Proposed by Sandro Marcos and his uncle, Martin Romualdez.
Approved by Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
Who is the blueprint of Najib, the central figure in Malaysia’s 1MDB scandal? Najib’s wife was compared to Imelda Marcos, to give you a clue.
1MDB. OmG!
They would siphon off the retirement funds of my mom, my brother, and millions of workers who were forced to contribute to GSIS and SSS.
How dare a foreigner on my LinkedIn post say, “give it a chance.” I wanted to smack him and say, were you here when Marcos Sr destroyed the economy? Were you here when his family made the old Philippine Central Bank their personal bank account? That old central bank that the new BSP had painstakingly tried to erase to bring back credibility to the Philippine financial system? No. Then don’t say such stupid things.
It has driven me up the wall this morning. And it riles me more that opposition to this institutionalized corruption is not enough. 🤬
This economist at Natixis gets it, while my LinkedIn commenter doesn’t. 😤
I don’t know why I even bother writing this down. No one gets me anyway. No one also cares what I write about, think about, what I do…
Ah yeah. This is part of my therapy… Having conversations with myself to parse whatever is in my head to lessen anxiety.
While I was having my 2-hr massage, my brain went into a deep dive again why I was moving back to my hometown. I suddenly had doubts about its wisdom. I would be moving farther and farther from civilization. I would miss my Zennya massages. I would miss the convenience of having Grab Food and Grab car. I would miss the PHP 40 Lazada delivery fee.
My hormones are out of whack now so this may account for having cold feet very late into this stage. I’m writing another check tomorrow for my contractor. I mean hey, I would have a fully functional home by Feb, so why am I havig these thoughts?
I finally installed our parol outside. The fairy lights had been there since last year and I won’t take it down even when we move out. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
I was just too busy to do the usual Christmas decorating to cheer ourselves up—well, it’s mostly to cheer me up. The kids don’t care. This is the third Christmas that we haven’t set up a tree because…cats. 🐈
I’m still looking for the Christmas lights that I usually string around the balustrades. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
This is the last Christmas that we will be spending here in this apartment. My neighbor, the quietest neighbor I have who lives next to my unit, will be leaving sooner than us. She will be pulling out their stuff on Saturday. Her daughter will be going abroad to work while she will be moving into her sister’s house in Kamias. They stayed here for 19 years. She said she would have stayed longer (because she liked the location) if it were not for my crusty landlady’s mismanagement of the units. Her apartment (D) is full of termites. She often complained to our landlady about the disrepair of her unit but the latter doesn’t listen. Meanwhile, I don’t take shit for an answer that’s why I get things done. I use my own resources to fix things and bill her later. Oftentimes, I just don’t bother billing her because she will just complain that I’m a very expensive renter. Yada, yada, yada. 🤬 That’s why until now the roof at my cooking area still leaks.
Some people shouldn’t be landlords.
Still waiting for Lazada to deliver my 3x3m waterfall fairylights. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
My mom said the next family that will get this unit will be lucky because I improved the bathroom (and it is pretty, my mom said) and will be leaving a lot of better fixtures like the higher end faucets, a big bathroom exhaust fan, and the custom wooden counter in the cooking/laundry area. And I kept refreshing the white paint and the closet paint. The only damage I have to fix is the bedroom door knob that I destroyed when the cats were locked inside my room.
This has been home for four years now—five when we leave next year. It sheltered us during the most tumultuous time in our lives. It has broken me as well. I will be leaving the bad jujus behind when I shove the last piece of my stuff into the moving truck in May. I will have a sort of fresh start as I won’t have the bad memories that I still carry in this apartment.
Speaking of Christmas and bad memories, I usually look forward to this season because it meant two-week breaks and I can read a lot of books during my off-time. But since 2020, December also reminded me of the toughest moment in my life. And I was still dealing with shit until February this year. Good thing I was still under therapy at that time so I was able to bounce back faster than I did in August. December 2020 was just trash and all the expletives that you can throw at it.
Thank God for art. I may not be good at it but it has kept me sane.
Inking. I’ll ink first before coloring, which is the opposite of what I normally do. I think I’ll use a jaune tone on the church walls. Art and photo by CallMeCreation.com
So December is something I look forward to because of the long break and it’s also something that I dread because some bad taste in my mouth remains. I still get triggered. But it will be all right. I have many things to occupy me so I won’t be living in my head again.
Aside from improving my sketching skills, I am also busy with my house.
Photo sent by my contractor.
My contractor said this small cabinet is not the kitchen cabinet but this is something that will go under my TV. 🤔
Hopefully, I will be busy with my new house for an entire year so I won’t have room in my life to brood.
However, the problem with writers is that we think too much. We have this propensity to perform mental acrobatics because that’s what we do for a living. I know several writers who live in their caves/writing dens (like me) and rarely come out.
Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Cubao. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
My mom stayed with me overnight because she is attending the ordination of priests at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Cubao. One of the new priests is a family friend.
Just like anything that has something to do with the Catholic Church, the ceremony is ornate and full of pomp. And loooong. So is the church itself.
So here I am, 2 hrs into the ceremony, outside the church and sketching my way out of boredom.
Looking for better angles. Photo by CallMeCreation.com I have all the time for the details… Art and photo by CallMeCreation.com The details are testing my patience. The sun is beating down on me. Art and photo by CallMeCreation.com
It’s drizzling now so I’ll just finish this later. At least the entire pencil sketching is done on-site. 🤣
Where shall I bring my mom after this…
After church, we went to SM MOA so that my mom 1) can buy new underwear (her excuse to go to a mall); and go to St. Paul’s to buy her 4 volumes of 2023 prayer books. Along the way, we encountered a guitar center. Twin I is saving up for an acoustic guitar.
Photo by CallMeCreation.com
And I thought I found the perfect guitar for her. Not too big, sounds ok and has an inlet on the side to plug it into an amplifier.
The black one looks so cool. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
After ticking off everything in my mom’s checklist, we drove to my hometown.
My granite countertop. Photo by CallMeCreation.comEntire wall/s and under the counter will be installed with cabinets. Photo by CallMeCreation.com It’s a tiny kitchen by normal home standards but it’s bigger than my current one in my apartment. Photo by CallMeCreation.com One of my kitchen cabinets. Better build (wood laminate) compared to Ikea’s MDF. Photo by CallMeCreation.com No tiles yet in my bathroom but I see now the concrete niche for shampoos and soap. Photo by CallMeCreation.com This is where the TV will be hung. My contractor said he will build shelves around the post to make it disappear. Good. I have too many books. Photo by CallMeCreation.com It’s blurry but this closet is tall. I modeled it after the Ikea Pax I designed online. Photo by CallMeCreation.com My huge bedroom window. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
The welding works will be done in January so my stainless steel staircase, water reservoir tower, and fire exit platform will be made. February will just be cabinet works and finishing like painting and installation of shelves. By that time I can pull out my books from my apartment so I can put them in the shelves. That way I would know if I need to install more.
Say what you want about my old apartment that needs upgrades, but I love being home. I arrived yesterday at around 2 am and slept at around past 3 because I had to unload a lot of stuff from my bags—mostly dirty clothes. I tried working at 9 am, write some emails, coordinate some stories and had to attend a two-hour training session for bureau chiefs. Generally, I was floating and could not be as productive as I wanted to be. My sleep has been light and I was aching all over.
They missed me! My kitties immediately made themselves comfortable on my bed. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
While I attended this online training session, I was booking my Zennya home massage. I went straight for the 2-hr session, so right after the training concluded, I immediately transformed my room into a spa. For the same price as a 30-minute foot massage in Singapore, I was able to have a blissful 2-hour massage in the comfort of my own room (including tip). A few minutes after my therapist left, I zonked out. I guess it must have been just around past 10 pm.
The key here is to grin and bear it and not be tempted by instant gratification. The 1 hr and 45 mins in the hot baths in Yunomori Onsen last Saturday did wonders for me for SGD 40, but paying SGD 115 SGD for a 60-min back massage was too much. I held back.
Anyway, the 2-hr massage last night allowed me to have a peaceful sleep—well generally peaceful sleep, except for a dream that I had that I was preparing for a freediving session…
I’m a bit more productive today. Contributed to two stories and some admin work here and there. I had regained my old rhythm and cooked chicken rice on my Instant Pot. I missed chicken rice as I didn’t have time and strength to go to Maxwell last week.
Deboned whole chicken on top of rice with the chicken rice mix. I don’t have enough onions and ginger to last the week so skipped putting it there and resorted to using ginger sauce in a jar. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
My friend, B, sent an SOS to me when I was about to leave SG on Monday. I said I will meet her in Makati later within this week if I can, depending on how I was feeling physically.
I picked up the Rockwool near the airport in Parañaque this morning. Six rolls of 100 kg density of soundproofing for partition walls. This car, even though it’s really old, can haul anything.
Our construction workers pulling them out. Photo by CallMeCreation.com It has a huge cargo capacity if the second row seats were also folded back. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
I need to have the interior cleaned again.
Well, we have slow progress this week.
The dry wall where the Rockwool will go. Photo by CallMeCreation.com We’re still farrrrrrrrr. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
I spent the rest of the day in my mom’s massage chair while I waited for stories to edit. Good thing there aren’t many.
Found a wig for somebody’s Halloween costume in my mom’s house.
Hmmm, I should go back to being a redhead 🤣.
I left my mom’s house at past 6 pm and I decided to have dinner outside. The food business in my hometown is alive again as college students are back in the university campus.
Cookies that I loved since high school. Twin A loves this as well. Photo by CallMeCreation.com My sis in law said they buy food here if they’re too lazy to cook. Photo by CallMeCreation.com Grilled eggplant salad with salted eggs, green chilis, tomatoes and onions. Kalamansi and soy sauce as dressing. Photo by CallMeCreation.com I was feeling sleepy so I got myself a Thai milk tea, which tastes exactly like teh tarik. Photo by CallMeCreation.com So it seemed like the milk tea was not enough. Got myself brewed coffee without so much fluff. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
After I drank my coffee at the steps of my old college building, I started my drive back to QC. Which was only 1.5 hrs.
SLEX elevated extension. It made my life easier. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
With all the caffeine I imbibed tonight, it’s no wonder I’m still very much alive at this hour. Ugh.
So I started looking at paint. Possible ceiling color. To make me fall asleep.
How about a peach ceiling?
My bathroom will be small but I want it to be decadent. As I told my contractor, I only want tiles in my shower area but the rest will be concrete because I want to hang paintings there.
I wonder how a chandelier would look like there 🤔
It’s going to be a nightmare to clean that thing.
I’m being ridiculous. But you know, the more absurd it is, the better. That’s how my humor goes.
Stress level hit the roof before I signed off from work tonight. I received an email from HR regarding the contracts of my reporters and damn, here we go again…
I emailed my managers and asked them, why are we back here? If this keeps on cropping up, I will lose people. I also would be put in a precarious position and if push comes to shove, a competitor will love to have me and this company will just eat my dust.
Thank God for cats. They help me get rid of stress, albeit temporarily. They lower my blood pressure.
Here is Kimchi judging me again while I do my stretching. Photo by CallMeCreation.comAnd then she proceeds to mock me. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
I don’t know how people can last long in this job. I remember an erstwhile bureau chief quit and asked to be demoted because she said she could not keep up. She just had a baby and there was no way she could balance being a mom, wife, and bureau chief. The only two good things about my situation is that I can work from home and I don’t have a partner. The rest are crap—in the sense that I manage the second largest if not the largest of newsroom in APAC just by the number of reporters I have. Moreover, I must be on top of the situation in 11 markets—five of them are very active whereas the others have only one or two markets (Aus and NZ) that they cover. I must monitor 11 laws/rules and regulations, 11 political situations with their own idiosyncrasies and only two markets use English as an official language—the rest are incomprehensible. AND YET I could not travel freely to these markets; I have yet to test the waters and push the envelope.
This day is just…😤
Meanwhile, a little victory due to our pushback against this Bible-thumping liar, history revisionist, and overall bitch apologist of the Marcoses.
And here are the feedback of some sellers. A friend who has a store on Shopee says this is all true. She lost customers. If there would be orders, it would be for an PHP80-item, hardly a thing that would move the needle. All the big spenders are gone. Nothing happened during 10-10 sale. She says she’s stuck with a high inventory and she couldn’t open a TikTok store or an IG store because that requires regular content. She has no room in her life for content since she’s taking care of her baby. She said this is not a matter of life and death for her since she’s just doing this as a “passive” income (her definition) since her active source of income is her online job. This boycott really hurts the sellers who are relying on Shopee for their main source of income.
Another stress-reliever of mine is planning my house.
Updated floorplan of my tiny house. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
I probably have my dimensions wrong again since I’m not working on grid paper. But this is the latest layout that my contractor and I have agreen on. Just this morning, we reduced the width of the girls’ bedroom. I’m not entirely sure if I got the girls’ doorway right because I just based this on my conversation and gesticulation of my contractor i.e. there would be a corner there for their door and for my closet. But I couldn’t understand how my closet would not block their doorway. I must have misunderstood something. Anyway, I would be able to see once the partitions are up next week.
My girls prefer to have this shelving unit in their room instead of a full-blown closet because they want shelves and more shelves for stuff and books, not clothes. I have already bought them drawers for their clothes.
Photo from ikea.ph
On Friday I will pick up in Paranaque the Rockwool insulation/soundproofing for some dry wall partition to deliver to my construction site. That was an extra expense (around 22k) but I want this done well. If I can have granite kitchen countertops, why not have a soundproof partition wall?
This is how my future home looks like viewed from space…
Our houses according to Google Earth.
Yup, that entire forest at the back is my view. I will clear some of that in the near future when I’m ready to have my vegetable beds. That red encircled part of the red duplex is mine—at least the second floor part. On the extreme left in the yellow circle is the garage but that would be extended to be a communal garage to accommodate two SUVs and a sedan.
Let’s see on Friday if the house is already taking shape.
