January 14, 2014 Saturday
Things have
been quiet been very busy lately and I didn't got the time to update my journal
for quiet sometime now. Ok so were shall I begin first ?
First off
this ship arrived on the ship yard at the 4th of January 2014, but didn't
exactly went ahead on the shipyard facility. First this ship was berthed nearby
on some sort of "Pre dry dock"
facility , This ship stayed there for at least three days to conduct some
inspections made by the CSM superintendent on which engine and part will this
ship be repaired. Those three days were pretty much busy, as usual there were
the usual dock workers who would come in and out to do some maintenance stuff
and the like, and even board up their maintenance tool needed for the repairs.
On the
first day was pretty much quiet no work at all and I was just basically on the
gangway watch and putting up notes on the ISPS logbook on who came in and out
onboard this ship. Much to my dismay the work schedule that was given to me
(and O.S. Del monte) was the six hour shift (12am to 6am , 12pm to 6pm) ,
Honestly i find it very unnecessary that my working shift was like that. It
should have been on day work like from the rest of the deck crew.
On the Second day there wasn't any action at all that happened but
one notable thing i did was i get to have a shore leave and see the
surroundings. We went out in a group during shore leave as it is much safety
going out in groups rather than going solo here in Bulgaria . From what i
recall , there was both oiler aquino and oiler rogel, Fitter Sano and fourth
engineer lamsen , and electrician koba on the engine department. The ones that
went on shore leave on the deck department are me, Bosun amican, Pump man
liscano , me, A.B. Bryan and chief mate Evgeny Bezruchko.
O.S. Del Monte was the one intended to go on shore leave rather than
me on that time, However he declined when he found out that bosun amican will
be tagging along on this shore leave. The security guard on the nearby post was
very lenient and friendly towards visitors and didn't even demanded to see our
shore leave papers or our seaman's book . We just simply went ahead and he
didn't bother us. Outside we waited a
few minutes and a local cab came in to fetch us. Good thing that the Bulgarian
taxi driver was kind enough and can exchange our US dollars for Bulgarian leva
(local currency here)
On shore leave the first thing that went on everyone's mind was to
visit the local mall and see what stuff are being sold there. We went to Grand
Mall to see how it looks like, the mall there's isn't as big as the one's in
the Philippines but its sufficient enough to provide entertainment and even the
outline of the place and design is somewhat similar to local malls here in the
Philippines (theaters and cinema are located on the upper most floors while
supermarket and groceries are at the bottom) . What I bought on that place is
another external Hard drive (Samsung) and a local brand travelling bag for my
luggage. Anyway my main objective by the way why I went on shore leave is to
buy a travelling bag to put my extra luggage inside it, Having a travelling to
put my extra luggage inside it is much more classy and convenient rather than
putting my luggage in a cardboard box (most of the Filipino workers, uses
cardboard box to put their luggage inside it, nothing wrong with it - though it
has become an iconic habit to most overseas Filipino workers ).
Just to add the food in Bulgaria is cheaper compared to other
European countries, the price is somewhat very similar to the prices of food
here in the Philippines. Although the food and clothes are cheap , i could say much the same on the
prices of "electronics"
After the brief shopping spree ,and it was already 10pm at that time
(local mall shops here are open until 10 pm, same business hours like in the
Philippines) and the shops here are already closing. We were picked up by the
cab outside the mall and some of us decided to drop by on the local bar,
probably because they were not content on what they saw and wanted more. For
the taxi driver , he had something in mind and immediately he suggested some
bar nearby.
When we went there, We were greeted by a girl in the entrance. The
thing that caught my attention was that this girl is in bikini's, even though
the temperature outside the bar is just only 2 degree's Celsius at nighttime. I
said to myself "oh boy i could see where this is going" it was very
clear that this bar is obviously a sex den and the girl who greeted us in the
entrance is no ordinary waitress. As we entered we were lead to a room that has
a red lights and in the middle was a pole. Most likely i assume that the room
was a strip show and in fact i was correct, a few minutes another girl in
bikini's went in the middle of the room and did a pole dancing, the only
difference from your ordinary pole dancing is that she was dancing half naked
(she took off her bra's) .
For me i didn't mind at all if she was dancing half naked , as long
as we keep it that way . Well after her naked strip dance she went to one of
our guys (specifically Oiler Aquino) and asked if Aquino could put her up in a
private room which obviously an invitation on sex. Oiler Aquino turned down the
said offer. The other girls offered the same service to other co-workers of
mine but ended on the same results like oiler aquino did. The only one who had
sex with those girls was Old bull frog amican.
