I finally had the chance to give a personal update here… I don’t know, I just don’t find that ‘spark’ I used to have whenever something happens to me and so always excited to blog about it. But I was actually doing some sort of microblogging via Instagram, you can follow me @Dezruol if you want. The last personal update here was way back October last year. It was about my My First BPO Experience and quitting after 3 years. I decided to switch jobs as a Data and Admin Representative. No more taking in calls and paying a lot more than talking. Haha!
So many things happened then in between, it was a smooth and less stressful time…or so I thought. Until the year 2020 came.
Last photo taken with my mom (far left), also the last time I was able to talk to her.
January 12, 2020. The Taal Volcano erupted and spewed ashes across Calabarzon, Metro Manila, and some parts of Central Luzon. I was able to take a snap of the Ash fall in our terrace the next day. Classes and work were suspended and most are advised to wear a mask.
Come January 15, dear daughter is having an on-off high fever so we decided to rush her to the ER and was admitted due to a cellulitis in her elbow. She had to stay for about 3 days.
And on January 22, 2020 I had to urgently seek help on where to get blood for my mom who had to undergo toe amputation. So grateful to my FB friends who helped out and to the immediate action of Philippine Red Cross.
January 25,2020. We had our annual childhood friends reunion and asked some long ‘lost friends’ to join and were happy they came… Only to miss Joseph here in this group… Was it a sort of premonition?!
It was January 26, when rumours of a suspected Covid19 ( Coronavirus) case spread over the internet. A Male Chinese was rushed to a Manila based (Binondo) hospital with suspected coronavirus symptoms.
February 9, 2020. I received a call from my niece crying and said ‘wala na si Nanay’. I was so surprised because as per their last update, the operation for toe amputation was successful. She was just out of the hospital in less than a week and then the phone call… My niece said Nanay has not eaten a lot the past few days and is supposed to go back for a follow up check up… which did not happen anymore…
February 11,2020. One of the saddest birthday I ever had. As I’ve said, how can you celebrate your birthday when the life of the person who gave birth to you just lost hers? How ironic life is really… Mom were finally laid to her rest on the 15 of February 2020.
February 18, 2020. We were able to push through with our Davao trip that was booked late last year. DH and I with his nephew and sisters with their husbands. See photo below with the captions. These photos were uploaded and taken on my Facebook timeline..
It was just a 3 days short trip but was enough for me to recharge and really feels good to connect with nature. We would really love to go back. So grateful we had this trip. Little did we know it would be our last travel before the pandemic. So I thought everything will now turn back to normal after getting the much needed break from all the chaos. OR so it seems. When I came back to work and did the usual routine until the news about the virus was getting extreme already. On the second week of March, there are rumours going around of the lockdown in certain areas. Panic buying started and a lot of people were frightened of course. The President announced the implementation of the Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) to take effect on March 16, 2020.
Our client was compassionate enough to let us work from home. However, after a few days, we were advised that the company can no longer cope up due to the Pandemic and they need to terminate our service as data and admin representative. We were given a chance to work until the 3rd week of April. The company is no longer generating any sales/ income as there are also restrictions imposed in their country. It was really saddening.
How did we cope up during the Quarantine period? Prayers, keeping ourselves busy, me still working online, DH does the cooking, bake goodies and fed us with delightful dishes. The kids just stayed home ( they were not able to finish the last term in school as the government also decided to suspend classes until further notice. Kids keep them busy with phones, games, etc. Play with our Aimee.
Both of our kids had their Birthday in Quarantine edition
From Enhanced Community Quarantine, it was lifted to a more relaxed restriction of General Community Quarantine last 1st June 2020. This is where the movement of all persons shall be limited to accessing essential goods and services, and for work in the offices or industries permitted to operate. Movement for leisure is not allowed. You can read here the ECQ and GCQ Guidelines. From this day, I felt the effect of being in quarantine for months. When people around us are getting back on track, I have felt being left out as I lost my job during the quarantine and no more work to go back to. With a zero income and a lot of bills that piled up during the lockdown period, I got scared and a bit depressed on how to move on from everything.
With millions of people who lost their jobs and businesses, finding one was really hard. I have to fully utilise time and resources to find one. I have revisited my online job hunting accounts and sent numerous applications. Working from home of course is the best option in this case as working onsite is still very risky in catching the virtus.
I was also able to find a part time job online doing data admin tasks. We were able to set up a new PC for my kids online learning system as part of the ‘new normal” because going back to school ‘physically’ is on hold for as long as there is no cure or vaccine as per the government. So our 2 kids need to have their own PC for themselves as sharing I believe is not possible if they have the same class schedule and I need to have one for myself for my online work.
I am using the new PC set for now since their online class will begin by last week of August next month.
I was finally offered a full time job. I started part-time during training and then my client finally decided to offer it full time for me. The job itself is very easy although quite overwhelming when there’s a huge upload feed but still manageable enough for me. The good thing is that I can still have another work contract as long as I meet the deliverables on them.
I started this blogpost on the 5th June and it is already 26th July today and decided to have this published. It ook more that a month to finish this off as there are a lot of offline activities that caught me in between. We are still under the GCQ and there are still rising cases of Covid19. Total cases as of 24 July 2020 is 76,444.
It is still a long journey ahead to fight the Covid19 and Christmas is fast approaching. Despite all the challenge, I am still grateful and thankful for a lot of things… safety, good health, food to eat, a roof under our head. Most important of all. The gift of LIFE and we are still ALIVE amidst the chaos and pandemic. We all hope to survive and keeping our Faith!