Breathe

Taking a break today to recover from the asthma attack I had last night. I didn't know that the AQI was pretty bad when I went out to admire the sky. It was downhill after that haha. Anyway, here's a nice memory of me hiking! Yes, hiking! This was at Mambukal in Negros Occidental (more about the hike here).

And here's the sky I was admiring last night. 

And the yummy #JayBucks dinner Sweetie prepared.

And now I rest :)

#BeKind #StayHome

Manifest!

After the boys cleared out the boxes in the living room, Sweetie was finally able to set up our TV. The first thing we watched was Cobra Kai. We binge watched it, so we were soon finished. I got curious about Manifest and instead of just watching the trailer, we watched the first episode. We got hooked. 

Manifest is a series on Netflix about a plane that mysteriously lands 5 years after it disappears. The passengers and their families are shocked after they come back after five years. Relationships are disrupted and everyone's asking how were they able to come back 5 years after? The weirdness of the plot is a bit like Lost. I didn't get to finish Lost though because it dragged on at some point and I got bored. 

We finished watch the three seasons of Manifest in less than two weeks. We're glad Netflix picked up the show after NBC cancelled it. They announced that they'll produce the final season. No date yet on when it'll show, but we're relieved that there's going to be one last season. There were a lot of cliffhangers in the last episode of season 3 and we want closure! Haha. 

Now need to find something new to watch. Or maybe I'll bug Sweetie about finishing the Good Doctor and Grey's Anatomy via Hulu. Much as I want to watch Koreanovelas, I just don't have the patience to read subtitles (sorry!) since I usually sew while watching TV. Maybe I'll find something light to watch this time.

What's your favorite show right now?

#BeKind #StayHome

3 Months Back Home

We've been home for almost 3 months now! Woohoo! And I'm happy I managed to stay stable for three months and didn't need to see a doctor. It's an achievement for me since I saw a doctor weekly for a year. I could have probably avoided getting sick, so I need to be more vigilant. My mistake was I didn't wear a dust mask when I did some cleaning and I failed to use an air purifier during the day. I was feeling good, so I thought I didn't need those things anymore. At least I know what I need to do to safeguard my health.

 

We arrived on November 4. Completed quarantine, got reunited with family and moved to a new home. The first two months was really crazy! It's not a good idea to move weeks before Christmas! We were only able to decorate two days before Christmas. We managed to have a nice noche buena and Christmas lunch with Mom. By New Year though we were so tired from cleaning and organizing, we ended up having delivery on new year's eve. 

The post holiday surge though forced us to just stay home. All our "outdoor plans" were shelved. That gave us time to rest and organize our new home. It's still incomplete, but at least we now have a makeshift living room and craft area. Sweetie has started to organize the family room. We probably need to spend more time at the basement because of the warmer weather. 

One thing we've been busy with is gardening. We're trying to grow our own veggies. Growing veggies progressed better at our balcony in Singapore. We realized that the sprouts haven't been getting enough sunshine, so we're moving them to another location today. We hope that would help them improve and give us a good harvest in a few months. It's been fun taking care of new plants and getting supplies is much easier here. 

I hope to feel better in a few days. I had to find a GP since I couldn't locate my regular GP. My new GP was happy with the results of my blood test. She also said I'm so blessed to have survived two PEs and reminded me to keep praying. I told Sweetie I never got that kind of advise in SG hehe. I appreciated it though since it was a good reminder. She was yesterday's guardian angel. I'm back to being cheerful today. Yay! 

Stay amazing friends!

#BeKind #StayHome

Happy Lunar New Year!

Gong Xi Fa Cai!

Missing Singapore a lot today. We used to buy a lot of special CNY snacks while we were there. My favorite was the love letters which is almost the same as our barquillos. Also miss the pineapple tarts from Taiwan. In Singapore all our neighbors would decorate their homes, much like how we decorate for Christmas. 

Chinatown, Singapore

One thing I noticed in Singapore, groceries would set up tents outside of their stores. It's where you can buy beverages and snacks in bulk. Brands would also sell their items in special packages and sizes. They did this for the reunions that happen all over the city. I read they are celebrating differently this year since the number of cases since we left have gone up. I hope they can still have a joyful celebration. 

In 2020, I still got to experience the lion dance. They brought a team to the office and the lion went around to bring good luck to everyone. I was lucky to catch it pass by our area and here's a short video of it -

Best place though to feel the CNY spirit is at Chinatown. They usually go overboard to decorate. They still did in 2020, but more simple in 2021. In 2021, there were a lot of shops that closed down already. I wasn't able to visit Chinatown anymore. It was a favorite place we'd go to after hearing mass. There's a Din Tai Fung there that we used to frequent. Of course, one of my favorite craft shops is in Chinatown too. 

In, time I'm sure we'll get to re-trace our steps and visit our old haunts again. In the meantime, I hope everyone is having a great lunar new year!

#BeKind #StayHome

Make February Better

Oh wow, January just flew by! With everything that's happening, January felt more like the end of the year already! Like most people, I had nice plans for this year. Everything was thrown out the window again when the surge happened. I've been stuck at home all month and I don't even remember the last time I stepped outside of our gate. The boys have been doing a good job making sure I'm safe. 

Learning also from what happened last year, I'm just going to play things by ear. Here's what I hope to do to make February a better month:

1. Take care of my health better. Hope to end this on and off slight fever. Took the first step and got a blood test today. I'm running out of meds too, so this means I need to contact and see my doctors here soon.

2. Proceed with things I can control. Need to get things going with developing our home. Since plan A didn't work, we're gearing up to proceed with plan B. This goes also for a couple of requirements that need to be fulfilled like getting my car registered.

3. Accept that I need help to do some things. SOS on the way. It just pains me I can't do the things I want to do.

4. Reduce stress triggers. Much as I love to participate in what's happening now, it's just stressing me out and that's affected my health. 

5. Find other happy things to do! Or at least make what I'm doing now work better, i.e. move my sprouts to a place where they can get more sun. 

6. Sleep earlier, wake up earlier. I haven't been able to resolve this and my Mom told me it's been almost 3 months now since I got home. Hope to fix this soon. 

7. Eat better, exercise more. Fitbit told me I get more deep sleep when I do more than 2k steps per day. I'll start there. 

Keeping the list short for now. Better to just target things I can really work on for now so I don't get overwhelmed. 

Things will get better :)

And here's a summary of January :)

#BeKind #StayHome

Places I Want to Explore More

I haven't gone out for almost a month now and it's starting to drive me crazy! My activities have been limited also since I've been having slight fever on and off. I'm getting a blood test tomorrow to determine if I have an infection. To keep busy I water the plants and have started a new quilt project. Well, like many others, I've been scouring through old photos to remind myself of life before the pandemic. 

One of my wishes is to visit again some of the places I've been to. I never really had the chance to explore most of it because I was busy with work. Here are a few of the places I want to visit again:

Yeosu-si, Korea - getting there was an adventure in itself. It's a a city located in the southern coast of the Korean Peninsula. I was luckily upgraded to a suite because I could smell smoke coming from another room and it caused a severe asthma attack. The reward was a beautiful view of the bay. My colleague said it was a fishing town and it reminded me of our hometown, Pasacao in Camarines Sur. (more here)

Switzerland - I had a chance to go see the Swiss Alps, but my doctor prohibited me because it was too cold. He was right because there was a cold snap when we went to Zurich. I'd love to see more of Zurich though because they have beautiful places to see. I was only able to see the river once because it was too cold. Maybe I'll get to visit again someday. (How I survived -6'C).

London, UK - I've been to London twice, but I didn't get to go around also. The cold really gets to me. I was only able to walk to Buckingham Palace because it was near my hotel and that was all I got to do, haha. So I must visit London again someday. (snippets)

New Zealand - I was in NZ for less than 48 hours for an event and meetings. I didn't get to go around and was only able to visit Spotlight (priorities, hello!), haha. I'd love to explore this country more someday. 

Australia - I've been to Australia several times and got to visit Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. We were able to do a day cruise thanks to Tita Chu. I've also been able to eat in some nice places, also thanks to Tita Chu. I'd love to see more of this country though and hopefully meet my cousin's super cute baby. (Australia posts)

Taiwan - I've visited Taiwan a lot and I've been to several provinces also, but believe or not I have done what tourists do! It was all work, work, work. I only managed to go to the night market, thanks to Shin Yee. Sigh, would love to see more of the country. (Taiwan posts)

Japan - I think everyone can agree that Japan is one of the places we'd all love to explore. I even tried to learn the language! Hope to be able to explore this beautiful country again and see Tita Pet, Uncle Fumio and my cousins again. (Japan posts)

Since it's impossible to travel for now, I'll probably look for some places we can visit nearby. Hopefully, with the cases going down we can eventually go out and explore. What about you? Where do you want to go?

#BeKind #StayHome

Happiness in Boba

"Boba" refers to the pearls you put in milk tea. In Filipino we normally call it "sago". We don't normally use the term "boba" to refer to the pearls because it means "dumb" in Filipino. I noticed most milk tea shops here use the term "bubble tea" than boba tea hehe. 

I've been so morose the last few days I thought I'd look back at the time before all our lives changed. One of the things we were able to do was visit the Bubble Tea Factory in Singapore. I blogged about it a bit before, but I think I have better appreciation now of that day we went to see the exhibit. 2019 seems so far away, but looking at how carefree we were going around made me miss the pre-pandemic days more. 

Here's more photos from that day we visited the Bubble Tea Factory -

I love milk tea! I prefer to drink it without pearls though (they said that's where the calories are). What I miss most in SG is Toast Box teh peng. Well, my seatmate, David, would be happy to know, I've managed to reduce drinking milk tea to just once a week now. I only drink an extra cup if there's an emergency. LOL. 

#BeKind #StayHome