drinking – The Diary of The Deranged Writer

Song of the Moment CIII: Richard Sanderson’s “Reality”

Last Monday, while I was doing my Monday ritual at Satchmi, I heard this dreamy Beatles-like song. Because I was drained from all the writing/planning, and seeking temporary calm, I had to stop writing, stop drinking my favorite affogato, and then hear the lyrics.

Then, these words pull at my heartstrings because they remind me of a new friend:

Met you by surprise
I didn’t realize
That my life would change
Forever

At that moment, I had to pull out my phone, open the Shazam app, and place my phone near the cafe’s speaker like I was force-cloning a phone ala John Reese of Person of Interest.

After further research, I finally learned the title, the artist, and where the song was featured. It’s “Reality” by Richard Sanderson (which was composed by Vladimir Cosma for the 1980 French teenage romantic comedy film La Boum). Thanks to modern technology and to my favorite cafe for playing the song, I found a new favorite love song, a theme song about my new friend, and my Song of the Moment.

Richard Sanderson’s “Reality”.

This deserves a special Listen post, but for now, let me listen to it on repeat and just dream.

See you in the next post.

A part of 14 Days of The Deranged Writer (2025).

Header image: Dzenina Lukac of Pexels. Edited in Adobe Photoshop 2025.

10-Minute Warning CXC

What can I share in under ten minutes?

Firstly, I have been drinking (and enjoying) more hot tea than ever before. Maybe it’s because I enjoyed The Angel’s Cup (hot honey/citron/ginger tea) for a few weeks while I was sick. From liking both cold and hot/warm beverages to sticking with just cold drinks, now my mind and tongue are open again to drinking hot/warm drinks. Lovely. I just need to remind myself whenever I drink a hot/warm drink: sip it slowly and not chug it quickly like a madman.

What were the other teas I drank recently? Aside from The Angel’s Cup almost every day, I drank sencha green tea at a Japanese restaurant owned by one of our business clients last Thursday. When I learned that the restaurant serves sencha green tea, my preferred type of tea and the preferred drink of Harold Finch (a main character from my favorite show, Person of Interest, and one of my favorite characters of all time), I had to order one. I was the only one who drank hot tea that night, while the rest of my family had cold softdrinks and lemon iced tea. As for today, I also drank green tea while having a puto bumbong near the chapel.

I truly enjoy sipping on it and letting the tea warm my throat, stomach, and heart. I will definitely add it to my daily ritual moving forward. Coffee in the morning, tea in the afternoon: sweet.

I want to talk more about last Thursday because it was my Mother’s birthday, but my ten minutes are up. See you in the next post… and that will be tomorrow!

Header image: Luke Oslizlo of Unsplash. Edited in Adobe Photoshop 2025.

XXXVI: The Nocturnal’s Struggle of Waking Up Early / Notes to Self XVI

If you have been following The Diary lately, you should know that I’ve been making gradual changes in my life. One of those changes is waking up early for work—ideally at 8:00am. I did just that on most workdays after ToyCon 2025, and there were times I even woke up at 6:00am. (That’s a feat for a nocturnal person like me, and even my family is shocked by the fact that I woke up before they did.)

Now it’s beyond the middle of August 2025, and I admit that I haven’t really been waking up as early as 8am lately… and that’s fine.

(Buckle up because this is going to be a long post.)