Before I left PH, I already had the sniffles, c/o Twin I. Seriously, I should have that kid tested for something because she’s always catching colds.

Anyway, I was going around hot and humid Singapore yesterday, which made my condition worse.

I wanted to do my shopping for pasalubong on my first day to get this out of the way since I’m going to be very busy until I leave on Friday.

The girls will have their recognition rites tomorrow to receive their medals. Unfortunately, I won’t be there because our conference is tomorrow but their dad will be the one going onstage with them. Then they will go with him to his home province to see their grandpa who is already suffering from dementia.

---

I met a friend and former colleague at Joo Chiat, an area not frequented by tourists so it’s relatively quiet. We went Vietnamese food hopping while taking photos of pretty shophouses.

She told me about the time when she had to dogsit for a friend while the latter went on holiday. My friend ex-colleague said having pets in Singapore is very expensive and she realized she cannot have a dog until she is retired because it requires a lot of work. Pet ownership is no joke, especially if you don’t have a yard to exercise your pet. Grooming costs a minimum of SGD 50 for a small breed. A simple trip to the vet can set you back SGD 200.

We talked about a lot of things and of them is retirement. She said she will work and stay in Singapore until before she retires at 55 and then go back to mainland China where her investments/pension can go a long way. She said she doesn’t believe that the housing market in China will get tight like before since they have an ageing population and only a few get married and/or procreate. If they do, they would only have one child. This means the demand for housing in the coming years may not be as high as a few years ago. Right now, they already have a housing glut so she is not in a rush to buy a property there.

Meanwhile, she is looking for a one-bed condo in Singapore to live in and later flip after retirement. She can add the proceeds to her retirememt fund and flee to China. Singapore is just too expensive for a retiree.

Meanwhile, I told her about the several income streams I am planning to have before I hang up my journo cap. I realized that I can’t really retire early because in the last 10 years my equities investments were flat. It’s only recently I started rebalancing my portfolio to more global funds.

As a CFA, she told me I don’t have the luxury of time so I can no longer be as aggressive (heavy on equities) as I was 10 or 20 years ago. I have to rebalance my portfolio, which I did. But I am not as aggressive in terms of the rate of savings/investment that I should be doing. I just have too many wants.

Sigh.

… I’m back at NAIA. While I was packing last night, Twin A asked, where are you going? I said, Singapore.

“Again?!” she asked in disbelief.

Yup, just rested for two weeks and here I am again, wasting my hours at the airport.

I realized during my trip to Vietnam that I had been very lazy updating my credit cards. I should have upgraded my credit cards a long time ago for the ones that give me access to airport lounges since I travel quite a bit. My bff has a Security Bank card that allows her +1 guest four times a year. I remember accessing one lounge at Changi a long time ago when I still had my Citibank cc (before Unionbank bought that business). I never bothered to update/upgrade my cards because it was cumbersome.

Since I’m already done with my refrigerator and car woes, I think I now have the mental space to pay attention to the small stuff like cc update. My wait at airports would be less agonizing once I fixed this.

---

I attended a conference on Thursday and I was so busy chasing people and writing that I didn’t realize that time flew by so fast. I looked at my watch and it was already 5 pm. I had to transfer to Mitsukoshi mall to have dinner while editing more stories. I looked like an idiot there sitting on a small high chair and bar table, trying to balance my laptop, drink, and rice bowl.

I told my Japanese colleague, whose work I was editing, that I need to transfer to another venue before sending back his work because the conference that I attended has long ended. He was flabbergasted to learn that not only was I editing onsite, I also still had to write a time-sensitive report. He didn’t realize that editors also need to meet the story quota.

So there I was, gulping my rice bowl because it was already 6 pm in Manila, 7 pm in Tokyo so I needed to finish this thing. I remember why we journos always end up with indigestion.

Yesterday was tamer. My brain refused to work in the morning because it was so exhausted from the previous day so I tackled the editing duties and the rewrite/edit of an analytical piece in the afternoon. Which was a wise decision because the stuff I had to deal with required so much brain power.

So now I’m at the autoshop to have my brake shoe springs and brake drum replaced. Thank God for the coffee shop next door, I have somewhere to wait.

Thank you to all the neighborhood coffee shops that have sprung up like mushrooms everywhere. Five to ten years ago, there weren’t any place where we can sit and leisurely drink our beverages without having to wolf down complete meals. This coffee boom, not just in my hometown but the whole country, is sustaining dairy businesses like Carmen’s Best. In the last briefing of Metro Pacific, they shared that the diary business is propped up by the local coffee industry because Filipinos have become coffee shop lovers.

Well, I say coffee shop lovers because we are really coffee drinkers but we consume coffee at home. Batangas barako coffee, istatchu? In the provinces they even pour coffee over rice to eat at breakfast. What we didn’t have is the coffee shop/coffee house culture that others have, like in Vietnam and Italy. But we are slowly catching on.

I love moments like this. Everything is still in my own little world.

I’m at peace.

With all the news about horrific road accidents the past few days, I feel like God is looking out for me.

I heard the squeaking noise whenever I stepped on the brakes and that got me worried. When I bought the fridge last Saturday, I heard and felt the tugging on my rear wheels whenever I released the brake pedal. I told myself I shouldn’t be driving my car anymore.

Monday was hectic because I was the only editor alive and everyone else was off because of Golden Week/Labor Day weekend off. Today was more relaxed so I finally was able to bring it to my go-to autoshop.

There you go, the rear brake shoe spring broke and it was scraping the brake drum. I have to have the brake drum replaced as well. The mechanic told me I can still drive my car since the front brake shoe spring, which is bigger, is still ok. They tested it and it worked fine so I can still go home.

I immediately ordered a set of brake shoe springs online and let the autoshop order the brake drum. I will have them installed on Saturday before I leave for the airport on the dawn of Sunday.

I won’t tempt fate. I’ll borrow my sister’s car for my coverage on Thursday.

Ah well, that’s all part of keeping a 20-year-old car with over 200,000 km on it.

Why am I not replacing it yet? Because I’m still hung up on having a solar power system on my rooftop. Still weighing my options.