Natal Day

Yay! I'm already 23!

Let's Parteeeey!

Unfortunately, I am in the Middle East and I my birthday falls on the month of Ramadan so I didn't do pretty much on my favorite day.

Nothing much. Really. Seriously.

I woke up at 8:30 in the morning. Still groggy. My phone suddenly rang. My friends abroad greeted me via FaceTime! Isn't it cool? FaceTime is Apple's videochat on the iPhone 4 and soon to be released on the new iPod Touch 4th generation and...wait a minute, what am I blabbering about? it's my birthday, not Steve Jobs'!

Anyway, I celebrated my birthday very different back when I was in the Philippines. Usually, we go out on a dinner with my family and friends, long chats, boisterous laughing and all that. However, here, I can't. Here are some of the reasons why I can't do those stuff:

1. This is the middle east. Although it's an open country unlike KSA, I still can't chit chat with girls especially with my officemates since I am being warned not to talk to women. That came from my boss. Don't know why. Maybe she's jealous or anything. Kidding aside, that's number 1.

2. I don't have friends who have the same age group as I am. In the office, I am the youngest and the next to my age would be 25-26. And he has a family. So, I couldn't stay with them for a long time. They also have their priorities this day. Where's my friend yoyen, when you need her?

3. I don't party. Drinking booze, smoking, and getting laid is not my thing. Period.

Anyway, I woke up and found nothing on the dinner table as opposed to when I was back in the Philippines where during my birthday, my mom would cook me my favorite meals on my special day. Darn, I already forgot the taste of roasted pig. Downstairs, I cooked my own favorite food - Century Tuna Mechado. I never ran out of those preservative-devoured pieces of canned goods. I have a lot of them in the cupboard on the kitchen. Whenever there are times when there's like an emergency (or I just don't know how to cook), my tuna plus the microwave can do wonders to my appetite. I also ate strawberry ice cream which I really abhor but that was the only flavor left on the supermarket.

I went back upstairs and tinkered with my FaceTime. I also commented all the 250+ greetings from my friends on Facebook. Yes, I have a lot of friends. :)

Basically, that's what I did on my birthday. I may not have balloons and cakes and mascots (dude, you're 23,not 12), the fact that God gave me another year to correct the mistakes I made to my family and friends, work hard to help people and to live life to the fullest. That's what matters to me.

Speaking like a matured man,

Paul

Robbed

What a way to start September. Our house has been robbed. Good thing both my mom and my brother were not there. However, it turns out that a child was responsible for that act. It's one of the tactics now of thieves - getting a child do the dirty works because they know when he is caught, he can't go to jail since he's not yet above 18.

My mom was affected most. All of her prized possessions were taken away by the tiny thief. Especially all her dear watches which was given to her by dad and her sister, my aunt. There was also an attempt to steal our game consoles because the wires were being detached but I think the kid doesn't know how to do it so he just let it be. Good.

I was still very thankful because no one got hurt. Because sometimes, maybe all the times, thieves won't barge a house without carrying a weapon for their defense once they were caught. So it's a good thing no one was there. The house, according to our stay-out helper, was messed up. Sticky and murky mud were splattered all over the floor made by the rain on that night.

This might be a lesson to us. Brother and I always want our dogs to roam around our balcony at night. So when the thief comes in our house, they will be instant blood bath occurring outside our house. Rottweilers are our dogs, by the way.

Waiting for a piece of leg to find outside our house,

Paul

STUPIDITY

Yeah I know this was waaaaaay old but I want to blog this topic since I felt so ashamed of my countrymen.

Yes, the infamous Hostage of I-don't-know-what's-his-name of a bus full of Hong Kong Tourists.

It was morning when I am inside the office struggling to find coffee in the pantry since nothing was there except tea bags which I extremely abhor. I greeted one of my Nepali officemates with a big smile.

Me: Namaskar.

Durga: Hey, Paul. Have you seen the news? There was this hostage in the Philippines.

Me: Oh, yeah. I've heard that. Err... I have to go upstairs. See ya.

Panting going upstairs, I googled about it and lo and behold, it was true. The incident really happened. One ex-soldier hostage a bus full of Chinese citizens tourists. Finally, I knew that 7 were killed and a lot were injured. One main reason is that the Police are too slow in doing the rescue operation. I don't know what happened. They are supposed to be the protectors of the people from the evil deeds of villains (wow, kinda like the Justice League) but all they did was duck and hid behind their cars. Yes, it's a must to hide but not all the times. And I also saw one police threw a tear gas going inside the bus but it didn't go inside, so it returned to them and they were the ones who got inflicted by the putrid smell and taste of the gas.

Heroism? No. Stupidity? Totally.

I don't really know what happened during the entire incident but all I know for sure is that the police aren't really that prepared when it comes to events like those. I mean, there were a lot of casualties and it can be prevented with proper training and paraphernalia. What they wore were just plain caps and permeable shields and worn-out bulletproof vests. They couldn't even lie down on the floor very well because of their humongous stomachs. And worse of all, the president was nowhere to be found - no negotiations, no something - was done by him.

After I closed the article I read, I felt sorry for the families of the people who passed away. God bless them. I think until now, the Philippines is banned to travel in Hong Kong now. No Disneyland for Filipinos anymore.

Not proud,

Paul

Undertime

Cold drops of sweat running up my temples to my neck. Fists clenched. No, I'm not fighting with someone, I'm doing my "thing" in the bathroom. No, it's not constipation either. It's Diarrhea.

It started yesterday when my office mates and I ate some coconut macaroons I bought from the market. It was good. Really good that I ate a lot of it actually. Since they're still a lot, I managed to bring it home with me from work. I started eating like frenzy and never cared about anything and hit the sack immediately.

But I woke up late at night maybe at 10:00PM and I felt that there was something wrong with my stomach. I had the urged to defecate so I went inside the bathroom immediately. I went back again and slept. But it happened again at 10:30 PM, and 11:00 PM and then at 12:00MN. So basically, I defecated every 30 minutes which is too much for a twice-a-day usual schedule that I normally have. As I've learned in College that when you exceed 2-3 defecations per day, you might be suffering from diarrhea.

Diarrhea? Maybe. Amoebiasis? I hope not.

Last December 2009, I nearly cannot get out of the Hospital and celebrate New Year's Eve at home because I'm diagnosed with Amoebiasis - a disease caused by a Protozoa. It practically lives inside your body and once you have it, it will be there but dormant, waiting for you to get ill again. I've been admitted inside for 3 days and my stool is not very good according to the laboratory results. I am afraid my condition last time recurred today.

I woke up at 6:30 in the morning and went downstairs for breakfast. However, they all left leaving me alone with two sausages and a sunny-side-up egg on the table. I ate and get dressed before my uncle comes and pick me up to work. I managed to get ready early so I had ample of time to turn on the TV. Then, it happened again. THE URGE. But I didn't bother it. Then, I started to feel a discomfort inside my tummy on the way to work. I had doubts of telling my Uncle to go back home but alas, I was already outside the office so I don't have a choice. The discomfort then turned into pain which really makes me not to focus my work(still even when no pain, I still can't focus. just an excuse. hehe). I asked my office mates if they experienced gastric pain and all but they don't know the word gastric so I let them be.

At 10 today, I had the URGE again so I made it to the bathroom and did my thing again. At 12:00 noon, I had it again. I can't take it anymore so I filed a sick leave - undertime. Even though there were still a lot of things to do, I don't care doing it today. I hurriedly rushed towards the exit gate and hailed a taxi going back home. I went back home hoping rest will cure this. I hope it's not Amoebiasis.

Deposit

I really don't know how to save money.

When I was a kid, every time I have them, I invest them on food. Now, every time I have them, I invest them on gadgets. From now on, I'll learn to save. I promise myself that I will just spend 500 riyals every month for anything I want.

Pissed!

I was so pissed this day that I don't want to talk about it. But, I can't live without talking and blabbering and since no one is here to talk to, I'll just blog it.

My partner wasn't there in the office today because he has some things to attend to. He has a car so it's much faster for him to do stuff outside the office so I am stuck inside. Now, do you have this feeling that instead you want to go to the bathroom, you can't because you might be called by your manager? That happened to me today. A lot of times. I never got to go inside the restroom to pee until my boss went outside to find a villa to be occupied by some rich employee. Good thing. So I relaxed a bit. There were still some paper works to do but I did it with a slow and steady pace.

After 20 minutes, she's back and started to give me some things to do. It's not that I complain. I can't complain because it's my job. I am being paid for it. It's just that when you're still not done with one project, you will be distracted when she will call you again for more work and tells you that this is urgent which in fact she told you a while ago that the one I did was also urgent. So you'll be confused and could not decide what to do first.

Another thing that happened was she blamed me because I didn't give one document to our PRO for transferring of Visa while in fact, she ONLY instructed me to give the Passport to the PRO which I did. I was so frustrated that I raised my voice to her (a bit) and told her I was just obeying orders. I was really furious that time. My face went red as hell. My officemates noticed my ears were also burning with rage.

I went home at 3:00 pm. Office time is up until 2:30 PM only. Knees wobbled. Legs tired.

See you tomorrow paperworks,

Paul

Glee Season Two

So I've heard that the second season of Glee will be on the 21st of September. And also Charice will be there as one of the main characters of Fox's Hit Series.

What?

Yes.

Charice will be one of the cast of Glee. I don't like her. Yeah, she can sing, but aren't Asians are now a little bit crowded on the Series? I don't have a thing about asians because I myself is one but they should consider other races,too.

Latin. They don't have Latino/a's yet. Santana, is a brunette American. I would suggest maybe Jennifer Lopez to be in the show. hehe.

Waiting for 2nd season,

Paul

Remorse

I miss being a clinical nurse.

I miss the smell of isopropyl alcohol and Dettol every day.

I miss the sight of blood gushing out of a person's body

I miss the syringes, the vials and the ampules

I miss being puked on, peed on, pooped on by patients.

I miss being attacked by psychotic patients.

I miss the doctors' ravings.

I miss the PCM, PRN, OD, UTZ of KUB acronyms.

I miss injecting patients and tell them it won't hurt but it really does.

9 more months to go, Paul. You'll get your dream soon.

Ramadan Kareem

It's the start of Ramadan last Wednesday. So excited since this is my first (and probably my last) Ramadan that I'm going to experience.

Good? Oh yes, considering that we only have 6 hours of duty for 1 month instead of 8. How freaking cool is that? I mean, we start work at 8:30 am (but still I'll be there in the office at 7:30 since I'm taking dad's carpool) and will end at 2:30 for one month! Pure bliss.

Fun? No.

Instead of going out to the mall after leaving the office, all malls are close and will open at 6 in the evening which in that time I am now in the house and our Villa is located in the middle of the desert so it's really useless. But that's okay, at least you can spend more time doing household chores like the one we did earlier. My dad and I did the laundry and cook for the rest of the gang.

Famished? Yes!!!!!

I was very early on the first day of Ramadan and usually I go straight to the kitchen to drink water but alas, I found no water on top of the dispenser PLUS the "blue and red things" that will make the water flow to your glass (wow, very illustrated,Paul) were also ransacked. Meaning, even us non-Muslims can't drink water! I can live without food for hours but without water, I'm like fish without the sea. I'm like the moon without the sky, I'm like the....you get the point.

So today, 3 days have already passed. So it means, 27 days to go. Sigh, oh well.

Ramadan Kareem,

Paul.

Returned

Ian's here!

"Welcome back, partner! I thought I'd never see you again! Okay, here's the work that I left idled knowing you would go back to work today. hehe. Just kidding."

After a month of vacation, thank God he's here. Now we can both share the HR/Admin tasks. He told me he didn't enjoy his vacation in the Philippines because it's raining there and all he did was to sweep the water out of their house caused by the storm. Nevertheless, he came here safe and sound...and a bit bigger. :)

We miss you, Ian!

HR Assistant,

Paul