) and stop in Jollibee or some chain restaurants to pee. If we’re really desperate, we would have to shell out more pesos to stay in some beach resort. This method is not sustainable if you’re doing it fulltime. It’s ok if you’re just getting from point A to B.

But still, the urge to go on a roadtrip is there. Maybe after I buy a new utility vehicle (whether an SUV, AUV or even a pickup truck), I would try to go on a roadtrip with my cousin or a girl friend.

One day.

I have become the soccer mom. 🤦🏻‍♀️ It’s inevitable, right? Twin I has joined so many things, among them is cheerdance. I have to fetch her at 6 pm from school since the latest that the school bus can wait for students in my daughters’ school is 5-5:30 pm since the bus has to pick up students from other schools.

My clock is determined by my kids’ timetable.

I guess that’s how things are…

A mother’s life is no longer her own

---