I must be doing something right. 🥰 My girls saved up money from their allowance to give me an early Mother’s Day gift. It now sits on the corner of my kitchen counter so my cats won’t be able to knock it down and to cheer me up when I cook or wash the dishes.

I decided to stay local for today since my girls are over at their classmate’s house to finish a project. When I was driving back from their classmate’s house, I got a chance to take a photo of the mountain in my backyard…

It was a very hot day so there are no clouds enveloping the moutain peaks.

As Atsuko Okatsuka (the standup comedian) said, spend time in every square meter of your house. You paid for it. So now that I have a more comfortable chair where I can lean back, I am finding that I’m spending more time here. Plus the beach umbrella has kept the place cooler. I waited here for my girls to message that it was time to pick them up.

After fetching them, we drove to the flower shops to buy my mom a bouquet of carnations for Mother’s Day. She loves flowers like I do and I pledged that I will keep bringing her flowers as long as I live.

On our way to a carinderia, we spotted the new bike rental station on campus, similar to Movr in BGC. It was already almost 6 pm so it was not worth it to try it at that time since it was already getting dark.

For dinner, I only spent a little over PHP 300 for the three of us. Carienderias are like eateries that you can find in hawkers centers or kopi tiam in Singapore where you can buy something affordable to eat. I wasn’t into cooking today because I have a blocked pipe that where my kitchen sink drains into and I’m still waiting for my contractor to fix it.

Anyway, I was craving for something spicy so I got sisig on a sizzling plate with generous green chili and a dash of red bird’s eye chilis, fried egg, and lots of onions. Soy sauce and kalamansi to top it.

I really don’t have to be always driving to faraway places to have a relaxing weekend. In Metro Manila, we always try to escape the city to be able to say we had a relaxing weekend. Nowadays, being at home is already relaxing because I don’t have to escape from the city.

So finally we were able to publish this morning. 🥲 After all the trouble we had last night, I just wanted to kick back and relax.

I should declutter my stairway. I think I need to buy those balcony planters so I can transplant my herbs to better location/planting medium.

But before that, I must get my money’s worth first by using the beach umbrella and chair.

I worked under the umbrella and savored my more comfortable beach chair compared to the stools.

I edited four stories today and attended to my unanswered emails. I didn’t attempt to write additional stories because I promised myself that I will give myself a break. The roller coaster ride this week left me exhausted.

I drove from my house to Makati CBD for 1 hr and 15 mins, minus refueling, this morning along SLEX. I needed to help our Manila reporter with stories that we could get from a presscon today. She’s still under the weather and it’s hard to chase the head of a conglomerate if you’re sick.

And chase I did. I barricaded the elevator door with my body when the one I needed to ambush interview was already leaving. Good thing I already befriended his security guys so they let me do my thing.

Got three stories today.

Why the fuck am I still doing this? Because I’m a journalist and I am faithful to my profession, not the company.

And my manager is on my case again today but she was pounding the editor who was editing one of my stories. I said it’s time-sensitive because there might be some announcement tomorrow on IDX and we needed to be ahead of that.

But nooooo, she was asking the stupidest things via the editor, thus delaying the publication of the piece. It’s already 9 pm 11 pm and it’s still not done. It’s less than 10 paragraph for goodness’ sake!!!

I told the editor to go home and have dinner. I said we’ll just deal with this tomorrow morning before markets open.

I don’t know if she’s jealous that my team is still intact while her only reporter already resigned and it’s only her in her bureau. I don’t know if she’s being insufferable because my team receives the highest average hits/readership in APAC monthly.

God knows how I am keeping my temper in check. I think I need to talk to my therapist again because of the stress my manager is causing me. I am already affected physically. My stomach acids are already overwhelming me again. I need to take a proton pump inhibitor before morning and evening meals because it may worsen again and I may end up in the ER again.

I’m still waiting for any news about my job application with a competitor. 😩

To cheer me a bit today…

I’m tired of fighting for what is right. I said my piece with to siblings: words hurt. And during the lowest time of my life, it’s the cats who were there for me. Not my family, not anybody. Cats.

I’m tired of pushing back against my manager. She killed another story of one of my reporters because she couldn’t understand how joint ventures work in this part of the world especially when it comes to restricted sectors like real estate. I pointed out to her, just for the last 4 months of the year, similar stories were published or aggregated by our company. Then I included the links.

She didn’t reply anymore. But what am I to do? I cannot let people walk all over us here in Southeast Asia. It’s the topic of the panel discussion that I have moderated in Singapore: whatever you have–just because it worked in the West–throw that out in the window because that will not work here. You have to adjust. This is not S. Korea, Japan, China, or Australia.

I’m tired of fighting with the company policy of not hiring people in Asia. One person in the commercial team asked for help today because one of the biggest local subscribers in Thailand cancelled their subscription. I told her that don’t bother chasing after them. Many of them in Thailand have cancelled because of our lack of local content. Because we don’t have anybody on the ground. I’ve already pushed as far as I could go, fighting so that management would see reason. We just have to let it go, get over those lost contracts.

Because, what the fuck, this company thinks Singapore is Southeast Asia.

I’ve been doing scoops left and right, still doing what I do best. But damn, I’m tired of this bullshit with this company.

Next week, I am going to have a call with that side gig I will get in HK. It’s a start. I don’t know where it will lead me.

I don’t know if I would be in the right headspace to write two articles tomorrow.

I suddenly missed UP Diliman. A bit of kirot (ache) somewhere in my gut.

Ironic though. I always stuck to living in places near UP Diliman because it reminded me of my hometown, for obvious reasons. When I got homesick, I just go to the campus and live among the trees for a while. It has been like that for at least 20 years.

Now that I’m back in my hometown, I am missing UP Diliman despite it being smaller, hotter, and drier. I miss the bike rides and the food like Rodic’s tapsilog. I miss the Maginhawa food establishments. On weekends, my girls and I would have many places to pick from for our meal out after doing the grocery shopping. These days when we open Grab Food delivery, there weren’t many to choose from. Yes, this is a university town and there are more food estblishments than in normal small towns but we were spoiled by the wider array choices in UP Diliman since it is in an urban area.

I had an argument with my sisters over Viber this morning. My older sister threatened to throw the foster kitties out because they scratched their outdoor slippers.

They also complained of the poop smelling outside their house. I know the offenders are the other stray cats trying to barge in this area and the kittens know how to bury their own poop on my side of the property. But I didn’t want to argue anymore because it’s no use debating with close-minded people.

So here’s my ad I posted on Facebook and Instagram.

“Hello, seeking kind-hearted souls who would want to adopt rescue kittens that I had been fostering. Cuddly and docile, litter-trained and dewormed. Need to find good homes soon because feline-hating neighbors threatened to throw them out in the harsh and dangerous world.

Please PM me.”

My heart is breaking. 💔

Back to face-to-face classes so I need to wake up at 5 am to cook breakfast. After doing this for almost a year, my body clock automatically wakes me up at around this time even without an alarm. It’s so annoying. No wonder I was already falling asleep at around 8 pm last night; my body was telling me that it’s a school day tomorrow. 😩

My mom’s body clock is the same. After doing this for so many years, she just automatically wakes up at 4 am. Hers is much earlier because she had four children and we only had one bathroom when we were growing up. We also had to ride the tricycle and jeep to go to school so extra 30 mins were needed. We were already in high school when we transferred to our present location and our high school was just across the street so that was a relief to my mom. However, old habits die hard; she still woke up early because that’s what her body was used to.

It has started raining regularly now. It was raining a few minutes ago so the temperature has already been reduced by a degree or two. It may have been brief but at least it’s no longer that dry and my surviving plants will have better chances of getting past through this month.

Right before I woke up this morning, I dreamt about my father, my mom, my siblings, and I flying to Japan. We were so late in getting Grab that I was already freaking out as we would miss our flight. I was thinking quickly if there was another JAL flight later that day.

When I woke up, I was surprised that 1) my father agreed to go through all that circus and went along with the plans for this trip; 2) we were going to Japan when not everyone in our family likes to go there; 3) that I was back being single and childless.

I guess for all his faults and transgressions, I miss my father. I was thinking last night while I was in the bathroom that I will not be able to finish building my house if my father was still alive because he would have interfered so much. That’s how overbearing he was.

Speaking of trips, I want to go here and check out this area. Cagayan province is one place that intrigued me but it’s really hard to get there. The mind is willing but the body is not.

In this Reuters report, an old town that was submerged when Pantabangan Dam was built has reappeared. The heatwave we’re exeriencing has drained bodies of water, especially in the north.

One friend who, if I remember it correctly, volunteered for WWF one time came to Aparri, Cagayan as part of the program. She told me that in late afternoon until sunset, they would be drinking beer at the beach and watch pilot whales doing back flips or waving their tails. I was so green with envy; it would have been awesome to have seen those.

That’s one of the reasons why I became a reporter. I wanted to experience those extraordinary things because as a reporter, I could have the ticket to do such things in the name of a story. But at that moment this friend was telling me this, I wanted to become a volunteer  of WWF and go places while doing something good. I said that’s the best way to put to use my science journalism major…

Ah well, I would just have to come to Aparri some other way.

Eghad, it’s so hot! 🔥

This is me after washing the dishes tonight. I thought the world will be a little bit cooler today but nope…

Meanwhile, my yellow bells started to bloom again. Wheeeeee!

I just don’t know what caused it to bloom again. Maybe shedding leaves will do the trick? Maybe I should trim it, no?