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.

I’m taking a break again on my balcony as I had been checking my clothes to pack for my trip to Singapore tomorrow. I will be leaving at 2 am and thankfully I was able to book my mom’s driver. I don’t have to be wide awake and glug a mug of coffee before leaving.

It’s gonna rain. Let it rain. It has been so hot that I haven’t turned off the AC since yesterday. Two of my potted plants have died already. 😢

She just wouldn’t get off my bag when I need to put more stuff in it. 😑

I finally caved in. Bought myself a mid-priced fountain pain for watercolor sketching or ink sketching in general.

Drawing is a lot smoother with fountain pen compared to using fine liners. I have resurrected this pencil sketch of the UP Carillon I initially drew last year when we were still living in QC.

I’m happy with this purchase but boy, it pulled me into a rabbit hole I can’t get out of now. I have watched videos of how to refill the cartridges with ink using a syringe and why this method is better than using a cartridge converter. I also researched on various inks and which would be the best for watercolor/washings and which inks would not clog the pens. There were also videos of how to clean fountain pens. It’s all so… tedious and yet fascinating. You bet I’m going to buy blunt-ended syringes and a bottle of Pilot blue-black ink. Once it’s completely dry, it won’t bleed when you watercolor, they said.

And knowing me, once I get enamored, I will upgrade to a better model and damn it, it’s going to be a very expensive hobby. 😩 I remember my father having a lot of ink bottles on his desk because he was refilling his own pens. He just loved pens like I do now.

I have a friend from college who  suddenly died two days ago. I sought a common friend at 5:30 am today to ask what happened. She said common friend was diagnosed with leukemia on 10 April and was admitted immediately to the ICU. He died on the 15th.

He didn’t stand a chance. It was too fast, like he wasn’t even given a chance to have treatment. His wife posted on Facebook (I checked after I learned) that her husband wanted to live and was fighting hard. I’m so sorry, C, rest in peace. You don’t have to hurt anymore.

I guess his leukemia didn’t present symptoms until it was already too advanced. I researched and learned that this happens to adults with chronic myelogenous leukemia. This common friend told me that this is a wakeup call for us in our age group to have ourselves checked regularly.

This jolted me. I finally decided that I won’t join the out-of-town data analytics training in early May and instead I should spend part of my annual personal time off for medical checkups. I ghosted my gynecologist for a year in 2023 after my tests showed I was fine. I should go back and have to re-do my pap smear and all tests that constitute an executive checkup. I should get another gastroenterologist because my previous one didn’t care a fig about me. My CT scan last December showed an inflamed fatty liver and pancreas. Another friend told me that unhealthy liver can be reversed but once the pancreas is hit—it’s gonna be tough. Women who have polycystic ovary syndrome (which I had known I have since high school) have a higher risk of developing pancreatic cancer or insulin resistance.

I shouldn’t leave everything to chance. Because as I wrote here before, genetics is shit. Even though lymphoma is generally regarded not genetic (but I doubt it because my grandpa and his daughter, my aunt, both died of it), there may be gene mutations that I may have inherited. I don’t want to leave my children motherless at this stage. I should have myself screened regularly.

I have already abstained from alcohol and too much stimulants like caffeine as they have been triggering my gastric problems. Plus it’s healthier. I’ve been controlling consumption of red meat. I haven’t been grilling steak or porkchops as often as I did in the past.

This is a wakeup call.

I had a call early this evening to prep my panelists for next week. Why do I feel like I asked the wrong questions and I looked like a dweeb? Maybe because the guide questions set before me were dumb and I was grasping for the middle ground. At the end of the call, I finally figured out what they want to talk and argue about. But I still felt like a dweeb and I hate that.

I also feel like I need to change something with my background. I’m not sure if I look like I’m in a home office and not a bedroom. I don’t like having virtual backgrounds because they make me look like I’m floating in space and not a real person. I can’t turn around my table because of limited space.

I’ve been sending emails requesting for interviews and most have responded positively. However, scheduling is a bitch. All of my online interviews will look like this (above).