Category Archives: food

Palm Sunday

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Blue marlin steak. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

Today is Palm Sunday, traditionally a day that marks the the start of the Holy Week in this predominantly Catholic nation. The old practice was the oldies refrain from eating rich foods at the start of Ash Wednesday but with my generation, sacrifices (no eating of meat) and fasting usually start on Holy Monday. I remember there was this old practice of Filipinos eating only fish on Fridays as part of their penitence, regardless of the time of the year, that’s why galunggong (round scad) and mungbean soup were popular dishes in offices/canteens every Friday lunch.

Anyway, I don’t really follow these practices since I’m no longer Catholic (because for me Jesus’ death on the cross is enough to pay for my sins so no need for penitence) but fasting is a good way of making you focus more when you plan on meditating this coming Holy Week. I tried intermittent fasting before when I was doing my reflections in 2016-2017. I subsisted only on coffee during the day and then break my fast after midnight with a light snack.

So today I grilled blue marlin steaks because Twin A asked for it, not because it’s Palm Sunday. 😁 I was surprised at how well I seasoned the fish before grilling. 🥰 I cooked meatless hotpot with tofu to accompany the fish. The smell of the fish while I was grilling it reminded me of beach outings we had when I was growing up. We always grilled something when we go to the beach during summer holidays. 💓

I then attended to my garden again to re-pot the plants that were not thriving and transferred the ones that already outgrew their containers into the clay pots I bought from Marikina yesterday. Now that I have a good look at my inventory, I can assess now what are the additional flowering plants I can buy next week. It took me four hours to finish. No wonder people during lockdowns were so into gardening. We can pass the day just gardening.

Twin I taking a photo of me while I was busy.

My morning glory plants are thriving and I may have to transplant them next week into hanging planters because they’re already growing vines. The marigolds are sprouting but I haven’t seen any sign of the calendula and aster. The leeks have also sprouted. This encouraged me to plant kale and lettuce in my spare mini pots. Let’s see if my black thumb only applies to vegetables.

As I said, gardening is trial and error. So I realized that the loam soil I was buying retains water too much and my area does not encourage evaporation that quickly so a lot of my earlier plants became victims of root rot, especially my expensive roses. Now I learned I must mix this soil with coco peat and humic plus soil conditioner.

And clay pots do make a difference.

Clay pots allow the soil/roots to breathe since the pots are porous compared to plastic pots. Yes, plastic pots are cheap and convenient to have but they easily encourage root rot. So what I’m going to do with my existing plastic pots and rectangular planters is I will drill holes not only at the bottom but also at the sides to encourage aeration. I already did that to my big plastic planter, that’s why some of the current plants there are surviving. However, it seems like the holes aren’t enough because my cosmos are nearly dying. So I transferred them to a clay pot and into an area that receives full sunshine throughout the day. I just hope it works.

Tomorrow will be the formal turnover of duties from my boss to me during the team call. Then on Wednesday will be a follow up call with my new manager (APAC head) as my outgoing manager will be transferring to the data team and by June she will be transplanting herself to London. I have to fix my schedule again to see if I can fly to Singapore before July (probably next month?) to introduce myself to PRs and renew my connection with firms and sources after the formal announcement of my promotion (and also my salary raise–a lot of paperwork and admin work).

As the newest reporter under my wing said, I will be busier but not much difference since I had been leading the team for quite some time now. Well, she has no idea how long I was like that, the invisible team leader that was underpaid. 🙄

top view photo of people near wooden table
Photo by fauxels on Pexels.com

My very old TV has stopped working so I ordered a new universal TV remote for it. If it doesn’t work, then I think I have to retire it and buy that 50-inch TCL Android TV for Netflix marathons with the girls. I will then mount it on the wall when we transfer to my new house and make it disappear by creating a gallery wall around it. Like this:

So many things to do…

My daughters will soon be teenagers

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Clothes shopping at SM Marikina. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I took my children clothes shopping because they have again outgrown the clothes I just bought them months ago. Now that we’re more mobile and we will be traveling once again, they needed well-fitting clothes and shoes. I haven’t even bought them their school clothes/shoes/bags because they may no longer fit by June.

Their sizes and styles are already in the teens’ section. Or even adult section. Twin I’s shoe size is already EU 37 while mine is EU 38. Some of my old clothes already fit her.

Before clothes shopping, I tried this Korean-style corn dog I found at Monterey Community Market. The girls liked them.

Chef’s Selection Korean-style corn dog. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I’m too lazy to cook today so we just had dinner at Calle Reyes in SM Marikina. It was good since it looks like the people behind Calle Reyes are the same ones who put up Reyes Barbecue. I did a very quick sketch while we waited for our food. I only had my passport-sized notebook that was just for jotting down notes and sticking receipts to document the day. It wasn’t meant for drawings or watercolors.

Quick sketch while we wait for our food. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Really bad paper. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

The deserts are Filipino, which is good in my book.

Macapuno pandan crepe. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

The macapuno inside the crepe is not too sweet as the one I am accustomed to since sweetened macapuno in Batangas, the one I grew up on, was always sickly sweet as they use this to add to halo-halo.

I am addicted to sketching notebooks. I bought new ones even though I haven’t finished one sketch notebook.

Well, the opportunity to fill these up will be coming since it will only be three weeks before we begin diving again. Woohoo!

Oh yeah, I need to buy new freediving flippers.

Karl

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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).

Photo from MyModernMet.com

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.

Ahhhh, diving. I really, really missed you.

Art Whale

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I’m kinda stupid. I’ve been driving all over Metro Manila chasing the instruments I needed for my new obsession when Art Whale is just right at my doorstep. I didn’t have to drive to Manila, Makati, or even to Q. Ave just to get the right brushes and individual half pans of artist grade watercolors. It’s just right there—a bike ride away.

They have stuff for caligraphy. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Acrylics and oils. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Brushes! Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Lovely Holbein travel kit. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
My next target. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
My purchases. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I finally found that elusive #000 brush that is 10x better than my current one from Scriva. I could barely make lines with the Scriva #000 (the hairs are all falling apart) while this da Vinci is right on the money. And it’s only PHP 75. They carry Escoda (the very expensive kind) and Princeton brushes but da Vinci is fine with me.

I was also able to buy the Holbein Jaune Brilliant which has been in my Shopee cart. I can finally quit mixing my own colors for skin, which always turn out yellowish (that’s why in my sketches the people there look like they have Hepatitis).

I’m not happy with the single Winsor & Newton Cotman pan I bought; it’s quite chalky and it needs a lot of water and dipping before I could get the color. I found that I’m quite happy with Tokyo Finds Bento Picasso Pro and I’ll just fill it with Holbein colors now that I know where to buy these elusive things. Bento Picasso Pro have brilliant colors and enough transparency and can easily be reactivated with water, I can even reactivate the blots of colors on my pans that have dried up and use them up again.

When it comes to paper, they only have Strathmore in the “affordable”/non-professional line, which is quite pricey. So I can buy the 300 gsm papers from Art Bar (Cansons, MontMarte) and Tokyo Finds from Shopee Mall.

They have good brands for other medium (oil, acrylics, gouache) but they’re the higher end ones.

Here’s to my art therapy. It has been 15 months but I’m getting there. I have setbacks but I will get there eventually.

The girls are with their dad so I have solo time today. I went all Japanese today again for my dinner after discovering the Kewpie sesame soy sauce for that is perfect for shredded napa cabbage.

Dinner. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I had tuna sashimi (surface pan seared a bit) with the last of my wasabi paste, omurice (the rice I seasoned for sushi), shredded napa cabbage with sesame soy sauce, and tonkatsu ramen. It’s too much for dinner but I didn’t have lunch and barely had breakfast today so it’s kinda ok. I’ll just have to walk off the calories tomorrow. Save for the trip to Art Whale and grocery shopping at Puregold tonight, I didn’t do anything much but sleep.

Let’s see what I can create tonight.

Two of my botanicals have been reserved by my bff L so I’ve touched them up before I would give them. So I was able to make room in my two frames for one botanical and for the Himeji Castle Garden.

Muddled

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I don’t know what’s wrong with me but it seems like I got my dates mixed up. The TV interview is not on the 21st but tomorrow morning! La idiota!

I have checked the broadcast rundown but it’s difficult to express myself in pure Taglaog when talking about media literacy, echo chambers, propaganda, and grass roots communication. I tend to code-switch on topics like this, especially that I used to talk about this in the classroom and the medium of instruction is English. When I give communication trainings and seminars, they were always in English. I know I’m bad but I find it hard to explain abstract topics like this in my own native language (*face palm*).

I better prepare notes/talking points in Tagalog or else I might get carried away explaining in English.

I took it easy today because I was only able to sleep at past 4 am today. Too much milktea maybe. Ever since caffeine was cut off from me by my shrink (because of alprazolam), I had become more sensitive to caffeine, even just from a simple milktea drink.

Anyway, I grilled some skewered pork in barbecue sauce for lunch. Just because.

Photo by CallMeCreation.com

And my intention to be a good girl today flew out the window because I wasn’t able to go to UP and exercise and buy vegetables. I slept instead.

OK, I promise to wake up early tomorrow and work out indoors. *Really*

I was waxing the wooden floor of my bedroom when Twin I offered to take over and do it for me. My children are nice. I must be doing something good.

Ate C and I had been training them to do chores and they earn like 5 pesos for each. By the end of they week they have at least PHP 200 that they use to buy whatever. Twin I often buys milk tea while Twin A buys crafting stuff on Shopee. They hate doing the dishes but that’s the most number of chores they can do every week. They also carry shopping bags and put away groceries when I do my weekly shopping. Folding laundry and putting them away in closets. There are other chores that Ate C makes them do.

This is good training for them because when we transfer to my hometown, we won’t have any housekeeper anymore. Laundry would be done by each person. If you don’t do your own laundry, you won’t have anything to wear. I’ll just hire a weekly cleaner for general cleaning but it for the rest of the week would be “clean-as-you-go” style. Same with the ironing, I’ll just hire somebody to do the ironing for their school uniforms. Their mess would be confined to their room and it’s up to them if they want to live in a pigsty or not. As for the bathroom, I had always been cleaning the bathroom twice or thrice a week while I take a shower. For the cooking, I can batch cook or I’ll hire my mom’s cook to do it on a weekend and freeze them for the week.

That’s how we did it when our last stay-in housekeeper left when we were growing up. When I was in high school, we did our own laundry and we mostly kept our messes confined in our rooms. It’s only the public spaces that needed regular upkeep. We had a cook though because as I said before, cooking is not my mom’s thing.

This is why I chose to have a small unit (the size of a two-bedroom condo in Manila) so cleaning would be easier.

Updated. Art and photo by CallMeCreation.com

I had to completely dry the first layer and came back to this watercolor to do the second layer. The third layer should make the water grey and that should also fix hat awkward part above where it looked like a whale barfed on the water. The problem was I wasn’t able to mix the colors well. In my attempt to mimic impressionism, I ended up muddying the image (*face palm*). I will try to resurrect this on my third layer. I was attempting this technique below. I guess I’m really la idiota. I should have not completely covered the yellow with blue. It should have been in between and not over.

San Giorgio Maggiore by Twilight. Heritage Images / Getty Images

I’ve always been drawn to Impressionists because there’s always something ethereal about their works. Juan Luna’s and Felix Hidalgo’s works are along the same lines that’s why they were the ones I remembered at the National Museum.

Anyway, a drawing a day helps me improve. I need to go to museums because my creativity is drying up.

I have cut some of my 300 gsm water color papers so I can concentrate on post-card sized drawings so I can attempt botanicals. When I was in Shanghai in 2003, I spent an entire afternoon looking and studying Chinese scroll paintings. It was the same thing I did in Taiwan in 2016.

Chinese scroll painting at the National Palace Museum, Tapei, Taiwan. October 2016. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

Photo by CallMeCreation.com

Let’s see what I can come up with.

Update. Art and photo by CallMeCreation.com
Well, ok. Not bad but messy. Art and phooto by CallMeCreation.com

Disaster

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Brent was quoted $12.73 higher at $130.84, while U.S. crude rose $9.92 to $125.60.   © Reuters March 7, 2022 09:12 JSTUpdated on March 7, 2022 11:54 JST

Brent crude hits $130 a barrel; Nikkei plunges

U.S., Europe ban on Russian products and delayed Iran nuclear talks spark fears

A friend posted on Instagram the cost of filling up his SUV. It’s more than PHP 3,000 = the cost of a new tire. Another friend posted that Grab Car costs PHP 500 from Mandaluyong to QC.

It’s really getting out of hand. By tomorrow, gas would increase by at least PHP 5 a liter. It’s going to be a nightmare for basic goods and services.

When Nikkei dropped this morning, I was able to buy ETFs in a momentary dip and it climbed back up before the market closed. Good for my portfolio, bad for the rest of the country overall.

I would be attending a webinar tomorrow by another global investment bank about this Ukraine crisis and how it is affecting ASEAN. At the same time, I have a regional conference to attend tomorrow until Friday and I’m still figuring it out how to split myself into three persons since I also have a press conference on Wednesday and a couple of deadlines.

I was craving for fish. And sushi. So I made some for our dinner.

I finally bought again a bamboo rolling mat. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Maguro sashimi. I bought frozen tuna from SaveMore last week. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I made a dip with soy sauce and roasted ginger and wasabe. Mmmmmmmm 🥰 I seared the surface of the tuna on a hot pan but it’s still raw inside.

For those who did not like raw tuna, I made Spam-egg rice rolls.

Now I ran out of ingredients to make gimbap/maki on a whim. I always must have these ingredients on hand if I suddenly craved for such. I also have on my Lazada cart dashi powder and I’m still searching for bonito flakes so I can make other Japanese dishes. I still have a tub of soybean paste for soups.

Kimchi keeping me from working this morning. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

So my cats wouldn’t want me to work. This morning Kimchi kept me from opening my notebooks and I was about to lead a meeting in a few minutes after this photo was taken. Such an obnoxious cat.

All they want to do is hang out with Mommy. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

They just want my attention. 😂 Just like the girls.

Spoke with my shrink an hour ago or so and I related the latest hiccup in my psychotherapy (i.e. the painting and the subsequent anxiety attack that ensued). She said she is keeping the current dosage of my alprazolam because she is unsure whether another similar incident would occur in the very near future that could send me into a tizzy and derail my recovery. I told her about my propensity for buying stuff to make me feel better. She said it’s ok as long as it’s under control. When she says “under control”, it’s relative to how bipolar people spend—when they’re in their mania stage (very happy), they would spend so much that they would run their credit card to the maximum credit limit. In my case, it’s the opposite; I soothe my hurt feelings (very down on serotonin) to boost my morale and I’m not spending much vis a vis my income.

She says just continue with my art therapy and always have my support system so when I get derailed I won’t sink. She also said she is validating my feelings towards the incident and I have a very good reason for feeling that way. She said it is very understandable. And she says it’s very strange that after 14 months he sends something like that when I am already trying to live my own life so it’s hard to gauge what the intention was/is. Hence, she is keeping the same dosage for my meds because the situation is unpredictable and we wouldn’t know if I would have another anxiety attack if I get triggered again for some reason. She also recommended that I go out regularly to distract me and have a healthy relationship with society.

Probably I’ll go out on Thursday or Friday and work in some coffee shop under the trees. There used to be a coffee shop at Vargas Museum in UP where I worked from time to time. Or I’ll book a diving session at Dive Plunge Club to release energy.