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 July 27th, 2006
We went to the surgeon and OB-GYN yesterday. Vanessa’s wound is closed and not infected any more. We had an ultrasound and Little Chris is doing fine. Vanessa seems to grow bigger every day. Her stomach is like a watermellon now.
Yesterday we went to Alexa’s deli in Makati, which I think is the best restaurant in Manila. My dad will recall the place–we went there after looking for the building which turned out not to exist. The nice thing about Makati is there’s wireless everywhere. My PDA has wireless but I’ve only started to appreciate its potential, mostly because there is no wireless in Saudi.
Nanay finally went home because Vanessa is healed. Her brother Bongbong will be happy. He much prefers nanay’s cooking to his wife’s and even called once out of desperation asking her to come home. A month here at the CheetahhhhhhhCondo with little to do seems to have done nanay some good. She looks a bit less wired. Nanay tried to keep constantly busy and even tried to invent chores to do, but after a while she started taking naps, reading magazines, and watching TV. I bet her high blood pressure is a bit improved.
We’re having Vanessals birthday party on Saturday at nanay’s.
We saw the movie the Lady in the Water, and I recommend it. We also watched a DVD of the Family Stone, which was pretty good. I like Luke Wilson, indeed I’ve liked him ever since Bottlerocket.
Posted in Uncategorized by Administrator on the July 24th, 2006
Gloria is giving her State of the Nation speech and all the stores and schools have been closed. So I can’t go do anything about my visa problems today. I was planning to first go to a travel agent in Malate, so see if they could help (with a fee of course) but Malate apparently is completely closed due to military presence. I am not sure if the hookers and strippers in Malate are also shut down.
Not much news over here at the CheetahhhhhhhCondo except Vanessa is walking almost normally, and we hope today is her last squeeze with the surgeon.
There is another typhoon hitting luzon island and while it’s not hitting Manila, there is lots and lots of rain, and it’s so frakkin humid that I really don’t like leaving my bedroom. Vanessa and her mom find AC to be “too cold” and apparently they like being hot. I do not try to understand this, they can do what they want, but the net result is I spend a lot of time hiding in the bedroom, which for me is the only cool place in the Philippines.
Posted in Uncategorized by Administrator on the July 23rd, 2006
So believe it or else, but the Cheetahhhhhh is a fugitive. Yesterday I had some strange inkling in my head that I should look at my passport. So I did and was appalled to see that my Philippine visa was for 20 days. So I’ve overstayed my visa and may (or may not) be in trouble. Actually the only real trouble would be they’d tell me to get the hell out of the country, however, this is a real possibility. I could have renewed it easily enough but it’s probably too late now. The truth is, I just didn’t check how long the visa was good for; I assumed it was 90 days like almost every other country on earth. There is one way out of this, though. In the Philippines, anything is possible if you pay the right person. So this visa problem can be solved I’m sure, but the problem here is, I’m a bit tapped after all Vanessa’s medical expenses. Not only the operation itself, but lots of meds, and going to the surgeon several times a week to get squeezed. So in short the Cheetahhhhhhh may not have sufficient cash for a bribe, and may have to head back to Saudi with his tail between his legs. I’m a little stressed and depressed about it. And I’m a little bit pissed that I never bothered to check the validity of the visa itself. I guess I travel so much that I’ve stopped paying attention. Anyway all you Cheetahhhhhhh supporters out there, please say a Hail Mary for me.
The Cheetahhhhhhh donated P1000 to a children’s charity as a thanksgiving for Little Chris.
Vanessa is getting something special for her birthday from the Cole-Haan store. She doesn’t know what Cole-Haan makes, so her guesses have been way off.
Posted in Uncategorized by Administrator on the July 20th, 2006
Little Chris is as big as a basketball. It really surprises me how big Vanessa’s belly has grown. I would have never imagined she could get so big. I have no idea how Little Chris is ever going to get out. Vanessa was talking with some girl in the surgeon’s office who said she would certainly need a Caesarian. This has Vanessa scared especially since she just had her appendix operation.
Vanessa turns 17 on the 29th… she’s almost a big girl now…
Vanessa: O common baby…Hello..Am 27!!! Big girl..yeah..getting big, big belly, gained weight…So I am BIG! lol
Anyway she’s here with me in the clubhouse for the first time in about a month… so here is Vanessa…
Hi folks! Well, little squirrel is back and on the move again. Thanks God I am recovering from a bad dream (operation). I am really sorry about what I happened..Ouch! We suppose to enjoy our vacation but for unexpected thing, we are here staying in condo for a whole month of July. And sadly, I broke our budget (=c).. Grrr…its because of my appendix! Anyway, the doctors said we are lucky though that we found this early otherwise, little Chris and I will be poisened..
Posted in Uncategorized by Administrator on the July 19th, 2006
So there is still not much news over here at the luxury CheetahhhhhhhCondo. Vanessa’s wound is less infected but she’s going in to the surgeon today to get squeezed. He gave her a new perscription of some pills to help the skin heal. Her right side is somewhat paralysed and it’s also difficult for her to bathe. Anyway I woke up the other day with a really stiff and painful neck and so I’ve been walking around like a robot. Also I don’t like cold showers so I’ve been cutting bathing down to a minimum. So we are the paralysed and non-bathing couple.
Vanessa’s nieces and nephews came over to the CheetahhhhhhhCondo and had a swim, which they quite enjoyed. Then we took them to Glorietta mall to see Pirates of the Caribbean. When we got into the theater, little Casey said, “What a big TV!”
It’s Vanessa’s bithday on the 29th and I have to figure out what present to get her. Usually I would get the always good gift for wives, jewelery, but for some reason, here in the Philippines jewelery is outrageously expensive, about 3 times what it would cost in the States. I can’t imagine why. So anyway I’m going to have to go on a shopping expedition in a day or two. Vanessa won’t give me any ideas, she says “I already have everything.”
Posted in Uncategorized by Administrator on the July 15th, 2006
I’m sitting here in the condo clubhouse next to the pool. It’s Saturday and Filipinos (like most Asians for some reason) like noise, so the joint is noisy as shit, so noisy that I can’t even hear my iPod. I remember what it was like in Korea, I spent half my time trying to escape extraneous noise. It made me crazy. When Vanessa first came to Saudi, the place scared her because it was so quiet. Well anyway right now some jackass is blaring 80s rock out his condo window and in America I’d go up there and yell at him.
There is really no news. Vanessa is recovering but her wound is infected and we have to go to the hospital every day for the surgeon to squeeze all the juice out.
There was a typhoon. It didn’t hit Manila but it caused a lot of rain, indeed it’s been raining for about 5 days straight. There has been a lot of flooding. In the Philippines there are lots of very poor people who in America we would describe as squatters. They build shanties where ever they find some space. When we drive over the bridge from Makati I can see a whole shanty village built onto a marshy floodplain. Anyway these people are in dire trouble when there’s flooding. Also there is a problem because parts of Manila bay have been landfilled (like Holland) but unlike in Holland, the seawalls have failed, and so when there is lots of rain, these areas of Manila are suddenly under water.
Anyway I’m actually a little stir crazy from doing nothing. We have been watching our DVDs of 24 and I’ve been playing computer games. Unfortunately Vanessa’s operation has put a curb on our plans to travel around. We were going to see Baguio and Puerto Gallera. Now we can’t really afford it and also Vanessa’s in no shape to travel anyway.
Vanessa’s nieces and nephews are coming over today for a little swimming, and then we’re going to take them to see Pirates of the Caribbean 2.
Posted in Uncategorized by Administrator on the July 11th, 2006
Since we’re going to be sitting here in the Manila condo for the near future, I bought a bunch of pirated video games to help kill time. Lara Croft Tomb Raider Legend is a great game incidentally. I’m also going to update pictures on T2. The wireless network here in the condo clubhouse doesn’t seem to allow me to upload MPEG files which has put a curb on podcasting. However I have a new plan for the CheetahhhhhhhBlog… new feature…. podwalks. You may not have heard about podwalking. You download a podcast that’s a guided tour. This is great for Vanessa and I since we are in a new place every few months. So anyway the Cheetahhhhhhhh podwalks are on their way folks.
Posted in Uncategorized by Administrator on the July 11th, 2006
Not a lot of news to impart because I am busy with Vanessa. She was discharged from the hospital on Sunday. For some reason in the Philippines they won’t let you leave the hospital until you pay. I wonder what happens to people who don’t have the money, do they sit in the hospital for days and days? Anyway I had to go get a small fortune by anyone’s standards from the cash machines. This required 28 withdrawals and it was made more difficult by the fact that most of the ATMs had run out of money. After about 4 hours I had a big wad of pesos and came back to the hospital to check her out. We haven’t been up to much at home because she has a hard time just getting out of bed. Nanay is here cooking and cleaning. I gave her a mild scolding about cleaning at first butthat didn’t stop her, and also nanay is one of those people who needs to be constantly busy or she gets loco. So anyway nanay has taken over the house.
Vanessa is slowly recovering but it will be some time before she’s mobile. Apparently the baby likes to kick her wound. I asked Little Chris to give his mommy a rest but he seems very curious about kickinng the wound.
I lost some weight when Vanessa was in the hospital and I’m still melting because Gloria doesn’t know how to cook any western foods. I don’t mind eating a little Filipino food but generally speaking I need bread and pasta, which is completely foreign to Gloria.
Posted in Uncategorized by Administrator on the July 7th, 2006
So I’m currently in ward 4 of Mission Hospital in Manila. Vanessa is asleep. She had her appendix removed yesterday. It all started when, after breakfast, she was suddenly doubled over in pain. I knew it was serious because Vanessa never complains. At first we thought she might be going into premature labor, which had us quite concerned.
Anyway her operation was difficult because of her being 6 months pregnant, and also the appendix was apparently quite swollen. They had some difficulties during the operation because of this. They had said the operation would take half an hour, but when it started stretching past 2 hours, I started getting really worried and nightmare scenarios started flashing through my head. I started picturing myself walking home alone in the rain like at the end of A Farewell to Arms and so you can imagine my relief when the doctor came out and said everything was OK. She has to stay in the hospital here until at least Sunday. Everything went well though and the baby is OK also. I’m going to have to take care of her for a week or two until she’s back on her feet.
We have tickets to go see her favorite TV show, Wowowee, on Saturday, but sadly that’s out of the question now. I’m also mildly concerned about how much this will cost, because my health insurance is only effective in Saudi. What with the emergency room, an operation, and several days of hospitalization, this may put a bit of a pinch on our cash flow. Luckily I’m flush at the moment, I suppose. However this is only a side concern. Mostly I’m just relieved she’s OK, and though the OB-GYM has assured us the baby is OK, we’re both a bit concerned. Vanessa’s quite concerned it’s going to “special” because of the anethesia. The OB-GYM says the baby is well-insulated by the womb and the amneotic fluid, and she appears to know what she’s talking about. Personally however I always double-check what doctors say because I have learned the hard way that half the time, doctors are just guessing. So later this month, when Vanessa can get up and about, we’ll go to the Makati Clinic and have a comprehensive ultrasound to make sure Little Chris is OK.
The doctor showed me the apendix. It’s like a little worm. Strange that it should cause so much trouble.
So that’s the big news–lots of action eh.
Those who know the Cheetahhhhhhh personally know that I’m a fan of German cars. In fact one reason I’ve been putting off getting a car in Saudi is partly the fact that I can’t stomach buying a Japanese car. Anyway VW has a new convertable, the Eos, which is quite a slick little machine. Pity the costs of a VW have gone up while the build quality has gone down.
And now a new feature of the CheetahhhhhhhBlog, the quote of the day. Today it comes from Che Guevara: “To be a genuine revolutionary, you have to be guided by love.” I like this quote a lot.
