Bad, Bad, BAD Philippine Postal Service

I have heard of stories about how unreliable the Philippine Postal Service or Bureau of Customs is. Stories like how packages with valuable items never get delivered, how post office employees charge the claimants ridiculous fees, and how recipients discover their supposedly-sealed envelopes already opened. I never expected I'd get to write my own TRUE story about it.

About four months ago, I watched an episode of Japanophiles on NHK World and just fell in love with Japanese woodblock prints. So I contacted the featured woodblock print maker Mr. David Bull (Oh my gosh! His woodblock prints are just sugoi! Please check his work.) and ordered a print from him. He was really easy to talk to and he even gave me a payment option that was actually a hassle on his part (I just felt extremely bad after finding out). Anyway, he mailed my print last April 21, 2011.

It's almost August ---that's almost four months and I haven't received it yet. It's just so weird that it's taking this long. My Time of Eve Card and NHK World Calendar were both from Japan and I got them in just a week after they were sent. The thing was they were sent via private courier service.

So basing on this experience, I am going to conclude that Philippine Postal Service is just UNRELIABLE. Whether the Philippine Post Office or Bureau of Customs employees are thieves or not, their system definitely sucks. Helllooo... four freaking months!?! Should I still really expect it?

So if you're from any other country and you want to send something to the Philippines, please-please DO NOT send anything via mail. Your country's postal service might be efficient but our country's is not. It's just too risky. I suggest you take the private courier companies (like UPS or Fedex) instead. Yes, they're more expensive but at least the parcels are trackable and they do arrive in time.

I guess this only proves how beautiful David Bull's wood block print really is. Someone from the post office or customs must have liked it as much as I did. What's sad is that I was supposed to give this to Naldo as a surprise present. I was always getting gifts from Japan and I wanted him to have one too. Hmp!

Bad, Bad, BAD Philippine Postal Service!!! Bad, Bad, BAD Philippine Bureau of Customs!

Naldo and Shirl Quotes 01

That's it for today! Stay in love and keep on smiling!

Our Magic-al Date

Naldo and I were being spontaneous last Saturday and so we woke up really early just to attend the Magic 2012 or M12 pre-release launch at Eton Cyberpod Corinthian. The original plan was for me-Shirl to join the MTG tournament. The registration fee was PhP 1200 and with that you get:

a seat at the tournament

6 Magic 2012 booster packs,

and 1 promo card (Bloodlord of Vaasgoth).

Unfortunately, I didn't get to join. We thought they were going to provide Magic 2012 dueling packs to registered players but they did not and I didn't bring a deck with me. =( Naldo suggested we get a new deck but I thought we've only been playing for a week. Hahaha! Yes we're completely newbies and there I was trying to join the tournament. Anyway, so yeah we've only had our deck for a couple of days and I didn't want us to be buying new ones yet. So we just observed a little bit, checked a few trader's folders and went to have lunch.

Here's a glimpse of the M12 cards. They are pretty nasty. =)

After lunch, Naldo wanted to check a Magic store in SM Megamall and so we headed there. But before more Magic, we had a detour. There was a Gundam Caravan workshop going on.

At first we just wanted to have a free catalog...

but we learned that we get to take home a Gundam SD if we join the SD building and painting contest.

Win or lose, the SD Gundam is yours- who can refuse that? It's totally free. There's no registration fee and you don't have to buy anything to join. All you have to do is attend the workshop- which we did.

If I had brought my deck, we would not have been able to take home these cuties!

That's it for today! Hope you're happy!

Eiga Sai 2011

It's Philippines-Japan Friendship month again and so we were at the Eiga Sai 2011 in Shang Cineplex Cinema 4, Shangrila Plaza.

We almost missed this year's event and we're just glad we were able to make it to watching the anime Summer Days with Coo.

The movie was worth waking up early. Summer Days with Coo is about a young water-sprite finding his place in the modern world. Coo, the water sprite, has been buried underground / trapped inside a rock since the Edo period. Hundreds of years later, a young boy named Koichi found him and brought him to his house thinking he was some sort of fossil. Of course we're not going to tell you more. It's a really nice movie so we hope you get to watch it too.

This year's Eiga Sai movies were:

Departures

One Million Yen Girl

The Chef of South Polar

Summer Days With Coo

Your Friend

Climber's High

Yunagi City, Sakura Country

The Summit: A Chronicle of Stones

Villon's Wife

Feel The Wind

Arigatou Gozaimasu!

*You may also want to check Eiga Sai 2010.

Cutest Freebies

KITKAT

(this box contains six pack of the two-finger bars and a desk organizer)

We think this Kitkat mini-bench desk organizer is perfect accessory to a chocolate-themed room or any desk. Scissors, markers, pen and post-it not included.

We will be updating this post every time so please feel free to come back and check our latest finds. You may also want to check Foods That Are Too Cute To Eat.

Foods That Are Too Cute To Eat

People are getting more creative everyday and some food are becoming too cute to eat. Eating them feels like eating art and if only we can preserve them forever and hang them on walls without having to worry about ants and other insects. But then again, there's always that need to know if they taste as good as they look.

This Japanese choco-lolly we got from Rustan's grocery and it's Php80. Quite expensive for a candy actually but I couldn't resist.

*update*090611

We found this "lechon baboy" or roast pig bread in a bakery near our building. It was only Php15 and we just had to buy one and take a photo. After all it's not everyday that we see a nicely-sculpted bread like this.

Isn't the tail so cute? Hahaha!

Top view. It's very well done for a piece of bread, yes?

We will be updating this post every time so please feel free to come back for our latest cutie goodie. You may also want to check Cutest Freebies.