I started writing when I was 8. My mom got me a journal where I could rant (prob so I won't be an annoying brat). I stopped writing for 8 years until the pen and then later on the keyboard called on me again. I blog because I like writing and that's just about it. Hope you get inspired though... Bite the apple!
We've been crazy busy organizing our home and planning our next steps. It feels like Sweetie and I are newlyweds again, haha. I remember that time we moved to our first home. Most of our things were borrowed from our parents' house, i.e. the sofa and our dining table. We had our beds made by my Mom's carpenter. We didn't need to buy a lot of things since we were able to use all the practical wedding gifts we received.
It's almost 12 years now since we tied the knot. We've lived in about 8 different places in 2 countries. Living that way was hard. We had to manage two households for the past ten years. It was fun while it last, but as you grow older you yearn for permanency. We never planned to live that way, it just happened because of the work opportunity I was presented ten years ago.
And now that we're back home we're working on re-connecting where we left off ten years ago. It feels like we're newlyweds again planning for our future. We've been living off our suitcase the past two weeks and have just started to explore our untouched closets. We giggle as we find clothes that don't fit us anymore. We're also going through what we left at our Manila home in January 2020.
It will probably take a month or two more before we can have some normalcy at home. I hope we can finish in time for Christmas. Gotta get moving also so I can start quilting again (sewing machine and stuff is still in the box). We've been so distracted with... eating. Hahaha.
Sweetie went out to have his car battery checked. Viola got a good washing too. Our neighbors and the building cat can't leave marks on it anymore hrhrhr. Sweetie got us yummy lunch -- Binalot! Yay! We've been craving for this for a long time now. Sarap-sarap!
And we'll have yummy puto Binan and sapin-sapin for merienda later.
Gotta go now for other online errands (pay bills) and work on the kitchen again.
We're finally "free" after serving six-days hotel quarantine and four-days home quarantine. Being in quarantine was not so bad. We were able to get some rest and re-organize our home. We were also able to attend a wedding of Gabby. We didn't have any issues re-adjusting to each other when we finally reunited with Miggy. All is good, just a lot of work needed to organize our home.
Today we finally got to visit my Mom. We brought her to the park since there's a Christmas bazaar. Too bad her friends weren't around yet for the Christmas lights ceremony. We went to the bazaar to support our friends, Denz and Leejay, who were selling puto Binan. They gave Miggy some a month or two ago and we were so envious. We're going to have it for dessert tonight. Yay!
We'll be focusing on fixing stuff this week -- my stove, Sweetie's car and possibly look for a replacement for our oven toaster. I'll also finish cleaning up the kitchen and will start the heavy task of clearing my closet. Freedom from quarantine doesn't mean we'll be going out for lakwatsa. We'll just go out as needed.
Happy tummy delights we had today -
Tahoooooo, luckily got to order this from a neighbor! We always hear mamang taho pass by the warehouse beside us. Unfortunately, he doesn't come inside our place to sell. Saw a neighbor offering it yesterday and I immediately ordered three cups. Ahhhh, it was so good! I still want to be able to buy though from mamang taho.
California maki, also from a neighbor (the one who made the kutsinta). In SG, they don't make California maki with mango so this was a good treat to get. We ate it for lunch with leftovers.
Dinner is Jollibee which we got on the way home. I'm having my usual, Jolly spaghetti and Yumburger with cheese!
Puto Binan and sapin-sapin which we are having for dessert tonight. Yummm!
We became empty nesters in late 2019 when Miggy decided to go back home after graduating. We felt lost for a long time. I remember Sweetie and I would stay out as late as we could to avoid going back to an empty home. It was hard and was probably one of the reasons why I had to take a break back then.
We tried to extend Miggy's visa when he brought me back to Singapore in 2020. The government became stricter though and he ended up going home in late February. He went home just before the lockdown started. Thus started the 22 month time apart. It literally broke me.
For almost two years we subsisted with daily check-ins via chat. We tried to make it fun by outdoing each other with good night memes. What we missed most were the hugs and Miggy would tuck us in at night and turn off our lights. We had a lot of mundane family rituals which was important to all of us.
Watch our emotional reunion at the end.
Now that we're back home we just automatically started doing our daily rituals. We were definitely not ready when Miggy left the nest in 2019 and being apart because of the pandemic made things worse. Now I'm thinking, maybe the extreme stress from work and being apart is what made me sick. My doctors warned me that going home does not mean I'm going to get well instantly. I know that. I think half the battle is making my family complete again.
Good thing Miggy missed us too! Haha. Things are settling nicely at home. I have made progress with cleaning up the kitchen. I can start cooking again soon. I hope the La Germania service crew can fix my stove. Also need to have our sliding door locks fixed since the heat broke it again. We got our tiny place 8 years ago and this is the first time we're living in it permanently. There's a lot of things here and there that needs fixing.
Some things I learned through the years on maintaining a home:
1. Get professional cleaners to help every so often. We also get the mattresses and couch cleaned.
2. When appliances break down, it's best to course the service request through the brand service center. It's been so far easy to get help by booking for help online, i.e. La Germania, Carrier.
3. If you live in a condo, it helps to be nice to the staff. We had a gazillion luggages when we arrived and we bumped into the maintenance crew. They willingly helped us bring everything up. They've also been helpful to Miggy the whole time we were away. If you have a good relationship with the maintenance crew they can also help with disposing pre-loved items.
And on the food front, here's what I had yesterday -
Quickmelt cheese and Lady's Choice mayonnaise combo sandwich - I initially freaked out when I learned about this from my busmate. I fell in love with it when I tried it. Super missed it since Quickmelt is hard to find in SG.
McDonald's spaghetti!
Army Navy hungarian sausage. We're still doing the rounds of ordering food we've missed. Will start cooking next week hehe.
The best merienda though was the kutsinta we bought from our neighbor. For the first time we didn't have an kakanin leftovers! Haha.
Annnddd my first Shopee purchase was Serioso Chili Garlic! Heehee. Try it gais!
We've now spent 72 hours at home and we're slowly making progress in re-organizing. We each have our own assignments. I've been working on the kitchen while Sweetie has been clearing out the balikbayan boxes we've sent in the last year. It's part two of the sorting and clearing operations we did in Singapore. Our goal is to reduce our things since we're merging two homes.
I have been prioritizing our kitchen. It will be very unhealthy to keep ordering food. I haven't used my kitchen for two years so I have been washing everything. It's a good thing to do especially in the afternoons when it gets so hot. Finished everything on the counter yesterday and I'll start working on the cabinets today. It's also a good chance for me to sort and reduce our things.
I did notice that Corelle plates used to be much thicker! The ones we had in Singapore were much thinner and lighter. I like the sturdiness of the older plates. Most of our kitchen items were wedding gifts. I've only replaced one frying pan so far, everything else still functions well. I need to have our electric range checked though. It takes so long for it to heat up and I'm not sure if the oven still works. Good thing it's quite easy to book service from La Germania. I hope it will still work for a few more years. I need it to work properly so I can finally cook some adobo.
Last night we ordered Pancake House! Woohoo! My favorite arroz ala cubana wasn't available so I got the house special instead. It was amazing to eat it again. Aside from the good food, we have so many happy memories associated with Pancake House through the years. I'll probably order McDo tomorrow because I've missed their spaghetti haha. I wish though we could order some Makati Supermart spaghetti. That would make me so happy.
Just another day at home. I love how we all converge to hang out on the dining table all day. Happy :)
Ahhh, life in the Philippines. It's been 48 hours since we got home. I have been sleeping better and breathing better. My lungs are happy. Some would say that there's more air pollution here, but I grew up here so my lungs are used to it. I have been skipping my inhalers since I feel fine. The one thing I'm adjusting to is the heat. I've increased my water intake by 25% to combat it and I've been coping well so far.
My neighbor told me to take my time acclimating. I've been taking it slow. We're still living out of our suitcases as of the moment. Our house is in a disarray and we're working on organizing it. Yesterday I spent at least an hour just washing dishes. I had the fright of my life when I unearthed a dried up house lizard under the dish rack. Awww, poor Dengge 402. We've been naming the house lizards who have been plying our ceiling since 2009. Haha.
Did you notice that the evening breeze has started to become cooler? I enjoyed it a lot last night from the balcony. This means Christmas is coming! I have been looking around for decors since I don't know if my existing ones have survived three years of heat. I hope our Belen is okay. We'll look into decorating once we have things more organized.
One of the things I'm enjoying now is ordering food I've missed a lot. When we got home, Miggy had an array of food from Chowking. In the evening we ordered Shakey's. Yesterday we received care packages from Chelle and Ms. Myna. Chelle sent mind-blowing Lola Nena's triple cheese donuts. It arrived just in time for merienda and we enjoyed it a lot. Ms. Myna's care package included goodies from Dayrit's! We'll probably have that for dinner and we're excited to try the cacao tea. Thanks so much Chelle and Ms. Myna for the care package. <3 <3 <3
So apparently there's a different way of doing groceries here. My Shopeeholic friend Ederic advised that it's better to buy items from brand stores on Shopee. He said that the items come directly from their warehouse and you can get free delivery if you use ShopeePay. I'll probably try it next month, for now I ordered some basic groceries from SM since I'm more familiar with them. I have to plan our weekly menu better so I don't buy too much stuff. I also want to get my fruits and veggies from OnlingPalengke.com since their quality is much better than online groceries. Figuring out this grocery stuff is going to be fun!
I'm so far enjoying this acclimation period. We're just home serving our home quarantine. The best thing about it is Miggy's with us and I can call up Mom anytime using a landline phone (we can hear other better on it than a mobile phone). My doctor will also be happy to know that I'm spending two-thirds of the day without air-conditioning, haha. Maybe that will also help melt my fats, LOL.
Transitioning back to the Philippines in the middle of a pandemic wasn't easy. There were a lot of moving parts, but it was mainly a couple of things: (1) Quitting our jobs, (2) Arranging our travel back to the Philippines, (3) Shipping our things, and (4) Turning over our apartment.
Quitting our jobs wasn't as straightforward as we wanted. We had to give notice in advance. I wanted to leave earlier, but they wouldn't just let me go. It was a blessing in disguise because I was able to resolve additional health issues. My doctors also wanted me to be stable before I left. Eventually they allowed us to go. This was relatively the easiest thing to do.
Here's a video of our trip :)
We booked our flights and hotel in advance. It was very expensive to book just a one-way flight, so I booked a roundtrip one since I need to have my annual check-up next year anyway. The complicated part was following the ever-changing protocols. We originally booked 10 days at the hotel, but the IATF reduced the quarantine days to six. Good thing the hotel said they'll just refund the extra days.
The tricky part was the documentation needed. I detailed the requirements on this blog post. It's what we followed. Key thing is to print everything out because that would help with the clearances. Save all the QR codes also on your phone and make sure it's accessible offline (in case you don't have internet upon arrival). It makes things easier also if you have a local Philippine SIM since that's where the notifications of the RT-PCR test are sent.
Keep yourself updated also by checking the OWWA Singapore FB page. They have just posted an updated process last November 8 (see below), you may check it on the page here. Print this if you can since it could be confusing where to go next. We were lucky because the manongs who assisted me with the wheelchair took care of bringing us to where we needed to go.
A week before our flight we found out that there's a single occupancy policy. This means couples would be split up. I clarified this with the Board of Quarantine and got this response -
Room sharing for families/designated guardian shall be allowed under the following criteria:
1. With minor children 2. Persons with medical condition needing assistance with activities of daily living* 3. Senior citizens needing assistance with activities of daily living* 4. Persons with disability (PWD)
*Activities of Daily Living include eating, bathing, dressing, transferring, toileting and walking/moving around Present the proof of your medical condition to the Quarantine Medical Officer on duty at the airport and coordinate with the hotel management regarding this. Please be reminded as well that if you were allowed to share room, you should sign a waiver with the hotel indicating your awareness of the risk of exposure in case one of your members yields a POSITIVE RT PCR RESULT. This exposure will mean that you will have to undergo 14 days quarantine with Day 1 being the date of release of result.
Jay has been taking care of me since I got sick. My two doctors wrote a memo for me stating that I needed daily living assistance. I informed the BOQ officer and presented the documents and email from BOQ. The medical officer on duty came to me and asked whether I needed to be hospitalized immediately (my medical conditions really look scary on paper). I told him I was stable and just needed my husband to be with me all the time. He gave the option for home quarantine, but I told him we already booked a hotel. We stayed at the hotel because we wanted to be sure we were negative before going home.
The most challenging part of the process was physically moving back everything. This process was tied to the turn over of our apartment. We had to inform our landlord two months before leaving so we can use the diplomatic clause on the contract. We were required to send a letter from our employer about our last day. After that we requested for quotations from shipping companies and eventually contracted one to help move our things.
Traveling for pleasure or business is easy. Traveling to transition back home is an entirely different process. We started sorting our things in early September, but we only finished packing for our flight two hours before we left for the airport. We also had to send a box via LBC the day before our flight because we realized we had more stuff to bring back. Haha. It was TIRING. We just rested the first three days during quarantine to catch up on sleep. I was so grateful that we didn't have to worry about food or chores. We were able to take naps whenever we felt like it.
And now we're home! I don't think I'll want to live abroad again or move far, far away! And I never want my family to be apart again! I slept like a baby last night. It was my first time to have more than an hour of deep sleep. Knowing Miggy's just in the other room probably calmed me down finally. Just a few more days we'll get to see my Mom! Yay!
When I woke up this morning I realized "today is THE day"! Eagerly awaited the results of our swab test and breathed a sigh of relief when they sent it earlier than expected. Made plans with Sweetie while eating breakfast. Packing did not take too long and soon enough front desk called to inform us that our ride had arrived.
I couldn't contain my excitement while waiting for our bill. Soon enough our gazillion luggage were loaded and we were on our way home. Luckily traffic was light, the funny thing is I panicked a bit when we turned a corner. I thought the drive made a mistake and was going to meet traffic head-on. I realized a few seconds later that people drive on the right side here. I got used to the left side for almost two years.
As the headed down to our drop off I saw a glimpse of Miggy. I immediately waved. I literally jumped on him for a hug when we parked. I almost bawled hahaha. I think Sweetie took a video of our reunion. I feel my life could go on now. I am now unsuspended. That's how I felt since I moved to Singapore.
I am happy. I am complete. We're going to finish our 4 day home quarantine first before we visit my Mom. For the next few days we'll catch up first, do many, many hugs and reorganize our home. I'm still in a daze and have to keep pinching myself that I am finally home.
*Many friends abroad have been pinging me about the steps we took to get home. I'll make an updated post maybe tomorrow hehe. I just need to wrap my head around the fact that we made it back!
