Damn it! Too early to break my no-spend month resolution. If there’s something I missed in Metro Manila, it would be the bookstores like Booksale and Biblio.

I drove my kids to SM North in QC so they can meet up with their elemetary besties and hang out at the mall. I left them to their own devices so I had a lot of time to kill.

First, I bought Twin A a guitar stand similar to her sister’s. There’s a Yupangco store in SM North.

Then of course I had to try the Clavinova. And of course I am lusting after it. The size though is prohibitive—it can’t fit in my house.

After this, I still had a lot of time to kill. The best way to do that is to scour second-hand bookstores.

I spent at least one hour here and my haul was sizeable.

After Booksale, I walked around so that I can achieve at least 10k steps for the day. I wasn’t able to do my brisk walk yesterday so I must compensate today.

Then I got to Biblio. Serendipity or what?

I was there for 45 mins, I think. I bought all the John Green I could find for my girls. Unfortunately, the only copy of Fault in Our Stars got sold earlier.

Eager to read Me Before You, I searched for a Starbucks branch so I could sit and read. It looked promising, the novel I mean. I imagined the protagonist looking like Emilia Clarke since she portrayed Lou in the movie version.

Sad that I couldn’t stay long in the coffee shop because people were so noisy. I normally could drown out people around me when I work, especially on time-sensitive stories, but I couldn’t do that now on leisure activities. I had to get out of Starbucks.

It was surprising that SM North is very crowded even though the Christmas season is already over. It was annoying.

So how can I kill more time? Go to the salon.

After reaching 12k steps, I just stationed myself in one of the benches in SM Annex and chatted through Messenger with my bff, who is also struggling with retail therapy.

This day was a failure in terms of my personal finance goals. But I’m happy with my book haul. Sometimes you just have to compromise for your sanity.

This is the last day of my holiday and tomorrow will just be a regular weekend before going back to work on Monday. In the weeks that I was on hiatus from work, I haven’t turned on my desktop, even to just play Spotify. For that, I use the Playstation (with a Spotify app) to play music on our TV hooked up to my JBL soundbar. I just wanted to avoid using things that I associate with work.

So what have I achieved during the holidays? I watched videos on personal finance, cooking, housekeeping, and design vlogs. I haven’t read any book 🤦🏻‍♀️ nor painted anything. 🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️

But watching such videos helped me immensely, even though at first they seem to be not the best use of my time at all. For example, for years I kept on watching tiny house videos, which inspired me to sketch layouts in my head, gave me ideas about storage, and convinced me that living tiny is doable with kids. If I hadn’t watched those, I wouldn’t be able to convince myself that my forever home could be less than 100 sqm—and build it without debt.

Same thing for watching personal finance videos and reading blogs on the same subject. I’ve always been a saver but reinforcing my beliefs and learning about the different investment instruments through self-education had allowed me to have a home without bank loans. Or car payments. It also helps that I am a business journalist and I have access to finance people giving me tips. One of the most valuable personal finance wisdom was given to me by the CEO of the brokerage firm I’m using now. He used to be with JPM a long time ago. Anyway, he taught me the time horizons of money market, fixed income, and stock market investments and the best use for such investments. He taught me not to be afraid and be aggressive with the proper knowledge of the markets. He taught me about the power of peso/dollar cost averaging and compound interest. Through my two decades in this line of work, I learned how to read the markets. With the money I had in 2008, I bought for stocks dirt cheap right after Lehman Brothers fell. I invested in funds when the global financial crisis was blowing up. I used those investments to build my home. I almost depleted them after my house was finished but I have time on my side. I am slowly building them up again.

As for home-making videos and blogs, I’ve learned how to cook various dishes that my children love. Just yesterday, my Korean braised tofu was praised by Twin I and she even ate the leftover in the fridge today, prefering it over the pressure-cooked nilagang baboy that I made for lunch and dinner today. There are so many dishes I’ve seen on Xiaohongshu that I could make even though I couldn’t read the text (in pinyin).

As for lifestyle vlogs, it taught me about capsule wardrobes and how to elevate fast fashion looks (Uniqlo ftw!) with accessories. I don’t even have to show so much skin to be attractive, unlike other women whose default is to show cleavage. Good shoes, specifically Marikina-made shoes made by artisans, well-made bags, and dainty jewelry make a difference. Foreign shoe brands that are owned by private equity firms that resorted to sourcing from China factories to maximize profit are no longer doing it for me—I’m looking at you, Caleres!

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Lydia Tomlinson (@lydiajanetomlinson)

So all in all, my holiday was not wasted even though I haven’t read a book because I have enriched my brain by other means.

After my morning walk and my trip to the bakery for pan de sal, I encountered again this amiable orange kitty. I estimate he is around the same age as my outdoor cats, Gorilla and Socks. I believed he is my long-lost Oyen.

I gave him one pan de sal, torn into pieces for him to be able to chew on. I really felt like he is Oyen. After he finished the bread, I lifted him up and he didn’t protest. I brought him to my stairs so he can be properly fed.

After eating and drinking filtered water, he looked around and tried to feel if the place was safe. I was thinking if he remembered the place where he grew up. But suddenly, there was this feeling that he didn’t recognize it.

I scrolled through my photos to check whether Oyen was completely orange.

Oyen has more white fur than this cat I brought home. 😭

So after this cat ate and drank water, I carried him back to the church premises. I bid him goodbye and he meowed, acknowledging me, then went on his way after I turned around.

I can’t take this cat because Socks is being antagonized. I don’t want my Socks to be bullied.

The sun did shine this morning that’s why I was motivated to walk over 4 km. But now it has gone back to being dark and cloudy with a threat of rain again. Yesterday I did nothing but doom-scroll on my bed as my kids went with their aunt and my mom to a destination restaurant in Magdalena, Laguna. (Twin I was singing praises of the food in that resto). I didn’t have to cook and just heated leftovers.

I want to savor the last days of my holiday and not be bothered by more driving because next week I will start busting my ass again. I just want to stay in bed and be brainless for a couple of days until Monday.

---

The protracted slowdown of China’s economy is one less cannon in Xi Jinping’s armory. The resulting trade deficit, however, will create problems in the West though. This is why the tariffs will definitely go up to prevent imbalances.

So how will the West find customers when China is impaired? Southeast Asia and India. There you go.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by ✿ K E N I A (@littlesunnydoodles)

Being still is not stagnation.

I’m still figuring out what I want to do, need to do, and must do. I’m not giving myself a deadline or immovable goal posts. I will just live peacefully and try to be content. I shouldn’t live by other’s measuring sticks.

My household awakens at noon these days. I start cooking at 8 am and go back to bed. I don’t have any ambitious to-do list this week so I can be forgiven if I’m indolent like this.

Twin I and I went out to buy fireworks and ingredients for our charcuterie board. We would be grazing on cheese, nuts, fruits, and crackers while we wait for media noche and light the fireworks.

Fireworks may be subdued this time because the parish priest next door is a killjoy.

---

Happy new year!

It kept on raining and I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to light up our fireworks.

But right after midnight, it stopped. Went out to the street, a nun and some of her “house-mates” (convent mates???) went out with us to watch us light up some fireworks.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by MyTinyHome (@mynewtinyhome)

… but I should start a new year’s resolution this time. I really, really should contain my frivolous spending. I’m buying a lot of crap online to self-soothe. Like I’m justifying my purchases by saying I deserve this after going through so much shit with my boss. Enough with the bag purchases that cost me thousands of USD—the last batch of my US Black Friday hauls that arrived today will be the last for the next 12 months.

So this January, I should start the no-spend month and only food and essential purchases/payments (including utilities and repairs) will be allowed. I already doubled my budget for ETF and mutual fund unit purchases this December. For January I should also start doubling my UITF and VUL budget. I should open a PERA account with BDO (like the 401k in the US), which is income tax and estate tax-exempt. It also entitles me to a 5% tax credit (but this will complicate my ITR filing 🤦🏻‍♀️ which is already complicated).

I should revisit my personal finance spreadsheet tomorrow.

On January 6-10, I will be doing my semi-annual prayer and fasting. Last year I wasn’t able to do it because I got hospitalized in December because of my enlarged liver and inflamed pancreas. Fasting would have done me in.

Which brings me to my point: I should focus now on my health. I should complete my check ups with my doctors, especially now that I need to monitor my blood sugar. Cutting down or eliminating sugar from my diet six months ago could have helped me stave off taking maintenance medicines. Or it did not. I need to know soon.

Genetics sucks.

I haven’t cut back on food with high purines such as red meat, tuna, and fish sauce. If I did, then I would be leading a sad life. Well, I have minimized my consumption of beef but pork is still a work in progress. My high uric acid is manifesting through my painful knees. I have eliminated alcohol (except for that interview last month) since my hospitalization last year and only drink sparkling grape. I no longer consume sugary food and beverages like sodas (except coke zero) and sugar-coffee a.k.a Starbucks.

I should work on integrating long walks into my daily routine. This should keep me from shopping online, which I do when I get upset so I can get a dose of dopamine.

We shopped yesterday at the local Korean mart for some seaweed side dish and other stuff. I picked up this Buldak cheese ramyun out of curiosity—I was wondering why Denmark banned Buldak in June.

I tried it this morning and ohhh boy, I shouldn’t have done it first thing on a Sunday. It was soooo spicy that my stomach acids have acted up. It took some Herculean strength to keep me from vomiting while I was brushing my teeth. And to think I have tried to neutralize it with real melted cheese.

So yeah, Denmark was on to something but it shouldn’t be a nanny state and dictate what its citizens should or shouldn’t eat. Let the Danes discover how bad Buldak can be for breakfast.