Happy mid-autumn/moon/moon cake festival!
Had dinner with some bankers and played beto-beto as a way to celebrate this festival. Prior to that, I met some sources at BGC and it has been a very productive meeting for both parties. 😜
It’s 5:30 am and I’m still awake. I had too much iced tea at Seda Hotel. That thing is potent. 🍹
And I just let myself be engulfed by this inexplicable desire to cry. Because maybe I’m tired?
I’m really tired.
I don’t know how many times I have to say this in a span of 6 months. 🙄
First of all, this undersecretary should know that it is the job of DA to help subsistence farmers find markets and transport these to those with low supply. The prices of our vegetables here in the lowlands, especially in Metro Manila, are very high that only the middle class no can afford to eat vegetables three meals a day.
God, are we that evil to be punished by having idiots in government?
I think I lost a lot of brain cells today by engaging a supporter of Manny Pinol on Twitter. No more. I should lay off news for a while. Which is ironic since I produce day in and day out.
Oh wait, I can’t quit news. I need to read about the markets every morning. Every fucking day.
Equally stressful is swapping materials for my home construction, deciding which I can dial down and which I should reinforce, like additional beams and posts. I asked the contractor to reduce the tiles on the walls of the bathroom because I want to hang art in the bathroom. Because why not?
I asked him to make me a niche like this because I’m tired of dealing with shower caddies. This one is easier to clean.
My contractor will fabricate me this kind of stairs.
He said he can make the mid-landing wider so I can have sort of a deck. I’ll think about it first. My concern is, can a small dog manage this? And when I’m already a senior citizen, can I still manage this?
I have to keep costs down because as construction progresses, there would be hidden costs that would surprise me. And it’s quite stressful. I don’t want to skimp on quality but I don’t want to be extravagant on things that can be simplified without sacrificing structural integrity.
He will start laying down the materials in my mom’s garage by next week. Preliminary work like clearing the construction area and removing the balustrades in the existing structure etc.
It’s finally happening. OMG.
I am doing something very adult now. Building my home. I never thought I could but I’m finally doing it now. By myself. Alone. It’s so empowering.
So maybe a condo in Makati or BGC and a beach house in Anilao could be possible. My tiny house was just a dream a year ago…it’s finally coming true.
This is a big FUCK YOU to all the men who hurt me and treated me like dirt. Damn you, I am capable of so much, much more. I am more than a human appliance. I can make things happen. I can make my dreams come true. Even if it’s just small, this is mine. I am having this built by myself.
I want to cry.
A hug for myself.
I’m proud of myself.
That’s it. I’m not going to S. Korea anytime soon. I just contacted Layag Resort in Anilao for a long weekend stay first week of October. If no room is available, I can push it back to the week of my birthday since they have a weekday work-from-beach promo.
I can’t travel abroad in the next 6 months except for work because I just got the quote from my 2nd contractor and I almost had a heart attack. I’m waaaay over budget. We’re talking about millions. Prices of construction materials have doubled, I reckon. I was negotiating with my contractor earlier how we can bring down the cost (Italian granite vs cheaper but still tough granite tops; hardwood vs pinewood for cabinetry). I’m constructing my house on cash basis–no bank loans. I cannot risk having a mortgage because our industry is in a flux so I always feel insecure about my job. Whatever happens, at least I have a fully paid home.
The new car can wait a bit.
As an example, this is how expensive kitchen cabinets are:
And this is just for the kitchen granite top:
It’s tight but that’s how new condos are built in Metro Manila nowadays, a two bedroom 50-sqm unit. The indoor living space of my unit (in a duplex) is about 50 sqm and it excludes the patio on the right, the space beside it and under the stairs, which will be the grill and laundry and utility area. If you add that, I guess my total living space will be around 70sqm. I can convert some part of that into a screened studio, just like my mom’s screened porch that doesn’t have any use at all except as a repository for their shoes. 🙄
And my contractor agreed to this request by the girls.
My contractor said this would make their loft beds stable as he can anchor them against the walls. Then the girls will have a bigger floor space for an extra mattress where their friends can sleep when they have sleepovers. Contractor said there would be extra space between the loftbeds so he can build actual stairs, instead of ladders, for the girls. This way I can also divide their room with floor-to-ceiling curtains for privacy, if they want to.
So no Korea trip this October, no Japan trip in the spring. No Palawan. Just Anilao. If I need to get away, I just drive to Anilao and dive. That’s it for the next 6 months.
And I just bought again ETF when stocks were falling today. I was trying to catch a falling knife. It burned me though as I bought at 103.8, but it continued to fall. 🥴
Ah well. What can I do? I’ll just buy again at the end of the month.
Ah, Megawide has de-risked itself because it plays fair; because of that it is now being eased out of the dirty, regulated infrastructure business of the Philippines. And the best entity to sell to is a Marcos crony—Aboitiz. Group CEO Sabin Aboitiz is super chummy with Marcos Jr so I wouldn’t be surprised if he comes out as the “next Dennis Uy”, the favorite businessman of a sitting president. During Duterte’s reign, Uy was like Pacman, gobbling everything in is his path. Government contracts were his for the taking. Now he is being chased by creditors and is set to sell most of his assets because NONE of the promised support from China pushed through. His telco, DITO Telecommunity, is looking for a buyer for Uy’s stake. The problem is, no one wants to sleep with China Telecom, Uy’s JV partner.
I can’t write such things as straightforward as this but I try my best to inject some of these insights in my stories—but I know I’m pushing the envelope. I take that risk because the investing community should be aware of the political dynamics we have here. That’s a service that cannot be quantified by our CRM but is valuable to our readers, as I was told by some of them.
It has been raining nonstop even in the absence of a typhoon. I feel I’m ballooning again so I need to walk tomorrow or something. I need to be back in shape for a marathon networking in Singapore in November. The big bosses will be flying down from London. And oh, I must bring an evening dress (*OMG I need one that fits me) because there would be an awards night for ***.
Speaking of work, my most senior but least productive reporter told me he would like to step back and have a different arrangement, like a per-article basis freelancer status because he acknowledged that he could not meet his quota.
Now this poses a big problem for me because since top management is NOT prioritizing hiring of new reporters or editors (only a senior North America editor), losing one headcount means it would not replaced. I lose it, then I lose it. As it is, competition in the region is heating up. Other news organizations are finally catching on and realized my niche is lucrative so they’re building up their own team dedicated for this niche.
I cannot lose more people.
I was having back-to-back calls today with my seniors to solve this conundrum. I also need to arrange to have my team fly to Singapore in the first week of December for a year-end training that I would be conducting. 🥴
Because I was preoccupied with admin concerns, I wasn’t able to write again my stories that have been pushed back a couple of weeks and months now. I also need to see a doctor for my left knee that has been hurting now. I don’t know if this is an old football injury that I aggravated during my walks in my hometown the a few weeks ago. I also need to bring Twin I to a pediatrician for her nosebleeds. They’re getting worse now.
How to shoehorn these doctor visits in between all these work pressures? I need to attend a conference tomorrow or on Thursday and I have a lunch meeting with some bankers and another set of bankers in the evening on Friday.
Oh geez and I need to book that resort in Batangas for that beach holiday at the end of the month.
Wait, I still need to follow up my travel arrangements and visa application for Korea.
I need to breathe.
What have I been doing? I don’t know, I haven’t been keeping track. I’m having a hard time finding mental space for all the important things to do. I only have two hands and finite amount of brain cells to balance being a manager for Southeast Asia (which is a lot of work), being a specialized journalist, a mother, and a future homeowner who needs to build her home, and at the same time I must take care of myself if I want to live beyond the age of 42.
I think I’m getting overwhelmed.
I want to scream.
BREATHE. Stop and smell the roses.
Maybe I should cancel that Korea trip. Maybe I just take a week off in October and just go to Palawan to go island-hoping and dive for a week and burn to a crisp.
Yes, I think I should do that.
I don’t think that Korea trip with my friends is that compelling anyway. They’re planning to go to Busan when I haven’t even explored Seoul. 😶 Maybe I’ll just do that next year when it’s less hectic.
Oh.
I would be moving houses next year. In May.
Let me see…
Damn it. Breathe.
Yes, this is not a joke. 😤
The thing is under the law, confidential funds (that don’t need to be audited by the state auditor) SHOULD only be applied to intelligence funds. There are specific uses for this kind of confidential funds and SHOULD NOT be abused for other purposes, like TRAVEL. WTF are they going to use it for during their travels???
Confidential funds may also be used to pay rewards to informers; uncover or prevent illegal activities that pose a clear and present danger to the agency, its personnel and facilities; and others that may be authorized in the General Appropriations Act.
The circular provided that the conduct of confidential activities, as far as practicable, be done in collaboration with law enforcement agencies.Confidential funds may also be used to pay rewards to informers; uncover or prevent illegal activities that pose a clear and present danger to the agency, its personnel and facilities; and others that may be authorized in the General Appropriations Act.
The circular provided that the conduct of confidential activities, as far as practicable, be done in collaboration with law enforcement agencies.
Rappler.com
And because there is zero checks and balances in this government because everyone else is under the Marcos machinery (The House Speaker is Marcos Jr’s uncle, the deputy speaker is his son, the brainless Sandro Marcos, and Senate is basically a Duterte-Marcos upper chamber), what can you expect? Budgets are hardly deliberated on.
Good morning, Philippines! LIZA ARANETA MARCOS has a huge wardrobe budget.
And this is another thing that happened today:
For USD earners like me (but don’t give a fuck), this is good on a myopic level because you get more pesos on your dollar.
But for those who think about the bigger picture like me, this means that all goods and services are going to be a lot more expensive. We are a net importer of oil = transportation costs will be much higher. As it is, Grab is more expensive here now compared to Singapore or just about the same.
This redounds to cost of food because our goods are transported by trucks, not trains. We are an archipelago so goods are either flown or shipped by vessels fed by oil, not LNG. We also import rice, flour, and other basic commodities. Even onion and garlic! And salt! It’s quite ironic the we are surrounded by millions of km of coastlines and yet we are importing salt!
Cost of power is also climbing because our base load power plants are fed by imported coal and diesel. As it is, gasoline is cheaper than diesel nowadays. And the Filipinos pay electricity through our noses because we pay market rate. Our power is not subsidized, unlike our neighbors. That’s why Indonesia’s inflation rate is artificial in the sense the true cost of goods and are not reflected in the prices that they pay for because its government is shouldering a good part of their expenses (from power to medicines) through state-owned enterprises that own own almost everything. How can you even have three state-owned pharmaceutical companies? Their train fares are subsidized. Just about everything is subsidized.
Anyway, I digress. The point here is, the peso is weakening at a faster rate than expected because it could not shadow the actions of the US Fed. The gap between the USTr and our own benchmark rates has widened, thus, hot money from emerging markets have fled faster. We couldn’t shadow the latest actions (and future actions of FOMC given their latest hawkish stance) because any sizeable rate hikes (like a 75-100-basis-point hike) would kill our very fragile economy now. The BSP has to prioritize the economy before tempering the sinking peso.
This faster fall of the peso will kill our exports as well. Why? Half of our exports is comprised of electronics and semiconductors. Traditionally, these exporters order raw materials (because we don’t process our own minerals like silicon, silver, gold, nickel, and copper) abroad around third quarter in preparation for the orders for Christmas (hello iPhones and iPads). With the way things are, the raw materials have become more expensive now. Then this makes the cost of manufacturing semicon and electronics more expensive = costlier exports.
So I will punch any Marcos apologist right smack on their face if they say that this is good for the economy and that Marcos is making us richer by making us earn more pesos to the dollar. 🙄 Spare me this stupidity. A former reporter (who is now a lawyer) messaged me about this forex thing and she told me that an uncle of her brother-in-law said that this is great and in any case Marcos will make things better because the Marcoses will bring out their gold stash (a.k.a. the mythical Tallano Gold) to help the Philippines. And the sad part here is he was being serious about it, my friend said. Then multiply that to the 31 million who voted for Marcos. This is the level of stupidity reigning over the country today.
Social media has made Filipinos more stupid.
AND THE FUCKTARD MARCOSES ARE ROBBING US RIGHT IN FRONT OF OUR EYES! Legalized stealing.
OMG 🤬
How can I even…
I need a drink.
On the brighter side of life, my 10-hour nilaga is stupendous!
The soup is 👌 *chef’s kiss*
I’m keeping the broth again for future dishes like pho or some egg noodle dish? Ramen? Soba? I can’t wait for my Instant Pot so I can experiment with new dishes I can cook with it.
As a mother, I can say that the hypergrowth stages of children are when they’re 6 mos old, 2-3 years old, 6-7 years old, and (*now*) when they’re 11-12 years—the time when they have their first period. My observation jives with the parenting literature I had read before). Since I had to buy Twin I again new sets of underwear yesterday because she has outgrown again the ones I bought her 6 mos ago. All the bottoms I bought for her in December can no longer fit her. *sigh* Good thing her twin is there to get all those clothes.
The whole weekend is about food. As usual.
Now the pièce de résistance in my home cooking this weekend is this nilagang baka using the beef I bought from DTRI in my hometown and, double boiling it (first boiling is to get rid of the scum and impurities, dump and second boiling with new water for a clearer broth) and then I did not stop there—I used the bulalo broth (with the solidified fat skimmed off) that I froze two weeks ago as base broth and added the root veggies for a richer taste.
Let’s see how this will turn out tomorrow. I want some melt-in-your mouth beef with all the green, leafy veggies I can chuck in it.
NOW that the bad weather has eased up a bit, we’re thinking of going again to the beach at the end of the month. Hopefully, there’s no typhoon or else… sigh.
I should shoehorn again these mini breaks before I leave for either Korea or Japan (yey! they’re allowing individual tourists again) in October. But…it’s kinda hard to schedule things now because before All Saints/Souls’ Day weekend 1) Ate C is leaving for Leyte for the death anniv of their father; 2) the girls are leaving with their dad to go to Shangri-la Mactan, Cebu for their grandpa’s 90th birthday. That means I cannot leave the house because no one will be left with the cats.
I must arrange all travel concerns this week before the prices of hotel rooms and plane tickets jump.
Then in November I will be back in Singapore for 10 days. Werk.