First half of 2020

“What is the most useless material that was bought in 2019?

...

A 2020 Planner”

This... is partly true.

The ash fall from the eruption of Taal volcano at the first month of the year, shutdown establishments, highways and airports. Limiting most of our movements due to the air being unsafe.

We thought this was just a little bump at the start of the year. Everything seemed to have been back to normal after a few weeks - or so we thought.

Come March, everyone was forced to a lockdown/ community quarantine due to the pandemic. Half of the year has passed and some areas are still in community quarantine, though some business have been reopened, most areas still feel like ghost towns as there are only limited number of people allowed in establishments.

Wheeeeeww!!!! That was depressing.

To make things a little lighter, I would like to share what I am grateful for despite the first half of the year being unpleasant.

At the first two months of the year, my daughter was able to visit to at least one province from Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.

Let me elaborate on that. We moved from Abra to Manila last October 2019. So our home base is now Manila.

So for the first day of January, my daughter and I were in the Province of Abra in Luzon.

A few weeks later, late January, we went to the Province of Zamboanga del Norte in Mindanao, with my husband who was on vacation. This is my husband’s province. We were there for about a week.

Mid- February, we went to the Province of Cebu in Visayas, to accompany my aunt who was visiting from Australia.

Despite the months after the being shitty, I look back and still feel grateful that my daughter and I were able to travel. Though, truthfully the only reason we were able to travel is because we had family matters to attend to.

What I am trying to say is, at least my daughter was able to see different places before she was home-locked due to the pandemic. 

It is within this first half of the year that I started to return to blogging and tried to revisit some of my forgotten hobbies. This is a work in progress.

That is all for now I guess.

I wonder what the other half of the year will be.

Till next time.

—- 

PS. There are other things that happened within the first half of the year, but these are family matter that I cannot share in my blog.

PSS. To those saying “ang yabang naman” or “check your privileges girl”...

I want to make it clear that the travel to different provinces were opportunities that I decided to take for my daughter to be able to see places. We don’t usually travel, it just happened that we had to go to these places and it happened that we had/ we were offered the resources for it.

I acknowledge the fact that we are one of the “lucky ones” who, despite the pandemic is still able to live comfortably. Though that does not mean that we don’t go out of our way to help in our small ways - we simply don’t post in public the kind of help we provide.

New normal

The current pandemic has definitely changed the new normal.

The face masks, sudden increase in demand for health care and sanitary products, and physical distancing are now the new norm.

Some business have adapted to the change to continue their service. Since most food establishments don’t allow you to eat at the restaurant itself, they have opted for take out or delivery services.

In the wet market, though the volume of people increased and more stalls have opened, rules are still observed. Volunteers go around with megaphones reminding people of physical distancing. The market has only two entrances and two exits (both with disinfecting stalls). The tricycles are only allowed one passenger per vehicle.

In the malls and grocery stores, they check your temperature and spray you with alcohol as you enter the premises. Also physical distancing is greatly encouraged by the management, that they even put stickers and paint on the floor just to show how far from each other people should be special when in queu. There is also a limit to how many peole can go in and out the premises, they limited the number of entrances/ exits to monitor the flow of people.

Since my social skills are low, the physical distancing is not an issue for me. But I do miss going out with my daughter. I admit that me and my family are lucky for we are comfortable despite the pandemic and we also acknowledge that not everyone is in a comfortable situation like we have right now. We have our small ways of helping others but we choose not to show it in our social media accounts.

Unfortunately, part of the new normal is the increase in unemployment and increase in people who beg for food in the streets. In addition to this, people have become more anxious and desperate, because of different reasons - loss of employment and means to provide for the family, being stranded in a different area/province, being far away from your love ones, strict rules that limits once movements and other reasons.

The most unfortunate of all these are the instances where people die, not only because of the virus, but because on the inability of some hospitals to accept patients who have other emergency concerns. It seems that death has also been a part of the new normal. I understand that statistically there are people who die everyday, but it is only now that I am fully aware of the number of people who are dying everyday because of the news. It doesn’t help that the stories behind their death are most of the times tragic.

At the moment, the new normal is a burden, for most of the Filipinos. These are dark and hard times. Prayers can do so much but there will be times that people may feel this is not enough and they need food to fill their stomach. We hope we can pull through from this, but right now we are in difficult times.

We hope to see a light at the end of the road, it may take long, but I hope there is still light for the future..

Baby face

Due to the pandemic I only go out once a week, or if possible once in every two weeks. So I went out to buy groceries, it has been two weeks since I went out. When I entered the premises, the security guard stopped me and the conversation went like this:

Guard: Ma’am, Ilan taon ka na? (Ma’am, how old are you?)

Me: 30 years old po.*

Guard: Ah ok po, baby face po kasi kayo. (Ah ok, you look young for your age/ baby face.)

He was a little relieved when he said this.

You see, due to the pandemic, those 21 years old and below are not allowed to go out, same with those 60 years old and above. So the guard was relieved that there need not to be a “scene” because he didn’t have to stop me from entering the premises.

In my head though: “The truth kuya, did you really base your judgement on my face or my height? I mean, I was wearing a mask.” 😏😏😏

I am 5’11 and I litereally look like a high school student. When I was pregnant with my daughter (I was 26 years old), people thought I was a case of teenage pregnancy and sort of “judged me”. It was when I told them my age that they apologized and had to explain that I had a “baby face” and I was “petite” that is why they thought such of me. 😒😒😒

I guess it’s hereditary as my mom and dad don’t look their age as well. 😝😝😝

Though this has gotten me into trouble sometimes as I have difficulty buying alcohol or going into bars. I was even asked at the airport if I had a guardian with me when I travelled alone. But in general, nothing major really, just petite girl stories.

More baby face/ petite girl stories in the future. Toodles. 😉😉😉

————-

*I stuttered when I told my age because I was caught off-guard. I mean two weeks without interaction with people outside the house, really took a toll on me. This is considering my social skills are low in the first place.

super update

hi everyone! how are you? (^_^)

it's been almost a month since my last entry.

there have been so many things that has happened but to tell you all the truth,

i cant remember most of them anymore.

hat i can assure you though is that i feel always tired.

if you have been following my entries,

you'll know very well why i have been so tired and busy to the point of not being able to update my blog. (^_~)

moving forward, i will now post an update of what has been happening in my life.

since i am hungry at the moment, i will start with food.

carbohydrates and brewed coffee.

my lifeline at work at the moment.

i have a bigger appetite now because my body really needs the extra energy and the caffeine to make me feel like i am always in a hurry.

i am careful not to over do it with the coffee because i can get too hyper that it won't really help me finish my work.

next, the "poison" at work.

those commercially, over coated chocolate thingies!

yes, there are lots of those at office.

so dangerous i'm telling you.

the manifestation that i have not been taking care of myself well lately?

severe lower back pain!

i'll let you all research what that means (^_^)

moving on...

every sunday is family day.

12:01am, sunday, we ate donuts and ice cream while watching tv.

hey, isn't this dangerous for family ho has history of diabetes? (^_~)

anyways, so, sunday is family day.

we go out, we eat, we window shopping...

anything, as long as we are together.

oh, did i mention we sometimes fool around? (^_^)

my parents took the picture.

thanks parents. (^_^)

as for my sfc household,

were have been meeting quite regularly.

in one of the sessions, we had this activity where we share a food/milk that represents us.

the sharing was great and what did i share?

milk! i'll leave it up to you the reason behind that. (^_~)

oh, before i forget.

i was able to watch the Phantom of the Opera with my siblings!

it has its greats and disappointments, but overall it was a chance of a lifetime. (^_^)

now on we go albums.

on the first day of september mama and kuya benjie had a big party to celebrate their birthday.

i'll let the pictures do the talking. (^_^)

also, rei attended the asian pop convention a few weeks back.

the whole family was there to support her because she sang.

our parents felt awkward but my brother enjoyed it at some point. (^_^)

let pictures do the talking once more. (^_~)

and lastly, to finish it off before i go to sleep.

i would like to share a picture of the Quest team (not everyone though)

colleagues out for a sweet evening treat.

scoops of ice cream, tacos, cake and more!

despite the stress of work, i'm still happy and surviving with where i am now. (^_^)

i am blessed!

chaio~

evening at the city

this is the view from the window of our condo unit. (^_^)

pretty~ (^w^)