SO today I turn 60 for the second time, still with nothing much to complain about. Like many folks my age I have a bevy of maintenance medicines to swallow daily, six in the morning and three again in the evening; but they seem to be working well. I also seem to hear and feel the squeaks from my joints more and more and take extra precautions in getting up from wherever I’ve been sitting (or lying down) for quite some time.
While my ears are generally fine, my eyes are showing their age as well. What was a 20/20 vision for the longest time is now 25/20 (or is it 20/25?). It has slowed down my consumption of reading material, but that’s why there are glasses that I now use more often, after over 50 years of not needing spectacles.
My health, otherwise, is okay; during my recent executive check-up at St. Luke’s BGC, I even bettered my previous year’s stress test level. So, who am I to complain?
‘I’m happy at 60 for the second time, and all I feel is gratefulness for everyone who has become part of my life journey!’
In the matter of work in the work-life balance, I have an even greater reason not to complain. I am blessed with being able to work at a company I can be proud of, working side by side with a cast of characters that work exciting, sometimes demanding, and always fun. In the last two-plus years I’ve been given more responsibility, particularly for Sustainability/ESG and Risk Management, but because I have capable associates doing the nitty-gritty work I am able to sleep soundly at night but don’t tell my bosses.
And while the nickel industry (like my love life) has its wild swings depending on global (read: China) market conditions, because our bosses are investing heavily in renewable energy, we are slowly getting to the point that our overall business model of mining+RE becomes more stable, with profitability and growth becoming more predictable over time. In business, predictability is good but profitability and growth over time is even better.
Nickel Asia has been good to me, and I am grateful that in 2012 Sen. Alan Cayetano and Greg Garcia were able to convince then-NAC chair Manny Zamora and NAC president Jerry Brimo to take me in after I left Coca-Cola. That was 11 years ago, and I haven’t been fired yet.
As for life, what else can I say? Of course, I miss having my parents around, especially now that I have some means with which has helped them enjoy life the way they never got to. But my mother died in 1993 long before I was “stable” financially — in fact, to pay for her medical (she was in and out of the ICU for 12 days) and funeral expenses I had to turn to my then-boss, Enrique Zobel, who made P200,000 available, interest-free, for a year. I had more opportunities to treat my dad to the finer things, like traveling business class across the Pacific, for example, but even he and I didn’t have much time together. This is why I feel deep envy towards and joy for friends who still have the chance to enjoy life with their parents.
This year, I was able to meet up with my brothers, sister-in-law, and niece in Hawaii, and meet up with maternal cousins as well, and that was refreshing. My brothers left the Philippines in the early 1990s and so we have spent as much time apart now as we have living together. The early days of the pandemic left me fearing the prospects of never seeing them again, made worse when I fell critically ill to COVID. Thankfully, we had a chance to meet up and reconnect, timed with our dad’s birthday (which was also the death anniversary of our mother). Now for Christmas, they’re meeting up in Toronto, but I’d rather go to Hong Kong. A few years back they celebrated Christmas in freezing Montreal, while I opted to enjoy the attractions of Bali. I’m not a wintry wonderland type of person, you see. But wherever they are so am I (in spirit!).
As for love life, well, as mentioned above, I’ve had my rollercoaster rides but will skip the details lest I get some people (or myself!) in trouble. For over a year now, though, I’ve struck up a friendship with someone young enough to be a grandson – as we have a 37-year age gap (Vic Sotto, move aside). I am keenly aware of the challenges such an age gap brings though thankfully we both don’t feel it in our day-to-day lives, except when people like that shop owner in Bangkok make comments like, “You allow your son to vape?” Having someone from a generation so different from mine, with a background so different from mine as well, has been an eye-opener in many ways and I just hope and pray that when all is said and done my friend will look back and understand and appreciate why the Fates made our paths cross at a certain point in our lives.
As I write this, I am in my room in my favorite hotel in Singapore staring out the window and looking down on Bugis Junction. I am here because on Tuesday the company I work for, Nickel Asia Corporation or NAC, will receive recognition from Asiamoney as the Philippines’s “most outstanding company” in the materials sector. Our President and CEO, Dennis Zamora, our VP for Treasury, Investor Relations and Sales Andre Mikael Dy, and Karl Ocampo, our communications manager, are also here for that occasion. It’s actually the second time we are “volting in “together to receive an award for NAC as the four of us also traveled to Hong Kong in June for the FinanceAsia award for the company. So, while Saturday and Sunday were days of rest (and a chance to catch up with Gerard and Krista Fernandez-Francisco and their sons Kodi and Aben) it’s work today and tomorrow before it’s back to the reality of volcanic smog, monsoon rains, and floods in Manila.
And the inefficiencies at our airport, which may very well be the only matters I often complain about these days!
I’m happy at 60 for the second time, and all I feel is gratefulness for everyone who has become part of my life journey!
