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Merie with the ‘e’ aka Sheng

@msheng12

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How I ticked off my 59th province. Oh, Romblon. Thanks for all the surprises 👌🏽🙌🏽

Ps. Posted as demanded. 🥲🤭🫣

Pps. Realized I almost didn’t make it to this trip?? taken in Romblon, Philippines by @msheng12

130

5

5 months ago

It’s a rainy hearts day, alone in our family home, two dogs currently beside me, a good cuppa coffee which I made, a couple of soft-boiled eggs I carefully timed season w salt, pepper and dried oregano leaves, w Goldilucks butter cake as my pastry which I bought at 15% off — and I actually prayed thank God, what a great morning!

I hear this song, Cass Elliot’s Make Your Own Kind of Music, and just makes this moment sweeter. This is a song released in the late 60s and I’ve been hearing since the earliest years of my life. It’s a great reminder most esp. the last chorus line. Sharing the lyrics and I pray that we gotta sing our own special songs even if nobody else sings along.

Happy ♥️s day to you regardless of any season you’re in.

—

Nobody can tell ya
There’s only one song worth singin’
They may try and sell ya
‘Cause it hangs them up to see someone like you

You’re gonna be knowin’
The loneliest kind of lonely
It may be rough goin’
Just to do your thing’s the hardest thing to do

But you’ve gotta
Make your own kind of music
Sing your own special song
Make your own kind of music
Even if nobody else sings along

#meriemusings #meriewanders taken in Ella, Sri Lanka by @msheng12

181

10

8 months ago

So this is how “let it be Q3” looks like?

Trips pushed last minute. Long overdue catching up. A spiral of emotions at work — i mean from the worst day, to stressful days, to lighter days, to planting mangroves to breaking a Guinness World Record. Mundane days with pretty things. Some days with delightful sunset views or simply talks (rants??) over sisig and sub-zeroes. Some days of great coffee, finishing reading books, pasta cravings satisfied. Then there are days of grief, too. Most days… meh.

Q3 peaked then plateaued. Then just letting things be.

Now Q4, what’s up. I was looking at my planner the other night and honestly I feel the usual pressure imposed by no one else but MYSELF. Pero sabi nga ng Jimmy Eat World:

𝘏𝘦𝘺, 𝘥𝘰𝘯’𝘵 𝘸𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧 𝘰𝘧𝘧 𝘺𝘦𝘵
𝘐𝘵’𝘴 𝘰𝘯𝘭𝘺 𝘪𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘥, 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭 𝘭𝘦𝘧𝘵 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘰𝘳 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘦𝘥 𝘥𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘰𝘯
𝘑𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘵𝘳𝘺 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘣𝘦𝘴𝘵, 𝘵𝘳𝘺 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘤𝘢𝘯
𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘥𝘰𝘯’𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘺 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘷𝘦𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶’𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘸𝘢𝘺
𝘐𝘵 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘦𝘴 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦
𝘓𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘭𝘦 𝘨𝘪𝘳𝘭, 𝘺𝘰𝘶’𝘳𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘪𝘥𝘥𝘭𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘪𝘥𝘦
𝘌𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘣𝘦 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘦
𝘌𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘣𝘦 𝘢𝘭𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵, 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵

Surrprise me, Q4.

#meriemusings by @msheng12

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10

12 days ago

Clips as proof: a successful attempt to break a Guinness world record!

It’s supposedly a Coffee and Pastry Crawl na naging selfie-around-BGC crawl haha! But this was sure fun! Our team of halong henerasyon were able to participate! Ended it with gelato, pizza and donuts!

So fun and glad to be part of this global activity.

#wemoveasone #ambitioUS #ittakesallofus #worldrecordchallenge @deutschebank taken in BGC, Taguig City by @msheng12

18

0

18 days ago

I woke up on a Friday, actually wrote on a paper but then moved to my laptop… Video and blabber posted on merie.substack.com.

𝐼 𝑑𝑜𝑛’𝑡 𝑘𝑛𝑜𝑤. 𝐼 𝑎𝑚 𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑙𝑚𝑒𝑑. 𝐼 𝑎𝑚 𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑢𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑑. 𝐵𝑢𝑡 𝑑𝑒𝑠𝑝𝑖𝑡𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡, 𝐼 𝑑𝑜𝑛’𝑡 𝑤𝑎𝑛𝑡 𝑡𝑜 𝑑𝑜 𝑛𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 — 𝐼 𝑤𝑎𝑛𝑡 𝑡𝑜 𝑑𝑜 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔?? 𝐵𝑢𝑡 𝐼 𝑑𝑜𝑛’𝑡 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑒𝑛𝑒𝑟𝑔𝑦. 𝐼 𝑡𝑦𝑝𝑒 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝐼 𝑡𝑦𝑝𝑒, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑦 𝑠𝑎𝑦 𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑛 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑤𝑟𝑖𝑡𝑒 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑠𝑒𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑠 𝑏𝑒𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑟, 𝑏𝑢𝑡 𝐼 𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑠𝑒𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑠 𝑏𝑙𝑢𝑟𝑟𝑦. 𝐷𝑒𝑐𝑎𝑑𝑒𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑙𝑖𝑓𝑒 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑛𝑜 𝑑𝑖𝑟𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝐼 𝑤𝑎𝑛𝑡 𝑡𝑜 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑐𝑟𝑒𝑡𝑒𝑙𝑦 𝑓𝑜𝑙𝑙𝑜𝑤.

𝐿𝑜𝑠𝑡. 𝐼 𝑚𝑒𝑎𝑛𝑡 — 𝑙𝑜𝑠𝑡?

𝑁𝑜. 𝑁𝑜𝑡 𝑙𝑜𝑠𝑡. 𝑀𝑎𝑦𝑏𝑒, 𝑗𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑡𝑎𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑚𝑦 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒. 𝐴𝑛𝑑 𝐼 𝑑𝑜𝑛’𝑡 𝑛𝑒𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑝𝑙𝑦 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑎𝑛𝑦𝑜𝑛𝑒’𝑠 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑒. 𝑇ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑖𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑦𝑒𝑎𝑟 𝐼 𝑗𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑙𝑒𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑠 𝑏𝑒. 𝑇ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑖𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑚𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝐼 𝑗𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑡𝑦𝑝𝑒. 𝑇ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑖𝑠 𝑖𝑡. 𝑇ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑖𝑠 𝑗𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑖𝑡. 𝐴𝑛𝑑 𝑖𝑡’𝑠 𝑓𝑖𝑛𝑒.

—

As a millennial, I’ve been in the LJ, Blogger, Xanga, Wordpress and Tumbler spaces name them all (I have a number of friends here online who I connect with deeply and until now!) We OVERSHARE. I link albums to my Multiply where every single thing is uploaded — yes even that most unflattering photo of myself. So this writing must not be something that feels foreign to me.

And then life happened. I stopped. Then I moved to writing newsletters sending them to emails. And then substack. But it was sporadic.

Last week, I had a reunion with the feeling writing evokes in me. Since when did everyone else’s opinion mattered? The internet used to be so kind. Honesty can be done in the nicest way. Maybe it’s that the interwebs got cruel. Everyone’s got an opinion and they will say it however they want, hiding in pseudonyms and photos that aren’t even them. Or maybe it’s just me hiding parts of me I no longer want people to see..

But anyway, here’s to writing more again.

#meriemusings #meriewanders by @msheng12

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15

25 days ago

Bale nagbook kami ng 2020 flight para makapagSriLanka. Hindi natuloy obviously. October last year pinush namin kahit 2oo3 lang kami. And it’s worth it. Walang direct flights. And moving around LK would need transits too. Second time but STILL. WORTH. IT.

We flew with Malaysia Air via KLIA fr Manila. Arriving in LK, from airport we stayed overnight in Negombo then transited to Palugaswewa. Matatawa ka kasi we missed the train kasi nahiya kami kay Tatay na nagwelcome samin ng mga 3AM sa airbnb niya 🤣 Hence the rough bus ride. We were starving so kain agad kami sa restau na masarap pero turns out to be basic na sa mga susunod na kakainin namin that entire trip.

Our accom sent us the ride that’s supposed to take us to 📍Minneriya National Park (PLEASE DONT SKIP THIS IF YOU GO) for the elephant gathering pero umuulan at binabaha ang national park. Instead, we went to Hurulu Eco Park, wala mang elephant gathering but seeing elephants in the wild never fall short of amazing.

Then back to Galkadawala Forest Lodge, one of my favorite airbnbs in the whole world!! Tapos we had the best dinner after a looooong tiring day of transits.

—
📍Sri Lanka
🗓️ October 2025

#meriewanders taken in Sri Lanka by @msheng12

15

2

a month ago

A day trip in Macau, a stay-in during the typhoon warning no.10 and finished reading a book, and just walking around on our last day:

- 📍Luk on Kui for the dimsum trolley experience w the locals
- 📍Hara Kako and had great cuppa
- 📍Loveramics just cos we were in HK na at ang layo ng Shang Mall sa ‘kin 😅
- 📍Sham Shui Po for a quick fabric hunt
- 📍Bakehouse for take home
- 📍Lan Fong Yuen for HK’s traditional stocking style milk tea

A full day itinerary lost but that’s when I got my money’s worth for the hotel 😅

Ps. Last HK reel and excited to move on to Sri Lanka reels 😅

#meriewanders by @msheng12

21

0

a month ago

Rainy HK Disneyland and Macau days snips.

📆July 2025

#meriewanders by @msheng12

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2

2 months ago

Manila and @hellohonne are so good together! Thank you for keeping us warm on a cold and rainy night!❤︎⁠

Happy 10 years!

God knows I needed this concert night that very weekday. I had prolly one of the worst moments but thanks for making the day a blast despite!! 🥹🥹 Thanks for reminding me that I’m gonna feel broken for a bit and it’s gonna be a little bit shit but I’ll find the strength when I’m weak.

And @bekaontoast I love looooooove listening to your voice and see you perform 🥹🥹🥹 keep blooming🌸

Xx
Merie taken in Philippine International Convention Center - PICC by @msheng12

17

2

2 months ago

Enjoyed my second time in Hong Kong chaperoning the niece who finally reunited with ate @jane.fajardoreyes 🥹🫶🏽 of course what better way to spend first two days:

- great coffee at Halfway Coffee and Detour both near our hotel
- Stayed at iclub hotel in Sheung Wan
- M+ was that something new I visited this time
- Ladies night market and Sneaker Street for a bit of shopping (yes on Day 1)
- Disneyland was sweeter this time because you get to see your niece’s face light up on a dream-come-true moment cos I was once there! ++ the castle’s upgraded, new Frozen-themed rides and their 20 year anniversary spectacular fireworks

I didn’t think I’d have a way better appreciation of HK but I really like it this time. I’d even go back still!

—
📍Hong Kong
📆July 2025

#meriewanders taken in Hong Kong , 香港 by @msheng12

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4

2 months ago

You know what this very rainy weekend reminds me of as well?? That one day I was stranded in a hotel room in HK because there was a strong typhoon (‘twas signal no.10 in theirs). So here’s first of the dumps of another sponty trip to HK to chaperone my niece. It was sweet and so much better, despite the typhoon, the second time around.

We stayed in Sheung Wan area. Got to visit M+ which wasn’t there my first time. Sipped on good coffee at Halfway Coffee right after we dropped off our stuff in the hotel. Enjoyed walking around this area and we’re so close to another good coffee shop, Detour which also saved me that stormy day.

📍Hong Kong
📆 July 2025

#meriewanders taken in Hong Kong , 香港 by @msheng12

56

0

2 months ago

Shanghai snaps 📸 and thank God for photography-passionate-and-savvy friend @jezreelfaith I got pretty and crisp photos from this trip!

📍Shanghai, China
📆 May 2025

—

Hard to trim down to 20 photos because I need to move on to my next backlog 🤣😅

#meriewanders taken in Shanghai, China by @msheng12

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2

2 months ago