Lateral Transfer, Car, Flood, Car, Hospital and Car...

Yup, that is how I would summarize what had happened while I was gone. And boy I was gone for a long time! But looking at the brighter side of things, I have more cars to post this coming weeks. My post today would be about what had happened so that you would know why I was gone for a long time.

Rewind! 

Lateral Transfer.

The office has been undergoing a lot of changes lately and one of the changes that they were having is staff re-shuffling. I was lucky enough to be one of the several agents that was picked to undergo a track training program for a Real Time Analyst post. That was the first reason I was not able to update the blog, I was so busy at work trying to learn everything that I need, to be certified. 

Flood.

Several weeks into my training a monsoon passed by the Philippine Area of Responsibility that brought lots of rain water that caused my town to flood. My area usually gets flooded when it rains hard, but for some reason this particular instance, it felt that it caused more trouble compared to the infamous Typhoon "Ondoy" (international name Ketsana), this is maybe because during the flood my mom got really sick and we were stranded for almost two days at home and we needed to rush my mom to the hospital. Anyways, here are some pictures during the flood before the camera went down in the flood water, with me, almost drowning. Yes I almost drowned.

These pictures were taken during the first night of the flood. It was not that deep yet.

The following day, my cousin and I decided to go out and get some food and supplies because we just realized that the situation was bad. Outside, I saw this sweet Toyota Celica.

On our way home my cousin was able to pull out the camera and take a picture.

And then I almost drowned. A couple of feet away from the safety of our house, the current of the flood water was very strong, and my cousin and I were having a very hard time staying on our feet because of the strong current and waist deep water, the slippery road added to the trouble. We were in front of our house already and I can see that we would not be able to just walk towards the gate because the current was really really strong at this point, I saw my cousin having a hard time as well. I saw the post of our convenient store and asked my cousin to try and jump, grab and hold onto the post. As soon as I finished my instruction the current pulled me down, together with the groceries, my bag that contains my cellphone, camera and other personal belongings. It was so fast but I saw everything, I saw my cousin turning back realizing that I had gone under the water, while he was turning around I saw a huge spider clinging on to his shoulder (I don't know what happened to the spider, good thing my cousin did not see it because he might have jumped into the water just to remove it from his shirt.), I hear him shout my name, then I saw the second post of the store, I reached out and grabbed the post. Simultaneously the umbrella that you see me holding on the picture above was cut clean off the handle and I felt my cousin's hand holding on to me.  Denial sets in and I ran inside the house worried that the grilled chicken I bought was soaked with flood water. 

While taking a bath and thinking about what had happened, I realized that I could have died. Just so you know, our street  is on an decline and the water goes deeper the farther you go. At the far end the water is about 7 foot deep. Just imagine being in a 7 foot pool size washing machine. But hey I am still here! :D

But it did not end there That night my mom got really sick and we were stuck in the house, my uncle's tried to rush her to the hospital but all the vehicles that were stranded in the main highway was blocking the way. We had no choice but to wait for the highway to be cleared out and just tend to our mom the best that we can do with no clues with what is happening to her. After a day and a half passed and the roads were already passable. We went to the hospital and there were several possible diagnosis that the doctors were giving out and they need several examinations to narrow it down and determine the root cause of my mom being sick. We had no choice but to stay in the hospital and leave the house unattended after being under the flood water. I initially thought that we will be staying in the hospital for just less than a week but we end up staying in the hospital for almost two weeks! After all the examination that the doctors did they were able to give out a proper diagnosis and we were given a list of several medicines that my mom would need to take for her to feel much better. My mom feels much better now and I really hope she would eventually feel much much better. 

Back to work. I really thought that I would not be getting the lateral transfer because of my absenteeism, and because of that I pushed my self to work harder to compensate with the time that was lost during the days that I was out. Several days passed by and I was already thinking that I would not be getting the certification, and then one shift, I was finishing my reports with my colleague who is my mentor as well, I heard my boss say "Yes! Dave (my mentor), congratulate them.". We shook hands and all of my hard work paid out, I was certified! :D

And now I am back! 

You might be wondering what happened to my collection during the flood. Well, they were all placed high on  my work in progress display cabinet. And this is how they looked during and after the flood. 

My car magazines and a sneak preview of my latest RC haul.

My kits and RC's (Transformers and Star Wars not mine)

After the flood I have decided to tidy up and check out my collection to see if some where damaged or if there are some missing parts. 

My main line.

My loose die cast.

Here is my Ed Roth - Rat Fink Bobble Head. :D

During my day off, I was also able to finish (well 90% done) my D.I.Y. Hobby Lamps for taking pictures of my collections. I got this idea from sir Iceberg of DCPH.

And because of that, expect a lot of pictures of my car collection soon! And this time, hopefully, the pictures are much better. Well that is it for now, see you next time and keep on over haulin!