I was praying that the rain earlier this morning would stop because I am driving the very low Toyota Vios—sedans don’t have a chance in Metro Manila flood.

Thankfully, the sky cooperated. I was able to reach the venue in time and was able to have a call with my team before the presscon. 😮‍💨

My high school friend, C, messaged me that she would be dropping by my house. Just because. She brought her kids, we ordered Thai food via Grab, and they spent 5 hrs here. Her kids were with my girls in their room playing Minecraft, while C and I talked the entire time.

She said she wanted to come here because she felt like having milk tea. She knows I have a huge stash of tea of various flavors and forms. It’s another way of saying that she wants to get away from their house and wants to talk. That’s the thing with my high school friends: they’re so at home here, even way back in high school, that they don’t have to have reasons to come here. It can be as trivial as wanting to have my milk tea. They knew that they were welcome in my parents’ home anytime when we were in high school. It’s still the same with my own home now.

I’m also their home. When they want some comfort, I open my kitchen and feed them. If they want to cry, my bedroom is always open so they can curl up on my bed. It doesn’t matter if my house is tiny; I have plenty of room for friends and family.

Mi casa, su casa.

As fairygaymother K said, I have so much love to give that people who need that naturally gravitate to me. They come running to my home to be comforted.

Mi casa, su casa. My house is your house.

The sun is finally out. Wet laundry should dry out soon and I will wash the diving buoy again so salt deposits would not eat into the zippers again. I drove Twin A to school for her volleyball training and went to the mom-and-pop stores to buy ingredients for the sukiyaki I will cook for lunch/dinner.

Since I was already at the Korean grocery store (which has since expanded), I picked up freshly made gimbap and Maxim hazelnut coffee for breakfast.

I’m on editing duty today so I should do everything to motivate me to work.

My editing test for the job I was applying for will be next week and I decided to chop it into 90 min bits. However, I have several coverages in Makati, Pasay, and Ortigas next week so scheduling is bit of a pain.

I have to get cracking on those edits now. 💪

Since I can’t freeze opened tofu again, I decided to make braised tofu with gochujang because I don’t have gochugaru (it went bad because ai wasn’t using it). I can store this in the fridge for a day or two. However, the sukiyaki for lunch won’t make it for dinner (my girls liked it so they ate a lot), I guess  the braised tofu will be for dinner, together with leftover pork adobo I cooked last night.

This day has been cozy, so far.

There’s a special place in hell for those uncouth Neanderthals who shoot Philippine Eagles for sport.

Fly free, Mangayon! I weep for you.

I just posted here the places that my girls are most familiar with that had been ravaged by the horrendous southwest monsoon (habagat) rains. I think the flooding is worse now compared to Ondoy in 2009 because Bulacan and Rizal are more devastated compared to the disaster 15 years ago. Ah well, Ondoy has more rainfall volume compared to the habagat now that is enhanced by Typhoon Carina (international name: Gaemi). 455 mm in 2009  vs 217 mm yesterday.

I’m just so relieved that I’m not in Metro Manila anymore. Some friends told me that they were already running out of food supplies because they couldn’t go out. It has been raining non-stop in the Metro the whole weekend, so I was told.

I would have volunteered at the community pantry in Maginhawa or donated there because so many people had lost their homes, pets, and everything else. Again, the out- of-whack weather we’ve been having devastates the most vulnerable in our society. Climate change hits the poor the hardest. Farmers lose their crops yearly to extreme weather conditions and to the local logistical nightmare, which claims as much as 60% of all the food crops being transported from farms to market.

And yet Filipinos can still smile through it all.

I hadn’t been productive the past two days and it bugs me. However, it seems like I was powerless to stop myself from procrastinating and I don’t know why. Maybe I am ready to quit, I don’t know…

Something is wrong with me. I find that it’s a struggle to finish tasks that I’ve been putting off, like as simple as throwing away the condiments  that came free with our Grab orders that were just on the dining table. I always told myself, I will do it after I wash the dishes or some other chore.

But I never got around to doing that.

Power was going off and on yesterday so I had to turn on my pc several times. Work got disrupted. Today is much worse as the NDRRMC issued a red alert for Metro Manila and CaLaBarZon area. Some friends on social media had been posting that flood waters have entered their homes, the first time in years. Reminiscent of “Ondoy” in 2009—the time we had to evacuate Pasig-Cainta and camp out in my sister’s condo in Mandaluyong.

All my interview requests have not come back to me yet. Why do they even bother sending me press releases if they don’t want to have more in-depth coverage?!

For the nth time, I’m so thankful that I’m no longer in Metro Manila.

Yes, this is like Ondoy that engulfed Metro Manila in 2009.

Well of course you can do without them but it’s convenient to have them. I bought this 30m rope that I can use to tie the diving buoy to a boat or weights to anchor it. It has been helpful when my mom was snorkeling two days ago. It was a chaotic affair, with so many boats and all, but we easily found our boat because of this rope. The weights (2 kg each) helped secure the rope.

Once the horrible southwestern monsoon rains have subsided, I will start booking a weekend stay in Anilao to practice freediving. I always end up taking care of others that I couldn’t do my own thing.

It will take two months of waiting though. The habagat season will start in a few days and until Sept then the violent typhoons will start saying hello in Oct-Dec. I have to time it well.

My mom and sister braved the strong waves this morning but the sea grew more violent so they had to content themselves with dipping in the swimming pool. Good thing they have decent pools here.

We are now sandwiched between two typhoons and a low pressure area, which have been sucking the southwest monsoon upwards, hence the violent waves we’ve been having.

The weather is worse in Southern Luzon and Metro Manila today. I hope our flight won’t be cancelled.

I have another call with my boss in a few minutes then I will be whisked away to the airport and fly back to Manila. I guess its bedlam out there due to the typhoon. 😩 Long drive ahead of me.