Almost two weeks after buying the tools and materials for my leathercraft project, here is how it looks now:
Halfway done with my project: (clockwise) front of the bag, back of the bag with two D-rings and a triangle one, front top handle, back top handle
Yes, that is a “White Chicks” reference. After the fiasco from the store I visited yesterday, I finally got around dropping by the other leather supplies shop I have been keeping tab for a long time. I had a doctor’s appointment again and after it was confirmed that I still have a mild dextroscoliosis, I walked all the way to the store. I thought that I was already ready to work from scratch.
Yesterday, I had a little saddle stitch practice with a thrifted leather belt, and I eventually got the technique. Although I’ve read Al Stohlman’s instructions several times, I still accidentally pierce my thread while pulling the second needle. It usually happens when I haven’t waxed the thread enough, or I was just not paying close attention to how I pull the first thread. By-the-book instruction mentions I should redo the stitch when it happens, but being the stubborn person that I was, I just cut the fiber and I end up with jagged thread on some parts. Here is how it looked from the pre-pierced belt:
Saddle stitch practice on a leather belt
The back of the belt. It does not look that bad, non?
Marikina Clock Tower
Not so long ago, I wrote about a project I wanted to embark upon. But who am I kidding? It happened more than two years ago as I even wrote about it after I finished with my comprehensive examinations. I worked from home today because I had a follow-up medical check-up with my doctor in Marikina. I thought that I might as well drop by the leather supplies stores again since I was already in the area.
(Sorry for the bad quality photos, as I have mistakenly left my digital camera in the apartment. I had also forgotten my HMO card and it was almost a disaster. Good thing I have my account number listed on my phone.)
That’s one big patent footwear — a shoe automobile!
Serving Android No. 17 realness
My friend Ikle is back in the Philippines for a very short stay to get some things done (well, quite literally). He has to go back to China this Saturday, but he had to drop by our apartment in Makati to have lunch with me as we won’t be seeing each other until Christmas. The other day, he told me that he was in a salon to finally get his hair back to its original color. I can’t remember when was the last time his hair was black, but when I graduated in 2007, his hair had always been non-black It was a very nice transformation as the hair looked healthier than before. However, we must immediately recognize that the color and style was a dead ringer of a 90s Japanese anime villain. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you, Android No. 17:
I initially thought of Rihanna’s hairstyle circa 2007 (i.e. Umbrella era), but we nevertheless had a good laugh over the creamy garlic pasta with chicken that I prepared (Mon was out when Ikle arrived). Our chat got cut short, though, because he had a 1:00 PM doctor’s appointment somewhere in Makati. We then took a photo using his phone, as a souvenir until we see each other again about a month from now. However, I laughed so hard being unable to recognize myself with the filter he had used. A lot of Chinese people were apparently a bit heavy-handed with these apps that made them, well, look like a walking Photoshop’s Blur function. Observe the difference:
Before. I think this one has a light filter to begin with. My skin does not look remotely pore-free like that. (On a different note, notice that we already have our miniature Christmas tree behind? ^_^)
Bye-bye Faye’s place
Our Saturday was not a slow day to begin with. I did not return home in Marikina because Mon and I were to finally fix our belongings before the following day’s move in. We were also to help Faye move to her new place the same afternoon. She also reminded us of today’s itinerary and then some more: she asked us if we were available to watch 2NE1’s concert the night after if Charm would be able to hustle in some tickets. BUT OF COURSE! There was no assurance but we already claimed that we would be going. We have packed all of our clothes, except for two cotton shirts (because I needed an extra one in case I get drenched in sweat), a pair of pants and my trusted Red Wings.
More than a month ago, I finally took my DELF B2. I was not too sure if I was prepared enough for the higher DALF C1 and I had a lot of lingering self doubts. It has been more than a decade since I have last taken an objective-type French examination, and any type of certification won’t definitely come off as a walk in the park. So on that deadline for registering for the exam, I made a last minute decision to take it. I barely had two weeks to prepare myself for the 4-part exam, and I feverishly downloaded the book “Réussir le DELF B2“.
Honestly, I almost kicked myself for not deciding on this much earlier. I would have had more time to prepare but I could no longer wait for the next test schedule in May 2014. It was definitely now or never. I needed to get this exam over with and to stop stalling.
So from Sunday until Tuesday before the exam, I was just locked up in our apartment, trying to wrap my head around the amount of work I needed to do. From listening and writing comprehension, to written and oral production, I was very determined to jot down as many pointers as my shaking hands would allow me. I also had a stash of bread, junk food and four bottles of my ever-trusted Cobra Ginkgo Biloba. I cannot NOT pass the exam because it would be really humiliating if I were to fail.
What I love most about my new workplace: lunch! Everyday, at around 11:00 AM, someone from the carinderia in front of our “building” will go upstairs and pass around a sheet of paper with the day’s menu written on it. At first, I did not know that payment can be done at the end of the week as I reached out for my wallet last Monday. It turned out that we can opt to pay at the end of the week or even at the end of the month. When I was given my receipt today, I was so surprised to see that the total was just Php 285! That was almost the price of our dinner for two days in Makati.
Mon brought home a couple of acrylic paints and blank canvases when he went home last Wednesday, and he had painted two colorful bunch of swirls, which I put on top of that mirror for the obligatory pop of color on the walls.
Who would have thought that acquiring appliances, whether free or paid, can end up being a total headache. And our unfortunate experiences were not even limited to a single appliance store. Following an email sent to us by the organizers, Mon and I went with a couple of officemates to Abenson’s Avant to claim our prizes. We took our dinner break as the perfect time to claim them, as we thought that it won’t take that long just to retrieve already-reserved items. We were absolutely mistaken.
We got there just fine, but we were made to wait for almost two hours. My rice cooker was nowhere in sight, as well as Mon’s oven toaster. The staff who attended us gave Mon his digital camera. It was not the exact model indicated by the organizers, and the lady took the liberty of choosing a supposedly better than the intended model, with the same price. (We just found out when we got back in the office that she gave a lower model and it was actually cheaper as well. Tsk tsk.) There were also missing sandwich makers and blenders. LOL We knew that we did not even pay for them, but it was just unimaginable that an appliance store located in one of the prime locations in Metro Manila, would be so lacking in quality service. Those of us who got their prizes on the spot, still had to wait for thirty minutes, and had to sign receipts after another (e.g. Jenny signed five receipts, even if she were only claiming two items). For the unfortunate ones, we were promised that they will deliver our items in the office, just to compensate with the bad service.
It did not stop there, though. When Mama visited us last Tuesday in Makati, she went with us to Anson’s – Makati (the one across from Landmark) to buy our personal refrigerator. We just needed a small one because of our limited space, and we had our eyes on a Sanyo model because I have measured its designated space, and it would fit inside, with only about an inch on both sides.
We did not test the refrigerator in the store, but we immediately did so once we got back in the apartment. We followed the directions in the manual for the first usage instructions and it worked properly, with the freezer having a thin layer of frost within the twenty minutes. But as we had to go home in our respective houses the same night after work, there was no use keeping the refrigerator on as it does not have anything inside.
Fast forward to going home after Wednesday’s shift, I was excited to plug the refrigerator again, hoping to drink a cold glass of water for a change, because we have been drinking not-so-cold ones for a couple of days already. I even put water in the ice cube maker, hoping to try its freezing power. So imagine my shock when Mon woke me up the following morning and informed me that the freezer did not freeze at all. In fact, there was not even the slightest trace of coldness inside. I still haven’t taken my first cup of coffee but the alarming news was a jolt better than that.
I left the manual in the office, so I just called Anson’s customer service from what I searched online. Nothing happened with that call, so I just went back to their store and personally complain about a defective unit. What puzzled me was that I was informed that their procedure for cases like this would be to wait for their home service team to personally inspect and ‘repair’ the item in our apartment, and after looking at it, replace it with a new unit. I did not bother contesting this development, but I was not too happy with the schedule being on Monday as I will be starting my new job that day.
I got in the office, talked to Faye and she gave sense in me that Anson’s reason was, well, irrational. Had I bought a microwave oven and found out two days after that it was a defective unit, I can carry the unit back to the store and ask for an outright replacement. Why can’t the same thing be true for a refrigerator? Sure it was bulkier than a microwave, but our defective unit clearly deserved an outright replacement as well. So after placing a call back to the store, I was informed that I can actually bring the unit back and they will replace it. Why haven’t they told me of the same thing when I was physically there two hours ago. >_<
So after all that happened, the refrigerator got replaced and the freezer was already frosting in the first three minutes. I am admittedly not too happy with these unfortunate experiences with both Anson’s and Abenson’s, and I am not looking forward to buying anything from them in the near future. If only there was a Western store in the area, I could have bought our refrigerator from them, especially they are known to give out freebies. LOL
It was our first night to sleep in our apartment after having bought the sofa bed last Tuesday. As we had to be at the meeting place by 6:30 AM, we woke up at quarter to six because we still had to fix the clothes we had to bring. I had no difficulty sleeping in our new apartment, and I normally have a hard time sleeping in an unfamiliar place. I consider that as a good sign, then.
A lot of people who registered and agreed to attend bailed out at the last minute and I was really happy to hear that. It means less people to deal with (i.e. the unbearable noise), and I was looking forward to a relaxing day. Plus, as there were about 50 absentees, it meant that we had more chances of winning cool prizes from the raffle. Again, I do not have the biggest luck in games of luck, but as there were 100 plus prizes for less than a hundred participants, I highly doubt I wouldn’t be picked even once!
After an uneventful hour and a half ride (though it was fun because I was with my friends/officemates with me, having a laugh over the silliest things), we finally arrived in Club Balai Isabel, a resort located at the edge of Taal Lake in Talisay Batangas. The last time I was near the waters was in 2004 (February 15, 2004, to be exact) during a field trip for our Geology 1 class. And as far as I can remember, it was my first ever banca ride and it was a really scary experience, seeing the kelp (or whatever you call them) swaying in the dark waters below. Rumor has it that that “Shake, Rattle and Roll” film, with the infamous undin, was shot in Taal Lake. I took that fact to heart, so even if I am a capable swimmer, I was (or am) still scared of the lake.
That was the time I became aware that the famous view of Taal Volcano was not the real crater. “Binintian Malaki” and its dormant crater is the face of Taal, but the real crater was located somewhere else in the near middle of the Crater Island. I actually got to go inside the real crater and we were even allowed to bathe inside. Of course, I did not but I remember a courageous lady from another section, who willingly took the plunge in her cut-out swimsuit (to the delight of the boys in the group). It was nevertheless nice to be back in a familiar place after almost a decade.
On a different note, it has been quite a while since Mon and I joined a team outing. The last time was unfortunate because Mon has acquired amoebiasis from Clearwater in Clark, Pampanga and we vowed to never join any of the future outings. But as we were in desperate need of kitchen and household appliances for our new apartment, we were eager to join so that we no longer have to buy some of them. LOL Again, given that there were far fewer people who attended, the succeeding events were a breeze, with only two games to boot. A far cry from the HOURS of games conducted before. Sporadic raffles in between eventually brought us three things: an oven toaster, a rice cooker and a digital camera! It was my first time to win a raffle!
Club Balai Isabel was a nice place, but we had high hopes with the food because when we were still in Makati earleir, Mon and I spoked with a random guy in the elevator, commending thir food and service. So imagine that come lunch time, the roast beef was like rubber, the pork still had a lot of hair on the skin, and the soup was a macaroni short of being a macaroni soup. It was really unappetizing and it did not help that when we were about to be served snacks at around 3:00 PM, we saw that the delivery truck had accidentally dropped the trays of sandwiches on the lawn. I did not bother eating a sandwich, because it was a station away from being a soil-wich (corny, LOL).
However, make no mistake because the environment itself was beautiful. There were a lot of fruit-bearing trees, but the signboards were very explicit in warning us with bold “NO PICKING OF FRUITS”. What do they dowith them? We had no idea because the ground was littered with overripe fruits. What a pity. =(
As we were given a lot of free time to roam around the area, we had to visit the lakeside and see the bigger pool. There were few people swimming but I assume it would have been full if only the other company were done with their teambuilding activities. It was difficult to get a closer shot of the ‘volcano’ because my camera was not skilled enough, all of us had a great time taking pictures, particularly jump shots under the sun.
We also had a dip in the smaller but nearest pool to us, and I think we were inside for more than an hour. An officemate unfortunately had a mishap as she stopped swimming in the middle of the pool, not knowing that it was the deeper part. It was scary and funny at the same time because Mon and I had to rush and help her get out of the water. I knew that she would drag me in the matter, had I tried swimming to get her, so I just went below her and walked her to the gutter.
Before leaving, somebody made us fill papers for a raffle, and it was for a free stay in their place for some days and nights. As it was a raflle, I definitely have a small chance. It was a free trip so I should not be complaining, but the food was really a letdown. I even heard that they are charging about a thousand pesos for a sinigang dish in the executive restaurant, yikes! We also highly doubt that they have prepared food enough for about a hundred people. If none were absent and backed out at the last minute, alas, we needed a miracle to have enough food for all os us. =D
*(Some photos were grabbed from Faye and Dale) =D