Ten Years of Blogging!

Happy 10th Blogversary to me!

Wow! 10 years, 777 posts and countless friends made just by sharing glimpses of my life...or as I called it in the beginning, my blabbers and thoughts.

I Have My Reasons

It's been a year since my last post?! Whoops! My bad. However, I do have a valid reason why I've been on hiatus this long. Well, two reasons actually.

If you read my last couple of posts, you'll know that I was pregnant then, and ergo, I gave birth. And everyone knows how having a baby keeps you busy and tired. So much that even though you have a nanny to help, all you want to do when you have free time is sleep, right? Well, right now is one of the rare moments when I pushed myself to stay awake and update this blog while the little prince is sleeping and this laptop isn't being used, so here I am 😊

2018 Will Be My Year to...

Belated Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, everyone!

Can you believe we’re one week into 2018 already?! Time is flying by so fast, and before we know it, another year will be over. I had meant to blog during the holidays and weekends, but as usual, I wanted to spend the free time with my family instead. You guys know how it is ☺

So, a new year. New beginnings, a fresh start, a chance to become a better person.  Did you make a list of resolutions?  Or did you name your year with a word that will guide you?

Current Status: Confused

source

Picture this: There are 2 events happening on the same day, at practically the same time.

One event is a regular monthly activity; but since your office just recently started having all Saturdays off, this will be the first time after a long time you’ll attend. Plus, this time will be a bit different than usual because it’s centred on Father’s Day, so there will be something special prepared by the kids for their dads.

The other is a one-time event that’s expected to be full of fun and learnings, and will be held at a place where you and your kid are guaranteed to enjoy immensely. You were actually referred by someone which is how you received the invitation, and if you turn this down, this will probably be the 2nd or 3rd time you’ve done so. Syempre, nakakahiya. No, erase that. It would be very, extremely embarrassing to the highest level!

Which is why I'm so confused right now.

On Not Announcing Your Pregnancy During the First Trimester

Disclaimer: No, I am not pregnant...yet.
These were my tests when I was pregnant with Sophie

Several people I know are either pregnant or have recently given birth. Of course I’m happy for them. No doubt these babies will bring them a certain chaotic life that, no matter how crazy it would be, they wouldn’t trade for the world.

But my thoughts which are the reason for this post came about because of this particular lady I know. Here’s her story…

Repost: Disclipline and Being a Nagging Mom

Throughout our childhood, Papa was very strict with us. Having had training in the military, he made sure his 4 children grew up disciplined and well-mannered. We were raised to always do what we were told, never complain, carry out our errands, respect our elders, and never, ever disobey them. If any of us displeased Mama and/or him, you can be sure there would be shouting and tears at home. 

My siblings and I all had our fair share with Papa’s belt on our butts. None of us were exempted. However, before I was born (or maybe when I was still a baby), he also punished my older brothers and sister by making them kneel on monggo beans, squatting for a long time, and hanging one of them in a sack until that person fell from struggling.

Free Time and Blogging

It's been a while, I know.  There are so many things I want to blog about but I still haven't organized my thoughts and photos.

Obviously, so many things have been happening, one of which is that Yaya Jovy had to take her leave 1 month earlier because her father passed away unexpectedly.  Devastating news of course. And since she hadn't gone home even once since the first time she came to Dubai 6 years ago, you can only imagine how much she regret not spending time with her family.

Fortunately, my bosses understood the situation and allowed me to take my leave early.  So here I am now, a fulltime housewife and stay-at-home mom for the next 3+ weeks.

Of course I don't have as much free time as I want (taking care of two little kids isn't easy), but at least I can plan and gather my thoughts now that I'm not pressured with work...although I am still getting calls from the office every couple of hours by the lady who's taking care of my tasks during my leave.

Anyway, one of the things that I'm contemplating on is being more serious with blogging, because, let's be honest, it can bring some bucks or freebies or event invitations.  Although that wasn't my aim when I started,I must admit that it did catch my interest when I found out that the really good bloggers earn so much that they don't need a regular 9 to 5 job.

To start with, I'm thinking of migrating to Wordpress, since I heard it's better (in what way, I have no idea) than Blogger/Blogspot. Naturally, it comes with a price tag so I need to know if it really is worth it.  

Another point I'm considering is my domain, to make it a .com one or not, and subsequently my blog name. Blabbers & Thoughts is ok, but I want one that is unique and catchy, but will still be about me.  After all, I will still be blogging about personal stuff.

Of course there's the option of just creating a new blog, but then when I look back at all the posts I've done here, parang nakakapanghinayang.

Plus, if I really do want to become a serious blogger, I need to invest in a DSLR camera to take quality pictures. I cannot use my phablet all the time. And we all know the really good cameras aren't cheap.

So, there. I'm really confused on what to do and how to do them and how much all these will cost and if I can afford everything.  And if I do push through with them, I need to make sure I set aside time to blog regularly.

Decisions, decisions.

To the bloggers out there, could you please enlighten me? I'd really appreciate your advice, suggestions and recommendations.

The Ice Bucket Challenge and My Thoughts

I’m sure all of you know about the Ice Bucket Challenge for ALS Awareness. If you don’t (believe it or not, it is possible because I know someone who has no idea about it), let me explain it to you from the information I gathered from the internet.

According to the ALS Association, ALS or Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis is "a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. Motor neurons reach from the brain to the spinal cord and from the spinal cord to the muscles throughout the body. The progressive degeneration of the motor neurons in ALS eventually leads to their death. When the motor neurons die, the ability of the brain to initiate and control muscle movement is lost. With voluntary muscle action progressively affected, patients in the later stages of the disease may become totally paralyzed."

In short, once diagnosed, the patient slowly loses the ability to use his muscles until he can’t move at all without help. It's very scary and there is no cure. So far. Hence, the Ice Bucket Challenge which has people around the world including celebrities, politicians, businessmen, and athletes participating since July this year.

Please watch this video first to see how and why the Challenge started.

Done? Ok. Now on to the rules.

The rules of the Ice Bucket Challenge are simple. If you are challenged to do it, you have 2 options to choose from within the next 24 hours:
(1) You don’t do it and donate $100 through the ALSA website, or
(2) Accept the challenge and get ready with the things you need

If you opt to get soaked like the rest of the world, here are the steps you need to follow:
(1) Get a bucket and fill it with extremely cold water and lots of ice
(2) Get a video and film yourself or have someone do it for you
(3) In the video, you need to mention the following:
     • Your name
     • The person who challenged you
     • Three people you would like to see do the same thing
     • The ALS Association website: www.alsa.org
(4) Get soaked with the ice water
(5) Scream, shout, jump around, or do whatever you want to help you forget about the freezing discomfort you're experiencing
(6) Upload your video on the internet and tag the people you nominated
(7) Donate through the ALSA website. Yes, you still have to donate even though you accepted and did the Challenge. It doesn’t have to be $100. You can donate lower if you want (at least $5), but you still have to donate.

So anyway, I was challenged by a friend last Sunday. Actually, he didn’t say my name on the video he uploaded, but I did see my name in the description, along with a bunch of other people he challenged. I’m not sure if that counts; but anyway, let’s say for argument’s sake that it does.

I was thrilled to have been challenged. It’s exciting and a bit stressful to know that you are one of those people who has been nominated to make a difference in some way or another. I had mixed emotions and opinions on whether I would do it though.

For one thing, it would be fun to do. However, if I did accept the challenge, there was no way I could do it in 24 hours. We didn’t have that much ice at home, and the only free time I had was that night (I did not want to get myself wet before going to bed) or in the morning when I got up to prepare for work (I didn’t want to wake my girls from their sleep from my screaming and I was not going to freeze myself that early even though I would be taking a shower right after).

And then there’s the issue of not wasting water because there are several countries worldwide that are in dire need of clean water to drink. Heck! I just need to look at our water and electricity bill to realize how precious water is.  Which brings me to the other option of not having ice water dumped on my head and donate $100.

$100 is not a small amount for an ordinary person. The cost of living in Dubai is getting higher every day and letting go of Dhs365 isn’t easy, even if it’s for a good cause. Hubby also told me that we often take part in the Dubai Terry Fox Run so at least we do something for some kind of disease research.  And then yesterday, one of our friends happened to share on Facebook another person’s research that only a small percent of the donations actually go to the study of ALS. However, when I went to the "Donate" tab of the ALSA website, donors can specify if they want their donations to be used for ALS research.

I know more than 24 hours has passed since I was challenged, but I still have a choice to get soaked or not, right?  And I don't think ALSA will criticize me if I don't join the bandwagon, right?

In the end, what’s important is we all make a difference…whether for ALS or anything else that matters in the world.

a quick hello and daily memes

Hi there! Yes, I’m still here. Sorry for not updating this for some time. You see, I haven’t been blogging because of several reasons. Well, a few actually. Not that I need to explain myself, but since I haven’t posted anything in a while, I guess I owe it to this blog and my readers (naks!) to fill the space with words para hindi sayang yung pag-visit nyo.

Ok, first reason: Blogger’s Block. I simply couldn’t think of anything to blog about. Sure there were a few things that came into my mind from time to time, but as soon as I looked at the screen, I just couldn’t find the words.

Another reason for my absence was I was on a short leave from work from the 14th to the 18th of November. Hubby had been on local leave (he had to use up all his leave credits otherwise they would be forfeited) and I wanted to join him so that I could also spend time with our daughters for the last few days of his leave. We weren’t busy, but of course I wanted to just relish the free time we had. And as expected, when I returned to work on Tuesday, there were several e-mail messages I had to read and countless tasks and requests to take care of which continued until yesterday.

And since news circulated the world of the damage that Typhoon Yolanda left behind in the Philippines, I just lost the enthusiasm to blog. Practically everything I read or saw focused on this subject. It was depressing. We did what we could (donate, participate in fund-raising activities, pray), but of course to avoid being labelled as inconsiderate, minabuti ko na lang na wag muna magblog. Nakakahiya nga naman magkwento ng kung ano-anong bagay while our kababayans are suffering from the calamity.

But fortunately, the survivors are slowly but surely picking up the pieces and moving on with their lives. Thanks to practically the whole wide world in helping out. As I watched the videos and pictures of the memorable things people and countries did for the Yolanda survivors, I couldn’t stop my tears from falling. Nakaka-touch di ba? Nakakatuwa. In the midst of the hatred, fighting and wars going on, the world united to help the Filipinos stand up again.  At least something good came out of this disaster.

So as I mentioned earlier, I was on leave for a few days. With so much free time in my hands, I just enjoyed the lack of having to doing anything. In short, I enjoyed being lazy. Oo na, hindi maganda yun. Eh minsan lang naman. But while my body was being a bum, my mind tried to think of ways on how I could improve this blog. You know…the design and layout, the posts, traffic feed, how to get sponsors, even the name. I know one of the first things to do is to register my own domain name to put this blog “out there,” and I would definitely want to do that; but at this point in time, I don’t think I’m ready yet.  There's so much I want to do, but...

Anyway, in the meantime, I’m starting with baby steps and try to be more masipag with my posts. And one way of doing that would be…memes! Ok, not everyone looks forward to reading or doing memes; but if you appreciate at least one of them, well, that’s enough. What’s important is my blogging frequency and style improves and you, my dear readers (paninindigan ko talaga na meron) are entertained at least a bit.

So here are the memes that I’ll (hopefully) do each day. They’re not complete, though. I’ve been wracking my brains and the net for ideas for Tuesday and Saturday but I can’t think of any suitable memes for these days. If you know of any or if you have any suggestions, I’d really like to hear from you.

• Selfie Sunday – not only of me, but of whoever will use Tisay (my Galaxy Note) and neglects to delete their pictures (heehee!)
• Music Monday - all about songs and music
• ? Tuesday - any suggestions?
• Want-it Wednesday – things I want to buy or own, or experiences I would love to try at least once in my life (so that my family and friends know what to give me on Christmas and my birthday *wink*)
• Thankful Thursday – whatever big or small things that I’m just grateful for
• Photo Friday – another reason to post photos of anything that catches my interest
• ? Saturday – any suggestions?

Ok fine. I’ll be honest. Please don’t expect me to do these every single day. These are just to motivate and inspire me when I’m stuck with the desire to blog something but can’t think of anything. I will try to do them, but not constantly. Basta, bahala na. And if you’d also like to do these memes on your blog, let me know and forward your link to me so that I can mention it here. It’ll be fun.

Let’s make it fun! =)

is there a currency symbol for the dirham?

I had an insomnia attack again last night. And just like what usually happens when I can’t sleep, so many jumbled thoughts entered my brain. One of which was the currency symbol of the dirham.

During my almost 10 years in this country, I don’t think I’ve ever seen the symbol. It’s always represented by AED or Dhs. Those are letters! Why doesn’t it have a symbol?!

For the dollar, it’s $.
For the pound, it’s £.
The yen is ¥, and the euro is €.
Even the Philippine peso and Indian rupee have their own symbols.
So why not the dirham?

And since my brain just couldn’t push the thought aside, it came up with a symbol to represent the dirham:

Well, you never know…maybe this idea could take effect. 
Ahem! Attention, UAE leaders and government! ☺

serving in the community

Again, another bump in our service. I had somewhat expected this, but of course I hoped I would be wrong. It may be too early to complain since nothing has happened yet, but then, that’s also one of the reasons why it’s so frustrating...nothing has happened yet! I don’t want to blame anyone or point fingers, so I’ll just blame it on the timing (so many things happened and it’s the Christmas/Year-End season). I don’t know...I just want to give up and go back to when things were (somewhat) easier and we had less responsibilities. Is it too much to ask if we want to go back to being members?

my end-of-the-world day

So the supposed day of the end of the world came...and went. Honestly, a part of me thought it would, while the other part of me thought otherwise. That’s why throughout the entire day yesterday, I wanted to make sure that I was with the people I love, my family; so that just in case anything happened, we were spending our final moments together.

things i'll do after the baby comes out

I’m sure many mothers will agree with me when I say that being pregnant has its ups and downs. You’re given priority in queues, offered seats in the metro and/or bus, bosses and colleagues don’t give you too much stress at work, you can eat early before the official lunch break or nibble on some snacks at your desk, you can ask the company drivers to drop you off at home after work (err, ok, I admit...even when I wasn’t pregnant I would ask our drivers to drop me off if they weren’t busy), etc. On the other hand, there’s so many things that can make you miserable like the frustration of not having anything decent to wear that can fit because your tummy keeps growing, having to decline or limit your intake of yummy desserts (and other foods) because you fear getting gestational diabetes, waking up several times in the middle of the night to pee (and then not being able to go back to sleep), going through a roller coaster of emotions...I can go on and on.

the shortest day of the year in dubai

...is tomorrow, 22nd of December.
Sunrise is at 7am and sunset at 5:34pm.
That’s 10 hours, 33 minutes, and 55 seconds to enjoy the sun.
Just something new I learned today =)

november = death

What is it with the month of November that makes me associate it with death? Is it because October welcomes it with Halloween, and it starts off with All Saints Day and All Souls Day? Or maybe because Papa’s birthday falls on this month and I’m sad because he’s not here anymore so that we can celebrate it with him? Whatever it is, November is the most depressing month of the year for me. And it seems no matter how excited other people are preparing for Christmas and New Year, I still get this feeling of doom.

greeting muslims

As-Salaam-Alaikum = Peace be unto you
Wa-Alaikum-Salaam = And unto you peace

After almost 8 years in the country, I still find it awkward to greet Muslims in the way they usually greet.
Note to self: Snap out of it! When in Rome...

i'm back (for now)

Despite being on a break for almost a month (as you can probably guess, we were vacationing in the Philippines), I’m in awe at the number of people who have dropped by this blog to check on any updates. It may not have fallen in the thousands like the super famous blogs out there, but I’m just happily surprised that this blog of mine is being visited by people around the world, majority of whom I probably don’t even personally know. So, THANK YOU to everyone who checked this blog out. It really means a lot to me.

just me complaining about time, boredom and the heat

Is it just me or is the month of August just dragging by? For the past 7 months, the days and weeks were practically flying, but then it’s like time decided to slow down once August started. Maybe it’s because it’s Ramadan and we’re working shorter hours (our office works from 8am to 2pm), or I’m getting excited for our upcoming vacation...but whatever it is, I’m getting bored!

overdue, overload

Gosh! I just realized I have so many things to blog about and I haven’t even started a single one. There’s the magnets I received from my colleague, our visit to Sharjah Aquarium, the night the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe left our home, and my cooking class experience at mOre Café (of course!) to name a few.

nothing, anything, everything

It’s the last hour of the work day, the last working day of the week (because tomorrow is a holiday, followed by our two-day weekend) and instead of working, my mind is all jumbled up. So, instead of doing nothing at all, I thought of just typing away on whatever I’m thinking about.