Haro is a handly little robot in the anime series Gundam. He's a personal assistant of sorts to his owner and inventor. More information on Haro here: http://gundam.wikia.com/wiki/Haro

My friend and co-worker Paolo was given one for his birthday this year by his lovely girlfriend Maris. Yes, a real one! Well, as real as possible -- it can't violate laws of physics and gravity like its animated counterpart. But it does talk, and wobble, and move. And has appendages. :)

Paolo asked if I would make a crocheted pouch for him... And here it is!

He always did joke around that if I ever did crochet anything for him it would be black, covered in spikes and burning in flames. Haha. My bad--everything I crochet is girly and lacey, and he of course doesn't want that.

But he's perfectly happy with this pouch made with tapestry crochet. And so is Haro:


This is my first time making color changes in tapestry crochet with three yarns. My hands and eyes were all a-goggle from the effort. Here's Haro looking piteously at the confunded yarns:

Added the last stitch and wove the last end in last night. Started this before Ondoy hit Metro Manila. Was sewing the pockets into it when the water entered our house.

In the flurry of saving whatever we can, and preparing to flee to a safer place, I promptly forgot about this.

Then I saw New Moon during the weekend, and I remembered my abandoned project. This bag's colors and accents were inspired by the Twilight series. Although I don’t care much for its literary worth, I am amazed at all the things that the series inspired into being – shirts, bags, necklaces, bookmarks, dolls and all manner of teeny bopper accessories.

So last night, I added the last flourish – an apple-shapped button for closure. :) And it was done!

I love this bag – my first venture into tapestry crochet. It has a bottle pocket on the side, a back pocket, and a tiny coin purse that can hang either inside or outside.

I added my favorite key chain -- one shaped like a diamond ring. I helped my mom host her friend's wedding anniversary last year, and the keychain was the lovely souvenir. :)


By the way, I don't care how many death threats from Twi-hards I receive... But I'm sorry, the movie was sooooooooo funny. :D I guess only Twilight fans can really enjoy the movie seriously... Although Taylor Lautner did look hot. Team Jacob, yay! Mrawr.

My last blog post was about Typhoon Ondoy and how it affected my family, our area, and the rest of Metro Manila.

Today's post is about how it brought a little (okay, a lot) of laughter to my day, today.

I am a subscriber of SmartBRO (a local ISP from Smart Communications). It's the connection we have at home. Since we recently relocated for an unforeseeable amount of time, I inquired via email if I could have our account temporarily disabled.

I said,

Hello,

I would like to know if it is possible to temporarily disable my SmartBro account. Our home in Pasig City is still submerged in water following Typhoon Ondoy. We have not availed of the SmartBro service since Saturday, September 26th, 2009. We estimate that we won't be able to go back and live in our home for the next month or so.

These are my details:

xxxxxxx

Please let me know what I have to do to carry this out.

Thanks,
Claire Ortega

I sent this five days ago. I received a reply today (formatting added by me):

Dear Ms. Ortega,


Thank you for letting us know of this matter.

We acknowledge your request to put your Smart Bro account on temporary hold due to recent typhoon and we would like to be of help.

We are sudden to hear about what happened to your area and we apologize for the inconvenience it may have caused you.

In this light, may we suggest that you visit your nearest Smart Wireless Center in order to request for temporary disconnection. Rest assured that you will be assisted accordingly.

We hope that this merits your understanding, Ms. Ortega.

Should there be other concerns we can be of help with, please feel free to email us again.


Sincerely,

xxxx xxxxxxx
Customer Care

...
LOL.

So in very uncertain, flowery, grammatically incorrect terms they're telling me that they sympathize but cannot do anything to help me at all and please go somewhere else to seek help.

Oh, and it took another person to point out to me that "sudden" might have been meant to be "saddened" hahaha.

Our country is no stranger to strong typhoons. We're desensitized to images of streets and lands submerged in water. But typhoon Ondoy, which hit Metro Manila last Saturday, literally took us by storm. It's the first time that floodwaters entered homes in our area.

I took this picture from our front door. Night was about to fall, Saturday. This is the last I saw of our first floor, before I took refuge in the second floor of our home. No proper light because authorities turned off the power supply for our own good.


The two pictures above were taken Sunday, from inside the house. The water partially subsided, and we were able to wear rubber boots to protect our legs from the murky water.

We sought shelter in Grace to be Born, a shelter for pregnant women and abandoned babies. We helped build this halfway house about a year ago. Ironically, we're the ones seeking shelter there now. We packed a week's worth of clothes and supplies, and braved the waters outside our home to get there. It's only knee-deep inside our house, but outside, the flood reached up to waist level. Farther away, whole houses were swept away in Marikina and Cainta. I still feel fortunate even after all this -- all of my family are safe, and we were able to save most of our belongings.

I specially appreciate my brother Michael, for coming to Grace to Be Born last Sunday:


He had to brave the muddy wake of Ondoy in Marikina, just to get to us and make sure we were safe. He panicked because we were unable to respond to calls and text messages (all mobile and landline service providers were down). Note the remnants of mud on his backpack. :|

I had to leave all of my accessories back home. And all my yarns and books. :( I feel... orphaned without them. I bought some relief yarn and hooks yesterday, and made this for myself:

Crocheting keeps my mind off my worries. I worry about Ate Vita, who stayed back at our house to supervise the cleaning and to take care of our pets. I worry about my dogs, who I left shaking with fear... :( I worry about everyone who lost their homes-- much more about those who lost their loved ones.

This calamity is bringing out the best and worst in everyone. Reports of selfless heroism appear side by side with reports of looting. If there's anything I can count on, though, it's the cheerfully resilient spirit of the Filipinos. We'll get over this soon.

I made this shawl for my Mama. Not my maternal mother; my other mother (no, not at all like Coraline's Other Mother). She was my nanny since infancy, and left us when I turned ten. Mama Gie taught me a lot of things -- including the art of crochet. :)

Followed the pattern for Blue Curacao Shawl in Doris Chan's Amazing Crochet Lace. Turned up quickly, and it's one of those patterns I wouldn't mind doing again and again.

Anyway, I went to 2GO in Megamall to send this by courier (Mama lives in Danao, Cebu). I was informed by Noy, the person manning the store, that it would take 3 days to get there. I said it was fine, and took out the shawl.

His eyes widened and he asked, "Wow, cross-stitch ba 'to?" ("Wow, is this cross-stitch?")

To which I answered with a smile, "Hindi, crochet. Gantsilyo?" ("No, it's crocheted.")

He good-naturedly nodded, and asked "A, yung gamit ung dalawang hook ba un?" ("Oh, the one using two hooks?")

Wow. Haha. First of all, cross-stitch is embroidery. I would understand the confusion with knitting and crocheting, for craft Muggles. But cross-stitching? :-/ If crochet was an apple, knitting would be an orange. And cross-stitch would be a potato. :|

I saw this bag at the Coats and Clark website under their free crochet patterns section:


... And I fell in lust. :D

I love the color changes, and how the dots look like little hearts. This is a challenging project for me--I hate tedious construction. But I love it so much that I'm willing to try it. :D

The first part to make is the base. This is what I've got so far:


Tres cute, right? Wait till you see the back, though:


It looks like a houndstooth pattern drawn by a kid. Or a houndstooth pattern made by a hound with his tooth. :|

This is my first time doing colorwork, and I'm afraid I'm doing it wrong... :( Hope it's supposed to look like this.

P.S. Yes, that's my spankin' new glow in the dark crochet hook! Found it in CraftWorld Megamall. Oh, and you can get the free pattern for the bag here: http://www.coatsandclark.com/Crafts/Crochet/Projects/Accessories/WR1935+Everyday+Tote.htm