One of the things I wanted to work on this year, blogging-wise, was to be able to write about things as soon as they happened. Or at the very least, write about them while they're still somewhat fresh in my memory. And so, I decided to skip my 2018 photodiary backlog (April-December) for now, and start working on.............my 2019 photodiary backlog hahahaha _(:3 」∠)_
I spent most of the first week of January meeting with family and friends who were in the country for the holidays. I usually don't leave the house unless I need to, so all the moving from place to place really took a toll on me. After everything my body just kind of gave in to the fatigue that had been building up from December (I attended 2 weddings, flew to Malaysia and back, attended a bunch of holiday gatherings right after). I got sick some time after that. I spent most of the time taking it easy, cuddling with the kids, just binging stuff on Netflix, and doing some journaling in between. I managed to churn out 4 blogposts though! Maybe I'm able to think more clearly when I'm sick? Haha. Here's what January looked like, through my phone (as usual).
I spent the first day of the year with my dad. The last time I saw him was January of the previous year, I think? We had dinner at their home with my brother, just the three of us. We did a lot of catching up. He also gave me this weird-looking rug, which now belongs to the kitties.
The next day, I brought out my new regular TN and set it up for 2019. For this year I decided to use a grid notebook as my catch-all journal. You can read more about my 2019 journal setup here.
On January 3, I met up with Laura and Ashley (and little Aki!) at Shang. We've been meeting Laura whenever she's in the Philippines for the holidays for 3 consecutive years now, I think. This year we met up at TWG for lunch. I actually already had lunch before this, so I got a sweet crepe instead. After that we walked around Shang for a bit, then had coffee at Toby's Estate. Then we talked until it was time for us to go. I really enjoy talking to these girls. I find it amazing that I have friends like them with different interests from mine. Of course I got to know these two through fashion, but it's nice that we still always have a lot to talk about even though I've stopped liking fashion for a while now.
That same day I also met up with Ingrid! She asked me to buy some N2 and N1 books while we were in KL. I wanted to meet up while I was in the area because I wasn't sure when the next time I'd be traveling up north again would be ;; We met up at a Starbucks at Megamall and talked a bit about journaling stuff while we were there. After that Aian and Allysa came to pick me up, and we had dinner at 8Cuts (onion rings!) before heading home.
The next day, January 4th, Aian and I went to meet up with Kate and Keith, who were also in the country for the holidays. I think the last time we met was in 2016? That was before she even moved to Japan! So this time we set a date so we could finally meet up. We all met up at Cafe Mary Grace in Greenbelt for lunch and art tambay. It was fun talking to both Keith and Kate. Aian and I actually met Keith years ago, but we never really got to talk back then. So it was nice getting to know him. After lunch, Kate and Aian did an art exchange of their OCs. I wanted to do a bit of journaling while I watched them work, but I ended up just watching Kate work her watercolor magic. So good! I had a lot of fun just watching them do what they do, so Kate invited us to join them the next time their circle of friends had another art tambay. I'll definitely look forward to that heheh.
On January 6th, Aian and I met up with my dad and tita Abbey for dinner. My brother came over to our place so we all went together. My dad wanted to finally meet Aian, and I wanted to meet their new baby Zach (my half-brother, with whom I have a 29-year age gap haha). We had dinner at Texas Roadhouse in S Maison. The whole thing was super nerve-wracking for me, mainly because I didn't know what to expect. I can't even remember much of the food (I even forgot to take pictures!), because I was so nervous Aian was going to say something stupid LOL. I kept distracting myself by playing with Zach instead. Thankfully everything went okay.
After the dinner with my dad, I just slept. I slept and slept. I slept for more than half a day, I think. When I was fully rested, I finally sat down and wrote my 2018 recap and my 2019 goals. It was a full 3-4 days of looking back on the year before, and what I wanted to do with myself going forward. Whenever I wrote my yearly goals I was always pressured because everyone else's goals look so clear-cut, like everyone except myself had a clear vision of what they wanted to do in life. Career. Life goals. But when I looked back on the year before and the year before that, and compared the two, I found that I was exponentially happier in 2018 vs 2017. I spent a lot more time learning things and less time crying. And so I thought, that's what I wanted to do. I just wanted to be happy. And so I decided 2019 would be for even more learning and even more growing into the 'me' that I would be genuinely happy with. You can read about my 2018 retrospective here, and my 2019 goals here.
Made a new friend! This girl is one of the many stray kitties we feed outside our apartment building. I made a few more new friends a few days after this. (There were about 4 of them.)
I don't know why but I took a ton of photos of Sosig in January. Maybe it's because she was extra derpy that month? I mean, just look at that face!
Finally took photos of all my product empties from 2018. You can read the entry here. I meant to do it in December, but I had trouble taking photos, as always. Because our apartment's lighting is so bad, I have to bring all my stuff outside whenever I have to shoot anything and do everything there. It can be a bit frustrating especially because I'm not always awake during the day (my sleeping pattern changes quite a lot because I try to follow Aian's work schedule). Whenever I do get up before the sun is gone, I try to work as quickly as I can and take photos of everything.
January 20 was my brother's 24th birthday. We had dinner with our mom's side of the family at ToHo Antigua at BF Homes. I'm supposed to be cutting back on carbs, but why am I weak whenever I'm faced with yang chow fried rice? ;___; After dinner we went to check out SM BF, since it was just a short distance away. There wasn't much to do though, so we went home soon after that.
For some reason some of the kids started becoming extra clingy. Like babies. These two, especially.
They're all usually very clingy already, but it kind of just escalated. Not that that's a bad thing!
On January 26th, Aian and I went to Commercenter in Alabang for an exhibit our friend Mara was part of. We got a bit lost along the way though—I've been living in the South for more than 29 years, but I'd never been to Commercenter before this. We found the place eventually. At the exhibit, I got to talk to Mara a lot. It's been years since we last saw each other, so we did a lot of catching up. Back in 2008 (or 2009?) Mara and I used to visit Cubao X and UP Diliman frequently, either to shoot or just hang out. Those days were fun. But it was also nice to see a much more chill version of Mara.
We stayed until the end of the exhibit, so it was quite late when we went out to look for food. Aian and I have never been to this part of the South before, so we didn't know which food establishments were still open. After walking quite a bit, we eventually stumbled upon Westgate. I've only read about the place before, and that they had good food there, so I thought we should at least check it out. We chose a small ramen place called Butamaru. We got 2 bowls of shoyu ramen and a side of gyoza—our 'safe' orders. Their shoyu ramen was pretty good! A bit salty, but it was good. The gyoza, too. Will keep this place in mind for the next time we're in the area.
While tidying my bookshelves I found my Haruki Murakami books and decided to finally let go of them. I can't remember the last time I touched these books. I only ever managed to finish Sputnik Sweetheart and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. I don't know why but I could never finish Kafka on the Shore, no matter how many times I tried. I guess it just wasn't for me? It took me so long before I decided to sell these because I knew I had to sell them for super cheap (they were not-so-properly stored). These were the vintage cover versions, so they were rarer than the other Murakami versions. I remember having so much trouble hunting down Kafka on the Shore, and I felt so happy when I finally found it in a small bookstore near my uni. This made it so much harder to part with these books, but I'm glad that I did. They've found a more loving home now.
I also found these old postcards by Valerie. I felt bad that they've been sleeping in my closet for what, more than 6 years? So I plan on sending these out. To be honest, I should've sent them out last month, but I haven't had the time to drop by the post office yet. Hopefully I can send them out soon.
This question's a bit late, but how has your year been so far? I know we're already on the latter half of March, but I want to know still. Another thing I want to work on is my connections on the blogosphere, so I want to genuinely know about everyone. Let me know what you've been up to! :)
I spent most of the first week of January meeting with family and friends who were in the country for the holidays. I usually don't leave the house unless I need to, so all the moving from place to place really took a toll on me. After everything my body just kind of gave in to the fatigue that had been building up from December (I attended 2 weddings, flew to Malaysia and back, attended a bunch of holiday gatherings right after). I got sick some time after that. I spent most of the time taking it easy, cuddling with the kids, just binging stuff on Netflix, and doing some journaling in between. I managed to churn out 4 blogposts though! Maybe I'm able to think more clearly when I'm sick? Haha. Here's what January looked like, through my phone (as usual).
I spent the first day of the year with my dad. The last time I saw him was January of the previous year, I think? We had dinner at their home with my brother, just the three of us. We did a lot of catching up. He also gave me this weird-looking rug, which now belongs to the kitties.
The next day, I brought out my new regular TN and set it up for 2019. For this year I decided to use a grid notebook as my catch-all journal. You can read more about my 2019 journal setup here.
On January 3, I met up with Laura and Ashley (and little Aki!) at Shang. We've been meeting Laura whenever she's in the Philippines for the holidays for 3 consecutive years now, I think. This year we met up at TWG for lunch. I actually already had lunch before this, so I got a sweet crepe instead. After that we walked around Shang for a bit, then had coffee at Toby's Estate. Then we talked until it was time for us to go. I really enjoy talking to these girls. I find it amazing that I have friends like them with different interests from mine. Of course I got to know these two through fashion, but it's nice that we still always have a lot to talk about even though I've stopped liking fashion for a while now.
That same day I also met up with Ingrid! She asked me to buy some N2 and N1 books while we were in KL. I wanted to meet up while I was in the area because I wasn't sure when the next time I'd be traveling up north again would be ;; We met up at a Starbucks at Megamall and talked a bit about journaling stuff while we were there. After that Aian and Allysa came to pick me up, and we had dinner at 8Cuts (onion rings!) before heading home.
The next day, January 4th, Aian and I went to meet up with Kate and Keith, who were also in the country for the holidays. I think the last time we met was in 2016? That was before she even moved to Japan! So this time we set a date so we could finally meet up. We all met up at Cafe Mary Grace in Greenbelt for lunch and art tambay. It was fun talking to both Keith and Kate. Aian and I actually met Keith years ago, but we never really got to talk back then. So it was nice getting to know him. After lunch, Kate and Aian did an art exchange of their OCs. I wanted to do a bit of journaling while I watched them work, but I ended up just watching Kate work her watercolor magic. So good! I had a lot of fun just watching them do what they do, so Kate invited us to join them the next time their circle of friends had another art tambay. I'll definitely look forward to that heheh.
On January 6th, Aian and I met up with my dad and tita Abbey for dinner. My brother came over to our place so we all went together. My dad wanted to finally meet Aian, and I wanted to meet their new baby Zach (my half-brother, with whom I have a 29-year age gap haha). We had dinner at Texas Roadhouse in S Maison. The whole thing was super nerve-wracking for me, mainly because I didn't know what to expect. I can't even remember much of the food (I even forgot to take pictures!), because I was so nervous Aian was going to say something stupid LOL. I kept distracting myself by playing with Zach instead. Thankfully everything went okay.
After the dinner with my dad, I just slept. I slept and slept. I slept for more than half a day, I think. When I was fully rested, I finally sat down and wrote my 2018 recap and my 2019 goals. It was a full 3-4 days of looking back on the year before, and what I wanted to do with myself going forward. Whenever I wrote my yearly goals I was always pressured because everyone else's goals look so clear-cut, like everyone except myself had a clear vision of what they wanted to do in life. Career. Life goals. But when I looked back on the year before and the year before that, and compared the two, I found that I was exponentially happier in 2018 vs 2017. I spent a lot more time learning things and less time crying. And so I thought, that's what I wanted to do. I just wanted to be happy. And so I decided 2019 would be for even more learning and even more growing into the 'me' that I would be genuinely happy with. You can read about my 2018 retrospective here, and my 2019 goals here.
Made a new friend! This girl is one of the many stray kitties we feed outside our apartment building. I made a few more new friends a few days after this. (There were about 4 of them.)
I don't know why but I took a ton of photos of Sosig in January. Maybe it's because she was extra derpy that month? I mean, just look at that face!
Finally took photos of all my product empties from 2018. You can read the entry here. I meant to do it in December, but I had trouble taking photos, as always. Because our apartment's lighting is so bad, I have to bring all my stuff outside whenever I have to shoot anything and do everything there. It can be a bit frustrating especially because I'm not always awake during the day (my sleeping pattern changes quite a lot because I try to follow Aian's work schedule). Whenever I do get up before the sun is gone, I try to work as quickly as I can and take photos of everything.
January 20 was my brother's 24th birthday. We had dinner with our mom's side of the family at ToHo Antigua at BF Homes. I'm supposed to be cutting back on carbs, but why am I weak whenever I'm faced with yang chow fried rice? ;___; After dinner we went to check out SM BF, since it was just a short distance away. There wasn't much to do though, so we went home soon after that.
For some reason some of the kids started becoming extra clingy. Like babies. These two, especially.
They're all usually very clingy already, but it kind of just escalated. Not that that's a bad thing!
On January 26th, Aian and I went to Commercenter in Alabang for an exhibit our friend Mara was part of. We got a bit lost along the way though—I've been living in the South for more than 29 years, but I'd never been to Commercenter before this. We found the place eventually. At the exhibit, I got to talk to Mara a lot. It's been years since we last saw each other, so we did a lot of catching up. Back in 2008 (or 2009?) Mara and I used to visit Cubao X and UP Diliman frequently, either to shoot or just hang out. Those days were fun. But it was also nice to see a much more chill version of Mara.
We stayed until the end of the exhibit, so it was quite late when we went out to look for food. Aian and I have never been to this part of the South before, so we didn't know which food establishments were still open. After walking quite a bit, we eventually stumbled upon Westgate. I've only read about the place before, and that they had good food there, so I thought we should at least check it out. We chose a small ramen place called Butamaru. We got 2 bowls of shoyu ramen and a side of gyoza—our 'safe' orders. Their shoyu ramen was pretty good! A bit salty, but it was good. The gyoza, too. Will keep this place in mind for the next time we're in the area.
While tidying my bookshelves I found my Haruki Murakami books and decided to finally let go of them. I can't remember the last time I touched these books. I only ever managed to finish Sputnik Sweetheart and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. I don't know why but I could never finish Kafka on the Shore, no matter how many times I tried. I guess it just wasn't for me? It took me so long before I decided to sell these because I knew I had to sell them for super cheap (they were not-so-properly stored). These were the vintage cover versions, so they were rarer than the other Murakami versions. I remember having so much trouble hunting down Kafka on the Shore, and I felt so happy when I finally found it in a small bookstore near my uni. This made it so much harder to part with these books, but I'm glad that I did. They've found a more loving home now.
I also found these old postcards by Valerie. I felt bad that they've been sleeping in my closet for what, more than 6 years? So I plan on sending these out. To be honest, I should've sent them out last month, but I haven't had the time to drop by the post office yet. Hopefully I can send them out soon.
This question's a bit late, but how has your year been so far? I know we're already on the latter half of March, but I want to know still. Another thing I want to work on is my connections on the blogosphere, so I want to genuinely know about everyone. Let me know what you've been up to! :)
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