A reporter's day (Part 1)

- Woke up around 9am on Monday, August 17.
- Out of habit, I arranged the bed and endorsed to my mom my youngest daughter's preparation for kindergarten class.
- Checked day’s schedule, sipped coffee, and took a bath.
- Asked my brother-in-law to drive the kids to school as it started to rain by 10am
- Gave money to my eldest daughter for their travel home from school (P30/$0.60)
- Took a jeep from UP Diliman to Philcoa (P7/$0.15) and from Philcoa to Heart Center at East Avenue (P7/$0.15). Walked to Sulo Hotel to cover a press conference on slain social welfare attaché to Malaysia Fernand G. Cabilao. I declined the offer to have lunch.
- I took a jeep back to Philcoa (P7/$0.15) and bought lunch (P97/$1.98).
- It was already raining when I took a jeep to EDSA (P7/$0.15) and bought extra rice (P8/$0.16) and cigarettes (P12/$0.24) at a store near our work base at Mo. Ignacia Avenue.
- Climbed up the stairs to the office at the second floor, took out my lunch and things from my black mailman's bag, and booted up the laptop on the desk. I brought down the used cups, took a bottle of water from the fridge and went up again.
- I began to eat a lunch of rice and fried and steamed pork dumplings while reading the news online.
- First on the list is, of course, the website of the newspaper I work for. After that, I checked the websites of other news agencies and read until I finished my lunch.
- I plugged in the thermos, cleaned up the table, and brought the utensils down to the kitchen.
- I climbed the stairs again, opened my reporter’s notebook, and checked my schedule, ticking off the “done” items.
- Called up and sent SMS and email to sources for two stories: one on gaming and another on a tile manufacturer.
- Logged on to the Securities and Exchange Commission website to search records on Call Design. The Australian company's PR invited me to cover their event Tuesday. I jotted down the data, built an outline for my story and wrote the questions I plan to ask executives.
- Called up the files in my archive of stories to see if I have written a story on ExcelAsia, a company that also asked my paper for coverage of its event also Tuesday.
- After working for three hours on these stories and how I’ll cover the events, the desk called and told me to go instead to the Ramon Magsaysay Awards Foundation press conference the next day.
- I dropped my research on the companies and began gathering data on this new story.
(continued...)