This blog is to help my wife and I, itinerant expatriates, stay in touch with family and close friends. We're living in the Pearl of the Orient.
In Rome, April 2006
Vanessa on Ko Samet, Thailand, June 2011
In Kabul, Mar. 2011
In Kabul, Mar. 2011
In Dubai, Oct. 2009
"Only those who risk going too far find out how far they can go---Fringe
"There are few problems that cannot be solved with the proper application of high explosives." — U.S. Navy Explosive Ordnance Disposal Motto
"Success is the ability to go from one failure to the next with no loss of enthusiasm"---Winston Churchill
"The price of freedom is eternal vigilance" --Thomas Jefferson
"Unless I sample life’s dangers I shall never know its mysteries…”---John LeCarre, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
"I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it." — Thomas Jefferson
“The game is rigged. But you cannot lose if you don't play.” –The Wire
“A Jedi must have the deepest commitment, the most serious mind. This one a long time have I watched. All his life has he looked away... to the future, to the horizon. Never his mind on where he was. Hmm? What he was doing. Hmph. Adventure. Heh. Excitement. Heh. A Jedi craves not these things.” ---Yoda
"It seems to me that when you judge a man's worth, his ability to survive should be no small part of it." JV Jones SoS2
Posted in AngelSphinx by Administrator on the February 28th, 2006
After a short nap yesterday afternoon, Chris came home with a big surprise! He bought tickets going to Rome Italy on April and pink things for me..My headache was lessen when I saw pink teddy bear! A very cute teddy bear..Also 2 pink boxes for my kikay things..We called the teddy bear as ”Pinky” and now she’s our adopted baby while we are waiting to our real baby..(LOL) Not only the angel stuffs I collect, I am also a collector of stuff toys, like teddy bear. Ohhh..how I miss my collections in Manila!! Aside from my husband, Pinky is my best buddy in bed now..So last night, Pinky slept with us and she was in the middle! She also watched LOST with us..Chris and I were so excited about our real baby and will sleep with us soon…It’s really fun doing this things though..we are both happy! Thats important..We are just so excited of the things that may happen after 9 months…There’ll be an angel running around, will makes us happy and most of all… will make our marriage life stronger..
I bought our tickets to Rome. Rather pricey, I might note, for a 4 hour flight. Anyway while I was on my way to the travel agent, I think I had an encounter with the mutawa, or religious police. I’m not sure actually, it may have just been some jackass. Anyway I was walking past a mosque and it just happened to be prayer time. Lots of guys were heading on in to the mosque. Some jackass accosts me and tells me in Arabic to go into the mosque. Now, he may not have been “accosting” because Saudis seem to have an unclear grasp of what we would call manners. I am sure they have their own manners, but they don’t really correspond to Western manners. For example, deferring to others is an unheard of notion here. So maybe this jackass at the mosque wasn’t accosting me; maybe it just never occurred to him to be polite. Anyway I have no time for nonsense, so I kept on walking. The guy followed me, saying, in ARabic, “You go in the mosque.” Finally I spun around and said, in Arabic, “I am of the people of the messiah, isn’t it obvious?” That’s what they call Christians. I added the “Isn’t it obvious” part because, well, hell, I’m as white as can be, and I was wearing shorts and my cowboy hat. Anyway I just kept on walking and the guy didn’t follow me any more. So that may–or may not–have been my first encounter with the religious police. Don’t really know. Muslims do seem to be interested in getting converts; I have had 2 people give me “Why I converted to Islam” booklets. So maybe this guy was just a rude jackass who wanted me to come hang out in the mosque.
Posted in AngelSphinx by Administrator on the February 27th, 2006
I had a terrible headache this morning which maybe part of my pregnancy. When I woke up, I felt so tired and still sleepy. In my entire life, i did not experience to yawn more than 50 times a day.. I am energetic woman, infact, i really value time a lot..Since few days, I been so feel weak and dont want to move..Really strange feeling..I remember what mom said, that I will experience this esp. this is our first baby and on the 1st month until 4th month, pregnant woman feels alot of strange things..
I went to Star Mall at noon..but, first i dropped by at my husband office to get some cash. I was flattered of what a taxi man told me when he saw my husband..Chris kissed me when he left and went back to his office. Taxi man saw that thing, and he said, “ You have a sweet and handsome husband Ma’am.” I smiled and said,” Yes, I have..”
I bought alot of foods which will be good for one week..Juices are out of my list since it caused us stomach problem. Water is still best for us.. I looked for “chicharon”, a fried skin of cow (pork is not allowed here)..Also, bacon!!Unfortunately, nothing. I was not able to find it in store..I was sad..I I really miss Filipino foods..I said to Chris that I will really eat alot of bacon in Rome Italy.. =) Eat foods that are cannot be found here.
Saudi men are strange..They looked maniacs..Every time I go to that mall, I encounter crazy Saudis that makes me feel scared..They are monsters for me. Another thing is, everytime I go home, I feel i gonna vomit..The smell of Arab people is the worst smell I ever smelled in my whole life..LOL…Yeah, honestly…
But this city is a very nice place in KSA though..Really, it is..I thought before that it’s all desserts..I was shocked when I saw the green things around the town..There are lots of flowers..Peaceful and clean..Infact, Chris told me that this town is the richest town in KSA because of the oil refinery..Well, obviously it is…
Well, I have to go now..I will watch Pinoy Big Brother..We have The Filipino Channel here..Thanks to my husband! mwa! (smiles)
Posted in Cheetahhhhhhh by Administrator on the February 27th, 2006
Cheetahhhhhhh here. First of all, my apologies to several people who have written me recently, including my mom and dad. I don’t mean to be a bad emailer. Actually I am just rather busy. And my stomach problems recently have left me tired. Anyway I am going to try to be better with email because actually it annoys me when other people don’t respond promptly.
Apparently there is a sunken city here somewhere off the coast. According to one of my colleagues, the wrath of God sunk the old city and the Saudis later built the new city, where we live today. I need to go find this place, it must be a very interesting dive.
(You know I don’t name this city where I live, for security reasons.)
We did an experiment and it seems that juice has been causing our stomach problems.
Posted in Cheetahhhhhhh by Administrator on the February 26th, 2006
I’m really pleased that Angel Vhanie will be joining me here in the CheetahhhhhhhhhBlog, yeebahhh! You can see her first post below. She wants to do a little bit of HTML decorating with the blog as well, so that we can have a fancy little pixie floating around the blog, like on her Friendster page. We’ll see about that. So our other new project is to start video podcasting. We’re going to keep up with the blogging, but blogging is old news. Video podcasting is the wave of the future. Hopefully we will be up and running by the time we’re in Rome. The only things that may stand in our way are (1) we don’t have the slightest idea how to edit video or syndicate a podcast, and (2) the low badwidth here in Saudi may become a problem.
My stomach is still hurting and the curious thing is that Vanessa has the same symptoms. 2 doctors now have told us to look closely at our diet. I have been teasing Vanessa that she’s poisoning us with her cooking. My current suspect is juice, which is highly acidic.
If you go to the Apple Store online, you can find a link to podcasts, most of which are free. My favorite is the Tiki Bar. There is also a Wallpaper*-esque video podcast which is cool. Apple has come out with an Intel-chip powerbook. I think this is slightly sacreligious, but I’m going to buy one when I get to Chicago in July.
I assume that the stores in Rome are well stocked with DVDs. We really need to get DVDs of Lost and Battlestar Galactica seasons 2. The only problem here is that Roman DVDs will have a different region code, so I’ll have to buy a Roman DVD player. This is an annoying added expense and I’m halfway tempted to open up my DVD player and try to locate and remove the region chip.
I’m really looking forward to our Roman holiday. Indeed I don’t think I’ve been this excited about a trip in a long time. It will be nice to get out of Asia for a short breather, too. I seem to be spending a hell of a lot of time in Asia these days, and a little break would be nice. But really my excitement about a Roman holiday boils down to getting a breather from Saudi, ie, getting drunk, etc… Little things like this seem like such a luxury right now.
Posted in AngelSphinx by Administrator on the February 26th, 2006
Hello, this is Angel Vhanie, I am joining my husband (the Cheetahhhhhh) on this blog. Today I had my first morning sickness. I never thought how hard it would be to be in my 1st month pregnant, but I am so excited knowing that we are gonna have a baby in 8 months..I made Adobo for lunch and my husband ate alot…hmmm..he has a phantom pregnancy..In Filipino, we called that “paglilihi”..And he’s craving also a mustard and soap sandwich! he he.. Really fun to be pregnant! We are also excited about making a blog together with a podcast, a blog with videos of us..We will be the “most hightech” couple ever! Yep, we are!
Posted in Uncategorized by Administrator on the February 7th, 2006
Above: taking the Barrick Mines’s turbo prop out of Huaraz, Peru (Jul. 2005)
They have coup attempts in the Philippines once or twice a month. There was one while I was visiting Manilla, though I would have never noticed actually, unless I’d been watching the news. Vanessa tells me that she enjoyed coup attempts because it meant she could go home from work early. Anyway no coup attempts for the last week or two. I have TFC, The Filipino Channel for my lovely wife, so I’m up on the latest from the Pearl of the Orient. The big news lately is the stampede at Wowowee. This is a popular game show with dancing girls. They were having a big show at a football stadium and there was a stampede, with many people getting killed. Vanessa was all freaked out and glued to the TV. Also there is no Wowowee this week, so no dancing girls for me, which is sad, because damn those Wowowee dancing girls know their stuff.
Posted in Uncategorized by Administrator on the February 6th, 2006
Outside Angkor Wat, Cambodia (Jul 2004)
I’ve been enjoying SkyNews lately. It’s British news with a local flair. For example, the train to Derbyshire is possibly going to shut down, and what the hell are the good folks of Derbyshire going to do then, eh?
I’ve also been enjoying Google Earth, which you can download at Google of course. I’m a strong proponent of Google to begin with, but Google Earth takes the cake for coolness.
One more thing I’ve been enjoying is the Red Sea, which is almost completely unspoiled with tourism, industry, and costal development. I drive 4 miles outside of town and I have endless beach completely to myself. You can’t complain about that.
