Yes, I was on the last call. The last person to be called before they shut the gate. But first, let me explain the situation.

I left home at 6:45 and arrived at ParkNFly at about 8 am. When I got there, I learned that they no longer accommodate those without reservation, starting December last year. At the back of my mind I knew something like this will happen that’s why I was very early. I prayed so hard that they still have slots at Terminal 2 carpark.

And God granted my prayers. Only a few were left.

Then it rained hard. I only had my tiny and light umbrella with me and my sneakers and socks were wet. I don’t want to have smelly feet inside the plane! 😭

Check-in was smooth, no issues whatsoever. Now here’s the hard part: there were so many delayed flights so pre-departure holding area in Terminal 2 was full. Good thing I was a little over 4 hrs early so I got a seat at the laptop area and was able to write almost two stories.

The problem was there were so many people that I couldn’t hear the PSA and couldn’t see Gate 7.

And I didn’t realize that the flight to Bangkok changed from Gate 7 to 6. They keep reshuffling gates due to delayed flights from Kuala Lumpur, Shanghai and elsewhere. When I glanced at my wrist watch, I saw it was already 1:15 pm. Departure is at 1:30 pm!

Then they started calling my government name.

I quickly grabbed my laptop, chargers, and extension cord, jumped at the boarding gate, and stuffed my dangling electronics into my purse and laptop bag. Good thing people are still stuck at the tunnel because of people blocking the aisles as they shoved their heavy carry-on luggage into the overhead bins.

Whew! I AM NOT THE CAUSE OF DELAY!

That’s what I get for being too deep into writing that I totally shut off the commotion around me that I missed even the PSA. 😑

So this is why almost two stories. I was already wrapping up my second long article when I had to shut my laptop and dashed for the boarding gate.

I only changed a few pesos into THB, thinking that I can get by using my credit cards. Wrong. I’ll get back to that later.

I communicated with my Grab driver through photos so he would know who to look for…

And where to look…

I’m so tired. I just want to eat and have a massage.

A Filipino colleague based in HK arrived earlier and he messaged me that we could grab dinner at the mall across our hotel. Well, our hotel is surrounded by three malls so eating out is not a problem.

Prior to leaving Manila, I already asked him if he could check out massage places near our hotel. He did find some along the street perpendicular to Sukhumvit.

I had a Thai deep-tissue massage with Tiger balm. The masseuse was so good that she didn’t have to use so much force to remove the knots in my muscles. She just knew where it hurts and she just had the right amount of pressure. It was so lovely that I will have massages everyday.

Now you know why I need more cash. Massage places here are cash-basis only and e-wallets are for those with Thai phone numbers. Or Thai ID. Or everything is in Thai.

I think I will just spend on massages here and nothing else 😂

I cooked for 6 hours straight this morning and it was exhausting!

So I started the day by exposing myself to early morning sunlight for some Vitamin D. Made myself a cup of milk tea to wake me up.

I cooked for Sun, Mon, Tue, Thurs, and Fri for the girls. Wednesday will be meals at my mom’s place. The girls know how to cook rice using the rice cooker and how to heat the defrosted food in the microwave or oven toaster.

They can also eat out as I gave them their allowance for this week while I’m away.

After cooking, I had finally set up my piano. After a month 😂

Went out for a quick drive to refuel, air my tires, and buy some med that I need to bring with me to Bangkok. And I also want to see mountains.

After I finished my last edit for the week, I went out my front door and looked at the sky and breathed fresh air. I watched the sunlight fading. It’s Friday.

In years past, Friday meant I would be going out with friends and go to some watering hole. We sometimes went to bars to hear live bands. These days, Fridays mean sitting outside my semi-porch to gaze at the sky with the breeze tickling my cheeks.

I have relaxed a bit today (but still I haven’t written a story) as I learned from our APAC head that a new journo/editor from Singapore will be on board on the 19th. I will be training her as well. That means I have extra eyes and ears in SG and my frustration with missing out on a lot of stories in that market will be lessened (crossing fingers!) So I need to fly back to Singapore on the second week of July to train my freelancer and the new journo/editor. Twin I was disappointed because she thought we will be diving that week. I told her, don’t worry, we will go to Anilao before I fly back to Singapore. Just let me get through this coming week and do my duties in Bangkok…

I finally bought online a water filter that I can attach to my kitchen faucet.

I figured having filtered water delivered to me every week is unsustainable given the height of my stairs and the distance of my door from the gate.

Speaking of disaster, my youngest sister is a walking disaster or rather it follows her. First, she got stranded yesterday at Changi Airport because their plane in Jakarta had troubles so they got delayed. Since she took Singapore Airlines, they would have to stop at Changi but they missed the connecting flight to Manila because of the delay in Jakarta. At least SQ booked them at Days Hotel to spend the night. Then when she arrived at NAIA Terminal 3 this afternoon, there was no power. Again. It was like an apocalyptic scene at the immigration.

Since I am a member of the DoTr Media Viber chat group, I was able to communicate with the Transport dept comms people about this and this is the update I got:

[ Friday, 9 June 2023 6:12 PM ] ⁨Dom Consulta (DOTr)⁩: PRESS RELEASE

POWER INTERRUPTION AT NAIA T3

June 9, 2023, Pasay City – A power interruption occurred at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 3 today which lasted for 37 minutes.

The MIAA, led by OIC Bryan Co immediately met with Meralco subsidiary, MServ, to be enlightened about the circumstances that brought about the situation. MServ was tapped to lead the full electrical audit of Terminal 3 as part of MIAA’s improvement initiatives after the 01 May power interruption that affected the same terminal.

MServ was quick to identify that an oversight occurred when one of their personnel inadvertently left a testing cable attached to one of the electric equipment that caused the power interruption. Shortly after power went off, the MIAA generator sets kicked in causing minimal disruption in airport processes.

No flights were cancelled but a total of 7 flights were delayed due to the 37 minutes interruption.

The MIAA and the riding public were assured by the MServ technical team that what happened today is not equipment related but a procedural lapse on the part of the MServ personnel. MServ assured that the erring personnel will be dealt with accordingly. Meralco also immediately responded and assisted in the quick restoration of the power supply to NAIA Terminal 3.

In closing, MIAA OIC Bryan Co apologized to passengers for any inconvenience that the situation may have caused them.

In another disaster, Albay declares a state of calamity as Mayon Volcano threatens to erupt any day/hour now.

So yeah, driving a manual transmission in this country that is perpetually facing disaster—man-made or natural—makes perfect sense. It definitely pays to be analog when you constantly face situations that would cut you off from modern conveniences like car shops with computers to adjust/fix your automatic transmission and your toasted computer box.

That’s why we already have the power generator downstairs, a Honda gasoline-fed engine that can power up our water pressure pump that can draw out water from our drinking water reservoir. We estimated that tank can sustain us for three days but that can be stretched if we will use the rain water from the new tanks to be installed plus the old existing ones for flushing the toilet. The Honda power gen set can also energize one or two laptops, an electric fan, a few led lights and a modem.

I need to buy a solar portable power generator like this as the typhoon season is already here.

This will do until I have a permanent hybrid solar power gen installed on my roof. That will require a huge investment.

This must be PMS. I’m being hormonal again as I feel melancholy creeping again. I only have cats to comfort me, while my exes have must have found their true love. What did I do in my previous life to be given this fate? I hate this feeling of being weak and vulnerable. I must really be a hateful person to be stranded like this…

Ok snap out of it.

Oh Lord, I want my period to be over. My body is out of whack.

The headache that has been attacking me since last night lasted throughout the whole morning today. I was rendered useless for half of the day as I needed to sleep off my mind-numbing headache. I don’t know if this was exacerbated by being woken up at 2:30 am because I could hear the water pressure pump working overtime. It should just pump in quick spurts all throughout the day but this time it was going on and on for 10-15 mins. There was probably a leak somewhere next door that’s why the water didn’t stop flowing; I had to turn the pump off.

By 6:30 am I was up again because I had to turn on the pressure pump again. And there you go, another series of headache attacks.

All my good intentions of writing two stories are gone. I ended up just editing and messaging sources. I need to work my brain overtime tonight so at least I could write one decent article before I fly on Sunday.

Since it’s just the three of us, my girls are cooking their own snacks now. Here’s Twin A making fries

Meanwhile, my staircase has been cleared of tarpaulin so I can see now how it looks like. The way how my girls and nephew use the landing has made me decide what to do with it. I think outdoor chairs or a bench and a cafe umbrella will make it an extra lounge area.

Since the girls are out tonight with the kuyas and their tita (my SIL), I didn’t exert effort in cooking so i just had instant pancit with green onions and kimchi.

I NEED SOME INSPIRATION TONIGHT SO I CAN WRITE!

Nothing. I didn’t write. My nephews and SIL came here to bring the girls back and they had dinner here and we just chatted the night away. So there goes productivity…pffffffft!

I’ll just work early tomorrow. *Sigh*

I’m in this inexplicable rut. I can’t be in several places all at once, do everything when company gods think I can spit gold with only arsenic at my disposal.

What am I to do with a freelancer who could not commit time for training? This whole hire-only-freelancers thing is a joke. I am missing so many things in Singapore because I don’t have fulltime reporter there. I can’t be there because they’re not willing to pay me a comfortable living wage there. I hate being scooped by competition because of circumstances that I cannot control.

I’m so upset yesterday and today. Let me just sleep on this for a few hours, gather my thoughts, and write it down when I slightly feel better.

Pets, bless them, do really feel you.

So I was down and out yesterday and my Kimchi must have felt the vibe. She stayed with me, sleeping on my pillow, next to my head, for the entire night. She later moved near my shoulders to cuddle. And didn’t leave in the morning until she is sure that I am fine and not dying. 😂

I again shoved that work problem under the bed because I won’t find any solution to it. Either I stress about it everyday or I just let things slide so management would see they’re being stupid. Just do what I can do…so be it.

My old neighbor in QC and I chatted for a bit on Viber because I asked for the water bill for May that I’m still obligated to pay for, which is just fair because we did use water for 16 days. Anyway, she was telling me that they’re cutting down the mango tree to accommodate more cars in that narrow parking space.

I said that it’s kinda sad that all the wildlife dependent on that tree will be homeless now. There won’t be birds chirping in the morning and some faint bird calls. I told her that tree gave that area some provincia feels because of the birds in the morning.

The ex-neighbor also told me that the the orange female cat that we jointly take care of with her son was meowing mournfully infront of our unit one evening. She was looking for us. Because you see, we help feed her in the afternoon or early morning with my cats’ leftovers. That broke my heart.

Meanwhile, my girls and I went to their future junior high school this afternoon to submit their application. After the assessment, I would have to enroll them in July. Classes will start by mid-August.

I’m still not feeling well and it’s likely stress. It’s psychosomatic and unfortunately I think I’m coming down with something. Good thing I’m done with one interview this afternoon. Oh dear, not now, I shouldn’t fall ill. I have already set several meetings for next week in Bangkok 🤦🏻‍♀️ Plus I’m driving myself to the airport because there’s no Grab here to take me there. I just have to use ParkN’Fly for seven days.

I didn’t know that a major catastrophe for WFH people happened today. No wonder my mom rushed to my house to hostage Twin I’s desktop because she had a video call and she didn’t explain why.

Then I received a call from my sister while I was having cake and coffee with one of my former sources who happened to be in town. She asked nay, ordered me to fix my mom’s laptop because she couldn’t access her gmail. Again.

So I uninstalled her Chrome, thinking it was corrupted by a virus. But I couldn’t download Chrome. Google was not loading. So I used Microsoft Edge to search (via default Bing) whether Google was down. So I found that it’s a Philippines-specifc a global problem because of a loss of bandwidth in one of the submarine cables, affecting local telcos and a host of other frequently used apps and websites.

After a few hours, Google and its services have become accessible.

Last night I caught an intruder. It was dark so I used flash to catch her.

This intruder has taken over my workspace today. She refused to budge.

Despite her obnoxiousness, I still love her to bits. ❤️🥰

For today’s words of wisdom: