My Vacation 2011: #1 Cavite

The first 2 weeks of this vacation was the worst of all my experiences here, but I don't want to dwell on that because I don't want to remind myself of the hell that I've been through with POEA. I just want to focus on some of the beautiful and positive things, like the time when I went to Noveleta and Cavite City, my trip to Cebu City (that was the highlight) and when I went to Pinto Art Museum in Antipolo City with my eldest daughter Maria.

My first trip to Cavite last May 29, 2011 was a nostalgic one because it reminds me of the good old days. Seeing my parents, some of the places and things there conjured up my childhood memories. I was so caught up by my nostalgia that I've forgotten to snap some photos of my folks in Noveleta and I guess it's too late for that now. The only photos of Noveleta that I have are some snap shots of the now flooded salt flats near the boundary of Cavite City which looks like a lake because of the rain. 

I took these photos while I was riding a local transportation we called the "Baby Bus" to Cavite City. It looks like an elaborately decorated coaster, just like it's cousin the Jeepney. It looks very similar to the "Colectivo", the popular Latin American (Argentina & Paraguay) public transportation.

The Baby Bus (not my photo)

Cavite City, known as the other Chavacano speaking city, Sangley Point (the old American military base) and made famous by Efren Peñaflorida, the CNN Hero of the year 2009. This is also the "other" place where I grew up. This is where I studied in Kindergarten at St. Joseph College (just behind the church of Nuestra Señora dela Soledad de Porta Vaga).

The city seems to have lost something that is irreplaceable, I don't know what it is, but it's not there anymore. Maybe it's my Nanay Tita (my Aunt), who died in 2008 in California. How I miss her so much. I actually went to where she used to live, but the gate was not there anymore. Not a trace. The cemetery in front of their house at the other side of the street of Blvd. Cresini is still there and I don't think it will go anywhere. I also passed by our old Methodist church in San Antonio where we used to go every Sunday.  

I've made several trips to Noveleta but only once in Cavite City. It's nice to see Cavite City again. Even though it has changed a lot, the memories are still there. Hasta la Vista!

See more of Cavite City on my Flickr

My Vacation 2011: #2 Cebu City

My Vacation 2011: #3 Pinto Art Museum & The Silangan Gardens (Antipolo City)

Thank You!

First of all I want to thank Jesus Christ for all the blessings He has given me in the past 39 years of my life. Without Him I'm nothing. To all my FB friends who greeted me on my birthday last May 24, I want to say Thank you from the bottom of my heart, especially to Maxine, Moona and their guitarist (on that video) who made a short video singing "Maligayang Bati" (Happy Birthday) in Tagalog especially for me and posted it on You Tube. You made me feel so special. It was so touching. Their happy birthday video really lifted me up during those moments when I was feeling so low. It was that moment when I was having problem with my papers which I needed to return to my job in Jeddah. God bless you guys! Anyway, for those who haven't seen the video yet, watch this!

Moona is from Vigo, Spain and 'Shiny' Max, a writer & a singer from Bordeaux, France. They have a band called "Sweetest Bomb" which is based in Bordeaux, France. 

My 'Bully' Neighbor

This morning while I was in the bathroom preparing myself to go to work, my mobile phone rang, I quickly ran to the room (where the phone was) to see who it was. It was 'Chupacabra' (not his real name of course), my neighbor, a Filipino, who I almost never see. He's like an urban legend to me now. You can almost call it a 'sighting' whenever you accidentally see him somewhere out there, and that's just one of the many reasons why I call him so. 

Anyway, I was perplexed why he wanted to call me (ehem! I mean, missed call me). He never calls me unless he needs help on something that would benefit himself alone. Then suddenly it struck me, that maybe there's something happened to my poor little car? I always position my car near the apartment's gate (if it's available) and he can easily see my car whenever he comes out of his apartment building which is just in front of mine.

And sure enough, that was exactly what I saw when I went out, but not as what I imagined it would be. Thank God! I saw the bumper of the white Toyota 4x4 truck of my Saudi neighbor who is living in the apartment building next to mine, stuck on the front of my poor helpless little Suzuki city car. I ran inside my car and backed the car a few feet so that I could see the severity of the damage. A small part of my car's bumper had folded inward which I immediately undid using just my bare hand. 

What had happened this morning bothered me a lot because I believe it was intentional. I think my neighbor is trying to bully me. This was not the first time it happened. Late last year, around 10 PM, while I was having a conversation with 'Chupacabra' near my car that was parked at my favorite spot, he came driving his white Toyota 4x4 truck and was looking for a space to park it. Instead of parking his car in front of mine, he backed a little bit to talk to me. He told me something in Arabic which I didn't understand. I can sense his anger. But then I realized he wanted me to transfer my car somewhere else and give the space to him. I didn't give him the space, but I moved my car  just a little bit. 

Since then, every time I see him in the morning or in the afternoon, he would often look at me with hate in his eyes. He is obviously jealous of the parking space which is in front of my apartment. I often come home a lot earlier than him everyday from work and that's the reason why most of the time I have the privilege of choosing my parking space. That space is supposed to be the parking space for the tenants of my apartment building. Why doesn't he park in front of his apartment building, that would make sense, right?

I bet he can't do that to his fellow Arabs. He's bullying me because he knows that I'm a Filipino, that he thinks he can easily intimidate me, and that my car is just a cheap little old running piece of shit to him (sorry for the word). I really have a lot of things to say right now, but I would rather not go on with it, I might just say something that is against my principle and against my Christian upbringing. 

Even though what he did was not right, I'll just have to be wise about it, shut up and understand what had transpired this morning.  I think it would be better that way. 

*The picture above (which I got from the net) is from Judith Caseley's book "BULLY"

Jeddah Bloggers EB At The Fish Market

Last April 13, 2011, Mr. Nereus Jethro Abad, a friend, a fellow blogger and PEBA president who is currently working at the National Prawn Company (of Saudi Arabia), sent a message on FB to some of the Jeddah bloggers and said that he will be giving away some fishes to us. We agreed to meet in Balad and when we (Nelson and I) got there, everybody was already at the meeting place, Mr. NJ with his two staff, Noel with his son Ize, and Kenjie. From there we went straight to Jeddah Fish Market and hired some expert there to clean the one humongous fish that Mr. NJ brought with him. 

There were several kinds of fish that he brought. There were tilapia, parrot fish, and three amazingly huge milkfish. They were really huge. I've never seen a milkfish that big before. The fishes were equally divided between us right at the parking lot of the Fish Market. Here are some of the photos I took from the Jeddah Fish Market. Thanks again Mr. NJ!

The bloggers: Nereus Jethro Abad of 'Desert Aquaforce', Noel Ablon of 'Baul Ni Noel', Kenjie Solis of 'Thoughtskoto' and Nelson Bedayo of '¡Soy Negrense!'

A Graduation Party At Durat Al Arouz

A view of the beach from the balcony of our villa in Durat Al Arouz.

Last Thursday, March 31, 2011, was the graduation of TCI's 5th batch students. Being a former student myself, I was invited by the school staff at the graduation and the succeeding party at a resort, some 25kms. north of Jeddah. I felt bad not being able to attend the 5th batch's graduation which I heard was so successful, but of course I will not pass on a chance to have a real good time at their party. It's Thursday and it's time for a good time in Saudi Arabia!

If you've read my previous post about my batch's graduation and the party, I've made a mistake about the name of the resort where we had our party. I said there that the name of the place was 'Durat Al Arouz', where in fact it's 'La Fontaine' and it was just last Thursday that I've learned about the mistake. I've already corrected it. But anyway, this time the 5th batch's graduation party was actually held at (where else?) 'Durat Al Arouz'. The resort is just at the other side of 'La Fontaine'. It's much bigger, like a small community, it has a lot of villas inside, the place even has its own grocery store and I think it's much prettier than 'La Fontaine', although when it comes to the villas, I would probably choose those in 'La Fontaine' because of their sizes and their accessibility to the beach because of the stairs at the back. In Durat, only those on the ground floor are accessible, otherwise you have to go down the villa and have a long walk towards the back where the beach is located. 

Anyway, only 8 of us from batch 4 went to Durat Al Arouz, Marvin, Nelson, Emil, Khris, Jhun, Epie, Jane and I. For me, the party was not just a celebration of 5th batch finishing the short, yet memorable caregiving study, but it also served as a kind of  mini reunion for my batch. The last time I saw some of them was when my other classmate invited some of us to have a dinner at his home, a private graduation celebration of some sort, a week after our 'grand finale' (LOL!) in TCI. It was also great to see our instructors and some of the TCI staff there, especially Ma'am Silna and Ma'am Honey.

The place was in a celebratory mood when we arrived. There was a live band, some of the people who  were already there, were singing with the band, while others were dancing. I was amazed at how warm the reception to us was. Jason, one of the graduates, ushered me to the chair and gave me plastic plate right away so that we could eat while listening to the the live music. In fact, most of them were amazingly warm and friendly. 

We went walking outside to better know the place. I went wading by the shore and I saw a lot of those tiny sea creatures having their own night-out. I saw little fishes in schools, a small crab and a cuttlefish, it was amazing! Afterwards we went back to the villa and we 'tripped the light fantastic' for a moment. It was like being inside a discotheque, there were laser lights and the music was awesome.

When the morning came, some of us went swimming. The water was OK, but some were looking for waves because they felt like the water was too still, I mean not a ripple and that makes it feel so artificial to them. In a way it is artificial because I think the whole place was a reclamation site, even the sand is not natural, it's desert sand. There were no waves because the design of the beach is in a very small cove and waves from the sea can't get in. The only time the water moved, was when there were jet skis and motor boats around and of course when there were people swimming. 

I didn't stay that long in the water. It was already around 8 AM and I should get back home, I was thinking that I've been away for too long and that my cats were probably starving already. It was really fun being there. I was awake the whole time, never had a sleep, but it was all worth it, I got to know some of the people there and experienced a cool party in a wonderful resort. Thanks to the warm hospitality of the 5th batch students and the staff of TCI. Also I want to say  'thank you' to Venice for his generosity of sharing the 'you know what'.  Hereon, I'm looking forward to the graduation of 6th batch. 

Previous Post: Our Graduation Day!
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Joel's Broken Humerus & My Broken Funny Bone?

The other day, my friend and I visited our common friend Joel, who was rushed to the hospital because of an accident in his jobsite. He fell down on an aluminum ladder and broke his upper right arm (humerus). Initially, I thought that he fell from the 1st floor of a mall and that his condition was far more serious than just a broken arm. I'm not saying that what happened to him was not serious, but I thought it's life threatening. Thank God that when we first visited him in the hospital, he was all smiling and well enough to explain to us what really happened.

Joel and I worked in the same company before as a visual merchandiser for different stores here in Jeddah. I first met him in Riyadh, but he was eventually transferred here in Jeddah in 2002 (I think) and that's when we became friends. He's a nice, kind and friendly person, the kind that we all look for in a friend and that's why upon learning that he had an accident, I immediately rushed to the hospital to see him.

I understand what he's going through. Most of us OFW's (Overseas Filipino Workers) especially those who are here in the middle east, we often get lonely because we don't have our families, or even  those friends we grew up with here with us. It's doubly hard because of the culture this country has, which is very different from what we've grown accustomed to back home. Although most of us here have medical insurance, getting sick or figuring in an accident is a big NO. Imagine yourself, a foreigner inside a hospital, in a foreign land with no loved ones there by your side to comfort you, I feel like crying just thinking about it.

But the good thing is that, we created some good friendships here, who are not just there in times of fun and parties, but also in times of troubles, a shoulder to cry on when we're on our lows. I don't want to be poetic here for the sake of this blog, but that's the truth. Sometimes we just have to do what's right, we should always be there for those who need our company, most especially for a friend. Now what kind of friend are you, knowing that your friend is in the hospital and then making excuses that you couldn't go there because you have a badminton game to attend to? Or that you're invited to a party and already promised that you will attend, yet on the next day you still didn't visit him, not even a phone call. Isn't that horrible? It sounded so much like someone I know. I'm angry right now! I need somebody to tickle my funny bone. Quick!

Joel had an Open Reduction & Internal Fixation (ORIF) operation on his broken humerus and is now recuperating at Dr. Soliman Fakeeh Hospital, bldg. 2, in room # 4111 (for those who still want to visit). His doctor said this afternoon that maybe he could go home tomorrow if things go well. About the title, I'm not sure if it  makes sense (especially the 'broken funny bone' part), or if it really mirrored the article, but one thing is for sure, it makes the readers curious about it. *The photo above is the actual x-ray result of Joel's broken 'humerus' bone.

Thumbs Up: Filipino - Canadian Girl’s ‘Born This Way’ YouTube Video Makes Lady Gaga Cry (Videos)

The Video that started it all.

Maria Aragon on the news.

Winnipeg's rising superstar, Filipino - Canadian, Maria Aragon, gets a chance to chat with Lady Gaga over the phone.

Maria Aragon on the Ellen DeGeneres Show

Maria Aragon (with Sarah Geronimo) singing 'Born This Way' on Philippine TV.

Read the story HERE!

Maria Aragon Gets A Record Deal In The Philippines.

Vote for Sweetest Bomb's Remix On The Keren Ann's "My Name Is Trouble" Remix Contest!

Vote for the Sweetest Bomb's "My Name Is Bomb" on  the Keren Ann's "My Name Is Trouble" Remix Contest. TO VOTE, click the link below, then look for "Sweetest Bomb - My Name Is Bomb" in the list, listen to their remix and then click the little black heart (that turns red when your cursor hover over it) icon. 


You can only vote once a day! Spread the word, don't forget to share this article on your favorite social networks like Twitter, Facebook, Friendster etc. You can listen to their entry (the Sweetest Bomb's remix of Keren Ann's "My Name Is Trouble") on the video below.

CLICK HERETO VOTE!

The Sweetest Bomb is an Electronic music band based in Bordeaux, France. The band members are Maxine Zapedsky, Moona Martinez Muniz, and Mickellaneous.

Listen to their music on Myspace!

'LIKE' their Facebook Fan Page.

Thumbs Up: Juana Change - "PORSCHE"

For more on the story click HERE!