Celebrated Pride Month with the Gaylas Filipinas

Eleven years ago I met a group of people who blew me out of my mind. I first met them at a training session. I had meant to ask why all the trainers were male. I was going to bring it up with the leader since I thought we needed to be inclusive. 

I got the surprise of my life when I realized during the training that they were all gay. I didn't bring up the issue of inclusivity anymore since the group was in good form. I also thought they would bring a lot of fun to the project. We traveled across the Philippines together for three years. Of course, that gave me a chance to get to know them better. 

The project eventually ended, but we all kept in touch. It's been years since I've seen most of them. We planned to meet up a year ago, but they decided to go to Taiwan to celebrate Pride. Ahh, sometimes it really takes time to plan a get together with over 10 people. It finally happened and we had so much fun. 

The reunion wasn't exactly to celebrate Pride month, since our goal was just to have a get together. It just so happened it's Pride month. I just added some colorful elements for the party. We reminisced, ate, laughed, reminisced some more and ate some more. 

I'm really happy we got together again. I hope we can do this more often. Realistically, it will be hard, so likely our next reunion will be for my golden year. They were the ones who organized my 40th birthday many years ago, so we'll see how things go. 

Love you forever girls :)

#BeKind #StaySafe

Preparing for a Party

The last two weeks have been nerve wracking. I had agreed to host a reunion of friends who I haven't seen since before the pandemic. We only finished the renovations in early June, so we were hard pressed for time to organize our home for a party. I realized I also didn't have enough plates and utensils and other essentials to properly host a party. It's also been years since I did any hosting. 

When I hosted parties before I used to do it in my childhood home since we had the space for it. My Mom, of course, took care of preparing everything. She's a pro at hosting parties. All I needed to do was invite and show up (and order food when needed). My experience at hosting in our own home is incomparable to my Mom's abilities. 

A week before our first housewarming/reunion event, I made a list of what was needed. Good thing it was a potluck party so I just ordered spaghetti and lumpia. I also had my friends list down what they would bring. I told them I didn't want us to end up having just dessert, haha. Of course, when hosting a party you also need a lot of other things. I thought I'd detail here what I listed for future reference:

• tables and chairs (we had to buy monobloc chairs since we don't have enough chairs at home)
• dining table needs: placemats, plates, utensils, drinking glasses, table napkin, toothpick, potholders
• food counter needs: serving dishes, serving utensils
• food and drinks: make sure to check for food restrictions
• decor
• Sharon needs: containers for takeaway
• an accessible toilet area
• directions and parking

Our home isn't in its best state yet. It's still pretty bare and we still have a lot of stuff that needs to be organized. We don't have decorations, so we've left our walls bare. I don't think it will be perfect, so we just bit the bullet and hosted a party for a small group of friends. It's been on my bucket list to invite friends over and I thought it's the best time to do it while I have some immunity for now. I can't possibly do it often, but I hope I'd get to see most of my loved ones before the year ends. 

#BeKind #StaySafe

Do Small Things with Great Love

"Do small things with great love," is a quote from Mother Teresa. I still remember I gave a small decor item with the quote to my Mom for her birthday. I bought it from a bookstore with savings from my allowance. I thought it would be a cute gift and she kept it through the years. It was still in the bathroom before I had everything packed up. 

I got the item more to remind myself to do my chores with love. I was always scolded back then because I was messy (still am). My Mom always wanted everything to be organized. I slept in their room until I was in senior high school and that meant I had a lot of my stuff within reach (usually under their bed). She would keep reminding me to keep my things in order. 

I was reminded about what Mother Teresa said from Fr. Tito Caluag's homily. We hosted our first party at home. We invited friends we haven't seen in years. I took care of washing the dishes and preparing the dining and kitchen area for the party. I was amazed I was able to do what I had to since my energy levels have been spotty. I pulled through because I did the activity with love. 

And that's what I have to always keep in mind, Do everything with great love.

#BeKind #StaySafe

Pneumonia is Not a Joke

In 2008, I fell very ill and I had to ask my Mom to bring me to the hospital. Good thing I did because I had pneumonia. My lungs were filled with water and I was having a hard time breathing. 

I was in a daze for about a week and I finished up boxes of tissue because of the cough. Two weeks after discharge  I flew to Singapore for my annual checkup. My cardiologist was gravely concerned and had additional tests done. I was so thin and could barely eat. Everytime I ate it turned into a coughing fit.

I was less than 100 lbs by March 2009

I was diagnosed with asthma and heart failure. The lab also found possible strains of legionella in my blood. It's one of the worst causes of pneumonia and 30-80% fatal. It's a miracle I survived.

It took a year with many prayers and visits to churches to pray for a miracle before I started to get better. Other worrying blood markers also consistently normalized everytime I saw my cardiologist. Sadly, the effects of the illness still affect me today. I am kept stable with the help of my doctors and those who pray for me. 

If there's one thing I think I could have done after that very bad bout of pneumonia, I think I should have heeded the advise of my parents to rest more. I should also have sought to know what caused the illness so I could have the proper care.

I know the experience I had was extraordinary and that's why I worry whenever I have friends who get sick. I don't want them to end up like me, retired at a young age and barely able to do normal stuff. 

"Flying Tiger", First Look

I saw the announcement a few months ago that "Flying Tiger" was opening soon at Alabang Town Centre. I was only able to visit today since the weather has been bearable already. I also insisted with the boys it was time to go out. I don't remember the last time we went to the mall.

We were just going to take a peek, but the store was set up like a maze. You have no choice but to see everything. Like IKEA, there's no shortcut to the exit. We enjoyed our first look of Flying Tiger. 

If you like stationery and anek-anek, you will like the store. The store is originally from Copenhagen. Their take on decor is different from what we see from Daiso, Miniso, and Mumuso. I didn't look at where the items are made, but I saw some are made in China. 

I just got a few plastic plates and cups. I was planning to buy paper plates and disposable cups, but realised reusable plates and cups are better. Next time I'll go check out the stationery section. I saw they have cute planner pads. They also have a table for "last chance to buy items". There were some interesting items. I just resisted from buying, haha.

There's a couple of branches across the metro if you want to check it out :)

#BeKind #StaySafe

Complain When You Need To

I see a lot of posts of homeowners on Home Buddies who ask if their contractor did the right thing. Oftentimes it's about tile work, stairs, windows, roof, walls etc. Most of those who comment say the work is unacceptable and should be fixed. I guess people ask because most of us are first time homeowners. It is indeed rare to go through building a house more than once (unless you're very rich!). 

Our supposedly simple renovations dragged on. We were told that the work would finish in just two weeks. It's been two months now and it's supposed to finally finish today. Well, it was supposed to be finished in early May. We found a couple of issues with the work mostly because the last set of workers hurriedly finished their task. 

We waited a few weeks before we allowed them to come. We had to get well and have the house disinfected even though the virus likely came from their group. The good thing about our contractor is they do back jobs if there are issues. Oftentimes though we had to wait since they quickly move on to other projects. 

Looks fine, but there were issues with the drawer and floor. 

The project would have finished in two weeks if they provided materials on time and if they did the work properly the first time. There are many horror stories with bad contractors. We've so far stuck it out with this one since they do get the job done with supervision. I think that's required anyway for any work that you have done. Among all the work they did for us the best one is the plumbing and the garden work. It was outsourced to another company (haha). 

I know a lot of us tend not to complain when you have work done. I learned to give proper feedback and complain after working for an international company for 15 years, haha. I don't bottle things inside anymore especially when I pay for it. Demand the worth of your hard earned money. Just a few more tweaks and we should be done.

#BeKind #StaySafe

 

Grateful

I was thinking about my family the past few days and realized that we only have Sweetie's Dad left. We're almost orphans now. My siblings are also mostly abroad, so it's just us. I have my cousins, but they all live in other cities. We both don't have relatives where we live, but we have a lot of friends I grew up with in the neighborhood. 

My stupor changed when I realized I should be grateful. We have additions in the family! My cousin and niece gave birth in the past two months. I have a kalokalike who was born last year (poor baby, I hope she didn't get my temperament!). We lost our parents, titos and titas in the past decade, but our family continues to grow. My pamangkins are also set to marry in the coming months. 

I'm set to make this month different. We will finish fixing our living room and dining room so we can have friends over. My boys are having their birthdays this month. We haven't planned anything yet and just playing it by ear for now. I'm still trying to gauge whether I could muster up the strength to entertain, haha. Well, we'll see. I do want to celebrate though. 

I'm also grateful that we have our cat family. They've been a joy. The cat distribution system gave us six stay-in cats plus 2 who come in and out. They have been living harmoniously, except when Brimsley is having a bad day. She seems to have forgotten about her kittens and doesn't want them near her. She's allowed us to pet her lately and rubs against Miggy's legs often. 

#BeKind #StaySafe

Bone Meal for Gumamela

My gumamela plants were not flowering again. I did some research and found out they like bone meal. My plants needed a top up of soil so I made soil mix with loam soil, compost, rice hull and bone meal.

And... Tada!

One of my plants had a lot of buds before the typhoon. Some survived and I noticed one blossomed today. Too bad it was already evening when I noticed it.

Anyway, you just need a tablespoon of bone meal for every gallon of soil. I realized we eat a lot of chicken and thought maybe I could just make it. Unfortunately, you need to boil it for 12 hours! Maybe a pressure cooker can make it shorter, but I don't have one so I'll just buy when needed.

#BeKind #StaySafe