I slept earlier than usual last night but I still woke up at 10 am. The only thing I did today was to grill these pork chops and then repotted some plants in pots that are not draining well. Also planted some marigolds, calendula, aster, and leeks. I have more luck growing flowering plants than vegetables but let’s see again if I can grow leeks, which I consume a lot in a week.
In between, I helped my daughters review their music lesson—textures and dynamics—which they had trouble with because it’s hard understanding triads, monotones, etc through remote teaching without a piano accompaniment. So I told them they should take advantage of their mom who knows a thing or two about music. I demonstrated to them the lessons with the help of my piano playing, Youtube, and Spotify.
It was already 5:30 pm when I was done with the garden. I took a long, luxurious shower, and rested while I was booking a Zennya massage. ThenI fell asleep again! I don’t know what’s my body trying to tell me but maybe it’s making up for weeks/months of not being able to properly sleep. It seems like my mental state is more relaxed now after a tumultuous February so my body has uncurled from its formerly tense and rigid state. Thank God for that! I pray that this will continue so I can move on to bigger things like starting to build my new flat.
And no Zennya. I couldn’t book a massage therapist. It seems like everybody is spending lazy Sundays like I do.
I am resisting the urge to do more DIYs around here but this guy is convincing me to buy that jigsaw and do more magic.
In the meantime, I’m finishing the curtains for the house to block out the intense sunlight and to replace the ones mangled by my cats 🐱😹
Nearly done with this last curtain panel…Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Clothes shopping at SM Marikina. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
I took my children clothes shopping because they have again outgrown the clothes I just bought them months ago. Now that we’re more mobile and we will be traveling once again, they needed well-fitting clothes and shoes. I haven’t even bought them their school clothes/shoes/bags because they may no longer fit by June.
Their sizes and styles are already in the teens’ section. Or even adult section. Twin I’s shoe size is already EU 37 while mine is EU 38. Some of my old clothes already fit her.
Before clothes shopping, I tried this Korean-style corn dog I found at Monterey Community Market. The girls liked them.
Chef’s Selection Korean-style corn dog. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
I’m too lazy to cook today so we just had dinner at Calle Reyes in SM Marikina. It was good since it looks like the people behind Calle Reyes are the same ones who put up Reyes Barbecue. I did a very quick sketch while we waited for our food. I only had my passport-sized notebook that was just for jotting down notes and sticking receipts to document the day. It wasn’t meant for drawings or watercolors.
Quick sketch while we wait for our food. Photo by CallMeCreation.comReally bad paper. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
The deserts are Filipino, which is good in my book.
Macapuno pandan crepe. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
The macapuno inside the crepe is not too sweet as the one I am accustomed to since sweetened macapuno in Batangas, the one I grew up on, was always sickly sweet as they use this to add to halo-halo.
I am addicted to sketching notebooks. I bought new ones even though I haven’t finished one sketch notebook.
Well, the opportunity to fill these up will be coming since it will only be three weeks before we begin diving again. Woohoo!
Not only is he a great dad with sense of humor and a loving husband, he is also a smart beefcake, too. I had been following his Instagram for 4 years now and he is really hands-on with this Centrfit company he has built with his partners. He road-tests the exercises personally that he or his partners devise for this platform. I didn’t try it when he offered a 30-day trial because the exercises are hardcore or high-impact that can shatter my knees.
What I discovered from being active in this campaign which made me really mad, sometimes hopeless, and disturbed. A thread.
Take a look at this video. This is such a great idea (galing @bakitbetmo). What we currently know is there is a massive proliferation of fake news scattered on all platforms possible. pic.twitter.com/YJOX3MmNxr
But just recently, I discovered a more disturbing truth: that perhaps, the fake news we see in social media barely scratched the surface of this whole machinery. Take a look at this query sent to me privately. pic.twitter.com/o4uKY6sgY3
Please read this Twitter thread. This is scary Please get out of your echo chambers. Reach out to the people in your communities.This is extremely disturbing. The enemy is really well versed in the art of black ops. Hiring microinfluencers to shape the psyche of the C, D, E markets who do not have the access to fact checkers because it requires money (data, airtime load, smart phone) to access Tsek.ph.
“When I heard about them hiring micro influencers, I just thought of them as, perhaps, a message conduit, but receiving these questions (lalo na yung most recent. I mean? Saan nanggaling yung ipapatanggal ang ambulant vendors?), kinilabutan ako.”–@hannahbarrantes
As I said during the interview in ________, those in the lower economic level are not being reached by the truth brigade. The battle against “fake news” should be approached at the grassroots level. Apply the different communication tools in AKAP principle in social marketing (Awareness, Knowledge, Attitude, Practice). This should not just be a bullet way of using mass media/social media . We’re only scratching the surface and we are failing in the first step–making people aware. Graduates of _________ know what I’m talking about when I say social marketing concepts for rural development. Same principles.
I’m getting tired. This is the longest election season I experienced. I was just chatting with one of my BFFs and she said if BongBong Marcos wins, they will no longer come back to the Philippines from their vacation in Australia and just process their immigration papers from there. Another former colleague already left for Canada, never to come back.
These are educated people. Brain drain. If Marcos wins, there will be an exodus of skilled and educated Filipinos.
This is what we do on Friday nights.
Twin A applying facial mask on me. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Twin A bought me facial masks from SaveMore. I don’t know why but she did. And she insisted that she put it on me tonight to help me relax after work. Since she used her own money for this gift, I obliged.
No filters. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Clean face, pampered with love from my daughter. Nothing can beat that.
Yes, I’m already 42 years old and damn proud of it. If he finds me old, then he has a problem, it’s not me who’s the problem.
Giving people the benefit of the doubt sent me to the deeper end and it always, ALWAYS had been detrimental to me. I justify my love for them that’s why I give them allowances.
Took me so much hurt and rude awakening to realize he is an evil person. I had been making excuses in my head, searching for the good in him but I ignored the big glaring fact that he is what he is.
Learned the hard way.
Let me tell you another story. This one is less political.
So my ex-husband hashad this penchant for cheating on me even before we got married. Why I stuck with him, I don’t know. Maybe I was there to prove something, like I can turn him around/rehabilitate him or what. Anyway, this story is not about that.
There was this girl who kept on messaging him on his mobile phone. One day she called. I answered it. Told her I was the wife of M. She threw expletives at me and among the many things thrown at me, all I could remember was she was a gf or something—whatever. I shouted at my bf (at that time) and threw his phone, broke it and flushed the SIM down the toilet.
I learned that my bf/ex-husband didn’t lose contact with his gfs and he kept them all on the side, you know, “in case of emergency.” (Among the other life skills I learned was to hack into his emails and his phone to discover his indiscretions). I stalked this girl online for a long, long time and messed up her blogs and so on and so forth. My investigative journo skills were in full mode at that time. What bothered me was that this girl looked like me, my brother said. At that time she was a call center agent. I learned that she took up a course under the UP College of Mass Communication but got kicked out of the program and had to relocate to a faraway campus, got into another program where her grades were more acceptable. Anyway, with the rise of social media, she became more visible to me. What’s funny is that because she is so in love with herself, she didn’t even bother making her social media accounts private.
I no longer have a beef with her right now and out of curiosity as to what she’s up to, I searched for her online. It seems like she lives on the outskirts of BGC, one of the condos there on the edge because I think one of the views from her window faces Taguig and she hangs out at BGC a lot. There was one time there was an art fair at Bonifacio High Street and she had a booth there and I came face to face with her. She probably doesn’t have any idea who I was but I fully knew who she was. She is this artsy-fartsy thing who does art commissions, or so she tries to project on her social media posts. She hangs out in coffee shops around BCG and does art on her tablet.
I think she’s a perfect target for someone like J. I wouldn’t be surprised if he gets to pick her up randomly.
It’s just a wild thought but I know she would be a good fit because she’s shiny, she’s superficial, and she knows how to project herself. He likes superficial things. They’re exactly the same age.
It was just unfortunate that I gave my unconditional love to somebody like that. It’s hard getting it back, hence, my emotional bankruptcy. A PR professional friend messaged me on FB tonight and asked me how I was and if I already have a bf (after J). I said no, I need to heal and I’m not searching—that I’m done. I’m happier like this. She said it’s when I’m not searching the One comes. I said no, just the thought of it creeps me out. It’s just too painful, I told her. I don’t think I can have another one again.
I mean, ok, they’re happy. The on-screen couple turned real-life couple. Good for them. I just hope it lasts. Excuse my jadedness.
There are people made for this, and there are people who are not. I clearly do not belong to the first group. Even if I gave my all—all my love and kindness, tried to see good in people even if they don’t deserve it—I always end up in a ditch and disrespected.
So no, friend, I’m better off like this. I need to grow and learn more about the world and the hard lessons life is teaching me. I’m not about to seek comfort and affirmation from someone else because it only leads to disaster.
Lighting candles to soothe my soul. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
I am done with the two curtain panels for the girls’ bedroom.
Photo by CallMeCreatiom.com
Now they’re up on their windows.
Photo by CallMeCreation.com
I’m just finishing a small panel and then I will be done with their room. I can now proceed to do the complicated poppy flower drawing…
Just look at my hobbies—they’re hardly the thing that sophisticated, shiny people do. I do granny things. I’m not even into grandmillennial style…just granny. My interests are contemplative things like hiking, diving, biking, home DIY, museums, daydreaming on a grassy patch of land, gardening, cooking, drawing, singing, and lots of reading. I’m not into clubbing and so over bar-hopping.
I’m boring. I could hardly be an asset to a person who wants to aspire for big things in life like being a fund manager or a fund owner. A CEO of a conglomerate. I also could never be a tai tai nor I wanted to be one.
During this period of transition inmy life I realized I just want to be like this:
Printed exercise sheets for Twin I. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
My kids have atrocious handwriting that was not corrected in school because they had been at home for 2 years. I was too busy to pay attention to their handwriting and I didn’t know how to help them. My mother and their dad have bad handwriting so I thought it could be just that.
However, it was already Twin I who asked me for help so I had to sit up and pay attention. I remember when I was in third and fourth grade we had handwriting classes where we were taught cursive handwriting. We had writing exercises in which we shadowed the handwriting of our teacher or what was in our exercise book. So I downloaded some exercise sheets for my daughter to practice on. Hopefully this would help.
I had tried to imitate the neat handwriting of some of my artistic classmates but eventually I developed my own form/style. My father had beautiful handwriting, so did my older sister and brother. My brother’s handwriting is similar to my father’s.
I could say my handwriting is ok and oftentimes my notes are neat, even when I’m doing interviews or listening to conferences/seminars/lectures. I remember my high school and college classmates borrowing my notes because 1) they’re comprehensive; and 2) they’re neat. This skill helped me now in my note-taking as a reporter, especially when there are disputes with those complaining about my reportage. My editors in London or HK ask me to send my notes to them for defense. If my notes are unintelligible, I would have a bigger problem. So I have kept all my reporter’s notebooks from 15 years ago as they stand in court, in case someone sues me. That’s the power of good note-taking—and alongside that is good handwriting.
So I need to train my children how to take notes and improve their handwriting.
Meanwhile, my other children…
Sushi lounging on my bed while I’m working my ass off. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
So far they haven’t destroyed anything this week and last week. But they chewed on Twin I’s school exercise lying around so that’s her fault for being untidy. 🙄
Oh yeah, I have to trim their claws and give them a bath. And shop for supplies again. Ah, the things you do for your pets. 😶
My post about Radiowealth had really gone viral. 7k likes and 5.6k shares. My neighbor sent me a screenshot of my post that has been passed around in Ateneo. One of my sources also sent me a screenshot of it that is being passed around in his Rotary Club.
Of course, the BBM camp is not remiss in their duty in bashing me. So I posted this today, translated in English:
BBM people have been sharing my post about Radiowealth and attacking it, saying the site I shared (blogspot has no SSL certificate etc). The main questions remain, is it true that Marcos grabbed businesses he, his family and his cronies benefited from it? Is it true that we began to sink with the debts we incurred because of his graft and corruption? There was a BBM supporter who sent me a private FB message disputing my statements, that the closure of Radiowealth was not politically motivated but it was about the radioactivity posed by the TVs. I had watched on our Radiowealth TV for long hours and until now I’m still alive. I haven’t transformed into an X-men. There were so many requesting FB friendship but NO, I don’t care about them. I’ve had so much experience with internet trolls. I just delete and delete friend requests and PMs. For fact-checking purposes here are links:
There was one fact checker from Tsek.ph (group of volunteer Philippine journalists) who messaged me on Twitter and said they went through my post and marked it True. I wanted him and the world to know that I am a journalist and I do my research well. I don’t make claims lightly. Plus, I clearly remember interviewing one lolo who mentioned this to me, it was also discussed in one of my broadcasting classes, plus my father told me about this. <<< well this last one doesn’t count as an empirical evidence but this was the one that prompted me to research about Radiowealth.
As I said before, media literacy must be taught in elementary and high school so people can be taught critical thinking and not just be brainless consumers of mass media information. It’s my advocacy. However, it’s hard now that I’m no longer in the academe. The lectures and media trainings have stopped during the lockdowns and that TV interview I had earlier this month was one of the few I did in the last two years.
I have a feeling I will have my other foot back again in academe soon…🤔
If there’s a larger than life I personality I want to be friends with, it would be Karl Lagerfeld or Rajiv Surendra.
Karl’s life is interesting—not because of money that came with his life but it doesn’t hurt, no?—but he lived beautifully and he chased intellectualism not just for the sake of it but because he was very curious. Of course he was sort of a snob and he was raised by a ruthless mother but for some reason he loved her dearly. From his stories (published in Vogue and other interviews), his mother sounds like Elton John’s mother (gleaned from the movie Rocketman).
Anyway, I remember one article in Vogue (when I was still a devoted reader) that he spoke several languages and read in French, German, and English. He loved books. He was one of the biggest bibliophiles there is. He collected books and read them all. He was interested in so many things, especially history. His library is one of my dream libraries and I could happily pass my days in there. We can talk about politics, history, philosophy, art—so many things—over tea and biscuits (he eliminated sweets from his diet).
I also remember his love for wearing Hedi Slimane suits. There was an article in Vogue where he discussed his weariness of flying/airports post 9/11 (how strictly insane and tedious flying became right after 9/11) so he had outfitted several SUVs to be luxurious cabins so he can cross countries in Europe without having to suffer the indignities of stripping your clothes/shoes just authorities can scan you for possible deadly weapons or bombs.
I wish I have his discipline of sketching all the time. He wanted to be a cartoonist, not a fashion designer at first. He figured he could make a better living out of sketching clothes.
I could feel his frustration of wanting to play the piano but this desire to learn it was stamped out by his incorrigible mother. I figured those who leaned towards the arts sometimes find themselves drawn to other art forms as a way to express themselves.
Hmm, the two persons I mentioned above have another thing in common: they’re both gay. I’m good friends with gay men and as I told one gay man in Singapore, I am a fairy princess. I like the company of gay men because they’re interesting and they like my friendship. I had been to gay bars in Manila with K and his friends are fun to be with; we were dancing on the ledge of a bar until the wee hours (this was before I got married).
hand-stitching again. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
I’m back to sewing again as a form of procrastination. I can’t finish the poppy sketch yet since it’s complicated for my bleeding brain (I just finished an article today). I think the curtain panels will be up in the girls’ room by the end of this week.
I’m also teaching a colleague how to survive the China lockdown because he doesn’t know how to cook. His initial lockdowns were in Kuala Lumpur and he was privileged enough not to worry about supplies when he was there. I told him to grab lots of Indomee instant noodles (he’s Chinese Malaysian) and do this:
Lucky Me Pancit Canton by Monde Nissin. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Teaching him what to buy and what to do with them. Gah! I wonder how these people survive all these years by just eating out.
Screenshot from NIkkei Asia
This zero-Covid policy of China has seen a lot of businesses wanting to flee HK. My former APAC boss is now in Manila to escape the draconian policies of HK and give her toddlers a respite from being locked up indoors.
In contrast, Singapore is now allowing people to be maskless if outdoors. My friend-colleague said it’s such a relief especially if she’s taking her walks for her daily exercise. Our new APAC head, who’s based in Seoul, said most people there have been getting Covid that it doesn’t make sense to control movement. So the rest of the world has adopted the living-with-Covid policy and is now opening up borders.
I’m raring to go to the sea.
Maricaban, Batangas. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
This photo was taken when we took the boat from Eagle Point Resort to Maricaban island. The diving was not good but the winds were violent in Sombrero island so we were taken here. Some of these boats took novice scuba divers where we were freediving.
I had watched on our Radiowealth TV for long hours and until now I’m still alive. I haven’t transformed into an X-men. There were so many requesting FB friendship but NO, I don’t care about them. I’ve had so much experience with internet trolls. I just delete and delete friend requests and PMs. For fact-checking purposes here are links:
