LANDFALL

"It is my responsibility and duty to keep my family together and alive, it is my burden to know that I cannot. They must make their own future. I can guide them . Give them the tools to survive . But I cannot control them . Their choices will be their own as will their consequences"

<<-Excerpts from my journal , personal log "Unknown Filipino Sailor" >>

As predicted My arrival on the house was meet with a lot of unresolved issues. Not exactly personal ones but financial ones, I do not question on what's the situation as a matter of fact I'm very grateful that my sister took those steps in borrowing money from numerous loan sharks in order to preserve my mom's life and will help her in any way I can financially.

I had a lot to thank for to my sister that she has maintained mom to be alive, and it was her efforts alone single headedly,  that mom is still vertical despite predictions by other medical doctors that mom will not last more than 48 hours way back six months ago.

Unfortunately despite my younger sister's heroic efforts, it could only "stem the tide" on our mom's deteriorating health. My sister gave me the exact specifics on the situation on what's really happening , it was a very dismaying news that despite our grand efforts - mom's health will continually deteriorate slowly to the point that she will succumb to the complications of kidney dialysis and multiple organ failures. My sister dropped to me the news like a hammer - Moms health (or life span) will be only as good as it is for about 5 months to a year, Maybe if medical care will be maxed out it will be about a year.

In other words , It is a burden to my heart and hard to admit that my sister told me that our mom is in deteriorating health - at a rapid rate. I asked my sister if she has any evidence to prove about her claims, she told me that she has already consulted a number of doctors (the "2nd opinion and 3rd opinion" rule) and they all came up with the same conclusion, Rough estimates from doctors say that it will be at least maximum 5 months to a year before mom totally succumbs to this disease. I admire my sister for giving me an honest detail on the situation and having the courage to accept the fact that mom's future is somewhat limited and grim - something that I myself is still in denial over the facts.  Maybe I was thinking (and hopeful) of the Hollywood style happy ending of "riding this out in the sunset"

one of mom many surgeries, Frankenstein style

Aside from the badly destroyed kidney, mom has already sustained considerable damage from other organs. Her lungs has been affected with pneumonia and infection. Half of heart has been badly destroyed as well and led to her recent cardiac arrest last November, aside from that she also suffered a blood infection which up to now, she is still recuperating from it. Mom also a couple of surgeries on implants placed on her right arm (which made her right arm totally unusable) called "fistula" , which is used as an outlet for the dialysis machine. Aside from the arm she also has an alternate "outlet" implant on her neck, which now has been removed a few days before I arrived her at home.

To simply say it , Mom underwent so many surgeries to keep her alive that she looks more like a Frankenstein now minus the bolt and nut on her forehead. her body has already wintered away from the rigors of surgery, Frankly I'm not exactly sure on how much more stress her heart can handle

In other matters ……

As soon as I made land fall in the Philippines, I had now taken immediate steps in preparing for my "working assignment" and that is to buy some gear and supplies needed. Aside from that I was also tasked (though unwillingly) in being a courier delivering some baggage's bound to the Philippines. Despite the hassle I had accomplish delivering the money to Electrician Chaingan wife by hand, delivered two bags of chocolates to O.S. Bilbao's Brother and a bag of hotdogs (yes hotdogs !!) to Mr Galang (head honcho of the tanker department in career)  .

Honestly I don't really get the point why we Filipino's have a nasty habit of dumping our excess luggage to other Filipino's and oblige them to make a delivery, and to make it worst they don’t even bother to compensate the person for the delivery efforts !

I think it's unfair on my part in the sense that I had been trimming down my luggage to below 40 kilograms to avoid over baggage on the airport and yet these people have been getting reckless and dumping me with their excess stuff. If they have problems with their luggage then they should have hired a Fed-ex delivery service or DHL, instead of pestering me and occupying my reserve space.

Anyway despite my ramblings , my situation is not that as worst as it was on my time in BOW Ophelia where 80 percent of my entire luggage was from the other crew and only 25 percent were actually mine.

I guess for the moment I'd be having some silent time and contemplating on the things that went before on this year. 

EXPLORING ROTTERDAM

While waiting for a flight to get back in the Philippines, I decided to spent my time exploring every nook and cranny of this city. It wouldn't be helpful for me to be just confined in a small hotel room and waste my time there doing social media . Here are the picture i took while exploring Rotterdam, for the moment i had located some tourist spots around the local hotel I'm staying (called maritime hotel). Maybe one day i'd be so familiar on this place I'd definitely be able to walk and explore the surroundings even more

Officially we had already disembarked on the ship and awaited for our flight schedule back to the Philippines. From what i heard on captain abibba. flight schedule will be on the 23rd december and arrival date will be on christmas eve, In the meantime while waiting for our flight , i took the opportunity to roam around and explore Rotterdam fully. I believe that i shouldn't waste my time just holed up on the hotel room and stick all the time on social media. Funny that some of my crew mates always criticize me for always being locked up inside the cabin, Now it seems that the the situation is now exactly opposite and their the one's afraid to go outside the hotel room. Doesn't matter anyway if they want to stay up - there and waste the time of their lives trapped on a small hotel room doing social media.

This is the picture i got from exploring the whole (or major part of rotterdam city)

Saying Hi and Hello at the same time in Rotterdam

Far west side has a long walk way

The Erasmus bridge near maritime hotel (the hotel I'm staying) 

Behold the amphibious bus of Netherlands, basically its a tourist bus . I saw it in youtube that this bus can go thru water, I wish the philippines has these types of bus , as its practical given that most roads here get flooded even on normal rain weather

The whole city map of rotterdam

GOD BLESS UNCLE SAM !!! This is the most iconic fast food on filipino sailors , Definitely a must to visit and eat here 

Really tire from all the long hours of walking, had to remove my "Highschool jap outfit" and put it in the closet

Remembering and studying on which part of the city i explore and will be marking the areas on the paper map

Good thing im already familiar in reading a map, according to here a few more kilometers and I'm already on my commercial district 

Location of the mall i found , my left point finger pointing it on the map, the other on the lower read arrow is the location of the hotel I am staying 

Fuck off batman !! can you see i'm a little bit busy shopping . I can handle myself in shopping - go find another helpless citizen aside to assist with  you do gooder  !!!

Tony stark seems to be pretty pissed off on customers who just basically do "window shopping" and don't buy something , hmpf probably he just mistook me for a shop lifter of some sort

If apple company would release an ipad this big for 50 U.S. Dollars , I'm still not going to buy that kind of shit - i'd be better off with a plasma TV :D 

Cellphones , cellphones, and more cellphones !!! but this time its charged on euros and not dollars

Now this is the collection every pervert needs , i wonder what kind of "preferences" this store has ? bestiality ? , incest ? orgy or the usual BDSM ????

Well santa is off work today and probably buying some toys at best buy to cut some labor cost for the elves 

This is a fruits and vegetable store , European style though

Remember when you're in europe (specifically in Netherlands and Belgium) Media mart is the solution to all the shopping needs - well at least on the electronics and communication needs of sailors . This is like the dutch version of "SM mall" in the philippines

Europe is so clean and pollution free , the soles of my shoes are not still not that dirty - even if i walked more than four hours straight !!!

I wish my ship was always berthed next to the road and no security check points like this one 

Looking for another tourist location on the map , some sort of CN tower of rotterdam 

a small chinese pagoda in netherlands

paying homage to the shipping principal i first started with , HAIL STOLT NEILSEN !!!