Well, what do you know..

Name something that you thought was true, or that you thought you’ve been doing correctly, that turns out to be actually false. I could name a few:

  1. Serum after moisturiser (should be the other way around)

  2. That the moon landing never actually happened (Jokesssss. And who cares? Dicking around in space is pointless).

  3. Eating bacon regularly is okay.

  4. That I look better with hair

  5. That the film Anora deserved all its Oscars (Nope. Demi was robbed. Haven’t moved on).

Facetiousness aside, I was made aware by my (new) doctor that I had my cardio regimen all wrong. For one thing, I don’t really have a regimen. Before Uber, because I refused to drive, I walked everywhere. Before 10,000 fucking steps, I was doing more. It’s so easy to put together a profile of yourself in your head and believe that you’re doing just fine, that you have all the bases covered, until you get empirical evidence that proves otherwise.

‘You should be able to reach your target heart rate and hold it there for 30 minutes or better, sounds so factual (it is) and easy (it’s not) that it staggers me how it’s escaped my attention; how I’ve never come across it, or perhaps overlooked it, something so fundamental.

Who fucking cares if you’ve put on your moisturiser first before your serum?

No wonder all my workout clothes never smell.

Today, it took 12 min to get to 140 (had the treadmill on a level 12 incline), and I only held it for 5 agonising minutes. I’m not Superman. I’m just a middle-aged man trying to get things right. I’m going to get to 30 minutes when I get to it, and it won’t be tomorrow or next week.

I was so drenched in sweat that I took an Uber because I was too embrassed to take the bus.

The Weekend

  1. How do you eat a King Crab?

  2. We didn’t buy the special edition Lays for the Chinese New Year, but are mulling whether to buy a horse sculpture for the deck.

  3. Finally, Cillian Murphy makes an appearance in 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple. But how did the character become an erudite, Oxford Professor type?? But the more important question is, does humanity’s list of stupidities matter in the face of a zombie apocalypse?

  4. Did you know that if you cut up aubergines really thinly and used them like say, in pinapaitan or some soupy dish with meaty chunks of meat, you’d be fooled in thinking you were eating the buttery ribbons of fat you’re not supposed to eat?

True or False?

  1. It’s worth reconnecting with SOME people in your past.

  2. The flooding in Pangasinan is an act of God.

  3. Voters are to blame.

  4. The first step towards creating a genuine equitable society is getting rid of political dynasties. For real and for good.

  5. Having this much food is a distraction (from the actual issues) as well as a health risk (especially when the health care system you have is neither equitable nor free).

The Weekend

  1. Unglazed windows, cheap cabinets that I keep being accused of breaking (if they were better quality, they wouldn't break was my defence!), a kitchen needing renovation. Lily woke me up earlier than usual and when I sleepily trudged upstairs to give her some food, the view of the peninsula was an ironic reminder of why our crumbling palace was worth so much, in spite of..

  2. Everything’s in bloom. I’ve had this Tahitian lime and this olive tree for over years and I’ve seen kids grow bigger and taller in a year. Now suddenly, they’re bearing fruit.

  3. So much food, so little time. Clams + garlic + butter + white wine + fresh pasta.

  4. We just went to the mall to buy fresh jandals at Havaianas and there it was- the walkway to the new Ikea just across. The Sunday crowd was okay but if you’re hoping to get some food, the queue was over an hour and a half, and for what? Meatballs and $2 hotdog?? I bet the food lines in Gaza are quicker. The kitchen stuff was intriguing; you pick a kit, they make measurements and consultations with you and if you get cold feet putting everything yourself, they have installation referral. A basic one starts at a startling $2,227 (for comparison with our two-bathroom, 1 toilet, 1 laundry reno, our bathroom vanity cost more than that).

Shānmǔ shēngrì kuàilè, xīnnián kuàilè

When did we all start celebrating other culture’s/people’s holidays?

Don’t mind it and the only time that I do mind is when some idiot drags it through the political/racial mud and calls it freedom of speech.

So today is the Chinese New Year and because S wasn’t able to celebrate his birthday yesterday, we thought that we were clever for doing a double-celebration; if that isn’t lucky I don’t know what is.

For good measure, I made sure to make dishes that were auspicious - spring rolls, dumplings and noodles which I got from the supermarket on my lunch break. On our cat’s Insta feed, there was some lady peddling advice on Feng Shui. Apparently, one needs to clean up the south-east part of the house which turned out to be our spare bedroom, the bed of which was filled with unsorted laundry from last week. So I cleaned that up and finished all the dishes in 30 minute.

I thought I could feel a hum in our house, that invisible pulse of energy that meant we were prepared and fortified for the coming year- never mind that NONE OF US WERE CHINESE.

Odds and ends

I’ve never liked long vacations or breaks.

When I was younger, summer vacations in the Philippines stretched forever especially when you were a loner like I was. I kept to myself at home, reading and daydreaming. I would spend the summer mentally reviewing the things I wanted to change or improve about myself. I only looked forward to the start of school to determine if I would succeed. A few things worked - write competitively (I won a couple of national writing competitions); a lot didn’t -learn French, put on some muscles, improve your singing voice (!!!).

But I didn’t stop (finally put on some weight and muscles later) nor felt that what I was doing was a chore or an impossibility. It doesn’t take a lot to relax - I don’t have kids or responsibilities - and most of the time, I would normally just take a good day (a Saturday) to get everything calm and sorted (and even then, I would be doing chores because a clean and organised home is relaxing).

Not judging but people often joke that they’d spent their break just sitting on their ass and well, it looks like they did.

Life is too short to just sit on your ass right??