Hi guys! How’s everyone been?
Truth be told, I sort of outgrew this blog and I had writer’s block and that’s why it’s been quite a while since I last updated.
Recently, I’ve started writing again but since I wanted a fresh start I decided to create a new blog here: https://itstheresechua.wordpress.com/
I hope you could follow me there. See you!
Welcome to my little haven in this vast world known as the Worldwide Web. All of the things you will see here are but a glimpse into who I really am and what I’m doing with my life. I also upload photos here so if you’re going to use them for whatever, or upload them somewhere else, please inform me before doing so. I’m not the type of person who puts watermarks on my pictures but please give credit where credit is due. That said, stuff that are not mine are labeled as such. Muchas gracias and enjoy! Do leave a (hopefully positive/constructive) comment if you feel like doing so :)
Can you believe it’s already August? Feels like I’ve just been writing about July (because I really was) and now a new month is here!
T and I went to their company gym on Monday to workout. I realized that they have a spin bicycle in their gym so I tried it out. I looked for a 20-minute spin workout because I didn’t want to do a 40-minute one, and because I wanted to use other equipment. After spinning, I used this weights machine for my triceps and shoulders. Then, I did some squats and used the aerobic step for some exercises as well. I also spent A LITTLE time using the TRX bands, but they were hard since I didn’t know how to adjust/use them so I ended up doing planks after.
My colleagues and I were supposed to have lunch at this Japanese restaurant because our Myanmar office’s GM is back in Taiwan for a couple of days, but he canceled last minute and so we ended up in our favorite Italian restaurant CinCin Osteria instead. We tried food from their new menu, and their food is still as good as the first time we tried it. Yuuum!
My favorite yoga instructor finally asked for my name yesterday and it felt really nice because I’m now considered a regular student since he knows my name. Ever since I first started attending his classes, he’s always been really helpful and encouraging to everyone. Sometimes, he would also adjust or correct my poses and would push me to deepen my pose, which is one of the things I really like about him. That and the fact that his classes are hard and they really work you out.
This will sound super cheesy but I feel like I was meant to take his classes. I would never have thought to take that class because I’d have to leave the office on time to attend, but there was one day that I needed to meet a friend at a later time and so I found myself in his class. That was the last day he taught the “easier” class and he announced that starting the following week, he would be modifying the class and giving everyone more challenging sequences. So if I wasn’t there that day, I wouldn’t have known and I wouldn’t have started taking his class and challenging myself.
As I’m typing this, my body is still super sore from working out. This is good though, right? If your body is sore the next day then it means that your workout was effective. Is that it? I haven’t wrote about this in my blog but lately, I have been noticing some of my transformations and it has been rewarding and satisfying. I’m most thrilled with my shoulders and my super baby upper abs; also with my newfound strength and flexibility. My lower belly is still really big as well as my calves and triceps. Fitness is a journey though, so we should be proud of ourselves for our progress thus far, while at the same time continuously pushing ourselves to achieve further goals.
It’s annoying how one of my shipments was randomly chosen by the customs’ system to undergo inspection!!! In the end, the customs officer felt like the cargo should be imported via another HS code (despite it already being previously imported with the HS code that it also used now) so the consignee needs to apply for rights to import goods under this other HS code or he has to send the shipment back to origin. Ugh.
My friends and I wanted to try one of the vegan restaurants that’s gaining popularity to see if it was really worth the hype. We were choosing between Plants Eatery and Miss Green but the latter accepted reservations and we went for that instead. The place was a bit dark in my opinion, and they use yellowish lights which are a bit annoying when taking pictures. That or I just really don’t know how to adjust lighting settings on my camera.
The food was good though. I liked the pasta (they were creamy and flavorful), and the salad (the ingredients worked well with each other and gave off different textures). The drink and the chips with guacamole were so-so. They gave us a free cake because we had a birthday celebrant in our group, which is really nice of them. After dinner, we went to the nearby Filipino store because Abby had to buy some food items. I ended up buying this bonito tuna can just to try it out.
D treated the team to dinner at this all-you-can-eat buffet in Neihu called FonFood (豐Food). I didn’t realize that it’s been a month since our last dinner out. H and I left the office together to go to the restaurant, which is close to MRT Jiannan station. I ate a lot! There were a variety of choices such as sashimi, steak, dimsum, peking duck, seafood, fresh fruit juices, Haagen-Dazs ice creams, cakes, etc. They also had lobster soup, and it’s a pity that we only had the option of eating lobster in the soup. The meat was a bit dry, so maybe that’s why. I like eating with them even if I don’t get to contribute anything helpful when they talk about company stuff because I don’t know anything about those. It’s good to hear and learn more about these company stuff though. #insiderinformation
I attended this hot yoga class with an instructor named Andy. I liked how his class is multilevel, which meant that there were challenging sequences that were divided into 3 or 4 levels and you could choose up to which level you could hold the position in. What I didn’t like about him is that he kept focusing all his attention on a handful (2-3) of his regular students, only checking their postures and positions and basically ignoring the rest of the class (which especially sucks for the beginners/first-timers, I feel like).
Pokemon Go was officially released in Taiwan and so T and I downloaded it and started playing. We went to their company gym to workout and on the way, I was able to catch some pokemons. After working out, we were supposed to have dinner at this grilled chicken stall, but it was closed! We walked up and down the block about 2 times looking for it, only to find out that the reason we passed by it without noticing it is because it’s closed. We ended up eating at this dumpling and noodle stall called 小上海 (translated: Little Shanghai) instead. We ordered xiao long baos, beef noodle soup, tofu noodle soup, and meat buns! Sooo full.
I have to write 2 reports in Chinese and it’s really hard! The previous reports I’ve had to submit for work were basic Chinese, English, or just graphs and numbers. This time, we need to write a half year-in-review and upcoming year outlook and action plan report and it has to be in Chinese. The other one is a brief or a “petition (submitted to a superior)” as translated by Google. Basically, you have to write down and provide supporting information and documents as to the topic of the brief you’re writing about. This is for a new network that we’re thinking of joining.
There’s an annoying agent who does not understand how visas work. He keeps asking us to apply for the visa (here in Taiwan) for him but we cannot do that as the visa has to be applied for in his home country. He even went on to saying that he’s never had to apply for any visa by himself. Okaaaay.
I got my renewed work permit so I can finally extend my ARC. Good thing that it only took them about a week to release my work permit. I’m gonna have to do the process again next year since my passport will be expiring so my passport number (which needs to be used in the work permit) will change. Sigh.
Can you believe that it’s already the last week of July?! This week was pretty boring in that there weren’t anything special that happened. T was in Kaohsiung for the first few days of the week so I was alone at home after I had gotten home from work. I prepared my dinner and ate it while watching my Snapchat feed and YouTube videos.
I must have been hormonal during the first few days of the week too, because I was feeling down for no reason at all. I was sad /felt disconnected and useless about life, work, and everything!
Work-wise, it was a pretty boring week. I had the standard emails and inquiries and whatnot. What was “out of the ordinary” was this Nigerian agent emailing me about the loss of their original BL for a shipment we handled last year, and the agent asking if we could assist to inform the co-loader to release their consignment. He even showed me their affidavit of loss and police report. In the end, since the MBL was under telex release, we sent them the pre-alert documents again and they were able to claim their cargo. I also worked on the invitation letter to an Iran agent for him to apply for a visa to come to Taiwan, and so I googled the requirements and steps he needed to do. Aside from other standard emails and work stuff, I also read some industry news and news articles not related to the industry.
My resident card is expiring this August and I’m going to extend its validity in the first week of August. I decided to prepare the needed documents in advance so that I wouldn’t have to worry about it when the time comes for me to actually process it. Good thing I did because I found out that my work permit is also going to expire next month!! What! It’s supposed to expire next year because I have a 3-year contract with my company and it’s only been almost 2 years. For some reason, the previous HR must have overlooked that and I only got 2 years. I immediately contacted our current HR and so she has to work on my work permit first before I can extend my ARC. Tsk, tsk!!
I also had to go get my photo taken for the work permit and the ARC. It’s so expensive!! The one nearest our office costs TWD380 for 6 photos. Oh well. Since I passed by Haritts, I decided to check if they had the cream cheese donut that I’d been wanting to try but was always sold out when I’d go there. I was able to finally buy it and it’s goooood!
My body (mostly my thighs/lower body) was still super sore from trying spin class with my cousin that Hatha Vinyasa class on Tuesday was a struggle. I didn’t put that much effort on the poses because my body was really sore and it was hard to hold the poses for long, especially those that require the use of the lower body. Ugh. Thursday’s hot yoga class was better because I had pretty much recovered by then so I was back to exerting a lot of effort into my practice.
On Thursday, my manager gave me one of her calorie control lunches again because she had an extra one and I chose the fish. It tasted really good, but I must admit that the portion is indeed small so you’d get hungry in the afternoon. I had a lychee milk tea in the afternoon and a tuna sandwich for my pre-workout meal. The next day, J asked us again if we wanted “afternoon tea” and I ended up getting Taylor tea latte.
Our president (Duterte) delivered his first State of the Nation (SONA) address and I read the highlights since I wasn’t able to watch it. My friend says the transcript is really funny because of his statements when he went off-script so I’m going to read the transcript to see if it’s really funny. I really do hope he can inspire the Filipino people enough to make them change and want to improve our country. I also hope that he can make the Philippines better. During his SONA he said a lot of things that we applaud – such as in regards to flooding, traffic, permits and licenses, freedom of information, passport, Internet, health, agriculture, ancestral domain, etc.
There’s this Peruvian restaurant in Taipei that’s on my list of restaurants I want to try, and when I saw that they had a promo this week to celebrate Peruvian Independence, I asked T if he wanted to go with me. On Saturday, we went there for lunch after going to the market in the morning. I was able to speak about 5 Spanish words with the owner when we left. They didn’t have much on their menu – basically just 1/4 Peruvian chicken, green rice, fries, salad, and soft drinks. There were different ways these items were combined that you could choose from. We chose the one with the green rice, and the other one with the salad. Their food is really delicious and flavorful! I enjoyed it. The promo was they gave out free albeit really small portions of 2 kinds of desserts (arroz con leche and mazamorra morada) and a drink (chicha morada).
After eating, we went back home to hang up the load of laundry that I had done before we left for the market, and then we went to Starbucks where we each did our own stuff. I read a book (The Art of Thinking Clearly) and wrote blog posts (like this one!) while T watched Game of Thrones on his laptop. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that we also watched Bad Neighbors 2 last night and it’s a really sucky movie. Such a waste of time.
My colleague asked me if I’m all right because she feels like I look unhappy. I told her that I’m not unhappy and that I was just tired and my body sore. She bought me a Starbucks drink nonetheless (it was on a buy-1-get-1 free promo) to lift up our moods in the afternoon. Awwww.
On Saturday, T and I watched Batman vs Superman (I didn’t like it), went to the Filipino district to make a remittance, ended up walking to Maji Square because apparently it was nearby, decided to go to Shilin night market for dinner, and then went to Jingmei on our way home where I bought shoes, a mason jar, and a cooking spatula.
On Sunday, T’s company had their team building activity, and this year it’s basketball. Last year it was bowling. We went to this school gym in Neihu and spent the entire day there. T played about 4 games with his team, but they weren’t very good so they didn’t win any awards. Their company also provided breakfast (sandwich) and lunch (pizza, fried chicken, and sushi).
For dinner, we ended up in House Bistro which is this brunch/cafe near the MRT. I ordered a pesto pasta and T ordered a hamburger. The food was so-so which was pretty disappointing. We’re not familiar with the area because it’s far from where we live and we don’t go there at all, so we don’t know which restaurants are good. Maybe we can research some for next time.
I had a shipment from Taiwan to Vietnam that was a nomination shipment of a Korea agent, and there were some issues that came up as we were verifying documentation because it was under L/C (letter of credit). There was no actual need to, but I wanted to understand it better so I read up on it. I also saw online that L/Cs are “one of the most widely used ways to reduce risk between importers and exporters… but the process creates a large paper trail and is time consuming.”
We received an announcement from Taiwan’s logistics organization about SOLE’s (The International Society of Logistics) certification class for Demonstrated Logistician (which is the first level). When I first saw/heard about it last year I think, I thought to myself that it’s something I’m interested in taking not only because certificates are very important in the Taiwan market but also because I wanted to be more knowledgeable and proficient in logistics/procurement/supply chain, etc. I just don’t know if I want to take it in Chinese especially because that would mean that everything I’d learn and even the test would be in Chinese. It is an international certification program though, so maybe if I could find one being offered in English or something. We’ll see.
Took down meeting minutes for a meeting between our president, CFO, TH manager, CQ manager, and my manager. It was interesting to hear their opinions and considerations because they are coming from different places and different viewpoints. Being the klutz that I am, I fell down from my chair before the meeting started (the chair rolled away and I didn’t notice) and they saw me fall in slow motion (good thing I sat down slowly) and was amused. I laughed as well so all’s good. It was really embarrassing though!
T and I had dinner with my relatives at this Korean BBQ all-you-can-eat restaurant in Taipei Main station.
On Saturday, I finally found the time to try making chia pudding for breakfast. I topped it with guava and kiwi since those were the only fruits we had at home during that time, and paired that with a banana blueberry smoothie. Yum! In the afternoon, I had afternoon tea at Cafe de Riz with Hana, Joyce, and Jackie. We ordered the 2-person afternoon tea sets because they are more value for your money but overall, I feel like the place is overpriced. Maybe we should try their rice ball meal set instead.
On Sunday, I attended my first spin class with my cousin and her friend. It was sooo tiring and there were times in the middle of class my legs wanted to fall off and I wanted to throw up! According to the instructor, these are all normal reactions and you can choose to slow down or just keep pushing through it. We used the gym equipment after. It’s so interesting because they have a lot of equipment targeting different muscle groups like for example a tricep focused equipment, outer thighs, inner thighs, abs, upper thighs, shoulders, biceps, etc.
After we took a shower and freshened up, we had dinner and played board games at Who’s Tea Shida, and then we went to the night market to shop.
As my ARC is about to expire and I was going to have to extend its validity, I figured that it wouldn’t hurt to prepare the documents in advance. It was a good thing that I did because otherwise I wouldn’t find out that my work permit was also about to expire! Turns out our previous HR personnel didn’t apply for the full 3 years so my work permit was only valid for 2 years. Our current HR personnel applied for an extension (and I even had to have my picture taken, an expensive picture I might add, at a place near our office) so I have to wait for that before I can renew my ARC.
On my way back to the office after having my photo taken, I passed by Haritt’s and I was finally able to buy their cream cheese donut. It was always sold out whenever I’d go there before, which wasn’t often. It’s gooood.
I know someone who will be planting/growing corals this September somewhere in the West Philippine Sea. Sounds so cool!
T and I had lunch at Polleria, this Peruvian restaurant that’s been on my list since I first saw one of my friends eating there. We got small samples of free desserts (Mazamorra Morada and Arroz conLeche) and this drink called ChichaMorada) in celebration of Peruvian Independence. They have really yummy and flavorful food but they don’t have a lot of choices – it’s mainly the Peruvian roasted chicken sets. I was able to speak a liiiitle bit of Spanish with the owner so that was cool. I need to have more confidence. It’s been x years and I’m still telling myself the same thing.
We had dinner at a small Japanese restaurant in Jingmei that we saw online. It’s not super expensive but the servings weren’t that huge either.
T and I watched Central Intelligence, Bad Neighbors 2, and Eddie the Eagle – a movie per day. Haha! We had a Starbucks date session (since we couldn’t decide on which coffee shop to go to) and I finally finished reading The Art of Thinking Clearly by Rolf Dobelli.
I read this article that talked about the Positive Lexicography Project, which is this “online glossary of untranslatable words.” The article included some words that are already included in the glossary, and I listed down some of the ones I found more interesting:
– Sisu (Finnish): connotes both determination and bravery, a willingness to act even when the reward seems out of reach.
– Heimat (German, “deep-rooted fondness towards a place to which one has a strong feeling of belonging”)
– ilunga (Tshiluba, “being ready to forgive a first time, tolerate a second time, but never a third time”)
I read this article on Thought Catalog titled “25 Ways To Kill The Toxic Ego That Will Ruin Your Life” and the only thing I wrote down from the article is how philosopher Seneca came up (?) with this word “euthymia“, which means the tranquility of knowing what you are after and not being distracted by others. How wonderful it must be to know what you want or what it is you’re meant to do with your life that you just continuously work towards achieving that thing.
Lastly, I read this article by Robert H. Frank called “The Incalculable Value of Finding a Job You Love” and these are what I took down:
“…you’ll have bills to pay, so salary matters. But social science findings establish clearly that once you have met your basic obligations, it’s possible to live a very satisfying life even if you don’t earn a lot of money. The bottom line: Resist the soul-crushing job’s promise of extra money and savor the more satisfying conditions you’ll find in one that pays a little less.”
I feel like this is in line with what I wrote about in my previous blog entry where I read an article in The Wild Wong.
On the first of July, my colleagues and I had lunch at Old Kanpai. I don’t know if it was because of the new month or because it was Friday. Maybe it was both. I ordered the Japanese BBQ set and it also came with wagyu beef. The food’s really good and despite originally thinking that I would’t get full, the meal is actually filling. For another reason, my manager treated us. Yay!
Adam celebrated his 2nd birthday, and Joyce found this Italian restaurant in Taimei Main Station’s Hoyii. It was my first time going there, and I didn’t know there was already such a place in Taipei Main Station. It’s a building that goes underground and has different restaurants and stores inside. Tim Ho Wan and Pablo Cheesecake are also located there.
The restaurant we went to for Adam’s birthday party is Tino’s Pizza. Joyce ordered a lot and we were sooo full! The food and the drinks were delicious, and the servers were all really nice and attentive as well. Fun day! After the party, we went to QSquare to walk around for a bit to digest our food, and then T and I went home as kuya and the others watched a movie.
I finished reading Good to Great, and I also cooked a couple of dishes at home. I cooked sour tamarind soup (sinigang), which is my go-to comfort food and my favorite food as well. I also cooked cabbage with carrots and bacon, mom’s chicken mushroom, and ginisang pechay.
There was a big fire around our area, and there were lots of firetrucks and ambulances. Good thing I got to the bus station earlier that day because the driver said that the next one might take 30 minutes to arrive (it normally takes only about 7-10min between each bus) due to the fire. The bus was jampacked!
We had dinner at Hot 7 for Roxane’s birthday dinner. I remember last yearRoxane also took us there after she got her first paycheck. The food’s good and the sets aren’t super expensive so we like it there.
I made banana blueberry smoothie one morning and took it with me to the office to pair with my breakfast sandwich. A lot of people in the office were hoping to have a typhoon “holiday” so that we could have a long weekend, and what do you know, we really had a typhoon holiday! It was timely too because my period came that day and I had menstrual cramps. Lucky that I was able to rest and just chill at home.
T and I watched Me Before You. I was actually planning to watch and read it but I read some negative reviews online and found out the story plot which made me not want to watch or read it anymore. However, T downloaded it and wanted to watch it too so we did. It was probably because I was hormonal but I cried buckets after watching the movie! I also finally understood why things happened the way they did.
I’m not saying that it was right or that I support the decisions made throughout the film; I’m just saying that I now understand their side and their viewpoint, and how things unfolded. I also read the book and it’s exactly as is the movie, albeit with more details and in-depth descriptions. You can also read what’s on the characters’ minds in the book, as chapters are told from the different characters’ points of view.
We went to the market and as I previously said, bananas and tomatoes are cheap again! We went to the stalls we frequent, and I got almost 3kgs of ripe tomatoes for only 50NTD! What a steal. One of the first dishes I made using that was fresh tomato sauce for pasta dinner. For the bananas, one thing I tried was the three-ingredient banana oatmeal pancakes (banana + oats + egg) which turned out pretty good. I didn’t have a lot of bananas to work with so I only ended up with 3 pieces of dollar pancakes.
Over the weekend, T and I also finished watching CSI: Cyber and we started watching Game of Thrones because he really wanted to watch it. I got bored with the first season because I felt like the pace was super slow and a lot of fight scenes are stretched out. I just wanted to press the fastforward button a lot.
I stumbled upon this personal finance and freelancing blog called The Wild Wong, and in one of the articles she posted, she said that:
“It turns out there is a specific dollar number, or income plateau, after which more money has no measurable effect on day-to-day contentment. The magic income: $75,000 a year. As people earn more money, their day-to-day happiness rises. Until you hit $75,000. After that, it is just more stuff, with no gain in happiness.”
“Money makes you happy the same way not having a rare illness makes you happy: you have a lot less to worry about.”
“It might be more or less than $75,000, but we all have a money-happiness benchmark: the price it takes to eliminate common worries and enjoy a comfortable life.”
“Financial independence isn’t about being able to stand on your own financially. It’s actually about independence from your finances. It’s the ability to do the things you love without checking in with your budget. “
“When you define your own goals, you’re in control, and that’s all managing money is: not letting it get between you and what matters to you most.”
I’ve always believed that money can buy happiness, often because of experiences or things that you can buy with money, and it seems like I wasn’t wrong. Each person has of course their own definition or view of how much they need or want in their lives, but the bottomline (or for me at least) is that you cannot completely forego money no matter how much you want to.
Here’s a list of things that happened during the week:
T went to Taichung for a couple of days on a business trip, and when he came back, he brought sun cake and wife cake because we didn’t know what else he could buy from Taichung. I liked the wife cake better than the sun cake because it wasn’t as flaky and as messy to eat.Hehe.
Attended my favorite yoga class, and the instructor came up to me mid-class to say, “Long time no see. About 2 weeks, no?” Yes, oops! Flattered because he remembers me.
One of my high school friends is getting married in the Philippines and then in Korea this October, and she invited me to her wedding! I was surprised because we hadn’t really kept in touch over the years so I wasn’t expecting to be invited to her wedding. What’s even more surprising and thrilling is that they will pay for our flight and hotel accommodations to/in Korea! OMG I totally did not see that coming. Korea, here I comeeee! Can’t wait for October.
We had the quarterly meeting with our chairman and it was all right. I was still my awkward shy self who just kept on smiling and nodding my head to whatever he says. When he asked me if I was used to work or if I had any problems, I just said yes I am and no I don’t have any problems. It’s intimidating to talk to him even if he has a really friendly face.
We were looking at next year’s conferences and I will most probably be sent to Singapore next year to attend a conference together with my colleague. My manager wants her to act as my guide for next year so I hope all goes well and I do well. There’s another conference for another network in Thailand but I passed on that because of my sister’s wedding. My manager prefers I go to Singapore anyway, so it’s all right. Plus, there’s always the following year! The hotel where the conference will be held looks so pretty though – it’s situated on a cliff so it overlooks the ocean and they also have their own pools if you’re not into the beach.
“It feels good to be nice – unless the other person is a jerk. And then it feels good to be mean. Tit for tat indeed.” – Rand
T and I went to the market to buy some fruits and veggies and I found out that bananas and tomatoes are cheap again! Woohoo. We can buy those again. After we went to the market, we went home for lunch while watching Newsroom and we finally finished watching all three seasons.
We went to their company gym and then had dinner at Goku’s because 2 of my aunts are here on vacation. On Sunday, we had lunch with my relatives at this Cantonese restaurant in Ximen and then we had snowflake ice for dessert.Roxane, T, and I went to Taipei Main Station after lunch to do a bit of shopping. We walked so much and my feet felt like they wanted to fall off.
In other news, June is overrrr!!! Just like that, half the year has passed! Here’s to hoping that the second half of the year is as good (or even better) as the first half.
Here are the things that happened this week:
I went back to work on Monday, and I was greeted by 358 emails in my inbox. It was one of the rare instances that I had that much email and I had to to work during lunch in order to update myself regarding some shipments scheduled for the week. The operations person is a bit mean and scary so if I couldn’t update her/answer her questions, she would figuratively bite my head off. Yikes! I also received more than 60 emails throughout the day so I had to work overtime to sort through my inbox, list down stuff, and categorize mails.
I don’t understand why one of my colleagues has to get worked up and super irritated so easily. Shake it off, girl! Stressing yourself out is not worth it. Don’t tell me to pick a fight with someone because that’s just not my thing. Again, it’s not worth it and it’ll just be a waste of my time.
We got our holiday bonus and salary! Yay.
Finally have an external SD card on my phone, thanks to T!
Annoying how my hair has become wavy, and not the kind of wavy I want or that suits me.
Finished eating my Milka chocolate that my colleague bought for me from her Europe trip. Huhu it was sooo good and now I’ve ran out. Oh well.
I thought I was going to miss this year’s Philippine Independence Day celebration organized by our representative office here in Taiwan because I was in th Philippines. Turns out, they held the celebration at a later date this year and so I was able to go with my friends. Wee! We ate a lot, listened to music, one of my friends won roundtrip tickets to Manila, and then we took a bunch of pictures. After the event, we decided to go to L.A. Cafe (as if we weren’t full enough) to hang out over some drinks and dessert.
A local coffee chain called Louisa Coffee released a Flat White as a limited time drink and so I tried it out. It only comes in one size (small) so it’s a bit expensive for its size, but it’s pretty good – better than their regular latte in my opinion.
“It’s not what you say, it’s what people hear.” – Frank Luntz
R said, “This is already really good. What were you nervous about?” and J said, “Actually T was the one who translated that. I only made some really minor edits and only translated a small part of it.” All the while I was pretending like I wasn’t listening. Hahaha. Good thing J acknowledged the fact that I translated 95% of the document, but only to R. She won’t let A know though, but that’s all right.
We had lunch at kuya’s to celebrate Hana and Patrick’s birthdays. We cooked food again, and we were joking about whether or not we were getting tired of spending so much time preparing and cooking food. Most of the time, we would get together and cook so it was really time-consuming. Haha! Jackie brought a Boston Cream Pie from Pozzo (San Want Hotel’s bakery) and it was really good! It was my first time having that cake, as I’m not really a big fan of cake to be honest.
I went to yoga class while T went to their company gym, and then we met up for dinner at Ikea. I was finally able to eat Ikea’s meatballs again after about 2 years. After dinner, we went to Xinyi district’s Vieshow to watch X-Men Apocalypse. I liked it. We didn’t get home until past midnight because we watched the really late screening of the movie.
On Sunday, T and I watched Newsroom and at night, we went to Goku’s house for dinner.
June 9 (Thursday)
Mom made banana+carrot+cucumber+melon juice for breakfast, and we paired that with rice and viand as we usually do for breakfast. I was so full afterwards!
Dom picked me up for lunch and we were supposed to go to Milky and Sunny Pasig supposedly for brunch, but we found out that it was no longer there. We went to Bondi&Bourke instead, as that was also on my list of restaurants I wanted to try. Jonathan and Karen joined us for lunch and the four of us kept laughing and reminiscing stuff from the past. It was good to see them – especially Karen who I haven’t seen for a couple of years now, I think. Both of them had to go back to work and couldn’t join us for dessert.
Dom and I went to Carousel Creamery and each got 2 scoops each. Yuuuum! Then, he dropped me off at home and I waited for mom to come back home from work. We went to Sai’s house for dinner because they’ve recently moved and I haven’t seen their new place. It’s nice!
June 10 (Friday)
I had lunch with Rox, Jad, and Nic at Backyard Kitchen+Brew in UP Town Center. Since we were so clingy and we had so much to catch up on, we had coffee at Starbucks and ended up staying until dinnertime. Woah!
Time just flew by because we were all talking and sharing stories of things that have happened in our lives, our realizations over the past few years, our future plans and goals, and other gossip. Haha! When we realized that it was already dinnertime and my parents were already looking for me, I went home. Had dinner with my parents and then mom and I decided to try this massage place near our house. It felt so relaxing to finally be able to get a body massage, because it’s so expensive in Taipei.
June 11 (Saturday)
Mom and I went to the mall to get a haircut since I was bored with my hair and I felt like it was already dry and limp. I felt so light after getting it chopped off. After that, we went grocery shopping. Mom helped me pack my luggage when we got home, because no matter how much we think we’ve packed efficiently, moms would still do it better.
In the evening, we had dinner at Torch to celebrate their anniversary and it was a good thing that dad liked the food that we ordered.
June 12 (Sunday)
I brought my parents to UCC Clockwork because some friends have been saying it’s good and so I wanted us to try it. We were really disappointed because they didn’t have practically everything on their menu and their service is so bad. The coffee’s not good either. Sigh, not going back there again.
After that, I had to go to the airport to catch my flight back to Taiwan. I got to the airport early since there was not much traffic. I feel like it’s better to be early than to rush though, and there’s free wi-fi at the airport anyway, so I was able to surf the net while waiting. I was also reading a book to kill time.
When I finally got in after the immigration, I fell in line for almost an hour for the terminal refund for OFWs. The line was super long and there was only 1 counter. We let some people cut the line because their flight was about to leave and we were early. Upon arrival at Taoyuan International airport, the guy beside me said, “Yay I have 4G again!” I feel you man. This is the end of my trip. It’s been really fun but I always feel like it’s not enough, and I want to stay longer. Oh well.
June 6 (Monday)
I went to Recto LRT2 station where Aileen picked me up. Then, we went to Makati because she needed to run some errands and after that, we had lunch at Wholesome Table. We ordered a salad and pasta and they were really good. The place itself was also cute and there were lots of photo-worthy spots.
Toby’s Estate was nearby so we decided to go there for coffee and dessert, and also to pass the time until our next event. We attended Citibank’s financial basics board game event. It was really interesting but it is set up to be played under a game master so you can’t really play it by yourselves at home – unless someone in your group has received the necessary training to be a game master and has different slides to show different scenarios and whatnot. I ended up having “retirement money” left even after accruing so much debt for the duration of the game because of some investments I made. Whew!
I met up with some UP friends for dinner at Amici Ayala Triangle Gardens while Aileen went to dinner at Blackbird. It was raining sooooo hard that the whole lower part of my body was wet since I had to walk to the restaurant with my small umbrella. Alya was also drenched by the rain. We ordered pastas and a pizza to share and then we caught up with each other. After dinner, I hitched a ride with Aileen back home. Wee!
In other news, I have a lot of shipments for June! When I checked my email, I had more than 100 mails (and counting) in my inbox to sort through when I get back to Taiwan. I’m thankful that some of my shipments will have been done by the time I get back to Taiwan because my colleague had to contact some of those shippers via phone. Hehe, whoops!
June 7 (Tuesday)
I accompanied mom to the hospital because I wanted to go to our dermatologist family friend to get my face checked. I had a facial while I was there, and I also bought more of the skincare products that have been working on my face. I also took the opportunity to get the wart on my foot removed. It was painful because the wart had been there for a long time and so it was already deep. I was limping after that and for the rest of my trip.
When mom was done with work for the day, we went to the bank to register and clarify some stuff. It took us quite some time because I ended up opening a new account and we had to set it up.
I met up with some of my CSA friends for dinner at Calderon, this Spanish restaurant in San Juan. It was a bit pricy (as with other international food, I feel like) but the food was good. We were the only guests that night though (at least for the amount of time we were there), which felt a bit weird. For dessert and board games, we went to Bubble Tea for Chris to be able to join us. It was nice seeing those who were there that night, but a lot of people weren’t able to make it so we weren’t that many.
June 8 (Wednesday)
I had a quick lunch and catch-up session with Kimbies at Yellow Cab Mezza because she had a client meeting at night and won’t be able to join us for dinner. I was so sleepy when I got back home (probably from all the food) that I took a looong nap in the afternoon.
When I woke up, the sun was about to set. Hahaha! I had dinner with some high school friends at The Clubhouse, Robinson’s Magnolia. The food was good, so yay.
We talked about a lot of things and one of the most surprising things we talked about was how much money K’s family has! They have faaaar more than the amount C thought they had, and apparently, K spent almost 1M on his party (mostly for booze). What!!! Such a waste of money, I feel like. Oh well, it is after all their money but personally, they could’ve spent it better. Haha maybe for them it’s only loose change though.
I dreamt that I was in a hotel overlooking Yilan. That was very weird because the dream felt so real, like I was really there and I was looking at the beach and the view with my own eyes.
We are in our last week of May 2016, and a lot of pretty good things happened during this week:
T and I went to Costco with Jackie, and we were only supposed to look around but we ended up getting a lot of things! Whoops.
I caught up with a good friend from university over Viber and we talked a lot about what’s been going on with our lives, some of the decisions we’ve made over the years, as well as our future plans. It was nice to talk to someone about these things because otherwise, we wouldn’t pause and reflect on our lives. I felt reenergized after our chat because I was able to think about (even for just a moment) my current situation and some of the things I want in the future. Let’s see how the next few years turn out. I hope they’re good.
Since I would be going back to the Philippines in June for more than 5 days, I made an appointment with MECO labor to apply for my OEC. Good thing their office was near my office so I was able to go there without wasting too much time on the commute or whatnot.
The crazy girl is still crazy. She has so much negative energy that whenever she walks around the house, you can feel her negative energy seeping out of her. She also kept slamming the door probably because she was fighting with H. Ugh, they’re so annoying. Good thing they finally moved out this week! They moved to a place that’s 1/3 smaller but costs the same as our place. Ha! They’re on the 6th floor too. Plus, majority of the rent will be paid for by H, because according to crazy girl, she’s still a student and so she won’t be able to contribute. She’s the one who forced him to move out though. Oh well, that’s his choice.
I bought small glass containers so that I could bring the mixed nuts and dried cranberries that I got from Costco to the office. This way, I could also share these with my teammates.
We had Subway sandwiches and wintermelon lemon drinks c/o the company to celebrate April-June birthday celebrants.
I had dinner with the FLH team at this newly-opened seafood restaurant somewhere around the office called AJin Seafood Restaurant. We gave them our budget and they prepared a menu for us. The food was really good, and there was a lot! I got so full afterwards, and I actually gained 2 kgs from that meal. Yikes!
T and I are trying to get into the habit of waking up earlier on weekends to be more productive/do more stuff. On this weekend, we finished watching the first season of Newsroom, cleaned around the house, watched How To Be Single, went to the gym (used the TRX suspension for the first time), went to the remittance center to remit for the first time, had dinner at the Filipino restaurant CresArt (the food wasn’t as good as before and they’ve raised the prices), talked a bit with our new housemates (yes, T found new ones less than 24 hours after the crazy girl and H moved out. H was surprised at how fast T was able to find new tenants, which just goes to show how much we don’t need them or how good and cheap our current place is), and meal prepped for the week.
Another week is over!
C'est moi 