Friday, January 17, 2020

Other: Rest in Peace, Lulu

About a year ago I wrote a blog post about the growth of my girlfriend's desk cactus. Seeing it grow was quite the journey. Sadly, the crested bunny ears cactus -- affectionately called Lulu -- has finally perished. I know this isn't a big deal for most people because it's just a plant, but I'm a sentimental guy so even the smallest of goodbyes mean a whole lot to me. I intended to write this within the week I heard the news of Lulu's departure but I wasn't able to find the time except for now.

One of Lulu's ears fell off :(
After Lulu's ear fell off, the rest of her started to crumble away. It seems cacti of this species has a lifespan of about a couple of years. My girlfriend isn't neglectful when it comes to taking care of Lulu. She watered the cactus every day she was at the office so this isn't a case of mistreatment. Nevertheless, Lulu's time has finally come. She had a special way of brightening up the office with her light shade of green. We may replace Lulu with a different cactus but that doesn't mean we will forget the uniqueness of Lulu.

R.I.P.
March 2018 - December 2019

Friday, January 10, 2020

Travel: MERALCO Christmas Lights

If you're looking for a nice place to visit in the holidays that's absolutely free then you've come to the right place. The holidays are over but it's still nice to keep in mind this one place for future plans.

The headquarters of MERALCO in Ortigas opens its doors to all visitors during the holiday weeks. The electric giant has been doing this for several years now. There are numerous attractions in the area to bedazzle the whole family, the largest one being the light show that plays over the facade of the main building. This plays every 30 mins starting at 6:00 PM and ends at 11:00 PM, I believe.


Apart from this, there's also this giant sculpture of Joseph, the Virgin Mary, and baby Jesus made out of copper wires. This attraction is always on display every time MERALCO lets visitors in.


There's also a small train that annually chugs along a small railway, but when we visited it this year it was broken so I didn't take any photos of that.

Another attraction that's great to have a selfie with is the Tunnel of Light. I believe this attraction is new.


And there are a plethora of other attractions and light spectacles.



I wasn't able to take any pictures of the food stalls but they also have a small Bancheto-like area in the vicinity so if you want some snacks during your leisurely stroll with your loved ones you can go right ahead and get some.

I wouldn't say MERALCO's headquarters is the best place ever to spend your holidays in, but it's free and nothing beats the low low price of $0. Touring the entire place takes more or less an hour. I recommend making the MERALCO headquarters one of many Christmas light displays to check out in Metro Manila during the holidays when other buildings and offices are also showing off beautiful light shows like the Ayala Triangle.

What other places nearby do you know are also letting in tourists for free during the holidays? Feel free to leave your suggestions in the comments below :) Thanks for reading!

Friday, January 3, 2020

Reflection: 2020 New Year Essay

Almost everyone has been posting their end-of-the-year essays on social media so I thought I'd write my own even if it's a couple of days late. If you're one of the people who wrote about their experiences with 2019 then chances are I've seen your essay on my news feed. I've noticed that depending on who you ask, 2019 was either a good year or a bad year. It was a good year for those who were able to achieve great things within the year, and it was a bad year for others because they lost loved ones. My condolences goes out to those who lost their loved ones in the last year.

As I mentioned in my previous blog post, 2019 for me was a year that was full of ups and downs. So much so that the ups and downs balance each other out. That's not entirely true. What I said was a very broad generalization that doesn't even begin to cover what I've witnessed in 2019.

I've experienced hurt, joy, depression, anxiety, love, stability, instability, freedom and a dreadful feeling of oppression in 2019. Not necessarily in that order. The highlight of my year happened around August, ironically when I was sent to the psych ward. While others would call that a bad event in my life, I actually think that it was a blessing. Not only was I able to curb my awful behaviors stemming out from my deteriorated mental health after I got out of the psych ward, but I was also able to meet people just like me who showed me I'm not alone during my time in it.

My lowest point in the year happened prior to my incarceration in the psych ward. I blame my troubled mental health for causing such misery on my part despite being fortunate enough to be financially stable. I was seeing everything through dark-tinted lenses; it was so difficult for me to look at the bright side of things because I couldn't see any bright sides at all.

If I was to graph my experience with this year, I would say that the months of January-May are tumultuous but generally reaching very high and very low points, while the days from June-July is my lowest point, and then the days from July-August are the highest point. The rest of the year sort of plateaus in the middle.

Despite all this, I can fortunately say that 2019 has been a year to remember happily for me. The more I think about it objectively, the more I look at the year in hindsight through the pictures and videos stored in my Google Photos account, the more I see that there are far more good things that happened that outweigh the bad. I'm thankful for all the great things that happened and I hope that more great things will come in 2020!

A Happy New Year smile from me, my mother, and my sister! :)