clarification

this is just to clarify that the blog entry before this one is not my own. i forgot that i had cross posts activated with my blogger accounts. after two years a friend of mine surfaces and decides to catch up and me telling my friend about this "logbook" site.

i already took out the cross posting between these blogs just to keep all the posts where they should be. :-)

sorry for any misinterpretations caused.

but yes, its true. im engaged to my beloved Lilly.

so happy. :-)

cheers to everyone!

lost in the nakaw world

there was a time when i was happily biking on the streets of dubai.

one fine evening, after work, i found it not where i left it.

6 months of togetherness. me and my bike. it's time to really say goodbye.

and like a pet that died, i'll get a new one or two. soon. let go and move on. secret to life. shhh...

delle cose incomprensibile

magari avendo un ideale mi ha datto tanta sfida di far crescere il mio standard nella vita. magari veramente, credo che potrei fare una differenza, di creare una utopia nel mondo nel campo dell'urbanismo. alcune giorni fa, c'eranno delle cose che non posso capire al lavoro.

certo che tutto quello che credo di fare per creare degli spazi belle non e' possibile di realizzare senza la approvazione nel mio superiore. certo che devo seguire una gerarchia del commando. come un vero protettore vigilante della verita', non l'ho lasciata di dire a me cosa devo fare. l'ho chiesta perche' non quello che ho proposto. l'ha detta che il cliente vuole certe cose. che vorebbe elevi la terra per guadagnare di piu'.

ma io non credo che il cliente voleva veramente una sviluppo come quello. sinceramente, fa schiffo! ho fatto alcune opzioni da quella che melachiesta a quella che propongo.

insomma, sono andati per la presentazione. quando sono ritornati, mi ha detto che non piaceva il disegno. dentro di me, ridevo come matto. ma come non voranno quel disegno... hahaha...

va bene, ho ricominciato di disegnare un altra schema.

e cosi la vita all'ufficio. buffo. imcomprensibile. vado a nuotare adesso. ciao.

holyweek 2007

its been one "heaven" of a holy-days during the holy week. sheer happiness.

Kish Trip Round 2

*this is my long overdue Kish Report

5 months in the city of superlatives. No fixed source of income yet but the prospects were many. Nonetheless, I was entitled (by force of law) to my second trip to the famous exit island of Kish in Iran.

No matter how sad the isle’s stories were, I remembered how peaceful my first exit experience was. This time I wouldn’t be making the same mistake of keeping the memories all in my head.

So here it is, again doing my part in changing the perspective of things, through this photo journal.



The first thing I noticed was this. I was even more concerned for my safety after having read this sign and I wonder if this is the kind of detail they put in maintaining their planes.



There was something more to the signs, eye candy cotton candy clouds.

After checking in the cheap hotel, I joined the group tour and did my shots. First stop, the old city of Harireh, where the explorer Ibn Battuta visited the Persia of the olden days.



I’ve always thought that the Vitruvian man was from Italy. I reckon not.



Then we stopped by the adjacent attraction, the oldest tree in the island. Here, the locals and tourists believe that if you tie a piece of string on one the trees appendages and make a wish, it would come true. Many of those who tie the strings there wish that their misery in life especially their tenure in Kish would end soon.



Accommodations are also available on the tree itself.



We then went to the Greek ship and its famous sunset. It was very cloudy during that time and it seemed like raining, but the view was spectacular nonetheless.



a more closeup shot indicating that my only good is always there wherever I am.



There were also locals visiting the island. Here is an authentic Iranian family on a vacation. Who cares about being ashamed… I asked if I can take their picture and they were happy about it.



Still on the same site, I have captured my travel companions while they photograph each other.



I thought that inanimate objects don’t have senses. But the trucks do know where to select a nice view…



…and when to get a good seaside repose.



Further on, we went to a very nice beach with interesting stones scattered along the beach. Here you’ll see a fellow tourist’s authentic smile.



Gossiping stones.



Toddlers were aplenty too. They are even awake at two in the morning with their parents at the part during weekends… something really weird for me. Here are two of the cute ones.



After the day’s tour, we went downtown to develop some of the photos. I found an interesting door detail.



At 8 in the evening, this is what a big boulevard in Kish looks like… so serene, so ugh… I like it like this.



The Kish experience wouldn’t be complete without the sheesha, the Arabic smoke pipe. So we had a sheesha night cap with my newfound friends. These is the main paraphernalia.



Lots of spare pipes like snakes on a tree…



the sheesha master…



the glowing flavored coal



and of course, yours truly during the sessions.



For the lonely guys, they also have a table for one.



Lastly, the place where I was staying. Far from being posh but it suited my purpose. Peace, quite and alone. Shown here is the bed with the lone room décor.

fast paced november

it is filled with events... before i know it... or rather before i finish this blog it is already the first of december.

so what did happen?

kicked myself out of my former office (also termed as resigned)
went to kish (again)
did my second round of job hunting (see last post)
found a job (cool one)
and a very fast paced timeline at work.

yeah, now im working as an urban designer. signing the contract for confidentiality prohibits me from disclosing anything aside from the fact that these projects are the most famous around the world.

the clients are so demanding i barely see my housemates awake. they leave while im still sleeping and i come back and they're fast asleep.

presentations every week.

good thing i love what im doing.

for the good the of the future.

mabuhay ka bonifacio.

welcome december air. again, so many things will happen this month.... till the next time i update this blog.

cheers to y'all!

(oh crap... i still haven't posted the photos... oh well, there's always a next time if i'm still alive)

be here

i cant get you
out of my mind
come here
come here

im getting
smitten
if only i could
if only i could

if only i could
get you
to come here
be here

arbeitslos

today is my official break from work day. ive visited a lot of companies that ive just heard of but they seem pretty interesting. as of press time, there was a positive response. we'll see where this will go tomorrow, as tomorrow, i will still visit a couple more companies. must... be... aggressive!!!

despite this aggressiveness with the plan of action for the rest of the week, i experienced two beautiful things today.

1. ive learned that my housemate has some mass growth in his head and needs some immediate medical attention..

2. ive got to know an iranian by chance.

more of 1...

i did share some of my personal experiences with friends to him, to give him hope, and to see things in the most practical way. then i told him the most important thing in life since i knew for sure some of my "also" new housemates would be telling him that. everybody thanked me for what I shared but I really felt it is my duty to let them know about this things... cannot be too selfish about the good stuff, you know :-)

more of 2...

as i was to visit the 4th office for the day, i had hard time hailing a cab, so i decided to take a walk under the noon november sun, still hot but not as scorching as it was during summer. on the way i passed by a pump station and decided to cool off for a moment and eat my lunch at their convenience store. as i had my fill, i continued walking since the traffic was bad and the cabs were all hired.

i reached a very quiet park and decided to spend the rest hour/lunch break there before proceeding to office number 4. after a couple of minutes, i started to feel sleepy. with my interview attire, i slept on the bench which is so cool since i've always wanted to do that. when it is about time to leave, i started up my system, put on my shoes, and prepared for the next endeavor. while booting up, there was a guy who just arrived and sat at the bench beside me and started to eat.

then he just asked if i wanted some of his biscuits and i refused as i was still full and i didnt feel like taking something from a stranger. he looked harmless though. he insisted so i took one. after that he decided to sit beside me, saying, you are alone, i am alone, maybe we can sit together. my defenses were alerted and he started by saying why he was there... small talk.

after some time, i really understood that he just wanted to talk, i relaxed and sat there listening to him. apparently he was also looking for a job. he said so many things in his barely understandable english but i did my best to listen.

in the end, he was happy that we had this talk since he noticed that normally, strangers wouldn't just have exchanges like that.

30 minutes had passed since the time that i should have gone, but i had the time in my hands so i politely excused myself. i left feeling light and i was glad that these unexpected encounters of the day happened.

i even felt more productive today than staying in the office doing nothing. they say that real life would be experiened outside of school. i think the same could be said outside of work.

the tagboard

i have changed my tagboard twice this month. i dont know about your tagboards but the one i initially had wasnt showing up anymore (or at least here in dubai). and the ones that we have (had) always asks for a password thingy... uncool. i dont know elsewhere. anyway, i decided to switch it with a cooler one. it worked for a couple of days but then it seems to be blocked again... cripes! i think because the source of the code comes with the word "h-o-t" in it.

what other sites etisalat hasn't blocked yet?

and so there is a new one on the left of the screen. got it from a german source. hopefully this works now. and hopefully, people would tag me now... hehehe

so tag-away.

ramadan kareem

Eid Mubarak! (Blessed Festival!)

This marks the end of Ramadan and in muslim countries, this signals a very big celebration. (this can be juxtaposed with our Christmas celebration). For us who belong to the private sector, we had 2 days off from work as opposed to a week-long holiday for government employees.

I was only thinking of spending the holidays at home studying, which also means spending less. :-) But alas, I got this very tempting invite to go to the middle of the desert, somewhere between there and nowhere, off-roading with the pinoy 4-wheelers, camping at night, etc... so I went.

I went with Ferds and his 4wd, with a couple more of other friends. Much of the pre-desert experience is a build up of my anticipation.

Then we have arrived at the entrance. We de-pressurised the Sorento's tires, and we set off. It surprised me alot to find Ferds very fearless in jumping the dunes. (I'll let Ferds tell this part of the story). Apart from the stomach churning ride which i immensely enjoyed (definitely with much fear factor than rides in magic mountain), the whole desert experience was... magical.

It must have been the extremity of the environment, its distinct characteristic very much alien to the environment that im habituated to, the sunset's elements just the sky, the sand dunes and the vermilion sun, its plainness extraordinary, maybe too much for me to handle. i was left stupefied, and enchanted. it is like falling in love again for the first time.

ok, that was too cheesy but what the heck, it was really a fantastic experience.

and while i thought that was it, it was just beginning, drinks were pouring (well, not literally, but there was enough for everybody), lechon (roast pig) was served hot off the coals. i myself did some barbeque for my tribe with some sand toppings. you cant ignore the sand there that easily. we also had nostalgic music thanks to the advent of mp3 players.

when we have had the last drop from our bottles, we did some star-gazing and counted falling stars. I might be the least affected by the alcohol since i was able to keep my eyes wide open and counted the most stars. I kept a keen eye on all those stars because they're so nice they remind me of someone very special.

Again, magical as the whole experience is, waking up with the sun in your eyes with just sand everywhere is something new. Surprisingly, I woke up very early, at about 5:30am as opposed to my usual 8-9 hour sleeping time. Must have been my survival instincts telling me to get ready and take profit of the dawn of life.

As we headed home, we found a pack of camels (not the one which gives you lung cancer) wandering about the highway. We didnt let that moment pass without having a photo op. And it seems they're so used to see tourists that they stopped as we had them frozen (how ironic) in time.

that desert is one of my latest additions to my places to go with my loved one.

some fantastic photos coming soon.

Nuff said. :-)