The Question Book (Part 2 of Plenty)

Part 2 of Plenty of my answers to The Question Book.

Where are you right now?

At the friendly neighborhood coffee shop. Yes, Starbucks. 🧜🏻‍♀️ 
It's just right downstairs of where I live.
Convenience + Coffee + Cool place to spend a few hours = 💛

Three things you can reach without getting up : 

When I'm in my bed, it's my cellphone 📱, TV remote 📺, earphones 🎧 for when I'm watching Netflix before bedtime.

Two things that you did today :

It's 9:30AM on a Sunday right now. ☀️ So I took a bath 🧖🏻‍♀️ and came down to the coffee shop to get myself some coffee and breakfast. ☕️ 

Two things that you've been thinking about a lot lately :

• My retirement plan. 📊 I've been doing bits and pieces to make sure that I can sustain myself once I decide to retire. But I haven't really gotten into the details yet. Like what do I want retirement to be like for me? I have to figure that out for me to know what it's going to cost so I can make sure I have the funding for it. 
• What do I want to do to celebrate being 40 next year? 🎂 I know what I want in general. I just have to figure out the logistics for it. I have only spent 1 birthday away from my parents 👴🏼🧓🏼 ever since I was born. It was when I was working in Chennai, India. 🇮🇳 We have always celebrated locally here in PH. In the past 4 years, we checked-in to casino hotels 🎰 in Manila (Nobu, Solaire, Conrad, Okada) to enjoy the opulence but didn't gamble. For my 40th, I want to take them out of the country. ✈️ Where? IDK yet. 🤷🏻‍♀️ The challenge is my life as a corporate slave limit the number of days I can take off. And my birthday is right after Christmas and New Year when I take 2 weeks of leave to go home to Davao. So I'm not sure if I can afford to take another week off for my birthday. 🤔

A word that describes your ...
health : Okay 👌🏼 
financial situation : Healthy
work : Good
sex life : Next
relationship : 👍🏼
life : Calm 💆🏻‍♀️

A magazine that you read regularly :

I think this question should be updated to "Channel you regularly listen to on Podcast" or "Channel you regularly watch on YouTube" or "Facebook Page you Liked and regularly check" or "Blog you regularly read". 💻 

I get my daily dose of reading materials via FB and Instagram these days. 📱 I liked/follow a lot of news agency pages both local and international. A lot of content providers too like @girlboss by Sophie Amuroso, Entrepreneur PH, Business Insider, Food Insider, Inc Magazine, Science Channel, Thought Catalog, etc. I also follow a lot of foodies and chefs both local and international to find out the places to eat around the globe. 🐷 

Your fave pair of shoes :

From, Mondays to Fridays ... any closed-toe flats. 🥿
On weekends, ... flip flops. 

Your perfume or aftershave :

DKNY Light Blue 

The sport that you like to watch :

Not really into sports. But I watch boxing matches and mixed martial arts the most. Boxing because of Manny Pacquiao. #pinoypride Mixed martial arts 🥋 because I just catch myself stopping on that channel while channel surfing. Also dragged an ex to watch a few fights ringside ... pentagon-side. 🤼‍♂️

Fave toy when you are a child :

Paper Dolls. I draw and cut out the dresses myself. 👗 And I don't think I ever made my dolls any wedding dresses. Just princess-y ball gowns. 

Fave toy today :

My iPhone and all its apps. 📲 Yes, my life does depends on it. I use it to ...

• Go to work or anywhere using Grab app. 🚙 
• Order food delivery at work and sometimes at home using FoodPanda, GrabFood, HonestBee, etc. 🥡
• Buy my coffee using Starbucks app. ☕️ 
• Find promos for meals like Booky, Zomato Gold, Eatigo, etc. 🍛
• Find my way using Google Maps, etc. 🗺 
• Track my daily expenses using Pocket Expense. 💸
• Pay my bills using bank apps.💰
• Keep my sanity using Spotify and Netflix. 🎶 🎥 🍿 
• Read or listen to ebooks using Marvin app. 📚 
• Listen to book summaries using Blinkist. Listen to talk shows using Podcast. 🎧
• Write my blog entries using EasyBlog. 📝 
• Keep in touch with people using Skype, Viber, FB Mssgr, etc. 💬
• Find out the meaning of life using Siri. 🧘🏻‍♀️

What language do you speak fluently? :

English specifically American English 🇺🇸, Filipino 🇵🇭 (Tagalog & Bisaya) , Chinese (Fukien) 🇹🇼🇨🇳

What language do you speak well enough? :

Chinese (Mandarin) Chinese 

Which language would you like to learn? : 

Spanish 🇪🇸 because some Filipino language has its roots in Spanish. That should make it easier for me to learn. And a lot of other languages share similar roots with Spanish as well like Portuguese 🇵🇹 and Italian 🇮🇹.

Mandarin Chinese 🇨🇳 because China is already becoming a world superpower. Speaking their language is going to become an eventual necessity similar to how the English language in today's world. I can understand Mandarin quite well thanks to the Chinovelas I watched when I was a teenager. But my speaking and reading skills need a lot more improvement.

How many days of the week do you drink alcohol? :

Zero. Zilch. Nada. 👌🏼

On what occasions do you avoid alcohol? :

No need to avoid since I don't have an affinity to it anyway. 🍸🙅🏻‍♀️
So the more appropriate question for me is "On what occasions do you indulge in alcohol?"
When I need to do social drinking because I'm at a beer tap station, bar, pud or speakeasy with friends. 🍻🥴

Three dishes that you cook all the time :

I'm so much better with eating than cooking. I'm a lazy cook. I only cook for survival's sake or when I feel like it (which is much rarer than the blue moon 🌚). So once upon a blue moon, I can whip up shakshuka 🍳, puttanesca 🍝, grilled cheese sandwich 🥪 and matching tomato basil soup 🍅, french onion soup 🥣, japchae, etc. Even though my cooking skill isn't that good. I can search for several recipes online of a dish and tweak it to my liking quite easily. Tweaking is a necessity since some of the ingedients on the recipes I found are not available in my local supermarket anyway.

My go-to dishes are mostly the ones I can do using the microwave. I cook rice 🍚 , soups, fritattas 🥚, veggie dishes in it. 🍆🥦🥬🌽🥕

A meal that you're good at cooking and others enjoy eating?

Once in a blue moon, I also made some dishes for the Christmas party with my family and relatives. The most recent successful dish I can think of is the Garlic Chicken Wings. 🐔

A meal that you would like to cook but have never tried to?

I've never used a convection oven yet. It's not a necessary kitchen equipment here in Asia. We just need a stovetop or an open fire for everything we cook.

So I would like to learn how to use it by learning some easy dishes to cook in it.

Approximately, how much do you spend on food every monthly? :

It's good timing that I have just forced myself to religiously track my daily expenses a few months ago. Otherwise, I won't be able to give an accurate answer to this question. 😝

Groceries : P1,000 on budget. P2,000 if not thinking about the budget. 🛒
Eating out : P15,000 if on budget. P25,000 easily if not worrying about the budget. 🐷

Note : I'm passionate about food. It's my only vice. So stop judging me! 🤣

TV program that you watch regularly :

No particular TV program. 📺 But my default cable channel is TLC, NatGeo, History Channel and Discovery Channel.

What are your nicknames? Who uses your nicknames? :

Ahong - Mom, Dad, Aunties, Uncles, Grandma, relatives in China
Rach - Friends, Cousins
Rachelle - People I know in a formal setting. Bosses. Friendly neighborhood barista.
Pssst, Hoy and Dai - Super close Filipino friends