Watched "Love You So Bad"

I discovered earlier that 2025 MMFF films have started to trickle on Netflix. We try to watch the annual MMFF films every year and we started with "Love You So Bad". 

We watched most of the trailers last year, but for this movie I just remember who's in it. We first saw Will Ashley and Bianca de Vera when they started in the series jointly produced by ABS-CBN and GMA. Then we saw them on PBB. Like everyone else, we were curious who'd they end up with. 

College days. We all grew up :)

Anyway, we decided to watch "Love You So Bad" while having dinner. To be honest, I expected it to be a teeny-bopper love team thingy. I was so wrong because what it featured was quite complex. It delivered a realistic story about love, being in a relationship and the complexities of growing up. 

Honestly, the film reminded me a bit about myself. I was a mix of the characters and I must say, growing up is truly messy. In the end, we all learn from our mistakes and move on to become better versions of ourselves. 

I'm not going to spoil anything, just go watch it!

Happy Sunday everyone!

#BeKind #StaySafe

July Plant Roundup

July was an interesting month for my garden. It's the rainy season, so everything's a little greener. I also had to adjust the placement of some plants because it gets very windy when there's a typhoon.

Some plants still continued to bloom even with the weird weather -

We harvested some bell peppers and cherry tomatoes -

And I still managed to grow some new plants from seed -

Curry

A variety of orange

I hope to harvest some mustasa to make our favorite dish soon!

#BeKind #StaySafe

Tried Making Salted Egg Chicken!

I accidentally* bought a curry plant. It's a tree now and I thought I'd put it to good use. One of the dishes we miss most from our stay in Singapore is salted egg chicken. We usually buy it at a stall in Food Republic (Vivo City). I wonder if the stall is still there. 

I found some recipes and made it with Miggy. We decided to bake the chicken instead of deep frying it. We don't like oily food, so thought that would help. It turned out tasty!

We didn't make it too spicy. Just add more chili flakes and sili if you want it spicier. Here's how we made it:

Full recipe: https://recipesformyson.blogspot.com/2026/07/recipes-for-my-son-salted-egg-chicken.html

Let me know if you'll try to make it!

*Garden nursery dupped me. I was aiming to buy lemongrass!

Throwback: OHSI Days

I resumed scanning old photos today and found some from a job I had 24 years ago. I don't even recall the event of the photos since it's been years since I last saw them.

What I remember was being happy that I was part of a community. We were quite tight-knit in the office since most of us were young adults learning the ropes of the workforce. I joined the company when I had just completed my MBA. 

It was technically my second corporate job and I learned a lot while I was there. I was eager to use what I learned from grad school and I gained new skills along the way. I was obviously a workaholic, but I had fun with my colleagues. The photos reminded me that we had after work gimmicks even though we were so busy. 

I always think about those days fondly. I honestly have no idea where most of my colleagues are except for a few who are active on FB. Maybe someday we'll have a get-together!

#BeKind #StaySafe

Organized My Basket of Thingamajigs

A neighbor pinged yesterday asking if we had a LAN to laptop cable. I have two areas where I keep my collection of cables, a drawer and a basket. The basket holds frequently used items like cables, adaptors and camera/phone stands. The drawer holds cables I don't use often. 

I must admit, I don't throw away working cables. I did that once and realized I made a mistake. I donated the cables for an old data storage drive. I hadn't transferred the data at that time. I ended up paying a lot to purchase a replacement cable. Gaaah. Since then I haven't thrown away anything unless it doesn't work anymore or definitely of no use. I'm also working on noting the use of each cable.

Anyway, I went through the two storage places, but I didn't have the item. He eventually pinged me and said they were able to purchase it. Since I saw the plight of my thingamajigs, I decided to organize the basket today. I used containers I originally bought for the fridge, but since it's too small I decided to repurpose it to organize my stuff. 

I kept cables in a separate bag (I'll go through it again later this week) and moved camera stuff in another case (donated by Sweetie). I categorized the other items into the following: adapters, chargers (plugs), phone stands, safety plugs, travel adapters and phone chargers (frequently used). I used to keep stuff in ziplocks, but it's harder to clean and tends to gather dust. The containers would be easier to wipe down. I'll add dessicant to make sure they are kept dry. 

I'm in my "organize" era and the funny thing is our architect noticed I've been moving things around, LOL.

#BeKind #StaySafe

Next Cat Project

I want to try some cute Pinterest projects and I chose this cute cat to form part of a new sewing machine cover I'm making.

I thought I'd be finished by now, but I got busy the past few days. Our water pump broke down, so we had to prioritize home issues.

 

Anyway, I've laid out how I'll make this cat. I hope it'll turn out cute.

#BeKind #StaySafe

Issue with Dab Water Pump

A few weeks ago, our water started to get scalding hot. We thought it was due to our water heater. Sweetie adjusted the temp and we thought that would resolve the issue. I was super surprised one evening while washing my hand the water was scalding hot. We turned off the water heater in our bathroom. 

The next day, Miggy said the water was still hot everywhere. We were getting really worried because hot water can damage our pipes and we were not sure what was causing it. I did some research and found some pages about how hot water can be produced by your water pump. 

Removed the Dab water pump for now

I specifically looked up possible issues of a Dab water pump. We've had ours for five years now and have had it checked only once. Sweetie called the next day and booked a technician. While waiting, he turned off the pump from the circuit breaker just to be sure it doesn't cause other issues. He switched the water to come directly from Maynilad and not our tank. Water was once again cold all over the house. 

Bestank (the distributor of Dab) sent a technician by end of the week to check the issue. He explained that the water dried up in the machine. This can be caused by brownouts and when there's water interruptions. We experienced both the past few months and that's what probably caused the pump well to dry up. He also noted that the grounding was removed from the outlet* and there's one more part that needs replacement (the hot temp damaged it). 

We're now just waiting for Bestank to update us about the cost to replace the 3 parts. I hope it won't be expensive. While waiting we'll also get an electrician to replace the outlet to accommodate the grounding. We've used water pumps for decades now. We had a cistern in my childhood home where we'd store water. A water pump helped distribute it across the house. The issue has always been the pump well drying up. I'd still use Dab since it's been very reliable. We'll just make sure the well always has water.  

*Removed by the electrician who helped build the house. He should have changed the outlet instead. This is what also ruined our water dispenser (rawr!).

#BeKind #StaySafe