It Rained Cats & Dogs!

This morning, I was awakened by the sound of thunder and the of rain's constant beating on my air conditioner outside. When I opened the window, it was heavily raining. I then hurried up to go outside the apartment to see what's going on out there, knowing that our street can easily be flooded with a mere drizzle. Rain is not that rare in Saudi Arabia, it happened many times before and much worse than this, but still it excites me to actually see rain falls down from the sky here in the desert, basically. Anyway, this is what I saw when I went outside - a filthy pond.

The street was flooded. I was afraid that the water might enter the muffler of my car, so I transferred it to an elevated place somewhere near the wall of our apartment. Now I'm just worried about the brakes. I hope they still work.

Rain, typhoon, hurricane, cyclone, whatever you want to call it, they don't bother me at all. They can never bother me - I'm from The Philippines - I'm used to it. This is nothing compared to what I've seen and experienced. It's just that I'm not in the Philippines. God, I wish the government of Saudi Arabia would construct a sewage system in the city, so that every time it rains, the water could flow freely and go somewhere else, instead of just waiting for it to slowly dry out.

I wish early morning tomorrow when we go to the hospital, the water would dissipate completely, (which I think is impossible). Ohh! I wish it would just literally rain cats and dogs in Jeddah.

Mi Nochebuena

Last December 24 was a tiring day for me, even though there's no patient to take care of in the hospital, I still have to finish the 8 hours OJT for that day, that was from 2 to 10 o'clock in the evening. It was the last 2 remaining OJT's in the hospital, the next one will be next week, December 31, New Year's Eve.

Now, if you are wondering what are those strange white things we are clasping as though they were a trophy on the photo above, well those are plastic plates; we were invited for a Christmas Eve dinner at a friend's house, we were holding them because the place was small, there were lots of people and the table was quite small too.  That's where we went right after we left the hospital around 10 PM.

The food was delicious! My favorite was the Calamares and the one with quail's eggs, I think it's called '7 Seasons'?, (Yummy!) We really enjoyed it.  There were lots of new faces and some old friends too, but unfortunately we had to leave early because I was not feeling well, I was coughing severely, and could not even sing at the karaoke even if I'd stayed, (damn!,) and besides, one of my friends will have to report for work the next day (yes, on Christmas day,) and I still have to drop him to his apartment. Thanks Ben and Joel for that wonderful dinner!

So, that was how I spent my Nochebuena. That was better than last year, where I just spent it infront of my computer. Hopefully next year will be much better. Eventhough the (Filipino) Christmas season is not yet over, (not until the 'Epiphany' on January 6,)  I'm now looking forward to the New Year. I just hope that 2011 will be a good year for all of us. MERRY CHRISTMAS & A HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!

Trivia: Nochebuena means Christmas Eve. It's just one word, not Noche Buena, otherwise you're talking about a Mexican beer, a brand of cheese or a theatrical production.

Merry Christmas 2010!

5th Place On PEBA Int'l Photo Contest

This photo won 5th place in the recently concluded PEBA (Pinoy Expat/OFW Blog Awards) last December 16, 2010 which was held at the Teatrino Promenade in Manila. I have 5 entries in the competition, 4 of which made it to the Top 50. This year's photo contest's themes were about LOVE, FAMILY, LABOR, HEROISM, COURAGE, OFW ABROAD. Thanks PEBA!

Click HERE to see the rest of the Top 10 Winners!

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