Not enough media coverage because the government killed ABS-CBN, which has the widest reach all over the Philippines. People in affected areas are crying for media coverage and yet they are the same ones who had been after our blood, saying we deserve to die because we are biased against their idols, etc.
In any case, we still do our jobs, life threatening or not.
My former nanny who now lives in her hometown in Leyte told me their house is still flooded up to their knees. Baybay, Leyte is just an hour away from them.
At Robinsons Express mart. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
I bought boxes of instant noodles for the typhoon victims plus a box of rubbing alcohol. My neighbor donated some clothes and diapers.
Dropped them off. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
And we dropped them off at the Leni-Kiko Volunteer HQ. No word yet if Commission on Elections will allow the volunteers to give donations to the typhoon victims. But I was assured this will be accounted for.
Meanwhile, my kids hosted their friends at home and they played the old school gaming console.
Such a pity. They can’t play the classic Super Mario Bros. 😁 They don’t know their mom and their titas were champion players of the game that we can finish the game by saving Princess Toadstool with just one life.🤣
What to do tomorrow?
I will garden until kingdowm come. I bought more flowers today. 😆
“I’ll cross the bridge when I get there. But if ever, teaching will be good. I’m a lawyer. But entering government? No way. They can’t afford me,” she said with a laugh. “I’ll fire all of them.” –Liza Araneta-Marcos
Tax expert Mon Abrea says simple math would have pushed the bill into the stratosphere. Twenty percent interest is slapped on every year the tax is left unpaid. Justice Carpio says the passage of so much time makes a case against the heirs, especially Marcos Jr., of willful refusal to pay. He says there’s a remedy for that.
Beijing stands ready to help Marcos family consolidate power over the long term Alvin Camba April 5, 2022 17:00 JST
Alvin Camba is assistant professor at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver and a faculty affiliate at the Climate Policy Lab at Tufts University
Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., son of the former dictator Ferdinand Marcos, is on track to win the May 9 Philippine elections.
As Bongbong has himself said, he will move to maintain a strong relationship with Beijing while not completely abandoning ties with the West. Beijing likely expects Marcos to disregard the 2016 ruling by an arbitration court in The Hague that rejected Beijing’s territorial claims in the South China Sea and kowtow to China on crucial international issues.
The makers of The Kingmaker have made their film about the Marcoses free to view for everybody. Unfortunately, Filipinos are stubborn, especially if their core beliefs are challenged–if they’re corrected.
All my plans for today were wiped out as the weather turned weird. It rained non-stop today, like it’s already August.
Parking area. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Well, it’s a good thing that it rained so Lamesa Dam and Angat Dam can be refilled, if not up to the safe level. This assures us that there will be no water shortage in the coming days…or weeks. The temperature cooled up a bit from 30s down to 26 as of this moment. But because of this weather (and lack of sunlight), I did nothing but sleep. And edit three stories. Do some admin work, touch base with a source, and listen a bit to a webinar. I’m giving myself this day to slack off because—I dunno. I don’t feel like it.
This is my day of letting steam off because of my annoyance with company leadership issues. I couldn’t help my colleague with her job requests because of reporting line issues (vague). It’s really annoying me. It’s already April and there’s nothing definite happening. They couldn’t even give me the proper transition timeline. 🙄
To rid myself of annoyance, I temporarily halted my repetitive curtain sewing and returned to my complicated poppy flower drawing. It’s making me cringe. Either I finish this or I move on to drawing humans.
I suddenly remember my lawyer-artist friend who commented about the girl I was cheated on with by my ex-husband; he said she is not a fine artist but she’s more of an illustrator (they have common friends). That’s why she kept on doing squiggles and abstract graphic arts. I trust this friend because he is a really good fine artist and he has been winning competitions left and right but he chose to be a lawyer because…he wants to earn well. So now he shifted to photography and buying expensive equipment and drones has been his pastime.
So now my question is, what do I want to become? I don’t know. I just draw and paint to express myself. I’m not even good. But it forever frustrates me that I am having a hard time drawing faces or humans for that matter. I need to up the ante. Challenge myself.
Let’s start with this:
Practicing with grid lines. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
I’m not yet brave enough to do full frontal. Probably I’ll do pencil first because I’m more decent with pencils.
It was every boy’s fantasy to be part of Top Gun after it was shown some thirty-plus years ago—my brother included. The aerial dog fights and anything about flying jet planes tickled their imagination. So I guess my brother is looking forward to watching Top Gun: Maverick. I also remember a poster of Top Gun Tom Cruise in the old house I grew up in…I asked my older sister why she put that up and she said she can’t remember why 😂 I’m thinking twice if I should brave watching this movie in theaters but this kind of movie should be watched on the big screen. I’m wary of being in enclosed spaces because Covid is still very much with us. One of the reporters in my bureau was reinfected with Covid, two months after of getting it in February. I don’t want to get bogged down by Covid again. It was just a nasty experience.
This is the reason why it’s better to completely heal first instead of using another person to “heal”/forget. To basically rebound. You’re still being toxic yourself so it’s gonna be hard to have a healthy relationship with anybody who still carries a lot of baggage.
Some friends don’t understand. It’s not me just holding on to the past; it’s me trying to be healthy first before anything else. I need to learn to completely love myself first before I love another person outside my immediate circle. But I’m not doing this with the goal of meeting a new person. I’m doing this for myself because I OWE it to myself. I’ve been through so much shit and it’s about time I prioritize me.
So right now I’m trying to start my week with good vibes. Like this, a clean workspace to motivate me to be productive on Mondays.
I bought a new desk mat because I’m tired of my mouse pad moving around my table. Photo by CallMeCreation.comWatering and pruning my plants everyday to keep them healthy. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
These are the little things I regularly do to love myself and appreciate life again.
Tomorrow I may go to Marikina to look around a pottery maker’s showroom for reasonably priced decorative clay pots and pedestals.
Pink is the color of tomorrow! Photo by CallMeCreation.com
My big roses have started to bloom again. Lots of patience and moving around of pots to learn the optimal sun exposure and watering frequency of these flowering plants. Good things come with patience. You can’t just rush things.
While the world is busy with Ukraine and its effect on each region, Myanmar has been largely ignored these days. The Myanmar central bank suddenly came out with a directive regarding forex:
A Myanmar resident, who asked not to be named for security reasons, expressed concern about being able to access their deposited savings and how much could be withdrawn.
“If we can’t withdraw, everything we earn will be stuck in the bank,” the resident said.
The official central bank exchange rate for the kyat is currently 1,850 per dollar, but this tends to be well below the unofficial black market rate.
The country’s economy is spiraling down further. It’s hard to do my reportage remotely when nobody is willing to talk to me, even anonymously.
Balloons over Bagan, Myanmar. Photo by Boris Ulzibat on Pexels.com
Looking forward to the Holy days next week. Metro Manila will be empty of people eager to go to the provinces as they do their revenge travel. The beaches will be teeming with people. As for me, I’m staying put since I know the provincial roads will be super clogged with SUVs. Maybe the girls and I can go to the Intramuros churches to do visita iglesia and at the same time I can do sketching. We can bring our bikes. We can also bike along Roxas Boulevard, along Manila Bay.
Manila Cathedral. Photo by Gerald Escamos on Pexels.com
Before that, I still need to help them review for their upcoming tests and I’m giving them some pointers for their music lessons.
My drawing for my girls’ music lesson. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Now I know why I had to go through those rigorous piano lessons and rondalla practices all those years: so I can teach my children music down the road. 🤔 I even had to teach them how to properly write a G clef. One day they will learn how to transcribe music notation on music staff, the least favorite of my duties as a music student 🎹 and glee club member.
After the first batch of their final exams, we will be celebrating the girls’ 11th birthday. I need to order food before everything closes down for the Holy Week.
Giving people the benefit of the doubt sent me to the deeper end and it always, ALWAYS had been detrimental to me. I justify my love for them that’s why I give them allowances.
Took me so much hurt and rude awakening to realize he is an evil person. I had been making excuses in my head, searching for the good in him but I ignored the big glaring fact that he is what he is.
Learned the hard way.
Let me tell you another story. This one is less political.
So my ex-husband hashad this penchant for cheating on me even before we got married. Why I stuck with him, I don’t know. Maybe I was there to prove something, like I can turn him around/rehabilitate him or what. Anyway, this story is not about that.
There was this girl who kept on messaging him on his mobile phone. One day she called. I answered it. Told her I was the wife of M. She threw expletives at me and among the many things thrown at me, all I could remember was she was a gf or something—whatever. I shouted at my bf (at that time) and threw his phone, broke it and flushed the SIM down the toilet.
I learned that my bf/ex-husband didn’t lose contact with his gfs and he kept them all on the side, you know, “in case of emergency.” (Among the other life skills I learned was to hack into his emails and his phone to discover his indiscretions). I stalked this girl online for a long, long time and messed up her blogs and so on and so forth. My investigative journo skills were in full mode at that time. What bothered me was that this girl looked like me, my brother said. At that time she was a call center agent. I learned that she took up a course under the UP College of Mass Communication but got kicked out of the program and had to relocate to a faraway campus, got into another program where her grades were more acceptable. Anyway, with the rise of social media, she became more visible to me. What’s funny is that because she is so in love with herself, she didn’t even bother making her social media accounts private.
I no longer have a beef with her right now and out of curiosity as to what she’s up to, I searched for her online. It seems like she lives on the outskirts of BGC, one of the condos there on the edge because I think one of the views from her window faces Taguig and she hangs out at BGC a lot. There was one time there was an art fair at Bonifacio High Street and she had a booth there and I came face to face with her. She probably doesn’t have any idea who I was but I fully knew who she was. She is this artsy-fartsy thing who does art commissions, or so she tries to project on her social media posts. She hangs out in coffee shops around BCG and does art on her tablet.
I think she’s a perfect target for someone like J. I wouldn’t be surprised if he gets to pick her up randomly.
It’s just a wild thought but I know she would be a good fit because she’s shiny, she’s superficial, and she knows how to project herself. He likes superficial things. They’re exactly the same age.
It was just unfortunate that I gave my unconditional love to somebody like that. It’s hard getting it back, hence, my emotional bankruptcy. A PR professional friend messaged me on FB tonight and asked me how I was and if I already have a bf (after J). I said no, I need to heal and I’m not searching—that I’m done. I’m happier like this. She said it’s when I’m not searching the One comes. I said no, just the thought of it creeps me out. It’s just too painful, I told her. I don’t think I can have another one again.
I mean, ok, they’re happy. The on-screen couple turned real-life couple. Good for them. I just hope it lasts. Excuse my jadedness.
There are people made for this, and there are people who are not. I clearly do not belong to the first group. Even if I gave my all—all my love and kindness, tried to see good in people even if they don’t deserve it—I always end up in a ditch and disrespected.
So no, friend, I’m better off like this. I need to grow and learn more about the world and the hard lessons life is teaching me. I’m not about to seek comfort and affirmation from someone else because it only leads to disaster.
Lighting candles to soothe my soul. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
I am done with the two curtain panels for the girls’ bedroom.
Photo by CallMeCreatiom.com
Now they’re up on their windows.
Photo by CallMeCreation.com
I’m just finishing a small panel and then I will be done with their room. I can now proceed to do the complicated poppy flower drawing…
Just look at my hobbies—they’re hardly the thing that sophisticated, shiny people do. I do granny things. I’m not even into grandmillennial style…just granny. My interests are contemplative things like hiking, diving, biking, home DIY, museums, daydreaming on a grassy patch of land, gardening, cooking, drawing, singing, and lots of reading. I’m not into clubbing and so over bar-hopping.
I’m boring. I could hardly be an asset to a person who wants to aspire for big things in life like being a fund manager or a fund owner. A CEO of a conglomerate. I also could never be a tai tai nor I wanted to be one.
During this period of transition inmy life I realized I just want to be like this:
If there’s a larger than life I personality I want to be friends with, it would be Karl Lagerfeld or Rajiv Surendra.
Karl’s life is interesting—not because of money that came with his life but it doesn’t hurt, no?—but he lived beautifully and he chased intellectualism not just for the sake of it but because he was very curious. Of course he was sort of a snob and he was raised by a ruthless mother but for some reason he loved her dearly. From his stories (published in Vogue and other interviews), his mother sounds like Elton John’s mother (gleaned from the movie Rocketman).
Anyway, I remember one article in Vogue (when I was still a devoted reader) that he spoke several languages and read in French, German, and English. He loved books. He was one of the biggest bibliophiles there is. He collected books and read them all. He was interested in so many things, especially history. His library is one of my dream libraries and I could happily pass my days in there. We can talk about politics, history, philosophy, art—so many things—over tea and biscuits (he eliminated sweets from his diet).
I also remember his love for wearing Hedi Slimane suits. There was an article in Vogue where he discussed his weariness of flying/airports post 9/11 (how strictly insane and tedious flying became right after 9/11) so he had outfitted several SUVs to be luxurious cabins so he can cross countries in Europe without having to suffer the indignities of stripping your clothes/shoes just authorities can scan you for possible deadly weapons or bombs.
I wish I have his discipline of sketching all the time. He wanted to be a cartoonist, not a fashion designer at first. He figured he could make a better living out of sketching clothes.
I could feel his frustration of wanting to play the piano but this desire to learn it was stamped out by his incorrigible mother. I figured those who leaned towards the arts sometimes find themselves drawn to other art forms as a way to express themselves.
Hmm, the two persons I mentioned above have another thing in common: they’re both gay. I’m good friends with gay men and as I told one gay man in Singapore, I am a fairy princess. I like the company of gay men because they’re interesting and they like my friendship. I had been to gay bars in Manila with K and his friends are fun to be with; we were dancing on the ledge of a bar until the wee hours (this was before I got married).
hand-stitching again. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
I’m back to sewing again as a form of procrastination. I can’t finish the poppy sketch yet since it’s complicated for my bleeding brain (I just finished an article today). I think the curtain panels will be up in the girls’ room by the end of this week.
I’m also teaching a colleague how to survive the China lockdown because he doesn’t know how to cook. His initial lockdowns were in Kuala Lumpur and he was privileged enough not to worry about supplies when he was there. I told him to grab lots of Indomee instant noodles (he’s Chinese Malaysian) and do this:
Lucky Me Pancit Canton by Monde Nissin. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Teaching him what to buy and what to do with them. Gah! I wonder how these people survive all these years by just eating out.
Screenshot from NIkkei Asia
This zero-Covid policy of China has seen a lot of businesses wanting to flee HK. My former APAC boss is now in Manila to escape the draconian policies of HK and give her toddlers a respite from being locked up indoors.
In contrast, Singapore is now allowing people to be maskless if outdoors. My friend-colleague said it’s such a relief especially if she’s taking her walks for her daily exercise. Our new APAC head, who’s based in Seoul, said most people there have been getting Covid that it doesn’t make sense to control movement. So the rest of the world has adopted the living-with-Covid policy and is now opening up borders.
I’m raring to go to the sea.
Maricaban, Batangas. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
This photo was taken when we took the boat from Eagle Point Resort to Maricaban island. The diving was not good but the winds were violent in Sombrero island so we were taken here. Some of these boats took novice scuba divers where we were freediving.
Twin I sent this to me and went up my room to tell me I should have done this. “You should have sold his gaming rig, Mommy.”
Huh?
“Tito J,” she said.
Awww. This girl is very sore about Tito J. Can’t blame her. She’s really hurt.
I should have done to J what Will Smith did to Chris Rock today at the Oscars for disrespecting me.
As for her dad? “Mommy, do you know you can sue a father who doesn’t send financial support to his children?”
“Yes I know,” I said. “Do you want me to sue him when he doesn’t have money?”
“Well he says he is stand to inherit xxx million from Lolo,” she said. Gee, that idiot is really not exerting effort to improve his lot and is just waiting for his father to die.
“Tell him to give you money for college tuition,” I said.
Losers.
Meanwhile, in satirical news that I wish they’re true:
This. If only my teachers in elementary and high school could be sent back to be re-educated 😣 The level of cognitive dissonance is unbelievable. And to think these are the same people that tried to shape our world view. 😥
Photo by CallMeCreation.com
The new plants that I will strive to keep alive during this season of intense heat.
Photo by CallMeCreation.com
There should be a better way of arranging these plants. They don’t make sense anymore. I need risers. Even if my world doesn’t make sense now, at least my container garden should.
I’ve told my new APAC boss that I need to be in Singapore for 8 days in July for our annual conference, which will be held face to face for the first time since the pandemic began. I just submitted to London HQ my request for travel to SG. But I think I need to be in Singapore even before July, probably May. I need to arrange a lot of admin work. *Le sigh*. The hiring process for new reporters is taking a loooooong time.
