Throwback Thursday: Cebu and Davao (2005)

If I remember correctly, 2005 was the first time I visited Davao. I was still working for the yellow pages back then and I traveled to train sales. They moved provinces every other week and I'd be shipped to see them wherever they were.

In August 2005, I chased them in Cebu and Davao. They were all bent to show me around since they deemed I was too sheltered (haha). In Cebu, they introduced me to the delicious BBQ and siomai in Fuente Osmena. I remember we also went to a bar where we went dancing. It wasn't really for me and I remember escaping with one of them. 

In Davao, they brought me to Eden and we ate at a buffet that only cost PhP100 each! It's been 21 years and my memories from that time are slowly fading away. I remember having so much fun with my colleagues and I actually felt more aligned with them. 

How I wish I had a good camera back then. The photos I have here were taken with a Nokia 6630. It was my first camera phone that was assigned by the company. Good thing I managed to back-up my photos and I still have some of the blurry photos of those fun times. 

I caught up with one of my colleagues through chat and she gave me an update on some of our colleagues. Sadly, two of the nicest ones passed away a few years ago. Most have transferred to other industries with some in controversies. Don't ask me about it since I'm really bad at keeping in touch with people. 

Happy days :)

#BeKind #StaySafe

Parenting in this Crazy World

When I got up yesterday, the first news I saw was the horrifying incident in Zamboanga. I quickly said a prayer and watched news clips. 

My heart breaks for the parents of school age kids. The world is entirely different from what it was when my child was younger. I cannot imagine how we'd cope.

I spoke to my son briefly about what happened. I told him it was a good thing the internet wasn't as "sophisticated" as it is now. He agreed and gave a good insight.

He said it's not just the games that's causing it. He said there are groups/chats/topics that's influencing kids. He mentioned the word "manosphere". 

It's my first time to hear that term, so I asked what it was about. He gave me homework to read up about "Andrew Tate". He's supposedly the one who coined the term and is pretty controversial.

I did a little reading before writing this post. I realized, there's a lot I don't understand from the younger generation. Pretty much like how my parents were with me. I'll read more about it, but perhaps us parents need to communicate more and meddle in the lives of our child/children. My parents sure did.

Take care everyone and hold your love ones closer.

#BeKind #StaySafe

Started a New Project

Live had the fabric ina separate box for a year now and decided to bring it out to start the project. I did a similar one two years ago and it took two months to finish. 

I realized, piecing together one inch squares is backbreaking work. So I'm going to do this project differently.

Miggy helped me choose the right fabric colors and I'm now working on cutting fabric! I hope I'll finish it sooner than later!

I'm not doing this by square, so let's see how it goes!

#BeKind #StaySafe

Correcting Issues from the Childhood Home

Ondoy, 2009

While planning our future home, we made several lists:

• List of basic needs and must-haves
• Wish list
• Property red flags

The list discussion lasted a couple of years. It started as a rough draft and evolved to a final list when we also chose our architect. It was important to give our architect a list of issues we experienced while living in my childhood home.

• Flooding Issues
• Basement flooding - the water would come from the road at the back. It's lower than our frontage, plus the basement was lower than the road and there was no firewall between our house and the property at the back. Also, there would be times flood water would come in from the bathroom drain.
• The neighbor doesn't have a drain and their basement area gets flooded. They used to throw water over to the property behind them.
• Our ground floor never flooded, but when the creek overflows, the street gets flooded up to 2 feet. This only happened during Typhoon Ondoy and Yolanda. Mom's garden also only got flooded once during typhoon Ondoy.
• 
  Termites and other pests
• Our whole village gets infested with termites. I had my childhood home treated by pest control in the last decade. 
• There was a time we had a rat and roach infestation.
• And, snakes. 
• Burglary
• We had experienced burglary in the past. We've lost a couple of bicycles and some tools since they were not placed inside the house. Our neighbors have also reported some random burglaries happening in the past few years. 
• Heat
• The overall temperature of our home was tolerable when I was a child. It got very hot eventually when my parents made adjustments to the house.
• Also, back when the house was built, installing insulation wasn't really a thing. Mom had insulation added, but with the cross-ventilation affected, it was still very hot in the house. 

All of the past issues would be addressed. I think the biggest change we're doing is to raise the whole house by at least a meter. It's in consideration of climate change. We'll also be able to avoid getting the basement flooded as well with proper firewalls on all sides. It's been raining for more than 3 weeks now and the street in front of our future home hasn't flooded. I think our barangay has been working hard to clear all waterways. 

Stay safe and dry everyone!

#BeKind #StaySafe

An Important Lesson

It was Fr. Rene* who taught me a very important lesson from Pope John Paul II -

#BeKind #StaySafe

Alocasia Update

Last March, I decided to re-pot a plant that grew out of a pot we got from Mom's garden. The leaves looked nice, so I didn't remove it. It grew and I eventually looked up what it was.

Alocasia.

Oh! I remember the plant became popular during the pandemic. I was happy for the free plant. 

It's been 5 months and I have two pots of alocasia now. Three weeks of rain has encouraged it to grow bigger! 

I have to check soon if it needs to be re-potted again :)

#BeKind #StaySafe

Brunch at Conti's

We had the chance to try Conti's all day breakfast. I usually order the baked salmon and tbh I wanted to order it again, haha.

I told myself to try somewhere new, so I ordered their pork tocino. It's interesting to try this staple sulit across restos. I was surprised since Conti's tocino wasn't red! I even thought it was tapa. It was definitely tocino made even better when you eat it with vinegar and atsara.

Sweetie got boneless bangus.

And Miggy his usual chicken since it's been awhile since we dined at Conti's.

Our unforgettable moment was when the extreme weather alert hit everyone's phone in the restaurant. It was surreal.  

Of course, we got some goodies before we left :)

P.S. I've been tracking rainy days in my planner and we're now on week 3 of rain pouring everyday. Forecast shows we'll have more rain next week! Take care!

#BeKind #StaySafe