reflection

Lockdown Day 29: Age 35

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I’ve read somewhere that during a pandemic, one must document his/her daily life. Even the most mundane day should be immortalized. With all those grand narratives of how Isaac Newton powered through the Black Plague, discovering some of the most important scientific discoveries known to man, we are made to believe that we have to be productive amidst this pandemic.

Today is day 29 since the lockdown was imposed over Metro Manila, and subsequently over the island of Luzon. I am also 35.

Panic buying before the Enhanced Community Quarantine. Photo taken at S&R on March 16.

When the first case of COVID-19 (then called as nCOV) in the Philippines was announced on January 30, 2020, I had already asked Mon to stock on a couple of boxes of masks from Bambang. I had been monitoring the situation for the past weeks. I knew that it’ll only be a matter of time before it blew up, and it won’t hurt to have masks stocked for our families.

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Before 2019 Ends

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Welp! My last post was exactly a year ago today! I almost forgot the password for BRYOLOGUE but here I am again with another mega post.

Funny how I keep on posting about religiously posting but haven’t got the chance for the past 364 days. To give a recap of my year, perhaps a mega post will make up for it?

So let’s have a look back at the year that was!

At the newly-cleaned Quiapo area ---- Mulberry Trout Scotchgrain Messenger Bag

At the newly-cleaned Quiapo area

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It’s a wrap, 2017! (My year-end essay LOL)

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And just like that, another year has ended! While everybody on Facebook is busy submitting their year-end essay, I chose to post a haiku because, well, I have this page to write to my heart’s content! ^_^

The haiku is roughly translated as:

‘EAT’

Last day of the year

And later, it’ll be the first

So go, eat some more!

Not shading everyone on Facebook, writing lengthy stuff about their year. I was just being cheeky! I actually enjoy reading them, save for some with irrelevant #humblebrag.

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Clean, condition, touch-up: bag-cleaning day

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As today is a holiday (i.e. the 119th Independence Day), I took the whole day to sort my things and clean my bags. I had already run out of leather-cleaning stuff, and I’ve been wanting to drop by SM Megamall to buy some.

It was a quick and breezy ride going there, as there was no traffic. As expected, there were a lot of people inside the mall, though.

Getting the good stuff

I went straight downstairs to the Lower Ground area, where this leather-care Mecca is found. I have been hoping to go there again, but could not find the time as SM Megamall was out of the way.

After careful consideration of what I needed (not to mention foresight of not being able to go back again for months), I was able to buy a couple of products to help me on the day’s agenda.

A shelf of leather care products

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Officially rainy and Jupiter setting

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As of yesterday, PAG-ASA has announced the start of the southwest monsoon. This only means that the rainy season is already upon us, and I can now wear my boots again! This also means not using lot of leather bags. While I had a good experience with the Collonil Waterstop spray, it was just too costly. The bottle only lasted for about a month, with the rotation that I do.

To welcome the rainy season (that just seem wrong), I used a canvas bag with minimal leather parts.

Gucci in black canvas and leather tote with silver hardware, Doc Martens 8-hole boots

The silver hardware is reminiscent of the Gucci Jackie bags

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First semester: done!

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In January, I was ecstatic to be back in school again. The excitement was brief, though, because distance learning is a lot harder. For those who scoff at this mode of education, let us see you get through one semester unscathed. T_T

Just a brochure? Not.

When you go to UP, you expect culture shock. A lot of new things can bombard your senses once inside the campus. Imagine doing this in cyberspace. It was a whole new frontier for most of us, the uninitiated. Having attended traditional classroom set-up in graduate school, I can confidently say that distance learning was not for the faint-hearted.

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Remembering Miriam

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It will never be easy to say goodbye. On my 32nd birthday during the Holy Week, we had decided to finally put one of our dog’s to sleep.

Miriam was a shy but confident dog. But in the last weeks, her health was deteriorating quickly and no amount of medicine could stop it. She had developed renal failure.

I remember crying hard when I last approached her before I left for Makati that last weekend. On the car leaving the house, my nephew said that Miriam still managed to get up and peek through her place.

One last goodbye

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For the record(s)

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The first quarter was about to end. I needed to use of all my leaves, but I did not have anywhere to go. For today, I took a day off to go to UP and request copies of my transcript.

It was not a chore before when I was still based in Marikina. But being from Makati on weekdays, I had to do the long traverse along EDSA just to reach Diliman.

While I love how vast UP Diliman is, it annoys me a lot why the cashier is at the far end of the Registrar. It is very counter-intuitive. There is a cashier downstairs, but it is often closed. Anyway, it was less tedious because I was with Ikle. We were done at around lunch time and had the whole afternoon to wait for the rush hour to subside. And that includes shenanigans around the campus.

Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee

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New Year, New Student

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A new year is always a fresh start! While things do not always turn out as originally planned, it is important to always move forward.

Back in August, I arranged my application. It took three months to get a feedback from the Admissions Office and I heard of my acceptance to the Graduate Certificate program at the end of November. I had mulled over whether I should continue or not. What are my plans and what I hope to achieve with this new venture?

Six weeks after I received the e-mail, I finally decided to go for it. I am going to be a student again!

I’m a student again

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Pygmalion, revisited

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It’s exactly 11:36 PM tonight, 11th of September and I am still wide awake. I have no work tomorrow because of Eid al-Adha. With a bad movie playing on the background, I have some white noise to block out the rain outside. I also took this photo with my laptop camera for no apparent reason.

My "Hello 9/11" face

My “Hello 9/11” face

Anyway, it was a very eventful week. I got a great news before Friday ended. I will be flying to Thailand this October for about half a month. My friend, Becca, was unfortunately unable to come to the course and I had to go, instead of the supposed November schedule. I was the fourth person on the list and I was suddenly asked to jump in. Just imagine, about exactly a year ago, I was in Guam for work-related travel and a year after, here I am again. There are certainly things I have to be thankful for, considering I had this soliloquy more than four years ago and another one a year after. But I would like to go back to the latter one, as it is more pertinent to what has been bothering me lately. The Pygmalion effect has come into consciousness once again.

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