Australian by blood, Filipino by choice, Jessica Leigh Shields has called Manila her home since a financial institution sent her to the Philippines at 23 on a 12-month-long assignment 14 years ago. She has since worked in shipping, logistics, banking, and medical technology. 

I met Jessica in a speakeasy about a decade ago and over a few rounds of Old Fashioned, we became instant friends. She thrives in the many contradictions of life. “We all contain more than one truth,” she says, to whom life “is a dance.” “I refuse to subscribe to a linear path of life. It’s neither about the beginning nor the end and its beauty is in the movement.  

Currently the vice president for international business operations for med-tech multinational DexCom, she divides her time between Manila and Madrid. Her personal mission is to bring more opportunities to the Philippines, in which she has found a greater passion to help improve people’s lives. Outside of work, Jessica is everything her heart is in, which finds great joy in art, design, anthropology, vintage jewelry, diving, and the outdoors. Sunday to her is “the ultimate luxury.”

What’s your idea of a perfect Sunday?

I travel so much for work, the ultimate luxury for me, is waking up at home, crisp white sheets, the sun shining, knowing my loved ones are nearby, no real plans and, depending on the events of the evening before, either coffee or Bloody Mary over brunch. 

Best word to describe Sunday

Reflective. Sundays are my day for organizing my mind. 

Book to recommend as a Sunday read

The Wisdom of Insecurity: A Message for an Age of Anxiety by Alan Watts. I must have read this book 10 times and gifted it countless more. 

Best Sunday companion 

The people you don’t have to perform around. I’ve been in Manila for 14 years now so I’ve been lucky enough to cultivate some amazing long-term friendships. Monique Madsen and I started a Sunday morning breakfast tradition years ago. It’s like therapy. In the afternoon, I invite my friends over to hang out on the couch, talk about our lives, dreams, aspirations, and projects while getting foot massages and drinking wine. I can make a mean Ottolenghi salad but I leave the cooking to the experts. Sundays at mine means wine and pizza. If only I could, I would invite Marilyn Monroe. Oh the questions you could ask that woman! She had curiosity and depth coupled with her unique access to some of the most important people at the most pivotal times in history.

What’s the most extravagant thing you can think of having or doing on a Sunday?

I have a habit of sometimes overcommitting and once agreed to go to three parties in three different countries on the same weekend. Bangkok Friday, Manila on Saturday, and Hong Kong for Sunday brunch… Monday always proved brutal but I would do it all again for the memories. 

Perfect topic for Sunday brunch

You know those Sundays where you get together with the friends from the night before and every sentence starts with ‘Do you remember when…’ ‘how great was…’—the ones that make you laugh till you cry.

Best movie

As a child, Sunday dinner at home with my family is always followed by anything David Attenborough. My father is a naturalist who would insist on a post-dinner documentary, usually something on African wildlife. Those Sunday evenings with my family are some of my most precious memories. 

Quote about Sundays that’s made for you

“When we change the way we look at things, the things we look at change,” originally attributed to German physicist and quantum physics founder Max Planck. I make a point of spending Sundays reflecting on this. 

What does “wear your Sunday best” mean to you? 

Relaxed, feminine, and demure. I spend half my time in Europe and I’m so influenced by the Italian summer dresses that dance in the wind, floral prints, and ’40s and ’50 s silhouettes. 

If you were to write a book about the Sundays in your life, what would be the title?

It Was Worth the Memories 

Best Sunday ever

Waking up at the beach. Something special about the sound of waves crashing and the smell of saltwater and sampaguita in the air. My dream is to have a place by the ocean, where I can welcome friends for long weekends by the pool. In Madrid, it’s usually Sunday afternoons at a terrace at Retiro Park after a lazy, long lunch. 

Worst Sunday ever

There have been more than a few Sunday mornings spent at an emergency room or with a life-changingly bad hangover. Otherwise, it would have been the Sunday I had to perform euthanasia on my 14-year-old dog Jack. 

If Sundays were a flavor, what would it be?

It has to be pizza, or Sunday roasts at home in Australia, but I can recall the smell of a person’s perfume, the detergent they use, a flower grown in someone’s garden… so I’d rather say what Sunday smells like—cypress, cedar, vetiver, Madagascan vanilla bean, or tomato leaves. Over the past few years, I’ve become obsessed with Mackey Fahs’ candle collection. It smells like a warm embrace. I love that you can refill the vessels and the support it gives MovEds’ early childhood education program. 

Where in the world would you like to be next Sunday, if you could just go there by magic? Flower Island, El Nido. I was in two minds about writing this as I almost don’t want people to know how magical it is.