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.
Recycled grocery paper bags. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
My hands became restless so I wrapped some gifts for family and friends that I will be bringing to my hometown tomorrow.
I didn’t want to waste paper that will just add to our humongous trash problem so I’ve been recycling things. Aside from paper bags, I’ve been recycling my old business cards from a decade ago and use them as backing for the gift tags that I printed out.
Then I tried my hand again at painting sakura closeups.
I chucked this one because it didn’t turn out well. Art and photo by CallMeCreation.com Tried again. Still waiting for it to dry. Art and photo by CallMeCreation.com
But it seems like I’m losing my mojo again.
It’s the end of the year and there are still a ton of things I must do like staff evaluation and self-reviews. That’s the most annoying part about my job: the admin work. Even though I’m already technically on leave, there’s this nagging voice at the back of my brain that says I must work on this now. But my body says I should relax and leave stress behind.
🤷🏻♀️
Maybe that dinner with my best friend tomorrow night will improve my state of mind.
Since my mom’s house is still on a lockdown, I booked an Airbnb in my hometown (which sounds absurd to me now) so I can spend the night there because the next day I have a dinner party with a listed company at Hilton, near the airport. So might as well be efficient with my trips and it will be easier to drive to Hilton from south then continue to drive to QC instead of driving from QC to Hilton then to QC again. <<<< This sounds horrific these days.
After my lunch meeting tomorrow, I will drive to hometown, check my house construction and bring my pendant lights and kitchen utensil railings that will be drilled underneath the overhead kitchen cabinets. I will also distribute the food baskets that I bought for the construction workers…something to augment their noche buena meal on Christmas Eve. Times are tough; a little blessing goes a long way for such workers.
You see, I’ve been very blessed, despite the shit I’ve been through the past 2 years. It’s my way of giving back to the universe that has been kind to me in some ways. I don’t forget the privilege that I have. I’m a single parent who can still afford to send my children to school, clothe and feed them, and have just enough to spend for our needs and wants. A lot of people are not in that position. Many struggle and find partners so that they would have somebody to share that financial burden with. Many get stuck in bad relationships because it’s hard to go solo financially.
I don’t have to, thank God.
Besides I’m not the type who will find a partner because of financial reasons. The thought just makes me nauseous. And I don’t think anyone would bother with me because I’m already old; relationship for convenience applies only to younger women and fuckbois.
Ceiling lamps on 50% off. This one is for my bathroom. Photo by CallMeCreation.com.
Yes. Finally bought ceiling lamps. And they’re a lot cheaper than what I initially planned. I let my kids choose the lamps. These lamps above would go to my bathroom.
The other one, albeit another variant of the one pictured below which has pendants that are hanging at same level, would go to my dining area.
This one is meant for a corner so the one we chose is similar to this but they are on a track and at the same level. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
I changed the bulbs from the inefficient 40-watt Edison bulb to the power saving 7-watt daylight LED bulbs.
I paid PHP 6,000+ for the two sets plus LED bulbs, which was already a very good price for the lot.
The other candidates that my kids initially chose were:
It just had too many bulbs for a four-seater dining table. Photo by CallMeCreation.com This also has too many bulbs. Photo by CallMeCreation.com These look nice but would be better for a 6 or an 8-seater dining table. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
The girls initially wanted something like this in the kitchen area but I shot it down because I want track lights so each bulb can be a spotlight on the kitchen counter. It’s easier to cook when there’s a dedicated task light for that.
Photo by CallMeCreation.com Photo by CallMeCreation.com
My contractor sent me this photo of my fusebox and the pantry shelves below it.
Pantry shelves.
They’re installing insulators before they seal the ceiling so that I won’t be roasting in my bedroom by summer. My room faces east and it receives direct sunlight.
Insulators first.
Because I’m in the mood to spend, I indulged again and went to ArtWhale. Before I leave QC, I think I must complete my Holbein half-pans.
Each tiny pan is as expensive as a 15ml tube of gouache or oil. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Meanwhile, I was feeling a little bit creative tonight…
It’s beginning to look like a close-up of a sakura blossom. Art and photo by CallMeCreation.com It’s messy but it is still a work in progress. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
This is what’s difficult with watercolor: once it’s there, it’s there. You can’t erase a spill if it’s already set on paper and you’re too slow in catching it while it’s still wet. You only have a few seconds then it’s forever there. Unlike in oil you can use thinning agents or paint it over with white. Same with gouache. With watercolor… You’re doomed with your mistakes.
So I have to be creative with how I can disguise this bleeding (which came from my fingers because the new shadow green Holbein pan bled all over my hand). 😒
UPDATE
Not the most elegant way to hide bleeding but what can I do? Art and photo by CallMeCreation.com
White wine and Jamon Iberico Bellota. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
My Christmas vacation leave starts right now. 🎄 Wohooo!
However, I still have a lunch meeting on Monday with a CEO of a listed company and coffee meeting in the afternoon with the BD and CEO of a subsidiary of a conglomerate. Plus I will have the last team call for the year before lunch.
My fairy lights arrived. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
I was reading some social media posts of friends who braved the traffic from north to Makati and they ended up cursing the wretched situation. Well, cardinal rule no. 1 during Christmas rush: do not book dinners and get togethers on Fridays, especially if it involves getting out of your 2-km radius. I’m serious. I’ve lived here for 21 years and as a field reporter/road warrior, I know this by heart.
I can’t go to my hometown to visit the construction and attend my high school homecoming tomorrow because my mom’s household got Covid. My nephew caught it (most likely from school) so my Mom’s household is on a self-imposed lockdown. I won’t have a place to stay, especially after I go for drinks with high school friends.
So tomorrow, we might go to the A&S Lamps Cubao to check out lighting options for the bathroom and dining area. My contractor suggested this:
He is finally riding the ridiculousness that I am aiming for. Let’s see what the girls and I can find in A&S.
Meanwhile, my contractor sent me this. My new drywalls are up and the Rockwool insulation/soundproofing will soon be installed as well.
Drywall in my room. The Rockwool insulation/soundproofing will also be installed soon. Drywall between the girls’ room and the dining/TV area.
We would also try to go to the Marikina River Banks carnival since the girls wanted to try again the rides now that they’re all older and it’s just the three of us.
Inking. Art and photo by CallMeCreation.com Art and photo by CallMeCreation.com
The paper of this sketchbook absorbs color instead of half-repelling it so that’s why the watercolors bleed. I couldn’t make it behave the way I want it so layering is difficult. The gray on jaune didn’t blend so it sticks out like a sore thumb.
Ah well, this is a practice notebook anyway. It’s ok if my sketches are bad. I need to fill up 20 sketchbooks before I improve. 😏
Maybe I could try sketching Manila Cathedral now or Fort Santiago.
Today is a public holiday and I’m not supposed to work but I did. I had an interview with this firm that the Singapore PR I blogged about the other day was promoting. It was a hard interview because I tried poking from different angles and I’m not able to penetrate his wall so I couldn’t get what I wanted. I don’t know if I just wasted everybody’s time since there is no actionable angle I could write about 😒
This left me exhausted. Hard to interview lawyers if they’re not drunk. 🫠
I want to visit an art gallery or watch somebody create art so I can be inspired and restore my mojo. Creativity can be drained and I tell you I’m so dry. I’m running on empty now.
You see, I used to cover her at the Philippine Competition Commission when she was still a commissioner there. She was one of my favorite commissioners to put on a hot seat during press conferences (the other one is Comm Joey Bernabe). I used to love covering both of them and she once told me that I keep them on their toes whenever I attend their presscons. She was really good and made sense. Her specialization at the UP School of Economics was health economics—everything that concerns private healthcare funding, universal healthcare, public health finance, etc.
Then she ran for congress.
She’s now swallowed by the system (or maybe there was a corrupt politician hiding in her all along) and has co-authored the bill that would create the Marcos slush fund a.k.a. the 1MDB 2.0.
What are sovereign wealth funds? These are created by states so that their excess reserves can go somewhere more productive instead of sitting in the national treasury. What states have excess funds in an age of budget deficits? Oil countries. Malaysia, Norway, Kuwait and other Middle Eastern states.
A Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF) is a state-owned investment fund or entity that is commonly established from:
Balance of payments surpluses
Official foreign currency operations
The proceeds of privatizations
Governmental transfer payments
Fiscal surpluses
And/or receipts resulting from resource exports
And as a public finance and macroeconomy reporter of 8+ years, let me tell you this:
We used to log BOP surpluses but that changes month on month. I used to do magic and produce news articles just from a table of national current accounts (oh the pain of writing BOP stories)…. BUT it’s more frequent that the numbers are in ( ).
We privatize government assets because we are always short on cash.
We didn’t have fiscal surpluses. We never balanced our budget and the smallest budget deficit that finance reporters of my time recorded was PHP 60bn (if I remember it right) and that was before the global financial crisis. Arroyo had to backpedal on the zero-deficit plan because by 2008 our economy went shit.
Receipts from resource exports? We don’t have OIL AND GAS to export, unlike the countries I mentioned above. Our mineral resources aren’t generating enough receipts for us to create an SWF. Indonesia has coal and nickel, while we have the low-grade variety of these minerals.
(Not well versed in govt forex operations and transfer payments as source of funds for SWF so I won’t touch on those).
Tapos obsessed na obsessed tong gobyernong to magtayo ng SWF, kala mo may excess funds tayo. HOYYYYYYYYYY we have always operated on a deficit. Kapal ng mukha netong mga to!
HOY STELLA! Slush fund ng Marcoses ang tinutulak mo. Di kami bobo.
To calm me down, I resorted to sketching this scene at the Singapore Botanical Gardens before I started editing today.
Started with globs of color. Art and photo by CallMeCreation.com Art and photo by CallMeCreation.com
This government is driving me nuts.
I bought more frames when I was at the Mall of Asia/Ikea. Just because. If I produce a decent sketch or painting of something, maybe I can frame it and give it as a gift.
My hoard. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
And I bought a wok as a gift to my cousin who wanted a paella pan (but I couldn’t find it.
Wok not too heavy so it’s good for flipping fried rice or stir fry vegetables. Photo by CallMeCreation.comOf course, Kimchi just had to sit on it. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
