home where the hearth is

i'm shopping for groceries and filing old family recipes and looking up ingredients and translating them into filipino (chives is kuchay, chinese celery is kinchai - it's the same in chinese but the hanyu pinyin spelling is different: gu chye and kin chye). yes, i'm home and will be in manila for a long time. i'm guessing until mid-february or until i fall in love again, whichever comes first.

i packed teas in my luggage - ti kuan yin, jasmine and chwee hua, some lap chong, seven spices and fermented tofu - in case they don't sell them in manila. i also brought new beddings, tonnes of books, four pairs of shoes and some simple clothes. jewellery i left in my godmum's care as well as the other stuff. it was a bittersweet homecoming, one based on the agency folding and han losing patience with me again.

"why do you have to quit?"

"i didn't; the outfit has shut down."

"why don't you find another job? join my agency; i can find a position for you!"

"that's not right. let me rest for a while. anywy, i've been working non-stop for ten years." i threw a significant number but in fact i wasn't sure how long i've been working.

han got busy, i got restless. we were officially not seeing each other but he kept calling and checking on me. we even had sex a couple of times, but i was changing. i was looking for something exciting.

so i am back in binondo and calling up every friend who's still living in manila for meet-ups.

there's already this guy, too... well, it's still too early to say.