Random Thoughts

Yesterday, I finally submitted the deliverables for my project which I’ve been working on for more than a year now.  The draft reports were finished long time ago but it took sometime for them to give their comments on the draft.  I didn’t expect that even with the help of our Secretary, it will take me 3 days to print, collate and bind four (4) copies each of the four (4) short reports.  It didn’t take three (3) full day but almost and yesterday, I made two trips to the binding shop because the st**pid I**i*n operator punched the wrong side of my precious report.  I had to go back to our office to print a new one… Grrrrr!!!!!……But I am so happy that I can move on with my new projects now. 

Anyways, I am glad that I’ll have a fresh start for 2007.  I really need to concentrate on my new projects.  Our new client is beginning to drive me nuts.  He calls me everyday to compalin just about anything including things beyond my control.  Today, he called me to complain about our server, etc…etc…  Just because he did not receive my e-mail as soon as I hit send, he thinks that our server/network is not working properly.  Gosh, I am hoping against hope that he will extend his vacation until the end of 2007.  Ofcourse, it’s next to impossible but who knows, he might be transferred!

I intend to accomplish a lot of things both work and personal during the week-long break next week!  I am targeting to fininsh at least 50% of it.  Hehehehhe!  By the way, I already lost 8 pounds since I started my South Beach-inspired diet. I need to shed off at least 36 pounds more - that is my target for now.  My husband is doubting!  I know it’s quite ambitious but let’s see!

‘Til next time!

Merry Christmas!  This is my third Christmas celebration in Doha.  There’s really nothing special.  We didn’t even have a Christmas Tree and I didn’t buy any gifts except for our inaanak.  We ate the food I cooked during dinner and gosh, I slept at 10 PM.

Today, we just stayed home.  We waited for our inaanak to come but his father is sick so he wasn’t able to get his gift.  I gave some food to our neighbors.  In the afternoon, I accompanied my brother to buy stuff that he could bring home.

Tomorrow, I’ll get back to work, finish some stuff and wait for end of the week and enjoy a week off next week.  The three-day Eid Al Adha celebration coincided with the New Year so it will be a holiday  until Wednesday next week.  I think, no one is gonna come on Thursday so I filed a one-day leave of absence to enjoy a week break.  It will be a good oppurtunity for me to rest, relax and unwind.  Even our clients will come back to work only on the 7th so it’s a really good time to take a rest.

What else?  I am on a no-carb diet.  This is for real, promise.  I haven’t eaten rice for a week now.  I am also avoiding other carbs and sweets.  I am monitoring my weight every two days and looks like I am losing one pound per day.  If the rate of my weight loss remains consistent, then I can lose a lot in a month.  I’ll let you know later if my diet is indeed effective.  Even if I lose 15-20 pounds in a month, that would be good enough for a start.

I can’t believe I didn’t surf the net today as in I did not turned on my laptop.  But actually, that is because I left my adapter in the office and got it only this afternoon.  Our office is only few minutes drive during Fridays so it’s ok.  Afterwards, I dropped by the gasoline station to have an automatic car wash - hoping it will not rain for a few days. I thought that it will be faster since it’s automatic;  but I was wrong.  There is a long line and there’s only one service lane so I ended up waiting for sometime.  Well, I think it’s worth the wait; I was satisfied with quality of service and cleaning compared to usual manual car wash near our flat.  When I got home, everyone is ready to go to the supermarket for our weekly grocery shopping.  When we came back home, I prepared the fruit salad for our noche buena and the ingridients for imbutido.  RIght now, I am waiting for my imbutido to be cooked.  Yap, Chistmas is still on Monday but I don’t have time on the 24th, I need to go to work and I have a client meeting so I can’t be absent.  Today, I will also prepare macaroni salad and morcon.

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The other day, I was confronted regarding a previous blog entry which for the lack of better judgment, was posted prematurely.  It was supposed to be confidential until officially announced; I was only privileged to know it in advance.  Well, my blog is an expression of how I feel.  When I publish that particular blog, my intention is merely to express my excitement.  Unfortunately, I failed to consider the consequences of announcing it here in friendster.  I know that when something is posted here, it is somewhat "public."  But since my profile is limited to my friends then only my friends have access to my blog’s link; thus, the contents are somewhat "exclusive" to my friends.  Probably, it was very naive of me to think that all my blogs have "between us" relationship to the readers. 

I am not really bothered that I spilled it out prematurely anyways it will be announced eventually but I am bothered that the trust might have been tainted.  I am also upset that I made someone upset because of lax in judgement (sounds like GMA? hehehehe!) or because of stupidity would be more appropriate.

There’s really nothing I can do but to make sure that this does not happen again.  As the famous saying goes, "there are only lessons to be learned!" 

The rain has stopped; we’ve been enjoying bright sunshine for two days now.  But then, it’s really cold outside especially in the morning.  The temperature is bearable (as compared to the countries I visited in Europe - I wonder how cold it is there by now) but I couldn’t concentrate in my work because my feet is really cold - probably because our office is tiled and not carpeted.  My feet are quite sensitive and when they are cold, I feel cold all over.  I think I should wear thicker socks tomorrow.

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Along with the bright sunshine, my husband received a very good news yesterday!  He was chosen for a senior position in his company.  The papers hasn’t been signed yet, but he was already informed to prepare himself for his new role.  Well, there are going to be a lot of adjustments for both of us because that would mean more work responsibilities for my husband.  Although it was the same as his previous position in the Philippines, he needs to refresh himself as the jobs he handled in the past four years were quite different.

One good thing is that he is now entitled to two months of vacation each! Yes, two months while mine will remaiI one month :(  Now, I am thinking, should I change career? hehehehehe….

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I guess when it rains it really pours.   I just received my first Christmas gift for this year straight from Dubai.  My friend Nina (supposedly the second n has ~ above so it is really pronounced as Ninya) has sent me a gift via courier.  She gave me a nice Philippine cookbook and autobiography of Jack Welch.  I would probably try to cook atleast one recipe from the cookbook for christmas.  I thank her as soon as received it this morning.  It wasn’t really expected but I liked it!

As expected, heavy downpours continued today and it’s really cold when I woke up this morning.  I felt like I was in another country.  I’m not sure what is the recorded temperature today but according to the papers, it is likely to drop to 10 degC in the coming days.  Gosh, I wonder if I can live in a cold country - to think that I’m already complaining at 10degC.  I am not sure what is worse - the scorching heat of the sun or the cold weather?  I think both - that is why Philippines is indeed lucky to be in a tropical country!

I haven’t written any blog in a while. Everytime I start something, I stop after few sentences and usually never able to complete it. I’ve been busy catchin’ up with things since we came from our Europe trip.  Three weeks after we arrived from our supposedly ‘vacation and unwinding,’ my body is still sore and the feeling of tiredness is still there.  And even before I recovered, I now have more work to do.

So what’s up lately?  Let me see….

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Today is a rainy day.  It’s been raining since the opening of Asian Games.  Well, it’s not a heavy downpour everyday but it’s enough to cause the unpaved road to be muddy.  Fortunately, they already fixed the road in front of our flat (they did just before the opening of Asian Games, after months of torturing us)  but there is still a portion towards the end of the street which is undone. The mud all over the road is driving me nuts.  Car-wash is useless.  My muddy shoes is ruining my car’s beige interior plus mud spaltters from cars passing by are all over my car since our car park, although covered, is open and along the main road.  I just hope that the rain will stop soon!  This is very unusual, i wonder why it’s been raining?!!!

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Yesterday, we watched the closing ceremony of the 15th Asian Games in Doha, where our very own Lea Salonga, was chosen to sing the finale song. We were very proud when she was introduced as being "From the Philippines."  The closing ceremony was equally stunning as the opening ceremony; but we were not able to see the fireworks from our seats.  Although shorter, I think the program duration was just right.

Actually, Gary V’s "Side by Side" was the official song of the 15th Asian Games but they got somebody else to sing it during the opening.  We were a bit disappointed because Gary V could have sung it better with more feelings and more power.  But I think the artist in the CDs being sold in the souvenir shops is Gary V.

Come to think of it, Qatar spent millions ofdollars for this momentous event but they didn’t have an original official song.  Probably it’s not priority for them plus they really didn’t have good talents like ours in the Philippines, where composers could have easily created one or two original songs for a major event like this.

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Contrary to the speculations and apprehensions of many people, Qatar was able to prove that they can host a major event like the Asian Games.  There were a lot of unfinished infrastructure which did not not meet the deadline; but overall, Qatar’s hosting of the Asian Games was successful.  Traffic isn’t really that bad as previouly expected.  In fact, there were less congestion because schools were on vacation since December 1.  Except for temporary road closures along the corchine, the road traffic was fine.

* * * * *

At the height of the Asian Games, we went to Dubai to watch "Rakrakan sa Dubai," a back to back concert of Bamboo and Parokya ni Edgar on Deccember 8th.  We originally planned a 3 days/2 nights trip.  We thought of driving to Oman, the morning after concert and spending a night in Muscat.  But we have a lot of things to do back here in Doha.  I cannot afford to be absent even for a day and even if my boss already approved my leave, not this time. We decided to fly back to Doha the day after the concert.  We even thought of cancelling our trip but the visa has been approved already and we will be penalized if we cancel the air tickets.  In the end, we decided to push through but without the Muscat segment.

So how was the concert?  It was fun, there were pork hotdog sandwich and beer at the venue - that’s how open Dubai is!  The 8,000 tickets were sold out and  still a lot of people were not able to buy tickets.  At the venue, there were those who are hoping to find extra tickets which they could buy.  Can’t belive the number of Filipinos in Dubai.  Unlike here, where South Asians outnumber other Asian expatriates, Filipinos dominate the Asian population in Dubai.  I just the love the place.  You can buy fresh pork, hotdogs, pampanga’s best and pork canned goods at supermarkets at a cheap price.

Since we are only staying overnight, we just went to the souq the following day and tried to look for something intersting that we could buy.  I found a nice tea pot in the wholesale market and of course, they wouldn’t sell one piece.  I almost bought one carton (12 pieces) because it’s really cheap but my husband as usual, did not approve of it.  Grrrr….. I argued at first but gave in later on.  I told him that next time, he can’t say no.  I also found nice jewelries with studs at the gold souq.  It’s really not on my budget, especially after our Europe trip.  Perhaps, on our next trip to Dubai, I’ll buy something that glitters.

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Our Europe trip was the highlight of year 2006.  We went to four adjacent countries: France, Belgium, Netherlands and Germany.  Everything about Europe is spectular!  Although, we were very tired after the trip, we had a wonderful vacation!  Some things did not go as planned, but still, the overall trip was great.  We had a very hectic schedule for 17 days and we almost pushed ourselves to the limit.  It’s really not enough to visit nine major cities in four countries.  We will definitely go back and see other places we missed and other countries is my "must see" list.  So many interesting places but little time and money!

I intend to write the day by account of our trip so I could share our experiences (there were lots of them) but it may take time as I am too busy with my work right now.

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What else? I think this is it for now.  A busy week is ahead. I hope the rain will stop!