After trying to save one client account yesterday, I rewarded myself with another 90 min foot and body massage in Chinatown because the four working days in Singapore really sapped any semblance of life out of me.

I had my first massage when I arrived on Sunday and had another one Thursday night before I left on Friday. All I can say is, I don’t want to have a lady masseuse anymore. My tired muscles and knots are not cooperating with female therapists; they don’t have enough power to subdue my knotted muscles.

I also made sure that I get to eat at hawker centers or kopi tiam because this is the last trip to Singapore for me this year, I think. I better go for the authentic Singapore taste—the hawker food and the ambience.

I’ve almost forgotten that they don’t make spicy food tame here.

By the end of my lunch yesterday, I was profusely sweating and I simply refused to eat the red bird’s eye chilis.

And I swear this is the last time I will buy a bag here…🤦🏻‍♀️ Because I just got myself a dupe Chanel mini handbag.

Since I have a mini bag now for meetings and evening events, I had passed on to my mom one of the Coach mini bags that she has been eyeing in my collection. She was so happy when I gave it to her in its original box this morning. The next time I order again from the US, I will buy her another one, probably a pretty Kate Spade shoulder bag. Maybe during the Fourth of July sale or Black Friday.

I won’t be in Singapore any time soon so my bag and shoe shopping will stop.

We just watched the musical production of my kids’ school—the main reason why I had to go home early. Last year I missed their graduation ceremony because I was also in Singapore, too, to moderate two panel discussions.

The end.

I told myself that I wouldn’t work as hard as the previous day because my company pays me only 🤏 this much. Bending backwards for a company that doesn’t value you is insane so better know and set your boundaries. If not, you’re going to be abused.

So today I just went around and chatted with colleagues from other units and of course, all we talked about is how management is fucking up. One colleague said she feels better now that it wasn’t just her who was feeling this way.

But how stupid is this situation that you are comforted by that knowledge that it’s just not you who is unhappy? It’s just so wrong! But then our hybrid industry is in trouble right now. Just last week, there was a large number of finance guys being let go of in Hong Kong and China. A principal who just left his firm said his industry is not gonna get any better and what is happening in Hong Kong will slowly creep in Singapore soon. It’s all doom and gloom all around. Not only because the public markets are moribund at best, but all the macro uncertainties continue to hover over us. Some central banks in the region have declared, “screw you, economic growth! I’m gonna hike interest rates because the USD is already beating up my currency.” But higher interest rates are going to throttle an economy like Thailand that has yet to fully recover from the pandemic and the crippling inflation of the past two years. The central bank and the prime minister are at loggerheads because of this.

The China slowdown and the Middle East crisis, with Iran thrown in the mix, are not helping. If Trump wins, Ukraine will be handed over to Putin on a silver platter while we will be having an actual war in West Philippine Sea and Taiwan Strait.

Fun times.

Meanwhile, I would be having a side gig. 😉 Thanks to kababayans who believe in their compatriots. Just chatting over the cocktails tables does wonders, no? This is a start of my Plan B. I have to prepare my white paper once I get home.

On another happy note, one of the sponsors of the conference was handing out smart watches.

My girls are already excited. I also bought them medicated moisturizers for the face to keep pimples from popping up.

I cancelled a meeting in the afternoon because I had to help out a collague from the commercial team because she was trying to save an account. Their contract with us is under review and our jacked up prices are not doing us any favors. So I was there as a secret weapon to demonstrate to clients how we bring content a.k.a. gathering news and how our premium news service is vital to their operations. I gave breadcrumbs along the way by throwing them some leads that I had been working on for the week.

I just hope that did the trick.

I bought a new pair of shoes because my feet hurt as the flats I was wearing were really flat—no arch to support my heel. My plantar fasciitis is getting worse.

I had only four hours of sleep. Then I had to finish an edit that was left hanging yesterday because I was too busy and tired with meetings. I opted to take Grab this morning because I needed to be at the conference an hour before the opening talk and I don’t want to be harassed jumping train stations.

The slide presentation to kick off my intro spiel was wrong so I had to improvise—I got a bit rattled. It was a tricky balancing act keeping within the time limit while drawing out some substantial comments from the speakers but making sure everybody is given airtime. I had to do a lot of quick thinking because I had to adjust by picking which questions to ask while ignoring the rest of what I thought not as important as the main points I want to bring to the table. I had to restate and chop-chop some questions right there and remix.

Problem is my brain is working faster than my mouth.

But at least I achieved the goals I’ve set for myself. I didn’t want to dwell on the flaws of how I handled the session.

I just…want to comfort myself. I wanted to eat chicken rice as self-care.

I just want to get through this moderating thing. It sapped the life out of me.

Then there’s this guy (a source) whom I invited for free to the event. At the end of the day, he had the temerity to “make suggestions for improvement.” What the hell, bro?! I just wanted to get this over and done with and the last thing I want at the end of a tiring day is for someone to bring me down to say I was bad. He could have told me that tomorrow because I had zero bandwidth to deal with that at that hour. You know, after my session I had to do my thing again as a journalist, probing people as I’m asking about so many leads I needed to be verified. I networked to death. IT IS FREAKING TIRING! Then this!

I know I’m overly sensitive right now because of raging hormones and exhaustion.

I had a long hot soak in the tub to relieve my aching legs because I was on my feet all day. Talking nonstop to people. Networking is a bitch when you’re tired and hormonal.

I’ve had non-stop meetings today and my brain is fried. No more, I will never do this again. I was rushing from one train station to another, had five cups of coffee and tea. Now it’s almost past midnight and I’m still awake. Too much caffeine in my system. This is bad because I need to be at the conference at 7 am today for prep work.

Dress, bling + sneakers 🤣. Well, I have back-to-back meetings so a lot of walking is involved.

Since I’m not driving, I can’t behave like a privileged princess so I have to wear comfortable shoes because public transportation is not kind to feet in torture shoes.

I dropped by our office first for some admin stuff I needed to take care of. So gloomy. 😐 And huuuuummmmiiiiiidddddd! I can tolerate the heat back home but the humidity here is unbearable. 🥵

Jumping to another meeting now…

And at this hour, NAIA Terminal 3 is on fire. Well, the parking lot outside of it, 70 19 cars burst into flames. 🤯

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/mUAhwajgof36kdMW/?mibextid=jmPrMh

Meanwhile, the breaking news here in Singapore is:

It’s so boring here. 😂

An airport on fire is just like a normal occurrence for us Filipino reporters. There was a time the MRT overshot at Taft Ave station… I kid you not. It went skidding into EDSA in Pasay. And the sad thing here was we were not surprised.

Over a decade ago I did a story about a bus flying from the Skyway then landing on the cars below along SLEX. I stalked the Land Transportation Office the next day and investigated and reported on the erring bus company and the economics of bus operations. This happened the same week as the shooting at NAIA and I can’t remember if anyone died. I think a volcano also erupted that week. 🤣

It’s never boring in the Philippines. There so many things to keep us reporters busy.

I know I shouldn’t laugh at these tragedies because this shows how broken this country is. But you know, if we don’t laugh or keep our sense of humor, we would be as grouchy reklamador as the Singaporeans.

Our Indonesia reporter (but he’s a Filipino) and I were having lunch in our office dining room when another Filipino from a sister company came in. This guy was among the few Filipinos in our Singapore office who I partied with during our Christmas dinner in December last year. Anyway, we had traded stories and all that. He told us to go to IMM at Jurong to check out the outlet stores there. Indonesia reporter wanted to see the sneakers because he has trouble finding size 13 shoes.

After we had our last meeting, off we went to Jurong and… We didn’t buy anything. Stuff there wasn’t cheap like in HK. Some of the items are as expensive as those in Manila. Cabin Zero backpacks are still equivalent to PHP 5000. Samsonite Factory Outlet was a letdown—the Lipault bags were ugly and no great deals to be had for laptop bags or backpacks.

I was tempted to buy this but I realized that the laptop bag I got for free from the conference in HK last month was more comfortable and durable. However, the name of the bank that hosted the conference was embroidered into the front of the bag so I can’t use it or else friends from rival global banks would chide me.

Shopping deals here look good on paper but once go to the store, you will suddenly realize they aren’t good deals.

I continue to fly Philippine Airlines despite the horrific service because there are no long lines at the immigration at Terminal 1. That’s the only reason. Cathay Pacific was fine last month (going to HK) since the seats were roomier and there is in-flight entertainment. However, I had to beg my way into skipping the line at the immigration at Terminal 3 because it was already 15 mins to boarding, I was still at the end of the queue. Lines there are always long and messy. 😑

Had a long lunch date with my SG-based friends later today and I provided them with Manila gossip.