Travel notes, food finds, and everyday stories.
After our Sunday gym session, one of my buddies started talking about bulalo. Not in a casual, maybe-later kind of way, but in the specific, single-minded way you crave something after you’ve just burned through a workout and your body is asking for exactly one thing. There were three of us, including a friend...
In my line of work, I get to meet people at their most vulnerable. I don’t take that time to probe. I try to listen, offer something from experience if it helps, and if I can, take a little weight off whatever they’re carrying. Sometimes that’s the whole job. Just making the burden feel...
There’s a particular kind of hunger that hits after a Sunday long run, the kind where your legs are heavy but your stomach is louder than your legs. That’s usually when we find ourselves pulling up to Pancit Cabagan Batil Patong along San Vicente Road in Urdaneta City, still in our running clothes, still...
I used to think adulthood would announce itself. A mortgage, maybe. A wedding. Some milestone with a date on it. Instead it showed up quietly, in the small print of my calendar, in the invitations I started saying no to. That’s the first sign, honestly. Time started to feel fast, and a little frightening....
Travel Date: August 13, 2026 I checked into Conrad Manila at 3:46 in the afternoon, and instead of unpacking, I went straight to the mall next door. My first trail run is coming up, in Vietnam, and I still didn’t have half of what I needed. Running shorts, a hat, swimming shorts for after....
There’s a version of buko pie that tries too hard. Heavy on condensed milk, drowning the coconut in sugar until you can barely taste what made you order it in the first place. Cabuyao Original Buko Roll Bakery’s Classic Buko Pie is not that pie. At ₱250 for a whole pie, this one leans...
There’s a specific kind of letdown that comes from paying more for less, and that’s exactly what happened with this buko pie. I went in expecting the classic combination of tender coconut meat and buttery crust, the kind that makes buko pie worth seeking out in the first place. What I got instead was...
A couple of days ago, I wrote about claiming a replacement for my Shokz OpenMove that wouldn’t turn on, and how surprisingly smooth the process was once I got in touch with Shokz’s customer relations team through their Lazada store. Today, the replacement arrived. I can’t be happier. If there’s one takeaway from this...
I returned Cyrus to his previous owner today. I’d grown attached to him, more than I expected to, and that’s what makes this hard to write about. Sona, my older cat, never came around to him. Since March, I’ve been trying — slow introductions, separate spaces, all the things you’re supposed to do to...
A friend texted me on a Saturday morning, the kind of message that reads casual but isn’t really: “If only I didn’t need the money, I wouldn’t work on a Saturday.” I knew what she meant. I was working too. Here’s what I told her back. It’s better to work a Saturday for a...