Celebrating My Birthday During Wuhan Covid-19 Lockdown

STORY: It's Day 59 of community quarantine. How are we all doing? Metro Manila here in the Philippines where i live is still on lockdown, so you bet there's not much happening here. But what's especially interesting today is that i am also celebrating my birthday. Yes! This is the first time that i am actually celebrating my birthday in quarantine, without friends coming over to celebrate or meeting up with friends soon after for binge drinking. Can you believe it? 

Back in February or March when all of the news about Wuhan was just starting, i didn't think this virus would last long. I knew that this, too, shall pass, just like SARS or the bird flu. But by far, this has got to be the longest and strongest virus strain of all. 

Enough of Wuhan Covid-19, and more about me. Bare with me. 

It's my birthday today! Gee, somehow this lockdown made me appreciate the littlest things - like opening a bottle of light beer (i know who drinks light beer?!) after two long months (i know too long!) or having a cool and comfortable room to cave into during the intense heat of the midday sun (it was 43 degrees celsius the other day). 

Because i have a lot of time in my hands now, i have been blogging almost every day.Can you believe that this blog has been up since 2007. That's 13 glorious years.  But i have to be honest, it's something i haven't prioritized for the past five or six years. I felt that nobody's reading this anyway. I've already reached the peak of my blogging career years ago. However, this lockdown made me realize how important blogging is to my life. It is my journal over the years. I've grown with it. I've learned from my mistakes with it. I've become better in all aspect of life with it. I will always be a writer, even when i ventured into other industries, writing was still a part of my life. This blog became my outlet to never let go this passion of mine. My job is to share with the rest of the world how my world looks like - through the many places i see, people i meet and even food i taste.

Today, it's my birthday and i didn't get myself any gift. I always buy something new to wear on my special day. Somehow, the lockdown has taught me to appreciate what i have instead of what i still don't have. I have stuff that i bought months ago that i haven't used yet. They were suppose to go with me to Bali back in March. Of course, that didn't happen. Instead, months have passed and rainy season is fast approaching. Ergo, no more use for that. But next summer, i promise to make use of it still.

Today, i have no plans to make. I just finished watching the last of the M. Night Shyamalan Unbreakable series and it had a bittersweet ending. Glass was just so damn good. I never knew i would be this crazy fan of superheroes. Gosh, i am such a cinephile. I live and breathe movies. I take inspiration from them, i cry with the characters, i laugh with the circumstances and learn from the valuable lessons it has, however small it maybe. There's always a lesson at the end of it all, you see.

Once the sun sets later, i would probably open a bottle of wine and enjoy the rest of the evening with my Malbec and Perry Cuomo. You see, i can travel miles and miles away for that perfect adventure (you can read it all here) but the real heart of it all is enjoying the simplest, most nonsense things with the people you love the most. That is a story worth telling.  

Happy birthday to me! May you all have a blessed and safe days ahead of you!