Rode our bikes again today but this time we went straight to UP and we stopped for a bit at the academic oval to listen to the birds whistling, chirping, calling to each other. People are still not allowed here but we bikers could, only for a bit, when we pass by School of Economics and College of Educ and turn right at Asian Center to go to the old Shopping Center and then to the old tennis court.
It was so eerie and yet beautiful. The absence of humans is unnerving but mesmerizing.
After a sip of water from our bottles, my daughter and I went straight to buy our veggies at the old tennis court. Because we are running low on veggies. I can’t seem to stock up on a lot of it that would last us a week because I have a small refrigerator. And since I was able to fix the clogged tubes in my fridge, it is now perfectly working and really cold, hence, I no longer have an excuse to buy me the Hitachi or Panasonic fridge. So I must shop frequently for veggies.
I have another bag of veggies at my pannier rack at the back. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Hmm I wonder if I can fit a tent, sleeping bag, and pannier for food and camping stove on my pannier rack 🤔 Then cooking utensils in my bag at the handlebars. 🤔🤔🤔 Minimal clothes and toiletries on my backpack.
The question is, can I bike to my camping destination? 😂
National Science Complex. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
I was writing this piece that has been in writing purgatory for weeks… and glanced at the watch above my speaker that said it was already 4:00 pm but I still haven’t had lunch.
Then daughter asked if we could go biking. I glanced at my flabby tummy and as much as I want to lie down and rest my exploding head, I acquiesced that I needed the exercise.
By past 5 pm we were already on our saddles. We first cycled our way through almost all the streets in our village. By 6 pm-ish (I think), we biked our way into UP through one of the side gates and went to the National Science Complex.
Taking a water break. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
I missed this place. There’s still this twitch inside my gut, somewhere deep down, as this place holds bittersweet memories. But I’m better now, I think. For now. When we stopped by the benches, I took in the view and I felt… I don’t know, probably a mix of nostalgia and wistfulness. There’s a perfect word that embodies those feelings but it escapes me now.
I’ve come to love this place since it’s secluded and peaceful. And it’s where we found our kitties.
Free to run. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
There was also a family there with little kids with their bikes but that was it. We had the place to ourselves. I laid on one of the concrete benches there and stared at the sky that was already turning orange grey. I listened to the chirping birds flitting from one branch to another. Then the cicadas took over, signalling to us that we should be heading back home.
We had a good exercise; we got home at 7 pm. ✅ calories burned ✅ fresh air ✅ a way to get out of the house without having to be near another human being.
We’re going back there on weekend and we may bring snacks and we’ll see if we can lay down on the grass or the benches and stare up at the clear sky.
We felt trapped inside the apartment and biking to UP is not yet feasible as some side streets were still closed. So my daughter, Twin I, suggested we bike in BGC where they have dedicated bike lanes.
So we did. Waited for the sky to clear as it has been drizzling earlier yesterday morning. I loaded up our foldies at the back of the car, drove there for 40 mins then parked at OneParkade. I felt it was a bit safer to bike there since it was a weekend so the volume of cars is much less plus the bike lanes are protected by those orange posts that deter cars from occupying the bike lanes as they do in EDSA or C5.
Crossing via pedestrian lane. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Some sections of BGC don’t have bike lanes so we didn’t have much choice but to use the pedestrian lanes and sidewalks since I am with my daughter. If it was just me I can attempt riding on the streets.
Almost empty roads. Photo by CallMeCreation.com Bike rental. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
We saw a bike rental in some parking lots. I haven’t investigated how these things work, like the bike only unlocks via an app? How do they keep these bikes from being stolen? In Taiwan they have something like Ubike there, the yellow rental bikes scattered all over Taipei. It makes sense since traffic in Taipei is bike friendly and their sidewalks allow bikes if there are no dedicated bike lanes. So if you live in one of the condos in BGC and work somewhere else in BGC, it makes more sense to get a bike or scooter than take Grab or a car. Parking in BGC is a nightmare as parking lots are always full.
So before going home, Twin I and I stopped at McDonald’s at the corner or 5th and 32nd street to get sundaes and cookies. Talk about carbo/sugar loading negating the calories we burned.
Photo by CallMeCreation.com
It was an eye-opener that I can bike in BGC on weekends but not with kids. It’s hard to keep them safe from the asshole drivers, like that taxi driver who entered the bike lane because he didn’t want to be held up by a red light. I shouted at the driver that what a prick he was for almost mowing us down.
So I told my daughter that we would just have to stick to UP Diliman for now, even just along University Avenue, until they open up the campus again for bikers and joggers. Maybe tomorrow, if I get off work early.
But I live in a small apartment. I promised myself I will not subject a dog to such conditions where he will be confined and constricted. I have always had dogs but stopped having pets when I moved to Manila because of space issues. That means I need to move to a place with a yard and near open spaces.
Therefore, I need to move. Oh dear, I hate moving. Packing and unpacking. The logistics of it all.
The more I spend my time here in this apartment, the more I am convinced that I should move now to the province.
This restlessness has been drowning me. It has been gnawing at the edge of my reason, my rational self.
Well, what can I say? I was full of trepidation about Trese being brought to life as an animated series but good that I was wrong about my fears. It was better than I expected. The animation could be better (since I am more of a Japanese animation fan) but the storylines per episode are good representations of what Philippine myths and folklore would look like in modern Manila setting. The nuno sa punso though would be hard in Manila since we don’t have enough soil here as everything else is concrete. But the writer of the comics (Budjette Tan) and the Netflix series were able to transport the nuno into sewers and popping up from manholes, which made sense. I didn’t like how this season ended, kinda cliche but the preview of the next season is more intriguing because it seems like the manananggal here is cunning.
I like that the scenes are so familiar, like the MRT breaking down in the middle of Guadalupe, the Meralco building, Dela Rosa Avenue in Makati, Ortigas Center buildings, Megamall, Manila Bay nightscape and I could make out the buildings along Roxas Boulevard, and ABS-CBN front entrance.
My girls and I watched the entire Season 1 in English and it was…so-so. The cadence of the English language was clumsy. Maybe because the scriptwriters are Filipinos in the Philippines, so the conversations in English don’t flow naturally I guess? The accents were off, especially with the spells, which will not bother non-Tagalog speakers but it was grating to me. The English cast was comprised of Filipino-Americans or Filipino-Canadians and it is understandable that they may have trouble with the original language. However, I find it disturbing that Lou Diamond Philips (Mayor) sounded more Mexican while Carlos Alazraqui sounded like a cross between a South American or Spaniard.
When I rewatched snippets of Episode 1 again in Filipino, then it made more sense now. Liza Soberano was better than Shay Mitchell, even just in the monotone. Mind you, Liza grew up in the US (and she gets a lot of flak here for sounding more American than Filipino in movies and TV series) so both actors have that American twang but Liza’s monotone was similar to that of the Japanese voice actor of Kusanagi Motoko in Ghost in the Shell, which fit Alexandra Trese better. UPDATE: I will watch the entire Episode 1 to judge it better.
In the Filipino version, conversations in Tagalog were not the everyday Tagalog we use but it somehow fits. As others commented, this is not the Filipino dub/sub of Naruto, which was cringey.
I like the Ifugao chanting that they use as opening music, which gives it a more ancient, folklore Filipino flavor. The music of Up Dharma Down (UDD) at the end of the every episode is a good foil to the ancient music as UDD is the best representation of modern Filipino music today (yes, I’m a fan).
Filipino folklore is rich but was bastardized by the Spanish, who have demonized women–just look at what they did to the babaylan (Philippine shamans, usually female). The origins of the tiyanak in the colonial Spanish context is one example of that. The banishment of Mariang Sinukuan and Maria Makiling (some versions of the tale) is another one. Neil Gaiman is also a fan of Philippine folklore, which is a treasure trove of literary material. Even the local ones we have like the legend of the Seven Lakes of San Pablo, and the Mt Maculot (originally Mt. Maculog) in Batangas can be manipulated in so many ways, which I did in that novel that I wrote but burned.
Anyway, this is just the first attempt of the Trese team, I hope they get better support and better story telling next season.
Rotating power outages likely in parts of Luzon for 2nd day, red alert hours longer
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 1) — Parts of Luzon may experience power interruptions for the second day in a row Tuesday, with the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) announcing longer red alert hours.
In its Facebook page, the NGCP announced red alert hours of 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. to 10 p.m., longer than the 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. period yesterday. A red alert means power supply is insufficient to meet the projected demand for energy.
This is not a one-off thing. This has been going on and on for years. We journalists have been sounding the alarm for a looooooong time. As I said in one social media post:
Developing a base load power plant takes years, at least 5 years. Securing approval for new power plant projects from the Energy Regulatory Commission takes a long time. The ultra super critical 600×2 MW coal plant Atimonan One by Merlaco PowerGen is still under development (for those in Luzon). Meanwhile, there are already a lot of renewable energy power plants here but that cannot substitute for base load power plants. It’s complicated to explain how to dispatch RE power and base load (coal, diesel) since it’s technically with the national grid. As Metro Pacific President Joey Lim said, our grid is not a complete loop. If one power plant trips, the grid cannot just simply dispatch electricity from another area/plant; basically he likened it to a one-way highway. Moreover the dispatch of solar and wind power have specific times since power from them are not available at all hours.
We were not remiss in giving the public the FYI, right? Hahahaha! This is why I have 2 rechargeable standfans, my salary from my part-time teaching in CMC for 1 semester was used to buy a gasoline genset, my “desktop” at home is a gaming laptop so when power goes out, the fun still continues. Everything that can be purchased as rechargeable, I purchased. I still don’t have a house of my own but when the time comes I already have my tiny house, I will install off-grid solar power or hybrid off-grid and on-grid system. I need to take matters into own hands because this problem will persist for a long, long time. Malampaya gas field is running out of reserves and then we have 5 gas-fed power plants that are reliant on Malampaya, which provides electricity to Luzon. We still don’t have an LNG terminal, we still don’t have an alternative to Malampaya.
Basically, this problem has been the government’s neglect. It doesn’t matter whose administration’s fault is this since this has spanned four presidents already. Trying to explain the issue and write the solutions (long-term and band-aid) is like writing a thesis.
Simultaneous online press conference. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
This is one of the reasons why I invested in dual monitors: I can multitask. But this is extreme multi-tasking as I am streaming two conferences. I paid attention to the one on the right since this is shorter and it yielded me a story, while the one on the left I muted for a while until I finished the other one. Anyway, this conference will run until Thursday and I was able to take down notes for a bit from this session.
I had four conferences this morning, back-to-back-to-back-to-back. And I wrote a time-sensitive story right after. I was still tweaking the story at past 5 pm, which got published at 8 pm. I still have three more stories to write for this week before I go off next week.
Meanwhile, my cats have been Zoom-bombing my press conferences. Good thing I didn’t need to turn on my camera for some of the sessions.
To quote Nikki Bigornia, “My cats have no chill!” Photo from webcam, CallMeCreation.comPhoto by CallMeCreation.com
And they occupied my chair. They stayed in my room the entire day I was slaving away. They always want to be in the same place where I am, even when I’m in the bathroom.
