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 August 29th, 2006
So it’s a ba-zillion degrees out and it’s really a chore just to do the simplest things. Vanessa and I are also suffering from skin dryness in strange places, eg, one of my nostrils is peeling. What the hell is that about. Vanessa is the lucky one; she doesn’t actually need to go outside.
The Cheetahhhhhhh dutifully shows up at the office for showing his face around briefly, though there is absolutely nothing to do. Yesterday was consumed by a religious discussion with 2 colleagues. This is not the CHeetahhhhhhh’s favorite subject but I engage it occasionally out of sheer boredom. Anyway it turns out that Muslims recognize Christ as the Messiah, but not as the son of God. Also they have nothing of Jesus’s primary teaching, ie, to love each other and to love your enemies.
The new college building is close and in America I would think nothing of the 10 minute walk. But in the middle of the ARabian desert, this would turn into a 40 minute walk from hell, and I would be drenched in sweat by the time I reached the office. So the Cheetahhhhhhhh is renting a car at the moment and clearly I’m going to need to buy one. We’re going to go to Jeddah tomorrow to suss out the cheapest possible car. Last year I had been looking around at SUVs but now that I have a wife and a rugrat, I am much more interested in cheapness.
Posted in Uncategorized by Administrator on the August 26th, 2006
Cheers mates, the Cheetahhhhhhh is back. His cable modem got disconnected during the long vacation so he wasn’t online for a while. Here are my notes from the last few days:
THURSDAY 24TH
So the Cheetahhhhhhh’s musical tastes change every year or so, and there’s really no telling where they’ll go. Seriously, I bet I’ve been into every possible genre at one time or another. Anyway… For a long time the Cheetahhhhhhh was listening to Mozart and Vivaldi, but things have changed again. Now he’s into bosanova. What’s that about eh? I don’t know but I really like Bebel Gilberto’s Samba da Bençao… What a great tune… Indeed I really dig the whole vibe of bosanova. I can picture myself on a beach in Brazil sipping a mojito.
Saudi is hotter than hell, literally. My central air can only vaguely get the place cool but it’s a million times better than outside.
Through some paperwork issue, I haven’t been paid for August yet, and it’s pissing me off to no end.
Apparently a lot went down at the college over the summer. We magically have a new building now, which is good, and the dean was sacked, which is also a step in the right direction, as he had no idea how to run a college, and also made everyone crazy.
Because I haven’t been paid, we can’t go do anything, and we’ve killed a week watching OC DVDs. Vanessa is obsessed. Also she is busy preparing the baby things.
You know the TV Game where you say which character you are on a TV show? One of my favorite games and also it tells you a lot about a person, by seeing who they identify with. Anyway on OC, I’m Sandy and Vanessa is Kirsten.
I’m finally getting around to reading Austin’s Sense and Sensibility and enjoying it. Austin is one of my absolute favorites but I never got around to S&S for years.
SATURDAY 26TH
Well it’s back to work for the Cheetahhhhhh, and he’s not incredibly thrilled about it. Teaching is an OK profession for the Cheetahhhhhhh and he’s not complaining, but neither is the Cheetahhhhhhh one of those crazy people who loves toil.
Still no pay for the Cheetahhhhhhhh. I must say, this has sorely disrupted my faith in Royal Commission paychecks, which I had thought were the one thing you could count on in life. This problem arose because you have to “check in” after returning from vacation. I was unaware of this. Anyway I went to the Royal Commission to complain about not being paid and it turns out it’s the secretary’s fault, he didn’t give the payroll people my form that indicates I returned. He said, “Don’t worry, Mr Chris, no problem,” and I was saying, “It’s a big frakkin problem…”
It seems the new dean plans to run the college like every other college on the planet, which means I can leave the office after I’m done teaching. Cheers to that, I will be a lot happier. Also there is nothing to do for the next 2 weeks and it appears that after checking in and shaking hands with everyone, I can go back home for 2 weeks and relax. Again, an improvement for the better.
We’re midway into season two of the OC and I’m rather upset that Cohen and Summer are split up, though it does seem that they’ll eventually get back together.
Posted in Uncategorized by Administrator on the August 15th, 2006
Well, we’re heading back to Saudi tomorrow. Yep, it’s true. In 11 days I have to start going to the office and in about a month I have to start teaching again.
Haven’t had a lot to blog lately because we’re pretty dull at the moment. Not that we’re complaining. Vanessa and I are both homebodies. However we’ve had even less than usual going on. For one thing, it’s typhoon season. You may have read about the typhoon that hit China and killed a bunch of people. Well it was in Manila a week or two ago. So it rains all day, every day, and that doesn’t encourage outdoor activities. Also I have a sinus infection. Also Vanessa is too pregnant to move much. She no longer has a belly button. I’ve spent the last few days playing Port Royale, which is a pirate game. Today we packed up our stuff and we had to buy an extra suitcase, because we’ve bought so much stuff. Mostly for the baby; we have a whole suitcase of baby things.
Babies are expensive, I can tell already, incidentally.
Anyhoo that’s the scoop from the luxury Manila CheetahhhhhhCondo. We’ll blog again in 2-3 days when we’re back in Saudi.
Posted in Uncategorized by Administrator on the August 7th, 2006
It’s been odd because we’ve been here 2 months in Manila and there have been no coup attempts. What’s up?
Not a lot of news except my gastrointestinal problems are rather disturbing and we’re heading off to the doctor in an hour. I’m very depressed about it.
Anyway we head back to Saudi in 10 days and are actually rather looking forward to getting back to our nice apartment.
Posted in Uncategorized by Administrator on the August 3rd, 2006
It was Vanessa’s birthday on Saturday. She’s 27 and an old girl now. We had a nice party at nanay’s house. Her friends and relatives came. Their house is very small so it quickly spilled out onto the street. I bought a case of San Miguel beer and we sat out there drinking and singing karaoke. The neighborhood shares a statue of the Holy Virgin and she came to visit for Vanessa’s birthday. There was a gospel reading but I was drunk and I can’t understand Tagalog so when they asked me to comment on the reading, all I could say was “Sorry”. Apparently the neighbors and relatives thought it was funny to see an American singing karaoke.
Vanessa got a fancy Cole-Haan purse from me.
My passport problems have been solved with a hefty fee.
Vanessa’s wound is almost healed but I have gastrointestinal probems. I have a doctor’s appointment for monday. I don’t want to go but Vanessa insists.
Today is the first sunny day in weeks though there is another typhoon is coming tomorrow.
