Because a working mom has to feed her kids. Tomorrow I have a lunch meeting with a unit of a conglomerate we cover. Then back-to-back calls with my manager and a law firm in Bangkok.

Today was super tiring. It was a whole day of back and forth with my manager, a pushback from her, a pushback from me…I just need to advocate for what is best for my team. I’m just too tired and heartbroken to write it down tonight. I need to destress…

I had been a walking ball of stress the past few days due to admin issues. I swear scrounging for stories to meet monthly quota or answering emails from irate interviewees can never be compared to the stress I constantly face daily as a manager—especially when bosses and management do not understand Southeast Asia. They don’t understand that Southeast Asia is not Singapore and Singapore is not representative of Southeast Asia. You shouldn’t just say yeah, we already have people in Singapore so why need to cover conferences in other parts of Southeast Asia???

Of all of the stupidest—

I’m tired. I really am.

And one of my reporters told me to apply for the leadership program that the company is offering and told me it fits me. I attended the Q&A call for this… Ummm no. That’s for ambitious people who want to climb the corporate ladder. For people passionate about what the company is doing. I am not passionate about the company (in fact I don’t like my parent company) but I’m passionate about my profession. These are two different things.

I may be able to articulate this whole thing tomorrow, when I’m less incensed.

This afternoon, a faculty member of my undergrad college visited me here at my house to drop off their gifts to me in appreciation of that 1.5 hr lecture I gave to their undergrads about interviews and ethics a few months ago. We talked for several hours—starting off with how the new kids these days are just 🤦🏻‍♀️ inexplicable. The level of entitlement is astonishing!

We also talked about the dumbing down of the whole undergrad curriculum is stupid. They made it a generalist curriculum, which is counterintuitive in this era of AI and social media where everyone can make AVs/movies without going into art school or comms school. Everyone is a content creator nowadays—it’s no longer the sole territory of those who went school for it. Just like anybody with a DSLR or mirrorless camera can claim to be called a photographer or videographer or a citizen photojournalist.

The edge I got from the previous curriculum was unquantifiable. The reason why I am good with what I’m doing is because I am a specialist and had always been so from day 1 in college. You cannot afford to be a generalist in this environment where algorithms can take over your job…and AI has been progressing faster than anyone can imagine. You have to be an expert in something. If it doesn’t work out, your general ed will save your ass and then pivot. Yes it’s good that I have a little background in broadcasting and educ/audiovisual comms—enough for me to understand how broadcast works, how other comm media work. It’s good that I know how to draft comms strategy/campaigns and marketing plans because it makes me more flexible. But I am a journalism specialist and I have been hired for the skills I have honed early on and that’s my unique value proposition. I can’t be a half-baked moron and expect to be irreplaceable. Well, no one is irreplaceable but, you get my drift.

It was hard to judge whether it would rain or not so I decided not to do my brisk walking today. Besides, I finished work late so better if I skip it.

If I wake up early tomorrow, I may be able to climb the upper campus on foot. I took antihistamine last night that’s why I was knocked out and woke up at past 7 am—already too hot for a morning walk. I must be am committed to lose weight strengthen my body before I start diving again.

Anyway, I took these pictures on my way to the nearest supermarket on campus, which was Save More, since I ran out of cheddar cheese for the spaghetti with meatballs I was cooking for dinner. I hosted dinner for my bro and three nephews because my SIL is sick at home. I also made too many meatballs last Sunday and I need to use them now because I will be stocking my freezer with food that I will be cooking before I leave for SG on Sunday.

I have hosted several dinners and lunches in my home in the past two months—more than I hosted meals in my apartment in QC. I don’t know, maybe because parking here is not a problem since we have a huge parking lot outside the compound or guests can even park anywhere inside the uni campus. In my apartment in QC, there was always the threat of my guests’ cars being towed away by the MMDA.

In addition, I don’t have neighbors to contend with. I mean, it’s just my mom next door and she doesn’t care, while the other neighbors are too far to hear laughter and loud conversations. There’s also the cleanliness factor. That apartment is was never clean. It’s easier to corral the mess here because it’s my girls who are creating them anyway, so the public space here is always in order. It’s also easier to clean this tiny house—it only takes a few minutes. I sweep the floor here daily since it’s manageable. Hosting guests here is not that embarrassing anymore even though it’s such a squeeze.

Speaking of space, I had also replaced the rechargeable stand fans because of the crappy battery and the amount of floor area they occupy. One fan even emitted smoke while I was in Bangkok; good thing my girls were in the room when that happened or else my newly constructed home may have burned down! 😱 These fans were not used that much in QC since my daily workhorses were the normal stand fans, which I already gave to my bro for his new townhouse as these were too big for my space.

We bought the rechargeable fans in Cash & Carry Makati when we were threatened with a super typhoon and I was panicking and worried about how in the world will I keep J from complaining about the heat because there will be no aircon when the power goes out. But the super typhoon got diverted and passed through Southern Tagalog instead of hitting Metro Manila directly so the power didn’t go out as expected.

Imagine that—he was always on top of my worries and his welfare was my priority. And what did I get???

Ah never mind.

The new Asahi fans (each for my girls) were delivered today by Lazada. They’re very cute and just about the right size for my kids since they don’t need huge-ass fans that they will just hog for themselves. I got the one with baby-safe grills so that my cats won’t get caught by the blades in case they choose to sleep on the desks, which they always do. Despite their diminutive size, the fans are strong.

I’m on a quest to keep things off the floor and I finally got rid of the stand fans. Next task will be hanging ukeleles and a guitar on the walls.

I think that’s also the quest of my cats, that is to keep themselves off the floor. Sushi is always on high places. Well, I did provide them that space above my kitchen cabinets so they can survey their kingdom.

Kimchi’s fat ass is keeping her from climbing my fridge—she is less agile than Sushi. But at least she can climb the girls’ loft beds, which are her favorite hangout places.

I didn’t want to write about that shitty debacle at the Dept of Tourism because it has been irritating me no end. PHP 49m gone to corruption c/o presidential relative, if the whispers through the grapevine are correct.

I will get to it later, after my blood pressure has come down—this government is constantly fucking up. I need to shake away the bad vibes before working today.

My sleep last night was checkered so I wasn’t able to wake up early for a walk. But this afternoon I felt the itch because I wanted to see mountains and open spaces.

There’s a big house on top of that hill where you can see the tips of pine trees. When I was about 12 years old, I had a crush on a boy who lived in that house. That hill is called xxx Hill, after their family name because they own a large swath of land there. At that time, whenever I saw this hill, I felt giddy and smile to myself as I was reminded of him. It’s funny looking back thirty-one years later because that boy is now a friend and he married his high school sweetheart who is also a classmate of ours.

Anyway, I picked up my pace and breathed in fresh air. I appreciate the fact that cars are sparse in this 1.5 km stretch. In QC, UP Diliman is the only place I can think of that can offer open spaces and trees. However, it’s still full of cars and it’s such a downer to breathe in car exhaust during or after your exercise.

I walked faster because I was chasing the light.

Three kilometers for 30 mins is not bad. If it weren’t for the bugs that may start eating me alive, I would have continued walking to achieve my goal of buring 300 kcal a day.

Since I only expended a small amount of energy tonight, I was still able to cook chicken teriyaki for dinner.

Finally sleepy.

The housing problem is eating us alive. I know some Filipino lawyers and bankers who commute to HK every week—leave Manila by early Monday and leave HK by Friday evening to be with their families during the weekend. Because housing in HK is family-unfriendly. How can you stuff you family of five in a small 2-bedroom flat in HK when you own your spacious house in Manila? Cathy Yang, when she was with Bloomberg TV in HK, told me she used to do this as well and her “school bus-mates” were these Filipino lawyers/bankers working for global law firms/investment banks with offices in HK. It doesn’t make sense to sacrifice the quality of life of your family and fit them in a shoebox just because of a job that can be lost anytime management feels like firing you/retrenching people.

What Cathy has done gave me confidence that I can do this as well. It’s not easy. I miss so many news/things/leads in Singapore and I always have to deal with the hellish NAIA. But what can I do when I see this:

The rate quoted by ULI is around SGD 3,500, which no longer exists since the data is already a year old. I read an article somewhere—I forgot to clip it—that SGD 4,500-per-month apartments have already disappeared as rents jumped 70% this year.

So yes, commuting by plane with hotel for a week every month is much cheaper.

And how can I exchange this relaxed life now in the province for a financially stressful one in SG or HK?

After I left my car at the autoshop (for aircon cleaning, freon reloading and the oil leak fix), I did a quick veggie shop and went to buy muffins from our favorite bakery and pastry shop.

I walked back home for some exercise but it was already too hot to do a longer lap.

I even had time to linger and admire the flowers that have started to come alive after the rainshowers we had the past few days. These were from my mom’s garden. When I finally have the time, I would also have these, too, in my garden.

I took advantage of the sunny day today to air/sun-dry my carpets that I have had power-washed over the weekend.

After a thorough vaccuming, I now have the bigger carpet under my computer chair to keep it from further destroying the lovely wooden floors in my room. I’m still looking for a home for the smaller one. I think I will give it to my sister because I bet her computer chair is also destroying the wooden floors in their office area.

Tomorrow I must wake up earlier to do my brisk walking before the sun fries me.

I’m finally settling into a rhythm.

One of the fruit trees in my garden is bearing fruits. Give it a few weeks, we will have rambutan to eat. ❤️

After church this morning, my girls and I went shopping for shoes and some clothes for them as they have again outgrown most of what they have. The small Robinsons mall that we have here offers limited choices so we have to drive to SM Mall of Asia or Makati one weekend before school starts. But at least my girls have better shoes to wear to church or day out with friends as they have outgrown again what they were using two months ago.

Since I had enough time for other chores before I go back to work tomorrow, my girls and I built the Alex drawers from Ikea.

Tomorrow morning I need to bring my car to the autoshop because the oil gasket needs to be replaced. My oil engine is leaking. Good thing I had my car checked after I got back from Bangkok because my gut feel told me something was not right. I thought it was the radiator but the shop owner saw there were streaks of oil at the fan belt. He initially said it might be the clutch fluid but it was already late and there might not be enough time to do it. So I brought it back to them on Saturday to check again and upon closer inspection (after I had the underwash and engine wash to clean up everything), it was the gasket and the oil pan.

Yeah, wear and tear comes with the territory of owning an 18-year-old car. I was the one who drove this car out of the Isuzu showroom in 2005, so it seems like I will be the one running it to the ground.

After a million years, I stepped out again into the world of the living. I did multiple errands and was driving all over the place that I just decided to buy lunch from one of the student food alleys because I didn’t have time to cook.

I stocked up on the medicines since I think we’re going to have more flu incidents once school starts in August.

Another reason why my girls’ and my allergies have lingered is because the trees are confused with the weather. The whole tropical forest we’re surrounded with is confused. The fire trees are blooming (as shown in the photo) when it shouldn’t be. Normally, these trees bloom (together with the acacia and cotton trees) in April-May during the hot and dry months. July is southwest monsoon season so the trees should already be losing the flowers. But here we are…

I can’t remember July being this hot when I lived here full-time more than 20 years ago.

Ah well, that’s climate change for you.