Took
advantage of the said holiday break to reinforce my finances and ask for help,
four days of waiting is a long time especially if I'm expecting Financial help
in order to proceed on my objective's. Good thing that Financial help arrived
as scheduled and now I'm back again on my feet to settle some score in the
medical clinic and career shipping. This time I'm very eager to solve this
situation on a very quick basis.
For now the
financial help that arrived is adequate enough to solve my primary problems,
though sufficient it is very limited and I should keep in mind that I should
use it wisely.
On Tuesday
April 02, 2013 was busy as expected and had again hurdle my way towards the
medical clinic for two objectives. One is to recover my chest X-ray plate I
submitted on the X-ray department and the second objective is find out what
happened to the results of my recent medical diagnostics and if there are any
troubles, eliminate it as quick as possible. Third objective is go back to
career office and take this so called seminar course from 2pm to 5pm called
"VSTC" ( hell I don't know what it means ).
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| Medical bills that blew off 2200 PHP in a poof |
By the time
I arrived I immediately went to the registration area and inquired the status
of my medical screening. I was entertained by a male receptionist and he gave
me the medical form, He said that the only thing that was incomplete was the
dental part and that I have to go to that department. I replied "sure
thing"
Before I
went to their dental clinic , I took a detour on their X-ray department to
recover my chest x-ray plate I left
behind previously. Had no problems recovering it and just dropped my name on
the desk and they told me to wait a few minutes and presto they gave me the
plate.
Finally I
went to the dentist and passed my medical form, she said to wait for a few
minutes since my purpose is to repair my dental fillings. After a few minutes or so , my name was
called and she told me to sit on the dentist chair . The dental repair I got
wasn’t really that hard (or painful) I just a small replacement on the dental
filling in my front tooth and that’s about it , A simple "cleaning"
and patch up work and viola. Unfortunately the problem with the repair was that
the cost of it as too high and it exceed my cost estimate. The bill went up to
about 1200 PHP for a dental repair on a single tooth. Anyway the end justifies
the means right ?! 1200 PHP is just trivial compared to the overall benefits id
gain in the end, I think it’s reasonable enough.
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| Pet cat seems to be doing fine despite the hot humid temp |
After the
repair I went to the reception desk again and passed the medical form, I was
told that everything is in order and the medical results will be passed on to
my respective company ( namely career shipping). It was still early at that
time I decided to stop by to another clinic that was also mentioned by the
medical booth of career shipping (Jacobs ladder immunization clinic), It was
just only a street away from the medical diagnostic clinic and I have the spare
time , I went there and got my Typhoid fever vaccine shot. The doctor told me
that the cost of the shot was 900 PHP and the vaccine shot on my body is active
for three years times. The detour visit only lasted for a short 15 minutes,
Still more than enough time for me to do something. Took the Old LRTA Train
afterward and dropped off to edsa station and walked my way north just like I
did before, when I reached the career vicinity I went immediately to Jollibee
fast food store and took a quick lunch and hanged out there for more than an
hour or so.
It was 2pm
when I went to career office and went to room 309 for the said "VSTC"
seminar. The name of out instructor was
Captain Gorge Patagnan , He was a warm and friendly guy . He gave us the whole
meaning of "VSTC" which meant vessel security training course, and so
brief info about ISPS lecture. The Seminar was simple and was over too quick.
After that I immediately went home,
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| My Closet wardrobe as of 2013 |
After 2
days , I went back again for this so called "MST" seminar
unfortunately our instructor Captain Gorge Patagnan has a badly swollen foot
and was unable to attend his class , as a result Captain Ledesma went to our
room and informed us that "MST" will be rescheduled by Wednesday and
He dismissed that class.
The
following day I was unable to attend the "Anti-Piracy" seminar
because of a simple case of oversleeping , Woke up 7 am in the morning and an
hour before the scheduled seminar. It was the best of my decision that I skip
that seminar for next week, Anyway I did try to catch up on paper works by
Saturday and manage to accomplish at least the allottement slip and will be on
the latter soon opening up a BPI (bank of the Philippines islands) bank account
for the remittance money. Speaking of which based on the information, Career
can support two allottee per sailor and that remittance money should be no
lower than 80 percent of the overall salary. In other words I put my sister and
my mom as an allotee on the form and that each of them will get 40 percent of
my salary and the remaining 20 percent will be on my pay onboard.
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| Sample of an BPI ATM card id be using if ever |
For now my
next move will be reporting back to Captain Galang and informing him that I
have already been declared medically fit and await further instructions on how
to apply for a US visa, Aside from that I would also be getting the bank
refferal form from the medical booth to open up an account in BPI.
In other
none relevant news
Temperatures
are soaring quite high and for the record the temperature averages around 35
degrees Celsius in noontime and its making life a bit more difficult this
summer season. During noontime my travel clothes are always soaking wet with
sweat and I'm experiencing "heat stress" ,due to my clothes are not
suitable for warm dry weather.
 |
| Despite oversupply of "Ratings" , i could see on career that they do need actual crew and that they are just throwing the bulk of their applicants, (tsk what a waste of man power). Surprisingly they do hire even Ordinary Seaman positions. From the picture i took the requirements is a U.S. Visa. Big question , How many OS here that have an actual working U.S. Visa eh ??? However from what im seeing here O.S. personnel are not required to have one on their bulk ships |
