JOURNALS OF A FILIPINO SEAMAN

Had to admit that things right now for me are getting difficult, So difficult that I'm starting to live on getting any scraps I could get my hands on. Anyway its no surprise for me on this difficult situation given that I will be spending my 4th month here in the Philippines, and by logical thinking any supplies that I had stored before I arrived here have already been exhausted. Come to think of it my supplies actually would go as far as for this month if I haven't gave more than half of my saving on shouldering expenses at the house, A terrible mistake that I'm learning now   because I should have at least left half of my savings to myself. Some people say that being selfless is not that bad , but apparently in reality it’s a lot more complicated and it was a bad idea for me to contribute as it dragged me down to being helpless,. (the third time for me to happen)   For the moment , there is no news yet on when will I be sent overseas and my phone line for the office ...

Finally got mom out of the hospital, but with a lot of consequences. As a result of the latest skirmish on the hospital , the "Phil Health" medical insurance is used up and can't be used again till next year and still have remaining debt of roughly 8,000 Philippine Peso (the latter being resolved by going to the social service worker). The medical bill overall on the period of hospitalization (14 days) was as high as 50,000 Php, it was reduced to 30,000 Php when an associate of my sister negotiated to cut down some of the expenses, the remaining expenses was resolved by the medical insurance and by the social worker (I mentioned earlier).   Speaking of which , I would like to write down that the social worker on a public hospital is not exactly that friendly and charitable. As a matter of fact they certainly don’t live up to their name (and the publics expectation). Now why the hell do am I writing this ?!   As I mentioned that despite the Phil Health medical insuran...

EVENTS HAPPENED ON JANUARY 25TH Being stuck in the hospital is a dragging situation for a week now and there is no sign yet that it will be over anytime soon. I guess being inside the hospital starting 10 pm till 12 noon the following day babysitting mom is stressful enough, More stressful in the sense is mom is not cooperating at all., As expected amang rodriguez hospital is doing nothing in treating their patients and just gave mom an oxygen tank bottle for her to breathe.   The whole hospital area is littered with patients , even on walking spaces - the patients are line-up outside in hospital beds , and on my perception the whole place looks like a 21st century makeshift bomb shelter hospital bunker like you see in the movies.   Another week came by and it was still the same, It was mentally and physically grueling being there , I only sleep roughly two hours each day and some of the days none at all. It was a blessing that I bring along my tablet PC on the hospital t...

Previously - word from Career Ship management has made work as a sailor to a grinding halt and the worst part is that they gave no definitive date on when will be this "floating status" to be over. From the looks of it , it won't be over for a while. NSB for now doesn’t guarantee that I'd be back there (or be back at all) once their cadetship program is over. With no assurance on when will I be back , it further pushes economic and financial strain on my house and soon I have to think or resort to ways to get some cash. I came up with a couple of plans , nothing solid for now and it will change depending on the situation. Nearest I could think of is to return back to the BPO , given that it only takes a small amount of money to get there compared to being a sailor . If it gets worse then it's possible that I have to look for work on a different shipping company altogether and ditch out Career Ship Management - and it will be easy for me given that my U.S. Visa ...

Never occurred to me that my sister would catch up and get me a new star bucks planner . In fact I thought that getting that darn planner would never materialize at all, hopefully my sister proved me wrong and on the morning of January 03 my sister came to my study tablet and gave me this small star bucks paper bag and inside it was the long waited (and highly desired) collectible star bucks planner 2016. My eyes lit up like wild fire the minute I saw what's inside the paper bag and got my hands on it. Of course I immediately posted on all my social media accounts that I got a new 2016 star bucks planner . Facebook , Twitter and even Instagram. This seems childish but it always brings me a smile on  each year to get this notebook, no matter how shitty or crappy year I had. So what's the difference of the new 2016 SB planner than last year, first off the new planner they issue is a bit of a setback compared to last year , with a much smaller space and a lot less paper inside it....