Naudlot na Atlantis

Haay... naku naman talaga o.. kung minalas ka nga naman...

Sarado ang Atlantis!!! Waaaa!!!!!!!! Ang aga ko pa namang naligo. Bwiset na Madonna, Lindsay Lohan, Robert de Niro, Pamela Anderson, Kylie Minogue, etc... Kainggit talaga itong mga celebrities na ito.

Sobrang takang-taka kami na walang traffic man lang papasok ng Palm Jumeirah e samantalang ilang araw nang di halos gumagalaw traffic nitong mga nakaraang araw. Pagdating namin sa gate, nakupo, hanggang doon lang pala kami. Sarado ang Atlantis ng dalawang buong araw dahil andun ang mga VIP guests nila for the previous night's Grand Opening, including the President of the UAE, several Sheikhs, celebrity bigwigs, etc... They had the whole place all to themselves for the weekend.

Kaya eto, hanggang gate lang din ang picture ko... sa ngayon.

Learning to be a Jill-of-All-Trades

Life truly isn’t a bed of roses. Life doesn’t hand you everything you want on a silver platter- not even a wooden one. You have to work on getting them for yourself. So you really have to arm yourself with the right tools of the trade.

I beg your pardon.. did I say trade? Uh-uh.. Well, first things first. You have to be in the right trade in the first place. Coz if you’re at the wrong place or trade or business to begin with, how else can things follow?


It's been some time now that I've been thinking about being in the wrong trade. But as the days wore on, I'm learning some new things. Never in my imagination did it occur to me that I'll ever be near a publications company. I know nowhere anything about fashion, movie reviews, society gigs or least of all, automobiles!!! But then, as they say and now I learn, there's always a first time for everything. And opportunities for learning new things don't just drop on your lap very often. So perhaps this is a new challenge for me.

Mommy's Birthday

I called early today. But it seems that early for me is not early for them back home... coz I'm like 4 hours late.. hehehe

I woke up early so I can greet Mommy on her special day. She said she’s in Cebu with Daddy and Aunty Gingging. It’s Aunty’s first session for her therapy. Aunty was all giggly when I talked to her, I guess just trying to keep light of the situation.

Daddy left Dumaguete early in the morning and met up with Mommy and Aunty in Cebu so they can celebrate Mommy’s birthday together.

I wish my Mom a peaceful year, a grace-filled year, a blessed year. I thank the Lord for the gift of my Mom. God has given us countless blessings all these years. Nothing tops the gift of my loving family.

Life Here in Dubai

Angela is moving to a new flat, there in al Baraha... cheaper, fewer people in a room and perhaps more peaceful than what we have here.

Chatted with marie... re: office life. Seems I have to push mohamed for my papers para lumalarga na ang pagkuha ng visa ko. Tatagal pa kaya ako sa ganito?

On my third day at the Jebel Ali office, when going home, I saw the heavy traffic on the way back to Deira. Since the van I rode on was going to the Burj Dubai terminal, I attempted the fastest way back to Deira- riding the abra. Gosh!

My cousin was telling me last night that I should ride the little boats ferrying people across the creek to the Naif market areas. And so I asked the terminal guard where the Abra was and I just followed the throng leaving the terminal. I was already halfway across the walk when I realized I was walking parallel to the bridge crossing the creek, the Al Maktoum Bridge. And I thought, “Hey, this is a long walk! I must be going the wrong way. I seem to be crossing the creek already. I asked one of the people walking along and got pointed to the right direction.

I enjoyed being on my own, though. I started taking pictures of the little wooden boats there, and went to sit on one. I enjoyed the ride so much. I took a video of it and I’m posting it here. Though I know you won’t be seeing anything but random lights out of the dark background.

The ride cost me only one dirham. And suddenly I found myself on the other side of the creek, to the busy side of Naif. From there, I rode a taxi cab shared with a fellow Pinay who also avoided the traffic via the Abra. Anyway, I just thought of sharing with you guys about my life here.

Kuya's Birthday

My dearest brother has this thing about posting pictures on the web. He’s not comfortable with it. So I won’t go the lengths of placing his face here. And that’s good coz I don’t have to search for one anymore. Hahaha.

Kuya just turned 37. I called to greet him on his birthday and they were out for lunch, enjoying their favorite pizza. I miss being there with them, perhaps I would have joined them if I were still in Manila. I miss going to the malls with them and just hanging out, eating, window-shopping, making tambay at BookSale or ogling new gadgets in the computer world.

Here in Dubai, I don’t have the luxury of buying in the m alls as I still don’t have money to splurge. I’ve still got debts to pay back home. And my bills are not coming in, meaning penalty for overdue bills are piling up. It’s a difficult life.

Aunty Gingging

Do you believe in kulam (curse)? Well, I don’t.

But somehow this is all the talk that’s been going around for a couple of days now here at the house. We just recently received bad news from back home. My aunty Gingging has been diagnosed with cervical cancer. She has been a widow for almost a decade now. And, in retrospect, seems to be a most likely candidate for such an ailment. Nobody suspected. Not even her. She seemed to be so healthy and fit and was always on the go. Then one day, she was admitted to the hospital because of pain in her right kidney. They said they needed to perform surgery on it right away. She was admitted to the hospital where my mom worked. When the next call from my mom came, it was to tell us that there was a finding on aunty. My grand-aunty Flor was her attending physician and who told my mom of Aunty Gingging’s condition. They immediately had a sample tissue sent for biopsy. When the results came, my mom had a hard time coming to terms with the sad news. Aunty had stage 3 cancer already.

My aunty Gingging celebrated her golden birthday a couple of years ago. An active servant of God, she always volunteers for ministry work in the Handmaids of the Lord (HOLD) arm of Couples for Christ. She holds such a zest for life, actively going around joining ILCs anywhere in the archipelago, one time even touring down Malaysia together with her sisters in HOLD. I remember her as a very flamboyant person who loved to sing and dance. Way back in the late seventies, when The Saturday Night Fever movie showed in theaters around, my aunty took me with her to see the movie. When we left the moviehouse, we immediately went to a record house and she bought the soundtrack album. When we got home she immediately played it on the phonograph and we started doing the John Travolta moves to the tune of Night Fever. Boy it was fun!

But now, aunty’s ovaries have grown so very large after her hospital stay. It’s like she was pregnant by the size of her abdomen. With most of the folks back home being very traditional, talk started about my aunty being the victim of a curse. Rumors came out that the thing in her stomach is due to a curse. They wanted to bring her to a quack doctor. They even sent one relative to a known quack doctor, offer my aunty’s name/birthday, some info and ask him to heal her.

I believe in miracles, especially from God. It would take faith, I know.

Mommy was always crying and was text messaging everyone in the family but still couldn’t bring herself to tell aunty about her condition. But when friends started calling in to visit her and encouraging messages started trickling in, the inevitable happened. Aunty learned. Whether it was from her own son, or brod or sis from the CFC ministry or maybe by her own hunch, she learned. And she dealth with it. She prepared herself- emotionally, spiritually, and physically. And she’s still fighting her battle.

I sent my mom a package in time for her birthday, and along with it I sent the pink cap with a pink ribbon which I wore during the Pink Ribbon Walk for a Cause (Breast Cancer Awareness) in Dubai Burjuman. I said she should wear it even if it’s not breast cancer.

Mommy made the rounds of their properties and asked the consent of all her siblings to sell off a parcel of land in Zamboanga to pay for all the therapy and medical expenses. Then they went to Cagayan de Oro to look for a good oncologist but the best ones seem to be in Cebu so they scheduled for an appointment with the doctors there. The doctors immediately scheduled surgery to remove her ovaries which have grown so big that they were already impeding her kidneys.

On the day of her surgery in Cebu, Aunty Gingging called everyone of her siblings and had heart to heart talk with all of them. She wanted to make peace with all of them just to be sure and wouldn’t want to proceed with the operation unless she’s fully ready. She was strong. The doctors said her body was really fighting back. There were four doctors assisting the lead oncologist. Praise God for the good outcome of her surgery. Her doctors allowed her to go home to Iligan to recover and gain back some strength (maybe for a month). Then they will need to go back to Cebu to begin her radiation therapy sessions.

We continue to pray for her that her recovery will continue and that she will truly survive her cancer malady.

Work in Transition

During the first weeks here, I was still waiting for the red ribbon of my transcript which had to be authenticated also by the UAE embassy in the Philippines so that it can be stamped at the Consular office here in Dubai. See, I was told employment papers here in Dubai cannot be processed if I do not have my own educational certificates attested by the proper authorities so I really waited for these documents to be duly authenticated.

I had interviews and decided to accept the job as a receptionist in the sales office of a publication firm here in Dubai. Pay is okay considering that the work does not entail too much brain use… ha-ha. It’s really more of coordinating skills and patience on the phone. “,)

And so, I had so much time on my hands. Enough to pen in most of my thoughts, as my head is already brimming full of things to post on my blog. Hence, these most of my blogposts now.

First day I reported to work here, I was culture-shocked. People at the office seem to be shouting at one another even though they say that it’s the normal way they talk. It’s not a shout to them, but their voices are so loud. And they’re all just facing each other at that.

Then the phones started ringing. And I didn’t know how to handle the multiple ringing around the office. Then I was asked to fax some paper, and I was doing it all wrong. I was used to our fax machine in the laboratory where the document is placed facing downward whereas here it has to be placed facing up.

Then I was called in and told to report to the Jebel Ali office for at least a week seeing that I needed to be trained first on the basics of the job. And I thought I was office literate. Hah!

So off I went to Jebel Ali- at the Dubai Industrial Park where the printing press and main office is located. There, I met all the writers and staff of the publications firm except the Editor who was on leave at the time.

I had several more bloopers at work including transferring calls to Mohamed the Accountant from Mohammad the designer who actually wanted me to connect him to Mohamad of KSA. When I was told my mistake, I immediately looked at the numbers of the KSA staff, and guess how many Mohamad I saw on the list? Three!!! Three Mohamads to choose from. Grabe, di ba?