Why The Pause?

It's been a while since my last post...

Building this site was a goal for me for the past 5-10 years. As someone who basically eats for recreation (which is probably the worst trait to have) and literally travels for food, this felt like a good hobby. I've always looked up to fellow food-bloggers and v-loggers.

I am literally this Meme

Back in the beginning of 2020, I planned on launching this site, with my first trip to Singapore that January being the maiden post. I was traveling a bit more at work during that time so it would provide some material. By March of that year, I already traveled to 3 different locations, so I thought it would be a travel-heavy year. But, of course, the Pandemic happened.

Fast forward to late 2023. My brother and his wife were planning on a SouthEast Asia visit, with Singapore being on the list. They suggested I meet them up there. Initially, I wasn't going to go, but mid-2023, I signed up for the American Express Card and started playing the Points Game, as I always envied travel v-loggers flying Business Class for cheap, using credit card miles. Flying Singapore Airlines Business Class was a bucket-list I wanted to achieve while on this Earth, and to my surprise, the planets aligned where I was able to manage a Singapore Business Class flight using mostly credit card points, and during the time my brother and his wife were going to be in Singapore.

This site was finally launched, with the 2024 Singapore trip being the maiden blog. It's off to the races. Posts come out in a semi-regular basis as I find places to spotlight. For me, writing was a very slow struggle, but I am able to power through it.

So what happened?

So sometime last year, I was driving down Moreno Blvd., ready to turn into Linda Vista Road, and I saw J&T Thai and realized I hadn't had lunch yet. So I decide to stop there and have lunch. At the intersection, right before I was turning, I see a family (man and wife with two children), pushing a cart of possessions. A bit of a sad sight.

So I'm at J&T, I order and get my food, and sit in the corner table, facing the restaurant. The same family are there, and they are ordering food. The husband sits at a table across from me, and the rest of the family wait outside.

I've been here several times and realize this is probably a good place to feature on the blog. So my usual routine is to take pictures of the food, then also the restaurant itself, showing the interior, and menu (if it's posted on the wall). So I'm taking pictures of the interior, in the direction of the husband, without intentionally trying to take a picture of the man himself. In fact, I still make it a point to not point the camera at him but he is still somewhat line of sight. Then I take a picture of the other tables, where the rest of the family is seemingly in the line of sight too. I think nothing of it.

The man walks up in front of me, then looks in the direction of his family, who are still outside. When he did that I sorta suspected what he had an issue with. He asks in an accusing and paranoid voice "Are you trying to film my family?". I realized this could be an escalated situation. A viral video moment? It's hard to say.

I immediately tell him that I run a food blog and that I wasn't intentionally trying to film him or his family and I will delete the photos immediately, which I did. He didn't believe my intentions and starts mumbling belligerently and claimed bullshit and that I had nefarious intentions for "filming his family". He keeps rambling about his life and that he was trying to make it better. I can respect that. After a while, he cools down and sits back at his table.

He then walk back to me, pulls out his phone and angrily starts recording me. I try to keep a cool head, and I'm just praying that it doesn't escalate. I apologize for the misunderstanding, but he just isn't having it. After what felt like an eternity, his food was finally ready (and which was thankfully, to-go). He took the food and the family left the premises.

Trying to take a picture of the establishment and trying to asvoid faces

What I had that day. Pork Leg Stew. One of two pictures left.

After this incident, it took the wind out of my sails for this food blog. For a short while, I had a negative outlook of people/society because of that guy. It didn't last long, as I've come to realize that he is having a tough time at life, and it was just his way of dealing with things. I don't blame for being like that and I hope he and his family come across better fortunes. I think he was being both paranoid and/or ashamed that his family was going through the situation, and thought I was somehow exploiting it. I've been over it, but for some reason, my drive to keep going with the blog wasn't there for months.

I think other things were getting in the way of the blog, one being health in that I've been trying to eat more healthy, and running a food blog sometime isn't condusive to healthy eating. Live to eat, not eat to live. Also, writing has always been pretty time consuming for me. Hopefully it gets easier with practice, and most likely when i get back into the swing of things, it should get easier. For the past few months, I've been taking pictures at places I've been eating, with the intention getting back to my blog.

If you're reading this, I've finally pulled the trigger....again. I hope I can keep up with it this time and I provide entertainment value to the fellow Foodies. I've been peeking at the site stats once in a while, and it seems to still get a good amount of hits, so I seem to provide some entertainment. Thanks to those that expressed concerns when I did stop posting.

Thank you for sticking with me on this journey. As Filipino families say... "Eat... eat!"