Because yes, technically I’m a blogger, but yes, I also live a damn boring life. I am your average person working during the day, and doing other errands while trying to live a little before I sleep. So what do I write about?
Randomness | Reality
K-1 Visa | Love, Relationship and Marriage | Reality
First Step towards a Life Together
By Nathalie on August 31, 2019So, yeah. Finally we got around to officially starting our K-1 visa journey. Yey! He just sent in our I129-F packet yesterday via USPS. We initially planned to file sometime during the first quarter of the year, but life happened and several things came up hence the delay. Anywho. The important thing is we’ve started the ball rolling. We should hear from USCIS by next week once they receive our packet. Excited! 🤩
Money | Reality | Technology | Tutorial / How to:
Calling Credit Card Hotlines from the Province on the Cheap!
By Nathalie on June 7, 2019
This post serves as a guide for fellow promdis like me who use credit cards and need to occasionally call their hotlines for one matter or another (and not rack up huge mobile phone bills in the process).
To give you a brief background, I grew up in the city with a PLDT landline (telebabad was life back then) but then later moved to a sorta rural municipality with no telephones. Cellphones were starting to be a thing then, so most households opted for cellphones instead and never bothered to get old-school landline telephones. 🤷🏽♀️
Fast forward to today, and I have several credit cards which I use for #adulting and all that shizz. There are times when I need to call the credit card company, like when a card was not delivered or when I need to inquire or clarify something. And while calling from my mobile is feasible, it pains me to rack up a huge phone bill while going through the automated menu and waiting to talk to a human operator. 😭 This is especially annoying when the waiting time turns out to be much longer than the actual conversation itself. 😫
I am no stranger to online shopping. Aside from groceries, most of my other purchases are online. For one thing, it’s usually cheaper than buying at the malls. Also, because of my provincial location, most of the stuff I like can only be found online.
Locally, my usual “haunts” are Shopee and Lazada. Occasionally, I buy from international shops as well, mostly from the US. Shipping from the US to the Philippines could cost more than the purchase itself, so I rely on cargo forwarders to save on shipping costs. In the past, I have used (LBC) Shipping Cart and My Shopping Box. The latter’s rates are cheaper, but Shipping Cart provides a more comprehensive tracking. To their credit, they both delivered on time.
Recently, I had the chance to use another cargo forwarder, HopShopGo. It’s tied up with Paypal (which I use and deem pretty legit) so I figured they oughtta be decent as well. Their rates are higher than both Shipping Cart and MSB’s but they had a pretty sweet deal at the time of $1 shipping for the first half kilo. I had an Amazon voucher so I used that to buy a Roku Express, which is pretty small and light, and had it delivered to my HopShopGo address in Portland, Oregon.
For the past months, I have not updated this blog as much as I would have wanted–mostly because of the pressure I exert on myself to post something worth reading (not that I have a lot of readers or followers to begin with). And therein lies my weakness.
Being a member of the Fountain Pen Network – Philippines group while living in the province has its drawbacks. Foremost is the availability, or lack thereof, of materials. So when news of big sales in the metro abound in the group, I can only stare wistfully at the pictures and wish I was there as well.
Despite the lack of updates here, my overly caffeinated katawang-lupa is actually very much alive and twitching. This is just a very quick update and heads up, as well as a promise to myself that I will resume blogging regularly (or as often as circumstances allow).
This also serves as a reminder to myself that I must walk the talk and be as transparent as I could be, letting unfiltered thoughts gush through my mind to my fingertips and straight to my keyboard. As such, do expect some cuss words every now and then as I am not exactly the nicest person ever (though probably not the worst either as I am not a serial killer or something). Whooo, my morbid thoughts are already starting to manifest! Again, the aim here is to express, not to impress. With that, I’ll leave you with my latest FB status to that effect:
As much as I try to be civil, I tend to not sugarcoat what I’m really trying to say. Bluntness has always been my strongest/weakest point, depending on how you look at it. 🤷
Events | Health, Wellness & Beauty | Reality
Blogger’s SPArty at Nails.Glow Batangas Branch
By Nathalie on August 18, 2018
Last week, I had the privilege of being invited to a local bloggers’ event. The invitation came from the lovely Ms. Betchie of Mommy QueenElizabeth, the details of which could be found on the photo above. I haven’t updated my blog in a while, but I figured it could use the additional content from the happenings at the event; that, and I wanted to meet other local bloggers as well. So I gratefully accepted her invitation.
