Early Christmas Presents from Nii-sama!

My brother just got back from Japan for the holidays. He was assigned to Tokyo so he was able to get me some merchandise from my fave titles recently.

• A Midousuji Akira file folder with division (Yowamushi Pedal)
• A Shinkai Hayato keyholder (Yowamushi Pedal)
• A Kagari Shusei pluggie
• A Ginoza Nobuchika sliding tin with mini notes

Here are some closer look with these items:

This is the front and back design for the Akira folder. You can see the colors of Team Kyoto Fushimi (Kyofushi) as well as his many expressions.

 

 There are three compartments/ division for your documents in this folder. It can hold from A4 to Letter sized papers. The following shows how they would look if you have documents on different compartments.

If you have one on the outermost side, it's all plain and simple.
Only the Kyofushi colors and name are shown.

If you have nothing on the first copartment, and the other two are occupied, this is how it looks. You can see Akira!

It looks just the same with one division occupied as without any papers at all.
Complete with all the faces, Akira's whole body and the Kyofushi name

Secondly, we have the Shinkai key holder. You can see that the border is transparent so it may seem like Shinkai's floating on any background you want~

It's made of pvc plastic and it's bigger than what I expected from the photos online. Normally, I see charms like this in 1-2 inches sizes. This one's bigger and here is how it looks when I'm holding it.

My hands aren't as big as a man's but I really find this key holder quite big. It always occupied my whole hands!

Next up is the Kagari pluggie. With most smartphones not having space for cellphone straps nowadays, pluggies have been made to add some spice on phones. It is placed on the earphone jack of phones usually 3.5mm in size.

It's made of hard metallic material. I know it's not the ideal accessory for phones if you don't want scratches on it. Still if the jack is on the bottom part (like most apple products), I don't think it'll be much of a problem.

I find it really cute having Kagari dangling on my phone whenever
I send messages, take photos, or simply browse on the internet

Lastly, we have the Ginoza sliding tin can. I'm not really sure how to make use of the notes inside this one but it got me with Ginoza showing such a cool silhouette.

The design on the front part kind of looks like a sticker though...

Well, contrary to the Shinkai key holder, this one is smaller than what you may think. With only a little more than two inches, this little tin holds mini notes. You may write short messages or even codes here if you want! The papers come with the MWPSB Logo so it looks like a legit message for the inspector/ enforcer in you.

The top of the can is removable~

Cutting Family Ties via the Internet

My December was greeted with a very unfortunate event. Before all of this, I didn't know how easy family ties could be cut off.

Let me start from the very beginning.

My aunt CC from my mother's side and my grandmother LL sent us a message via FB that they wanted to spend time with us and in order to do so, would like to have a trip on local tourist spots in our country. They are living on the other side of the world. The travel would definitely be quite the challenge and they both have been gaining some age.

Aunt CC asked my eldest brother AG to help her plan the trip. It was around September and at the time, I wasn't sure if I could come due to work issues. AG tried to make the plan as agreeable to most as possible. A lot of changes occurred during the process. That was issue number 1.

When the dates were finally settled, aunt CC wanted to save money on accommodations and asked my uncle RD from my father's side if they could use his apartment for a few days. At first, it was okay, but after some thoughts, uncle RD decided that the place would be too small for 3 people to live in, not to mention there were boxes and I mean huge boxes of my little cousins' toys. It would have been embarrassing to offer such a place to guests. It seemed that aunt CC wasn't very happy about this. She excluded uncle RD's family to one of the planned trips. So another change to her perfect plan had to be changed. This was issue number 2.

The most recent change was the hired driver's fee. It was earlier agreed upon that the total cost for the driver would be 2500 PHP (56.12 USD) PER DAY. As we were supposed to be hiring him for 5 days, the TOTAL cost would be 12,500 PHP (280.62 USD). A couple of weeks before the planned date, the driver opened up that one of the places would be really far from the other places in the itinerary, about two hours from the farthest place. He wanted 500 PHP (11.22 USD) to be added to the TOTAL COST. So instead of 12,500 PHP, it will be 13,000 PHP (291.84 USD). This was where aunt CC snapped at my brother AG. A lot was said. Her words seemed like we were the ones who will gain something from the payment. My usually calm emotions swirled and I felt sick just remembering the things she said. AG stopped replying to her messages. This was issue number 3.

The morning after the 500 peso issue, I couldn't help myself but send her message. With carefully chosen words and a little appeal on faith, I expressed how she hurt our feelings with her words. I even set my oh-so-high pride and apologized for saying my honest feelings. I found out that my other brother AJ also sent her a message the night before. Her replies made tears well up inside my heart. It was really heart-breaking that she could say such words to her own nephews and niece. She bad-mouthed our manners saying we shouldn't be meddling with the affairs, that we have no respect to our elderly, that we are uneducated, etc. She was the one who snapped at us first. She treated what my brother did like it was for naught and like he was ruining HER plans.

After everything, she blocked us on FB. My brother AJ did the same. I would have done so as well but I don't want family problems. If there was a way to patch things up, I would do it. I realize later on that what my brother AJ said was right. This was issue number 4.

"It's just an endless cycle. If that person could say and do such things to us, even if she tries to make things better, it would just be repeated. When you are already in good terms again, she would just do the same thing over and over and over again. There's no end to it."

Despite his warning, I tried to give aunt CC a chance. Sure enough, as we have the receipt for the hotel reservation, she tried contacting me a week before the plan. I gave her the information she needed and accepted her words lightly. When she was done and got what she wanted, she reverted back to her rude side. There was a nagging feeling inside of me. I shouldn't have given her anything. At the same time, I was conflicted because I felt guilt when I think about my grandmother and the stress she must be feeling. I was naive.

In the end, I decided to end it all as well. No contacts whatsoever. I will protect myself from the possible harm she may cause me in the future. After all, self-preservation is a natural instinct isn't it?

I know a lot could not be said here. Details that are meant only for us to bear. Somehow, I would just like to share how easy relationships are ended nowadays. The internet is not a reflection of your real life relations with other people but it is in the people themselves whether they would abide by this or not.

"The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water in the womb"