Surviving and helping, not competition

Recently I started a pizza business, but I will delve into that in a different post. What I want to share right now was a short conversation that I had with a customer.

Like with all my customers, I ask for a feedback about their order. Customer mentions that I liked my pizza, then he gave a suggestion.

Little background about my pizza, it takes approximately 20 to 30 minutes to make our pizza since we make it from scratch and we bake it in a wood-fired oven.

The customer’s suggestion was that I have frozen pizza (so we can just pop it in the oven, less wait time) since there is a market for that.

I told him: “There are those who are already selling frozen pizza in our barangay and that is their market. Our market is really freshly made pizza... Though, thank you for your suggestion... Might I suggest you also try the pizza of our fellow ka-barangays?”

Was I being a goody-two shoes by suggesting that he try other pizzas? No I was not. 

I did not want to join the already abundant frozen pizza business in our area. Yes, they are cheaper compared to my produce and they obviously have more customers. But thinking they are competition in the midst of this pandemic will simply add more stress and burden to me. I have a lot on my plate right now, so why add more stress right? For me, if I am able to sell a pizza, Thank you. If not, that’s fine. When they tell me “your pizza is expensive” I give them suggestions where to buy cheaper pizza, and they get surprised. Why? Because “who in their right mind would suggest their competition’s food?” They are not my competition, they are my neighbors, who like everyone else in our country right now, is highly affected by the pandemic.

We need to survive. Competition is not my priority right now, it’s surviving. Helping each other is my mindset. I have mentioned before that I am one of the lucky ones who is able live “comfortably” despite the situation of our country, but I know that my resources will eventually be scarce. I too am struggling financially but I still keep in mind that if I have the opportunity to help, go for it, specially when helping is  free and is as easy as sharing, and posting about their product on your page.

Why are people more surprised when other people actually help in their business? 🤔🤔🤔

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.

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.