FORWARD UNTO DAWN

Been doing a lot of picking up on the things that I left off or left unattended for the past few months, Honestly all the work is pilling up and its not pretty.

First of my agenda is to follow up my application form on Career ship management company which has been pending for quite some time now, Well I hope I don’t piss off Mr. Ho for reporting in late since I haven't shown my face for about two weeks now. Anyway that I'd be showing up my face in Career really soon and I had already cleaned up myself and will now wear proper clothing, as a matter of fact I bought a few formal clothes at the local mall just for it.

In other news …

Some of my comrades in SEACAP shipping have been in touch with me lately via face book. Alvin O. Dico is one of them, apparently from the chat I had with him in FB, It seems that SEACAP shipping have already gone to a few ships and based on what I heard its now down to 11 ships. I learned from Alvin Dico that he and his dad left the company because there's not much room left to accommodate all the sailors they have on their list. Apparently this leads me to the conclusion why some acquaintances of mine during my sailing years have been asking me on what ship I'm currently on . Namely A/B JONEE PAJARILLO LIRAZAN and CHIEF ENGINEER ROBINSON PACHICO RESPICIO have been asking me on what ship I'm currently on, I didn’t reply to their messages on the reality that I haven't been on board lately and have been doing something else. One of my acquaintances 3rd Mate MARK ALVIN DE LEON VALENZUELA (Now chief mate ) have also been in contact lately in FB and asked me why the hell I haven't took the license exam yet.

Anyway going back , based on the description of what Alvin Dico told me on what happened to our former employer. Most sailors there are now languishing long land vacation times because of the shortage of ships. This corroborates what my comrade in STOLT Strength said earlier in face book , Reagan Dillo described  that getting onboard a ship is a lot more complicated compared to a few years earlier.

Guess things are getting tougher to them , but to me I'm not bothered at all on that and SEACAPS business is no longer mine - ever since they cast me out I had severed all ties with them and no longer give a fuck on that company. Its no longer my concern, However I do care on my comrades who worked with me alongside in STOLT STRENGTH and BOW OPHELIA and express my worry on their situation. I hope their pretty much alright despite the shortage of ships.

Still I wonder if being a sailor is really worth it ? I had a dilemma, that I can "live on land" and had proven that there is more to live for than just working at sea. I already have the necessary skills on which I could live on land on a permanent basis and I could go off without heavily depending on the sailing profession economically. Honestly my work here on the land base is not bad at all and its not a "manual labor" compared to other sailors were most of them are in that category. As a matter of fact my work here is something close to a corporate office environment , very far from the typical Filipino seaman recruits were most of them came from "manual jobs" like tricycle drivers, security guards, store crew on the super mart and fast food chains, construction crew, etc. My background is very different and parallel to them and quite frankly the land based job skills that I have is enough to support me for the long run without ever depending on working overseas and at high seas.

Sadly to say, Although my skills and employment are Formidable in the land base, my Sea based Skills and employment are feeble and weak.

On Tuesday ……..

Went to Career ship management again to return the application form that was sent to me two weeks earlier to correct a few minor entries I made.

Disappointing, but this is the everyday scenario in looking for work in career

Got to pack my things and dressed up and went there as earlier as 9am just to get this finish early. Honestly I didn't mind the choking pollution and traffic in EDSA along the way and that I just want to get business done with effectively and fast. I want a closure on this Career thing as soon as possible (whether its favorable or not on my end) so I can reevaluate my next "destination" work. 

Apparently as usual I was horrified on what I saw there. The whole floor was littered with applicants and from what I saw there is  hundreds of applicants all waiting in line there looking for a job, When I was in Seacap Shipping a few years earlier there were only 10 people Max that are waiting in the waiting area, Compared to here every thing is horrifying on the number of applicants looking for a job .

To my surprise I was called early , no more than an hour and went there to one of the office doors, apparently It wasn't Mr. HO who was calling me and it was some guy named "Capt nido" or (nidori whatever) and I was mistaken to be a new applicant. Of course I knew how things will be going if they mistook me as an applicant and from what I observed they ALWAYS TURNDOWN A NEW APPLICANT, regardless of whatever you say to them , even if you say "You’re the Chosen one, The savoir and last best hope of mankind , blah blah !!" . Yes Filipino sailors are cruel and cold blooded - sad as it may seemed but it is true. Going back, Captain Nidoy (or midori, whichever the case) asked a few none relevant questions before saying that we don't need you here .

Bastard Cock sucker…..

I told him that my purpose wasn’t to apply there and that I was just returning my application form to Mr. HO. And I had already been to that scenario before and PASSED , Capt. Nidoy (or midori) was surprised when I told him this and immediately retracted his statement and said that I should wait for Mr. HO to call me to the queue.

Fast forward to 6.45 Pm , its already been more than 8 hours and my name hasn’t been called yet. I could only surmise that they are not interested at all. I left the career office and decided to go back by Thursday and call it off since I'm already weary and tired from all that waiting. I'd be back again by Thursday and see what will happen next.

On Thursday …..

the School were they train Facism and Militarism to filipino sailor -Ugh !!!

Changed tactics since my previous visit to career ship management last Tuesday was unsuccessful and was ill treated to wait for about roughly 10 hours for nothing ,which basically wasted my whole time waiting. Decided that I should arrive a bit late and in the afternoon,

As what I said I doesn’t matter if this agenda is successful or not , I just want a closure and I'm here to return back the application form sent to me by MR. Ho - Plain and simple , afterwards I could move on.

Went to Career shipping at 1:45 ,went to the comfort room and changed my trousers to a more formal one then afterwards I armed the spy pen just in case some unforeseen nasty event happens on the office , Basically I'm going to show proof on what kind of treatment will I received just incase a worst case scenario happens

At 2pm Career opened its doors on business hours and i passed the appointment slip. After 2 hours my name was called back again and this time I mentioned that my purpose now is to return the application form MR.HO sent back and immediately the person understood what I meant and I gave him my application form, every thing was in order. He said to me that I need to renew my Seaman's book and It's mandatory that documents should be at least 18 months valid before being accepted. I said to that person that its ok with me and I needed to renew my documents anyway.

Unfortunately to my surprise it seemed that Mr. HO is a bit distraught and said to me that I said something on the email to Capt. Betts which states the he's the one who's bogging down my progress. I guess on that part Mr. HO was part right that I did said something in an email to Capt. Betts about my situation, But I never expected that Capt. Betts would email back to Career office and mention Mr. Ho's name with it. Of course officially I denied it to Mr. HO's and dodged his statements just to avoid the heated attention, thought I admit it deep inside

Honestly I couldn’t help but giggle like a naughty school boy when I saw Mr. Ho's face saying those words , I guess Capt. Betts Scared the shit out of him. Oh by the way Mr. Ho added also that I'm a little weasel.

Anyway going back to the main agenda, this has now brought me two side quests. One is to get an NBI clearance certificate (more like law enforcement clearance) and Renew my Philippine Seaman's Book. Hope that I still have the enough resources to cover those mini quest now that I have all the time to devote to it and completion of those side quest is mandatory.