Bangkok 2025

I can't believe it's been three weeks since we flew to Bangkok to celebrate our eighth anniversary. It's the first time we celebrated outside the country. Quite honestly it's a bit spontaneous, booked flights and accommodation just a week before. Partly because we had money to spare at the time. We got our condo at Avenida refunded, lost 50% but the other half we got was more than enough for a good vacation outside the country. It's the best vacay ever! Can't wait to be back!

Here's my Bangkok vlog:

For the whole trip which was 4 days we spent roughly ₱91k

✅ Roundtrip flight was around ₱40k with PAL
✅ Four nights at Maison Hotel Bangkok was ₱17k
✅ Cash pocket money was around ₱21k
✅ And credit card spending was ₱13k

Not bad at all! Which is why I can't wait to go back already! I could imagine spending way more for a metro staycation had we stayed here. Not considering the flight, we'd probably spend more than 50k for a fancy staycation and a steak dinner hehe.

Here's our complete itinerary:

• Day 1 (arrival at night)
• Dinner at SW1 Market
• Day 2
• Lunch at Bangkok Train Station (Lap Paak)
• Ayutthaya
• Dinner at McDo
• Day 3
• The Grand Palace
• Wat Pho
• Lunch at The Deck
• Malling and dinner at ICONSIAM
• Day 4 (departure at night)
• Lunch at Nobu Bangkok

Anyway, here's what went down at Bangkok:

Day 1: Arrival and SW1 Market

We arrived at Bangkok around 7PM. Obviously didn't have the whole day so as soon as we got to the hotel, we just dropped our bags and walked to the nearest night market which was SW1 Market.

It's like one kilometer away from the hotel and a good 16min walk. It was pretty far for my standards but it was a great place to experience their night market! Lots of food options! Some good, some bad. My favorites were pad thai, crispy pork, and crispy pancakes. Thai milk tea was also good! We tried crispy insects which literally tastes like seasoned nothing haha it's just crispy, nothing special. The mango pomelo sago I tried was also underwhelming, their mangoes aren't that sweet, pomelo isn't too, and the coconut meat was not real it's like coconut gulaman? Mango sticky rice was quite good though. Their mangoes are big but not as sweet unlike Philippine mangoes which is a bummer cos I really love mango sticky rice here. But their sticky rice and coconut cream? So goood! Then we also tried some skewered stuff, crocodile meat, chicken, and beef. Nothing special, I guess I didn't like the barbecue sauce. Wish I had the capacity to try a lot more dishes, but I got full already! 

Today I clocked in 12k+ steps! Whew!

Day 2: Ayutthaya and McDo

This was an adventure. We didn't join any tours so we really planned this day out. Ayutthaya is famous for being the old capital of Thailand, before the Burmese attacked and occupied the city. They obliterated every royal structure, burned down temples to extract gold, and beheaded buddha statues everywhere. Now it's a UNESCO World Heritage Site home to historic parks, preserved ruins, and Buddhist temples.

We took a cab to Bangkok Railway Station and bought a train ticket to Ayutthaya. It was only 30baht for the two of us which is really cheap. The train is PNR levels though, fan only, and had so many stops. It took 2 hours to get to Ayutthaya. It's 80km north of Thailand. 

After alighting at the station we booked a tuktuk tour, they're right by the entrance offering packages to tourists. They're not tour guides but they're gonna drive you to your chosen destinations and wait for you while you look around. We found it really convenient especially that the temples are far apart and we got there around 2pm already. They have a list of all the popular temples, parks, and attractions and you just point to where you wanna go and the driver will get you there. Depending on how much time you have, cos temples usually close at 5pm, the driver will suggest spots that are near each other so you can maximize the tour. It cost us 1,200baht for 3hours. Quite steep but pretty convenient if you ask me!

We were so exhausted after visiting 4 or 5 templates that we wanted to get back to Bangkok as quickly as possible and have dinner at Hia Lek Chinatown. Initially we bought the same ordinary train back, it arrives much later but drops us off near Chinatown (Hua Lampong). But after learning that there's another train that leaves earlier, has less stops, and arrives earlier at Bangkok as well - we decided to take that. Even if it means riding another train to Chinatown because it stops at a different train station - Krung Tep Aphiwat - which btw looks like an airport wow.

Train to Bangkok was super full. People were standing. But it's not MRT rush-hour full haha. After getting off at Wat Mongkon MRT station (Chinatown) we walked so far to Hia Lek only to find out it's closed! It's not even 9pm! We were so tired that we just decided to go back to the hotel area, find a nearby McDo and eat something local haha.

Clocked in 15k steps today!

Day 3: The Grand Palace, Wat Pho, Wat Arun, and ICONSIAM

It's ferry day today and day two of temple hopping! We woke up pretty early (before lunch) to commute to our destination. Getting around Bangkok is pretty easy once you figure out the train system which is very efficient and interconnected. We walked to BTS Nana station, rode 'til Siam, transferred trains, and went down at Saphan Taksin station where Sathorn pier is. This is where the river ferries are.

All of the temples in our itinerary are best accessed through Chao Phraya river ferries, and so we decided to go this route. Also, for the experience! We bought an all-day pass with Chao Phraya Express Boat for 150baht each which allows us to ride the ferry unlimited times throughout the day. We thought this was the cheaper option because we had four destinations and each ride costs 40baht but then we realized that there are other boats going around the river that are nearer our destination and that we don't even need to ferry from The Grand Palace to Wat Pho haha. 

The Grand Palace was huuuuge! Unlike Ayutthaya which is more nature park like, The Grand Palace screams royalty. Every building inside is meticulously adorned with all the shiny and colorful things. It's a different kind of awesome.

After getting lunch at The Deck where we had a pretty view of Wat Arun, we rode a ferry to ICONSIAM which is freaking enormous mall. It's so overwhelmingly big we got lost in a food court wth. It's also so very beautiful and have lots and lots of food and shopping options. One part of it looks like Podium and the rest is a maze-ing! Haha lol

Learned that we can ride the BTS train home because it's linked to the gold line. It's also at this point that I realized I lost the BTS Day Pass the hotel gave us huhu.

Anyway, it was a really exhausting and fun day! Got a relaxing and amazing foot massage a Sook Siam food court before going home. Then when we got back to the hotel we tried smoking a joint because it's legal in Thailand (medically). There's a smoking lounge right by the hotel. It's our first time to try mary jane and also we're not smokers so we're the ultimate weed virgins. Waste of money I tell ya. We got something beginner friendly that would just calm us down, like 22% something, shared a joint and followed their instructions to inhale twice, wait a bit and puff it out. Then drink water. Well I drank a lot of water cos inhaling that thing dried my whole throat. I brought my tumbler with me which was a bad idea because now my tumbler straw tastes like weed urgh. I hated it. I didn't even feel sleepy.

Anyway, walked 17,500 steps!

Day 4: Nobu Bangkok, flying home

Last day in Bangkok. We booked a Grab car to the airport in advance because we noticed how difficult it is to book a ride here. Or maybe Bolt is better? Had lunch at Nobu which was pretty disappointing because there was no Omakase during lunch and the menu is quite limited. Not to mention it didn't taste any better than Nikkei, which is loads cheaper.

Should've just eaten breakfast at the hotel!

We left Bangkok at around 7pm and got to Manila 11pm. It was definitely our best anniv celebration yet. It's so easy to plan vacations like this when you have money on hand no? Doesn't happen always so I'm really grateful for this year!

Can't wait to be back!

Internet down

Converge has been down for almost 10 hours now it's ridiculous how they've not restored connectivity yet. On top of that, our supposed backup - Smart and GOMO - are both super weak today. Couldn't get any work done the entire day. Good thing I only had one meeting.

Anyway. Just another day in the Philippines, where services are bad and customer support is worse.

The other day I had a thought. We weren't really looking into greener pastures in other countries. I thought we had it good here. 6-figure salaries, stable jobs, comfortable lifestyle. But then I looked at our current pay and wondered how long is this gonna sustain us before we had to switch companies again and look for bigger salaries? I thought I could retire at my previous company cos the culture and the work is perfect, but eventually the salary couldn't keep up with inflation, and I had to leave. If I stayed there, we have to tighten our budget year on year because there's no way the annual increases are gonna match the rate of inflation. Every year we had to downgrade, find some way to limit expenses, or God forbid work another job (not going back there again).

Then I wondered about my colleagues in other countries. How come they were able to stick to a company for more than 5 years without complaining about the salary? How different is the salary structure here vs there that we had to jump ship every now and then to inflation-proof our lives? I don't want to keep changing companies. It's troublesome and you lose retirement benefits for it.

Then I realized maybe we should just move to a different country. A red state in the US, or Australia, or New Zealand, wherever there's opportunity. Maybe Bangkok. I don't know. The more I learn how we have it bad here, the more I get jealous of those who were able to migrate. 

I just don't know where to start.

New work laptop

I recently got a new work laptop after my old one was marked vulnerable due to having Viber Desktop installed 😅. It's the second time my laptop has been replaced in my three years in the company and I think it's because I kept installing Viber? Haha. I didn't know it was the culprit and I only learned about it this week.

Funny thing is, I got a new model which looks really nice. Seems like I got rewarded for installing illegal apps instead. Still freaking big and heavy, and the screen is more squarish, but it's all good. I couldn't request for a smaller laptop because dev laptops by default are all 15.6 inches. Oh well.

My laptop transfer this time feels more seamless. Thanks to OneDrive. I just had to wait for everything to sync and all my files are back in the same place. However I do need to reinstall everything else. UiPath, SSMS, Notepad++, Github Desktop, etc. And I need to setup my shortcuts again. What I failed to do is backup my Postman APIs so I'm feeling a bit upset about it. I should've created an account. Hay.

Oh wait this laptop feels a bit slow!

Hoping a restart would do.

Ciao for now.

Freaks

I can't believe it's been a week since Charlie Kirk died. My heart still aches unexplainably, and I'm still very angry at the violent liberal freaks celebrating his death, twisting his words, misquoting him, and calling him all forms of phobic when they're the ones who are clearly and evidently incapable of arguing for themselves. 

They can't debate him so they called him names. Names an extremist responded to with a gun. That's how dangerous leftist diagnosis is. Instead of discussing why you believe the things you do, with an open mind, with empathy, they label you so wrongly with words that don't even come close to what you believe in. It's lazy. All because their ears start to ring in disagreement. They can't stand being explained to. Can't fathom the possibility of being wrong. Their mentality is built on an echo chamber that crumbles under a test of logic. Weak. Fed only hateful jargon to describe conservatives. They end an argument by walking away and calling you either a bigot, transphobe, homophobe, racist, nazi, or other godawful things just to justify their hate and exit the discussion, or rather an attempt at one. 

I'm disappointed at a lot of my friends. But on the bright side, I found new friends to follow. Even influencers.

Oh Charlie 😔

I couldn't believe my eyes when I read news that Charlie Kirk was assassinated at a speaking event in Utah. It was the first thing I learned when I woke up yesterday and it brought an immense heavy feeling throughout the day.

What disappointed and disgusted me further were the reactions from whacko liberals all over the world, celebrating the death of a man simply for holding an opinion they hate.

Charlie Kirk...
who sought to enlighten the youth from the perversions of the current education system
who encouraged people to reflect on the privilege of being in America and denounce victimhood
who wanted to preserve families, the building blocks of society
who values life no matter where it came from

He always discussed and listened in good faith, all the while championing Christian values. 

He was a knowledgeable and effective debater. And he got hated a lot for it. Heck he got killed for it.

They didn't like that he supported Trump
That he was anti-abortion
That he was pro-gun
That he was anti-illegal immigration
That he was a nationalist
etc.

Basically that he was conservative. Whatever happened to free speech? People are so scared to discuss nowadays. So confidently wrong they cannot handle being refuted, instead resort to violence. This kind of radicalism has eaten the west and is unfortunately propagating here.

He wanted to make America great again, by going back to the one who made it great in the first place, God. Is that so unwholesome that he is met with shrieking whales every time he mentions the Bible?

I guess demons do tremble in God's word.

My heart goes out to those who mourn for his death.

I pray for justice.

Rest in peace, Charlie Kirk.

Happy Friday!

 

Jumping in on this AI scale model trend with our car! It's really cool except for the antenna haha. Here's the prompt: 

Create a 1 / 7 scale intelligent figurine in the picture, in a realistic style, in a real environment. The figurine is plattered on a computer desk. The figurine has a round transparent acrylic base, with no text on the base. The content on the screen is the Zbrush modeling process of this figurine. Next to the computer screen is a BANDAl-style toy packaging box with printing. The packaging features two-dimensional flat illusion.

I took a photo of our car from the internet which is from Grab, hence the GrabRentals logo on the box hehe.

WHAT A BUSY WEEK!

✨ Got our refund!!!

First off, thank God we were able to get our refund checks already! After 2 months of calling and emailing, we were able to get 50% of our downpayment. Full story here: [Ayala Land Inc.] Cancellation of CTS / Refund under Maceda Law / PD 957 - a timeline 

I can finally leave all the facebook groups I joined trying sell this goddamned condo haha.

✨ I need another knee surgery

I consulted with Dr. Braganza about the results of my MRI. He's my second opinion doctor, after getting my first one from Dr. Lantin who requested the MRI. Surprise surprise, they both recommend surgery. There's a cyst in my knee that has grown over my meniscal tear which has been causing my knee to lock and be unstable for the past few months. The plan is to remove the cyst and repair the meniscus so it won't grow again. It's non urgent so I just need to get a good schedule. Our gym coach who's also an ortho referred me to Dr. Braganza, says he's the best in the field, and I was thrilled! I didn't think I'd be at a point where I can choose a doctor, for the most part all I cared about was if they're HMO accredited. But now that I'm older and more fragile I kinda want to get the best treatment... from an accredited doctor haha.

✨ I wanna go shopping

Now that I have some money to spare I just wanna go shopping. But I couldn't find the time? We're visiting the parentals this weekend so I don't know when to squeeze some shopping time. 

✅ My priority would be new glasses. My current one needs to be replaced already because of the scratches, and I've been eyeing some cute wide specs from Sunnies. 

✅ We also need to buy a new blender. Our 9-year old Nutribullet has been slowly wearing off. The rubbers are falling apart, and it's super dirty now. I'm excited to get a new one. Especially now that we're enjoying making strawberry banana protein shakes as post-workout.

✅ As for my non-essentials, I want a pair of machine washable walking shoes from Vivaia and a new cross-over bag to replace my old one. I want exactly the same one I have but Hedgren doesn't carry the same style anymore. 

✨ Super swamped at work

So many things on my plate. I have challenging ones and easy ones, but nothing stressful. Thank God!

Anyway, that's it for this week!

Money diaries: a week in August

Here we go again! I'm broke right now so let's see how much I bury myself in debt this week lol

Monday - 1,453.66

• Dinner at Sariwon - 873.66
• I over-ordered tonight. Bought gimbap when I knew marinated beef samgyup with rice and lots of banchan is enough. I ended up taking home half the beef, rice, and gimbap. I love Sariwon's kimchi!
• Dessert at M.Bakery - 440.00
• Had classic tres leches and hot americano
• Parking - 140.00

Tuesday - 0.00

• Lunch at Tapa Addiction - 0.00
• Jeckie paid for this one, I just had to note it down cos it's a new discovery for us! Yehey for a cheap dining option at Unimart! We normally eat at Poco Deli or Single Origin before doing the grocery. Sometimes we'd eat tusok tusok but most of the time we want a full meal haha. So yeah, value for money this sure beats Via Mare in terms of tapsi.
• Cooked sous vide steak and truffle mashed potatoes for dinner! It's perfect I LOVE SOUS VIDE!!!

Wednesday - 0.00

• Went to the gym then back home. Didn't spend a dime! 
• We're on Class Pass trial making the most of the 28 trial credits (worth 50 pesos lol). And for our 2nd trial gym we went to Activate Hoop Arena. Had trouble parking cos there's only one slot left and we're in between two big SUVs. Didn't enjoy our workout so much because the gym is kinda bad? The equipment are all worn out, rusty, and all over the place. Everything is so disorganized. The lat pull down machine is dangerous. The gym area is very small, it seems like they just put a bunch of exercise machines on the court sides so the athletes may have something to use when they're not playing.
  
  It's very apparent the place was primarily for court players as the gym area seemed very neglected. Later on during our workout, volleyball players joined us in the gym area and at that point it became very crowded. Jeckie felt suffocated so we ended up not finishing our workout.
  
  I have nothing against the team in fact they were pretty respectful about sharing the space. It's just that I feel like Activate shouldn't have allowed open gym access when there are players on court because damn we were more than 10 people in their tiny gym and it's too tight huhu.
  
  Actually Activate should totally stop offering open gym access. There are better bakal gyms out there. So much for catering to professional athletes.
• Anyway. Cooked chicken Caesar salad for dinner. 

Thursday - 200.00

• Poy-Sian pasabuy - 200.00
• I went out around to meet a friend to get my pasabuy from Thailand. Finally got a good supply of Poy-Sian. I keep losing mine in the bed or in the laundry haha. Thanks and happy birthday Meg! I missed you!
• I snacked a lot this afternoon. Had pandesal with homemade tomato garlic spread (thanks mama for the recipe! Mine turned a bit salty lol), added in basil from my plant out in the balcony yey, ate leftover korean beef sukiyaki and egg roll from two weeks ago lol (it's still good), and finished my Lays salt and vinegar chips.
• And for dinner I coked airfried salmon and truffle oatmeal risotto.

Friday - 139.00

• For today's Class Pass trial we went to Gold's Gym at Robinson's Galleria. Thought it would be easier to park there compared to Megamall where we can go to Slimmer's World instead. Well, we were almost wrong haha. The line coming in to the basement parking was super long, but thank God we were able to get a slot quick. :)
• Had a great workout at Gold's! It was big, spacious, clean, and there are tons of equipment. For once Jeckie and I didn't have to share a bench hehe 
• Most of the equipment are looking old but they're all still functional and looks maintained naman.
• Spent 89.00 for Takoyaki which was borderline cancerous because they torched the cheese topping right on the food box which has a plastic lining so there are black burn marks, it even crumpled a bit urgh. They're killing me. Anyway, I loved the takoyaki haha
• Mall parking - 50.00

Saturday - 4,807.50

• Lunch at Swagat - 1,512.50
• Had some good Indian food after a great workout at Makati Shang Health Club! Jeckie has been telling me about Swagat for a long time. Then they moved to Rada and I finally got to try it cos it's more accessible for us in terms of parking hehe.
• Karada massage - 2,295.00
• First time to try it! I always thought they're a chiro clinic but they actually offer dry massage and alignment. First time to have my neck cracked and boy was it an out of this world experience! The relief is incredible. It's too expensive for me though and I still prefer Swedish massage.
• Tip for Karada - 200.00
• Now it's made even more expensive because two people worked on me haha. 
• Iced mocha at Blue Wonder - 155.00
• Dinner at Wu's Kitchen - 585.00
• I got a bit hungry from the massage lol
• Parking - 60.00

Sunday - 3,833.04

• Lunch at Ono - 600.54
• Got the salmon poke bowl. It was delicious. But I prefer Fit Fuel's salmon bowl because they use smoked salmon instead hehe
• Dessert at Nine Fresh - 336.00
• I've been meaning to try this for so long so I finally took the chance since we're at robmag! Looked at TBG for recos so I got the Awe in One cup which was delicious!!! It's like taho with bilo bilo, grass jelly, other jellies, toppings, and creamer. Not too sweet, not too heavy. It's perfect! 
• Then I realized the one I've been wanting to try is actually Meet Fresh, not Nine Fresh haha. Kaya pala there's nothing like bingsu in their menu hehe.
• Takoyaki from the basement food court - 85.00
• 🙅‍♀️
• Uniqlo shirt - 790.00
• Cinnabon - 500.00
• Army Navy take out - 1,292.50
• Midnight snack at mcdo - 179.00
• Parking - 50.00

Oh well, I thought I'd be spending less this time but look at our grand total: 

₱10,433.20

It's even bigger than the last time. Yikes.

As much as I want that amount to be my normal weekly budget, I can't right now cos I have to settle my credit card debts. But oh well. Looks like I have to watch my spending more! 🫠

Money diaries: a week in July

A lot of how my week went can be seen in how I spend. I'm trying to save money right now because I just spent most of my allowance paying for my credit card dues. I wanna start the next month on a clean slate without any debt. So yeah, watch me struggle lol. 

Monday - 1,548.29

• Dinner at Mary Grace - 1,188.29
• I had bangus silog with rosemary rice, carrot cake, and hot americano. Urielle and I shared cassava chips, which was lovely! It's like very thin kropek with a delicious onion dip. Definitely will try agin.
• Coffee at Starbucks - 190.00
• My usual tall vanilla sweet cream cold brew. Strong, creamy, not too sweet.
• Parking at Three Parkade - 170.00
• I'm getting used to parking here.

Tuesday - 1,263.48

• Lunch at Nono's - 783.48
• I had coddled egg with truffle mash, hot long black, and waffles. I loved it. Their chicken and waffles is also good! Jeckie got the one with southern rub, kinda like cajun. It was delicious! And so today, Nono's got redeemed. We really didn't want to eat here as we were disappointed twice already in the past. It seems like breakfast is their strength, and third time's the charm. Their waffles are more like croffles (waffle shaped croissant) so I can't compare it to my favorite waffles (Pancake House) hehe. They're very good though!
• Dinner from Hia Lek (Grab) - 480.00
• I had a lot of meetings tonight so we decided to order in. As usual I got krapow with rice and egg, lemongrass juice, and mango sticky rice! Love it!

Wednesday - 1,375.36

• Lunch at Poco Deli - 675.36
• I had pulled corned beef and hot americano. I just realized today that I actually love corned beef. From the cheap carne norte ones to the more expensive brands like Delimondo/Palm/Tulip. There's nothing to hate. And the homemade ones, pulled beef or slab, so much better. 👌
• Parking at Unimart - 50.00
• Dinner at FitFuel - 650.00
• Fetched Koomi at daycare. It was evening rush hour so we decided to park at Pioneer Center instead and grab dinner. Boy is it crazy in this side of town. As usual, Pioneer was filled with stupid and undisciplined drivers, blocking yellow boxes, counterflowing, overtaking, and lane grabbing. It look us like 15 minutes just to get inside PC and we were right at the crossing! 

Thursday - 1,072.00

• Day pass at Anytime Fitness - 500.00
• Coach isn't back until mid August so we had to workout ourselves. Tried Anytime Fitness nearby and it was okay. But it's a bit expensive to do it 3x a week. Will try other options. Condo gym can get crowded, and has less equipment too.
• Coffee at Starbucks - 190.00
• The usual!
• Sous vide container - 382.00
• Jeckie bought a second hand sous vide machine from a neighbor and we're very excited to try it! Thus, the container! And ziplocs to follow! 😊

Urgh why can't I have a sub-1k day for once??

Friday - 50.00

• ClassPass trial - 50.00
• This is the only thing I spent on today. ClassPass trial gives you 28 credits for just 50 pesos, good for 14 days. We figured since we don't have PT sessions for now, we'll just get open gym access to wherever our trial credits take us. So far we've booked open gym time at Activate. There aren't a lot of nearby open gym options for the trial credits. But I've seen promising ones like The Health Club at Makati Shang, Rockwell Athletica, and Devarana Fitness at Dusit Thani Hotel. 

Saturday - 1,824.38

• Yoh Yogurt drink - 155.00
• As post-workout. Yoh Yogurt used to be where Koomi is at SM Light. It's tastes good, but not as good as Koomi. We feel like those that replaced Koomi took over their inventory so they have the same Australian style yogurt which has a great tanginess to it. Joee in Unimart Capitol Commons is a good example. Tastes almost like Koomi but they offer less variety. Koomi used to be in their place too.
• Dinner at Maisen -1,029.38
• Had katsu set and potato salad. Yum! 
• Dessert at M Bakery - 465.00
• First time to try tres leches and OMG it's so good!!! It's not too sweet and it pairs so well with strawberries. The sponge cake was sitting in milk which I found interesting but grabe the milk is so good. I love it. 
• Coffee at Highlands - 125.00
• I can't help it! We bought something from Landmark and I knew there's Highlands Coffee just across so yeah, got a medium iced mocha.
• Parking - 50.00

Sunday - 674.00

• Merienda at BRTO - 340.00
• I had birria burrito and house blend iced tea. So good! Went to Promenade at Greenhills to have my dyson submarine serviced. The mop attachment is having issues with leaking and sucking water in. I hope they fix it, better if they replace it. 
• Red mango - 95.00
• First time to try Red Mango. Finally! It's sweet and creamy and almost like White Hat but it's too sweet for me hehe.
• Parking - 50.00
• Badminton - 114.50
• Spider-Man Homecoming - 74.50
• We couldn't find it streaming anywhere so we had to rent a copy at Apple TV.

Hurray for a sub 1k day haha.

So how did I do last week?

Grand total - 7,807.51 

I'm averaging 1.1k per day which is uhm, not ideal lol. That's gotta change, but also, I just need to clear my current debt so that I can afford a 1k/day spending. Maybe that should be my limit. I think the major culprit it heading out, as it opens a lot of temptation to spend money on food. 

Big day today

Big day for me at work! Had to talk about a lot of things during our Q2 meeting earlier. I presented a PBI dashboard, an automation demo, and provided RPA updates. It's the longest I had to to talk during a meeting. Can't say it didn't stress me out. I had to prepare weeks for this. Admittedly though I only worked on the POC for the demo last week, and I only started focusing on the dashboard in June (that task was given to me April). My heart rate was peaking at 119bpm waiting for my turn. I thought it was anxiety, but I think I'm just excited. It's not like I'd be happy if it gets postponed. I really want to finish it already. And I'm really happy that it's over now. I always get anxious when presenting and talking, but I'm not one to back off of it because I know it's an essential skill to learn and I had to get used to it.

Anyway, whew! Thank you Lord for helping me today!

Life lately + a wishlist

It's been raining non-stop for the past two weeks. While I'm happy that we're safe and dry it's already a disaster outside and I can't wait for the sun to shine. I miss my family, my plant is dying for some sunshine, and so do our laundry.

Anyway, I've been feeling a bit overwhelmed at work lately. I have a demo presentation coming up next week that I have not prepared for, plus I need to work on my mid-year performance evaluation. Power BI has been eating me a lot. I've been learning so much and as much as I want to focus on it completely, I have a ton of automation tasks lined up that I also want to complete.

I'm very grateful that my manager is very understanding and reasonable so I don't really feel very very stressed haha.

In between getting tired at work I've been lurking at Shopee a lot so here goes a new wishlist...

1. Dyson Airstrait

The technology is really interesting. Blower and straightener in one. No hot plates. And best of all, it works on wet hair. Somehow my excitement has turned a nice-to-have into a need that's worth 28k hahaha. I've always wanted to dry my hair immediately after showering, but lack of time and my general laziness has brought me into just letting it air dry naturally. But then my wet and heavy hair feels icky and hot so I always end up tying my damp hair the whole day. It never dries properly, and I want to change that.

No actually I don't, I just want to justify buying the aistrait and that's a use case I can get back on haha. Makes me look nicer. 😊

2. Mini desk fan for the bathroom

One of the reasons I hate fixing myself after showering is that it gets really humid in the bathroom. And it's the only place I can blowdry my hair and apply makeup and skincare. If I can get a fan in there that would help.

3. A vacation

I need to rest. I miss Tagaytay. I miss trees and nature and fresh air. Hopefully in the coming months! 💖

4. New specs

My lens has scratches already and I can never get it clean enough even though I'm using glass cleaner. I also want something bigger that would comfortably cover my whole eyes. I'm looking at Sunnies Specs but I haven't fully decided on it. When I get enough funds!

That's it I guess.

Stay safe and dry! 

[Ayala Land Inc.] Cancellation of CTS / Refund under Maceda Law / PD 957 - a timeline

Here's a timeline on how we cancelled our CTS (Contract to Sell) with Amaia Skies Avenida, and get a 50% refund...

✨ December 2020 - we reserved 2 studio units at Amaia Skies Avenida, which was pre-selling then. The property cost ₱3M without VAT. Including all other charges it cost ₱3.264M per unit. With 54 months to pay we were paying ₱11,351.32 for both units. Our checks are dated until June 30, 2025. 

5 years later... 

✨ January 2025 - started selling the property. Had our broker post it online for interest. Turn over was delayed, as expected. The original purpose for this investment is really to buy and sell. We weren't in a rush yet.

✨ March 2025 - 3 months in the market and no solid interest.

✨ May 2025 - we started getting more involved in selling, posting on our personal pages and selling to friends. We've also entered the listing in several condo pasalo groups, including Facebook Marketplace. But reception remained dismal.

✨ June 2025 - we learned that the developer is selling at a ridiculously low price. Much lower than our selling price. They offer 10% discount for no spot DP, or 20% off if you pay 10% DP. There's no way we can compete with that. Let's compute. 

Current market price is ₱3.8M.

With 20% off, selling price would be down to ₱3M. Adding VAT and all other charges, the total selling price would probably fall around ₱3.3M. This is developer price. Which is almost the same price 5 years ago.

We need to pasalo ₱2.94M to the buyer. This is the amount we owe to the developer which can be bank financed. It's fixed. This leaves us with a profit margin of only ₱360,000.

If we sell at ₱3.3M - considering capital gains tax (6%), documentary stamps tax (1.5%), and broker's fee (5%), we take home -₱50K. That's NEGATIVE ₱50,000 HAHAHA. 

Now let's price match the 10% developer discount. That would bring down the price to ₱3.42M. Add other charges and net selling price would probably go to ₱3.72M.

With the same pasalo amount, we get a margin of around ₱780K.

If we sell at ₱3.72M - with the same taxes and fees applied, we get to take home more or less ₱300K per unit. Sweet right? But remember, developer price has NO SPOT DP. Whereas we require a cashout of ₱780K. And we've been on the market for half a year already. No takers.

Currently we've brought down the price to ₱3.6M and still there are no takers. Any lower and we're looking at a loss of more than 50%.

We weren't considering taking a loan on this one cos honestly, after much thinking, the property isn't worth it. A ₱6M loan would take us back ₱40K per month for 20 years and no way we're paying that much for a property that doesn't even have that much potential. It's admittedly a bad investment. Made worse because of the economy and quite honestly, the POGO exit lol. 

That said we've decided to cut our losses by invoking our rights through the Maceda Law/ PD 957. At least we get 50% back.

HOW TO KNOW IF YOU QUALIFY FOR A REFUND?

Respicio & Co. gives a comprehensive explanation on how you can get a refund under Maceda Law / PD957. You may read about it here: https://www.respicio.ph/commentaries/condo-contract-cancellation-under-pd-957 

In our case since turnover is delayed and we've paid for more than 2 years, we just had to formally request for cancellation of contract and the developer should honor it - no questions asked. The law also overrides any non-refundable clauses found in your contract, especially for preselling condos paid on installment basis. 😊

Take note that you can only get at least 50% refund with this method. And this only applies to developer contracts, not bank contracts. If you have taken a loan already, I'm afraid this is not the right recourse.

Here's how to reach Ayala Land Inc.

ALI Residential Customer Service

residential.customers@ayalaland.com.ph

+632 8848 5000 

✨ June 28, 2025 - Emailed a formal request to cancel CTS to ALI Residential Customer Service. I posted the letter template here: [Sample letter] Request for cancellation of CTS with Ayala Land Inc. 

I also called them beforehand to inquire about the process and let them know I'm emailing afterwards. They seem to respond faster if you call them first.

✨ June 30, 2025 - They acknowledged the email and promised to revert back as soon as the computation for refund is available.  At this point we have paid around ₱650K to Amaia. We're hoping to get at least ₱325K back.

✨ July 17, 2025 - Sent a follow up email.

✨ July 18, 2025 - They finally responded with a refund computation. The letters indicate we are entitled to around ₱163K per unit. Exactly 50% of the amount we paid. The letters were also dated July 8, 2025. If we hadn't followed up I wonder if they're ever gonna send it 🤔. Anyway, we're happy.

So to note, it takes one week for the refund computation to be available. Make sure to follow up then.

✨ July 21, 2025 - We acknowledged the refund computation and asked to proceed with the cancellation.

✨ July 22, 2025 - ALI has started preparation of DOC (Deed of Cancellation) and RWQ (Release, Waiver, and Quitclaim). Process will take 10 working days. We're expecting a soft copy then. They also mentioned that the refund will be issued through check. But since we requested for bank transfer instead, they will endorse the check for bank deposit as soon as it's available. We then gave our bank details. 😊

✨ August 5, 2025 - Sent a follow-up email.

✨ August 12, 2025 - called ALI because no one was responding to the email (as usual). Turns out the documents are already available and no one cared to reply to the email. I rated them low in the post-call survey. They sent the DOC and RWQ right after. We were given until August 22 to send back the signed scanned copies.

✨ August 20, 2025 - Sent a scanned copy of the DOC and RWQ for approval before getting the latter notarized. It was quite an ordeal getting the docs printed and signed. DOC needs to be in 5 copies, and RWQ needs to be in 2 copies, 3 - including the copy you leave at the notary.

✨ August 21, 2025 - ALI replied in the affirmative in consideration that all pages have been duly signed. 

So now we wait. They say the timeline for check availability could be 5-6 weeks. Surprisingly...

✨ September 1, 2025 - They emailed that one of our checks is now available for pickup, and they're following up the other check.

✨ September 2, 2025 - Our 2nd check is now ready! I know we requested to just have the check deposited to our account, but in our excitement we're just gonna pick it up tomorrow. We had the RWQ notarized this night.

✨ September 3, 2025 - Finally got our checks! They were dated August 15 and 19 so it's been ready for over 2 weeks before they had the diligence to inform us. I'm happy it didn't take 5 weeks but I'm not impressed at the inefficiency. They're super slow. 

The refund computation that was ready on July 8, they never told us until 10 days later after we followed up. 

The DOC and RWQ has long been ready and we would never have known if we didn't call. They have no initiative. Could've saved us a week.

And now, we could've gotten our checks a week earlier, but they were just so damn bad at updating their clients. They always need to be nagged.

Anyway. All is good now that we had our checks deposited. The refund was issued in a form of manager's check from Deutsche Bank.

✨ Finally ✨ 

From our initial email on June 28 up to today, September 3 - it took 10 weeks to get our 50% refund back. But if you kept following up for the availability of the computation, DOC, RWQ, and check, it could save you 4 weeks of waiting. 😊

That's it! Hope this helps. 

New building, new woes, and my knee buckling

Today is the first day of our transfer to the new building, WCC. New building meaning the main building that's a lot prettier than BOTT haha. This building is right smack in what I call the office central, which is where most BGC corporate buildings stand side by side. So yeah, it can get crowded. And hot. And annoying. Here I made a pros and cons list of working in this new building because just a few hours in and I already badly miss BOTT hahaha. Despite it looking drab and old, it's pretty peaceful on that side of BGC. It's more open and green, and I can walk around without suffocating. Anyway here you go:

Today's favorite thing 

 

Here at WCC...

👍Pros:

• Beautiful lobby
• Cute office interior
• Better monitor mounts
• Feels more active and engaging
• Free parking with license plate recognition 
• Highlands Coffee right within the building! And Jollibee!
• Food is nearer
• Landmark is just across haha
• Seating cubes are open, no partition. I'm putting it under pros for now cos so far I don't hate it hehe. 

 

👎Cons:

• Fewer parking spaces. Literal first come, first served. Guard doesn't assign slots unlike BOTT so you know right ahead if there's a slot available.
• Nearby pay parking areas are too crowded. BOTT has pay parking in the building itself so when I run out of free slots I can easily find another one. Other parking areas include Stopover and the big open parking that's two blocks away.
• Back to the bad parking areas. Three Parkade is so ugly and tight huhu and it's the nearest parking alternative. It's almost VRP tight but made worse because it's darker and more crowded and the scaffolding flooring shakes. I hate it. If only slots free up within the start of my shift that would be great but I had no luck earlier.
• It's so hot in this area. As soon as you head out of the building, it's hell. It's car fumes, building exhaust, and people's sweat. They're what make up BGC. I can leisurely walk two blocks around BOTT but here I'd probably die on the first turn. I'm kidding, I survived walking around earlier, it's just too hot for my own sake.
• Traffic in and out. I'm faced with more traffic coming to and going out of the office. More stoplights and lots of going around one way streets. I miss how BOTT is so easily accessible any time of the day. 
• Smaller comfort room. BOTT has 6 cubicles and a very loud exhaust that makes it easy to hide your business (aka #2) hehe. They also have better tissue and a stronger hand dryer lol. Here at WCC, there are 4 cubicles all in front of the short sink area (2 sinks only), tissue breaks off too easily, but hey lighting is better? Haha

 

🦵 Oh my knee

It's been a while since my knee last buckled. Considering I'm very careful of it now I didn't think it will attack again. I thought I was regaining control of my right knee, building better support and stronger muscles. But earlier as I was comfortably seated eating dinner, it buckled painfully. I was in a middle of a call with my husband so I had to drop and snap it back. Boy did it loudly click back in place. It was less painful than before but only because I addressed it as quickly as I could. Anyway. I'm taking note of this day. 

Okay meeting's over, got to go! 

[Sample letter] Request for cancellation of CTS with Ayala Land Inc.

Here's a template for the letter we sent ALI regarding the cancellation of our CTS for a pre-selling unit. We're doing this to cut losses and get at least 50% of our payments back.

For more details on our refund journey, read here: [Ayala Land Inc.] Cancellation of CTS / Refund under Maceda Law / PD 957 - a timeline

---

[Date]

[NAME OF PRIMARY BUYER]
[Registered address]
[City, Zip]
[Registered email]
[Registered mobile number]

Request for Cancellation of Contract to Sell and Refund under Maceda Law

To Whom It May Concern,

I am writing to formally request the cancellation of my Contract to Sell (CTS) for a pre-selling condominium unit located at [Property name] – [Unit#].

Over the past [X] years, I have completed paying the downpayment through post-dated checks, amounting to [PHP XXX,XXX.XX].

Due to ongoing financial constraints and our inability to secure a buyer since [month] of this year, I am no longer in a position to proceed with the purchase. As such, I respectfully request the cancellation of the CTS and a refund of at least fifty percent (50%) of the total payments made, in accordance with Section 3(b) of the Maceda Law.

I understand that the law entitles buyers who have paid at least two years of installments to a refund of 50% of total payments made, excluding interest and penalties. I am prepared to comply with any procedural requirements you may have.

Please consider this letter as my formal notice of cancellation. I would appreciate a written confirmation of receipt and the next steps regarding the refund process.

Thank you for your attention to this matter. I hope for your kind understanding and cooperation.

Sincerely,

___________________________
[Purchaser/s name and signature]
Purchasers

---

Many thanks to copilot of coming up with the letter. I just had to give it a prompt. Now if you're sure with your decision and confirmed you're eligible, just email the signed letter to: 

ALI Residential Customer Service
residential.customers@ayalaland.com.ph

It would be best to give them a call beforehand so an agent would be expecting your email already. You may call them at:

+632 8848 5000

Hope this helps 😊

Sick 🤧

Been feeling sick the past few days. Started Thursday, broke into a fever then mellowed down to the usual cough and colds. It's a good thing I only had fever for one night. I'm feeling a lot better now but I also know I could've recovered more quickly had I not eaten a lot of sweets. Thing is, I prepared two fruit desserts for the week that I can't afford to go bad hahaha. So I kinda had to munch through them despite my sore throat. It's my fault really. But my avocadoes and saba con yelo can't wait!!! Huhu.

For today's flu my weapons are:

• Bioflu every 6hrs during fever
• 2x Immunpro vitamin c + zinc daily
• Stresstabs multivitamins
• Betadine mouthwash 2x a day
• Lianhua lung clearing tea
• Ginger and honey tea
• Avoid cold drinks and sweets

I'm fighting the urge to chomp down on the remaining serving of minatamis na saba sitting in the ref but I have to go to the gym tomorrow so I can't afford to feel bad again. I almost always fall sick after eating sweets during recovery. I also need to prepare myself for the drive to work because we're moving to a different building and I'm unsure where to park and where to sit. Just the thought of it gives me anxiety, specially that my office bff isn't coming tomorrow so I'm going solo hahaha. But really, worst case is I don't get parking so I have to park at Landmark or One Parkade. Worst worst case - I don't get a seat, which really sucks cos it means I have to drive back to the other building. Good thing I don't have any afternoon meetings so I have time to spare fumbling about this new routine. I'm already dreading the traffic tbh. There are more stoplights around this new building, also it gets really busy at night so driving out of BGC could be a menace. Oh well, we'll see!

Happy Friday?

It's been a while since I opened my laptop. Sometimes I wonder if I should've just bought a macbook air instead because it's lighter (by 300g 🤣). Also cheaper. It's pretty hard to carry the pro around. Even when I'm just at home lol. Then again I wanted a pro because I would probably need the extra ports and the pro features and also the fan if I ever get too passionate about upgrading my vlog editing skills lol. Who knows, I might start developing ios apps too? It's nice to dream no? Chances are I'll never get to maximize this laptop the way I wanted. What a luxury to be able to future proof myself this way.

A week ago we attended a birthday/dedication party of one our friend's daughter. Jeckie was chosen as ninong, along with the rest of the guys, and one of the wives. And I... feel left out. My husband didn't even tell me he was ninong. I only learned when they were being called for a photo, and I found myself left at the table, with another wife (what a consolation right?). 

That time I was reminded, once again, of my place in his group of friends. That I'm not really a friend. I'm a friend's wife. My husband thinks that because we're married, his friends should be my friends too so that we're one big circle of friends. But honestly, I've never felt like we're one big circle. I'm okay outside, being a friend's wife. That's literally what I am. 

Anyway, I also realized that being ninang was not a courtesy extended to you if your husband is a ninong, but a deliberate decision made by the parents. And knowing them, they must've really considered the roster. Agnostic and child-free don't exactly sound like someone you'd want to foster your daughter whom you just dedicated to God, but they probably knew better, saw deeper. That makes me proud of my husband. And I hope that's not just a courtesy due to their friendship.

At first it hurt not to be chosen, so I promised to know my place. I may have overestimated our friendship. From now on, I'm not going to spend on their gifts, I'll leave that to my husband. I'll stop reminding him to buy them gifts, I don't care anymore, who am I anyway? He's the friend, not me. So petty haha and I'm kidding okay. But as I dwelled on it throughout the party, I realized I was actually jealous that my husband gets to be ninong to kids whose parents he actually cares about.

For the record, I don't know who my inaanaks are. Most of them are pamangkins, from cousins I'm not even that close to. I was just appointed as ninang because it's my turn after my sister got the older ones lol. We may have a culture of choosing godparents based on how much you can extort from them. I don't have any inaanaks outside the family (just one, maybe I should start paying attention to her), which makes me think that I really don't have any friends. More to that, I don't deserve to be ninang.

That sucks right?

My friends come and go. I don't reach out. I lose touch. I let it die. I have multiple circles of friends from the different phases of my life. I have highschool friends, college friends, office friends, then my family (the only constant). When I leave a phase, the circle fades. It's difficult for me to maintain friendships when we don't share the same space anymore. The same classroom, the same office, the same dorm. It's just how I am. I'm really bad at keeping in touch. Should I change? I know it's for the better. Relationships matter the most right? 

I'm okay with who I have right now though. Which isn't a lot. Urgh. I don't know. 

Some Happy Things

Now that I'm in front of my blog I can't seem to remember what to write about. And I do remember wanting to write about a lot of things haha

So let's just do a 10 some happy things!

🍔 Estancia is opening a lot of good restaurants! There's Buffalo's Wings n' Things, Shake Shack, and Yabu coming soon to name a few! Love it! Good variety too. Hopefully they add an Indian restaurant naman haha

💻 Came to the office yesterday despite the rainstorm. I look forward to Monday RTO's because I get to have a bit of a me time and also focus on work better. But most importantly, I need to complete my RTO quota for the month haha. 

As usual I enjoyed walking slowly and leisurely to dinner, where I had hotpot at Sichu Malatang and froyo at llao llao. Same exact things I had the day before. I realized I didn't want noodles in my hotpot. I love beef, vegetables, mushrooms, and the various fish balls. I also love the peanut sauce with black vinegar. Urgh writing about it makes me hungry!

🏠 No luck selling our condo. Hopefully we can exit via Maceda Law or PD 957, so that at least we can get 50% of our downpayment back. Hoping for the best. But quite honestly we've already accepted losing the entire investment. We're more excited with the prospect of not having to pay monthly anymore. So it's either 0 or 50% back, and we're happy either way. The odds are against us. Condo oversupply, low market price, and we're competing with the developer too. Yep, the condo didn't sell out 5 years after pre-selling. Can you believe they're offering 20-30% off on it, with no spot DP? It's not fair. That's even less than the amount we need to pasalo to prospective buyers and we still need to cover taxes and fees. There's no way to get a positive return in this investment and waiting for the market to recover means drowning in debt. We're not sacrificing our standard of living for a condo we don't even see ourselves using. Cutting our losses is the only way. 

This is a happy thing because we're just tired of paying and we're finally over it! Yayy!

📊 I'm learning and loving Power BI! Really love designing the dashboard and learning data modeling ♥️

That's it for now! Happy Wednesday! 

Life lately

↪ Team summer outing was a success, yeyy! Everyone was so cool. We had fun! We played board games that challenged us physically (taco cat goat cheese pizza ), mentally (poetry for neanderthals), and morally (sheriff) HAHAHA. We had so much food. The grates of the grill was pretty cooked so most of my liempo got a burnt crust huhu but it's still delicious. No one died.

Now that I know how to set up an outing like this I'd be more comfortable doing this in the future! It's a learning experience that paid off for me cos now I feel more comfortable with everyone 💖.

↪ Finally I can focus on working on other stuff on my plate. Namely, becoming an expert at Power BI and doing this local automation via Studio X! 

↪ A major case of FOMO led me to follow most of my Facebook friends again, after unfollowing everyone some 5 years ago. It's become a habit of mine to immediately unfollow any new friend because I wanted to protect my feed from their vanity lol. But lately, Facebook has infringed on that liberty by pushing dumb content from equally dumb influencers so I thought I'd fight back by choosing to hear from my friends again, regaining illusory control of what my eyes consume. But really I'm just giving myself more reason to doomscroll. Fine, Facebook you win. 

Now that I'm exposed to a lot of personal posts again, I'm reminded that there are some people that I actually do not prefer to hear about HAHAHA and so I have to unfollow some people again lol #sorrynotsorry.

↪ I have so much to do at work I don't even know where to begin. Hay Lord!

PBI

Haaay. It's been monthsss since I told myself I'll study Power BI but until now I'm not making progress and it's already May and next thing I know it's June already and I promised my manager to deliver this task by then!

I'm doomed!

Small wins

↪ I sent out two emails to the team regarding our upcoming summer outing. A calendar invite and a poll for venue options. I gave out 3 airbnb options which I already reserved, so I'll just keep the winning listing after the poll. Thank God for free cancellation!

↪ I've been feeling very anxious about this task. When my manager casually told me to organize the outing I knew I had to follow through because uhm it's an order hahaha and also I do want a team outing! I've been feeling very distant with everyone and I wanna close that gap by trying to get to know them better. I know they're all cool and I would love to feel closer to the team.

As an introvert though, it's a nightmare planning stuff. Not because it's hard to get everyone's involvement, on the contrary they're all very game about the prospect of a team building, but because I don't know where to start and what to do and ask of everybody. In general, I'm very indecisive and shy, but I'm pretty enthusiastic about participating. I'm actually quite social but I don't want to be the responsible party.

I wonder how Maki does it back in White & Case, she's always on top of things like this! 

Anyway. It's good practice. Now that the poll is out and the venue is almost secured, this is really happening! Now we just need to decide on the food, carpool options, and collect payment. Should be easy right?

At least I get to design a teaser in Canva! Haha

↪ My head has been hurting for a couple of days now. It's probably period migraines and I hate it.

↪ I got my MRI results yesterday. ACL is intact thank God but there's something about my meniscus that I need to ask the doctor about. It says lobulated parameniscal cyst along the anterior horn. GenAI says it's associated with a meniscal tear, which I know I've had since highschool. So now I need to know my next steps cos it's starting to hurt. I have to wait for the images though cos they ran out of film. Funnily they gave me a CD of the images. Like, who still has CD drives in this age? Oh well, guess it's still a medical standard. They gave me access to the raw files on Google Drive, which prompted me to install a DICOM image viewer because they're in a different format. It looks cool haha. Still prefer the printout lol.

↪ Started our sessions with coach Gene yesterday. I was able to go through the exercises even on a fast. My husband however almost fainted. It's been a while since he worked out. Looking forward to really improving our health and general fitness! And primarily fix my knees! 🤞

Holy Thursday

Just taking the the time to look back on the previous week as I've just uploaded a new vlog hehe

Thankful for mommy's successful operation. It took an entire day! She's now in the ICU under careful monitoring. When her state improves she'll be transferred to a pay ward. Praying for a speedy recovery!

It's a difficult phase for the family. I know I'm not too hands on about it because I don't live with them anymore so it's my dad and sister who does all the legwork. Between watching mommy and trying to collect funds and guarantee letters from charity institutions and politicians, I know it's been terribly exhausting for them. If money wasn't an issue, meaning we have at least 2 million lying around, then this wouldn't put so much stress on them. But the reality is, they didn't have much saved. We all don't. They had to sell one of their properties, and even that wasn't enough. So my sister has to run around chasing charities for guarantee letters to ease up the expenses a little bit. And my dad has to take a bank loan because the bills just keep piling. I'm immensely thankful for the both of them and every day I ask God to continue giving them strength. 

When I visited mommy in PHC I was told to drive the car back to the house because they don't have overnight parking in PHC, even the one along Matalino. You have to pay by the hour, and they're probably staying for weeks so that's gonna cost a lot. I was a bit worried about this little side quest because it's been almost a year since I drove the Vios and I'm always afraid of driving a different car. I wouldn't dare. But this time I had to.

As I stepped inside and sat down to adjust myself, it felt strange. There was no wave of nostalgia, no familiar feeling. It's finally sinking in. This car isn't mine. At least not anymore. It's daddy's car now, has been for almost a year, and it shows. I had to adjust everything to suit me. The seat, the mirrors, where I put my things. I can feel its age, with the tight steering and light brake pedal. I can see daddy's mess as he always leaves personal items in the car, much to mommy dismay haha. I was cautious not to gas too hard because I know it's not as heavy as our new car. But this car is new. It's new to me. There's no traces of my ownership left in this humble orange casing. As I stepped out of it and locked the door, I started to miss Vi, realizing that our bond has been long gone. I guess that's just the nature of ownership, if it's yours it will show.

Much like our relationship with the Lord. If you're His, it will show. And everyday it's a struggle.

May we all have a meaningful holy week. ✟

Aja mama!

In a few hours my mom will be on the table to get a complex procedure done. There's nothing we can do at this point besides pray for a successful operation and a speedy recovery. She's getting a triple bypass and two valve replacement (aortic and mitral) surgeries at Philippine Heart Center. Multiple open heart procedures that will take a day. Be strong mommy! We're all rooting for you! I'm very excited for her recovery! But I also pray for strength for daddy and Terai who's doing all the legwork to ensure a smooth experience for mama. From watching at the hospital to processing grant letters here and there. Ate Necie as well who's been essential in keeping the house in order and attending to mama when she's at home. I pray to God that when mama is back to her good health, we can all enjoy a nice and sweet vacation! 

On another note, we're on the book of Exodus on our daily reading and I'm at the point where The Promised Land started. It's funny cos the show helped me imagine what's going on in the Bible so it's easier to recall. The Israelites sure are a stubborn and ungrateful bunch. They would complain over and over to Moses and would say they'd rather be back as slaves in Egypt. Seriously! If I were Moses I would feel very defeated, forcing a nation out of captivity and getting resented for it. I mean, I don't know if I could blame them. The journey to Canaan was long and arduous and they were bored to death. They probably felt more productive in Egypt, even as slaves, than in the wilderness, free but with no direction. Well they wouldn't be without purpose if they just listened to God but they just had to be stubborn, losing sight of the goal. Oh well.

Health needs wealth

Mommy was rushed to the hospital again. She'll be staying in the ICU for a while then getting an angioplasty. It's been very challenging for the family, financially speaking, because she just got out of the ICU on Feb and it took selling one of their income generating properties to pay for part of the bill and save up for her upcoming major surgery. And now she's back at hospital. Hay.

While I don't worry about it directly because I'm not with them and I'm not obligated to contribute, I know we're a few emergencies away from getting zeroed from paying hospital bills. With no HMO, and no stable source of income, eventually the cost will come down to us, Jec and I specifically. And we don't have much saved for medical emergencies. Specially from both sides. At the same time! My mother-in-law is also in a midst of a health crisis right now and I could only pray it's nothing serious. Or at least not too expensive.

And me? I just had an ortho consult earlier, which confirmed that there's something wrong with my right knee the way it's getting twisted more frequently lately. Doctor said it's kind of loose and needs to be scanned. Will be getting an MRI and hope for the best. Hope it's nothing serious like another ACL tear. I know I have a meniscus tear there from way back in highschool. It doesn't really hurt right now, and I'm being careful about it. But yeah, really need to strengthen my legs. I don't wanna undergo another ACL surgery and lose another full range of motion. Haaay. And while I have HMO, I would need to pay for the implant out of pocket again. I'm screwed (pun intended).

Aside from my knee, I've been advised time and time again to get a bridge for the gap in my teeth. Somehow it's causing my front teeth to move now and eventually it's gonna look bad. I've had a molar removed over 10 years ago and I never really worry about it because it's at the back. But you know because I'm lacking a molar, I couldn't chew on the left side of my mouth. That's been the case for more than 10 years. My dentist this time was able to sales talk me into getting a porcelain crown. It will cost 45k to do, which I'm seriously considering but I don't know I need to prioritize my savings first. I guess I'll wait for my mom to finish her surgery to see if I have the capacity to spend any more money.

Hay Lord.

Ugly good

Let's start with the ugly things first because hay. 

✱ My husband just left to go out with his friends. Again. I mean he goes out with them every week. I let him because I have no good reason to keep him at home on a Friday night. On one hand, I get to have time alone to write this and probably do my review backlogs. On the other hand, I cannot get rid of the sadness I feel every time he leaves. What if he dies? Yeah seriously.

✱ One of my orders got delivered to the wrong address. Driver never communicated, and he has no number on the app. I had to get it from customer support, which didn't help because the number cannot be reached. Rider chat was closed even when I have not marked the item as received, which is weird. The only good thing he did was attach proof of delivery in the app, which confirmed that he left my item in the wrong address. A condo on the other side of town.

✱ Koomi has been vomiting bile quite frequently lately. We tried increasing his food intake because we thought he just needed to eat more but sometimes he wouldn't even finish them. I feel bad calling him a bad boy and delaying his dental treat whenever he doesn't finish his food. :( 

✱  I've been over ordering food, again, and it sucks. For merienda I had pancit, shanghai, rice, and biko. And I only finished the pancit, the rest I could't finish. Then dinner came and I over ordered again. I had pad thai, pork krapow, lemongrass juice, and thai milk tea. I only finished the krapow and the lemongrass juice. I had rice, pad thai, and thai milk tea left over. On the plus side, I had the rest of the biko for dessert hehe. So yeah, lots of leftovers, hay.

✱  I was so lazy today I literally didn't do anything at work. It's the Friday curse. I was productive 3 days so maybe that counts? haha

As for the good things... let's see if I get to 10...

✱ The trending ghiblify me prompt is so cute. Creatives hate it for good reason, but I really love the output. Just look at these...

✱ I finally got to try a camera filter for the iphone. I bought a cheap option first, a phone case with a 58mm filter mount then I got a CPL and a dynamic ND filter. Set me back 1.2k, which is cheaper than my original preference which is a magsafe filter mount which of course needs magnetic filters as well, and they're mooore expensive.

It's really cool BUT the camera takes longer to focus now because there's a lens that's very close to it. This is a major one for me because it slows down my point and shoot process. I guess I'll stick to my default setup, which is nothing haha.

This is the type I got:

✱ Other purchases that made me happy: a new strap for my watch and a wrist wrest for my keyboard. Hopefully I don't get rashes with the strap cos it's nylon and breathable. And as for the wrist rest, it comes off a bit too high for my low profile keyboard but it is comfy! ♥️

✱ Unilab set off fireworks three times this week and it's amaaaaazing. We had the best view. It's the closest fireworks display we've ever witnessed in our unit and I loooove it! Better than NYE! 

✱  I just ticked off a big to-do at work so I'm now ready to start on my other projects lol. Gotta learn Power BI! 

✱  I've been buying a lot of things lately. I bought a new set of clothes from Uniqlo, intended for active use. Hopefully we get back to working out regularly in the coming weeks. :)

Oh well, still a good list. Happy weekend!

Everything hurts

My left hand hurts. I maaay have carpal tunnel syndrome according to youtube haha or a pinched nerve. I really shouldn't be spending more time on the computer. But yeah, my hand hurts when you put pressure on my thumb. Like a pinched nerve that won't go away. I hate it. Everything hurts. I'm an old hag. I've been twisting my right knee more frequently. It's so painful, like something got dislocated. And the only way around it is to snap it back into place by slowly straightening it. It's freaking torture I have to endure. The other day was the worst. Happened twice in a day within 4 hours of each other. And the 2nd one was fraking hell. Felt 2 snaps when I was straightening it. I really should get checked.

Friday's 10 Happy Things

✱ Slow RTO days

Like I said in my previous post, I enjoyed my time alone this Monday! I think I love walking around, but slowly haha

✱ Mama's birthday!

Went to celebrate mama's birthday in advance on Sunday. Since she can't go out yet we just ordered in food and I bought her flowers ♥️ 

✱ Beautiful flowers

I think it's the first time I bought someone flowers myself. My sister usually buys for us then I just chip in. But on Sunday after church I decided to get mama a small bouquet, after checking the price of course! Haha I didn't expect flowers to be this expensive? I think it's because I bought at Designer Blooms so it's definitely more expensive hehe Terai usually buys flowers in the market where it's 3x cheaper haha I'm very happy though because it's super beautiful and mama loved it!

✱ Team dinner

Came to the office again on Wednesday to meet with the team. I kinda looks forward to days like this where I can meet the rest of the team. Our manager brought food for everyone, we had games, and had fun!

✱ New personal Bible

On ate RJ's suggestion, I bought a personal Bible. I did have a personal Bible before but that was so long ago and I didn't get to really read it that much. I spent so much time choosing which Bible to get because there are so many pretty options right now. I know I want to get a CSB version because it's midway between word-for-word and thought-for-thought translation which makes a good balance between accuracy and readability. I bought this particular one because it's pretty haha. Hope to be able to read it a lot! 🙏

✱ Cure Aqua Gel

I recently discovered Cure Natural Aqua Gel from someone I follow on Instagram and holey moley it's instantly the best exfoliator out there! It doesn't have abrasive microbeads. It's just some form of hydrogenized water that instantly turns dirt on your skin into balls of skin cells that like libag but white. It's so cool. I couldn't believe it at first so I did 2 rounds to test if it's just the product that's clustering like that but wow the 2nd round didn't yield much libag unlike the first round so I was convinced. It also made my skin feel very smooth and clean. I love how it's so gentle yet super effective! 

✱ Bible study with ate RJ ☺️

Had Bible study earlier this afternoon despite both of us feeling sick from our allergies. We just did a recap of our previous sessions, discussed the Best Decision booklet and prayed. 

✱ Manam dinner ♥️

Ordered Manam for dinner because we didn't do the grocery this week and I'm too lazy to cook!

✱ Saitama mousepad haha

Bought a cute mousepad for Jec and I haha

✱ Beautiful sky earlier

Just marveled at the beautiful sky earlier after praying.

Slow walks

Today's walk was lovely. I sometimes look forward to RTO days alone because I don't have to rush walking around BGC to match Urielle's pace cos she walks so fast haha! 

Had ramen, froyo, and enough time to spare looking around Muji where I bought stationery.

Iced coffee and fries on the way back cos I got hungry again!

BGC cats are adorable!

It was so chill, I wasn't rushing, at times I would even stop just to ponder.

I love slow walks.

I had trouble getting into my parking slot but thank God I was able to get in properly without scratching the car beside me!

Thank God for today ♥️

Friday's 10 Happy Things

✱ Enjoying my macbook! Love the audio. Still getting used to the interface but so far so good. Also, the battery life is superb!

✱ Had Bible study earlier with sis RJ. It was just the two of us but I'm very thankful for her. 

✱ I'm 72kgs now, from 76 last November. I stopped working out cos I got lazy, but I'm doing intermittent fasting with my husband and it's been quite effective.

✱ Been shopping the past few weeks. Our bonuses came in this month so I feel rich right now. Key word: right now haha. Got new sheets, pillow covers, dish rack, organizers, mats, decor, etc. from Nitori and Ikea.

✱ Restarting my skincare routine with Laneige. It's been effective for me before, but I couldn't sustain it cos it was so expensive for me that time. That was 6 years ago. Now I think I can afford it. But it still comes down to discipline though. My thing about skincare routines is that I can only do it at night, but I'm hesitant to cos I want to cuddle with my husband before going to bed and I'm afraid all the product will just be wiped off haha.

✱ Reinstated our Vitality policies after learning from a friend that it boosts our ACP100's coverage by 250k. And my dad said it was okay to not pay it because we're not using it anyway! Hay! Haha

✱ Happy that once a year I get to buy off almost all of the things I want without worry because #bonus haha. Most of the stuff in my cart are 1k upwards and it's difficult to splurge on them every swelday kasi mahal! haha

✱ More on my macbook. I bought a 1TB version and I'm just happy that I have finally transferred product review footage from my phone and ipad, freeing up a loooot of storage on my mobile and tablet. I was finally able to update their software lol. I moved like 50GB worth of videos. I'm so behind my product reviews!

✱ I drew a bit today! I was listening to some Ghibli lofi BGM which had really cute visuals so I decided to copy from it, not realizing they were AI generated lol. I haven't drawn in a while so this is as good as its gets haha

✱ Cooked buffalo chicken thighs tonight!

Happy Weekend!

Got mac!

Finally! Got a MacBook Pro M4 this weekend! I've been looking around for good installment deals but their retail price and cash price at the mall is usually higher than the listed price at apple.com.

Beyond the Box is the only one that offers cash price near the official price and sakto they had a promo this weekend for BPI. I got it for 36 months 0% interest on cash price + buy now pay 3 months later. It's like the best apple deal ever! Instead of paying straight, I'd rather let the money earn in HYSA like Maya or CIMB while slowly paying it off.

I wasn't in a rush to get a macbook but I am actively looking around. I remember they had the same promo a few months ago but there was no stock so I decided to wait.

I'm excited about a lot of things, mostly airdrop lol and the possibility of learning to edit videos better.

I'm frustrated about a lot of things as well. I consider myself a Windows power user and I'm very very dependent on keyboard shortcuts and would prefer typing to using the mouse. In that regard, this macbook is slowing me down.

Hopefully it's just a learning curve. I've been struggling to remember new shortcuts like print screen, lock screen, new tab, quit tab, address bar, etc. Instead of being able to type on the address bar I keep making bookmarks haha. And it feels weird that the command button which acts like the control button in Windows is beside the spacebar. It's messing up with my muscle memory lol

Nonetheless, I'm more excited than frustrated so I pray it's just a matter of time. 

Thank you Lord! ♥️