Dubai - May 27, 2006

Been very busy for the past few days trying to finish my tasks and prepare for my upcoming project in Dubai. I also have been trying to tell myself that I have to look at life on how it is now and not to be too hard on myself for what have happened to me over the past year. Things change, people change but sometimes feelings are hard to change. I'm always on this swing, go or no go. It's just that I'm afraid that if I let go, I would never get the feeling back again and if I do let go then, what...?

So today I will be flying to Dubai, I started the day cooking breakfast and having brunch with the "Pinoy Gang". I prepared and marinated, again, chicken breast with the ever famous JCo's Herb Mix, previously KFC Mix and spaghetti. Paui did the frying since he was really amazed by the portable burner compared to the electric burner. I did the spaghetti sauce, I mixed tomato sauce, minced meat and frankfurters. Something new to this recipe was I marinated or mixed the meat with herbs, salt and pepper before stir frying it. After stir frying I added the frankfurters and the spaghetti sauce, I forgot to add sugar to this recipe. But it's quite nice, agree, hehehe? I also cooked omelete with chicken ham and cheese. Ahh, what a great way to start a day. After brunch, I went back to the room to prepare my stuff.

I left the apartment around 3:30 in the afternoon still confused why I am so "BLANK". I was in the taxi, thingking about work and honestly I still don't know what I am doing and going to do. Yes, Dubai is a very nice city but something is not right. Maybe I'm just over reacting and worrying myself for nothing. Well, hope everything will turn out ok. The thing that I worry most is my performance on the project, I hope I won't let my Teammates down. I did not feel any excitement or anything whatsoever and it's quite odd. Anyway, I reached the airport around 4:15 and checked in my luggage. I was quite shocked to know that I was 18 kilos overweight, damn that was pretty heavy and to think I haven't brought all my stuff. I was carrying 48 kilos of luggage. So I talked to the attendant and then she finally charged me only 10 kilos for my excess baggage.

During flights, I would always prefer to sit on the aisle, but somehow the attendant gave me a window seat. There were two in-flight movies, the first was "The Last Holiday" by Queen Latifa and the other "Casanova" by Heath Ledger. I think he was trying to make up for the "Brokeback" thingy, so he did another man movie. Funny his name sa Jacko Casanova. Hmm, sounded like someone I know. So after the second movie, I looked out the window and was amazed by the sight that I saw. The sky was so clear and I could see a lot of stars. It was my first time to see that much stars and it was so quiet and serene. I tried to take some photos of it but somehow I can't get any good shot, maybe there are some things that are only meant for your eyes and thoughts. Hayyyyyyy, makes me miss something, someone in particular, actually.


The plane that brought us to Dubai.


Sunset or whatever is left from it.


Blurred shot of the stars, white spots are stars.

Well, when going to Dubai, I would suggest that you take the night flight and seat on one of the left window seats. Everybody knows that Dubai is a place made from the dessert. So when you look from above you will see a lot of spots which has no lights but is connected by lines and lines of lights. These lights are the one's lighting up the highways. The scene would be like a leaf which you can see the big vein and some of the small veins. Finally, we landed and the airport was pretty nice. I was taking some photos then the stewart asked me to keep my cam since there are no photo taking of the airport. I'm not sure why but I just listened to him. Below is a blurred shot of the line of lights. Black spots would mean they are still open lots awaiting development.


A blurred shot of Dubai's sky light. Areas that are in black are still under development.


A shot near the ground.

The apartment driver fetched us from the airport, I flew to Dubai with 3 of my colleagues from different modules. He asked the 3 of us to get a cab since the flight information given to them was wrong. So he only brought a car. As expected, the highways here are full of light, not just ordinary light but very bright once indeed. THe drivers here are almost the same as the ones in the Philippines, fast and likes to swerv. I think they got a lot of training from the Filipinoes since there's a quite big number here in Dubai.

We checked in and left our stuff in our rooms. I was sharing the apartment with one of our collegaues from China. After leaving our stuff we went to Spinney's to buy some basic stuff. The supermarket is 5 minute walk from our apartment and it has good stuff in it. Initial assessment is that food here in Dubai is more expensive than Bangkok. Below is a view from my small terrace.