Twister is on Netflix
I have strange viewing habits. I have a whole bunch of movies that I love, but I don’t watch them again in their entirety. I skip to the (good) parts I want and call it a day. In this day and age of soooo many things to watch and only 24 hours in your day, you only have so many hours to spare so this is actually being smart about it.
One of my favourite films of all time from the 90s - Twister - is available for viewing on Netflix.
Here are my favourite bits from the film- yup, the parts where I skipped to.
A list a day...
The fourth season of ‘Stranger Things’ has started! I’m glad I gave it another chance because it was the childhood I actually had, in my head.
Inflation, recession, higher mortgage rates- what do they mean? To me it means doing less Uber and more public transport; more supermarket meat, less online boutique butchers; more saving, less spending. It may all sound facetious, but I honestly don’t know. I’ve never really had much financial sense.
When Sam said half-seriously, doing a projection of an 8% mortgage rate high (which means for me, around $800 per fortnight, an increase of 62%), we may need to get 2nd jobs, I was secretly thrilled. For real. I made a list- supermarket online order person, nursing home attendee, weekend cook, cleaner. As I’ve told Leila, I’d DIE if I was poor in the Philippines. But I don’t mind it here- no one knows me, I don’t know anyone, and work is work, a dollar is a dollar.
I buy drones, expensive cameras, and Apple products and sometimes I wish, I could make money out of them (especially in this economy). But then it kills the spirit- there’s something ruthless and numbing about having to make everything about profit and gain. Can it be just about the beauty of technology and personal consumption of creative content?? (I sound like Imelda Marcos; though, the difference is that she actually profited from it ).
But then I realise, Apple has literally already taken the equivalent of a house deposit from me 😅
I love my job and I’ve been in it for 10 years and I’m happy- but I still think, could there be something else? Something new?
It’s hard to break out of habits and routine. Do something new you say to yourself but it’s a struggle to get to the gym after work; your attention wanders off somewhere when studying Analytics; you’ve now forgotten the 1st three modules of learning sign language…hmmm
A new habit that would be easy to start (again) is eating out once a month at a new restaurant. Even in this economy, you have to help out businesses you know..
Where have you been?
After recovering from Covid, it was straight to work- a show, which was essentially the work of three and then a death and a funeral of someone I had known for years. And there was the drama of that - most of which was not visible on the surface- so there was also the effort of pretending that you didn’t know (nor care, which both look the same).
And then back to work again, a treadmill at full speed. And it’s June- half the year is gone and that familiar rising panic that time is too short.
I mean this is my life which compared to other lives, would probably be inconsequential, normal maybe for some or worse, fortunate.
But it’s mine.
And at the end of the day, we do the best we can.
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.
Post-Covid
Remember this day
I could say a million things about the results of the Philippine elections, but I won’t.
Instead, let me share this story my mom told us. When the Miss Universe pageant was held in the Philippines in 1974, my mom was a teacher at the Binmaley Central Elementary School. They got a directive to be part of a group that was tasked with planting flowering bougainvilleas along the sides of the highway so that when the Miss Universe candidates drove past (they were to go on a sight-seeing tour of The Hundred Islands in Alaminos) they would see, well, flowers. Even if they only did the Binmaley to Alaminos route, this would be about 47 kilometers.
Interesting times ahead..
The Covid Diaries 4
I’m 99.9% okay.
The Covid Diaries 3
I finally tested positive, and the line couldn’t be any clearer or finely drawn as if it was screaming, ‘is this what you wanted?? Well here it is then..”
I’ve realised two things about this: 1) you really have no choice in the matter no matter how careful you are. This is the age (and future) we’re living in; 2) You need to be always prepared- ALWAYS.
But the symptoms have been mild; I can remember colds that were so much worse.
The only thing I wasn’t absolutely prepared for is food- I’m ravenous. Even Sam is ravenous. I want to eat steaks with fries; slow-cooked pork belly; pancakes with bacon and banana dripping with caramel syrup; vermicelli noodles loaded with chicken and prawns; steamed mussels eaten with french-bread slathered with garlic butter…
The Covid Diaries 2
I slept at around a quarter to 1am trying to finish the last few 30 pages or so of ‘Salem’s Lot.’ Again, the book wasn’t how I remembered it which makes you think- it might pay to read books you’ve read in the past. I used to hold it in high regard like it was the best vampire book I ever read but now I may have to revise that. It’s not a diss against Stephen King or anything, but it’s like finding yourself at a high-school reunion and realising that the people you were enamored with turn out to be not all that you thought them to be. But when I finished, it was like parting with a good friend and there are no regrets.
Lily tried to wake me up sometime during the night, but this time, my body prevailed over waking up for the cat which we’ve been doing the day she arrived.
Tested negative- but I’m not surprised. I feel fine though you go through your day in a sort of surreal daze as if any moment, you’d wake up and everything was a dream. My throat has started to feel scratchy and I could feel when I cough, that push of phlegm in it, but who knows. I’ve bought a ton of lemons and a jar of expensive microbial honey and perhaps, I may be overdoing the hot drinks- the acid may be irritating my throat? Is all this vitamin C overload pointless?
After reading news that Netflix has spent as much as $60 million per episode on the upcoming new season of Stranger Things, I went back to finish the previous seasons as I had stopped mid-way in the 1st season. Not surprisingly, it wasn’t how I remembered it which meant I wasn’t really paying attention to it. Or maybe because someone was always pushing out the same plot of 80s kids stumbling over puppy love, aliens, and demented demon clowns every 5 minutes.
Anyhow, it was truly the 80s of my childhood- in a way. Growing up, I didn’t really have friends, but I had a great imagination, so I simply created the friends that I wanted and the adventures we had. But it was in part, fed by the stuff I read in those years: Nick Joaquin’s Pop Stories for Groovy Kids (which became my template for how I should sound as writing in a non-native language); The Body by Stephen King and my favourite, The Long Walk, also by King. So I actually did have a happy childhood just being by myself.
And when I grew up and finally made friends, imagine my disappointment- but that’s another story.
The Covid Diaries 1
So Sam tested positive last night.
I was all agog over picking up the bamboo plants over at Doyet’s the next day and it was to his credit that he thought of testing first, ‘just in case’. The red line came up swift and clear in a couple of seconds. It meant that sometime between Monday and Wednesday, in those beautiful, expensively maintained grounds in Queenstown, some dirty, stupid bitch had Covid and didn’t even know it and was passing it around like party favours. Or perhaps they did, but didn’t care as is often the case it would seem with a lot of people these days who shrug it off as if it was inconsequential.
Ugh. He rings Mary down at the flat, and I could hear her trying to keep her agitation down. So we’re all stuck at home and minutes later like in a terrifying dystopian movie, SMS alerts came up on our mobiles advising us of what we already knew.
Almost immediately after, I log into New World’s website and round up a couple of ‘essentials’- lemons (terrible supply these last couple of months), a jar of honey, cup noodles, potato chips, Lily’s favourite shaved deli chicken. In my mind, I go over the meals for the next couple of days; nothing complicated to prepare and easy on the stomach. Thank God for Filipino food like adobo which keeps forever (just make a big batch of it) and comforting arroz caldo.
I had been having allergic fits (pollen and dust mostly) the last couple of weeks with a warmer autumn season, but now suddenly, every sniffle, every itchy feeling in my nose felt like a portent.
But what could you do right?
Well, I cleaned the bathroom; did a weeks worth of laundry; finished all pending work deadlines; dusted off some books I had been meaning to read. The worst you could do really, is nothing.
And I comforted myself with the thought that next week, there were exciting courier deliveries to look forward to- a new Nespresso machine, a new pair of Yeezys and a bunch of morning Sunday Riley goodies.
What did you eat on your birthday?
For me at least, I would have forgotten the heartaches, the regrets, the joy..but I would always remember what I had eaten…
Easter dinner
Ticked off six of my Holy Week tasks, and the Nespresso machine broke. It’s over 6 years old so I guess it’s time to get a new one (which excites me).
But cooked rack of lamb for the first time and I surprised even myself as to how nearly perfect it turned out to be. My only nitpick was that I could’ve pared away more of the fat, but I didn’t really know I had to until we were eating it.
But for supermarket meat (yeah, FUCK YOU FARRO FRESH FOR FUCKING UP MY ORDER), it was superb. You just need to season it aggressively (I used salt, Moroccan spice rub and za’tar) and of course, cooking and resting times are crucial. I had thrown away the packet which indicated how much it weighed, so I just made an educated guess by eyeing the meat. I was guided by the universal advice, that the rarer the lamb the better. And it’s true- the texture is vastly different from beef.
The method is straightforward: sear; put into oven for 10 minutes at 180; take out, ‘paint’ with mustard before covering the surface with the duke; put back into the oven for 20 minutes; take and rest for 5.
Holy Week 2022
I have to admit, I miss the old traditions of Holy Week.
But that was a million years ago and even when I was last in the Philippines, much of how we celebrated it had already changed so much.
My homage to those days was practically doing nothing on Good Friday which I spent at Doyet’s. I started re-reading ‘Salem’s Lot’ by Stephen King; I took a long nap; I didn’t check my phone, muted all notifications; I didn’t even open my MacBook to watch anything. We had a nice Filipino dinner of sisig that I had made, boneless bangus and vegetables cooked in coconut milk. I went back to bed to continue reading.
By the time I decided to call it a night (just before midnight) I was more than half-way through the book, and fell into a pleasant, dreamless sleep.
Breakfast was longganisa and scrambled eggs and Black Saturday was a perfect, crisply-cold but sunny autumn day.
I’m over trying to plan exhausting holidays that are anything but relaxing. Tradition tells you to relax and to genuflect, but then there’s also the Christian motto, ‘God helps those who help themselves’.
So I’m sure that God wouldn’t mind if I chose action over reflection; items on my list are..
De-scaling the Nespresso machine
Sorting out my clothes now that I would be spending more time at the office
Sorting the garden patch and transplanting some of the cacti
Finding a gym
Updating my cameras and my drones
Sorting out work-stuff for the next two-months
Sorting out the kitchen and my drawers
Finding stuff to put into the inorganic bin
Wednesday's salmon head sinigang
Doesn’t look appetising does it?
But it’s getting colder, slowly but surely, and soupy/brothy things both comfort and make you full really quickly.
Got the salmon heads at the Asian store. I was supposed to only get the (salmon) collars, but someone ahead of me on the queue was ordering literally kilos of it and I thought they would run out. The heads bin was just beside me so I got two just in case the greedy motherfucker in front of the line bought everything out (he didn’t).
I just use sinigang mix (with miso) and throw in several strips of ginger. Seasoning is just salt and pepper. Realised that the spinach in the crisper was too far gone to use but I still had a head of broccoli and it actually works with sinigang.
I grow weary
Fortunately, IOS is now considerate to your needs. When you have your bed-time set, it mutes things such as messages and notifications. Essentially, you go to sleep without knowing the world burned while you did, but then, WHO CARES??
Covid, Ukraine, Trump, Marcos, inflation, dying kids in Africa, melting glaciers, and disappearing Hawksbill turtles…mmmm. I need to vacuum the upstairs.
Wednesday's grilled chicken
I was disappointed though- it didn’t turn out to be the ‘chicken nasal’ that I remember..hmmmm
Gifts 1: A book subscription
It’s that time of the year! You grow old, you grow poorer especially if you’re like me and love showering yourself with gifts, but that’s another story..
This one is about gifts you’re lucky enough to get from other people. Mary got me a book subscription from Wellington company Good Books; you simply fill up a short questionnaire about what stuff you read, and someone picks out something you’d like. Leila is already doing this for me (!), but this time, I’m committed to reading it because you get a new book every month.
So I’ve starting out with an Aotearoa author, Bryan Walpert.
The novel Entanglement has been shortlisted for the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction 2022, and is about ‘a memory-impaired time traveller attempting to correct a tragic mistake he made in 1977 when, panicked, he abandons his brother on a frozen lake in Baltimore.’
So how was your week?
Legs are the hardest to exercise. Ironically, they’re the easiest to develop. I’ve been persevering for a couple of weeks and I could feel a very noticeable tightness in my pants and shorts in the thigh area. This should compensate for not having substantial glutes.
Season 2 of Bridgerton celebrates love, and this is the thing. You’d be a fool if you believe in all of it, and you’re also a fool if you don’t.
Don’t underestimate the usefulness of the ‘walis tingting’.
There are people who love themselves by simply having a glass of wine at the end of the day, or who play sports to get that human connection. Leila and I create- it doesn’t matter if it’s good or bad (nobody is judging as it is for ourselves). Creativity keeps our soul nourished.
I wish I could have lechon for my birthday
All the kids have grown
