Sandier Pastures

A major breakthrough happened last night.

After 3 years, 4 months and 21 days, our daughter has declared her independence, second step to full independence, at least.

First step came a month ago when we bought a new bed for her, placed it just beside hubby and my bed. We all used to sleep together in a 140 cms (not too) wide bed and we have been used to getting occassional kicks at night. After her heel landed on my nose and woke me up in terrible pain, we decided it was toddler bed shopping time. At first I thought she would protest and cry and refuse to sleep in her own little bed but she seemed to love the pink sheet and all things pink and slept there without any problems at all! For the first time since giving birth, hubby and I are having the bed all to ourselves, we didn’t know how to react.

Last night, Pristine decided to sleep with my mother (her grandma). They have been bonding incredibly well these past few days, talking in English which boosted Pristine’s fluency of the language — makes me really happy.

Our daughter is taking a very important phase in her life. She is trying to (sniff, sniff) sleep without mom or dad. I know everyone goes through this and I might not be the only one being sentimental about this. I waited for some time and expected her to run back to our room, but she didn’t! Maybe she loved to be with grandma and decided to sleep with her or just declared her independence this early. Maybe next time before we know it, she will be demanding to sleep in her own room, alone! Little girls indeed grow up fast.

Just like kitty, I am badly missing the cuddle

So there, last night we have the whole room to ourselves and as usual, we did not know how to react!

Imagine being in a sauna, in your business suit and walking in a treadmill machine at a fairly fast pace – that’s how I go to work every single morning and go home walking to the bus stop every afternoon. Someone donate a car please.

Boy, you wish I was kidding! It was a very humid 38C at 8 in the morning today. I want to backpack the a/c on my way out of the office to attend a meeting at another building, located 3 blocks away!!

It’s hot and all but still, Happy Mother’s day everyone!

A total of 4 people in my department has asked me to make telephone calls to Japan this morning. A reminder that is needed to be relayed to the Tokyo office, a pending item inquiry, technical specification inquiries etc, etc.

There is nothing wrong with them instructing me to call as that is my main job here only one thing though, today is SATURDAY. How can they expect the people in the Japan offices to be there?

They all forgot that although we start our work week today, it is yet Saturday and NOT Monday! My golly, it is so difficult to adjust to the work schedule here. I am in the office from Sat-Thurs. Saturdays and Sundays, most of the working world is off from working but I still have to be in the office as it is the norm here — even if I don’t have much to do in the office on which makes my life boring, boring and more boring!

Then we work only until 1:30 pm on Thursday and off from work on Fridays. That would conclude serious work only from Mondays-Thursday morning. Pretty ineffective, if you ask me — considering the time difference we have with Japan. The five hour time difference, Japan being ahead of the UAE means that sensible calls can only be made in the mornings here. At the strike of the UAE noon break hour of 1 pm, it is already 6 pm in Japan.  

Also, hubby and kid are having Friday-Saturday off. What a shame we only can be together as a family the whole day on Fridays! The government should impose uniformity and be as close as possible to synchronizing the work week with the rest of the world, don’t you think?

* Islamic UAE will never give up Friday as its holy/rest day. Fine. I just wish my weekend would be Friday-Saturday too just like the two other members of my family. 

My mother spent her childhood near the beach. No day is complete without a swim. The beach don’t hold any excitement for her anymore…until she came with us to Mamzar Beach Park yesterday!

She vowed to bring some swimming suit next time!

She did not bring any swimming suits with her. She’s done with the beach, she says. And besides, she don’t want to burn her face with the hot, hot sun above us. When we got there, she was surprised that this was no ordinary beach! People from all over the world come to Dubai just to see this and here we are living here. Who would want to pass up with that? She took a dip in her usual clothes and got soaking wet!

The beach was as usual very clear, we could see some fishes swimming by. Pristine frightened some swimmers when she shouted “Shark!” when she saw a medium sized fish, about 10 cms. long. I had to educate her that sharks look different and is longer than 10 centimeters, LOL!

Look how clear the water is!

After more than one hour of toasting myself swimming, we decided it’s time to hide in the shade. The sun showed no sign of stopping to shine, the heat becoming unbearable.

Relaxing under the shady palm trees

Interview questions from a blogger mom Kailani. Her blogsite offers great reads everyday, go check it!

You mentioned that you haven’t changed your hairstyle since you were 12 years old. Any chance we could see a photo of it? If not, describe what it looks like. — Ok, I actually have a photo of me in my old mane and my recent but have to upload it here yet. My hair — basically, I haven’t curled it, ever. My hair is still the same as before, only tamer now. When I was younger, I had rebellious waves that don’t obey me. It’s mostly only shoulder length but now, it’s midway down my back.

Could you still recite all the states, countries, and captials of the world? — YES. I still love to recall them once in a while and my passion to read National Geographic and the Almanac hasn’t ceased one bit.

Would you travel into space if you could?– BIG YES. Who would not want to?

In order of importance, how would you rank happiness, money, freedom, and love. — I would rank love first. When you have that, the rest will smoothly follow. (Now I see someone bringing me a sash with the words: Ms. Universe, lol)

What’s the hardest thing you’ve ever done? — By far, the hardest thing I’ve ever done and survived was giving birth to my first child. I endured 40 hours of labor and gave birth without any pain killers, whatsoever. I know that every mom has a different birth experience and every one has a different range of pain tolerance but given I am a cry baby and addicted to popping pills at every slight headache, that grueling 40 hours was a big deal for me. After that ordeal, I feel there’s nothing I can’t do!

Time flies when you are having fun, huh!? It’s been four days since my mom came and everyone is doing great. No crisis to write about, a breather!

In two hours, my mini-weekend starts. Mini because I don’t get full two days weekend. I work from Saturday to Wednesday 8:30-18:00 and Thursdays 8:30-13:30 so I only have the afternoons of Thursday and whole one day of Friday of vacation. So not enough.

We are going to Mamzar Beach Park tomorrow. Mom is not a beach lover, having lived all her life while growing up in the beachside of town but I still feel she needs to see the Arabian sea.

Yesterday Pristine brought home a cute paper bag with a little box wrapped in fancy paper inside. She loves things wrapped in paper so she immediately opened the gift and came out a small doll she named Cutie. I asked her so many times where she got it, she just told us, “from Pristine’s friend’s mommy.”

Now who is this mysterious santa? and at this time of the year?

Turned out to be, someone from her class had a birthday party at school and her mommy santa distributed gifts. I have never heard anything about any birthday parties organized at the school.

The parents of the birthday girl is starting the trend to have a lavish birthday feast and to give out gifts to the classmates instead of the classmates giving gift to the birthday celebrant. We are talking about some local Dubaian here — you know the norm, folks with oil related businesses…who just sit back and relax and money keeps flowing, ho-hum.

Wow, there are 12 other kids in my daughter’s class. So to compute, Pristine will be having 12 new toys this school year. Fancy but on the other hand, I might be pressured to prepare 12 give-aways to be given on her birthday because one mom started some trend and oh, don’t forget to add the gigantic cake my daughter has been fussing about!

I need some serious talk with the teachers soon.

Coastal kingdom of Dubai is almost all about bitches on the beaches. The rules are simple and written in more than 20 languages at every public beach entrances. Swim at your own risk when the red flag is on, don’t litter, don’t start fires (unless in picnic areas), no swimming after 10 pm, don’t walk your dogs, etc, etc.

The rules list goes on, covering almost everything. Almost — only if it included the dress code according to ‘proper’ conduct and of course the culture of the Islamic UAE! No nudity.

A woman in her early twenties was caught sunbathing topless on the very popular Jumeirah Beach. When confronted why despite being aware that nudity is illegal in the UAE, she answered that she forgot to bring her bikini top and don’t want to go back all the way home and miss the sun so she decided to hit the beach without it.

Imagine what would happen if this young woman couldn’t find her bikini bottom instead of the bikini top?

I suppose she would have still gone to the beach half-naked. 

*Just a note, bikinis and swimming trunks are highly accepted in Dubai’s public beaches.

…total time spent in Manila, away from her family. Despite a very disturbing incident, she was still in fighting form up until she actually landed and exited Dubai International Airport on Monday 3:00 a.m. (Dxb time) !!

My mother is finally here!!

We went to the airport at 10 pm because her plane was scheduled to arrive at 10:20. Same boring (Philippine) setting: plane was delayed in Manila, monstrous immigration officials contributed to the 3-hour delay of the Gulf Air flight.

Pristine slept in the waiting area that was by the way, freezing cold! I was still having very high fever and feeling very nervous why mom is not coming out when the airport monitor said the plane already landed at 10:45 pm.

Those monitors were not exactly correct! The horror. The plane actually landed at 2 am. My whines will stop now — at least she is finally here.

I would be lying if I say I am not nervous at my mother’s second attempt of leaving the country today. A few hours from now, she will be boarding a flight bound to Dubai, thanks to a friend who whipped up a miracle for us yesterday. I am terrified, nervous and restless. I jerk everytime the phone rings thinking it will be my mom’s call of distress (again).

If everything turns out right, she will be landing in Dubai International Airport at 10:30 p.m. today. Wish her luck!!

I arrived at the office before 8 am today because I will be going home in a couple of hours. The 38C fever I have since last night is slowing me down, all joints in my body aching. If I didn’t have reports to submit today, a needed bedrest would have been wonderful.