This was a day-off, one of my days in lieu that i needed to get rid off. It was supposed to be rainy, even stormy but Auckland’s dysfunctional weather system was true to form. Tricked me to doing laundry and 2 hours later, in the middle of bawling over Youtube videos of child-singers and their sappy stories, I had to run outside to bring the washing in before everything was totally drenched.

I could have left it outside, but I have this belief that rain is essentially dirty; and that clothes that get drenched in the rain and later dry out, are dirty- contaminated. But that’s just me. I later dumped the clothes in the dryer and couldn’t be bothered hanging them back up.

But it was an otherwise lazy day. I did check my email several times, answered a few urgent ones. Our project manager rang my office phone line- it was off- like a million times- this woman who the other day, could barely talk with a throat infection that wasn’t Covid-19, but was severe enough that she declared she was taking a break. And now she was calling again. Totally ignored her.

-wiped down the kitchen with a Dettol disinfectant and the smell reminded me of my Tatay’s (my mum’s dad) fondness for Lysol- that hospital-y, piney smell.
- Watched ‘The First Wives Club’ on Netflix. I have this thing with watching movies I’ve already seen; I skip through the non-exciting parts and finish the movine in 15 or 20 minutes.
- Went through my ‘shopping list’ again but I really shouldn't . I don’t need new pants, hoodies, these nice transitional henley shirts, a new winter jacket, a new pair of glasses. Actually I do, but I’m not convinced that they’re NOT essential.

For dinner, finally made a version of ‘laing’ that I’ve always wanted to do with neither traditional gabi/taro leaves or fish-paste (bagoong). And it worked. Swiss chard or silverbeet is similar to gabi and holds itself well when you cook down the coconut milk to that point where the sauce is thick. You still want that saltiness that you get from bagoong but I thought that more than saltiness, it’s that umami flavour you want and thought that anchovies would be the perfect substitute. And it was.

The one thing I would change would be the choice of pork cut- I used pork scotch which I didn’t render well. I would use pork belly the next time which I would pan-fry until crisp.