Slowly

 One entry every other day - not bad for someone coming back to the habit of chronicling.

It's everyone's weekend, but it's midweek for me later.

Today, we're claiming Kuya at Tito Rex's. Yesterday, we claimed the tail light that I ordered from Toyota and dropped it there. We had a late lunch of Mama's cooking: GG, Bicol express, Ginataang isda, and hot rice! 😍

We picked up a few stuff from the apartment before rushing home to make it to Gian's 5p.m. call.

Mama gifted us with a center table which I totally love!

I had such a good time seeing Mama and the kids! 💚

I'm hoping we can manage the tasks today like we did yesterday. 😀😀 

Baking inside

 I am not sure if it is just me or has the temperature suddenly increased that I feel I'm baking on the inside.

I've already gone to bed, ahead of Lablab, when past one in the morning, I felt sweat on my eye cover and I had this feeling all over my body of being soaked in water. So I got up, used the bathroom, drank 2 glasses of cold water, and tried to go back to sleep, but to no avail. I'm also considering it's because of my body clock which is used to being awake at this time (2:03 a.m.) for work. Or was it because we used the pool the first time? But it's weird because I felt really really exhausted that I was expecting to skip dinner and doze off right after hitting the bed or the sofa. But none of these happened. Instead, I'm left to wonder what's happening. Oh, I've also switched Lolo Bishi, another first, since we brought him from the old apartment.

Ugh! This is crazy!

So yesterday, Lablab and I agreed to go out and went to Toyota Balintawak to order the replacement tail/break light for Avionn. Thankfully, it was cheaper than the price quoted by Kuya Bert, Tito Rex's mechanic. The accessory will arrive tomorrow because it's Caloocan day today. Trinoma was our next stop where, my supposed single purchase of the Nike lunch bag that we found at Planet Sports was followed by goggles at Olympic Village, then the Invictus sneakers from World Balance, and was capped by a pair neon green sneakers from Traffic! Geez! I've gotta control my urge to splurge next time, although Lablab said my purchase was considerably cheaper than (for example) the cost of the Air Force One Rose that I wore yesterday. That at least justified my expense, but still, I need to be better at handling myself and my plastic.

   

It got me again!

 Sigh!

I let myself fall into laziness, again. I just realized it after opening my laptop and seeing that my last entry was almost one month ago. 

So here I am, will try to get back to posting entries, this time, with or without photos. I think at times, I was more pressured in finding the appropriate photo to accompany the entry. Now, the entry will come first, the photo will just be an icing.

PS (Bad luck feels)

I felt unlucky having been involved in 3 car-related mishaps in the span of two weeks.

January 31 - After Mama and I ran errands at SM Fairview, the first accident happened. A car tailed Avionn at the parking and in my attempt to get out of the space, I bruised Kuya's right front side. Thankfully, the headlights bore no damage. Lablab was not that mad, but reminded that I will shoulder the cost of the repairs.

February 4 - Parentals + Yagits drove to Bunso's and Bunsita's home for the weekend with Nunja at Biyaya. Bunsita realized that she left her phone inside Duchess so we agreed to meet Nunja at Monde as they already fetched Danila from work. We were already there, just on the opposite side of the road, and was almost done U-turning to the side where Duchess was parked when the second accident happened - a motor driven by a female rider with another female passenger hit Elias' read end (gas side fender). I'm telling you, my mind went blank and I had to let Nunja lead the discussions. Thankfully, the rider and her passenger did not sustain any serious injury and the motor had minor steering rod damage. We also agreed to shoulder our own repairs. I felt traumatized after that night.

February 9 - Wanting to decompress from a bad dream the previous morning, I invited Mama to go up to Antipolo to visit the Cathedral and San Pedro Calungsod Parish. All was well with my driving until we were leaving McDonald's after having brunch. I was backing Avionn and talking to Mama at the same time that I missed the warning alarm and Lablab's reminder and crashed into a Ford Everest. (Strike 3!) Silver lining, the owner was a fellow Leni supporter and agreed to be paid the price of a brand new brake light (P8,000). We proceeded with our planned visit to Our Lady of Peace and Good Voyage, brought Mama home, picked up Elias from the garage, and drove to Tito Rex's shop where we had both cars assessed and Avionn to be repaired. I have to get the replacement tail lights from Toyota as Kuya's was badly cracked due to what happened and once he's repaired, Elias will be next.

I want to move on from these unfortunate events and I'm trying to. Just like I'd want to do better with this blogging comeback project that I've began last month.

Here's to manifesting better outcomes... :)  

Fridate

Here comes another weekend! I'm happy to have managed through this week so far. 

So because we still had not shipped the refrigerator from the apartment to the condo, Piggy and I went on a quick Fridate at the Ayala Malls Cloverleaf where we dined at Santouka Japanese restaurant and ordered ramen and takoyaki for dinner.

After eating, we shopped for rugs and a few grocery items before heading back.
 

Family

I was supposed to be a godfather to Unix, Kathleen's youngest son, but for personal reasons, they decided to reschedule the baptism and instead, celebrated his 1st birthday with family. I decided to push through with my planned leave yesterday and after an early morning reasoning with Kooks, I picked them up along with Papa and Mama past 9 a.m. and we drove over to once more surprise Bunso and Bunsita. 

Suffice to say that we all had a great time being together - from watching Space Jam (1996) and Sing 2, to eating, playing Bingo (and me winning P100 in the 1st blackout round), and 1-2-3 pass until it was time to say goodbye and head back to QC after lunch today.

I will make sure to indulge in any of my family's request for time to be together, because this is what gives me life and motivation.

💗

 

Ate K

 

This post will remind me in the future to celebrate life. Today, I choose to celebrate the life of a good colleague who I worked closely with during our 2013 Interim Supervisor days handling Chaseworks (project-based) employees - Ate K.

I got the sad news while within shift from a former team member and validated it from another.

Eternal rest grant unto the soul of Catherine Obal-Alivia and let perpetual light shine upon her. Please watch over her daughter Bianca too, Lord. Amen 

Growth

 

Four days of no entries! I'm sorry I was lazy. Allow me to catch up...

Saturday, January 15

I left after my shift, picked up the parentals, loaded stuff for the Bunsos, and drove to SLEX. We stopped at Jollibee because Papa was hungry. After getting the complete order, we went straight to the Bunsos and both were surprised. :)

I had my interview (Jessa's project) that afternoon, then we went to Puregold for groceries.

Mama cooked her spaghetti at Bunsita's request and we had it for dinner. I slept while talking to Bunsita as she was disinfecting the goods that we got from the grocery. 

Sunday, January 16

I woke up past midnight, to another meal of rice and ham! Shortly thereafter, I encouraged everyone to sleep and that's when my "shift" began. I stayed up until morning light came, snoozing for 30 minutes until past 7 a.m. Mama and Bunsita began their preparations for the much-requested molo soup while Bunso and Papa went for their morning walk. When the soup was cooked and Papa and Bunso were home, we ate breakfast and said our goodbyes at a little past 8 a.m. We were home after a 1-hour and 15-minute drive. (Thank you Lord for the light traffic!)

Next destination was the apartment where I gathered more stuff. I was home past 10 a.m. (saw the assembled dining set) and we hurried up to catch Spiderman No Way Home at SM City Grand Central. Piggy and I were late, but still managed to watch and understand the movie. After the movie, we roamed around and stopped at Apple, and Digital Walker (for the iPad that Piggy was looking for) and ACE Hardware (platera similar to the one I saw at SM City Sta. Rosa was not available).

We agreed to book massages (at 4pm) early to be home early on a Sunday, which we have not had for quite sometime. We left ISF at 7p.m. and stopped at Puregold Commonwealth to buy ingredients for a decent ulam since we survived on noodles and canned goods during the week. Sinigang was the choice that night. Tired, we slept within an hour and a half after dinner.

Monday, January 17

My monthly chiropractic session was moved yesterday due to the alert level implemented until January 15. Posture Perfect decided to sanitize the clinic at SM Fairview and rescheduled impacted appointments. I left almost at 11 a.m.. traffic was light, but I still arrived 12:40-ish at the clinic. Session was quick, I was crispy on the neck (hahaha!). I decided that I'd continue my monthly sessions there so that I'll have at least one confirmed day that I'll be near my folks' place and get to visit them.

I got 2 pcs. turon langka and water before leaving the mall, stopped by our favorite carinderia - got the last dinuguan order + sisig, and then went to pick up more stuff from the apartment (clothes, coffee maker, speakers, induction cooker, platera, water jug, toaster, gift plates and utensils, and Lolo Bishi) I was dog tired (will definitely get a massage this weekend). I stopped by at Mama's, chanced upon Khan playing and Mama cleaning up. I played with the kids for a bit, and challenged them to a first-to-make-5-points in makeshift basketball where I promised a prize to whoever wins. Kara did! :) The prize, a visit to their Tito Manyee and Ninang Bestie on Wednesday. Mama gave me the two potted plants in the photo above nd gave me care instructions. :) I left for the condo with my loot.

It was MLK holiday in the US yesterday, but I had to login to work to help with comm requests that came in. 

Tuesday, January 18

Started my morning with getting the gate pass for Lolo Bishi, Speakers, and induction cooker approved, getting Kuya's sticker installed, and bringing up the approved appliances. The the St. Benedict door bantay fell from its hook and broke, the TV was lowered from its original mount, and the water tower arrived. I had to re-do my workstation set up to give way to the lowered TV, but all's fine.

It's back to work tonight, but VL again tomorrow!

Weekend!

Smiling because this is the last shift of the week. Tomorrow, we're surprising Bunso and Bunsita with a visit, so that's also something I'm looking forward to. I'm also smiling because the unit is slowly becoming homier and homier. Today, the sofa set and dining set arrived. The dining set will be assembled tomorrow and Piggy will be here to supervise it. We're looking to add more of the stuff from the apartment to our unit, but need to plan it well so we won't cram the space with unnecessary stuff.

Thank you, Lord for seeing us through this week at work! 💕

 

Dawn

The promise of a new day.

Thank you Papa God for giving me this beautiful morning view!

Please bless our undertakings for today and make them Yours!

💓

 

A lot has happened!

There's no excuse. As the title implies, plenty of things happened over the weekend. 

Saturday, Jan. 8

First up, we finally moved in! 🏠😀 The rescheduled turn over of Piggy's unit became a reality! Aside from getting our hands on the keys of the unit, our Globe Wi-Fi had been relocated, and PLDT linemen also managed to install my personal Wi-Fi! 🖧

We stopped by at Ever Gotesco to buy trash bags and mop that we used to clean the dusty floors.

Because the apartment no longer has the Wi-Fi, we proceeded to get stuff like beddings, the gadgets, and a few changes of clothes before heading back to the condo to spend our first night. Oh, we did our personal house blessing, too! 💙

 Sunday, Jan. 9

I did not experience the proverbial "namamahay" feels on the first night at our unit and managed to get a decent sleep. We woke up with ample time to prepare for it was Piggy's booster shot schedule at the Nayong Pilipino Foundation Drive-thru facility. So we drove all the way to (the now demolished) Coastal Mall and queued for almost 45 minutes only to be told to return because it was not yet the third month since the last dose. Not wanting to waste our day, we decided to look for a church where we'll attend mass since it was officially the last day of Christmas and then scout for things we need in the condo. Cubao was the area of choice since the Nativity of our Lord Parish is near and the next mass was not until 4pm (It was past 1 p.m. at that time). We parked at Ali Mall and stopped at Sogo Furniture. We spotted a small, L-shaped sofa that's less than P13,000 and a black, 4-seater dining set under P8,000 which we both liked, and a charming and kind salesman named Kerwin who assisted us, but decided to think things first over lunch.  We stopped at the Automatic Center beside Sogo to check on range hood, a requisite appliance to suck smoke coming from cooking. We found options with La Germania, but still decided to look at another store - Western. Too bad, Western only had 60cm hoods (we initially thought ours was only 50cm) and so we went back to Ali Mall and headed to the food court where had our late brunch. We crossed over to SM Cubao after eating and what initially was just a plan to look for range hood options turned to actual purchase of not just the range hood, but also a microwave oven and a new induction cooker with two "burners". (I honestly don't know what to call it. 🤣)

While in the element, Piggy decided he no longer wanted to look for other sofa and dining set options so we called Sogo, asked for Kerwin and said we'd buy both after SM. Piggy set his eyes on a brown 4-seater dining set so we had to take that along with the L-shaped sofa set. After paying for the sets and thanking Kerwin for this help, we went back to SM Appliance to claim our purchases and requested assistance to bring them to Ali Mall's parking lot (guards were kind enough to let the SM staff "cross" with our lot).

Not done with our to-do list yet, we stopped by the apartment and pulled out our computer tables, stools, electric fans and some other small stuff before agreeing we're done.

Monday, Jan. 10

The day was spent securing the gate pass for our apartment loot so we can bring up work-related furniture. Workmen also came to install the screen door and the range hood. Because we didn't want to order, I ran to the Ayala Malls Cloverleaf and shopped for rice and canned goods.

After hours of sweeping and mopping, I set up my workstation near the veranda. I managed to survive the Monday shift with only Apple and myself on the shift and despite being tired, only...

Tuesday, Jan. 11

...I recalled that my work badge is still in the apartment and I won't be allowed access to NP without it. Today was my booster shot schedule so I needed to get it. I drove back to the apartment and got not just the ID but also collected the pail, outdoor slippers, and our computer chairs! 😁

A good friend and peer agreed to cover for the closing shift so I managed to sleep after my shift and woke up before 9 a.m. to prepare to go to NP. I arrived just in time to accomplish the steps and got myself inoculated with (still) AZ for my booster.

Piggy and I met at Gateway where I managed to score a new and cute display (will be on a separate entry) at St. Paul's religious store, dined at Max's (again) for late lunch and then proceeded to our apartment where this time, we got the TV, big frames, and 5-7w bulbs that we used to replace the 50-watt condo bulbs.

Oh! After waiting years for the final installment of the book, this one finally arrived this afternoon (ordered it in Shopee from Fully Booked)! 😍

Getting old habits back

I recall mentioning in my New Year's post that I'll go through the resolutions that I wrote down for 2022. This book here signals the attempt to be good at one (no, TWO!) of my NY resolutions - get back to reading and keep my hands off my mobile phone as much as I can.

I have always loved reading and read many books for as long as I can remember. However, when the pandemic struck and I began working from home, what I thought would be more time for reading since I won't be commuting to the office took a different turn. My reading pace dwindled until I wasn't reading anymore!

And so this month, I'm getting back on track. More of my resolutions in my succeeding entries. 

💖Kulot
 

Answered Prayer

 I had been checking my phone consistently yesterday, hoping to see that email that would confirm the results of the RT-PCR that I took. To be honest, I still feared for the worst because it was a 50/50 probability. 

But God is good and He listens to prayers! 

As I navigated through the landing pages that would take me to the screen/page showing the results, I arrived at this! Negative! This is the second time that I had been this delighted and thankful to see this word!

Thank you Lord! I now have the peace of mind that I needed. Still, the battle is out there. The virus is still lurking, so we still owe it to ourselves and our loved ones to exercise caution when going out.

Praying for everyone's safety. 💗

God's year

 (photo credit: The Facebook Page of The Letterer)

The accompanying photo sums up how I would like 2022 to be - God's year. Knowing me, I'd expect myself to take the wheel on occasions, but I will try my best to let go and let God. This perfectly aligns with the Hopeful year I'm praying 2022 to be. 

It's been five days since we welcomed the new year, and 360 days doesn't seem that far from today.

Lord, help me to make this year, Your year. May Your will be done, not mine. Amen

📿  Kulot

Certainty

Before 2021 closed, I got down with fever and after what I thought was the recovery stage where I'm left with the cough and colds (which usually is the case), I felt a little off. Add to that the fact that I spent a few short minutes of the new year with my family (along with my second-born brother who also had fever the same day I did, 29th), I got paranoid. So yesterday, I discussed the idea of getting a swab test with my youngest brother, and to have that peace of mind in knowing what my true status is, I went to Ayala Fairview Terraces this afternoon (tough luck! RT-PCR test kits ran out when I arrived) and managed to walk in at SM's Drive To Swab facility.

I am manifesting that the symptoms I'm feeling are but the remnants of the fever I had, and not what I dread it to be. Cases have been spiking and the IATF had to recommend the Alert levels to be changed from 2 to 3, with curfews implemented in some areas of the NCR.

Lord, please let the results be negative.

📿Kulot

HOPE

 I chose this word to be my guiding virtue this year. I welcomed the year full of it and I will always have it in mind to ward of doubt.

After attending the January 1 mass at San Jose Ang Tagapangtanggol Parish, I drove off praying the rosary. First stop was the Unionbank branch at Quezon Avenue where I withdrew money for my payables. Next, I headed to Marikina Rivermall, stopped by the Guess store to ask about this tote bag that I like and was told promising news that they might have it in their inventory in the future, so I left my contact information. Also, from the kind store attendants, I found out that the mall is open only until 9 p.m. That's when I headed to the grocery and picked up rice, corned beef, canned tuna, and coconut water for my UTI. Total expense: P991! 

I brought my groceries back to where Elias was parked and then proceeded to walk the path towards the amphitheater, which I found out was barricaded with wire. The carnival was there again, but it was too crowded that I just decided to continue walking the rest of the way, taking pictures as I walked along, going to the food stalls until I reached the parking area and decided to head home.

Last stop before home was Petron at Doña Carmen where XCS was at P54.06 per liter, relatively cheaper than other branches (Philcoa in particular) that I've passed while driving.

Turning a new leaf

Ushering another year after a rather challenging one, it's natural to feel unnerved for we do not know what will unfold. Yet this year, I choose to be a little bit more focused, to make better use of my time, and so I decided to launch a two-fold project: this being the first half and the other is on TikTok. I call it #DailyEntryProjectfor2022 which will be daily chronicles of what goes through with my day/life. This time around, I will commit to making this a success.

Today being a holy day of obligation, I attended mass (Thank you, Lord!) though challenged by what I think is a urinary tract infection. Coinciding with the Feast of the Epiphany of Jesus, the readings alluded to the magi who looked to the Star of David that guided them to the manger. During the homily, Fr. Jerome Ponce OFM reminded us to keep people who are stars in our lives - those who bring us back to the right path when we go astray and those who have our best interest at heart. 💝

P.S. I also commit to spending less time on socmed (aka, phone handling), but that will be elaborated in another entry.

For now, I close this first baby step towards making 2022 a year to look back.

👑Kulot