Day 345: Yikes!!!

After last night's heavy rainfall, this was the sight that appeared right outside our front door...can you guess what it is?  This piece of snake skin was left on our front porch terrace and the minute I saw it, I couldn't bear stepping a foot out our door. If there's any creature I'm really wary of, it's any kind of reptile. The mere sight of them makes the hairs on my skin stand up. 

I had to call our handy man over this morning just to check around the terrace just in case, the snake was still lurking or hiding in our stuff. Fortunately, the skin was the only sign of its presence. Our handy man said that it was the remnant of a Philippine cobra and upon checking at Wikipedia, Naja philippinensis is a highly venomous snake native to the Philippines. A bite victim usually has only about an hour to get anti-venom treatment before death occurs.

Just by merely looking at the photo above sends chills down my spine...scary!!!

Day 206: Fullhouse at Breakfast

It was almost "standing room only" at BCBP joint breakfast yesterday as Bro. Noel and Sis. Dina Mercado took to the stage for their life sharing. The combined wit and comic relief style of Bro. Noel and the calm and relaxing manner of Sis. Dina brought together a powerful sharing that had me laughing and crying at the same time. Their journey was full of life-changing and life-challenging twists and turns that can only bring about inspiration and hope for people like me who are given the opportunity to listen. 

Day 169: My First Online Purchase

These lovely pair of wedge shoes arrived today! They were ordered and paid for 4 days before. It was my very first domestic online purchase.

For sometime now, I'd been curious about all these online sellers sprouting here and there on Facebook and Multiply. I've really toned down in my shopping habits ever since I got married so I seldom make fashion purchases for myself. This was until I came across pictures of these wedge shoes on Facebook. I've been scouting for a pair for months now but I couldn't find a lovely pair with a reasonable price tag. Even though online shopping seemed an unorthodox way to obtain what I wanted, I bit the bullet and tried if it was a process I could really trust. 

Well, the online seller was very accommodating and always answered my inquiries promptly. She also posted pictures of her sold goods ready to be shipped out and identified herself with personal photos too. Hey payment option was convenient too as it was through the payment facility of my mobile phone. How cool was that? And so as soon as I made the payment, she confirmed receipt and told me to expect the shoes in 3-4 days. In fact, a day after I sent payment, I saw a picture of my parcel on her profile. 

Suffice to say, I'm one happy online customer and I can see myself doing more shopping this way from now on. Of course, there are also horror stories of bogus sellers lurking all over the world wide web so utmost care should be observed when doing this kind of transactions. Here are some tips to note:

1. Make sure the seller identifies herself well on her profile page by exposing her working email address, mobile number and/or landline number.
2. Look for pictures of the seller so you can match her shop name with a face. If you can't find a photo of the seller on her page, that's a red flag.
3. Search through her archives for proofs of sale or shipment: photos of courier receipts, packed goods ready for shipment, etc.
4. Take time to skim through comments from other shoppers or buyers on her page and look for positive feedback. If you find none, that's a red flag too.
5. Do contact your seller through PM, email and mobile phone to be sure she responds quickly to your queries. Another check I made was through the mobile phone payment facility I opted for. I found my seller's full name tagged to her mobile phone number.

These are just a few reminders to make your online shopping experience both safe and exciting. HAPPY SHOPPING!!!

Day 168: Bureaucracy

The girls and I accompanied hubby to the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) this morning to get a copy of his clearance. A process that should normally take about an hour to two tops turned into nearly a whole day affair. We were there before 8:00 am and a significant crowd already awaited us. Instead of letting each applicant go through the entire process at once (from application, payment, photo capture, finger printing to releasing), the government agency did each step in batches of 10. After application and filling up of forms, 10 people were asked to line up to go up the stairs and pay the cashier then back down to wait. This happened for about 6 or 7 batches. It was already past 10:00 am and hubby's name hasn't been called yet for photo capture! What the?!?! And when new faces were being called, we suspected they skipped the order that the batches were initially called. It was a hot day and the girls were already getting cranky so hubby said we should just go him and leave him there to finish everything. 

At around half past 11:00, hubby arrived home frustrated because he was told to just go back after lunch as it was already nearing lunch break. At that point, he still hasn't had his photo taken. Four hours of waiting? That ain't cute! He went back around 1:30 in the afternoon and finally came home with his clearance on hand shortly before 4:00. That's a total of more than 6 hours in a day wasted in useless waiting. Had the agency taken a one person, one sweep of the process approach, it would probably make the waiting time way shorter and would not leave the applicants exhausted from going up and down the stairs 3x throughout the entire process. Imagine, each person had to wait after each small process when it could easily just be a one-time waiting when he's done with the entire process.

Most of the people who were there were probably first time applicants seeking employment and others just sneaking out from school or work to get their clearance. All of them ended up spending most of their day waiting and probably suffered income loss or absence from school. What should only take a small fraction of time during a person's lunch hour took a day. Now, there's something seriously wrong with how NBI-CARAGA is doing its clearance process. I hope its management realizes this problem and be able to do the necessary steps in improving how they do things to better serve the public.

Day 22: Love, seasoned by time...

I was searching through my hard drive for photos and I chanced upon these two here...
The larger photo was taken last March 2009 during my birthday our anniversary (the two occasions are 2 days apart, hence the slight confusion) and the smaller one was maybe circa 2003 or 2004.

Although you could see very similar faces (alright, give or take 5 lbs...), the more recent one shows so much more character. Maybe we were more innocent when we were younger? Or we didn't know as much?  And of course, the experiences were much different.

Ours is a love that has withstood the harshest of weather and continues to grow and evolve at present...much like the dishes I concoct in my kitchen, we've been seasoned so ever gently by time.