There is so much going on in the world today but somehow I know things will be ok when I see green trees. Nature grounds me and reminds me of what is important.

And I did something so random this morning: I jammed with the busker at the community market. I sang half of Tadhana by Up Dharma Down and full of Time After Time by Cyndi Lauper (EBTG/Tuck & Patti version).

Why? I don’t know. I feel like I’m getting dry. My soul is getting dry. I need art, need an outlet for creativity.

I saw B at the market today. He and I go way back, he helped train me in theater in high school and we were in the same theater group in college. We just had a long conversation about the lack of community for creatives and the kind of workshops we used to have 20-30 years ago to hone a new generation of talents. I told him I’m searching for theater workshops for my twins and sadly, there is a dearth of creatives who offer that in our area these days. He said he is in touch with the director of Cultural Center of the Philippines, whom I’ve known personally because he was my mom’s blockmate in college. B said he will let me know if CCP has a youth program where I can enroll my kids this summer break.

But he told me, the probable reason why we can no longer find a community and workshops for the new generation of creatives is that because we are in a desert now. We are drained. And it’s probably the time for us, our generation to start it again.

Ugh, it’s a tall order.

---

Speaking of EBTG, I searched on Spotify for my favorite EBTG album, which is Acoustic. Just like that, the name of the album is just Acoustic 😁. I had loved them in the 1990s and when I had my first job, I would go home from work and I would play the entire album over and over while I was lying on my bed with scented candles lit. I would play One Place several times before turning in for the night.

One Place

A summer evening; I walk past the window,
Baby’s crying; Someone’s cooking dinner;
There’s laughter on the TV
Someone’s learning the violin.
How at home, it heals
At times like this, I feel that…

I could like to live like anybody else
In one place
And I could be happy and fulfilled
In one place

So I get the map out
And draw a line of where we’ve been
It goes through sea and sky
Twenty-five planes this year
And it’s only July…
This is not some Bible, like on the road
It’s just a song about coming home
And whether…

I would like to live like anybody else
In one place
And I could be happy and fulfilled
In one place

And you know that I have found
That I’m happiest weaving from town to town
And you know Bruce said
We should keep moving ’round
Maybe we all get too tied down, I don’t know
Hell, I don’t know
I’m happy to be home (Still alive)
Happy to be home…

In the end, if you take care
You can be happy or unhappy anywhere

And I think we maybe all rely too much
On one place
I know I never would deny the need
For one place

So I get the map out (get the map out)
Yeah I get the map out (get the map out)
C’mon, get the map out (get the map out)
Get the map out (get the map out)

This song captured my internal conflict at that time: the need to be stable and rooted in one place at the same time I desired to be on the go, to travel and be bouncing from one place to another. To be a journalist and/or write for National Geographic.

At that time I also felt Tracey Thorn’s wistfulness to be just in one place, stop touring (“25 planes this year/and it’s only July…”) and raise a family (listen to their song Apron Strings). So I wasn’t surprised that they stopped by year 2000 and disbanded EBTG and Tracey said she’s not going to sing live anymore.

I’m happy for her when I read that she and Ben Watt chose to have kids after had hung their guitars. Now 25 years later, they decided to have limited shows in UK after releasing their first album in 24 years in 2023 or 2024. They already have grown kids already so it’s about time they come back.

They already have their One Place, just as I have also built my One Place—a place to plant my roots—in the same place where I started wondering about whether I should tie myself down or fly.

Driving to Metro Manila today was not bad since I was able to reach my destination before 8 am. Well, almost since I spent more minutes going around Valero because of parking issues. It only took me 1.5 hrs on a Friday morning—not bad.

I was debating whether I should write my story in Makati and be caught in traffic or leave early. I ate ramen first so I can think.

I was getting sleepy so I decided I will write the story at home and sleep early.

Nope. The universe had other plans. My car wouldn’t start. I already had an inkling for quite some time that my starter is fucked because I have a hard time starting my car in the mornings. I have already changed the battery in December so it is relatively new and shouldn’t be the cause for the hard start. But this time in Greenbelt my car was just clicking and not starting the engine even if the battery is fine. Long story short, I pulled out my jumper cables and the nice driver of the SUV  several rows over jumped-started my car.

I made sure I got home in one piece, withdrew some cash and went straight to an alternator/auto electrical shop.

It’s my starter, not the alternator, which is busted. The alternator is fine and is charging my battery. It’s the starter that is problematic. It needed rewinding and one bolt was already shot.

Well, my car is already 20 years old so this is just part of the normal wear and tear.

I remember emailing our Manila reporter, Kr, last night about a conference that we were not invited to but should cover. Then I read Kr’s email at 10 am today telling me that some reporters are going to crash the event and just do some ambush interviews.

I had to quickly shower and get dressed to catch some of the panel discussions in the conference. I arrived at 12:30 pm, exactly an hour before the first panel came on stage. What did I get? Well some nuggets of intelligence from one CEO I interviewed, something I could tuck in my pocket for future reference. And a possible story.

Wash. Repeat tomorrow.

This quota thing is making us all insane.

As former Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago said, stupid is forever. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

Now you’ve angered Atty. Mike Navallo, SC spokesperson and former ABS-CBN reporter. 🤣 Mike was one of those reporters victimized by the Duterte troll army when he was just reporting the truth. He was already a lawyer then but still chose to be in the field. I remember defending him on Twitter from the trolls.

Now, now, I know this statement isn’t just him—it’s the whole of SC— but you know, I can’t help but think of how this is Mike’s way of getting back at the DDS zombies.

The SC will hunt down these purveyors of fake news and misinformation.

---

I was tempted to go to the in-campus co-working space where I worked last Friday. I couldn’t think straight today, there were so many distractions. I couldn’t work on the invoices from my HK trip, the analysis piece that’s two weeks overdue, and another op-ed piece. 😢

In between work, I hopped to the coffee shop next door to have coffee with BFFs on separate time slots.

However tempted I was, I was just too lazy to throw on some outside clothes and fix my face so I won’t look like a slob. So I kept pushing it back until I realized it was already 5 pm. 😬

And this creature was slowing me down today.

Yes, tomorrow I must face work again, chase after people who keep ghosting me. Beg new people for interviews…

But let me just enjoy the weekend for a bit.

I brought Twin I to the weekend community market for breakfast so she can see for herself the items being sold every week. I also made her choose the meals that we would be bringing home. My refrigerator is still at the service center since they’re still testing for leaks. 🤦🏻‍♀️

Brutal hot summer days are upon us  🫠 I have to transfer my peppers from my staircase to under the trees in my garden.

My handsome boy would also have to hide under the water tanks to keep cool.

Meanwhile, I do stupid things because I’m just a little girl with adult money…

I’m sorry, I’m a sucker for Nokia fliphones. HMD, the Chinese company that bought Nokia, has a winner here.

This is 4G and I will use this to house my Smart SIM when I’m abroad while my workhorse Oppo phone has the local SIM for local calls and data (because werk, werk, werk).

I only need my Smart SIM for OTPs when I do online banking while abroad and I want a smaller 2nd phone in my handbag. The other Oppo 2nd phones I use whenever I travel are now going to my nephews.

It’s available on Lazada (cheaper on Lazada than Shopee) via HMD’s official store.

I am just amazed at the idiocy of the DDS base. They are on a different realm. A simple Google will reveal this:

---

I have yet to read Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go (I have a copy of it here somewhere) but his explanation of why he didn’t let his characters rebel against that dystopian world, that hopeless and helpless situation of just being clones of humans for organ harvesting, is more telling. From a writer’s perspective, it is more fascinating to think and show how people navigate narrow paths and try to find sparks of joy in that bleak kind of life.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Faber Books (@faberbooks)

Somehow, Ishiguro gave me a glimpse of why people remain static, remain poor, or remain in loveless marriages. Perhaps, I should be more understanding and have more patience towards people who are static because not all people are like me who had the strength, the temperament, and the will to fight bigger forces head-on to effect change. Perhaps, I should broaden my mind that many people are just content to survive and make the best of the bad hand they’re dealt. That perhaps, they leave it to people like Madame to fight for change because those things are too big for them. Because not everyone is like or built like Katniss Everdeen of the Hunger Games series. Not everyone is like the rebellious androids in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (a.k.a. Bladerunner) who gained consciousness and empathy—who became sentient—and escaped or fought the oppressive system.

And maybe, just maybe, this is the reason why the Philippines will always be like this. Many like to remain asleep maybe because survival alone takes a lot of energy.