How are you all holding up, guys?
I just heard that the enhanced quarantine placed in big cities in the Philippines has been extended until May 15. It is sad, yes. But I fully understand the reasons behind it- cases are continuously increasing every day and people are still dying all around the country. It’s hard, isn’t it? It has been challenging the past few weeks globally. When is it going to end? I guess we all ask the same question.
People will continue to be stuck in their homes, I hope so. It’s one thing we can do to help flatten the curve. Businesses will still be closed, the economy still is dropping as days pass by.
Ultimately, people would soon get bored if it isn’t the case yet. I wonder what you all have been up to these days? One thing I’ve observed though is more people are becoming introverts or maybe, forced to be introverts. We are learning to love being indoors doing indoor activities. Because..what else can we do?
Just so you know, it is no different for me. Like you, I am mostly indoors too except to go to work or do grocery shopping for my folks.
Three Kittens
I should probably make a separate post of my temporarily adopted animals- three kittens + their momma. I’ll tell you a little bit about their story though.
Their mother, a stray cat, who visits our compound from time to time, made a nest in an empty box at the apartment I live in. I am not a cat person or an animal person at all because I grew up without pets. When I was younger, I remember we had a cat for a very short while. Then in my early 20’s, I had a dog named Sanji. After moving to Thailand, I had to leave him to my family. Then, a couple of years later, my sister told me Sanji died. And that’s my experience with pets, including Zlue, a fighting fish, I had for a couple of months but soon died too.
My childhood is different from those who grew up with dogs or cats their entire lives. Having animals to care for is not something I was exposed to but I always wanted to try one day.
Becoming an animal parent.
Taking care of cats or any animals is a big responsibility. I think that’s the reason why a lot of people, especially Filipinos, are not very thrilled about having pets. We already have loads of responsibility on our shoulders from our own family to our own kids. Unfortunately, for some, that responsibility even extends to their aunts, uncles, nieces, and nephews. Adding up a cat and dog to that already full plate is sometimes just unlikely to happen.
For me, I am single and living alone. What bad can it do me if I keep these kittens under my wing for now? Besides, they are so cute, all they do is sleep. Their mom is keeping them fed and warm anyway. They are also growing so fast, they are starting to sleep less and walking on their wobbly legs.
I said “temporarily” earlier because I don’t think I’ll be able to keep them all. Probably, one kitten and the momma. But not all of them. So, I reached out through social media if any of my friends want a cat. Hopefully, I’ll find them new homes soon. We’ll see how it goes for the next few weeks but at present, I’m happy to have them in my apartment. They keep me company and entertained during these difficult times.
Reading…
Another thing I have been doing more lately is reading novels. Reading has been my favorite pastime activity since I was young. You can leave me alone and I would be okay with it as long as there’s a book in my bag or saved on my iPad. Although my personality is more of an extrovert, I have an introvert side on me too. Therefore, since the start of the enhance quarantine order, I have probably read 3-5 novels in total.
The main reason for sharing my fondness in reading in this blog as well as my favorite novels is that while I share mine, you might also wanna share your favorites too.
My Favorite Novels
Here are my top 3 novels which means they are my ultimate favorites. Their stories touched me, inspired me, and taught me something important in life.
1 THE BRONZE HORSEMAN TRILOGY BY PAULLINA SIMONS
The story of Tatiana and Alexander is the first-ever romance story that truly made me cry loads of tears and believe in real love through a book. Their love story is deep, extraordinary, intense, and heartbreaking. There are no other books I can compare with what they have been through. It could be because it’s a trilogy that makes their story more complete, more intense. But the development until the end is so perfect, you wouldn’t want to miss a page.
I was so enthralled with it, I remember reading for hours in a day, sleeping at 3 or 4 AM. That’s how good the story is, I couldn’t put it down.
The times I cried are embarrassing to mention but this is a book that will make you cry for many reasons. But don’t worry, this novel will leave you with happy tears in the end.
Now that I am writing about it, I couldn’t stop noticing the similarities, kind of, of the book setting and our current situation. The main characters met in Russia during WWII. There are parts in the first book when people are staying at home, unemployed, dying out of hunger because of war. At present, in real life, we are in lockdown, many are jobless and thousands died because of an invisible enemy. In the end, they survived and found their happy ending, I wish the same for us. That will soon find a silver-lining from these dark times.
2. KATE DANIELS SERIES BY ILONA ANDREWS
This novel is a long one, probably one of the longest series I have ever read. It has 10 books, not to mention, the extra books. The main characters are Kate and Curran. This is different because it involves magic and shapeshifters among others, a rural fantasy novel. In the beginning, I was skeptical of reading it because I’m not really into this genre. But dang, the writer is so talented, she wrote these books fun and exciting. What makes this my favorite is because of the heroine, Kate. Compared to many books with alpha masculine main characters, this was my first time to read a female character who is strong and independent. To a point that she doesn’t need a knight in shiny armor to save here all the time. Well, until she met Curran. So I like it mostly because it empowers women with a message that women can run the world too, even a magical one.
The development of the story is exceptional too. It makes you read more until the end. I think I’ve read the books five times now ha. There were just days in my life when a thought about it and would say, “Oh, gosh I want to read it again”. And so, I did.
For this series, I have to thank my cousin, Justine, because she was the one who recommended this to me. I’m now a fan of Ilona Andrews. Her other series are actually really good too.
3. OUTLANDER SERIES BY DIANA GABALDON
This series completes my top 3 favorites, a time-travel romance story between Jamie and Claire. It’s another long one, 8 books, the 9th is still on the way according to the author. The story is also very interesting, the heroine time traveled from 1945 to 1743. Then, he met Jamie. Reading this has enlightened me of history in Scotland which I wouldn’t have any ways of knowing before.
Like the two other series, the main characters had a long challenging time. In the end…nope, sorry, I’m not going to spoil it to you. You have to read it yourself. Or you can watch the tv series Outlander. It was actually through the tv show that I learned it was based on a novel. After that discovery, I went ahead and finished the whole series (until the 8th book). Because of that, I somehow have an idea of what’s going to happen. However, as we all know, sometimes they add a story or scenes to the show. You can read the books and watch the show, like what I do, to compare which version you prefer better.
That’s it, guys. These are my recommendations for you for now. There are still many books written by great authors I wanna share, but maybe, for next time. Until then.
Thanks for reading. Please comment below your favorites, I would love to go check them out.
Congratulations for being an animal parent.
As a former pet owner and now a plant parent, I know that you’ll have lots of fun taking care and playing with them. But go easy in buying toys, food, shampoo etc. Get the basic and add what’s necessary like vaccinations.
This is the time also to consider a pet fund, in case a pet needs to visit a clinic, then you’ll have the fund for whatever expenses may come. They can easily add up.
Did you come up with a name for your furry pets? Thinking of names is a fun part of being a pet parent. Name them after your favourite character from a book or movie or whatever.
I haven’t tried reading a series other than Harry Potter. These days I am drawn into self-help, minimalism, and personal finance books.
I recommend The Glass Castle (memoir). It’s best to read the book before watching the movie. (Or not watching at all.)
Outlander is on my list for a long time now. Maybe I should give it a go.
Hope you can share more about your pets and books.