33,000 and counting

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I received this from my Zennya app two days ago. This is how terrible the situation is right now. The DOH reported 33k new cases today, and this does not include those who just used antigen tests and those who chose not to test at all because of the lack of test kits or testing labs still operating at capacity. My nephew tested positive for Covid via antigen test after exhibiting symptoms (he’s still unvaccinated because vaccination for kids 5-11 years old have not started yet). He has fever, colds, cough, vomiting, headaches…Of course my mom’s entire household may be infected too, it’s just that they’ve already had their booster shots so the symptoms are not that bad or no symptoms at all. They need to isolate again for 10 days.

My sister says she suspects that the carrier is their bi-weekly cleaner who refuses to be vaccinated.

One of my high school classmates who’s a nurse said there is an unusual surge of people now wanting to be vaccinated. I told him, who wouldn’t want to be vaccinated in this situation?

Even though there’s no strict lockdown now, people are just too afraid to go out. Yesterday only a few like me dared to go out because of vaccination. A reporter posted on Facebook that she was the only customer in a restaurant in Greenbelt today. Greenbelt is deserted.

Meanwhile, Comelec’s database was hacked again ahead of the national elections. The hack in 2016 was the biggest data breach, topping that of Turkey, that same month.

Comelec is denying Manila Bulletin’s story but I’d rather believe Art Samaniego (who broke the story about BDO Unibank’s security breach that led to funds of 700 depositors being siphoned off) than a government agency that has been told by the National Privacy Commission that it is guilty of violating the Data Privacy Act for the 2016 hacking incident.

To help me balance these WTF news, I just turn to my cats. They’re my stress relievers. They’re so lovely to squish.

Kimchi is a cow. I need to exercise her. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

Our laser pointer got broken. I need to buy a new one to exercise the cats.

I still feel like crap today because of the after effects of the booster shot but I had back to back calls today. No rest for the weary. My head was pounding and I felt feverish at times so I had to lie down in between calls. Finally at around 4 pm I took a nap and woke up at 5 pm and I no longer felt uploading one story on our CMS.

My boss told me our global head is going to call me in the coming weeks regarding my promotion and the alternative to moving to Singapore. I am adamant that I will not move to Singapore.

Look, if these companies in Forbes’ list can grant remote working, why can’t my company too? I mean there is little reason for them to plant me there when all the admin stuff is already concentrated in London. Client meetings and such can be scheduled when I fly in there.

It was different when J was still here. I would have worked my way into transferring to Singapore if he chose to do so for his career. But things are different now.

Booster

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Drive through vaccination. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I saw on Instagram this noon that you can just “walk in” or rather drive through for a booster shot at the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) in Pasay City and they’re giving Moderna. I quickly took a shower and got dressed, hoping that I could make it because they’re offering it only until 3 pm.

It was 20 km away from my apartment but it only took me 30 mins to reach DFA via Skyway 3. It’s ok if I had to pay PhP 400+ for roundtrip toll as long as I’m done with this booster business ASAP.

My arm now feels heavy. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I had to wait for 30 mins after receiving the vaccine for any allergic reaction (my histamine went haywire twice when I got Sinovac before) but so far I had no no rashes or itchiness.

It took me only 30 mins to get back to QC so I took this opportunity to run errands since I’m already out. I bought A LOT of paracetamol and antihistamines from The Generics Pharmacy near our house and went to UP for veggies.

Makeshift half basketball court. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

It has been a long time since I last been here. They built a makeshift half basketball court in the middle of the compound (the old tennis courts) where Enriquez vegetable and fruit shop is located. It seems like life is normal here except for the sight of masked people. Sharp contrast to the streets earlier today where it’s eerily quiet and only a few vehicles are out.

Finally, I could feel the effects of the vaccine. I took one paracetamol tablet and now I feel like I’m high or floating. I’m sleepy and my whole body aches. It’s only a few mins past 6 pm but I think I’ll call it a day.

G’night.

Homesick

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As part of “my learn two songs a day on the piano” challenge, I learned three songs tonight but I’m only uploading this one now. This is the only song I liked from Dua Lipa, which I have on my Spotify. Excuse the errors because I only learned this an hour or two before uploading.

Because we’re stuck again inside our homes and I’m still recovering from colds.

Broken Wings

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This is how my music studio looks as of now.

Photo by CallMeCreation.com

This song from the 1980s has been haunting my memories so I decided to look for it on Youtube and learned the chords in one night.

Elementary students had better excuses

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The hearing of Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr’s disqualification case before the Commission on Elections (Comelec) was slated for today. The coward was a no-show. The criminal has been convicted of tax evasion by the lower courts several years ago and now he faces three petitions for his disqualification. He keeps on submitting dubious documents as he tries to worm his way out of this one.

I wish this was a satire or a joke. BUT IT IS NOT! OMG! Even my kids could make up better excuses than this. *facepalm* People online are joking that we now have a new Covid variant called Zoomicron, which can be transmitted through Zoom.

No, you can’t make this up. It’s too stupid. But here it is, it’s all over the news.

One of the Commissioners is now livid.

They want to delay this as long as they can so he can continue to run even though he is a convicted criminal.

Meanwhile, we stocked up on KN95/KN94 masks because double masking with surgical + cloth for a better fit doesn’t cut it anymore.

Yep, the growth is exponential. Good luck to all of us. I was chatting with a source last night and he projected that we will be hitting 50k cases by Monday and then 100k towards the end of the month. By Feb this will taper off but before that, all of us would have caught it by then. He told me he already stocked up on oxygen tanks and meds. Forget about hospitals, he told me, we are incapable of getting help from the hospitals now. I told my sisters that they should make sure the oxygen tank at home is filled up just in case my mom gets hit again.

So 2022 is like a repeat of 2021, only that we are just too tired of the shit of last year. Year 3 of bullshit. So people are now turning to little things like Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson taking on Cookie Monster on Twitter for some amusement.

I envy my cats. No stress, no problems. The only stressors they have are my two-legged children disturbing their peace.

Lucky cat. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

As Twin I said, in her next life she wants to be our cat.

Action of one, affecting all

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Berjaya Makati Hotel Statement
January 6, 2022

The order by the Makati City Hall closing down Berjaya Makati Hotel’s operations based on the suspension order issued by the Department of Tourism is without legal basis.

For one, the DOT order is not yet final as the hotel will appeal it within the fifteen-day period it is given. Meanwhile, the suspension is not in effect. Secondly, there is no law that penalizes a hotel for not reporting a guest who jumps quarantine. There is nothing in R.A. 13322 that is applicable to the hotel. Thirdly, we must be accorded due process and be allowed to explain before any penalty is imposed. We have not been given our day in court by the Makati City Hall.

On the operations level, if we close down the hotel immediately, where do we send the 150 or so quarantine guests we have at the moment?

The whole country is on war footing in effect against the pandemic. Every quarantine hotel, just like ours, serves a strategic purpose especially with the lack of rooms while the virus rampages throughout. To close down a quarantine hotel for no legal reason is to close down a hospital just when it is helping to win the war. There is no benefit to be gained by such regulatory posturing when national interest and public health are on the line.

Berjaya press release sent to my mailbox today

One selfish/entitled act of one affects everybody. This Gwyneth Chua has wreaked havoc on a lot of businesses and families. The people whom she infected have reached La Union and have affected a restaurant that was forced to close down. (No Omicron in La Union despite Chua contact testing positive)

There are stories floating around about her parents bribing staff of the hotel so she can skip quarantine (ugh! Parents condoning selfish acts!) but are not proven.

“In fact, her friends asked why she was already out partying, instead of being in quarantine [in Berjaya Hotel], and she claimed to have ‘connections’,” according to Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo Puyat in an interview with this paper. She identified a bar in Poblacion, Makati, popular among millennials, as one of the venues where Chua allegedly partied with friends.”

Business Mirror

This is the problem with the third-world country like the Philippines: the small fry with money can behave like they own the country. Such small-town thinking.

So now we’re grappling with several thousands of daily cases again. I don’t know how long we can wait for the kids can get vaccinated before omicron gets us again.

I have already signed up for my girls’ vaccination and hopefully they can get the first dose before the month ends.

We just logged 17,220 new cases today with a positivity rate of almost 37%. Sigh. Here we go again.

We’re so tired of this. There should be vaccine equality now worldwide or else we will battling this virus longer than we should.

Elsewhere in the world, Japan to declare quasi-state of emergency amid rising COVID cases while EU daily virus cases top 1 million for first time.