bethgstories

Uh-hmm... it's 0150 and I can't seem to sleep. I just finished watching that Kdrama about adulting, the one that I should have finished watching over the weekend had I not chosen to lay on the bed and stare at the ceiling for hours. Come to think of it, is it still a do-nothing day if your mind's not empty? Probably not. But that has become my way of coping. Especially these days when there's nowhere to go but the kitchen, the bathroom, and the happy corner in my room. When everything appears to be falling apart and there's nothing else you can do but to watch idly as things break in front of you, you just stare at nowhere and wonder if life has ever been kind to you at one point. I don't really need to wonder about that, though. Life has been more than enough kind to me. I still have a job. My family's intact. I've a place to live. I've friends to call when I need help.  Maybe I am just anxious. Another year has gone and it's the season where I ...

If hospital walls could speak, what kind of stories could they tell me, I would often wonder during the lonely afternoons I spent in the ICU many years ago. I figured it must be fascinating to hear stories of triumph over death, and of course heartbreaking to hear tales of defeat. Years later, I stumbled upon this book, and surprise surprise! It somehow resonates with what I was thinking. Reading it was like listening to one of the walls that surrounded me when I was seemingly counting my every breath. And I should say the stories were all so vivid that I could smell the smells (disinfectant mixed with detergent). I could see the faceless crowd walking back and forth in the hospital's dim corridors. I could hear the hush voices of the nurses drowned in the beep of the vital signs monitor. From the doctor's point of view If I am to write a non-fiction book, I'd write about my myasthenia gravis journey. I'd write about my hospital  mis adventures - the horrors of misdiagn...

Gift-giving must be overrated during these troubled times. But what we always forget is that gifts do not have to be expensive. In fact, you can just put together random (but definitely useful) things you can find in your home and put together a nice letterbox gift set. It’s economical because you’d only spend a little amount of money. It’s sustainable because you do not need to use extra resources. Plus, it’s thoughtful and sweet because what’s more special than a gift that is carefully thought of? Here are some of the letterbox gift sets you can put together at home, and I’d be more than delighted to receive one of them.  Bullet journaling box. My fondness for bullet journaling is all over this blog. Naturally, I have a lot of extra supplies in my stash that I am easily able to put together a gift set for that. This is best for your friends who are into journaling, or anyone in your family who simply loves to write and doodle. The box includes a notebook, coloured pens, a cute ...

The words “sustainable living” have always daunted me. I feel like it’s only for Youtubers and people who can afford to buy organic food and sustainable clothing. I guess it really pays to dig deeper into things. Wikipedia defined sustainable living as a lifestyle that attempts to reduce an individual’s or society’s use of the Earth’s natural resources, and one’s personal resources . Putting it that way, it appears to be much easier and achievable than I imagined. So I sat down, looked around my bedroom and thought—okay, so where do I begin? Below are some of the things I came up with and I guarantee that if I am able to do these, you can do them too. 1. Say goodbye to paper bills. Organizing these envelopes is a job I don’t really want to deal with, plus they take up space albeit a small one in a hanging rack. Going paperless does wonders, as well as saying no to ATM receipts. It can be difficult at first, but thanks to Google spreadsheets I am able to organize everything.  2. Br...

Just like my March entry , my April welcome post is one day late. I just completed the finishing touches of my April bullet journal spread this morning because I had to do something else last night. Excuses. Anyway, April has always been exciting because first, it's my birth month; second, it's when I published Right Where You Left Me in 2018 (wow has it really been 3 years?); and third, it's summer and ripe mangoes are everywhere (though there's only dry and wet season in the PH, I will always refer to April as the summer month). But I am not so keen this year because I do not look forward to another (god forbid) quarantined birthday celebration. I'm out of copies of Right Where You Left Me so how can I promote it? Public markets are the last thing I want to visit these days because I am still scared af with corona. Millennial problems? Maybe. I can hear people saying "people are dying everywhere and you worry about quarantined birthday how dare you!"  A...