Wow, it actually feels like it’s just been yesterday when I wrote my last year end special. Yet here we are again. We will take a look back at what has been, things that I was able to accomplish as per what I have outlined for the year, and possible room for improvement.
The year 2024, which midway marked my 33rd year on this planet, was… mid. Not mediocre, how the younger generation would label it… but it was literally a mid year.
A lot has happened, good and bad. Many things out of my control, some things because of what I did. Some that were absolutely out of my hands. Anyways, let’s try to put the year into words.

January 2024
We started the year pretty much where we I left it in 2023, with strong ties to Cebu that were about to lessen (or so I thought) since I decided to resign from my work that was based in Cebu City. Onset of 2024, I spent most of the first month in Cebu because I wanted to participate in the Sinulog Festival celebrations for the first time ever. And boy, was it an amazing celebration. It wasn’t the all-out street party Sinulog of old, but I witnessed Cebu’s devotion to Sto. Niño firsthand, which was a great experience.
In January, I was also supposed to work from a call center in Davao, doing VA stuff for a German account. But I didn’t push through as they 1. Paid peas 2. Had bad benefits which wouldn’t fly for a jet setter like me. Luckily, the search for a client paid off and I was able to land my long term work in this month as well. My closest companion at the time was already counting down the days of my stay in Cebu as I was set to bid Cebu fare thee well. Little she know that March had something in store for us.
January 7 marked my first flight of the year, with January 8 my next one – but I didn’t take that one as I stayed in Cebu, as mentioned, for Sinulog. Instead, I traveled back to Davao by land and sea via Cagayan de Oro City. I thought to myself that I would probably be visiting Cagayan de Oro city again… and boy, be careful what you wish for? Hahahaha. I ended up visiting Cagayan de Oro, off the bat, I think 5 times throughout the year.
I want to think that 2024 was off to a great start. I even had plans for 2024 outlined early on as well.

February 2024
Just as I was heading back to Davao, my old work called for me for my final pay – and before I know it, I was back in Cebu. Again.
At any rate, in February, we had some visitors from Cebu in Davao. Went to Club Samal and had a great time there. Well, Yannah had the best time of us all because she just loves to be right by the water, whether it’s a pool or the beach.
In February, I also returned to Cagayan de Oro City to become a speaker at a local WordPress Meetup there. I think I brought Local WordPress Development as a topic over to Cagayan that time. That’s the second I’ve been there. I slowly settled back at home, even had a routine of taking Yannah out from time to time on the weekends.. Life was going swell!
An old acquaintance resurfaced as well. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think it was also in February when I took on another role, a role that unfortunately didn’t last that long due to reasons you will find out down below.

March 2024
March rolled around and I made my first major tech acquisition. I bought an M1 Macbook Air because I needed one for the role that I took on.
It was in March when I joined my mother and her two sisters to Manila. I did the booking of the flights and all such. The reason for our visit to Manila was a quick jump over to the German Embassy for my mother’s passport renewal. I was enticed to renew mine as well, because of this visit. That’s why I also applied for a Philippine Passport in March.
I met one of my oldest and bestest college friends in Orry last March, too. It was one of multiple times that we would meet. This one was purely because we wanted to reconnect and catch up. This was in Cebu, right after the German Embassy appointment of my mother.
March also marked the start of “38”. I did not handle that well at all. I messed it up almost instantly. Just when I decided that I am okay and deserve to be happy in life… I took a wrong turn. My ex returned. We got chummy. I outsourced some work to her. I almost decided to like get back with her and it all turned cold as quick as it turned hot. Nonetheless, I am immensely thankful to have had time spent with my favorite cat for a while in the form of Nanabear.
March 10 was also quite a day because it was then when I was on 3 flights within 24 hours. Cebu – Davao for an event of my barkada, Davao – Cebu via Manila (2 flights) with PR because I refused to fly on the Dash8 at the time – as I explicitly booked the PR1 A320 service. (Since November, I think most PR flights to Cebu are serviced by an Airbus already, even if they are not like PR1366. Even the PR2 ones)

April 2024
In April, I was in Cebu once more. Again with Orry. This time to get our SP. I also managed to catch him and his brother back in Davao at their place. (This was also the time when the old flame extinguished once more)
I was back in Cagayan de Oro, for the third time of the year. Not as a speaker, but just to support the local community there and to support my friend Dreb who was speaking. A week later, I was talking at the WordPress Davao Meetup at the MCM. One of my friends from the WordPress Manila Community came over to Davao, too. He was slated to speak at the same event. I was really happy having him around, and sharing a few drinks. But before you know it, I was also happy that Dan went back home to Manila because. Drank. Too. Much.
This was also the month when I visited Camotes with my bestie and with Mai. Yes, continuing the perfect streak of visiting Cebu every month. Maypag wa ko nag resign, no?

May 2024
Early on in May, I finally got hold of my Philippine passport. One step closer in preparation to international travels. May is also Yannah’s birth month. Early on in the the month, I was with my mother in Cebu City. I toured her around, brought here to some of my favorite places, and so on. I want to think that she had fun and that she enjoyed it. We were again joined by Mai throughout all of this. The German Restaurant we visited was definitely one of the highlights. On s separate occasion, I visited Cebu once more because I claimed my drivers license as well.
My cousin and her husband, along with myself also went to Manila because it was finally time. The time to renew my German passport. I lost my previous one, so there was a little hiccup for me in running a quick errand for my missing passport. Affidavit of Loss and Police Report and all that. After an hour, I was able to finish all that. The remainder of the Manila trip was quite timid. I met with a friend from Davao at BGC and had a few drinks, and that was about it.
Aside from Yannah’s birthday, she also graduated from elementary last May. The gift that I would give her came eventually in the form of traveling with her to Cebu. At any rate, in May alone I have flown 6 times, and by the end of the month, I had 20 flights under my belt.
In May also, I sold my M1 Macbook Air to a former trainer of mine that I handled at Outsourced Doers. I am really happy to see her do so well. The reason I sold it at the time was it wasn’t quite sure if Yannah would be needing a laptop just yet for school, and because I quit one of the roles that I was having at the time as I was planning to go more long term with my one client.
A highlight talk that I held in May was my Human Resources and Recruitment / Career talk at the CCSA.

June 2024
June rolled around, my birth month. I spent the early days of June in no man’s land in Antipolo. Even Dan found it a little funny how and why I ended up there. After that, I spent the days around my birthday in Cebu to keep the Cebu streak going.
I visited Cagayan de Oro again, this time with Yannah, as I was invited to talk at one of their meetups once more. I think this was my 4th visit to Cagayan de Oro for the year.
Domestically, I had the usual travels with Yannah during weekends, meetup with my bestfriend Andrea occasionally as well. There was a toy expo at Gaisano Mall that Yannah thoroughly enjoyed. She kind of turned into a geek when I started her off with Star Wars last May the 4th.

July 2024
In July 2024, we completed the Minions Set from Mcdonalds. As mentioned earlier, it was also the month when I toured Yannah around Cebu City. Letting her see Cebu from the POV I had the last 365 days and then some. We went the usual touristy route and also ate some of my favorite spots. We stayed at the Bai Hotel. As usual, it wasn’t worth it in terms of breakfast because Yannah just isn’t eathing that much. But she enjoyed the swimming pool in the evening and also right early on the next day. My laptop went to hell and died in Cebu… because of a chuckie filled incident, unfortunately. By the end of it, she didn’t want to go back to Davao. Lol
Luckily I have my suking online seller that loaned me my current work machine, an M2 Macbook Air 15”. And this is when things turned quite crazy in terms of gadget acquisitions. Anyways, before that… PWC had their graduation rites in this month. I was invited by my bestie to attend the final practice and guess who I bumped into? I suppose many of you reading this will have that figured out already.
On the night of their graduation, I had a dream and suddenly all the crazy fever about my ex has stopped.
Also, in July I had the crazy idea to apply as a speaker for WordCamp Sydney 2024. Would my crazy pay off?

August 2024
In August 2024 I welcomed my iPhone 15 Pro Max (spoiler alert: it’s sold off already hahaha Update: December 20: I got a new one lol)
Guess what? I visited Cebu again. Again with Yannah. This time, it was for WordCamp Cebu 2024 where I was speaking at. This was the second WordCamp that I have ever talked at, after Iloilo 2023. That was pretty much the highlight of August.
Maybe we could add here, that I was hiring for a personal virtual assistant. I had some spare cash because I landed a high position job – which unfortunately didn’t last long. I am still working with the said VA and will continue to do so in 2025.

September 2024
I welcomed a Google Pixel 9 Pro XL and an M4 11” iPad Pro into my home.
Midway September Dan returned with some back up, in the form of Jevi, also from the WPUGPH community in Manila. I stayed at their AirBNB for a while and we all bonded really well, and before you know it, the Matina Enclave group chat was born. They visited Davao to promote WordCamp Asia. Well, Jevi was. Dan was more of a human timer. At Philippine Science where we held our workshop, I was responsible for two topics as well, which was extremely well received by the crowd.
I visited Malita, because I was invited to talk about reproductive health there, too. I judge a pageant, which ended up in some controversy because of the scoring (not my fault! Haha). I ended up in Digos, visiting a former agent of mine as well, checking in on how she is doing. She was more like an informant and ka-marites than anything else. So don’t put meaning behind it. Before I headed out to Cebu for my monthly visit, I was at Crocodile Park with Yannah and Andrea for a more laidback day. Also, my passport finally arrived!
So yeah, my trip was Davao – Manila first as I was invited to talk at the WordPress meetup in Manila. I brought my topic in preparation for WordCamp Sydney later in the year. And then I went to Cebu. In Cebu I met with my VA (I feel really bad because I don’t really have much in terms of tasks for her at the moment with all the traveling around and all the chaos going on in life). I also met Bebe, one of my old college friends in Manila. I’m glad that she is finally doing well in life and looking after herself.

October 2024
In October, my Pixel said byebye and got replaced by an Honor V2, which I am really happy with. I had more of the same domestic travels with my best friend, Yannah, and also some lunch outs with my mother. Mid October, I was invited for the monthly Cagayan de Oro WordPress meetup… and I ended up there for the 5th time of the year. Lol
Because I didn’t really like bussing home, I went back to Davao via CGY – MNL – DVO flights. I was also able to take pictures inside the cockpit of a Big Juan (A339) after the arrival in Davao on 5J977, iirc.
I got invited to talk the same topic at CCSA again. Yay.
I was able to hangout with one of my readers of my blog from way back then, which just felt surreal. After years and years of knowing each other online only, we finally had a dinner hahaha
And then, late October… it was time.
Time for my International Journey.
My mother was unfortunately offloaded for some reason, I will leave that with the German Embassy and the Philippine Immigration to sort those things out.
I started my journey from Davao with the final destination in mind being Sydney. I flew from Davao to Singapore with Scoot, had a 16 hour layover there, and went onward to Sydney at 2AM the following day.
In Singapore, I met up with a friend of mine. She was kind enough to show me around, and one place I really fancied was the Chinese Garden. I was really impressed by how organized and disciplined the people seemed in Singapore. The public transport was great. There were also Filipinos in every nook and cranny, literally, which was quite a sight for me.
I arrived in Sydney at 12:50 local time on TR2. By 2:00PM I was at Central Station and walked my way over to my accommodation in Sydney which was Backpackers on 790 George Street. I think I paid around 25,000 Philippine Pesos for a 6 day stay there.
The place was right there in front of the Haymarket tram, making it a really easy access for me to Circular Quay (The Opera House) and the Central Station for my travels during my time there. I think I will write about my Sydney experience separately.

November 2024
November started off with me still in Sydney and me talking at WordCamp Sydney 2024 which was held at the University of Technology Sydney. (UTS) on November 2 and 3. During my stay in Sydney, one of my very old high school friends invited me out for brunch where I met his fiancee. They are such a lovely couple. The WordCamp was a huge success, drama and all not withstanding. The community was pretty lovely, too. There’s supposedly WordCamp Brisbane happening next year, so I’ll definitely be back for that if schedules align.
I flew back on the evening of November 4 and arrived in Singapore early November 5. Thanks to my tour guide during my last layover, I was a bit more confident traveling around Singapore alone. I also returned to the Chinese Garden and worked there for a little bit.
My flight back to Davao wasn’t until 20 hours onward after my arrival in Singapore, so I had a whole day really to roam around the city. Back at the airport, thanks to Globe, I had access again to the lounge and even took a shower. I prepared for what was going to be quite a November 6 for me.
I departed Changi delayed at 3AM on November 6, and I was Davao bound. I would arrive at around 6AM. I went home to quickly swap out some of my things and took my pre-packed bag with me. Next stop, was the airport once more, and I made it just in time for my boarding to Cebu. In Cebu, I was able to have a quick breather, as we, that’s Mai and I, were set to depart for Hong Kong at 3PM. Yes. Basically in 3 flights, three different countries, all in a span of 12 hours. I am crazy.
Out of Singapore, Hong Kong, and Sydney, the international destination that I liked least was Hong Kong. It was just way too crowded for me and communicating with people there was a tad difficult because only few knew how to speak english. But Hong Kong will always have that magical memory of Disneyland.
The time spent in Hong Kong was great, even if storm signals ranging from 1-3 were hoisted throughout the visit. Which unfortunately meant that we were unable to ride the cable car. We had plenty of other fun though and I enjoyed navigating and charting the public transport route we would take to get where we wanted to go.
At any rate, I will add what’s happened in December once December is coming up! (Yay! I was able to finish my summary up to this point early on)
December 2024
December didn’t really turn out to be much, and it’s already the 23rd of the month. If anything, December turned out to be the most challenging for me in terms of my mental health. I just really struggled with basically everything. The situation at work, which is mostly out of my hands has been stressing me out. My finances have stressed me a little bit, too. But really, though. It’s been my brain that has been messing with me.
After all the adrenaline, especially of the last couple of months with the international travels… The daily routines started feeling a bit stale and mundane. I worry a lot about what the future holds and where I will end up in terms of a stable source of income. Not that my work right now is going anywhere, but I would like to take on more.
I haven’t figured out yet what I want for 2025, I suppose I will worry about that in the next couple of weeks. Looking back at what I wanted for 2024, I think I have managed to make most of the things I set out to do, except the fixing the situation at home with all of the things that my mother has accumulated throughout the years. We need to look into selling those things off.
In a nutshell, despite my brain telling me otherwise at the moment, I think 2024 was a fairly successful year. I gained some, I’ve lost some. I got by and live on towards the next year. I am thankful for all the people that have been part of my journey thus far and I look forward bringing many of the new connections I made in 2024 to my 2025 journey. Maybe I might even have someone I can call my girlfriend soon! We’ll see. 🙂
This year was a year of steady progress. I caught my international break at last and I just have to pile on and make sure that I will keep the hot streak going. In 2024, my greedy side has been realized and I had an episode of the worst side of me showing. I acknowledge that I was troublesome in Q4 of the year and I hope that my shift of mindset will course-correct all these things for the new year.
Weiter, immer weiter!
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