I finished another book. I have been struggling to finish reading anything for months, but I somehow went from Matcha on Monday straight into another book, and now I’m wondering if my reading slump is finally over. This time, I picked up We Are All Alone in This Anyway, a
For the first time in years, I wasn’t particularly excited about the Manila International Book Fair. Which felt weird, because I’ve been going to MIBF every year since 2016, except during the pandemic when, well, there was obviously no book fair to go to. Over the years, the fair had
I finally finished a book. After months of being in a reading slump, I finally reached the last page of Matcha on Monday by Michiko Aoyama. And of course, finishing the book wasn’t enough. I had to sit with it for a while and think, okay, what exactly did this
It has been raining a lot lately. The kind of rain that turns commute into an adventure you wouldn’t wish even for your enemies to go through. Through flooded roads and people left stranded in the middle of nowhere, everyone’s timeline is suddenly filled with reminders of why working from
Whenever I have an upcoming trip, I get cold feet. I never really know if it’s excitement or nervousness or the weather or simply the thought of packing my things that makes me want to stay home. It happened when we went to Boracay three years ago. It happened again
A wellness retreat was not originally part of my birthday plans. It was a milestone birthday and at first I thought I should celebrate it by doing something big and completely unfamiliar. I imagined myself boarding a plane alone, flying somewhere distant, and proving myself that I was finally ready
Singapore only existed on my screen. I work for Singaporean clients and so it is constantly in the articles I write, in the photos I scroll past, and even sometimes, in other people’s memories. While it occurred to me to visit the place one day, someday, horrors of immigration failures
I used to write about you… Every poem, every story Were all about you and me Every pain and disillusionment Was a letter for you unsent Until one day… I wrote about the sunset And the moonrise that it never met About the mountains that stood in their quiet glory
This version of me learned how to choose herself without asking for permission. She left tables when respect was no longer served. Walked away from rooms that echoed with exhaustion instead of care. She responded in silence to people who didn’t deserve her reasons, and because sometimes, quiet was the
I discovered the wonders of a massage when I was 21. Too young to be tired but I was working a graveyard shift talking to strangers who’d brutalize me with words asking why their phone bills were skyrocketing. Massages were what I looked forward to on weekends, along with the