Category Archives: probinsyana

Day-long meeting

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Lighted up acacia tree in front of the Student Union building. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I met with our water concessionaire’s shareholder (company AVP) and the OIC GM of our water concessionaire today. Because of my advocacy and continuous fight, the shareholder company was forced to change the management and suspended the 🤬 top officials until investigations are finished and proper charges are filed.

We met before 10 am at their corporate office and then I toured them around to show them the areas that are experiencing low pressure, mud coming out of their faucets, etc.

I told them that they have a reputational issue with the customers that’s why they’re still coming to me for complaints and are not going straight to them. Even though they are now fixing the shit left by previous management, the people still don’t know about it and thus they need a proper comms person to fill that gap–a proper community relations manager.

I recommened to them the steps that they should do, how to tap the local government units (barangay officials and their facilities) to conduct focus group discussions and needs assessment from these engagements. Monitoring and evaluation of information campaigns. I said that people should be properly informed and the knowledge is correct so that when the time comes the water concessionaire files a petition for tariff adjustment to help finance the network upgrade and other capex needs, we the customers will not be up in arms. I also told them they should take advantage of the local media in their information campaign by engaging with them.

They asked me to help in looking for a comms consultant to help them with that. I’m waiting now for a text message from a schoolmate so I can discuss with her this headhunting chore.

We parted ways at 3 pm. It was a long day.

My kids, on the other hand, went to a nearby city in the south to have early dinner in a bed and breakfast/art gallery with my sister and their cousin Kuya P. They sent me lots of photos.

Twin I looking at the exhibit.
Watercolors.
One of the dining areas
Another dining area

Meanwhile, I went to the semester ender Christmas bazaar inside our university campus.

Students are up and about before they go back home for the holidays. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I have all windows open right now to feel the cool December provincial breeze. I will leave tomorrow evening to be with my cats.

Getting there…

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First coat of paint in the girls’ room. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

Painting, cabinetry work, lights and switches… Will soon be a home ❤️🏡

My sort of walk-in closet. More of a walk-out closet. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Prepping my room for painting. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I’m taking photos of areas in my house to see what I need to buy more of (curtain rod hooks, TV wall bracket, clothes hooks, towel bar) and what I will no longer use or can’t fit in my house (a lot).

A Christmas tree won’t fit in my house, too. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Looking over a neighbor’s backyard. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

It was raining/drizzling the entire day yesterday so I couldn’t do a campus walk. I’ve been out of exercise for almost 3 months and got bloated again. 🤦‍♀️

So I went out under the rain last hight to buy an eyeliner from Watsons. My girls were out with friends from 2 pm and only came back at 8 pm after dinner with friends (with a friend’s parent, who remembered me from high school).

In front of my undergrad college. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
The strays that are taken care of by some faculty members of my undergrad college. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

My walk wasn’t enough so treadmill it is.

Burned only 188kcal. But I ate so much. 🤦‍♀️

Got tired, uneven sleep = early night. I fell asleep holding my phone.

Staying here is helping me adjust my body clock again. Listening to forest sounds and having more fresh air lull me to sleep. Now I’ve woken to early bird chirps that you hear from forests.

Trees

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After a restless night (as expected) I left the dorm at 11 to check out my house and bring the Christmas gifts to the workers and wine to my contractor.

Well, it’s a slow progress but I could see that the construction is not haphazard and it’s high quality.

As my daughter, Twin I, requested, she gets a hotel-like vibe for the bathroom.

Huge rain shower head. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Granite lavatory counter. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

The floor drains do not look like floor drains, you know, the ones without the grills so they blend in with the floor.

And I have a bright, light-filled room. The insulation installed above the ceiling brought down the temperature even if I would be directly hit by morning sunlight.

So bright. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
I guess I would be forced to wake up early because it’s so bright. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Big enough pantry cabinet. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
The drywall in the girls’ room is complete. Their room is twice as big as mine. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
I need to cut the tree branches to let the light in the dining area. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

After a visit to my house, I decided to eat in a restaurant tucked away at the foot of the mountain in campus. To have a different view. To see trees.

Greenery outside the restaurant. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
View from my table during lunch. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Time to go back to the city. 😭 Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Christmas in the city. On the way to Hilton Manila.

And I just finished an ambush interview with the CEO of a listed conglomerate. Why? I don’t know. I’m supposed to be on leave 🤦‍♀️

Home but not home

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Ah EDSA, how do I hate thee? Photo by CallMeCreation.com

On the way to my appointment in BGC…

I left after lunch and it only took me 1 hr and 30 mins to reach my hometown. Travel time from QC to BGC? Almost the same 😑

As spartan as it can be. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I checked into my Airbnb to drop off my stuff that I can’t leave inside the car unattended. This Airbnb is really a student dorm. But since college classes are not yet full face-to-face, some dorm rooms had to be let out to short-term renters.

I had an early dinner with my best friend and we had non-stop gabfest for two hours. Then went to visit another friend at her apartment to bring gifts and spent another 2 hrs talking with her.

After that, I had coffee (wellll, it’s tea actually) with my sis-in-law at Starbucks and talked until the coffee shop was closing.

Photo by CallMeCreation.com

And now I’m back to my sad dorm life 🤣

Dorm courtyard. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

Only a few students are here. It’s kinda lonely. Although it’s better probably because college students are looouuuuddddddd!

Let’s see if I can have my walk around campus tomorrow before I go to my house.

Doubts erased

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Forest next door. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I had doubts last night whether or not what I’m doing, the move back to my hometown, is wise.

Then I strolled along the tree-lined sidewalk that is actually walkable, unlike the nonsense sidewalks in my QC village with dog poop, posts, other obstructions, and sloping concrete. My doubts were slowly being erased.

It also accommodates bikes. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I then took off my mask to breathe in fresh air, which is unlike the “fresh air” in UP Diliman that is still polluted by provincial standards. And felt the trees. So many trees around me.

This creek is just beyond the forest at the back of my house. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Almost car-less roads. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Blue, unpolluted skies. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
The view I had when I was in high school. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I sat on the steps of the old building of my high school (they moved to a newer complex off-campus) to watch the sunset. I was thinking here, analyzing whether this is just nostalgia or is it really a good move? Then I remembered all my friends who lived in the city for a while like me, who eventually moved back here because Metro Manila is so unliveable now.

Then I remembered my kids are outside, hanging out with my sis-in-law at some coffee shop, waiting for their cousin to finish football training. They can move around on their own without me fearing for their safety.

My doubts were erased.

I will have to embrace this completely. Start loving it. It’s a new start in an old stomping ground. A new chapter in my life.

Polished granite counter and the double sink with a small strainer at the corner for the food scraps. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
The custom TV bench with soft-close doors. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

Sturdier than any ready-made tv benches from big box stores. Video by CallMeCreation.com

I said I needed a lot of electrical outlets. My contractor delivered. He also gave me 70cm-wide countertops, instead of the standard 60cm. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
My closet now has doors. Well-made doors. It will take four grown men to carry this because this is made of solid wood, not the MDF nonsense being peddled now by big box stores, my contractor said.

I am jumping into the water, feet first. I don’t know now, I’ll just make it work.

Institutionalized corruption

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Proposed by Sandro Marcos and his uncle, Martin Romualdez.

Approved by Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

Who is the blueprint of Najib, the central figure in Malaysia’s 1MDB scandal? Najib’s wife was compared to Imelda Marcos, to give you a clue.

1MDB. OmG!

They would siphon off the retirement funds of my mom, my brother, and millions of workers who were forced to contribute to GSIS and SSS.

How dare a foreigner on my LinkedIn post say, “give it a chance.” I wanted to smack him and say, were you here when Marcos Sr destroyed the economy? Were you here when his family made the old Philippine Central Bank their personal bank account? That old central bank that the new BSP had painstakingly tried to erase to bring back credibility to the Philippine financial system? No. Then don’t say such stupid things.

It has driven me up the wall this morning. And it riles me more that opposition to this institutionalized corruption is not enough. 🤬

This economist at Natixis gets it, while my LinkedIn commenter doesn’t. 😤

I don’t know why I even bother writing this down. No one gets me anyway. No one also cares what I write about, think about, what I do…

Ah yeah. This is part of my therapy… Having conversations with myself to parse whatever is in my head to lessen anxiety.

While I was having my 2-hr massage, my brain went into a deep dive again why I was moving back to my hometown. I suddenly had doubts about its wisdom. I would be moving farther and farther from civilization. I would miss my Zennya massages. I would miss the convenience of having Grab Food and Grab car. I would miss the PHP 40 Lazada delivery fee.

My hormones are out of whack now so this may account for having cold feet very late into this stage. I’m writing another check tomorrow for my contractor. I mean hey, I would have a fully functional home by Feb, so why am I havig these thoughts?

My abdominal cramp is killing me now.