(21st in a series)
Carmela Almonte, Singapore-based OFW, producer at Applebox Asia
About a week after Singapore announced that nonessential personnel should work from home, my fellow Pinay housemates, Sheila and Henree, and I decided to wear makeup and non-pambahay clothes for a change. That set off the idea of having a dress-up theme while we do home office.
We invited our Pinay OFW (overseas Filipino worker) friends in Singapore to join in, as well as our former housemate, Cathy, who is now based in Bangkok. The very first official theme was “West End Wednesday,” inspired by the free streaming of Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals.
Sheila, a copywriter, coined #WorkFromHomies, and we came up with an alliterative title for each theme: “Boho Biernes,” “Hawaiian Huwebes,” “Maong Monday,” etc.
By the third theme, people would start asking us what we were dressing up as next. Friends told us they had begun looking forward to our posts, which they found entertaining. That motivated us to continue with the themes.
It was never really about fashion, but something fun that we could look forward to and share with friends. Pretty soon, friends started sending out their own interpretations of our themes. The last one we did had the highest number of participants with 10 from Manila, Bangkok and Singapore. —Anne A. Jambora
