Continuing my update for the second quarter of 2022, we welcomed the middle of the year with minimal fanfare. Boy, time does fly fast!
JUNE 2022
I mentioned in Part 1 that my younger brother was unfortunately bitten by a neighbor’s dog. But this did not discourage him from celebrating his 24th birthday.
Compared to last year where we had more food, we opted for a simpler celebration. This also marked the first year we celebrated without Mom. Even though she died two months after his 23rd birthday, younger brother has definitely adjusted to life without her. Now all he has to do is to focus on law school, learn how to drive, and pass the bar examinations.
Around the last week of June, the government agency where Mom used to work informed us that she will be recognized for her more than four decades of service there. Dad told me to attend and receive any award on her behalf. The rather short event required business casual, which I pulled off rather smoothly.
True enough, she was recognized for 41 years of service alongside other employees who received a trophy and a wall clock. Most of Mom’s colleagues when she was still alive recognized me and caught up on things – mostly about how we have been coping since her passing. (And yes, that’s me in the blue long-sleeved shirt. I’m not lying when I said that I’m taller than the average Filipino!)
I also permanently pulled the plug on my Facebook account that month. The social media platform has become a cesspool since 2016, and even more so following the May 2022 Philippine elections. Furthermore, some relatives on both sides of my family have revealed their true colors since the latter. At that point, I saw it as a sign to sever all ties with them and permanently go off the radar. I didn’t even wait for the end of the month!
I’m aware that I still have an account on Instagram – another platform under Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta. But compared to Facebook, none of my relatives from both sides of the family follow me there. Much more peaceful, and less of the toxic older generations. Only my younger brother knows, and he deactivated his account.
Truth be told, this isn’t the first time I had to delete my presence on Facebook. If you will remember, I deleted the Facebook page for this blog back in 2021 due to low engagement and my desire to go off the grid. With this final link in the chain cut off, I’m putting 12 years of being a Facebook user to a close. Good for the mind, good for the soul.
I did not have much new clothing hauls for this quarter as I still had a lot. However, I mainly focused on purchasing block-out curtains for my room. I bought two for this quarter, bringing the total number of curtains I have to four. A change of curtains every three months is in order, then.
I also bought myself a neck pillow from Mumuso, which I use when taking quick naps. There are certain periods, most especially after lunch, where I often fall asleep while sitting down. These power naps originally intended for half an hour often stretch to around 2 or 3 hours. With this one, I can get much-needed sleep without going beyond my allocation!
Aside from these, I also scored myself a discount coupon from H&M by simply participating in its Close The Loop program. I turned in a full bag of textiles – old underwear and cleaned rags in my case – and got a 15% coupon in return. The last time I availed of it was in 2019, when I used the coupon to buy a new white long-sleeved shirt.
The program had been in place at H&M Philippines for some time now, but was put on hold because of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was only later that I discovered that the program had been resumed since April 2022, so I took the chance.
I also took on a hand-mending project, fixing Dad’s denim shorts. It was derived from a circa 2000s pair of denim trousers, and the original donut button tore off. I began by repeatedly back-stitching a patch from an old piece of denim. Once secured, I then sewed a metal button on the portion where the donut button used to be. Thankfully, the fix worked.
Let me end this post with some shots of two outfits I’ve worn during my trips away from home. Also, here are the posts I published for the month of June.
Now that those have been ironed out, I’ll be taking a short break from blogging. Gotta take a breather, you know.
Until the next post, keep it here on The Monching’s Guide!
The Monching's Guide 
Ugh, toxic relatives. A relative of mine added me on my (old) FB, disapproved of my unfiltered tone (ie my swearing, lol), and promptly b*tched about it to my mother in person. My mom then said I should filter my stuff. I proceeded to block said relative from that account, then started a brand new one, minus all my relatives. So they’re all on that dead account, none the wiser that I have another 😀
Also, happy belated birthday to your brother! And it’s nice that your mom’s old company gave her recognition posthumously… 41 years is a long time to be serving for a company. Glad that they recognized her hard work and dedication.
Thank you for the well-wishes, Eris! 🙂 It was really a pleasant surprise for us when we heard about Mom’s commendation. It’s timely too, as next month will be her first death anniversary. In Philippine culture, the first full year after someone’s death marks the end of the mourning period.
If I may ask, is this the same relative you previously wrote about? I do remember you mentioning it on your blog.
As for me, I used to have a privacy setting wherein only my friends were able to see my posts — in essence blocking out my relatives from both sides. I’ve also resorted to blocking most of them, especially those notorious for frequently borrowing money.
Haha, I have so many toxic relatives, I can’t remember which I was referring to 😛 If it’s the one that called me fat, then no, they’re different, haha!
Happy birthday to your brother and congratulations on deleting your FB account 😁 I did that a few years back and I never looked back. It’s nice for the company to recognize your mother, may she Rest In Peace.
Thank you for the well-wishes, Lily! 🙂
Happy birthday to your brother, it must’ve been quite an honor to receive the award for your mom, may she rest in peace. It’s best to cut off from those toxic so called relatives, they are nothing but a hive of negativity in our life’s. By the way nice outfit.
Thank you! 🙂
You’re welcome!
Wish I could do the same and delete my FB account. If only my work does not require me to post stuff on our page, I would have deleted it a long time ago. Also, I am that petty and still peek into my toxic relatives’ account waiting for the time they realize that woohoo fucking golden age! I might just open a new account instead of trying to delete people from the current account.
I would suggest a mix of both. Use the new account for work purposes (i.e. pang-manage ng FB page), tapos slowly trim off the fat doon sa lumang account. I’m sure the bad relatives won’t notice; by the time they do, wala na rin silang magagawa.
I’d also like to extend that block outside Facebook too, mas lasting kasi ang impact pag in real life ginagawa.
I might do that. Pero baka pang-manage ung old account na since former workmates are there na rin tapos new account for people lang na gusto ko pa rin makumusta.
Matagal na ko di uma-attend ng reunions because ang toxic ng ibang relatives haha! Noise na lang sila ngayon pag chinichika ng parents ko. Pang-small talk lang hehe.
Naalala ko yung conversation namin ng kapatid ko, actually. Tinanong ko siya kung anong gagawin niya in case yung mga pro-regime relatives, pupunta sa lamay ng tatay ko (in the future).
“Pakisamahan mo na lang,” sabi niya.
“Minimal interaction na lang on my end, layuan ko na lang as much as possible,” sabi ko.
Civil lang talaga ganon. Funny pa nga ngayon mga nanghihingi pa ng ambag para sa first death anniv ng lola namin sa father’s side this Aug. Bongga pa talaga gusto nila, e super mahal ng mga bilihin. Magpaparty ng manghihingi sa mga apo pero wala naman kami don. Gusto namin padasal na lang, gusto nila catering hahaha nakakaloka
Alam mo naman sa kultura natin, nagkakasama-sama lang ang pamilya sa KBL (kasal, binyag, libing). Pag ganiyan, block na lang talaga sa FB.
Kahit kami rin, magbababang-luksa kay Mama this August. Pero yung mga malalapit lang talagang kamag-anak at kaibigan ang imbitado.
Belated happy birthday to your brother and all the best for him. 🎂
It’s nice of your mom’s company to honour her for her work. 💐
I’m very sorry to hear that your relatives were bothering you on Facebook. I too have pretty toxic folks among them, but luckily, they stay off the social media platforms. 😉
Thank you, Livia! 🙂 So far, the relatives haven’t harassed me yet — and good thing I left before things escalated to that.
Oh sorry, my mistake. I’m happy to read that you could avoid that. 🤗
No worries. 😊
FB can be quite insane, and they’re making it even crazier and busier! 😆
Sinabi mo pa, Doc! Not to mention the crazies that get radicalized there, given what happened recently…
Ah, yes–social media can be a difficult thing to wade through, and it’s wise to pull the plug when necessary. Cheers to you!
Thank you! I felt better, actually. It’s like a large burden was removed off me when I deleted my Facebook account.
That’s amazing about your moms hard work and I’m so glad that your brother is recovering and celebrating his birthday. Nice to put a face to the blog too!
Thank you!
I’ve always wondered how it’d be if I quit Facebook and Instagram, because truth be told, I don’t see social media enriching my life any. Maybe I’ll follow in your footsteps and pull the plug someday. But for now, I’m still chicken, lol. Anyway, thanks for this post!
No problem, Stuart! But truth be told, I actually did a dry run on deactivating my Facebook account. Days before my 31st birthday in 2021, I deactivated it until June of this year, when I logged in.
Surprisingly, no one looked for me that time. Thus, it served as a signal for me to go ahead with permanently deleting my account — which I haven’t regretted since.
That H&M program is very interesting, I’ll have to see if they do it at stores near me.
I hope they do! That’s one good way of discarding textiles that are too worn-down.
I remember H&M launching a collection that featured pieces made from textiles collected by Close the Loop some years ago.
Thank you for following the blog, by the way. Couldn’t comment on your About section, so I’ll just extend my thanks here. Looking forward to reading more of your posts!
Belated birthday wishes to your brother and my condolences for the loss of your mother. How lovely that her service has been celebrated and that you were part of it.
H&M in the UK has a similar scheme and I think it’s great, but they don’t advertise it so well!
Thank you, Helen! Well, public agencies here in the Philippines do recognize their workers who have contributed much over the years, and Mom was no exception. Had she retired before her untimely passing, she would have been receiving a monthly pension.
For that H&M program, I guess the fast fashion company wouldn’t want to compete with more established schemes over there. (Incidentally, I’m close to getting a second discount coupon!)
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