Corporate girlie with a backpack. Yep, I have to say, to hell with fashion. I’m cold so I don’t want to complicate life by minding what goes with what anymore. So I went with a backpack and layered my top.

It seems like I wasn’t the only one who was cold. Most people were wearing down jackets. Earlier today it was 11 degrees.

I didn’t bring a thicker jacket or any Heattech because I’ve never been cold in HK. The coldest I’ve been in China was 4 degrees in Shanghai and Xi’an and I’ve come prepared for that.

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So I said I may be chickening out—I don’t have any leg to stand on if I opt out of my current situation. Like how do I propose that I would just go on freelance mode???

To make matters worse, my manager is seated next to me. 😭 I HATE OPEN PLAN office setups.

How do I proceed? How to keep my sanity?

I would have chosen to fly Cathay because it’s cheaper and it has in-flight entertainment. However, if I booked that, I would have to take Terminal 3—the worst Terminal among the four at NAIA. First, the Immigration there sucks. It takes them forever to interrrogate Filipinos leaving the country so queuing takes at least an hour or so. Second, that terminal was haphazardly built, thus, there are so many mishaps there such as power outages and aircons that keep breaking down. (However, the latest hullabaloo at NAIA was supposedly deliberately done to discredit the former DoTr secretary, who has been a victim of power struggle inside, as a transport journo friend told me. More about that later). Third, that terminal is just pure chaos. It does not have enough seats, it’s so disorganized.

So yeah, I have contributed to PAL’s emergence from its bankruptcy.

As for San Miguel’s takeover of NAIA, has there been an improvement? I don’t know. I just know that NAIA parking fees have skyrocketed and ParkNFly has become much more out-of-reach as the rate has doubled. If I had taken ParkNFly for this trip, I would have paid PHP 4,300++. Good thing my mom’s driver is available today and next Saturday or else I would just have booked Grab from our place to airport.

PAL has just announced that our flight is fully booked. Hopefully not overbooked that they would randomly pick people who would be kicked out of this flight. 😑 Cebu Pacific has this bad habit of doing that.

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So PAL was an hour late. Then there was a long queue at the HKIA immigration. After claiming my Airport Express ticket, Octopus, and 4G SIM at the Klook kiosk, I went straight to Hong Kong island.

By then time I reached the hotel, I was already famished. I lingered a bit in my room since I had to change my shirt and my jacket for a cardigan because I spilled piping hot coffee on myself at the airport. 🤦🏻‍♀️

I went to Mongkok to go sneaker and skin care product hunting. I just followed where the teenagers went and found a fascinating exit.

My girls would have loved these.

There were a lot of toys. Collectibles.

They are sooooo expensive! HKD 298  = PHP 2,212.86. I just bought my Mofusand from Lazada and I don’t care if it’s not “authentic”. It’s a cat plushie!

My mom bought these for us when she was in Japan for a university exchange program when we were kids. My classmates had Barbies while we had Liccas. Ours came with houses, kitchen sets or shopping marts. The Japanese really are masters for miniature stuff.

It was already 3 pm and was so hungry.

I went to look around at Sasa but the Banila Co product that I was looking for was not there. The perfumes didn’t attract me that much while the make up was too expensive for my girls. I went around a few blocks but I could no longer find the Japanese store I found last year. I think they were replaced by bargain stores with the usual mainland China stuff that I can buy from Divisoria.

I decided to go to Paradise Outlets at Heng Fa Chuen. Shoe shopping again! 🤦🏻‍♀️

Buy 3 pairs, get 30% off. I ended up buying each pair for almost PHP 3,000 only. Do you know expensive Sambas are in the Philippines???

I am poorer but a happy camper. 🙃

The girls’ dad brought them yesterday to the nearest DFA office to apply for their passports. He gave them a new laptop that his brother bought in the US—and I know that is going to be the nexus of future arguments between the twins. So I pushed through with my plan of giving one of them my Lenovo laptop while I upgrade my pc-on-the-go with higher specs, like a Ryzen 5 or Core i5 and 16GB of RAM. I drove to the nearest SM Mall with a Cyberzone to check out Acer notebooks—because their service center is less than 1 km from my house. I’m practical like that.

I was vacillating between a 15-in Ryzen 7 laptop and a 14-in Core i5 with an all-aluminum body. I should have gone with an OLED laptop because battery life is around 8hrs but I wasn’t prepared to shell out PHP 60k right there and then because I have to be mindful that I’m flying to HK early tomorrow. You know, I may not be able to keep myself from buying stuff there…

What sold me on the smaller Core i5 was that its SDRAM is already DDR5 and has a slightly higher battery capacity compared to the 15-in Ryzen 7, which only had DDR4 SDRAM. My mini-desktop at home is already DDR5 and I don’t think I can go back to anything older than that. While it’s all-aluminum, this Acer Aspire is still lighter or as light as my current Lenovo and thinner than other comparables.

I spent 5 hrs setting up my new laptop and transfering files from the old one. What slowed me down was that the Win 11 Home version this machine has is the old 22H2 version, the support for which had ended in October 2024. I had to scour the interwebs to learn how to upgrade it to 24H2 because the automatic Windows update doesn’t work if the support has ended. It needed some workaround and the download and installation was bloody long. Finally, at 12:30 am, I was able to receive the regular Microsoft updates.

I also had to upgrade my laptop before flying to HK because last year I had a hell of a time finding a workstation that doesn’t use Type C USB to hook up to the company system. Our IT guy there was flabbergasted why I was issued an old laptop. I said, this is my personal equipment because remote workers don’t get office-issued equipment. This also works well for me because you can’t do much with office-issued laptops and phones since you are prohibited to use USB drives and download unauthorized stuff on it. They can also monitor every move that you make through that machine and they can also take away your files in an instant when you are put on garden leave.

Anyway, because we searched high and low for a workstation that can accommodate USB A connections, our IT guy was short of telling me to buy a new laptop, just out of frustration. Well, I didn’t have the same problem with our Singapore office… 🤷🏻‍♀️

Actually, I seldom use laptops even when I am traveling to Manila because it’s cumbersome to lug around when I literally chase people (or even do a body slam to hold off elevators). I bring a laptop when I know there would be heavy editing involved or when I travel to places where I know I will have a workstation e.g. Singapore, HK or hotels/resorts. Otherwise, it’s always the tablet for me since it’s light, its battery life is longer so I don’t need to look for coffee shops with power outlets, and it’s quick to fire up. But my Samsung tablet is such a pain to use when editing because our company IT system reads it as a mobile device, therefore, I cannot copy-paste from our emails to any other application, such as MS Word on Android. I had to use the internal MS Word app and save it to the company cloud, which is very messy. They claim it’s for security but damn, it’s so painful when you’re on your mobile phone/tablet. My workaround to this fuckery is to email the piece I’m supposed to edit to my gmail and I edit from there. After I’m done, I email it back to my office email then return the piece to the journo. You ask why can’t I just edit on Outlook? Outlook for Android doesn’t provide HTML options like changing font color and text style—features that every editor needs. I had to use MS Word for that. I use red font for editing, so that the journo can easily see which parts were modified. This is the equivalent of “red marks” when editors  did their thing on paper with red ink.

Anyway, I’m PHP 30k++ poorer since I made a straight payment. Straight or cash payments can give you significant discounts.

Today we’re back at Cyberzone so I can change the battery of my old Lenovo that I’m passing down to Twin I.

What did I say yesterday about friends being just one lunch or dinner away?

I went to one of my bff’s house this afternoon and waited by her gate, debating whether I could distrub her or not. Just in time, she arrived with her husband (they were out for errands) and the minute she saw me, she immediately knew I needed to talk. She said I looked like a mess.

I told her about the incident with my boss that happened before lunch today that sent me into a tailspin. Right after that fucking incident, I ranted to M, one of my colleagues, and screamed on top of my lungs. Shock absorber. I was having a breakdown. M said my boss is really evil and I should tell our Asia boss about her next week in HK.

So I ranted the same to my bff. We went to a park and vented out my anger and frustration. I broke down. She told me that yes, I should tell our Asia boss but in a calmer fashion. Don’t make it sound like my manager is evil even if she is. Just tell her that personality clashes are sending me into anxiety attacks that I have to see a psychologist/psychiatrist to manage them. Tell her that I am offering to step down from my managing position, so that contact with my manager will be minimal. I can go on a freelancer mode with them.

Yes, my bff said, income may be inconsistent since I would be paid on a per story basis. When I get sick or I go on a holiday, I would earn less. But with the way things are, mental health is more important, so fuck regular income. Better find some side hustles to make up for the drop in income from this company. At least my manager will no longer bother me.

I cheered up after we had dinner at a Thai restaurant near her apartment. We also talked about mini-EV cars and e-tricycles. I want one, just to run around our town for errands and for fetching my girls from school when needed.

But upon research I learned some brands break down easily. Or some have lead batteries and not lithium so storage capacity degrades in a course of a year. I guess it’s not worth it.

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This Tiktok post resonated with me. He says that a version of myself 10 years ago would do anything to be where I am right now…

It’s true. I would have given my kidneys to be where I am now: secure, at peace, with thriving happy children, and surrounded by family and friends. My friends are just a lunch or dinner away.

Ten years ago, I was burning the candles on both ends and I was slowly dying. Yes, the version of me 10 years ago would have given so much to be where I am now—but I wouldn’t have any idea of the painful road I took to be here.

I reflected on this as one of the people I’m mentoring told me he is winding down his antidepressant intake and is now preoccupied with going to the gym for some serotonin boost. He said he didn’t know how we was able to pull through with work given what he was going through with personal life. I said we always get destroyed in the process of growing up, to become the better versions of ourselves. We will always pull through because we are meant to go through hell before we metamorphosize into something else.

Some time ago, I realized that part of my journey is the companionship of my cats. They’re an integral part of my healing and I don’t know why. My cats are obnoxious, especially Kimchi, but I know she loves me so much.

Wherever I am in my tiny house, she is there. Even follows me to the bathroom. 😑 When I’m away, she waits for me in my room or by the door. Same with Sushi. I asked Twin I one day last week, what were the cats doing all day when we were still living in QC? She said, mommy, the cats were always by the door, on top of the shoe cabinet, waiting for you to come home. 😭 ❤️

I don’t have to look for love in the wrong places. It’s just right here at home, with my girls and my cats.

Yes, we are always meant to pass through the gates of hell but we will pull through with the right support system.

Heaven, wait
Only a word, a sign, I need to know
I can’t wait
I’m trying to figure out
I’m trying to figure how you feel
I’ll lose my mind
Doesn’t make any sense, I know it’s true
Could I have known?
That I was going to fall
That I was going to fall for you?
You’re secretive, I know
Your world’s a place I don’t belong
Even though, I will never let go
Cause everyday
You’re on my mind
In every way
You’re in my heart
You make me feel like
We were never apart
Never apart
Cause everyday
You’re on my mind
In every way
You’re in my heart
You make me feel like
We were never apart
Never apart
Heaven, wait
Only a word, a gaze, I need to know
I won’t rest
Until I figure out
Until I figure how you feel
Lose my mind
Doesn’t make any sense, I know it’s true
Did you know?
I was already fond
Was already fond of you
You’re secretive, I know
Your world’s somewhere I don’t belong
Even though, I will never let go
Cause everyday
You’re on my mind
In every way
You’re in my heart
You make me feel like
We were never apart
Never apart
Cause everyday
You’re on my mind
In every way
You’re in my heart
You make me feel like
We were never apart
Never apart