halfcactus

1. What were some of the smells and tastes of your childhood?

This question unlocked something inside me

General scents: Mosquito coils; the colorful chemical paste that you'd smear on a little stick and blow up into a plastic balloon; the smoke from the (now discontinued) toy revolvers that you "reloaded" with red plastic bullet rings; White Flower oil

Star margarine

Hometown dimsum, my beloved for life.

Hometown "street" food: grilled scallops, grilled pork, lemongrass-stuffed native chicken, puso (rice boiled in pouch of woven leaves). And ngohiong, a five-spice-based ('ngohiong' is just 五香) spring roll that never grew on me but is everywhereeeee in my hometown.

Mango tarts, which I just realized that I haven't seen in a decade, at least not in the exact way I remember. It's the kind that has a round shape, a crimped crust, a custard base, a layer of mango slices and a layer of colorless gelatin (I forget in what order), and they'd be sold in solo sizes.

Eucalyptus leaves, dampened to release a minty scent and cooling sensation (we had a tree).

Santol (cotton fruit) - I haven't had one since we moved to the capital. I only liked the pulp around the seeds anyway lol, I haaaated having to eat the sour outer rind to get to the sweet cottony center.

Kamunggay (moringa). My mom hasn't cooked with these since we moved to the capital. I guess because they're not leaves that are worth spending money on (we used to have a tree).

The whole sensory experience of inasal (roasted suckling pig, more commonly known as lechon outside my hometown) we'd have at Christmas/New Year parties. The meat was soft, succulent, and salty, the way only my hometown can do it. The skin was a glossy, deep red shell. It made a satisfying crackle when you broke off pieces with your fingers and shattered them with your teeth, a full ASMR experience. I am not a lechon enjoyer (I prefer them in leftover form), but adults were always putting cuts of it on my plate and telling me to tryyyy the skinnnnn because it was apparently just That Important to them. Is it any wonder that those relatives developed cholesterol and blood sugar issues over years.....

2. What did you have as a child that you do not think children today have?
Winamp skins and piracy skills!

3. What elementary grade was your favorite?
None, elementary and high school are a blur to me.

4. What summer do you remember the best as a child?
The summer my parents shipped my brother and me to different households in my hometown. During that period, I watched Prince of Tennis, got bundled into an overnight ferry for a beach trip (snorkeling) with my cousins' cousins (my relatives had plans and couldn't just leave me behind), and got yelled at and insulted a lot by my aunt who hated girls bc of generational trauma.

5. What one piece of advice would you give to your younger self, and at what age?
IDK, I guess do more extracurriculars, learn to network, and hang out/do things with other people more? But probably more extracurriculars, I didn't really have any.

Hotlinking images from Bluesky because I'm lazy but want to document things in a less ephemeral place while I figure out my travel journaling situation. ^^; One day I will regret not reuploading the pics on DW but that day is not today.

( Food!! )

Pre-CNY successes :')

✓ Donated A LOT of books (...to an Italian restaurant, of all things) and put a few up for sale...

✓ Fiiiiiinally finished 我五行缺你 (My Five Elements Lack You). No more danmei for me for a while after this lmfao. (Also taking a break from cnovels, for obvious reasons.)

✓ Swapped instant coffee for instant matcha latte (but now it's too hot for hot beverages again...)

✓ Journaled (physical) regularly through January ♥

✓ Sorted out the Philhealth thing

✓ Got my hair (bangs only lol) trimmed

✓ Changed my DW layout hehehe (credit: myrtillenne)


January was, for the most part, wearyingly productive. I feel like all the "fun stuff" I did in my free time was scheduled and rotated very rigorously in lieu of taking breaks from one or the another. ^^; A lot of the mental energy was siphoned into work (which has been very busy, problematic, and sometimes sad), decluttering and donating (especially since I tended to fit my donation trips with my other errands for ~*efficiency*~)... and basic human-ing and adulting.

Anyway... mini photodump time.


Found during a decluttering session: Tenipuri things that were gifted to me ages ago—I still use the Oishi nail clipper. :')


I need to share the tikoy cheese turon that my SiL made... We got gifted with tikoy (niangao) that was bizarrely orange in spite of being—allegedly—brown sugar flavored. The mini-turons ended up looking like crabsticks lololol


And a photo of our NYE spread because I'm pleased with how balanced and nutritious it was and how well everything went together... Also my favorite party trick of getting the fancy grapes from Unimart never fails. :P