Hearing this many people sing the national anthem in unison made my skin crawl. A lot of my friends and even my sister said that being there was surreal, something that you would only experience in extraordinary times.

That’s why when they said (social media is abuzz) that the next grand rally will be in Makati, along Ayala Avenue on 30 April, I told my sister we should book a room in Manila Peninsula for two nights to have a good view and at the same time my mom can also experience this.

I was asking my friend from my old TV network if the Makati venue and date is confirmed (he’s covering all campaign sorties/rallies of Leni nationwide), he said we can only know a week before the event because this is only arranged by the volunteers.

So let’s see if I can book with free cancellation, just in case they change.

UPDATE: It’s Paseo de Roxas, Makati

Today was so hot that my Twin A bought me an ice cream cone ❤️ while I was working this noon.

And it’s still March. It would be a lot hotter in the coming weeks. I’m already melting.

I don’t know how I spent the rest of my day but the time flew fast and I didn’t even do much. I just edited one story and for the life of me I could not figure out what else I did. Mostly admin tasks that really eat up my Mondays.

I just cooked egg drop soup with mishua and leeks for K and sent it with the Himeji Castle Gardens gate sketch tonight. He said he gets bloated with certain foods after his surgery but he can slowly take in rice in the form of rice porridge.

Tomorrow I think I’ll do bulalo since I bought beef shanks. I will make a clean soup out of this and lots and lots of veggies. I’ll cook it for 4 hrs on high or 8 hrs on low on the slow cooker.

The board under my desk’s drawer became loose so I had to repair it. I had to take out a lot of stuff and among the found stuff lurking in there were plastic pictures of Spirited Away and My Neighbor Totoro I bought from Donguri Republic in Taipei in 2016. It’s only now that I was able to frame it after hoarding frames from Ikea yesterday.

It took me 6 years to have this framed and see it up. 😂 At least it would be there to lift my spirits when I am having a basura day.

I created a sanctuary here. When the world throws shit at you, you can retreat to your sanctuary and be surrounded by things that you love. That is the essence of home. Home is a place where your heart can rest, soothe your ruffled feathers, and feel protected. This is the first real home I had since I left my hometown. I never felt safe and really comfortable in all the houses that I lived when I got married. I never considered those houses mine because I never had a say in those houses. This apartment was truly a sanctuary for me, even if it’s just a rental. I created this home with my own hands.

I found my Sony Walkman mp3 player and I got to hear my playlist that had so much history for me on my Edifier speaker. 8 GB worth of songs. At this moment I’m listening to Porter Robinson‘s Shelter and before that was Yoko Kanno x Aoi Teshima’s Because. These songs brought me back to the a time and space I thought things were just right. When I was happy.

These songs also tugged at my heartstrings when I was broken.

When we transfer to our new home, I will have the freedom to play music as loud as I want. I don’t have to deal with neighbors. Especially when I play Soundgarden 😄

It’s that time of the month that I have to deal with finances. This is the amount of receipts that I have to tally and check where my money went.

I don’t throw away receipts quickly because I need to check them and record them on my daily diary to track spending. I have an Excel file of my monthly budget and I have to adhere to it. That’s how I get to have room for spending for frivolous things because I have earmarked xx amount for “fun money”. Sometimes I go overboard (like this month) but I have enough wiggle room as not to destroy my monthly spending.

When I was growing up, I often saw my mom hunched over the tocador (Spanish – dressing table) with a calculator and a little notebook, balancing the household budget. She’s very careful with money, which I think I and my older sister inherited. Whatever I spent for the month, it has to come from somewhere i had budgeted. This is the reason why I have many bank accounts—I treat them like my wallets where I distribute my income, including investments.

I’m teaching my children self-control and they are somewhat successful with it. They hold off spending the money they received from aunts/uncles (they just received advanced birthday money from their paternal aunt and uncle) when they are saving for something bigger, like the rollerblades that Twin I wants. For the little things they want like milktea via Food Panda/Grab or stationery from Shopee, they use their chore money (money they earned for doing chores). At least they know the value of the money they’re spending. When they pick up an item from the grocery store or mall, they equate it to how many hours they will spending on doing chores just buying that thing. That’s time value.

You got to start them young. That’s how my mom taught me while I was growing up.