Sunset and sunflowers. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
We were able to go biking inside UP this afternoon after four months! I missed being in wide open spaces. I even missed shopping in that vegetable stall at the old tennis court.
Veggies and fruits. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
I can say they’re a lot cheaper than the stalls lining CP Garcia Ave. This sackful of veggies and fruits would have been PHP 1,000 there or at the supermarket but I was able to get these for PHP 200 less. And the volume is more than the usual.
Car-free. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
I had let my daughter, Twin I, bike freely here. It has been a long time since she biked without having to worry about cars. I did some brisk walking. We tried biking to some parts of the campus but it was already dark.
We felt trapped inside the apartment and biking to UP is not yet feasible as some side streets were still closed. So my daughter, Twin I, suggested we bike in BGC where they have dedicated bike lanes.
So we did. Waited for the sky to clear as it has been drizzling earlier yesterday morning. I loaded up our foldies at the back of the car, drove there for 40 mins then parked at OneParkade. I felt it was a bit safer to bike there since it was a weekend so the volume of cars is much less plus the bike lanes are protected by those orange posts that deter cars from occupying the bike lanes as they do in EDSA or C5.
Crossing via pedestrian lane. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Some sections of BGC don’t have bike lanes so we didn’t have much choice but to use the pedestrian lanes and sidewalks since I am with my daughter. If it was just me I can attempt riding on the streets.
Almost empty roads. Photo by CallMeCreation.com Bike rental. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
We saw a bike rental in some parking lots. I haven’t investigated how these things work, like the bike only unlocks via an app? How do they keep these bikes from being stolen? In Taiwan they have something like Ubike there, the yellow rental bikes scattered all over Taipei. It makes sense since traffic in Taipei is bike friendly and their sidewalks allow bikes if there are no dedicated bike lanes. So if you live in one of the condos in BGC and work somewhere else in BGC, it makes more sense to get a bike or scooter than take Grab or a car. Parking in BGC is a nightmare as parking lots are always full.
So before going home, Twin I and I stopped at McDonald’s at the corner or 5th and 32nd street to get sundaes and cookies. Talk about carbo/sugar loading negating the calories we burned.
Photo by CallMeCreation.com
It was an eye-opener that I can bike in BGC on weekends but not with kids. It’s hard to keep them safe from the asshole drivers, like that taxi driver who entered the bike lane because he didn’t want to be held up by a red light. I shouted at the driver that what a prick he was for almost mowing us down.
So I told my daughter that we would just have to stick to UP Diliman for now, even just along University Avenue, until they open up the campus again for bikers and joggers. Maybe tomorrow, if I get off work early.
Tonight I finally was able to ride my bike for some exercise and fresh air. On my way to UP, I saw how Maginhawa is trying to keep itself afloat.
Uno Cinquenta with diners. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
I did my usual routine: I bike, tie my bike at the guard house then walk for an hour or so around University Ave.
Another day has died. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
I take short breaks to do stretching exercises and then resume walking.
It has been months since I last saw the Oblation up close. Sigh. Photo by CallMeCreation.com Water break before going home. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
I was out for almost two hours and enjoyed the soft, cool night breeze and the smell of grass. I also heard cicadas, the sound that reminded me much of provincial life. One day I will go back to the province and escape Manila.
Or I will be somewhere else. I don’t know.
This thought prompted me to check my investments. Well my UITF, ETF and VUL funds are tanking because they are all in equities. The PSEi last week touched the psychological barrier of 6,000 and 5,900 may not be far behind. My money market UITF is doing fine but it’s not even an investment at this point since I’m just letting my emergency funds sleep in that facility so it won’t be eaten away by inflation.
I’m debating whether I should top it up because unemployment emergency funds should be 6 months’ worth of my monthly salary.
I am more inclined to top up my VUL fund because this has been my habit whenever I get a windfall every year (i.e. bonus) but I’m thinking of opening a mutual fund with another fund management group. The reason why I got another VUL is that I want to have two life insurance policies since my kids don’t have anyone else but me to rely on financially. Their dad hasn’t given any tuition money since they started going to school at 3 yrs old. So anyway, one VUL plan is heavy in the life insurance part and not so much on the investment funds. The other VUL is heavy on the investment but not much on the (term) life insurance side but both have accidental and health riders. VULs would also protect my children from being taxed when receiving money upon my death.
So the alternative to topping up the VUL fund is I can have a mutual fund invested in a balanced fund since my investment horizon has already narrowed significantly as compared when I first bought my two VULs (I was 28).
But but but… I want to bottom-fish! If the market is tanking, I should be picking up bargains, right? I do cost averaging on my UITF and and ETF every month so a tanking market is immaterial at this point. But topping up my VUL or investing in a mutual fund now means something–buying really low.
Something to think about before I buy a new laptop.
It’s almost a month since I last visited/biked here. I finally had the time to bike here today and get some air after editing time-sensitive stories and writing my own. My brain has too many cobwebs that I should sweep away–the reason I have been haunted by so many memories.
Alone. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
I took my time and relished my aloneness, the dark, the breeze, the peace. I plugged in my earphones and listened to my Spotify playlists. Simple things like this somehow bring me calmness and allow me to refocus. I’ve been out of sorts the past few days; I must be low on serotonin and high on progesterone while my estrogen levels are out of whack. I resorted to oversleeping and consumption of copious amount of chamomile tea. Then added to my online cart some random shit again.
I’ll be bringing the girls to my hometown this weekend to spend the rest of the summer vacation with their cousins. They can also bike around the immediate neighborhood because it’s an enclosed compound. I’ll be bringing my own bike as well and see if I can bike around before going back home. Need to come back to my cats who will be spayed tomorrow.
Poor kitties will be stuffed in these cages. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Fruits and vegetables along CP Garcia Ave. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
So yeah, despite having a really bad night waking up at dawn because of a dream, I managed to ride my bike this morning to buy fresh vegetables because we’re already running low on supply. I wasn’t able to buy from my suki inside UP because the university is in a total lockdown since Monday. So my bike trip last week Thursday was my last ride there. God knows when they will open again. 🚲
Breakfast and lunch. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
That workout this morning wasn’t much but it made me hungry. It was freaking hot outside!!! Made myself ham sandwiches for breakfast and lunch. I’m still not losing weight.
Folded folding bikes of my girls. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
It’s a sad sight. My girls’ folded bikes are a reminder that it will be a long time before we can ride out again. Everything is depressing right now. I’m searching for places where I could catch some sunshine to make this dark world brighter.
As I told a colleague, this is the worst time to be nursing a broken heart because I can’t see my friends, can’t escape to anywhere (the four-day Anilao trip is cancelled indefinitely), can’t do anything but be stuck in this room with his ghost. I can’t watch movies because that too reminds me of the moments we watched movies together on iPad or on the TV screen in his Airbnb apartments. Gardening is gardening. Sewing curtains make my hands busy but it doesn’t make my mind occupied. It actually encourages introspection, which is the last thing I need right now. I don’t want to be overthinking the entire lockdown or else it will drive me mad.
Taking shelter from the rain. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
5000 new cases yesterday, the highest since August. This is why they try to curtail movement again. That’s the only thing this brainless government knows how to do. No comprehensive vaccine program, no useful contact-tracing program where our records are not stolen by scammers, no nothing. It’s like being in Myanmar right now.
It’s kinda like being on a semi-lockdown again on the anniversary of the COVID-19 lockdown. I can’t explain what I’m feeling right now because I am trying to suppress any strong emotion these days. The closest thing I can say is I’ve given up hope that we will be ok.
UP Diliman started banning joggers and bikers again until further notice. My daughters and I tried cycling along University Ave but it rained. We had to go back and just bought Korean ice cream from Seoul Meat on the way home to make them feel better.
Finishing their “dirty” ice cream near Mang Larry’s during our exercise last week, before UP campus had shut down. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
I couldn’t bring them elsewhere to have our exercise. Police had set up checkpoints at the border of QC and Rizal so we can’t go to Angono or Binangonan for biking. I guess that would be the same case everywhere. No more going home to Laguna this Holy Week. I can’t have my Laguna biking trip. I wonder if we can still go to Anilao a week after that. I booked Blue Ribbon resort for four days before cases started spiking.
Circumstances are really forcing me to live inside my head again. I want to scream. I want to cry but I’m tired of crying. Been crying for exactly three months now. I’m stuck. In my room. The worst place to be stuck because I shared this room with him for two years. I couldn’t move houses because at the moment it’s better to be in this location since it’s near UP. My brain needs the openness of my university, figuratively and literally. It’s also convenient to have supermarkets within walking distance when you are trying to avoid people.
I want to be in Japan right now. To be in Gifu and Ishikawa. Once this madness is all over, that’s where I will be.
