The Key is in the Board

Mother enrolled us in typing classes one summer at the Set Center. This was way back in the days when manual typewriters were still being used for school and computers were found in offices and not in every other room in one's home.

At that time, making several copies meant using carbon paper thus the origination of the terms cc: [carbon copy] and bcc: [blind carbon copy]. Almost everything one typed was in black since the most common typewriter ribbon was black. If you wanted your original copy to have two colors, you had to look for the two-colored black-and-white ribbon and that was it. There was no palette of colors available, just black or red.

Cut and paste literally meant cut and paste, and this required scissors and glue. Corrections often involved starting over because there was no such thing as UNDO although there was correction tape and correction fluid available to help you along.

Yes, it was a time when 'check spelling' involved reading each and every word instead of clicking on these words (CHECK SPELLING) and waiting for erroneously spelled words to be underlined or highlighted. If you needed to confirm the correct spelling of a word, you had to get a dictionary from the bookshelf.

There were calculation involved in getting words centered on a page. One had to get the difference between the number of characters the paper could contain and the number of characters one needed to center, divide this by two then place these number of spaces before typing.

Many of the manual activities were automated by the electric typewriter. Some electric typewriters allowed you to type the words in, hit a back space key and make corrections. The RETURN or ENTER key was the equivalent of the manual typewriter's CARRIAGE RETURN and was used when you were ready to see the words typed out on your paper. The more advanced electric typewriters did the centering and even justification. One of the innovations of the electric typewriter involved the change from the typebars with individual letters to the typeball, then much later to the daisy wheel mechanism. Seriously, the typeball was no fun at all because as a child, pretending to type at lightspeed per minute and getting the typebars all tangled up was half the fun of playing with a manual typewriter. It was even a challenge of how many keys one could get all stuck up in one go. The daisy wheel, on the other hand, was a welcome change that provided alternatives in terms of fonts and sizes. Well, no manual typewriter could give you that. And you know how there are days when you just want your paper to look a tad different.

Today, in this age of computers, changing fonts and sizes are as easy as blinking. Even electric typewriters have found their way to the dark side of the closets, the deep corners of storage areas, or worse, the recycling bin or the trash pile. Surely computers have made life simpler for many people. But I do believe that learning how to touch type is still a good skill to have.

It is interesting to see how manufacturers are able alter the shape and size of the keyboard to match the size of their product. I sometimes feel like Goldilocks when I see the keyboards around this house.

This one is too small ....

(Father gave this one to MyGirl before we left. She loves it. I find the keyboard too tiny!)

This one is too BIG ...

(This keyboard belongs to my godson. He's in Kindergarten. He lent us his workstation for a while so we have a desktop to use. Isn't he the sweetest thing? When I used this keyboard one morning, I felt Jack in the Beanstalk using the Giant's PC.)

Ahhh ... this one is just right ...

(This belongs to GI. Check out his set-up. It has to be comfortable because he spends a heck of a lot of time here.)

Or is it? (His keyboard is a nightmare for non-touchtypists.)

GI, where is the N? Oh, there it is.

Tessellation

Do you know what a TESSELLATION is?

A tessellation is a collection of plane figures that fills the plane with no overlaps or no gaps. It is also known as tiling.

In all my bleep-bleep years, I never knew the word existed. I knew that these tiling patterns could be found here and yonder. I have always been fascinated with them. But what I didn't know that there was a word and a science that came with it.

It was MyGirl that led me to this word as she was doing her Year 3 Math workbook problems. (Apparently, I am NOT smarter than a third-grader!)

In our shipping boxes, I have a book with the works of M.S. Escher. Apparently many of his works are considered tessellations. I think he is an awesome artist. (I will eventually figure out what it is about Escher I would like to write.)

There are regular tessellations. There are three rules in making regular tessellations,

Rule #1 : The tessellation must tile a surface with no overlapping or gaps.

Rule #2 : The tiles must be regular polygons and all the same.

Rule #3 : Each vertex must look the same.

a tessellation of triangles
a tessellation of squares
a tessellation of hexagons

Pretty!

There are also semi-regular tessellations. These are made by using two or more different regular polygons. The rules are still the same. Every vertex must have the same configuration.

To name a semi-regular tessellation, go around one vertex and count the number of sides of the polygon that form that vertex. Don't forget to start with the smallest numbers coming first.

3, 6, 3, 6

3, 3, 3, 3, 6

3, 3, 3, 4, 4

3, 3, 4, 3, 4

More samples of semi-regular tessellations.

Simply amazing.

(It is possible that my simple brain loves these shapes because there is rhythm, regularity, and consistency in the patterns. When I go out with my camera, I think I will capture some tessellations and post them.)

Moving Date

Over the past few weeks, I have spent many days and nights poring over available (and affordable) rental properties in our vicinity. My favorite sites were www.realestate.com.au and www.domain.com.au. These sites were already part of my default start-up along with gmail and yahoogroups. In the course of my house hunting, I discovered that there existed myhome, homebound, justlisted and many more. (Of course that information is probably irrelevant.)

After the initial SEND AN EMAIL TO THE AGENT on a potential property, I would anxiously await the response to my enquiry -- where was the property located, was it accessible to the buses (particularly the school buses), when would the place be available, etc.

Sometimes, the details are stated in the listing and all I'd have to do was to note them down -- the address, the agent, the property details (# of bedrooms, # of toilet/bath, # car garage), rent per week, date and time when the property could be viewed. There was a day that I went to five different places.

When a place looked promising, we gathered our documentation and sent in our application. All property managers require identification. Usually they would indicate that 100 points of identification was needed to process the applications. Each tenant 18 and above is required to fill up an application form.

An example of required IDs and their corresponding points would be:

Driver's License -- 40 points

Passport -- 40

Birth Certificate -- 20

Medicare Card -- 20

Bank Statement -- 20

Car Registration -- 20

Utility Bill -- 20

Pay slip -- 20

When the point system was like this, MacGyver and I were ok. However, when the agency alloted lower points for the driver's license and the passport, we were in trouble. They would look for previous tenancy ledgers or rent receipts, Centrelink / family benefit statements, or credit card statements, in addition to the primary identification documents. We were never quite certain if our identification would suffice.

To top it all off, since neither of us have work at the moment, I would imagine that our applications would find themselves at the bottom of the heap. This was apparent from the series of rejections we experienced on the applications we tendered. I heard this line quite a number of times over the past weeks, "There were so many applications on the property, unfortunately yours was not selected."

There was one particular rejection we experience which I feel reiterated the importance of the proof of income (we were unable to provide). We had sent in our application for the property which was at the upper limit of our rental budget but was literally along the street of the High School. The day after we submitted our application, we got the call informing us that there were several applications on the property but ours was rejected and that the owner had given no reason. Several days later, I found the same property still listed but this time at a lower price. I sent out a new enquiry on the listed property asking if it was the same unit which we had seen and applied for. I wrote, in my nicest English, that we were still interested and would still be willing to pay the original price if the landowner would reconsider our application.

Wonder of wonders, we still got rejected.

But we were not to be defeated. I just kept right on clicking on potential places to rent, arranged for open dates (scheduled date when the home would be open to interested tenants for their inspection), checked out more places and continued on sending applications.

We got our lucky break from a sales manager of LJHooker last Friday. He was able to get us approval for a house which was in the school's bus route at the upper limit of budget. (I won't post the details of what happened, but if ever you are in Australia and are looking for a property agent, I would surely recommend this guy to you.) He was the ONLY person I spoke with that seemed genuinely interested in the well-being of the persons interested in renting a place. I will always be grateful for the assistance he extended to us during these times.

But what happened was that right before we heard from the LJHooker person, we had checked out a townhouse near the school. In fact, it was an open date which I had almost forgotten. MacGyver and I were already at the parking lot of the school waiting for the school bell to ring when I remembered that there was this townhouse available being offered by Century21 and the open date was now. Since the place was so close to the school, we decided to drive off and check the property out.

The property manager was someone I had met a couple of days prior. He had shown me a house in the same vicinity and we had already submitted some documents applying for this house (in line with our resolve to keep on sending out applications). This townhouse he was showing us was closer to the school and the rent was lower so we asked the agent if we could carry over the application to the townhouse, and if we were disapproved, we would try our luck for the house we had originally applied for. Over the weekend, he asked for additional documents, which we sent over carelessly because we half-expected to get the same dismal results.

Then this morning, when I least expected good news, we received word from the Century21 property officer that the owners of the townhouse we had checked out last Friday had approved our application. (WOW!) We went to the nearby Century21 office and handed over the required reservation fee for the townhouse.

We are scheduled to sign the lease and get the keys on 12 November 2009! (Hurrah!!)

I hope that this place will be a good one for me and my family.

Please join me in praying that we have made the right decision on this move and that my family will be happy in what will soon be called our HOME.

First Day of School

19 October 2009 -- First day of school for RD and MyGirl. They have less than ten weeks of school till the end of the schoolyear. GI had a great third term from July to September and was just as excited to see his new-found friends.

Look, Up In the Sky

Yesterday, on our way check out a second hand car in North Rocks,

we were gifted with this sign from the heavens.

My brother-in-law drove us to North Rocks,

which is about an hour away from where we are staying.

MacGyver and I drove back in a '97 Camry.

(Photos taken with my Palm Treo because I'd forgotten my trusty camera at home.)

When You Care Enough to Send the Very Best

When we were much younger, we used to get these Hallmark Date Books whenever Father or Mother would travel to the States. They had heartwarming and quaint designs making them fun to collect.

In these Date Books, they slipped in a pocket calendar for the year. The back of the calendar would have the "dates to remember" and either a summary of terms for the different Wedding Anniversaries or the recommended gifts for these.


Apparently, MacGyver and I are in the in-between years were our anniversary is not called anything in particular aside from our SEVENTEENTH Anniversary. But wait a minute ... where are my clocks, china, crystal, appliances and more (silverware, diamond and gold jewelry, watches and furs)?

Oh ... they went to the food, clothing and shelter of three little angels. Not a bad trade.

Now You See Her, Now You Don't

Some months back, I noticed that they were setting up a new advertisement in the PET Plans Building. If you recall, this PET Plans building had the Levi's ad plastered across three sides of the building last year and I was fascinated by it.

Well, for this particular one, the white "cover" eventually extended wider and had words which indicated to TEXT a number to REVEAL.

Hhmmm ... am sure the menfolk were interested in what this lady had to reveal.

I have to admit, I was curious. Of course I knew that whatever it was this lady would reveal would be something which was rated GP. We are talking about the middle of EDSA where hundreds of commuters pass everyday.

After a week or so, the white cover came off ... and the Johnson's ad was revealed. I can imagine that there were a lot of disappointed men when the cover finally came off. (Sorry, boys!)

On a side note, if you check out the other poster in the picture above, you will see Dawn Zulueta doing a Demi Moore pose (with a tad more articles of clothing). Well, Dawn gave birth last 22 June. Before we left the Philippines, the Marie France poster of her pregnant was still on display. I have no doubt that they will restore her to her original figure and they will display this in full glory along EDSA to encourage women of all shapes and sizes to go for treatment.

Other buildings try to post huge advertisements as well. But so far, in my books, nothing comes close to the PET Plans buildings.

Too bad the Johnson's ad wasn't up for very long. I would have wanted to take a better picture.

ASCII and Ye Shall Receive

I love it when I can impress MyGirl.

Last week, when I was typing out something for my mother-in-law, I had to type out the name "Niño". MyGirl was amazed at how the tilde appeared with the 'n'. I told her that my former boss Sueña had taught me how to do that. With a name like hers, the knowledge of ALT 164 (and ALT 165) was practically essential.

My other favorites are ALT 154 (Ü) and the matching ALT 129 or ALT 0252 (ü) . Someone else taught me how to do that.

When I rediscovered these ASCII codes, I often used ALT 241 (±), 242 (≥) and 243 (≤) for my documentation at work.

Yes I know this seems a bit shallow, but it still is fun. (At least MyGirl seemed to think so.)

First Day of the Rest of Your Life

We have often heard the saying that "Today is the First Day of the Rest of Your Life." Well, today, 03 October 2009, is the first day of the start of a new life for me and my family. We set foot in the Land Down Under today where we intend to spend the rest of our days.

We said our good-byes yesterday at Cebu Avenue early. MacGyver's mom and his sister came over to join Father and Mother as the send-off crew. We were still packing until the last minute and in spite all that to-ing and fro-ing, we still forgot some of our stuff.

We arrived at the airport after 4pm, well ahead of our required 5:30 pm check-in time. Our flight was due to leave at 8:30pm. Fortunately, the check-in counter was already open. Our luggage was within the required 20kg /person limit. They didn't count handbags and laptop cases as part of the weigh-in, so our hand carry bags were likewise within the prescribed limit. The lady said the hand carry limit was 9 kg, excluding handbags, contrary to what I had been told when I inquired over the phone. Had I known that earlier I would have not left some of my books and clothes at home. (Over the phone I was told that I had an allocation of 7kg for the handcarry which included my handbag. Heavy sigh!) We paid the travel tax which was not included in our e-Ticket. As migrating permanent residents, we were not subject to the P1620 tax, instead we paid the reduced rate of P200/pax. Departure tax is now P750/pax, multiplied by four, covered most of the pesos we had on hand.

Father had sent us off with some bottled water and snacks. At the initial hand carry check, we were not made to throw away our water. We just had to take off our shoes, jewelry, belts, etc. Since we'd arrived early and our flight was still much later, we took the time to grab a bite to eat and drink up our bottled water.

At about 6:30 pm, they had everybody near the departure lounge at the gate vacate the premises to go through another hand carry check. Again, the bags and the shoes went through the x-ray machine but this time, we were supposed to empty our pockets into a basket. Just my luck, I had a ton of coins in my pocket at the time. I should have stuffed those in my handbag before that second round of checking. It was kind of embarrassing to have to chase coins around.

Anyway, after getting through that final check, all we had to do was wait for our time to board then we'd be on our way. I took the time to send Father one last text message to say good-bye. He replied with this brief message which was filled with love and hope. He said, "Love you. Wake up to a new life." (I love that! Yes, it made me cry.)

They let us board at about 7:45pm. We had a whole center row to ourselves.

The flight was uneventful though a little rough due to the rains. Peping was due to hit the country as we were leaving. Fortunately our flight was not delayed nor canceled, and Peping spared the country from another beating. (People have not gotten over Ondoy yet and are quite allergic to rain.) MacGyver and I took the aisle seats while MyGirl and RD were between us. Throughout the flight, RD's nose was running sending him off to the lavatory to get tissue. He stood up to go at least 5 times so we have decided that next time, RD gets the aisle seat.

Australia is GMT+10 while Manila is GMT+8. We were scheduled to land at Melbourne after 6am local time so at 3am Manila time (5am as far as they were concerned), they turned the cabin lights on and served us orange juice and ensaymada. Needless to say, we hardly got to sleep in the plane because of that.

I thought we would just drop off the Melbourne-bound passengers allowing the Sydney-bound folk to stay in the plane but apparently it doesn't work that way. When we landed at Melbourne at 6:10 am, everybody had to get off the plane and those bound for Sydney had to get a TRANSIT PASS and board another plane at 8:00 am. No wonder our ETA was 9:30 am in Sydney.

Before we landed, I though I had lost our original boarding passes. I had never had to transfer flights before so as far as I was concerned, boarding passes were one-time slips of cardboard. I was so happy that St. Anthony heard my prayers and gently reminded me that I had placed the boarding passes in the laptop case I had been carrying when we first boarded the plane.

The transfer from one plane to another led to another round of screening. This one at the Melbourne airport required us to take out the laptops and other metal items from our hand carry bags. (Paranoid me put all my coins inside my bag this time.)

Aside from MyGirl dropping her Transit Pass by accident (and the missing boarding pass panic), the stopover at Melbourne was short and sweet. Once we boarded the plane bound for Sydney, we were on the final leg of our trip.

We landed at Sydney before 9:30am. From the plane, we went through immigrations then claimed our luggage then through customs. Based on my observation, if you tick YES on any of the items on top, this is something for the customs officer to check; if you tick YES on any of the items on the bottom, that is for the quarantine officer to check.

The last time we entered Australia, MacGyver refused to bring any food in, so we had nothing to declare. This time around, MyGirl wanted to save the ensaymada they served us on the plane, so I said, "No problem as long as we declare it." Thus we ticked YES on the food question. Apparently, even if you declare these food items, they will still get confiscated. (Yes, the Australians are very wary of contaminants to their flora and fauna. DECLARE OR BEWARE!) They let the rice crackers and the brownie through, but the dried fruits and the ensaymada (because it has cheese) ended up in the trash bin.

The quarantine check was our last stop before getting in. After that, it was down the ramp and onto the meeting place (McDonald's) where MacGyver's brother was supposed to meet us.

Our Philippine pre-paid cards roaming function didn't seem to work but thankfully at about 10:30am, we saw familiar faces coming to pick us up. With that, we felt that we had really arrived.



When I sent out an email announcing that we'd landed, a good friend of mine replied with a brief email which started with "Welcome home." That made me realize that today indeed is the dawn of a new day for us because we now have a new place to call home.

Read to Me

Little Ronald was with us at Cebu Avenue for a very short time. But in that short time, he managed to capture our hearts.

RD and MyGirl were very nice to their cousin. In fact, RD took the time to read Ronald some books one afternoon to keep young Ronald busy while his mother Sunshine was away.