Field and souvenir ball caps

I have a small collection of ball caps that include mostly souvenir caps from our trips abroad. Among these are baseball caps I myself bought including the Atlanta Braves cap I wrote about recently. I also have a San Francisco Giants cap I got in San Francisco during their successful run about a decade ago when they were winning the World Series every other year. And then there's the San Diego Padres cap I got while visiting the city in 2015. Two are field caps, meaning they are the types players actually used in games. One is an official souvenir cap.

This is my 25-year old Atlanta Braves cap, which is a field cap or one typically worn by players and coaches in the field of play.

This is my San Diego Padres cap, which I bought at the team shop at Petco Park in 2015. This is also an official on-field cap.

My San Francisco Giants cap, which I got in 2011, is an official souvenir cap (yes, there are many non-official caps out there).

I did have other caps that I bought when I visited the US including a couple I got as souvenirs aboard the USS Midway museum in San Diego. One went to Tatay and another to my father-in-law. I also got one from the USS Independence when I visited Yokosuka Naval Base in 2001, which I gave to my father. Unfortunately, I think that cap got lost with the floods of Typhoon Ketsana (Ondoy) in 2009 - another casualty of that disaster.

More on caps later...

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A slightly used music player and my CD collection

A portable CD-Cassette-Player Radio we bought 3 years back was not being used so I decided to bring it to the guest room. We have one of our work-from-home set-ups at the guest room so there was another independent area especially for when one or many of us were on calls and needed to 'isolate' from the others. 

Sony CD-Casette player-radio

Some old CDs that I bought when I lived in Japan. These are more than 20 years old but they are in very good condition and don't skip when played. I guess the quality of these CDs are better than most?

I guess it's not a Sony if it didn't have Mega Bass as an option for its players including Walkman and Discman portables.

I still have most of my CD collection. I lost many CDs to the floods of Typhoon Ketsana (Ondoy) in 2009, including those in our cars and those I left in my parents' home. Fortunately, most of my CDs (the ones I listen to the most) were in our home and my office. I still keep them in several locations though our home now is flood free. My new wave/80s music and jazz collections are split at home and office but my classical music CDs are at home. Also mostly at home are my old J-Pop CDs (these are not really so many) including singles that I rediscovered recently while cleaning my shelves. I will write more about these things in future articles here.

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On collecting watches

I probably have never been as passionate about collecting something since my dabbling in philately (stamp collection) when I was in high school. I was also an amateur coin collector then. Both collections started when Tatay returned abroad from a couple of trips - one from Tokyo, Japan and another from Surabaya, Indonesia.

I want to share one article that inspires amateur collectors like me:

Wind, E. (2014) Your Complete Guide To The Watches Of United States Presidents, https://www.hodinkee.com/articles/personal-timepieces-every-united-states-president-ever

The original article came out in 2014 but has been updated since. While I don't have the resources to try and collect these and similar time pieces (those Rolexes and Omegas are prohibitively priced), I do have my own preferences and taste for the watches I can get my hands on. Luckily, I have been able to acquire a couple of Vulcain Crickets including a model similar to one gifted to a US President back in the 1950s/60s. I am happy with that thought at least. Here are a couple of boxes showing part of my collection:

Some of the watches in my collection: The black case contains a couple of Ricoh divers, three Seiko chronographs, a Seiko AGS Landmaster, a Glashutte spezimatic, and an Oberon digital. The red case contains mostly Seikos - SKX399, SKX401, Monaco, 6106 diver, Pogue, and a couple of bullheads, and a Swatch chronograph diver that was my first dive watch.

 

I actually made a simple database of my watches but have not been able to update this lately. The database includes not just the brand and model but the technical specs, acquisition price and the approximate value of each watch. The vintage chronographs are the ones that seem to appreciate over time. I've documented most of my collection in this blog so I won't be mentioning the more special pieces here.

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On workshop (delivered) meals

We had a virtual workshop spread over three mornings la couple of weeks ago. While we were not expecting any meals delivered to our homes and the office (some of those who attended opted to go to the office to get stable internet connection), some were jokingly thanking the administrators and support staff for lunch, especially as some sessions spilled beyong 12:00 noon. On the last day though, we were surprised with the delivery of very generous lunches at our homes. In my case, it took some effort since I live far from the office. More so when I saw the boxes from Alba, the popular Spanish restaurant.

A pleasant surprise when I came down from the study was a couple of boxes tied in a white ribbon.

One box was labeled Combinado de Mariscos (combined seafood) and the other was Paella Valenciana.

The Combinado de Mariscos is the one above. The Paella Valenciana is the one below.

Close-up of the Paella Valenciana

Close-up of the Combinado de Mariscos

The nearest Alba to our home is the one at Capitol Commons. I assume the staff ordered from there. I am not sure others had the same lunch boxes though as the staff probably knows what people preferred to have delivered to them. The food was definitely for sharing unless one's a glutton so we had a nice lunch for the family that Friday.

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Comfort food - Victorias Sardines

I stumbled upon a jar of sardines at a convenience store at a nearby gas station. I immediately grabbed the last remaining jar as I recognized it to be of a familiar brand - Victorias. Victorias Sardines is not just familiar to me. I am very fond of it and have happy memories of the cans I consumed while studying in Japan

It took some time but I found a store in the Ameyoko shopping street between JR Okachimachi and JR Ueno Stations in Tokyo that sold Victorias sardines. Prior to that, I had to bring the legal limit of sardine cans whenever I had the chance to come home for vacation. Other times, my father sent me a few cans through his engineers he sent to Tokyo for training. This latter mode was about twice a year and I happily served as tourist guide to the first timers in return for the valuable food items they brought to me. I also made sure they find the nice stores where they could get souvenirs for their loved ones back home without breaking their wallets.

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Breakfast of champions: dried fish and eggs with fried rice

I recall going to Cebu for the first time back in the mid 1990s and enjoying my first taste of their version of danggit. Going around the country, I think theirs is still the best though Iloilo's and Roxas' danggit are also there in terms of quality. The ones we got from Damortis in La Union are often too salty for our taste. And fortunately, my suki at the Antipolo Public Market sources their danggit (as well as other dried seafood) from Cebu.

A favorite Filipino breakfast is one with dried fish and eggs as viand. The dried fish here is danggit and dulong. Here we also have a choice of garlic fried rice or plain rice as well as eggs scrambled or sunny side up.

The photo also shows a bottle of sinamak - vinegar with (lots of) chili and garlic mixed in. The sinamak is made by our driver, Larry, who also sells it as a sideline in their sari-sari store in Pililla.

The wife likes to have a mug of coffee with her breakfast. I usually have either hot chocolate or fruit juice (orange or apple) to drink. Regardless, we love this breakfast combination. I think the only thing missing here is the dried squid that we also source from our suking vendor. The squid is also quite crispy when cooked (fried) right and eaten almost immediately out of the pan.

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Braves baseball then and now

The reason I suddenly posted about baseball was my learning that the Atlanta Braves finally won the World Series after 26 years. That's a pretty long spell for a team that consistently won in the 1990s until the mid 2000s. I watch a resurgence in the last 5 years but always thought their teams weren't good enough to get past the National League given the competition. Pundits sure didn't expect them to win it all this year being team with the least wins (88) in the playoffs and just getting in because of a poor NL East Division. The San Francisco Giants and the Los Angeles Dodgers both won more than 100 games in the regular season and featured superior pitching and hitting all season. And yet, here were the Braves to win it all, beating a 95-win Houston Astros in the World Series.

I first became a fan of the team back in the early 1990s when they battled and lost a couple of finals to the Minnesota Twins and the Toronto Blue Jays. They won in 1995 against the Cleveland Indians before heartbreaking losses in the next so many years at the National League (they were the top team so many times but were upset in the NLCS) and twice to the New York Yankees, which, to be fair had superior teams back then. I admired their pitching and who couldn't with the trio of Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and John Smoltz practically beating most teams every night they start for the Braves. I recall they pitched deep into the game with a complete game not far off when they're on. Nowadays, they seem to be pitching by committee with the starting pitchers lasting only a few innings. In the recently series, it was rare for a Braves starter to last 4 innings. While I admire the relief pitchers and the closer, I think they should some really good starters if they want to sustain their winnings. Or is the time of the dominant pitcher already gone?

My first baseball cap was an Atlanta Braves cap I got in 1996. I got it for what I recall was 5,000 yen from a vendor in Harajuku, Tokyo.

The ball cap is basically in great shape considering its 25 years with me.

Back of the cap

This is a New Era field cap, which means this is a cap the players use in games.

Politics aside (and there are many controversies about the Braves out there), I do hope they continue their winning ways and perhaps be champions again in the near future, if not back to back.

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On generic replacement bands for my watches

I recently had one of my Seiko chronographs serviced. The day wheel got stuck and I had not brought this watch to the shop since I acquired it in December 2020. This didn't have a strap as I removed it and used the leather strap on another watch I planned to unload. Since I was already at the shop to get it last weekend, I purchased a generic stainless steel strap so I could wear it on the way home.

The Seiko 7017-6040 Flyback with its new stainless steel strap.

Unsigned clasp for the generic stainless steel strap. The day wheel is working well and is set to Kanji days. The photo shows the day to be Nichiyobi or Sunday.

For completeness, here is the back of the watch showing the serial number that indicates this to have been made in July 1971.

Close up of the lower part of the dial that shows the dial number that usually matches with the model number at the back of the watch.

Wrist shot for the last day of October - I wore the watch for my Sunday morning walk. That gave my usual watch for our walks, a Seiko AGS Landmaster, a rest.

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On baseball

I realized that I have not written about another sport that I enjoy watching and had an opportunity to play (very little) when I was studying in Japan. Aside from basketball, football, tennis and badminton, I also enjoy watching baseball. While I played basketball, football and volleyball in Physical Education classes during grade school and high school, I never got to play baseball until my time in Japan. I enjoyed baseball as a fan. And I learned about the rules from my father. Tatay played some baseball and softball when he was in high school in the province at a time the sports were still popular in the country. Fortunately, there was some Major League Baseball games that I got to watch on TV in the late 1980s. So I was able to watch the LA Dodgers win in 1988, when that city's team also won the NBA Championship.

There was an 8-university tournament among the transportation engineering and planning laboratories in the Kanto area. What was an annual tournament was held at the Tokyo Science University or Science University of Tokyo (Rikadai) spacious campus grounds in Noda, Chiba. Among the universities participating were the University of Tokyo, Tokyo Institute of Technology (where I was Visiting Scientist in 1996), Saitama University (where I was visiting Scientist there in 2001 and 2008), and my school, Yokohama National University. I don't recall us winning many games but it was all for fellowship among the students, research associates, and some of the faculty (mostly the young ones) who chose to participate.

This was held in the summers and I recall labmates practicing at the field near our building as well as during our summer seminar. I could catch the ball but I couldn't throw it like my Japanese friends. They played baseball when they were young and a couple played the equivalent of varsity when they were in high school. We had a really good pitcher and a few good hitters during my second year in Japan. I think that team was good enough to win the tournament but another lab had a better game. I sat out that one, content to watch the game with the other foreign students who also attended for the fellowship (read: after tournament party) part.

I have a few baseball caps in my cap collection. These I purchased myself and were not pasalubong.

More on baseball in future posts!

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On grooming our dogs

The pandemic and the frequent lockdowns have reduced our trips to the vet. They do message us for our scheduled vaccinations and we often have 2 or 3 dogs go there at the same time to lessen the frequency of visits. All our dogs practically stay within our property and rarely mingle with others so the vet says we can wait to schedule their visits for our convenience and safety (health-wise). Our dog Boots, however, urgently needed to be groomed. He had not had his fur cut in a long while though we tried to trim it to avoid the tangles and matting. We even used the oils we got for conditioning their skin and fur. At one point though, it was unmanageable and we didn't want to risk injuring our maltipoo mix.

Here's Boots wearing his new Hawaiian themed shirt after we had him groomed at the vet.

The summer cut was necessary because the fur was already unmanageable due to multiple matting.

We think he likes the Hawaiian shirt. He has another costume that he likes that we got for him earlier - a Captain America shirt. He liked that one and even responded to Captain America when we jokingly called him that.

 

We thought that Boots felt cold because of all the fur that was removed. He wears his Captain America costume under the Hawaiian shirt. Here he is all curled up while sleeping on his favorite part of the sofa. He has his own bed but when we're seated while watching TV, he likes to be near us. After the usual petting and scratching, he leaves us and retires here. He eventually finds his was to his sofa bed (its a kiddie thing we got from Mandaue Foam) during the night as we find him there in the mornings.

Boots seem to be depressed after every grooming. He is very clingy these days but less so when he grows back his fur. Our retriever seems to understand and they usually sleep together at night near Boots' dog bed.

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A vintage rosary - a family heirloom

When you think about items that are handed over from one generation to another, you are more likely to think about jewelry including rings, bracelets, necklaces and even watches. I keep a rosary from my mother as something with tremendous sentimental value. It is the rosary that my father used whenever we prayed at home including the novenas at certain times of the year including Octobers, which is the month of the rosary. My parents gave this to me prior to my going overseas to study in the 1990s. I have kept it ever since and still use it whenever I pray the rosary at home. I have a couple of other rosaries I also use alternately including one the wife brought back from a trip to Rome.

The rosary is originally my mother's and Mama got this when she was still single so its definitely older than me.

Connecting the links is this medallion with Our Lady with the Child Jesus on the back

There's another medallion attached to the main link with the image of Our Lady of Perpetual Help at the front.

Front of the medallion with an image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Image of Pope Paul VI - this dates the rosary to sometime between 1963 to 1978. He visited the Philippines in 1970 though so I assume the rosary was acquired sometime then; making this at least 50 years old.

The cross has been damaged as I usually had the rosary in my pocket wherever I went when I was abroad. That includes my 35-day stay in Tokyo, 3-year stay in Yokohama, 3 months and another 1.5 months in Saitama.

Some links had to be repaired or replaced. Tatay did so using copper wire.

I have other religious items that I have a sentimental attachment to. These include items I got when I was staying in Japan in the 1990s. Maybe I should also document these and post it here for memory.

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Lumpia wrapper making

We begin the month of November with a video. Yes, I took this video one time I was at the public market to get our seafood, vegetable and fruit supplies for the week. As I passed by to join my companion who was getting some buko (coconut) water, I saw a lumpia wrapper maker and took the video below to show how the wrapper is made.

 Here are some photos I took after the video:

There are two flat metal plates where the dough is poured to make lumpia wrappers. Since the area is a cubicle at a relatively cramped part of the market, the electric fan provides the ventilation. I can imagine it can get really hot here during the day. [It was cooler at the time I took the video and photos as I go to the market at 5:30AM.]

The wrappers are grouped in 10s. 10 pieces are priced at 9 pesos. I got 20 pieces for the lumpia we were planning to have for Sunday lunch.

The dough is in a large pot and cloth is used to get just enough dough to lay out on the two plates. I assume it takes some experience to estimate how much dough you need to have 'absorbed' by the cloth. Otherwise, there would be a lot of wasted dough.

You can request for different sizes of wrappers. The small and medium size wrappers (smaller than what is in the photos) are what are usually used for lumpia. The ones in the photos are large size wrappers that you can also use for lumpia but is commonly used for turon or saba bananas wrapped and fried, a popular snack (merienda) in the Philippines. The largest size they make, I was told, was XL, which are also used for turon. The XL size meant only 3 wrappers can be laid out on each of the plates. 

The wrappers did not disappoint. We had them for lumpia and turon. They were the crispy kind when fried the right way (deep fry). Add this guy to my suking (favorite) vendors at the Antipolo Public Market.

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