Power tripping

A doctor cycling last Sunday was arrested by a stupid policeman for not wearing a face shield while riding. Of course the doctor resisted arrest since the DOH and IATF already issued memos that bike/motorcycle riders are exempted from wearing a face shield because this is more of a hazard than a protection.

Incidents like this add to my roiling anger deep inside. I called the attention of my colleagues in local media outfits like CNN Philippines, Philippine Star, etc. so that they would be able to cover this. The Philippine National Police is the center of all things corrupt and stupid since 2016. I just can’t stand this. I no longer know how to contain this anger.

Meanwhile, I’m trying my best to help in the donation drive for Silungang Molave, which has been turned into an isolation facility in UP Diliman. I spoke yesterday with Ms. Perlynn and asked for e-money and bank accounts where we can deposit our donations. She also said their priority now is to secure N95 masks and latex gloves.

Paymaya 09173009064 Aleli B Bagawan and GCash 09173009064 Ma. Fatima B. Sapno.

A cousin has just sent money from abroad and I sent half to UP and the rest will be used to buy masks and face shields for delivery guys and to hospitals that may need mattresses or PPEs.


So last night I slept again very late (2 am-ish?) I was booking my vaccine schedule and what I got was 11 April. My neighbors, one of whom is a cancer patient and her mom has several co-morbidities, were able to have theirs today and they were quick. Unfortunately, the venue I chose is one of the busiest and my neighbor said it took her classmate 5 hrs of waiting even if you booked your slot and got assigned to a specific time. So I may have to rebook this again because the 11th is my daughters’ birthday and I can’t be away for 5 hrs.

The email I received after booking my vaccination schedule last night.

I booked via EZConsult, Zuellig Pharma’s telemedicine platform that the Quezon City government is using. It’s easy to use and hopefully the backlogs in the vaccination centers would be ironed out soon. I also need to go to a pulmonologist by Friday so that my medical records can be pulled out of the polyclinic near my house where my recent records are. I need to present a medical certificate that I have chronic respiratory disease i.e. asthma to show at the vaccination center. Good thing also I scanned all my past Rx including Symbicort, which is used for asthma and COPD. I belong to A3 (18-59 years old with co-morbodities) that’s why I should be qualified to be included in this batch. I’m not really eager to get the China vax but you have to get what you can. I’m a single parent and my children have no one else but me.

I’m also preparing for the event that there might be COVID home care at some point so I will have to buy 1) pulse oximeter, 2) disposable and washable PPEs, 3) look for vendors of oxygen tanks, 4) stock up on flu and asthma medicines. The first two items can be ordered via Lazada. 3 and 4 can be obtained from Mercury. Being prepared can’t hurt because Philippines’ healthcare system is collapsing.

Doctors’ group laments ‘doomsday’ situation in Metro Manila hospitals

CNN Philippines file photo

Political parasites

This guy is a partylist congressman, who is what I can call a political parasite/whore without any shame at all. I had interviewed him in the past a couple of times but I didn’t produce any story after those interviews because there was no substance at all. Such a waste of space.

Anyway, he has been spreading all over social media that he is freely giving away Ivermectin as cure for COVID-19. This idiot 1) wasted people’s money buying an anti-parasitic drug for animals that 2) could harm people taking it, especially with the wrong dosage. This is what the US FDA has to say about this:

Here’s What You Need to Know about Ivermectin

  • FDA has not approved ivermectin for use in treating or preventing COVID-19 in humans. Ivermectin tablets are approved at very specific doses for some parasitic worms, and there are topical (on the skin) formulations for head lice and skin conditions like rosacea. Ivermectin is not an anti-viral (a drug for treating viruses).
  • Taking large doses of this drug is dangerous and can cause serious harm. 
  • If you have a prescription for ivermectin for an FDA-approved use, get it from a legitimate source and take it exactly as prescribed. 
  • Never use medications intended for animals on yourself. Ivermectin preparations for animals are very different from those approved for humans. 

What we need are vaccines, not anti-parasitics drugs for horses! I just want to hit his face with my classmate’s urn.


Meanwhile, I’m presenting my haul from the last two Lazada sale (3.3 and birthday sale)…I got 480 pcs of sticker tiles to make my ugly bathroom more tolerable. My landlady didn’t even fix the bathroom when we moved in. I refuse to spend so much for tiles to make my bathroom more presentable. Even this already cost me PHP 3,000.

I just have to solve the problem of the floor tiles. I don’t know if re-grouting will solve its dingy-ness or I should waste money for something that is not mine and have the floor re-tiled. I don’t think my landlady will be willing to shoulder an expense like that for aesthetic reasons. Maybe I should just buy more exchange traded funds (ETF). I bought it at PHP 100 per share last week and now it’s at PHP 98.35. I have to even out my portfolio.

So I have to hold out and make do with what I have and be satisfied with just repainting/refreshing the walls of the apartment. I should save up until I have my lot and tiny house constructed. My friend just told me the other day that there is a 150 sqm lot that is for sale somewhere in our hometown for PHP 1.6m, which is a bit expensive given its location. Maybe I should look around some more. I wish I can drive to Anilao and check out some lots…

Patience. Patience. No one is chasing me. A better option will come up.


Another friend asked me, are you still angry? I said, hmmmm somewhat. If my anger is triggered, then I will be a seething tiger and I’ll be in a bad mood for two days. But most of the days I try to bury it and try to move on. I just pray that he doesn’t catch COVID and his lover doesn’t mangle his home care if ever gets sick of it–he has an abnormally high risk of heart attack due to elevated LDL. If she turns out to be that young bitch, then I don’t know if she can handle 24/7 care of another person while she is still very much under the supervision of her parents.

Taking care of critically ill loved ones requires you to put brakes on your own life. Their needs come first before your own. I’ve had experience taking care and raising premature infants in the neonatal ICU (they allowed me to stay there for more than a month since I had two infants). My children battled sepsis, pneumonia, and a host of other things for more than a month and everyday I didn’t know if they would live or die. I was running around Metro Manila and Laguna looking for blood for transfusions. I diligently monitored their O2 sats and heartbeats every moment I could while watching various tubes sticking into their bodies that were barely bigger than my hand. I didn’t cry at that time; I could not afford to be emotional during those days. I learned how to be level-headed and be lucid in times of intense emotional moments. I’ve also nursed my parents, especially my father, when he was in and out of the hospital for years. I don’t know how I was able to do those things. I’ve schooled myself to be a highly functional individual and learned to compartmentalize so I could cope. That’s why when my father died, I was the only one who was functioning in my family even if I only had three hours of sleep that entire week. I facilitated the legal procedures, the paperwork, the arrangements for the wake, the housekeeping, the financials, the cremation, etc. Then I crashed after all was said and done. I crash only when I allow myself to crash.

So would you help if he gets sick, my friend asked. I said if I’m asked to, I will. But I just wish he’d just leave the country soon because he’s going to be safer elsewhere than here because this country is going to the dogs. You still love him, don’t you, my friend said. I told him, that’s already a given, I’ve already come into terms with that; you don’t easily pull a switch and that is that. Unlike J, who just–poof!–love is gone. I wondered if he really even loved me. Maybe it was just infatuation.

I am just waiting for the moment that I will become indifferent. It has been almost four months. Four fucking long months. I wish i could just fast-forward time and be done with it.

A little kindness goes a long way

We logged 15,310 new COVID-19 cases the other day and 14,000 yesterday, with a 24.2% positivity rate. If there’s mass testing, we may see that one in every four Filipinos is positive–it’s that high.

… If you have an extra mask please do give them, the brightening of their faces is so different whenever they receive one, and they wear it at once. They’re also scared of the virus but they don’t have any choice but to work. Not everyone has the capacity to buy a mask regularly…

Cheap face shields and masks. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I started giving out free masks and face shields to Grab and FoodPanda drivers stationed at Robinsons Express near our apartment. It’s what the original poster said, the happiness and gratitude of these guys are different. It’s as if no one had been really kind to them all this time and when they do receive small acts of kindness like this, their reactions are unparalleled.

I have been giving packs of rice and veggies to jeep drivers and barkers near my apartment since lockdowns started last year. Also solicited donations and facilitated the delivery of milk to an indigenous tribe in the north last year. I felt I was too blessed and needed to share the blessings for those who are in need.

Thankfully, I haven’t contracted the virus whenever I buy and distribute these goods. I know God will not let something happen to me but of course I am careful, I just don’t leave it to Him.

If we can just be kind to one another, we can at least ease the burden of our most vulnerable brethren. Love our brothers just as Christ loved us that he died on the cross. That is the essence of Christianity.

I don’t know what to think anymore

It’s the height of incompetence and arrogance of this government that has brought us to this situation. Yesterday we logged 15,310 new COVID-19 cases. Severe patients are already in tents and countless more are being turned away by hospitals because they could no longer cope and have no more facilities to take them in. Even corridors are filled with intubated patients. They don’t have enough ventilators.

I pray that none of my loved ones get infected.

Lord, have mercy on us. Especially the poor and vulnerable.


My veggies to save my sanity. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

My lettuce are doing fine after i transplanted them to a bigger pot. My pechay are slowly pushing their way up. I haven’t seen what happened to my kale. Probably it’s too hot for them to germinate.

My container garden. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I have to transplant some unidentified plants are crowding the pots. My okra plant is thriving at the back, so is my gabi (yam). The bell pepper is growing nicely, so are the several bird’s eye chilis (siling labuyo).

I think I’m going to try microgreens. I’m inspired by this video.

Tomorrow I will put on my gardening gloves and start propagating again. I no longer know what to do with my hands. I no longer know what to think.

Back to where we were a year ago

And it’s 2020 all over again.

We’re back to enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) a.k.a strict lockdown where you need quarantine passes or IDs if you are an essential worker i.e. healthcare, food service, and logistics.

And just like last year, this stupid and incompetent government still doesn’t have contingency plans!!! The presidential spokesperson said wait for the details on Monday… WTF!!! why can’t they treat this with urgency?! People need to go to work on Monday and there are no clear rules on transportation, financial support for the most vulnerable…

But unlike last year, we are now logging 10,000 new COVID-19 cases the other day. And these new variants are overwhelming us as the government is bungling our vaccine procurement.

I knew I would be so distressed so good thing I was able to make it to the Fabric Warehouse along C5 before everything shuts down. I bought 18 yards of fabric to make into curtains. By hand. To destress. To relieve me of my anxiety.

I just sewed one panel tonight and finished it at 2 am today. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I have seven panels to finish until Easter Sunday so I guess I will be pretty occupied until April 4.

Since weekdays bleed into weekends and the distinction is getting blurred once more, I am putting more effort in cooking on weekends, just to make it distinguishable from workdays. So every weekend, I barbecue meat on skewers or chunks of chicken in sauce, grill stake, or do Korean barbecue… Just like what we did when J was still here.

Just because he’s no longer here doesn’t mean we can’t have good food regularly. I am getting better at starting the fire and have ember as soon as possible.

On a related note, the girls are now learning to eat spicy food bit by bit. Last week I ordered the spicy Korean fried chicken from Jjangkae along Kalayaan Ave just the other day. Yes, they struggled but at least it’s a vast improvement from before when they simply had refused anything with a hint of spice.

Spicy Korean fried chicken with side dishes. Photo by CallMeCreation.com.

Although this is not really spicy but at least they’re already eating yellow curry (either the Otogi brand or McCormick). It will take a long time before I would be able to serve Thai green curry or red curry. I still have all those Thai and Malaysian curry mixes (rendang!) here stuck in my shelf. Because no one eats them here except me and J.

Ah one of these days I’m going to cook them and send to friends who are stuck in condos with no proper home-cooked meals.

Anxiety and control

Tea to calm me down before tackling work. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

If there’s something that I’ve learned in the past 20 years is that there are things that I can control and I should let go of the things I can’t. And I shouldn’t sweat the small stuff.

I may be past the prime age for child-bearing but at least I have with me maturity that some 20-year-old girl can only acquire through time and experience. Maturity is not just taking on work responsibilities seriously, because, (WTF!) that is part of being an adult.

(*As a side note, J kept on singing about how glorious was his biatch of an employee, D, for being “so mature because she is taking work seriously” and he was full of praises for her while I who had done everything for him–from small stuff like folding his clothes to the big stuff like financially supporting him when he was still struggling, received nothing but disdain and he treated me like I’m nothing more than a cleaning lady and chauffer, and blamed me for every little thing. I remember it vividly, as I wrote in my journal sometime July or August last year*).

Part of the maturing process is the increase in internal locus of control and minimizing the external. Part of it is the mastery of the Prayer for Serenity. Part of it is the ability to take the focus off myself to shift to the bigger picture.

Anyway, what I’m driving at is, the 21-year-old me would have freaked out at what’s happening around me. I would be so focused on it that it would either make me catatonic or send me into hysterics–both of which would jeopardize all the things I have worked hard for.

Posted by a doctor high school mate of mine.
Another post by the same high school mate.

Since I’ve been through hell and have scars to show for it, I now have learned to calm down and focus on the things I can control so that the road back to hell–if I have the misfortune to be back on that road–would be less bumpy and violent.

  • I cannot change the incompetent government now but I have to register for the 2022 election so that my vote will count. Harboring anger without action is unhealthy and counter-productive. Relying on impossible what-ifs right now i.e. rallies or people power in the time of 8k daily cases is also not productive
  • Use social media to create awareness and knowledge of the situation. As a journalist, I know I have a platform. What I can do is to call the attention of all people to the wrongdoing, whatever that may be, so that this can be reversed. This is something I can do to change what it seems like a situation that is beyond what I can humanly control.
  • I can control the movement of my family and by hunkering down in place to minimize chances of catching Covid, I will not contribute to the worsening situation in hospitals.
  • I will donate to those who need help to alleviate their suffering as the government doesn’t want to give financial aid to the most vulnerable. Just like I did regularly a year ago when the lockdowns hit us hard.
  • I haven’t done this in a while but I must pray. This is something for God to handle.

The government’s handling of this pandemic is a mess and the greed and incompetence of Duque and the rest of the Duterte administration is killing us all. The situation in the hospitals is indeed heartbreaking and scary. So in order for me not to lose track of what is important and get gobbled up by anger, I need to focus on the things I can control and let go of the things I can’t. Do this refocusing and purging daily.

Thank God for cats. They make me laugh.

Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Photo by CallMeCreation.com