Starting my postcard collection anew

Years ago, I started a postcard collection. I bought postcards from bookstores and office supplies and loved looking at them. Then I realized I want postcards from other countries, too. I thought about how to get some and luckily found some old ones sent by my father whenever he's abroad. I've also found some sent by my mom's friends. Others were given to me when they realized I liked postcards.

I like looking at postcards esp. those of other countries because I start to imagine what it must be like if I'm there. Later on, I realized postcards aren't just about beautiful places but can just be about anything. This makes it all the more interesting.

However, I've lost most of them (along with my stamp and anime/cartoon card collection) when we were transferring homes. I can only find some of them. I stopped collecting then. But friends who knew I love postcards kept giving me some brought by family members during travels. I can't help it also if some friends who travel ask me what I want to receive and I'll just automatically say just a postcard is enough.

So after finding my remaining postcards and along with the new ones I received and/or bought, I want to start my postcard collection again. I also just now registered in PostCrossing where you send postcards to random people in other countries and you'll randomly receive postcards from others, too.

I'll be starting a new blog on this. Once I've set it up I'll post the address here.

If you want to help me with my collection, feel free to send me some postcards. Hehe...

A Missing Bouquet

Just got back from some errands and from buying bouquets for tomorrow's visits to our departed loved ones. It's normally held here every 1st and 2nd of November. Cemeteries will surely be packed with people and many roads closed or rerouted because of the traffic. To avoid all that, we planned on going tomorrow instead. It would have been easier if we're just going to visit one cemetery but in our case we have to visit two in opposite sides of the city and travel will surely take up most of our time.

I went to the place where I am sure many flowers are being sold and where other flower stores get their flower supplies. I braved the heat and the throng of people looking for flowers like me and when I got there, a dozen flowers costs 2x-3x more than what they'd cost in a normal day. I already bought the 2 dozen Anthuriums when I realized that buying a couple of other types of flowers will cost me a lot. I decided on just buying 3 bouquets.

Exhausted almost an hour later, I took a ride back home with the three bouquets and the anthuriums. When I alighted from the vehicle and went to board another one, I realized the bags of bouquets I was carrying felt lighter and to my shock, I was now carrying only two. I saw the vehicle I alighted from but it was quite far away from me already and just inside was the bag containing my missing bouquet. Waaah! I wasn't able to reach it on time. And now I'm short of a bouquet... huhu!

How I need to buy another one and prices of bouquets here in near my area will surely be more expensive. *sigh* Gotta rest for a while before I venture out again in search of another one.

I know I always forget something and this time I forgot to check if I had carried everything I bought.  

Congratulations to Yuna Kim, Mao Asada, Yukari Nakano and other TEB winners!

Ok. So I was wrong on Carolina Kostner. I was hoping that after changing her coaching staff she'd be back on form but from what I read on forums she still made a lot of mistakes. She did place #4 in the FS from her 7th place finish in the SP to move 1 place higher which is 6th place overall. I'm still hoping she'd do better in her next grand prix event.

Congratulations to Yuna Kim for winning the 1st Grand Prix event of the season and for setting new records. Congratulations also to Yukari Nakano for placing 3rd overall. And of course, congratulations to Mao Asada for overcoming this event. She placed 2nd though the gap in scores were too high. She made mistakes but this performance was overall much better than the one at Japan Open. Many may not like it but I do. One step at a time. I think that's how they want to take this season. Go Mao! You can do this. I believe in you! 

Well, that's for the ladies. Congratulations also to those who won in the other events!

Mens

1. Nobunari Oda
2. Tomas Verner
3. Adam Rippon

Pairs

1. Maria Mukhortova / Maxim Trankov
2. Jessica Dube / Bryce Davison
3. Aliona Savchenko / Robin Szolkowy

Ice Dance

1. Tessa Virtue / Scott Moir
2. Nathalie Pechalat / Fabian Bourzat
3. Sinead Kerr / John Kerr

Once again, congratulations to everyone!

The Figure Skating Grand Prix Season Begins!

The figure skating olympic season is about to start with the Grand Prix Series coming up. First stop is in Paris France for the Trophée Eric Bompard which will be held on Oct. 16-18. This 1st grand prix stop packs quite an interesting lineup in the ladies' field with the 2008 World Champion Mao Asada (JPN), 2009 World Champion Yuna Kim (KOR), 2007 and 2008 European Champion Carolina Kostner (ITA) in attendance. Aside from these 3 ladies, you have Yukari Nakano (JPN), Caroline Zhang (USA), Kiira Korpi (FIN), Gwendoline Didier (FRA), Alexe Gilles (USA), Elene Gedevanishvili (GEO), Anna Jurkiewicz (POL). This would've been 2006 Olympic silver medalist Sasha Cohen's first competition after announcing her comeback last May but she pulled out a couple of days ago due to injury. I do think the podium will belong to Yuna Kim, Mao Asada and Carolina Kostner (in no particular order) if they skate really well.

The Men's competition will highlight the French team esp Brian Joubert. Of course, Japan's Nobunari Oda is also a strong contender for podium. I happen to like both of his programs for this season. There's also Vaughn Chipeur (CAN), Chao Yang (CHN), Tomas Verner (CZE), Yannick Ponsero (FRA), Alban Preaubert (FRA), Peter Liebers (GER), Sergei Voronov (RUS), Javier Fernandez (ESP), Ryan Bradley (USA), Adam Rippon (USA).

For Pairs and Ice Dance I have no fave pair. I wasn't really interested because I prefer singles skating. But I will try to watch these this season.

Now I'm just hoping that there will be no more injuries for athletes. There are currently 3 withdrawals from GP events. Aside from no injuries, I hope athletes will be able to give their best in each performance.

Less than 24 hours from now the competition in France will begin... I'm so excited! :)

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Edit: Removed Candice Didier and Elena Glebova. I read in some forum Glebova has replaced Sasha Cohen but it didn't seem like that yesterday. There were only 10 ladies during the ladies' event. Yuna Kim, Yukari Nakano and Mao Asada placed 1st, 2nd and 3rd respectively in the short program. Carolina Kostner placed 7th although I wanted her to place higher.

Olympics 2016 Host City: Rio de Janeiro Makes History!

Congratulations to Rio de Janeiro for winning the bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympic Games! They made history being the first South American country to host the Olympics.  The applicant city logo will most probably change now that they will be hosting the 2016 games. And I love their slogan: "Live the Passion"

Chicago lost on the first round of voting. This was very, very surprising. One minute the IOC president was saying blah.. blah.. on the voting then he just said (from what I can remember) that Chicago got the least no. of votes and can join the voting for the second round. I swear... The coverage went Huh?! I might have heard that wrong... Tokyo followed Chicago being voted off in the second round. 

Between Rio de Janeiro and Madrid, I'm not sure who I wanted to win. Rio will make history if they win. But I can also remember the very first Olympics I saw on tv as a child and that was Barcelona 1992 and I was awestruck. Haha... that cauldron lighting did it for me. I was hoping for Tokyo this time, though.

But... results are here and Congratulations again to Rio de Janeiro! I'm sure they'll really prepare to give us a rich and unique experience.

Typhoon Ondoy (Ketsana) Donation Centers

Just a short post for those who'd like to help victims of Typhoon Ondoy (Ketsana). 

Spreadsheet list of Donation Centers

Text RED AMOUNT and send to 2899 for Globe users or 4483 for Smart users. Amounts that can be donated are P25, P50, and P100. 

Red Cross Donations - Select "Others" from the menu

List posted by Definitely Filipino Facebook Group:

• A Relief Operations Drop-Off Center has been set-up at La Salle Greenhills beginning today 9:00 AM, Sunday, September 27. Please bring donations to Gate 2 of La Salle Greenhills, along Ortigas Ave., Mandaluyong


• Relief Goods can be sent to Caritas ManilaOffice at Jesus St., Pandacan Manila near Nagtahan Bridge (tel.no.5639298/5639308) or Radio Veritas at Veritas Tower West Ave. Corner EDSA (tel no. 9257931-40)


• Noynoy Aquino and Mar Roxas Disaster Relief:Drop off for relief donations at Balay Expo across Farmers Market contact: a. Jana Vicente: +63 928 520 5499 b. Clare Amador: +63 928 520 5508


• Ateneo Resident Students Association now accepting relief goods for Typhoon Ondoy at Cervini Hall lobby at 12nn. For details, please contact 0917 631 2423 AND 0917 703 5357


• PAOLC - We are requesting for donations (Clothes, blankets, towels, canned goods, Bottled water etc) to be distributed to typhoon victims. You can drop them off at the Philippine Army Gym inside Fort Bonifacio or GHQ Gym in Camp Aguinaldo

I think this is all for now. Will try to find some other list. I'm looking for a way if it's possible to donate goods from the Visayas and Mindanao area aside from money.

Update:

Reply from Definitely Filipino FB Group: Visit nearest ABS-CBN and/or GMA7 stations as they have ongoing relief operations.

From twitter tweets: For donations via American Red Cross Call 800-435-7669

Inquirer updated list of verified relief centers" Click Here

PayPal Donations via Kerygma.com 

PayPal Donations via TXTPower 

[ Note: Donations via PayPal are refunded as PayPal doesn’t have the license to receive donations for the Philippines. :( ]

Another blog with list for people living abroad to donate to Ondoy Victims: Moongirl's List

E-wers? Flowers!

My 2 year old niece Lexi loves flowers. Before she turned two last month, she pronounces flowers as o-wers. She pronounces most 2 syllable words with an O: o-bie (for her dog Robie), ogi (for Mama's dog pogi). But after her 2nd birthday she's now pronouncing words with an E: e-mie (mommy), e-dy (daddy), e-bie (Robie), e-fon (cellphone), e-fan (electric fan) and... e-wers (flowers). Glad to hear she still calls me Tita. c",)

Anyway, she loves flowers so much the she picks flowers outside our neighbors' fences whenever she goes out. There are no more flowers in the plants here at home because she picked them all already. And she wants some more.

Last month during her mommy and daddy's anniversary, her daddy gave her mommy a bouquet of red roses. Lexi was SOOOO excited to see flowers. She claimed the bouquet as her own (see pic below). Then two days ago, Tita Laarnie and Tito Eric gave Mommy-La a bouquet of roses for an early birthday. She claimed it as hers again. There's another pic of her with Mommy-La's bouquet. Both bouquets are actually too big for her. So I told her we'd make a small (mini) bouquet just for her.

We have some materials to be used at home so we just need to look for small flowers. As I was on an errand near the cathedral the other day I noticed some stalls selling flowers. There wasn't much variety to choose from. There were a lot of daisies and red roses but I don't wanna use them. I found a few pink and white small roses so I bought a dozen for Lexi.

Less than 24 hrs ago, Mommy-La celebrated her birthday and since she already has a bouquet, Lexi and I made her mini-bouquet with the small roses I bought and the materials we had her at home. Here's our DIY mini bouquet (1st practice). Hehe...

 

She liked it so much she acted as if she was the celebrant... Next time we'll look for better flowers and buy materials so we can make a bigger and better bouquet.

Wedding Invitations

I made a new post on wedding invitations I've made for friends... Well, those I can find copies in my hard drive (whether pictures or layouts) only. 

Visit my hobby blog for the pics: Wedding Invitations.