Wrong move to right

People have been calling and messaging me  this past days as if I’m a valid source of news or gossip do that matter.. I do love gossip especially when it’s about celebs and I sometimes do get affected by it (like  when Miley and Liam separated, again for the nth time) I would tell it to my boyfriend as if they’re like people amongst my own. Like I know them on a personal level. My boyfriend would always say that, you don’t know the real reason and you don’t know Maybe  they’re really horrible people in real life. That just him not really oblivious about celebrities but  also  don’t like them. He has a way of persuading you and making you look at the other side of them sometimes I teased him about being such a hater. He would know about how Oprah was good friends with Harvey Weinstein, How Ellen is a Democrat supporter or that Mother Theresa was not all that saintly or that he doesn’t like the royals and he hated Trump especially.  (Well  hating Trump is not debatable) but that just him and his biases and his opinions which were based on facts he said.  While me being always  wanting to be on the know basis about issues whether it be sometimes political, events and  knowing for more on the entertainment value. I boast my self at work about knowing the latest celebrity  gossips by following some entertainment bloggers here or abroad. My workmates tease me being Manay Lolit . But just to be fair and to be on the safe side I don’t discuss politics or maybe religion because it can get very tricky sometimes. However having been educated at  UP (State university) the influence  of a liberal education is always at the core. You knowing the issue, making a stand, talk when you are asked about your opinions without necessarily pushing it on anyone’s throat. And always have that open mindedness and critical thinking . 

Anyways the reason why some people were messaging me was that in my city a certain VIP was able to fly in via a chartered chopper from Manila and turning out Covid positive.  Flying in via private plane because commercial

flights were all banned. So most flights that contains medical PPEs and transports medical people are military planes. My brother is with the PAF and I once ask him if he could transport my best friend from Manila to Cebu because of the lock down extension she needs to be at home with her family. My brother said it’s not anymore permitted to fly out civilians in military planes. 

 So it was later revealed in the news anyway that this person is a high ranking management  officer of Globe Telecom, the company I worked for.  She is an Ilonga, has been our boss in the store and risen from ranks to become one of the top executives of the company.  I am very much in awe of Miss Tans as we call  her because she has been a UP professor then became a store head in a Globe store in Iloilo before becoming a top executive of Globe based in Manila. I think she is one smart, feisty Ilonga.. (praying for her full recovery soonest). 

 I was hush hush because even if  I was privy to the fact that our boss needs to come home because her mother died and she is the only daughter she needs to be home for her funeral, I did not have the proper details of the incident and also because of some privacy issues . So at first some friends were asking if indeed it was true, I couldn’t comment but eventually I said yes it’s in the news.  Globe chartered that flight and in that flight carried some test kits to be used in Iloilo.  I couldn’t emphasize how amazing our company has been in this crisis of course. (Supporting employees,  partners and subsidiaries,    Substantial donations to fight Covid 19)  

The news link : https://dailyguardian.com.ph/special-treatment-two-new-covid-19-cases-in-iloilo-bacolod-cities/

According to the news, protocol was followed  upon knowing Miss Tania was positive and proper handling was done at the airport. The crew  on this flight tested negative and that she is as-symptomatic and at home quarantine . 

 Even so people were reacting negatively how the mayor was giving VIP treatment because  the father of the patient is one of his Legal counsel and that he denied entry of OFWs wanting to go home to the city when they were stranded for weeks now in Manila . Some people joked how Iloilo is not anymore #wakandaforever because of this slight oversight. Along with the premature lifting of the liquor ban a day before. 

He was actually quick to admit slightly dimmed foresight  on that one and declaring liquor ban again after a day or two. 

 Nevertheless, Iloilo was still a model how the city has responded to the crisis. How the city mayor was lauded and how the people of Iloilo were good at cooperating with the governments effort. There was an evident  public and private sector cooperation. Hence they say Iloilo is another country of its own where there was less support from the national government yet was able to stand on its own hence  - Wakanda 

https://news.abs-cbn.com/ancx/culture/spotlight/04/03/20/in-iloilo-city-frontliners-are-first-priority

My best friend Congresswoman, Jam Baronda of the lone district of Iloilo has been working with OWWA and other government agencies to help these distressed OFWs stranded in Manila.  someone who seek my help in including their  OFW relatives knowing I was a close  confidant of Jams. I coordinated with Jams staff and they were included on that list. However, this was placed on hold  because there was an incident prior where some OFW tested positive for Covid upon arrival in the city. And Mayor Jerry Trenas has to hold the plans of bringing them to Iloilo. 

And now since Ms Tans being declared the #7 Covid positive in the city, Mayor Jerry soften his stand on bringing back the stranded OFW following proper protocol of course. I was just texting Jam a while back about the Mayors decision. Maybe everything just works for the best. And hopefully I’ll see my kababayan or Kasimanwa being with their families soon. 

Quarantine diaries

Ask not what you can do for your country. Ask what’s for lunch.

Orson Welles

The first few days of the quarantine,  we could agree that people were insecure about the future,  And that we grabbed everything we thought we needed. we were told to stay at home  so we stock up on essentials- food even all the  sanitizers , face mask and toilet paper.  hoarding which is entirely a different topic of its own. But let me just focus on food. 

If you’re like me who is food motivated then the lockdown provided opportunity to hone skills in cooking and making food for ones consumption, to share with the neighbors and more importantly to post in social media. Almost all of the fashion bloggers confined in their homes  turned to cooking to maintain the gram. We have seen the influx of new hashtags such as #quarantini for drinks and the highly popular #dalgona - (look it up) replacing milk tea as the trend and #lockdownmeals and what not. My office chat groups has been filled with food creations shared by everyone everyday and nobody took offense or get annoyed. It was just a coping mechanism everyone understood.  Although as weeks went on people on social media became more conscious about food posting because some people especially the marginalized and poor comprising the majority of the population in my country were just depending on government aid and relief it became not cool and insensitive to post your lockdown meals and gourmet cooking, so I’ve posted on stories instead. 

While food provided by relief and of course we have all this canned goods. People also got creative with their way of cooking item such as canned sardines. 

 Food indeed provides comfort and maybe have us a sense of security at this most confusing times. 

The first 2 weeks of quarantine parents were complaining how a week food supply were consumed in a few days. How we are only allowed to go out to the grocery and that’s the only time we can get out wear a bra and put on something that won’t let us look homeless. 

Who would have thought that in staying inside your home you are actually contributing to a greater good. So we turned to cooking and learning some new ways of making food and just enjoy and recreate food from scratch, oftentimes depending on the internet to learn the recipes. 

Another challenge for me was controlling my oldies not to go out. they like to go on the markets to buy food for themselves, my father likes to cook himself . I have to seek the help of my eldest brother who is based in China  to call my father and tell him about staying in the house and wearing a mask.  My father likes to socialize and play chess with his friends in the town plaza he is the president of his chess club aside from going into the public market to meet some friends 

 So going back to food : I have since learned how to make , chicken Machboos, deviled eggs, I’ve made lots of coffee drinks in different ways. 

Observed how to make bread and cake by seeing my cousin do it.  She was able to make pan Desal to give out to our towns frontliners and baked a cake for our niece who celebrated her birthday on day during the quarantine. 

 Kudos to concerned organizations and individuals who made food for hospital personnels  and other frontliners.  Most cities created kitchens where food donated were being cooked to be distributed to the frontliners.   

Indeed the first week we dealt with the quarantine by becoming  cooks or bakers and turn to food for comfort. I’ve gone all out and just eat and make food not caring about the weight gain. 

On the third week, I’ve begin to see how my face bloated on zoom video calls with my colleagues . Haven’t had an exercise regimen so I tried to avoid snacking and just stick to breakfast, lunch and early dinner...  and the occasional drinks in between. A girl needs not feel deprived especially of this unprecedented times.  Next on the list of food to make - pain au Chocolat... I kinda miss breakfast in Paris.  

Fur Parents Association

The work from home set up of my company requires us to do zoom meetings with everyone from the office 5 days in a week. Last week one officemate was missing and we learn Jae was in distress as his dog died. It reminded me about my own loss. We were both fur parents and at work we would always make fun of it treating our dogs like they are real children. Like we would joke how we send our dogs to the same exclusive schools and that Jae is the PTA president and I’m the Vice President of the PTA and that they are classmates with the real kids of our boss. And him being the president of the PTA puts him in a superior position with our boss if only for the school set up of our kids.  Our office mates would often join along asking us about our dogs activities and we would invent replies such as we are sending them after school at ballets and soccer practice. Jae’s mom recently  passed away last year and she is very dear to him, they live together. And since then he is just left with two dogs to accompany him at home. I could only imagine how this loss would affect him once again. And reaching out to comfort him I’m also confronted with my own loss. Last February I’ve lost 2 dogs. So when I say that this past months of 2020 has been brutal its an understatement. 

Typing this just breaks my heart. I’ve lost two dogs in just a matter of weeks apart. First was my baby puppy shitzu named Giambatista, aka Giamba a baby girl. She was hit by a car. She’s almost 5 months  with me. She stole the heart of everyone in my family and all the relatives in our compound. I have 3 dogs actually they were four, but had the other one adopted by the family of my helper. She was a chihuahua with a mixed - she is slightly bigger than the usual. I had her so our male chihuahua can have company but she turned out to grow bigger than him and also quite very playful that having 4 dogs at our puny space just got a little too much to handle. For the longest time I only had Dolce, he’s a male terrier sold to me by a neighbor named Dulce. But his name is based on the Italian Designer. A cousin of mine suggested that I raise a dog since I don’t have a child of my own and so I did.  I raised Dolce and shortly became part of our family for 7 years. An addition came when a friend gave me a chihuahua we named Gabanna nicknamed Gab or Gabi. We almost gave him to my maid when she returned home to her province because she also became attached to the dog but my father won’t give him up. Soon another addition was added a shitzu, this time a girl we named Giamba who would be Dolce partner when she became of age. Until we lost her one day last February. I did not talk about it because it’s too painful, alas that was not the end of it. Two weeks past and Dolce was gone. As in lost with no trace. For weeks on end we search for him in neighboring villages and subdivisions calling out his name. I also posted in my social media as well as joining pet groups in Facebook. My mother went to the police in my town to report also but to no avail. Most of the townspeople in my town knows Dolce because if I’m at home I would always walk him and all the dogs to the park or he would accompany me or my mom in going to the public market . My boyfriend suggested I would look for him in a pound. Unfortunately we don’t have that here. At first we just suspect that he probably just went to some female dog who is having the fertility stage you know pheromones. But a week past and he never was home. He was probably was taken randomly and brought to another town and was caged or tied. Breaks my heart imagining it. Dogs love their freedom and all the more Dolce because he never experienced being caged or isolated .  Like what of tiger king said ,You know why animals die in cages ? Their soul dies. I felt that. What if dolce is crying and being stressed out looking for me. It would be even acceptable if he forgets about me because he’s being treated well than him being depressed and longing to be freed. My dolce has  always been treated like he’s one of us. He would demand food while we are eating our meals and he would just sit and stay when I’m at my room doing nothing or he would just follow me around the house or outside. But he is also smart enough to know if I’m leaving for work.He can cross the street and knows the proper timing always looking out for passing vehicles.  Sometimes I thought dogs don’t deserve us. They’re just too smart, loving and fiercely loyal. I hope who ever took him would just love him too much And wanted him because why else they have to steal the dog.  I sometimes still have lucid dreams about him. I have tears when I wake up.  

And so last week upon learning about Kendra . (Jae’s dog- a female cross breed Labrador - chow)   Reminded me about the fact that Dolce is also  not around anymore. No body to have a proper burial or a proper grieving for me but Kendra was gone due to sickness.  She is 5 years old. I comforted Jae  by saying that just go through the proper grieving because unlike me I haven’t really grieve the loss of my dolce.  the hope of still finding him still hovers over me. I told him about what my fengshui friend said about me losing 2 dogs in a month that my dogs absorb all the negative energy that was supposedly intended for me it’s hard to accept that they have been some sort of shock absorber. Again that just some ways where we attribute and make sense some things we don’t understand happening. I joked him about me assuming the presidential position of our PTA  because of what happened but then at least he’s got another kid, an Askal dog named Boyboy.. and me I still have Gab, not as clingy and entitled as Dolce but quite independent .And since the lockdown I also adopted one of the dogs of my neighbor , they have to be temporarily move to another town. I also took it upon me to feed the remaining dog left at their compound. I hope wherever Dolce is he’s not in a cage and just still being a boss. He would have been eight this coming June 20. 

Giamba







This is Dolce