In CBD

Good morning. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

My cats knew we were leaving today. While I was getting dressed, Sushi was lying on my clothes, while Kimchi was lying on my laptop bag. They don’t want me to leave 🤣

However, it took me another hour before I could get away from my table because there were back to back calls with my boss in China and then boss in S. Korea. Then cascade the info to my reporters in Manila and Kuala Lumpur. 🥴

Before that, I had a one-hour interview with a CEO who was in New York so I had to compress everything because he needs his rest.

Rushing work at the dining area. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

After checking into our serviced apartment, I rushed to edit two stories, ordered food via room service, then I let the kids jump into the pool.

A living room with no purpose. It became the alternative dining area while I worked. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
With Ate C. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

It was good that Ate C came with us because I had to hop immediately to an event somewhere also in Makati. BUT BUT BUT it was hard booking Grab 🙄 Oh yeah, seems like pandemic is over. I had no choice but to go back to the parking area to get my car and drive to the venue. I was late 😣

Yep. Those are the deals I’ve been following. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

Was tired when I came back. Couldn’t book a massage 😭 So the least I could do was a hot water soak in the tub for my tired muscles.

I’m not really enamoured of city life. I could only appreciate it at night from above.

Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I’ve always been a provinciana. And will probably die a provinciana. I didn’t want to live in a condo and my gut feel was right. I couldn’t imagine spending lockdowns here in the CBD area. No trees nor open spaces. I really don’t like shopping so I dislike malls. I only go there when I need to buy something. I never made it a habit to window shop in malls; it’s such a waste of energy.

🥱🥱🥱🥱🥱🥱

I really, really need that massage. 💆

I miss my cats.

Inside the walls

To start the day, I cooked egg fried rice (with dried seaweed and Vienna sausage) and special egg drop soup for us.

Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Photo by CallMeCreation.com

We didn’t bring our bikes to Intramuros because 1) it was going to rain; 2) it was too hot. We first went to Fort Santiago because it was the nearest spot near our parking area. When you’re in Intramuros, you go on foot because parking areas are few and far between so better stay where you are parked. I covered the Department of Finance for years and the Bureau of Treasury was just right there, plus my old newspaper’s office was just spitting distance so I know how hard it is to find parking space there. I was always in danger of being towed by the Manila Traffic officers everyday when I parked around the area.

Anyway, it was a lovely afternoon to visit so I can help my kids strengthen their Araling Panglipunan (Social Studies) knowledge without using rote learning system, plus I want them to see two of the oldest churches in Manila.

Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I think the last time I was here was a decade ago when my mom received an award and the ceremony was held here.

The moat that demarcates the ancient/pre-hispanic fort of the old rajah of Manila. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
One day I will have the patience to sketch this. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
The old supplies warehouse of the Spanish military. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Rajah Sulayman Theater (the old military school and where the prison cell of Jose Rizal was located). Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Media Naranja (“half orange”), the top of the most gruesome dungeons I’ve seen. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

Media Naranja is also the area where the ships of the Galleon trade (Manila-Mexico) stopped, if I got it right. If you look down through grills of this courtyard, you will see the prison cells below. It was an inhumane prison because there were openings on the side that allowed the water from Pasig River to flow through when the tide was high. The prisoners would be soaked, if they were lucky. If there was a storm, they would drown.

Fort Santiago fell into the hands of the Japanese and Media Naranja was where 600 Filipino and American prisoners of war were found, already decomposing.

Underneath this cross is the mass grave of the 600 prisoners of war left to die in the dungeons. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

This is the first time I’ve seen the dungeons after 1987 when we had a field trip here. The last time I was here in Media Naranja was when I was with my cousins from the US but the dungeons were under construction because it was already crumbling so I wasn’t able to show them these.

The feeling I had when the girls and I entered the dungeons was similar to the one I had when I was in Corregidor in 2007. It was heavy. The air was oppressive, not just physically.

The tiny entrance to the dungeons. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

Right off the bat, the heaviness was all around me. If you’re claustrophobic, better not go inside. It’s also eerie and macabre.

The cells of the prisoners. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

They had photographs of how the American military found the 600 decomposing prisoners when Manila was liberated from the Japanese.

Torture chambers. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
I don’t know why this lady wants her photo taken with such gruesome reminder. 🙄 Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Tiny entrances and exits in the dungeons. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
You really have to squeeze through this exit to escape the heaviness of the area. Its aura was sad and dark.
View of Quezon Bridge atop the dungeons/Media Naranja
The stairs leading to the top of the walls. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

You can climb the walls of Fort Santiago and it was made that way for the guards to patrol the area. My mom told me it was where she and my father had their dates when they were in college 🤣. My father’s campus was south of Manila and my mom’s campus was north of Manila so this is some kind of halfway for them. When I told my kids this story, they were like, whaaaaat? Hahaha! The top of the walls were already made into a park but they couldn’t imagine how it looked like up there because they were too lazy to climb.

View of Manila Cathedral dome and the bell tower of San Agustin Church. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Resting first while watching pigeons do their synchronized flights. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Our Lady of Guadalupe Chapel within the walls of Fort Santiago. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Art installation (a cross) leading to Our Lady of Guadalupe. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

We walked out of Fort Santiago towards Manila Cathedral. I wasn’t able to get a good photo of the facade of the church that I can use to practice sketching parts of Intramuros.

Photo by CallMeCreation.com

We couldn’t enter the church because the temperature reader registered my body heat at 37.5. I was so hot at that time and was sweating a lot, hence, the reading. The guard didn’t let me in. Oh well.

Just a glimpse. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

So in the classic Hispanic arrangement of plazas, adjacent to the church should be an administrator’s building. In this case, it was the Palacio del Gobernador, the residence of the Governor-General before an earthquake destroyed it in the 19th century. After that, the Spanish governor-general lived in Malacanang Palace along Pasig River and it has been the residence of whoever is the head of the Philippine government until today.

Palacio del Gobernador. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I know this building very well because it used to house the Bureau of Treasury (BTr) and I covered the Treasury bill auctions here every Monday and Wednesday—the event that determines the benchmark interest rates in the country. In 2018, BTr transferred to the Ayuntamiento de Manila (Manila City Hall), just right across the plaza after the reconstruction of the building was finished.

Ayuntamiento de Manila. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

They were able to reconstruct this well. It is very pretty inside and the last time I was here was in August 2018 when I hosted an economic briefing that was televised.

We no longer went to San Agustin Church because it was already late and it was about to rain. There’s always the next time. Rizal Museum was closed, as well as the other notable museums like Balay Tsinoy and Casa Manila because it’s Black Saturday. San Agustin Church also has its own museum. I also wanted to show the girls the old site of Ateneo de Manila and University of Santo Tomas but it was already getting dark and big fat raindrops were already pelting the windshield of my car.

While driving out of Intramuros, I showed the girls the old and present offices of the newspaper I used to work for. I told them Intramuros was like home to me for almost 6 years.

I drove along Roxas Boulevard and showed the girls where the notorious dolomite beach was. Then we proceeded to SM Mall of Asia because we needed to buy Twin A a new mattress since her current one is already giving her backaches because it was already sagging. I know that it was substandard because it was the foam that came with the bunk bed. The girls also wanted to buy something from SM Department store with their birthday money.

It was a nice day out.

Tomorrow later today, Easter Sunday, the girls will resume their review while I will be spending the entire day drawing or sleeping because Monday will be hectic with back-to-back-to-back calls.

Good, Good Friday

The carroza of the Santo Entierro (dead Jesus). Photo by CallMeCreation.com

We went to UP today because the girls finished late with their review. We didn’t have enough time to go to Intramuros before the sun sets, so we just decided to have long walks for exercise in UP–the nearest open space. Since today is Good Friday, we were just in time for the carroza procession of the statues of saints in black and the Santo Entierro (dead Jesus). Traditionally there would be a mass before 3 pm afterwhich the Catholic church will go dark after the last carroza enters the church gates after the procession.

We watched this kind of procession in Pampanga in 2019 when we went to see the actual crucifixion of a man, which aas his annual panata (pledge).

There, the long procession with the grieving Mary at my back. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
While my girls ran into the sunset. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Cris-crossed the UP Lagoon. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
And had their leisurely walk at the academic oval. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

They stationed themselves at the amphitheater while I had one lap around the oval to have my exercise.

Photo by CallMeCreation.com

Then we stayed at Quezon Hall so I can do my stretchings until the sun went down.

Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Photo by CallMeCreation.com

Tonight they’re staying with their dad and will just come back in the morning to clean their bikes so we can drive to Intramuros or Baywalk and bike there.

My exercise was short so I continued my workout at home.

This is a reminder that I can still reach my foot from behind. More yoga please! Photo by CallMeCreation.com

My yoga mat is still dirty I ought to clean it tomorrow. But my freshly vacuumed bedroom floor will do for now.

More muscles! Photo by CallMeCreation.com

This is a love letter to myself (and my girls when they get to read this in the future), reminder that I should take care of my body not because I need to attract men but to make me feel good and to protect myself from non-communicable diseases. Diabetes runs in my family and my father died of diabetes complications. I don’t post such photos on social media but posting this on my nameless blog is like an accountability to myself and for my girls to read when I’m already gone.

So tomorrow, Sabado de Gloria, we clean and oil our bikes and off we go to the Old City to see old churches. All the saints’ statues and even the cross will be draped in black cloth until the Easter salubong (Mary Magdelene meeting the Risen Christ) at dawn.

Practice in perspective drawing

Ayala Museum viewed from PLDT/Dela Rosa St.

This gave me a headache. I just realized Ayala Museum faces Dela Rosa St. at an angle so it took me some time before I was able to determine how slanted this facade was. I need to adjust some more lines that don’t align. 😑 And I painstakingly counted all the glass panes. *wrinkles growing on my forehead* I don’t want Leandro Locsin Jr. to come after me with an axe for sabotaging his building.

Duh. Art and photo by CallMeCreation.com

I have my vanishing points mixed up. I need more exercises on vanishing points. 🤔


So it is done. I no longer have an official passport in the next 3 weeks.

Punched out passport. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I had been lining up the whole day today. First, for the girls’ second dose of Pfizer. Thankfully, it only took us an hour compared to 2.5 hours the first time. I drove them home and I went to Robinsons Novaliches where the satellite DFA office was for NCR North.

Queue going inside the mall. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

After entering the mall, I decided to have brunch first at McDonald’s and finish some digest I need to publish today. It was hard to concentrate 😫 but I had to finish what I can. Then I lined up again at DFA. The actual process was just less than 30 mins because everything was done online and the clerks just needed to verify and have my fingerprints and photo taken but it was the queue that took forever. This was different from what some friends told me when they just breezed through their renewal process in some locations like Robinsons Magnolia or SM Aura.

On the way back home I was debating whether I should drop by QC Circle to buy flowers. Well, well, well… Commonwealth Avenue in Fairview was lined with plant stores. Hahahaha! That decided for me. I bought four more flowering plants since some of mine at home dried up despite watering them twice a day. It’s just that it’s so freaking hot these days.

It was so hot that when I got home I was so exhausted. The heat sucked the life out of me and I just fell asleep. It was so hot that I was tempted to buy a giant Megabox plastic bin in Handyman that I can fill up with water so I can just soak in there.


As part of my urban sketching practice, I want to visit Escolta, Manila—the old shopping district in Manila before and after WW2 before Makati CBD came into being—to sketch the old Art Deco buildings there.

View from the office of One/Zero architects in First United Building shows the splendour of the past (Photo from https://i-discoverasia.com/escolta-street-2/)
Photo from Instagram @ysabeldedios
Photo from Instagram @rylejustinuy

I should have done it in January when the heat was less deadly.

Escolta was the old CBD that’s why it was the fashionable area of the city then. The old banks’ and trading houses’ headquarters were located there. The old tranvia of Manila plied Escolta then.

Tranvia that was run by Manila Electric Co (Now the country’s biggest power distributor) Photo from https://skyrisecities.com/news/2017/03/manilas-long-lost-tranvias-once-envy-asia

By the 1920s and into the ’30s, the Manila Tramway became one of the most extensive tram networks in Asia, rivalling those in far more populated cities like Hong Kong (600,000 by 1930) and Tokyo (4,000,000 by 1930). Its 100-kilometre urban and interurban service carried a recorded 35 million passengers during its peak year in 1925. The tramway was a central part of the rapidly modernizing city, as the former colonial port town was growing up fast. The American influence and capital that had flowed into the Philippines following the US takeover brought with it a host of impressive Beaux-Arts and later Art Deco edifices, as a series of new office towers, government buildings, and train stations began to transform the Philippine capital.

Manila’s Long-Lost ‘Tranvias’ Once the Envy of Asia

Pedestrians in the photos were smartly dressed. The tranvia network was completely destroyed after WW2. Well, Manila was the most devastated city in the world after Warsaw when the war ended. The crafty Americans gave the Philippines independence right after because the country was so war-torn and expensive to rebuild. We were left to our own devices after that.

One of these days I would brave Manila and seek some haunting scene that I could sketch. Maybe I can start with the old Luneta Hotel.

Photo grabbed from Facebook.

Blunders

As I mentioned yesterday, there were several miscalculations that Putin had in his invasion of Ukraine. He had underestimated the resistance from ordinary citizens of Ukraine and across the world.

Nonetheless, given Russia’s overwhelming forces and Mr Putin’s ruthless nature, expect the invaders to make gains in the coming days. The attacks on Kyiv will grow fiercer. One consequence of that? Growing anger in the West—among ordinary people as well as national leaders. More military gear, including, remarkably, anti-tank rockets and Stinger missiles from Germany, is heading to Ukraine. Sanctions on Russia are becoming more severe. Beyond the exclusion of some Russian banks from the SWIFT system, more serious are the efforts by Europe and America to stop Russia’s central bank accessing much of its $600bn-plus in foreign reserves. Watch on Monday how markets react to that. It’s unlikely to be pretty for Russia, especially the rouble. Some sort of Russian retaliation towards the West should be expected. The price of oil and gas could yet surge.

The Economist’s
Adam Roberts, Digital Editor

Now its currency tumbled 40% while interest rates climbed 20%. Such rough economic fallout will surely make ordinary Russians grow angry at Putin and bolder in their opposition to this war. Ukraine is now urging Visa and Mastercard to suspend the facilitation of payments in Russia, further hurting its people.

And apparently some people in the US are preparing for a possible nuclear war, giving rise to the Cold War era fear harbored by people on both sides of the Atlantic for decades before the fall of USSR.

On the home front, the price of liquefied petroleum gas—the main fuel for cooking in Filipino homes—is now increasing by at least PHP 7 per kg = PHP 77 more for an 11kg tank. I think it has now gone above PHP 1000 per 11kg tank when a few months ago it was just at PHP 700+. The Department of Energy said its petition to suspend the excise tax on fuels is still pending in Congress, the delegates of which are already busy campaigning. If we don’t halt the excise taxes on the fuels, the cost of goods and services would skyrocket in the next week or two.

The market volatility would send valuations askew again and some deals would have to be delayed given the instability. I had been busy scanning the news for developments and how the markets are behaving since it is now determining the angles for the news I should be aiming for.

Today’s press conference. The most critical info during this session is how much more are we going to pay for our electricity this coming summer and is our supply enough given the constraints that we are facing. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

With this so much tension in the world today (including the escalating deaths in HK due to a belated spike in Covid cases), my colleague now asked me is the apocalypse here now?

If such is the case, I’m glad I’m out of my former hellhole so I can concentrate on my remaining time on earth with my daughters. I was chatting with a fellow editor-journo who told me he is escaping from the city and is moving his family to Sta. Rosa, Laguna. His house will be finished this week and they will start moving next week. Good for you, I told him. I will be following you but further down south because I’m tired of the city too. If the world is going to end, at least we will be more comfortable than being stuck in the city and Metro Manila is the worst place to be during an apocalypse. EDSA is already an Armageddon in itself.

But before the world ends, I have a press conference to attend on Thursday in Makati and our Manila reporter and I would be working again in a coffee shop somewhere near the company HQ that will hold the conference. Face to face meetings are coming back and the government is going to bring down the Covid Alert Level to number 1 starting tomorrow. They finally decided to live with Covid as the new normal instead of following China’s/HK’s stance of zero-Covid policy.

Metro Manila and 38 other areas will be under Alert Level 1 from March 1-15
Read more: https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/?p=1561207#ixzz7MBdIWszb
Follow us: @inquirerdotnet on Twitter | inquirerdotnet on Facebook

Hopefully face to face schooling will follow because the children are really suffering from two years of remote learning. These are the “lost years” for them.

And before the world ends, I still have transcriptions to finish. Hopefully I can publish two stories tomorrow.

And oh, let me go diving first. It’s so freaking hot these days.

Bagalangit Hideaways, Anilao, Mabini, Batangas. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

Out in the wild

Back again. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I had the faulty Kullen drawer exchanged at Ikea but Kullen became sold out so I had picked the cheaper Lennart drawers and some random stuff for the kids so that the amount would be equal to the cost of the item to be exchanged. So tomorrow night I will building more drawers.

Then our Manila reporter, Kr, and I agreed to meet at Starbucks in BGC to work after her press conference. It was nice to work outside and see daylight while editing although it rained heavily. It was quite cooler today that I felt I should have brought a light sweater with me. Just when I thought that summer is already here, the weather decided that to go in another direction.

Kr and I haven’t seen each other in two years so it was quite a relief to work with a live human being across the table and talk shop face to face. I was so productive this afternoon that I was able to edit three stories in an hour. Then I sketched to while away the time.

Art and photo by CallMe Creation.com

I didn’t realize that my pocket watercolor pan (Classic) didn’t have black. The other pocket watercolor (Artisan) has that. Which is an excuse to buy me that one. Tee hee!

After BGC, I dropped off Kr in Estancia in Capitol Commons because she will meet with a friend for dinner. Then I battled my way into an almost-pre-pandemic traffic jam going to QC. I was a bit exhausted driving, maybe because I didn’t have enough sleep (as usual). I took my meds pretty late last night so it took a while for them to kick in and was able to drift off past 3 am. Got woken up again after 3 hours.

I wonder what kind of devil is waking me up every three hours?!

I told Kr I should try working outside more these days now that I discovered that my mind is more alert and productive when I’m outside. I need adult conversations too! I missed BGC and Makati CBD–my usual haunts on weekdays. I missed picking the brains of execs face-to-face. I should invite one of my sources for lunch in BGC one of these days as I still have a gift cheque for a buffet lunch for two at Shangri-la. We usually talked politics on WhatsApp and some scoops.

I missed dressing up, putting on make-up and jewelry regularly. Makes me feel empowered. As I told other reporters before, if I get rejected by execs or get thrown out of conferences, at least I’m not ugly and a failure both at the same time (LOL!).

My feet hurt though because I chose to wear a new pair of clip-cloppy shoes with heels today. Note to self: DO NOT break in new shoes when you’re going to walk around BGC or Makati.

Torture shoes from Call It Spring that I bought last Sunday. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

Hmmm. Now my goal is to work once a week outside, probably Tues or Wednesday, and meet with sources before Edsa becomes a huge parking lot again. Staying indoors for 2 years really messed me up.