What did I achieve during Covid-19 Pandemic?

Expanded my brain with the 3 books of Yuval Noah Harari.

Thanks to the free 30-days subscription of Scribd, I was able to listen to the audiobook versions of "Sapiens" and "Homo Deus" while walking around BGC pretending to do errands just to be able to go out and get some sun and some miles during the initial 30 days of extreme lockdown.

Then I was able to finish the 3rd book "21 Lessons for the 21st Century" using the Marvin ebook app's text-to-speech feature during the last week of extreme lockdown.

These 3 books have put a lot of things into perspective for me. I agree with most of what Mr. Harari is thinking. It was an apt read during a pandemic since the books also touched on how humans react post-pandemic based on history and his prediction of how humans are going to react on the "next" one (book was published pre-COVID19) which we're currently living at the moment. It sets a realistic prediction of how things are going to be with the sacrifice of privacy over allowing apps to track your whereabouts and who you've come into contact with for the sake of the health and safety of the communities. It's also correct on predicting that focus will be veered towards and fast-track technologies and ideas that will help the community and business cope with pandemic and post-pandemic. A real example is allowing the majority of previously office-bound workforces to be working from home. Almost unthinkable for some businesses and corporations before but they're all forced to not just consider, but to make it possible and implemented within weeks if not just days before the extreme lockdown.

Plus, I did realize that religion is continuing to lose its grip on humanity. In this pandemic, even the priests, rabbis and imams are all in agreement that their churches, synagogues and mosques should be closed to avoid the spread of the virus. Soon, religion will fade away due to its diminishing usefulness as humanity grab a hold on something more useful and serves our purpose much better ... the belief in our own capability to become more and more god-like ... Homo Deus.

Finally, read some of the piles of books I bought during a book sale years ago.

I've bought Dan Brown, Steve Berry and James Patterson books at a book sale probably 3 or more yrs ago and just kept it in a box. I was able to finally read 3 of them!

Let's see if I can squeeze 1 more book in before GCQ is totally lifted as well. The rest will have to wait until the next pandemic, I guess.

Built-up my stock portfolio during this Black Swan event.

The entire global economy is on a rapid downtrend and therefore the global stock markets being bearish which they say will take years to recover.

My stock portfolio is bleeding all over. But I took this as a big SALE event instead and kept buying more shares of existing stocks. I also bought new stocks like San Miguel Corporations (SMC) and built my stock shares up during the lockdown.

The bear trend is not yet over though some stocks are starting to trend up on this last day (77th day) of ECQ lockdown. So I still intend to keep an eye on the sale opportunities to build my portfolio up with the money I saved during lockdown from my planned expenses like transport allowance, eating out allowance, etc.

And I also sold a longboard that my previous tenant left behind when he flew back to the US last Dec 2019. So I've put that money into my COL account to invest it in stocks as well.

At the rate I'm going, 1/3 of my stock portfolio will be built during this pandemic.

Convinced my brother to invest in the stock market as well.

My brother finally signed up for a COL account during this last week of ECQ and I helped him buy his first 2 stocks (SMC and FMETF).

I am yet to ask him clearly what exactly is it that convinced him to finally do it.

Hoping this will give him a financial goal to aim for and lead him to make more financially savvy investments than just putting his money in savings accounts.

Realized it's too expensive for me to invest in US/Global Stock Market.

Ever since I started PH stock market investing back in 2014, I've had it in the back of my mind the intention to also invest in US/Global stock market as well eventually.

But since I've been focusing my "extra cash" on Real Estate investment, my stock portfolio only got a few sprinkles here and there whenever I notice a downtrend pre-COVID. So consequently, I just never acted on checking and researching more about how to invest in US/Global market as well.

During the boredom of pandemic, I was finally able to find out and even signed up on eToro to see how it can be done and how much the actual stock prices of the index funds I intended to buy are. Well, they're 3 digits and above in US dollars. So I have no choice but to forget that for a while longer until I pay off my home amortization first.

Invented more microwave and slow-cooker recipes.

Pre-Covid, I eat out 3 meals a day during weekdays and at least 1 or 2 meals a day during weekends. I rarely cook a meal at home.

During pandemic lockdown, I think I've perfected making some of my recipes during the boredom of lockdown when what I crave can't easily be bought. So I have to try and make them instead.

Kimchi soup is something I think I've perfected on my 2nd try using the slow-cooker.

I've invented more microwave recipes as well which I've chronicled on my Instagram account.

During the entire 77 days of ECQ, it's either we ate canned goods or what I've concocted. I've only ordered take-outs 3x from Jollibee for the Chicken Joy and pies. I've also only ordered delivery once and it's for falafels from Falafel Yo! That's why I was able to save up a lot to divert to buy stocks instead.

UPDATED Aug 7, 2021 (1.5yrs after initial lockdown) : I've been cooking using stove tops, ricecooker and airfryer and have made several successful dishes that are now in my daily meal roster. Made chinese casserole rice using rice cooker. I can now make kimchi soup/stew, tom yum, hot and sour soup, binakol (coconut chicken soup) and minestrone w/ my eyes closed. 3 cups chicken, chicken & potato curry, jjajang rice are easy and fast meals I can make in less than 45mins. 

Managed operations of 3 countries while WFH during a pandemic.

Extreme Lockdown in PH started March 16, 2020.

I was officially tasked to manage the Shared Services teams in our India and Mauritius offices (aside from PH offices) starting March 1, 2020. Most of the initial 2 weeks were spent risk assessing and planning for a potential lockdown for the 3 countries. Handover from previous managers didn't really happen until after the lockdown.

The lockdown was an added complication to an already challenging task of managing Shared Services operations of 2 other countries remotely. I haven't met anyone in those teams face-to-face to build rapport to ease in my "takeover". But with luck and perseverance, I've managed to do it anyway.