pit stop

Right now, I am sitting in an area labeled as the “Quiet Lounge” in Dubai International Airport. And no I am not online, I am writing my blog entry on MS Word, to be copied and pasted once I get to my final destination.

This is my first time out of the country and it feels surreal. Like going to a new high class mall… with no money hehehe. I had to change $10 of my per diem to the local currency Dirhams (or DRH). The exchange rate? 3.6 DRH per 1 USD. And so far, three and a half hours into this place, I have spent 1 DRH hahaha. Well, I do plan to eat lunch here as my connecting flight is scheduled at 1:15 pm local time. Time difference is – 3 hrs from Manila.

I dunno if I feel the effects of jetlag given the short time difference and the numerous hours of sleep I had before leaving and on the 8 hour trip getting here. I still haven’t figured out how many hours I will be losing (or gaining).

Took some photos upon arrival. Not much, I was still sleepy and kind of disoriented before the battery gave up on me. Can’t find a socket to charge it, I don’t even know if the sockets are standard here. Maybe I can buy a spare battery here, or even a spare SD card as I only brought two 16MB cards.

I’ve been walking along the length of the airport back and forth looking at the sights and thinking of what to do. I’m not sure if I’m ready to do some shopping given that this is just the beginning of my business trip. Oh well I can easily change the local currency back to US dollars or whatever currency I may need later on (I think). One thing I’m sure of, this damn laptop bag is heavy!

Seen a lot of nationalities, well at least I think so. Not surprising as this is an airport (and an international one at that!). Exchanged a few words with fellow “travelers” and some staff, one was even a Filipina!

I’ll go back to reading my book before I go on and see if I can check in to my flight and maybe grab something to eat. There is a Dunkin’ Donuts stall in my immediate vicinity, and I think I saw a McDonald’s somewhere down the building….

stress!

I am not feeling well.

I'm think I'm having a slight fever, probably due to all the stuff that's bugging me right now. Travel arrangements, work, and a lot of tiny things that needs attention.

And I'm supposed to travel to an international assignment in less that 60 hours... I need rest, which I don't think I can afford right now. Life....

adOPTION

I received a surprise call no less than 30 mins ago... it was from an old friend, actually from a surrogate mother of sorts.

She's a family friend, the owner of the school I attended in Cebu while my family stayed there for a few years. And she "adopted" me for a year during my, we could say, "formative" years.

You see, she and her husband don't have kids. She really does adore children, and perhaps the main reason she set up a school (I haven't really asked her about that). I was luck enough to be part of the first batch ever of her school, which was actually her home. It has now grown up to a college level institution patterned after the school system of the US, requiring a new building in Cebu.

I accidentally bumped into her some months back at the lobby of our office building. Coincidentally, they have also set up an office in the same building where I work. And this time its for the graduate courses. We've kept in touch and shared a few stories since then.

The phonecall, was about her offering me a job. Actually asking me to work for her (which I perceive to be 2 quite different ideas) . I am quite happy with my current job, and I feel that my career development is getting somewhere.

She also texted me the possiblity of being adopted of sorts (again).

Maybe she forgot that I just turned 24?

Checkered flag

I forgot there was a Formula 1 race again. Well actually, I knew there was a race this weekend and was meaning to watch it. However, being it my birthday and having a party last saturday plus a game at Camp Masada I completely missed it.

I just dawned to me this morning when an officemate mentioned it, saying that Fisichella won. Figuring that Fisichella is now driving for Renault, who are on a roll right now with Alonso getting 5 podiums out of 5 starts (3 wins), I took it as a fact.

Getting curious as to the actuall results I checked my favorite F1 website and got a pleasant surprise.... Kimi Raikkonen wins in Spain.

I'm getting too busy to keep up to date with all things that interest me... damn!

Easy as connecting the dots...

A couple of days ago, I went with my mom to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) to have my NBI clearance authenticated for an upcoming business trip (a further blog entry should explain this in detail).

I was a bit late in getting this done, as I had my NBI clearance renewed last April 20 but I figured "How hard would it be to get this single piece of paper validated?". I had, after all, renewed the NBI clearance in about 15 mins via their kiosk. I was giving myself a good 4 hours to get this seemingly easy task accomplished.

Oh, how wrong was I.

When we got there around 7am there was a considerable line outside DFA. I though it to be normal and readied myself. We asked the guard at the gate first just to be sure we were following the right line. He confirmed that it was the line to get my document authenticated.. but first we had to get it authenticated at the Malacañang Palace.

Go figure. To get an NBI clearance authenticated at DFA, you first have to get it authenticated at the Malacañang Palace!

It took me 4 hours alright...to get the document into the receiving window of the authentication office at Malacañang. And it was due for release the afternoon of the following day.

I was able to proceed to DFA early this morning, started falling in line at around 6am and finished around 8:30am. Better that what happened in Malacañang... but this time I have to wait for it to be released on Tuesday next week!

All this for authenticating a lousy piece of paper that says I am not a criminal. Sheesh!

i'm back!

I just came from boracay yesterday... now I'm at the office.

But I'm not working, I'm not that stupid to work during a holiday. I'm just waiting for some of my officemates before we head off to the wake of an officemate's dad who passed away last friday.

Darn its hot. Usually I freeze my butt off here in the office but since it has been declared a holiday today, most of the tenants are lounging at home or roming the malls the building management wisely decided not to turn it on. At least in boracay I can take off my shirt and maybe take a dip in the big blue ocean.... darn.