My new friend/co-worker (who I had hung out with last November here in SG) flew here on Tue from HK to attend our events. She was very troubled; she was lifeless when we were doing our respective networking rounds.

She was about to cry when she told me her story about this Polish guy living in the same building as her, who was manipulating her. Basically, he just wants a fuck buddy as he didn’t want commitment. He just goes to her apartment (never his), he doesn’t want to be seen with her or hold her hands when they go out to eat (which was seldom), and he brings her to shady places (literally shady so he can’t be seen with her) and figuratively. She told me she feels like garbage when she’s with him. He makes himself scarce then he would suddenly send messages and say I miss you, let’s meet…it’s like he’s doing this so she would want him more.

I listened and assured her she’s not garbage and she doesn’t deserve this guy. I told her, “he’s just using you, your body, and seems like he has this Chinese girl fetish.”

“And he makes you feel bad that you had to go to Singapore for work, saying you’re just here to f*ck other men. He’s an asshole. Girl, you need to block him on your phone. You need to quit this guy.”

I know it’s hard to let go, I told her, but you already have self-awareness that he treats you like shit. You need to cut him out cold turkey or else you will be dragged down into his vortex of games that he’s playing with you.

Guys are assholes 🤬. I’m beginning to think that there are no good men left on this planet. We’re just human appliances to them, very utilitarian. Or just warm sexual playthings.

We had to cut our conversation since I needed to go back to the office for the training I had to conduct. She was asking me if I can go to the cocktail party that our company is co-hosting with one of our global clients. I said it depends on my energy level.

Unfortunately, I was already drained as hell at past 6 pm. I had to tie up some loose ends since some of my team mates are flying back to their respective homes tomorrow. The energy left in me was just enough for me to go to Maxwell to eat dinner and go to my hotel. I was already dragging my body as I was dead inside.

Cases of covid are rising again with this new variant circulating now. A lot of people are coughing and sneezing in the trains. 😵 Geez, I can’t go home with Covid so I went back to masking.

There were a lot of people today but I didn’t have much energy to network. I just zoned out the rest of the conference. 😶‍🌫️ I didn’t even have the energy to finish today’s session.

But I did chase a big company today and asked their BD for an interview with their regional boss for a corporate strategy feature. Hopefully we bag that and our commercial team would be so happy.

Our APAC boss was so excited to have satay at Lau Pasat that she ordered enough to cause food coma again.

I smell like satay smoke now. Need to have that very hot bath.

I woke up at 5 am to get to the venue at 7 am. The sun wasn’t up yet.

I kept praying that everything will go well and thank God it did go well. The first session I moderated was good, if I can say so myself, because I had been interviewing the keynote speaker since 2007 so the rapport is there and I asked the right questions to get interesting answers because I know their history.

The second panel I did had some last-minute substitutions but I was able to transition from online to onstage and back and I threw curve balls that elicited candid answers. I ended up exactly on time for both sessions.

I was just so relieved that it is done. The pressure is high because top management in London was watching. If I do well, I can push the envelope and ask for favors for my team in the future.

I am so tired though. I took advantage of the open bar at the end of the conference and the waiters kept refilling my glass with white wine until my manager and the rest of my team mates are laughing hard at each other’s drunkenness. 😂

Then we walked to Lau Pasat to cure our alcohol-adled brains.

Tomorrow I’ll just relax and network to death.

I started the day at 5:30 am, began the training at 9 am, and we ended at 5 pm. It was all business the whole day and it was exhausting. I ignored all emails except for concerns about the conference tomorrow.

One of my panelists pulled out at the last minute because he got Covid. Luckily one of my sources volunteered to be one of the speakers. I connected him/them to the main program organizer so I don’t know if they’re going to replace that poor guy. 😔 I did all this coordination while I was doing the trainings. My brain was actually split three ways today. 😵

I need to be extra early tomorrow to be ready for the last-minute change/s.

To reward ourselves for the hectic day we had, we went to dinner at Blue Ginger and everyone liked it. I pre-ordered during the training session, the usual multi-tasker that I am, so we didn’t have to wait for the food when we got there.

I’ve taken antihistamine because I don’t know what are in those sauces and soups so now I am drunk with the narcotic side-effects of diphenhydramine.

Good night, Universe.

I don’t think I can sustain this monthly visit to our Singapore office. If I continue with this, maybe I’ll just stay for less than a week? It’s exhausting. I mean, I cannot just lock the door to my house and leave—business trips entail much prep for the household, from logistics to food and medicine…I am a hands-on mom and a full time manager at work. It’s a tough balancing act everyday.

Because I was multi-tasking all the time, I left my mobile phone’s fast charger *somewhere*. I was agonizing over buying a new one at Challenger at The Jewel or should I just stick to the slow, braided charger I had brought *in case* something may happen (and it did happen). I was hanging around the chargers and cables section for quite some time that the salesperson had to help me. 😶‍🌫️

After my much-delayed exit from Changi airport, I dropped off my things with the hotel reception and went to Chinatown to have my pesos exchanged for a more decent rate. The rates I saw at Changi and other moneychangers are too costly, like nah, I’ll make that extra effort. Did some grocery shopping and had a one-hour Chinese-style massage, you know, the hard, bone-cracking kind. It was sooo good after going without Zennya for weeks. The lady reflexologist said my back was stiff as a board.

I may come back next weekend. It was reasonable at SGD 40 compared to other places I had checked out.

No carpets! Yahoo! Carpets make me sneeze and they feel unclean. I like that this hotel is not that far from my office, near an MRT station and it’s relatively quiet.

Went to meet the ex-colleague for dinner at Funan with my team as they haven’t met each other in person. Except for one long-time reporter that we still have on our team.

We ended up in a restaurant that we wrote about a month ago 😂.

I had a food coma after this. We ate too much. 🤣

I couldn’t sleep earlier because I had a long afternoon siesta. I just tossed and turned in my bed so I gave up and cooked myself a meal (I forgot to have dinner). I’m running now on pure carbohydrates and zero zzzzz. I tried packing much earlier today—at 5 pm—but I still finished late. I don’t know why it takes me so much time to pack. 🤔

Earlier today was freaking hot. It felt like 40 degrees. The longer I stay here in Metro Manila, the hotter it gets.

Despite the dreadful heat, I had dragged myself out of my airconditioned room because I needed to bring my girls to their Kumon class and do my meat and vegetable shopping. When I came back for them, the thunderstorm came.

It was raining hard while I drove them to their classmate’s swimming party nearby. If the rain lasted a little bit longer, it could have clogged the streets of Metro Manila, the usual thing during RAINY SEASON, not during the hot and dry season. Climate change really flipped things over. 🫠

The Manila Airport Authority (MIA) has started shuffling flights/transfering airline-terminal assignments so now I ended up in Terminal 1 instead of Terminal 2, which was exclusively used by Philippine Airlines. MIA now converted the much smaller Terminal 2 for domestic use while T1 and T3 are for international flights. T4 used to be for AirAsia and turbo prop planes, but now I can’t remember what they’re going to use T4 for. I seldom read the Viber group chat for transport reporters these days.

They really, really should privatize this now. This airport is horrible.