Welcome 2009!

 

A few more hours and calendars will change. Gather all your round fruits, open all the windows, put coins in your pockets, fill the jars with grains, and turn all the lights on! 2009 is here! It’s going to be another new year.

Well, just like the last Christmas eve and Christmas day, I will not be celebrating the coming of the new year tonight with families or friends. I’m working tonight, and two more nights after that. Business as usual. That’s why I posted this quick greeting now.

In the Philippines, it’s a great time to be with your loved ones. I miss my last year’s celebration – the fireworks, the noise, the loud music, the happy greetings. Families would gather around the dining table for a midnight feast we call media noche.

But tonight, it’s going to be different. It’s not going to be a countdown of how many more minutes and seconds before the year is finally over. It’s going to be a countdown of how much more medications are to be given, how much urine the patient has passed, how many more call bells I need to attend and how many more charts I need to finish.

I may wish it’s going to be fun, but it does not sound that way.

I just wish that I get a patient tonight who will appreciate my nursing care to him. I think that would be enough consolation. And as the old belief would say, I would then get a whole year of appreciative patients. That would be fun!

Allow me thank all of you who never got tired visiting this site. Thanks for a whole year of blogging fun and interactions. I really appreciate the fact that you spend time reading my thoughts. I appreciate it more than you know.

“See” you next year, guys! Have a great new year!!

Cheers!!!!!

 

2008 in Review

A lot of things happened to me this year. Here’s a look back of the year that was.

Professional Growth

Year 2008 gave me opportunities to expand my horizon careerwise. During the first months of the year, I worked as a Clinical Instructor and Lecturer for a nursing school in Bulacan. I was assigned in different hospitals, handling senior nursing students. I also got a brief stint to work as a Nursing Board Exam Review Lecturer, where I got to travel to some provinces in the country, for free!

In June, I started working as a staff nurse for one of the most prestigious hospitals in the Gulf region. The department I am involved in is a very busy surgical unit, where I learn a lot of new knowledge and skills.

Official Residences

My wife and I lived in three different places during the early part of the year. We stayed in our house in Antipolo most of the time. But we needed to move to a place near her work during her pregnancy, so we rented a small unit in Ortigas Center, where we experienced the joys of condo living. We also stayed in my parents house in Bulacan for a while.

My last and present official residence is my flat here in the UAE.

Baby!

Our married life was blessed with an angel, Inigo, in July. Our marriage was redefined. Our life goals and aspirations was reset.

Friends, friends, friends

As I continue to move around, I gained more and more friends. These include my co-clinical instructors, co-board exam review lecturers, my nursing students, new neighbors, new colleagues, new barkada here in the UAE, new blog readers.

Thanks

Well, what else can I ask for? It was a very blessed year for me. I can say that my life took a 360-degree turn this year. There were lots of major changes and they were all for the better.

I thank God for 2008 and may He continue to shower my life and my family with all the best things in life.

Cheers!

Chef of the Year!

My batchmates held our Christmas Party last night. We had lots of parlor games, dancing, singing and gift-giving.

I won the “Chef of the Year” award for my dish, vegetable pastel. It’s the first time I received recognition for my cooking!

We had a nice time! Merry Christmas everyone!

Addicted to Iñigo

Going Around Dubai Again

Here I was again joining other people on their out-of-town trips. This time, I joined some 10 Malaysians and 3 South Africans in their Dubai trip and mall-hopping last December 18. I was the only Filipino, and was the only worm among the roses who joined this trip.

My newly-found friends posing at Jumeirah Beach, with the magnificent Burj Al Arab Hotel as backdrop.

Entrance of Burj Al Arab, the world’s only 7-star hotel.

This is the tallest operating hotel in the world (not counting mixed-use building like Jin Mao Tower in Shanghai and the unfinished Ryugyong Hotel in North Korea). This  building is also the world’s tallest building with a membrane facade.

 

  

Front of Wild Wadi Water Park, one of the world’s most technologically advanced water parks.

This water park has heated/cooled wave pool, multiple water slides and two articial surfing machines.

 

 

 

 

 

I was here: Souk Madinat, 5th Dubai International Film Festival, Jumeirah Festive Market, Man-made river in Jumeirah, Sinbad Antiques.

We needed to cross an underwater subway to reach Atlantis Hotel on Palm Island, a stunning billion-and-a-half dollar resort complete with aquarium, aquapark, 17 restaurants and a $26,000-dollar-a-night suite. The hotel opening night last September was the most expensive private party ever staged, with Kylie Minogue’s one-hour performance paid at $4 million dollars, making her performance the best paid in entertainment history.

Mall-hopping: Lunch at Ibn Battuta Mall, the world’s largest themed shopping mall; Mall of the Emirates, the world’s largest shopping centre outside North America; and Dubai Mall, also one of the world’s largest malls. Dubai Mall’s opening last November 4 had 600 retailers,marking the world’s largest-ever mall opening in retail history.

In this picture, the giant white Christmas tree reaches up to the 5th floor of the mall.

While the world is being hammered by the global financial crisis, it seems the economic woes is a world away from the excesses of Dubai in the UAE.

What oil can do.