Flash Flood
It was a day I will remember for the rest of my life. I woke up with a wet floor. I went to the kitchen and found my floor was flooded with 2 inch water. I was shocked to discover that the flood water has gone inside the third room of the house. I quickly ran outside to check and found that the rain that started at dawn has not stopped. Since the kitchen was wet, I quickly boiled some eggs for the children since I did not want them to go outside of the room because the kitchen and dining area was wet with rain water. That was at 6am.
Thirty minutes after, I walked out of the house and went three houses down and bought some canned goods from my friend’s sari-sari store. I found the husband of my neighbor cleaning out the canal outside of our houses. He asked me if water has gone inside my house, and I said yes. He told me his wife is coming over to help me. An hour after, Mylene, my neighbor’s wife came in and told me she’s going to help me. Apparently, it has been 4 years since the last flash flood in the area. This small information dismayed me since the likelihood of recurrence is definitely higher. Mylene and her daughter lifted my double bed and elevated it on the single wooden bed in my second room as they fear my bed will get soaked in the flood water. Since my second room has 2 single wooden beds, my console table from Mandaue Foam was raised on top of the bed and important books were moved on top of it.
At 8am, the water has reached my ankles and I called my sister in law in the city to arrange a vehicle for us. She quickly responded that the rains in Cagayan de Oro was also very strong. I called my aunt who lives a few meters away from us and she said the water is building up in her place and she said she is busy clearing up their things from the 1st floor and Basement to bring on the 2nd floor. She asked me if my things were raised already and I said yes. She told me to stand by and wait for the weather to improve.
At 10, the water has climbed to my calf. I started to worry so I texted my husband and told him we were in a flash flood and we are going to move to higher grounds. I did not get any response from him.
At 10:30am, my neighbor Emma and her husband came and told me to move to their house– they have a second floor. I told her to take the my older children first and I want to wait in the house and see what happens. At this point the water inside my house has reached my knees. I quickly packed clothes for myself and the children and took my important documents like passbooks, passports with me. Some of my important documents were bagged up and we lifted them and putted them on the highest part of our heaviest cabinet in the room.
11am. I sighed and decided to leave my house for higher grounds. My PC, printers and other important items in the house were all moved on top of the dining table. My sofa was also raised. This was also the time when my fridge fell and floated on the flood water… Emma, grabbed my Whirlpool fridge and with sheer power, she lifted and dragged it to the corner of the dining area and used my dining table to pin the fridge on the corner.
The sight outside was unbearable. The water has almost reached my waist. I walked through the muddy flood water with Ia on my hip. I couldn’t find my slipper inside my already flooded house and decided to walk through the water barefooted. The men in my street were busy carrying their belongings to higher ground. TVs, washing machines and the like. Some were carrying their children and some were busy taking their cows from the field to safety. I walked to Emma’s house which was only three houses away from mine and I saw their vehicle in flood water.
My children and some of the neighbors children were inside Emma’s house. As children, they did not understand the seriousness of the situation and they were playing around the flood water. I told my children to get off the water and I cringed and almost cried just thinking about the bacteria, and other nasty stuff in the water.
At 2pm, Emma and her husband decided to return to my house for my PC and printer. At this point the water inside my house has almost reached the dining table. The rain has not stopped at this point and I told them not to worry about the other things anymore. The important thing is the fact that the children and I are safe.
Read MoreMelamine Laced Products in your Cupboard
Due to the invasion of rats in my house, I have been cleaning out my cupboards in the kitchen and the dining room and found a couple of suspicious dairy products that may be laced with the dangerous melamine. Just read from CNN that Lipton Milk Tea was found to be laced with melamine also. Here is a partial list of products currently being tested by BFAD. I am shocked to see, Anchor Products and several Nestle products included in the list.
I have checked BFAD’s website to see if there are any SOP for recalls and if we could still get a refund for products purchased suspected with melamine. However, I only found this memo in their website. There are no indication that products returned shall be refunded. Shouldn’t that be in the law? Years ago, there was a recall for Gerber products in the US and in the Philippines and I noticed a copy of this memo posted on the aisle in Shopwise (memo from the distributor of Gerber) but there was no indication if consumers like me can return the babyfood and get a refund in return. I was deeply disturbed by this since we, as consumers should be able to return any defective products and get a refund for that, right? I know that the DTI has a primer for this in their site. If you find yourself with a defective product, you may return, refund or replace that said product. Happened to me years ago, in SM Megamall. We bought one of those huge televisions from Sony and found it defective in less than a month. We tried to turn the product and SM Appliance refused until we went there ourselves and demanded to see the manager. The manager chose to hide but they promised to replace the item in a weeks time. But they only did this after we hassled them for 4 hours. Costumer is always right, supposedly…
If you have complaints against any establishment, feedbacks about defective products, you might want to file a complaint with DTI’s Consumer Welfare Desk.
Read MoreRats!!!
When I woke up and went out of our bedroom to prepare our breakfast, what was infront of me totally ruined my day.
S h i t ! !
I shrieked and woke up the children. The house rats rummaged and totally ruined the place where I keep some dry goods. Totally reminded me of an entry by Delish…
Instead of cooking breakfast, I ended up cleaning up the mess. The inventory? The rats gnaw open 4 containers of Nestle Cream (mental note: buy them in cans instead of those in tetra packs) and 2 packs of Betty Crocker Bisquick (darn… I sour-graped, the pancake milk could be laced with melamine for all I care… I hoped the melamine kills the rats), 1 pack of Lucky Me Instant Noodles and gnaw open 1 pack of Ram Macaroni. The soiled cream dripped and spoiled the entire cabinet. I was glad to find out that other than that, the others are intact.
I had to take out all the food items and then disinfect the cabinet with a solution I made: Clorox, water and some laundry soap. I noticed some rat droppings and my anger grew a notch higher. While scrubbing the mess I was imagining ways to trap and kill the rats and stop the infestation. The fact that our house is close to the rice paddies where rats hang and eat doesn’t help at all. I am determined and I will lay out my traps later tonight and see what happens. I am also considering letting the cat in as Plan B.
As part of the plan, I will also rearrange the major furniture to trick the rats since I have read that rats are habitual creatures, they get disoriented and they will lie low for awhile to reorient. And when they do, I will be ready to poison them. I have yet to check out the poison bait in the market here, but since the Philippines is infested with rats, the shelves should be well stocked. Now for my weapon of choice… I will decide…
Call me– soon to be Rat Killer…
Read MoreMelamine– Why you should be concerned…
I just read from my FDA feed that there is a recall for White Rabbit Candies in the United States due to possible contamination of melamine. Not only that, Cadbury is also recalling 11 types of chocolate products found to be laced in melamine. Remember, all of this started when the infant milk in China was found positive with melamine.
What is melamine and why should we be concerned about it when I have read in an article that “melamine in food products is considered safe by Hong Kong health authorities at 2.5 parts per million or less.” First what is melamine? Melamine is a plastic made from copolymerizing a white crystalline solid with formaldehyde; it is also a compound used in resins used to manufacture synthetic resins in leather tanning. Warning signs!!! Leather tanning? Formaldehyde?!? Plastics??? The scandal in China broke out when it was reported that Sanlu’s infant formula is causing kidney stones in infants and children. It can also cause urinary tract infections, eye and skin irritations… Due to the serious effect of the infant milk which was found to cause death, our BFAD has also banned liquid and powdered milk, candy and biscuits, chocolate bars and drinks, including yogurt and dairy drinks from China– which includes my favorite candy– White Rabbit.
What is bothering is the fact that as usual it was found out that Chinese milk macufacturers has already received complaints about the milk since 2007. Remember during the SARS, including the Avian flu crisis, China has not been upfront about the real number of casualties to the media. China has been so scared of liabilities that they are hiding behind their “red cloak.” Now Chinese officials believe that suppliers added melamine– which is rich in nitrogen, to watered-down milk to deceive quality tests for protein. Do we expect full disclosure from China? Currently, the EU, the US and other countries has banned the importation and use of dairy products coming from China. As usual, all these– when the damage has been done already.
Read MoreExhaustion
It’s been awhile since my last post, I know. I have been experiencing constant headache including body aches. I am exhausted and I am scared of burning myself out. I have no one else to turn to and my body screams for rest everyday.
I am also sleep deprived. My daughter Pascalis who has her own bed started sleeping again with me– now all 4 children sleeps with me on one queen-sized bed. Talk about sardines all lined up… It’s a wonder I get back, shoulder pain just because it is so uncomfortable on the bed. I wonder if I should just sleep on her bed with my youngest…
I missed going to the gym. The physical exhaustion brought by carrying a baby and a toddler is beginning to take its toll on me. Not only that, I am also responsible with the cooking, washing and cleaning of a three-bedroom house. I wish the maid is here already. I cannot wait to put my foot up once in a while…
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