JOURNALS OF A FILIPINO SEAMAN

Waiting my dental check up and lab in the clinic Career Ship management doesn’t really want to waste time eh ?! , Cant imagine I am now being rushed by career to complete the necessary requirements as soon as possible and that they said according from what I heard on the medical department that I will be deployed soon.  Well I hope not that soon cause I still have a lot of administrative things to do. Anyway when I arrived , I immediately arrived to the medical booth to check and see what's the deal with the medical slip. I was informed to photocopy a few documents and go back and report to the reporting booth. Went outside since there's no photocopy machine inside career ship management . Photocopied my 1st and 2nd page of my Seaman's book along with the 1st page of my passport and SRC card (Seafarer's Registration Card). After the Photo copy I went and proceeded to the reporting booth and was told to go back in the medical booth. When I went I gave her my Yellow Fever...

The newly replaced MiniTablet Feeling so much better now that I got a new Kata Mini tablet. Now I can refit it again on all the data that got lost on my previous Kata Mini Tablet, Anyway the main purpose of this equipment acts as like a "rugged" tablet , for the get go. Inexpensive and could be used on harsh environment, The specs of this tablet I got isn't much to look at with only android 2.3 as an operating system and the graphics lacks the features compared to tablets that have Android 4.0. However what I do like about this device is that it’s more of cross between a PDA and a "PMP"  (portable media player) and its sheer portability and size which is very small. I get to use this device when I'm simply just browsing for my Face book account and twitter, checking emails, upcoming schedules, things to do and stuff, or watching a favourite movie while on the go. Mostly business related stuff, not the flashy bombastic graphics kind of thing. Anyway , After s...

Mr. Ho's office from afar, Boy id love to piss on his office and take a dump on his chair while I'm at it .   First off NBI was a bit difficult to get by and had to wake up 1am in the morning just to get it. Second Mini quest is getting my Seaman's book renewed on Marina , thankfully I didn’t have to wake up early , just have to wait a week before it got released. Tsk ! Few hours before I would go to Career , I took a recap and checked all the equipment (and stuff) that id had to bring, checked the Polo shirt , charged the Spy Pen Camera and triple checked the documents and such. I even had with me the motion sickness plastic bag in my backpack just incase. From this angle, Career isn't crowded as it was Also I had even had a haircut, Unfortunately to my dismay I look way better having a long hair than the standard 3x4 short hair imposed by Career Shipping. Had to deliberately make myself ugly on this hair cut just to get in and avoid attention from psychopath sailors. ...

Another Busy day for MARINA office in releasing SIRB'S As what was included on the receipt of my order for my seaman's book , I had to go back to marina office and claim it there on March 11th. As usual I prepared my usual things again for the visit in the old manila, quite frankly I'm always reluctant to go there given that the city is heavily polluted and had quite a number of times ended up going home having allergic fever by just visiting the place. Manila for me is a dusty old smelly city, with a lot of thugs and thieves . I only go there for business reasons - no more, no less. Living in Marikina is way better than manila. Anyway going back , I'm in not in rush this time to get my Seaman's book. Took the LRTA-2 train going to Recto manila and rode a jeep heading to Kalaw Street in Manila, and got off there. As usual Kalaw Street is still filled with hundreds of unemployed sailors hanging out in that area, doing the same usual stuff they always do. checking if ...

Ran across Captain Betts in Face book, and is asking on what happened on my situation. I told him  that everything is going fine though there is little progress made and they gave no such detail over what date will exactly I join, for now the only detail I could give Capt. Betts is that I'm currently renewing my Seaman's Book and that’s about it. He mentions something about "Dale", though I'm not exactly sure if this is a name of the ship or a name of the "joining port" Anyway I'd be reporting to career shipping as soon as I sort this seaman's book  first , and see what happens next. God !!! Really hate going back again and talk again to Mr. Ho . Monday March 04 2013  ….. Already done with the stuff I need to bring for the renewal of my Seaman's book , had with me NBI clearance (check) , My old BST certificate (check) , Old SIRB (check), Some passport size pictures (check) , and of course some money (TRIPLE check).  Had it all pack on my old ...

Things have been awfully quiet these past few days, Perhaps awfully quiet . In anyway I kept myself busy on catching up on a few things that I haven't attend to a long while, Mostly I just watched the shows that I haven't seen with for quite a while like Spartacus Season 3 and Walking Dead TV series just to kill time, I even read a few articles in Encarta encyclopedia for entertainment . To be honest I miss the situation where I just sit on the couch and watch the DVD or just sitting around and reading something, I had been so preoccupied that I never stopped by and "Smelled the Roses", guess I had a lot of time now 2:45 Am…..the following day Ahh the morning in the lane God ! I hate waking up early on the morning , but I had no choice - I had to haul off my ass and get it right. Honestly I don’t see the point why I had to wake up early in the morning just to get a queue number for the NBI clearance, in fact I find it ridiculous to be waking up in this hour and then w...