#StayHome Pa More

This afternoon PM Lee announced that the Singapore circuit breaker will be extended until June 1. It took me by surprise because I expected that things would slowly ease back to normal by May 4. At the back of my head I know that it was going to be extended most especially because of the alarming numbers of confirmed cases in the last two weeks and there's still a percentage of local cases that are still unlinked. I know it's for the best, but not being with Miggy and not being able to see my Mom for a long time is just really hard for me. 

Dinner on the couch while watching YouTube vids.
Home still very messy. (#OOTD from my friend Paola)

After I finished work I felt so defeated and just lay down on the couch and waited for Sweetie to finish his work. It was past 8pm when he found me on the couch watching YouTube videos. Normally seeing our teacher community makes me happy, it just didn't work today. It was only when Sweetie and I ate dinner -- pizza -- when I started feeling better. I remember my Dad bought me pizza when I was recovering from SARS back in 2003. It was the antidote (Daddy's love and care) that made me well. 

Finally finished opening the last packed box -- my shoes. I put it last since there's no reason for me to wear shoes now because I'm just always home. I hope tomorrow the movers will pick up the boxes since they're taking up so much space. Hopefully by this weekend we'll be able to finish fixing our new home. I'm glad we made the right decision to move immediately since we would have been miserable at our old home with the plumbing problems. I'll try to tidy up more in the next few days so I can re-start my sewing projects this weekend. 

What about you? How are you coping with having to stay home? I know it shouldn't be hard since there are more people out there who are truly having a hard time. I pray that the affected workers will find respite from their challenges. I also pray that all leaders will make the best decisions for their countrymen. And for us who just need to stay home, that we all face this challenge with strong will, strong mind and accepting heart. 

#CB15 #WFH23 #StayHome

Making Pasta More Exciting

Last year I got to try Pancake House's cheese pimiento pasta. I absolutely loved it! It didn't last long in their menu though so I've been on a quest to find the best recipe so I can make at home. Over the weekend I was planning to make macaroni salad to be a side dish for sisig. I didn't realize that I ran out of pickle relish already! I had already cooked the noodles so I had to think fast what to make of it. I didn't want to cook spaghetti because I've just recently made spaghetti. After checking what I had in the cupboard I realized I could make some cheese pimiento pasta. 

Here's the video -

The cheese pimiento pasta reached next days leftovers since I cooked too much noodles haha. I'd like to try again the recipe, but would like to try it with fresh cheddar cheese -- the one they slice in front of you in the supermarket. Hopefully soon since we've been avoiding going out and have been ordering groceries online only. 

Ingredients

1 jar pimiento, chopped 2 Tbsp all purpose flour 1/4 tsp black pepper 3/4 tsp salt 1 pinch paprika 1.5 cup milk 1 cup grated cheddar cheese noodles

#CB14 #StayHome

House Hunting in Singapore

The pandemic was declared on March 11 and at that time we were already planning moving to a new place since our lease is almost up. We decided to start house hunting early and had a list of areas we wanted to move to since last year. It took us several tries before we found the perfect place for us. Here's the experience we went through looking for a new place -

We originally wanted to be in the same condo as our friends, but we didn't get the unit (agent just stopped communicating with our agent). We found our new place after looking through property guru one late night. The unit was just posted and was the last link I sent to my agent. I didn't expect that he would organize a viewing for the next night (9pm!). We went over to check the unit out after our physiotherapy session. And the rest is history :)

Thank you Lord for finding us a better place than the one we originally liked :)

#CB13 #StayHome

Recipes for My Son: Easy Pork Sisig

I miss eating out. We order food every so often, but it's a different experience when you dine out. The last time we ate got to eat at a restaurant was over two weeks ago after our PT session. We had it in our vlog for that week. What I miss most is my favorite Pinoy food especially inihaw and sisig. So today I thought I'd make some homemade sisig so I could also teach Miggy how to make it. Here's the video!

#CB12 #StayHome

Thank You Fam, Friends and Community #StayHome

The last six weeks have really been hectic. I have at least 10 meetings everyday and I might dare say I'm kinda glad. Being busy has kept my mind off worrying about the pandemic. Family, friends and my communities have provided the rock I've been holding on to during this challenging time. 

I miss my Mom a lot

I am also thankful that my immediate family have been okay. We have a few family members who are frontliners and I pray everyday that they will be safe and will stay healthy. Mom and Miggy are in Manila, my sister and her family in the US and my brother and his family in Indonesia. All my titos and titas are also safe in their own homes. I was sad to hear about the passing of a cousin's husband in the US, my brother-in-law's cousin and one of my sister's friends. Please pray for the repose of their souls. 

Glad I was able to spend time with titos and titas and cousins during my break.

My friends have been constantly checking on me. A few got worried when I took time off early this week to move homes. Some thought I went back to the mountains. Only a handful knew I was moving homes that's why I was offline. I truly appreciate the care they have been showing. My childhood friends in Manila constantly check on each other and I'm grateful they also think about Miggy. They check also if he has enough supplies. 

Last quarter I transitioned back to my real job of managing programs, just in time to respond to the looming crisis. I am grateful that they've been very patient with me as I was assigned to do other stuff for a long time. They embraced me back like I was never gone. Managing communities is challenging, I must say though it's the most gratifying work. Seeing the people you empower make impact in the service they do is what keeps me going every day. I hope they find what they do truly gratifying too. I want to be able to hug each one of them in time :)

#CB11 #WFH21 

How are you Doing? #StayHome #CB10

I finally got a good night's sleep last night. My sleep hasn't been good since last week. I'm not sure if it's because of the impending move/the move or other things bothering me. I'm glad I finally got to sleep properly last night because I wasn't feeling well yesterday. 

Anyway, how are you? How have you been coping just staying home? Yesterday I booked some time with one of my lunchmates to do a hangout just to check on her and here about how she's been managing. She's been dressing up everyday like she's going to the office. She said she had to so that she'd feel like she's at work. She said the highlight of her week is when she goes out to buy supplies at the grocery. She times going to the grocery when our other lunchmates go also so she can have some human interaction. We moved to our new place to also be closer to my lunchmates. 

I super miss my Miggy. This is probably the longest time I haven't seen him and the Mommy in me has been super lonely and worried for his well-being. We check on him every few hours, but it's really different when he is not around. I wish we can be together soon. One thing I noticed about our place in Manila is that our community has finally come together. We were one of the first to move in there, but for many years we never really mingled. Our community had the first confirmed COVID19 case in our barangay and it was in the same building. Luckily that was the first and last case so far. 

Made some special sparkly dalgona coffee.

My neighbors though started reaching out to each other more. I see some selling food they cooked from their kitchen. Some who have business have been selling supplies like veggies. There are those who send messages asking if anyone has spare items. It's like the old days when you rely on your neighbor to help. I remember growing up our neighbors would send food. We were never out of dessert and this happened often because my Dad oftentimes helped them with legal consultation. Our neighbors have also been taking care of the service providers who are living in the property for now since they are unable to go home. Everyone rallied to provide them with beds, food and other supplies. The pandemic brought out the best in people in our community. 

It's been a busy work day today and our place is still a huge mess. Sweetie made a huge dent in the boxes we have to open. We will need to work hard over the weekend to put things in their proper places and I hope we can have the movers pick up the boxes soon. We also had our internet installed yesterday and I'm glad it worked immediately. The few nights without internet was peaceful though and I think I'll try to live with less internet usage during weekends. 

Anyhoo, hope things are going well for you. We had over 700 confirmed cases today in Singapore. I hope everyone gets well soon. Please take care and stay safe. 

#CB10 #WFH20

Moving Homes During a Pandemic #StayHome

Day 3 was a bit more normal, we also both WFH today.

I wanted to note down some items we experienced during our recent move. We met it with a lot of apprehension, but we trust the team who helped us move since we used them a few years ago. We rushed our move since things might get stricter and we badly needed a change of scene. I have an important note for future me who will probably move again -

PUT MORE INFO ON THE BOXES!

I haven't found my box of plugs and luckily I haven't had to charge this Chromebook yet. There are some items we need to use soon and should have labeled the boxes better. Now we suffer lol. 

PACK A SURVIVAL BAG!

It is a good idea to pack a bag with a couple of days of supplies. I made sure I had enough meds and two days worth of clothes. We forgot though to pack enough toiletries and had to find the right box for the bathroom

DON'T FORGET TO PACK THE PERISHABLES

We failed though in the food department because we were too tired to go back to our other home to pack up the fridge. We thought we'd have enough energy to pop back to our old home to pick up the perishables and breakable items. We ordered dinner, but breakfast the next day wasn't what we had planned. 

I think those are the three key tips I have for future me who will likely move again (or move back home). 

Today I cooked chopsuey for the first time! I've been wanting to make more healthy food for Sweetie and me so I planned to cook chopsuey. It turned out well, but I ended up forgetting some ingredients. It was still edible, but could probably do better next time hehe.