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 Uncategorized by Administrator on the May 30th, 2006
The DAMN mosque next to my house sometimes wakes me up for morning prayer. I say “damn” because prayer is at 4AM. The morning call to prayer is blared by loudspeaker for the whole neighborhood and I live right next to the mosque. The morning call to prayer includes the line, “Prayer is better than sleep! Prayer is better than sleep!” Well, today I sat bolt upright in bed at 4AM and screamed, “No it’s not!”
It seems in my old age I’ve become a bit of an insomniac and a very light sleeper. So this DAMN call to prayer is a problem. I really need to get sme sleeping pills. I haven’t complained about this before because I didn’t want to seem petty. But you try working with 3 hours of sleep. It’s hellish.
Vanessa is in Manila and enjoying herself apparently. I will join her in 17 days.
My schedule for my mom’s reference:
June 14 finish work
June 17 arrive in Manila
June 18-Jul 3 my dad visits. I think we will go to Puerto Galera.
July 3-30 I think we will rent a house in Baguio.
Aug 1-14 visit Leyte (Vanessa’s home island)
Aug 16 return to Saudi
Aug 17-24 chill out in Jeddah
Aug 25 return to work
Posted in Uncategorized by Administrator on the May 24th, 2006
So it’s Wednesday and I finished the textbook today at 200PM. Cheers mates, I feel like a weight is off my shoulders. I still have a lot of work to do… exams primarily… and I’m supposed to construct some sort of “course file” to archive which I resent terribly because it strikes me as busy-work.
Vanessa is leaving for Manila on Saturday and we’re both a little sad to be apart for 3 weeks. She thinks I won’t eat or have anything to wear when she’s gone. Well, it’s true that the quality of my diet will go down considerably, though thank God for Pizza Hut. also in Saudi, McDOnald’s delivers, so not all is lost… Now, I did manage to clothe myself before I had Vanessa,but my clothes were often creased and stained. Actually after Vanessa came in December, my colleagues and students all complimented me on how natty I’d suddenly become. So anyway life will go on here in the Cheetahhhhhhh Compound but just barely.
As I mentioned before, my dad is coming to visit us in the Philippines for 2 weeks. We haven’t heard any news from my mom or sister.
Posted in AngelSphinx by Administrator on the May 24th, 2006
Vhanie is blogging again! Been long time..Well, buntis (pregnant) was lazy before to blog anything =)
Anyway, three days to go I will be in Manila. I will fly alone and my handsome husband will follow me by June 17th. I suppose to be excited to the fact that I will see again my family in Philippines. Honestly, deep in side, I am sad to leave Chris in Saudi. We will not be together in 3 weeks and Oh Lord, thats a long time for me! I got headache since last few days. I was thinking so much about my flight. Should I fly or not and wait to fly with Chris on 17th…I really dont want to leave Chris here..He’ll be alone..I gonna miss him alot..Gonna miss preparing him things before he go to work..And of course, my bun in my oven will miss his/her daddy’ rub on my belly everyday. Last night I did not sleep much..Can’t stop to cry thinking of it. But I have a promise to keep. My promise to my grandmom.
I promised my grandmom to be with her on June 5. It’s town fiesta of our town and the same time our family reunion. She’s expecting me on that day… and I dont want her to frustrate again..As I am afraid that she’ll be sick again. Last year, I promised her but I was not able to go home. Then I found out she was paralyzed because of frustration. I am one the grandmom’s favorite. She’s too old now and I want her to be happy. She’s also expecting to meet my husband soon. I am sure, she’ll cry of happines =)
After this blogging, I’m going to start packing my things..And also I will prepare all the things of Chris that he’ll use at work for the next week. Am gonna iron his clothes as I dont want him to go to work with crumpled clothes. And also I will go to supermarket tonight to have stock of foods for him. So much worried….Am thinking about his breakfast when I am not around..
Yesterday, I went to hospital for my monthly check up..My doctor and the nurse were having fun on me..They were laughing when I have my ultrasound. The baby moves alot!And oh God, he/she is really big now! Last month, I was only 47.90 kilos and surprisingly I am 52 kilos now! Everytime I inhaled, the baby moved in different position. My doctor said, he/ she’s a behave Filipino/American child…My doctor was trying to know the gender but she said the baby didn’t want to open his/her legs! HA! HA! I have thought that the baby didn’t show his/her gender because he/ she wanted his/her daddy to be around. Well, hopefully by next month the baby will open his/her legs. We will be in Manila that time and we should know the gender. Chris and I are excited to have baby shopping. May God grant us a baby girl.. (Chris really wants a baby girl but me girl or boy as long as healthy, I will love him/her so much!)
Posted in Uncategorized by Administrator on the May 17th, 2006
My dad is coming to meet us in Manila. Vanessa and I are happy.
So there are 3 weeks, 1 day, and 2 classes left to the school year. Then I have 1 week of sitting on my arse watching TV, and I’m off to the Philippines on June 16. Really this school year can’t end fast enough for me. There is an incredible workload for me at the moment because I’m reviewing the CVs of applicants to the English and Linguistics departments.
My students are all in a panic. It has finally dawned on some of them that they may well flunk out of college. I gave them a test yesterday and the cheating was rather unbelievable. Today I lined up 5 cheaters and gave them an essay to write: Why cheating is unethical. If they write the essay by 8AM Saturday, I’ll allow them to retake the test. Normally I just fail them for the test, but this has made little impact. My theory is this. My students are very lazy and having to write all weekend, and then retake the same test, will offend their sense of laziness.
Vanessa is really getting a surprisingly big belly for 4 months. She’s leaving on the 28th and I’m a little sad she’ll be away from me for almost 3 weeks. When she asked me if it was OK, I didn’t want to be a dictator and so I agreed. Now I’m rather regretting it.
Now, you probably thought I was joking around when I said that God was preventing me from buying a laptop. Well, I wasn’t. I’m back in Jeddah with my lovely wife and we went to get my new laptop. Guess what? The store still hasn’t gotten their visa machine working. I checked other computer stores but they don’t have the model I want. So I am still without a new laptop. Maybe I should just give up; God doesn’t want me to get it and perhaps he’ll let me know when I’m allowed to buy one.
Posted in Uncategorized by Administrator on the May 12th, 2006
Incidentally, what the frak-a-lackin hell is wrong with my country? Now it turns out that that clown of a president we have has been using the NSA to record all domestic phone conversations. Now, I don’t know for certain, but I think the NSA’s portfolio does not include domestic spying. If I’m mistaken, then that’s certainly something we want to change ASAP. But more to the point, what the hell is that clown thinking? Seriously, it’s like America is turning into a Nazi police state. Well it seems like that sometimes. We don’t want a domestic secret police that runs around watching us, do we? Then why are we letting that clown construct a secret police? Eh? What the hell is going on over there??!?!?!?
I have one prayer for the future of my country, and it’s that Hillary wins the next election.
Barring that, I hereby officially suggest that Wisconsin, Minnesota, and the UP join up and withdraw from the union.
Posted in Uncategorized by Administrator on the May 12th, 2006
Vanessa and I went to Jeddah for the weekend. We tried out the Crowne Plaza just for a change of pace, but nothing really beats the Sheraton.
Anyway for one thing we went to Nandos. I love Nandos. It’s South African chicken. I think my sister might remember Nando’s from when she visited me in Potchefstroom. Ag… Saudi just got so much better now that I know where to find Nando’s in Jeddah. Thank you sweet Jesus for this blessing.
I felt our baby’s heartbeat!
Part of the reason we went to Jeddah was to celebrate our 6 month wedding anniversary. Cheers mates. Vanessa made out like a bandit with new pink shoes, a new dress, and a video camcorder. Here she is in her new dress:
Well I don’t know why, but God seems to be conspiring against me to prevent me from getting a new laptop. I’ve been meaning to get one for a very long time now… several years actually… and for some reason, fate intervenes and prevents me from buying it. I was going to get one in December but then I got married and decided I had other things to spend my dinero on. Now, this weekend I was going to get the Acer 9500 and had spent a lot of time researching the matter, and was quite psyched… anyway, get this. All the credit card validation machines in Saudi mysteriously broke down for the weekend. So apparently God still doesn’t want me to buy a new laptop. Why is that, I wonder. I think he’s teaching me patience. Anyway we are going to drive to Jeddah AGAIN next weekend to get me a laptop.
Posted in Uncategorized by Administrator on the May 6th, 2006
The Cheetahhhhhhh takes after his father and is generally more than happy to sit around the house. I can entertain myself. I have books, DVDs, satellite TV, and my wife for entertainment. Now the thing is with this town, there’s not a damn thing to do. There are no bars, no bookstores, no real shopping beyond groceries. Nothing. Nada. The only entertainment is going to the beach, and my students tell me they go and smoke sheesha (flavoured tobacco in a hooka).
Anyway the little lady and I are excited to have our baby so that there’s a little more action around here. This weekend, the Cheetahhhhhhh actually got a smidge bored. Just a smidge. You can only play Rome: Total War for so long. We’re almost finished with 24 season 3. And I’m almost finished with all my Dan Brown novels.
Well it’s Saturday which is like Monday. I got up at 645AM. This semester is moving at a snail’s pace. Oh, dear lord, please speed time up a little bit.
Posted in Uncategorized by Administrator on the May 5th, 2006
I had a good Thursday, which is like Saturday. Such as the Cheetahhhhhhh generally prefers, he spent Thursday doing almost nothing, viz., I watched the Godfather and took a nap.
As my family already knows, we won’t be able to get Vanessa a visa to go to the States. I’m not going to rant and rave about this, but why was it relatively quick and painless to get her a visa to Italy, yet I can’t take my wife home to my own country…. eh? I know there are no logical or reasonable answers to this. I have even spent a lot of time seeing if we can get her a visa in other countries… eg, flying to Dubai to get her a visa was one option I looked into.
http://www.gridskipper.com/ is an interesting travel blog and one of their writers obviously lives in Dubai.
We’re shopping for digital camcorders right now so that Vanessa can film her village festival on June 1st, and of course, so that we can capture ever single second of our baby’s life. The unfortunate part of this is that the best electronics are sold in North America, Europe, and Japan, and then what remains finds its way to the rest of the world. So the selection here is about a year or 2 behind what www.cnet.com recommends.
It’s getting up to 45C these days out here in the Hijaz and that’s about 112F which is un-frakkin-believably hot in the Cheetahhhhhhh’s book. This last week, I just wanted to cry every time I stepped outside. I said it before and I’ll say it again…. it’s a real wonder that a great civilization arose here prior to the invention of air conditioning.
My profile on www.friendster.com has the headline, “Going to the Philippines on June 16 YEBAHHHHHHHH! Make me mango with dried shrimp please nanay!” (Nanay means mother.)
Posted in Uncategorized by Administrator on the May 1st, 2006
Here’s Vanessa’s latest ultrasound. The baby is growing like a weed eh. You can see the eyes and the skull and Vanessa is guessing you can see his little unit down there though I’m not sure I can see anything. Vanessa is currently trying to convince me that the blur down there is a penis but I’m going to wait and see. We will know at 6 months. We’ll be in Manila then.
Well as I have already said to my mom, we can’t get Vanessa a visa in time to go to the States. We’re really quite disappointed about this and we’re not sure what we’ll do. I just had a really hard day at the slave pits and I’m too tired to think about it. We’re going to have to make a decision really quickly though…
I had one of those “to hell with this, they’re not paying me enough” kind of days.
