There’s only just my sister and her husband now that their only child is a full-grown adult and living her best life on the mainland. So not all American tables this thanksgiving are groaning with food.
Fuck Off
The devil will get you first
Yes!
A small reprieve from God
Fuck off
You may win, but you will NEVER BE GREAT
Sunday (in photos)
Tested negative for Covid and feeling slightly better so went out to spread my germs at the mall!
Auckland local elections 2022
Ahhh politics…I’ve been unable to tweet lately because I could no longer access the original email address that I used to set up my current account, and I think it’s a blessing in disguise. The kind of energy I expend and the mindset that I’m in when I do my mostly political tweeting is CRAZY.
Maybe it’s divine intervention; God is probably telling me that if I wanted to actually help people, mouthing off and insulting governments and businesses is not the way to do it. It’s satisfying, and they fucking deserve it, but won’t really change anything.
So would voting help? I have my doubts (Hello Philippines) but as long as the flame of democracy burns, let’s make our voice heard! There should still be places in this world, where the majority ends up picking the right people (like New Zealand I hope).
For Mayor:
Still a toss-up between Wayne Brown & Efeso Collins
What I agree with Wayne Brown: public transport shouldn’t be free, but should be faster (and more frequent).
Con: possible personal conflicts of interests because he’s a businessman
What I agree with Efeso Collins: advocacy for Auckland’s disadvantaged.
Con: opposition to same-sex marriage in the past, which shows a tone of conservatism that may be bordering on the intolerant.
The Crazies
John Alcock; red flags for someone advocating Personal Responsibility & Personal Freedom.
Tricia Cheel; anti-vaxxer, pseudo-scientist
Ted Johnson; anti-vaxxer
Michael Morris; should hook-up with Tricia Cheek over some Kombucha and vegan skewers
DUH
Craig Lord: social services ARE NECESSITIES
Lisa Lewis: you mean ‘skeletons’ in your closet
Phil O’Connor: anything else aside from abortion?
Ryan Earl Pausina: speed bumps are for safety
It's because of yoga
I’ve been doing yoga consistently for the last three weeks, so it must be because of it!
I’m been calmer and more contemplative. When I made these Palmiere cookies this morning- something at work pissed me off so I had to step away to bake something yes- I wasn’t rushing it like I normally do.
I took my time assembling the ingredients and fastidiously cleaning up as I went, that I felt I was in one of those Asian ASMR videos. There’s a part in this recipe where you spread the cinnamon sugar all over the pastry with your fingers and the surface glinted like the rose nebula (use caster instead of granular so it would be less sugary) and I thought, life is to short to be pissed off at shit.
If you want the recipe for these cookies, click here
Saturday morning (in images)
Early this morning, I was woken up by the cat meowing loudly in the spare bedroom we’ve christened the budoir- a walk-in closet of sorts, the racks now groaning with winter coats and jackets, the floor, three rows deep with shoes. She was clearly looking for something, and without my glasses, I couldn't make anything out on the dark, hairy rug. And then I almost stepped on it, my big toe touching something (still) warm; it was a small wax-eye with that distinct while colouring around its eyes and that dusting of pistachio green on its head, wing-tips, and tail.
It was literally the early bird getting caught by a cat.
Lily has a bell around her neck so it’s either she’s clever and the birds are dumb or the birds are clever, but she’s cleverer. Or she could also be cunning- an adjective that is a step above clever. There are so many ways of looking at it, but does it matter which one is more accurate? Or truer?
It’s too early in the day to mull over these things so you just take a breath and to realise that you need to see the fundamentals; this is the nature of cats, and birds are prey in the hierarchy of things.
The sun’s out (in spite of weather predictions to the contrary) with a nice stiff breeze so you can do the laundry. You woke up early so now you have time to replant the blue cypress that hasn’t been liking its pot. You can work on that presentation due Monday. You can do the pork butt, 3 kilos split into two generous portions, one for Korean barbecue and the other for a pulled-meat recipe. So I did all these all before 9:30am.
Life is a combination of circumstance and the choices you make to work with these and sometimes, you don’t need to be as clever as Lily the cat.
You just have to do it.
FriSat
FriSat happens when there’s so much happening on a Friday that it spills over to Saturday. It’s also a test of endurance since I’m still trying to suss out what parts of my body, Covid may have ‘damaged’.
You never know.
Wednesday's list
Unless you were a Putin, a Duterte or whatever the Chinese premiere’s name is, I guess you’d cave into whatever the public wants (how you accurately gauge that though is a different question altogether). New Zealand is relaxing (or doing away) its vaccine mandates soon ‘amidst a clamour for normalcy’. Fine with me, but if you’re one of those who actually believe that we can find ourselves back to some ‘normalcy’ I have three words for you - YOU ARE STUPID.
But I must admit that even the best of us sometimes falls into that hole. When the border opening dates were announced, we were looking at trips- Canada, Japan, Australia. It’s good to dream, but be careful not to buy into a fantasy.
The Philippines? Only to see family because other than that, I can’t stand the politics. You are who you pick to lead you. Yup, I hontesly can’t stand the fucking country anymore.
Work has always been great and challenging and fun. BUT WHAT ELSE?
YSL or Apple, that is the question
Never too late
Monday's laing
Ingredients:
pork-belly
silverbeet or kale (I used a combination of both)
one can coconut cream
anchovies
garlic
chili flakes
Lately I'm like...
..Waking up in the morning earlier than usual because the cat keeps waking us up at odd hours. I would make my usual coffee, esconce myself on the couch and do the daily Wordle. This has become a comforting ritual now; I share it with Leila who shares hers (either earlier before she goes to bed or after because she’s in the Philippines). And then with Sam, Mary & Ruth (Sam solving it later in the day as per usual).
And now we’ve added Quordle- which is a massive, nose-bleeding four-panel nightmare- but this is reserved for the end of the day, right before the horrible evening news. Because if you can get through the puzzle and get all four, nothing will faze you- not even the gory sight of Putin marching into Ukraine topless and frothing at the mouth.
Ugh. Should we care about Ukraine and Russia?? Should we care about the protests in Wellington?? Should we care about anti-vaxxers and the far-fucking-right spreading their poison all over the world??
I don’t care BECAUSE I CAN’T DO ANYTHING ABOUT ANY OF IT.
I’m gonna do just me for now.
21
ants in a jar full of sugar
Someone on Twitter was asking where the cicadas were and how quiet these long summer nights have been, and today, they’re loud enough for me to actually notice them.
And ants are back too. I saw a trail from the banana peelings I had left on the counter and followed it to the area where we have our tea and coffee stuff and sure enough, black ants had found their way into a partly open jar of white sugar.
So I placed the jar onto a deep plate with water in it and suddenly realised, what was the point of this really?? While it solves the problem of preventing more ants from going into the jar, what would you do with those already inside?? Would they be enticed perhaps to go out of the jar and be dumb enough not to notice the water and drown?
But this is a habit that I’ve been doing since I was a child. My mother was always equating wastefulness as a sort of sin so we were encouraged to be thrifty as much as we could. We cut toothpaste tubes in half so we could scrape the remainder inside. Leftover food was eaten two or three times until it was gone.
And as for jars with ants inside them? We had to scrape off as much of the ants inside that were on top and salvage the rest of the sugar.
I started to do this when I realised that we don’t really use white sugar. I haven’t even drunk real coke in over 15 years and use stevia for my coffee. We only had this sugar leftover for when I baked something (which I don’t do often).
So I took the jar off the plate and put it under the hot tap, washing out all the ants and the sugar inside.
Bye.
Nearly the middle of the week
The weekend
Dec 24 2021
The tricky thing about Christmas in New Zealand is that because the season falls on a southern hemisphere summer, it’s like being in the Philippines- though more than ever, tropical typhoon season has crept closer and closer, and for some like the people in the Visayas and Mindanao, it’s celebrating the season in the destructive and tragic wake of a typhoon.
I wish I could stay longer, but the kids are all grown up; they don’t really need anyone. And Chini- the baby who made the last six Christmases joyous and happy is no longer a child. So I’m left to my own devices which suits me just fine- no chores to do, could finally relax a bit, caught up with a bunch of shows.
And the meals- they do bring you home. All those lazy afternoons with a feast of grilled pork and fish, a seaweed salad with green mango and tomatoes or sauteed mung beans thick with fat slices of ampalaya and malunggay…
mmmmmmm..
Midweek
Had lunch in the city- yum char- and the 1st time since lockdown started in August. It was a quick, I’ll pick you-up on a day of light traffic and whizzing through 12 little courses, then goodby, happy holidays, I’ll drop you off thing. It’s good to reconnect (I stopped myself from talking about work which is what we always do these days) with people you actually trust, yet are not in your personal life.
They trust that you bring the same kind of efficiency and skill that you have at work to your personal life, and I’m glad to say that they’re at least 90% correct. And i’m always working on the remaining 10%.
A friend dropped us a goodie box of various succulents. She said they’d be fine in the box until we find the time to plant them. But 24 hours later, they don’t seem to look so good- not so succulent looking. So we took matters in our own hands, cleared up a patch of soil at the back and stuck all the succulents in.
And apparently, that’s all it takes for them to take root and grow. It’s a pity you can’t eat them.
Back to work then nek minute..
The daily commute (Uber mostly), the question of what to have for lunch, machine-made lattes…then 5 minutes later, it may be back to lockdown again because of Omicron..
