Category Archives: personal

Hard landing or soft landing?

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We don’t know how long the elevated prices and supply squeeze will last. The oil prices at gas stations keep rising and jeepney drivers are throwing in their towels and are now looking for alternative sources of livelihood. They simply can’t make ends meet. Not with this daily price hikes and horrible traffic.

And yet this stupid government is still saying the PHP 20-per-kilo-rice is doable, at the expense of poor Filipino farmers

But Federation of Free Farmers Cooperatives national manager Raul Montemayor said the DAR’s plan would only make farmers end up losing more, especially if the farm-gate price — or the selling price between a trader and a farmer — is further reduced.

Montemayor said if a kilo of rice would be sold at P20, the farm-gate price would have to be about P10 a kilo.

As a rule of thumb, the retail price of rice is at least double the farm-gate price of palay (unhusked rice), which is currently P19 a kilo.

Philippine Daily Inquirer

Meanwhile, the outgoing cabinet secretaries of Duterte admin say it simply cannot be done.

These idiots are not even coordinating their press releases 🙄

If these asshats have any iota of intelligence, then the first thing they should fix is the supply chain problems/inefficiencies/bottlenecks, which eat up 40-50% of the cost of goods, especially food, in this country. That alone has an immediate effect on the prices of food, which comprise bulk of the CPI.

I spent the day talking to this investment company that primarily provides mezzanine financing to SMEs. It slightly lifted me out of the doldrums but I’m still having a tough battle with the promotion of my people. Like what the heck?! Why is it even hard to have my good reporters promoted and have their pay raised? What the fuck is this company??? It was like defending my thesis all over again.

I was so angry this afternoon that I refused to work overtime.

I had put my ass on the line by saying that if they don’t give these people their due, they will leave the company—and one of them was already being pirated in front of me by a rival company (which was 100% true). If that happens, my work will be unbearable because I will be plugging the gap by myself and that would force me to look for opportunities elsewhere because I simply cannot overwork myself for little pay, I said.

Now I have to look for Plan B.

Being under this new parent company is much worse than being owned by a PE that squeezes the life out of a business. 🤬

Today just sucked the life out of me. I was feeling sorry for myself since last night until today and this HR issue added to the pain I’m having today.

Oppo Band. To motivate me to move. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I’m sooooo looking forward to my break next week. I will shake off the bad jujus and tune out. I will love myself and make myself believe that I am not as horrible and unlovable as my ex-partner thinks I am.

I hit bumps like this from time to time because I’m still working through my trauma. It’s part of the process.

Anyway, I took advantage of the sale last Saturday in Glorietta and bought this smart watch that I will test this coming Saturday in Pico de Loro when I dive/swim laps.

Meanwhile, the cats managed to bring a smile to my face last night despite feeling like shit.

Sushi inside the paper bag
Kimchi’s turn to destroy the paper bag
Have paperbag, have cat. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

Chonky cat. 😻

Bye-bye freewheeling money

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Lifted from a LinkedIn post.

I really don’t understand this metric. This is used by companies wanting unrealistic valuation and investors bit the bullet because…they need to close a deal and show their LPs that they’re doing “something”.

Now that startups and even the unicorns and listed tech companies are laying off people by the thousands (I just edited a story about this in Asia a few weeks ago) as funding dries up and investors begin to see reason. Gone are the days when Uber and WeWork burn money like it’s growing on trees. Things are so bad right now that those who have jumped from their stable jobs to hustle on their startups are seeing doors close on them. Cost of money is rising, with inflation hitting multiple-year record highs, hence, we see central banks looking through their tool kits to stem possible runaway inflation. Investors are now turning off the tap and begin to be more selective in their deals. Companies that I’ve talked to are preferring cash over anything else these days.

Just today, Philippines Statistics Authority reported that last month’s inflation rate was the highest in four years at 5.4%, from 4.9% in April. Gone were the days when I was reporting inflation rate at 1%, T-bills at near-zero levels, and very loose policy rates (which was boring us to tears) that banks and insurance companies were looking at alternative investment vehicles in search of higher yields.

As it stands, inflation is emerging as a big headache for the incoming administration of President-elect Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., who is yet to reveal his full economic plans for the country.

The BSP is racing to control prices and has already made its first decisive action to fight inflation last month by hiking rates for the first time in three years. Diokno, who will cut short his term as BSP governor to join the Marcos cabinet as finance secretary, hinted at another rate hike in June.

Philippine Star

I feel bad for my brother, who is trying to close a housing loan with PS Bank and he has been racing against time. If he can’t close the loan (because the Register of Deeds is slow in releasing the title), he has to work again on the loan with higher rates for the townhouse he is trying to buy.

This situation will squeeze small and medium enterprises with existing loans; if they don’t have fixed-rate loans, then this will hurt them so much.

Recession is very much in the offing.

I just bought vegetables and a few oranges last night and I spent PhP 1,200 that is good for four people for a week. And that’s not even the same amount of vegetables I used to buy six months or a year ago.

It hurts a middle class citizen like me but I’m luckier that I can still spend for “frivolous needs” like wheel alignment and clothes shopping because my children got bigger again and no longer fit in their clothes I bought a few months ago.

Clothes and and sandals shopping at SM tonight
Having my car’s wheels aligned and steering wheel straightened out this afternoon
Photos by CallMeCreation.com

This, however, is a different story for those who belong to the lower economic strata who can barely budget their PHP 570-a-day minimum wage, which includes costly transport costs. It’s no wonder why people still gravitate towards the long queues at MRT and EDSA Carousel buses because right now these are still free. Filipinos could no longer afford basic transportation costs.

I have to be selective with the face-to-face meetings because petroleum is so precious right now. I had filled up my tank (which was already half-full) tonight for around PHP 1,700, which a year ago would be enough to fill up my car from near-empty.

Despite the high cost of driving your own car, people like me bite the bullet because there are no Grab cars (heard they decommissioned a lot of Grab cars because they’re older than 5 years already), the queues in MRT and buses are out of this world, and the traffic is much worse than pre-pandemic levels.

We are in a fucking transportation crisis.

Metro Manila is no longer livable.

I had been living here full-time for more than 20 years and I can see how things have deteriorated over time. I can’t wait to move back to my hometown (even if that means I lose my autonomy because I will be nearer my siblings who can poke their heads into my business) because I’m so tired of the drive. The driving time of my brother and mine were the same last Saturday. His 70 km vs my 14 km both for 1.5 hrs. This is really absurd.

Smiles and tears

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Beneficiaries of the donation drive we had. Photo by AAPAFI.

The president of the foundation that I had been helping sent me photos of the turnover of the school clothes for the Aeta children. They said their thanks.

However, we have hit only half of the target 600 shirts. We need to raise more funds.

After all the drama with my car, I will drive up to Capas, Tarlac to visit them with my journo friend, M, who is also helping them.

Today hurts my wallet.

My entire Monday was spent repairing my old Crosswind—the expected wear and tear of an old car. Good thing about this is that I finally found a good overall mechanic. The bad thing here is he is in Cainta, Rizal, which is a bit of distance from here. His shop also does body repairs since his side business is flipping cars.

old defective fan belt pulley
Old clutch fan
The clutch fan removed
Putting it all back,. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

So after my trip to Pico de Loro and other trips during my week-long leave, I will bring my car to his shop for other internal and external repairs like dents and paint. Then I will bring it to the electrical shop that I had been using since 2009 for centralized locks. Then to my upholstery guy for carpets and sound deadeners.

So after all these, I hope this car will not bring more headaches until I buy a new one.

After Taal Volcano had her tantrum earlier this year, here comes Mount Bulusan in Sorsogon with her own temper flare.

And OMG! NEDA Sec Gen Karl Chua, who is much younger than me, has aged so much over the course of the six-year Duterte administration, especially now that the Philippines incurred P12.76 trillion in debts.

Socioeconomic Planning Secretary and NEDA chief Karl Kendrick Chua gives an update to President Rodrigo Roa Duterte during a meeting with key government officials at the Malacañan Palace on February 28, 2022. King Rodriguez, Presidential Photo

“The debt-to-GDP ratio meanwhile has risen to 63.5 percent, which is higher than the internationally prescribed best practice of 60 percent.”

ABS-CBN News

This is double whammy for a developing market like the Philippines as the US is bracing for a recession. It has always been, when the US sneezes, the rest of the world catches a cold.

So I have to hold off any major purchase and I must hold cash for opportunities. My portfolio lost so much on paper so I must even them out. 😑

Meanwhile, I was able to resurrect my sister’s dead laptop. The Asus laptop keyboard I bought from Shopee arrived yesterday and I was able to replace the old ghosting one. I was able to turn this laptop on, which had been sitting idle for a long time. I didn’t want to spend PhP 6,000 for a new LCD since this is just a spare Windows machine, so I hooked up a spare old Dell LCD monitor.

Et voila! I have brought it back from the dead. And this machine has a licensed Photoshop and other layouting software.

Sushi investigating the old machine. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I’m too tired tonight to paint or sketch. I have to buy new tires tomorrow. 😑

In the meantime, I’ll just watch other people draw people.

Here is the offending fan

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Clutch fan. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

So my radiator guy said the good-for-nothing mechanic replaced my original Isuzu fan with something disposable that needs to be replaced every 6 months. So yeah, 6 months it is.

However, since it is a Sunday, the auto supply shop where he is getting this specific fan is closed so I have to bring the car tomorrow for this repair to be completed. In the meantime, they’re overhauling my radiator because it’s rusted.

Replacing and welding the rusted parts and cleaning the radiator. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

That’s one of the reasons why the coolant is not reaching the engine. The tubes are chock-full of rust. He said I should have this overhauled once a year, just like my AC maintenance, since this is already an old car.

Aggghhh! The perils of keeping an old car. I promise after this recession, I will sell this and get myself a Toyota Rush or a Suzuki Ertiga.

While I’m waiting for my radiator to be finished, the birds at the pet shop next door have been busily chatting the day away.

I feel sorry for them. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

Yesterday, we went to Makati to meet my brother, sister-in-law, and my nephews. Kuya P wanted to see the twins. So we met at Glorietta and they played the evening away at Timezone while sis in law (SIL) and I shopped around.

Then we all had dinner at Food Choices since it was already too late for anything else, plus they brought their shihtzuh with them and Food Choices is not prissy about pets.

Ollie, the cutie dog. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
My nephews. My brother is blocked by Kuya H. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

We broke up at Greenbelt so the girls and I can proceed to the skating event, which was a big dud because there weren’t enough skates to be rented and the food and beverage stalls were caught unprepared for the huge crowd. I was told by my SIL later last night that some friends she knew who went earlier were so disappointed by the disorganized event and the event host’s amateur way of handling it.

Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Queueing for skates. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Resting for a bit before going back to Greenbelt. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

In the end we just spent 11-12 midnight walking back and forth Paseo de Roxas and Greenbelt where we parked.

In the underground pedestrian walkway along Paseo de Roxas x Ayala Ave. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

Good thing we spent majority of the evening with my brother’s family instead of going straight to the skating event, which was just a waste of energy. At least my girls were able to have fun with Kuya P.

Then it was downhill from there…

Too exhausted from last night’s ordeal and today’s repairs that I slept for 3 hrs. Woke up at 6 pm and I’m still in bed.

So lovely. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

This is what weekends are all about.

When it rains…

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Waiting for the car towing company. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

It’s 1:14 am and I’m waiting for the car towing here at the gas station along Edsa.

When we left Greenbelt I was already feeling that the AC is not working efficiently and I just had it cleaned. 🤔 I saw the temp gauge slightly elevated…when I got off the flyover ramp from Ayala, the brakes weren’t engaging and the check engine, battery, and brake light were blinking red.😣

I turned the engine off and on and slowly made my way into a gas station. All the while I was talking with my brother on the phone. He said I shouldn’t drive the car and and call a towing company, which I did.

Meanwhile, the gas station guys helped me bring down the radiator and engine temp. Then I smelled something like burning rubber. I left the engine running to see what the issue was. So here I am with my children at the back, waiting to be rescued.

And there it was, the strange clacking sound. Just as I suspected, it’s the fan clutch.

I had it replaced in December when the aircon guy at Frigidzone already warned me that the fan is already freewheeling when it  shouldn’t. I asked for a mechanic that he could refer me to. Unfortunately, he was the only guy open on 23 Dec and the rest took the holiday off. He isn’t good because it took the auto parts seller to tell him what parts should be replaced and what to do with it instead of just using silicon for the old fan so it can continue spinning.

And when I had returned to Frigidzone for aircon cleaning last week, the same guy said something is still wrong with my clutch fan and my engine will overheat. I said I just had it replaced. He said it was not done well and I should return it to that mechanic.

Hell no, that guy is a fraud. So I brought the car to another radiator/auxiliary fan mechanic and he said it’s still working; nothing is wrong.

But there’s still this nagging feeling that I should bring it to the radiator guy who did the overhaul of my radiator a few years ago. I was just buying time. I was waiting for my leave so that I can fix what should be fixed.

So here we are; I didn’t think it would be this soon.

Tow truck starting to lower its ramp. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
My car on top of the tow truck. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Photo by CallMeCreation.com

It’s 3:26 am and we are coasting along EDSA inside my car on top of the tow truck. It’s rather jarring.

I’m freaking tired. I’ll solve the problem of bringing the car to the radiator guy later today. I’m dead.