Yaya's 5th Year Death Anniversary

So time indeed flows fast and it's been five years since my yaya passed away. I have yet to finish my thesis proposal and I know I need to work on it soon to finally make my yaya proud. It's not so much the degree, but the pride associated with having completed graduate studies. My yaya knew the importance of education and I feel sorry for her because although she obtained honors when she was a student, she never got to college and had to work. She taught me many things but the most important thing she instilled in me is to be independent and to be specific, to strive for financial independence so that I can do whatever I want to do with life without being a parasite to anyone.

When I was in Spain, I have learned to let go of many things. This lockdown I can very well imagine how she must have felt living with toxic people for many days on end for many many years. I know now because just the first week of the lockdown last March, I wanted so bad to go back to living on my own. I really hate stupid people meddling in other people's affairs when their own lives are so messed up. So I am happy for my yaya now that she is in a pace where there is no suffering nor toxic people. Today I cooked breakfast, lunch, and dinner. For breakfast, I made vegetarian fried rice composed of beans, carrots, tomatoes, and turmeric. For lunch, it's fish stew with tomatoes and chili. There was some rice left from breakfast so I paired it up with the fish resulting in a very colorful meal. For dinner, I made chicken lumpia shanghai. I love healthy food so I put in only a small amount of chicken and threw in carrots and onions as main filling. The critical part is frying it which is a success. I now know how to fry things up in such a way that they stay crunchy later for dinner. My yaya will definitely be super proud of me.

Fish stew with tomatoes over vege fried rice: I always tell my mom I must be half-Mexican half-Indian in my previous life.

Crunchy spring rolls without much guilt because there's more vegetables inside than meat. And I used chicken instead of pork.

I wish Q and I became close when my yaya was still with us. She will be very happy to see me with a gentle man who is very talented and despite that, very humble.