Saturday, July 24, 2010

Food Trip in Dubai

Last June 11, has been the yummiest day ever in UAE. It took a while for me to post the experience I had on this day 'cause having a hard time uploading the photos. But at last, I was able to finish this blog.

We visited our friend's place in Barsha that Friday and had the most delicious lunch.... roasted chicken, sauteed tahong and favorite seafood pesto. I was so full that I needed to unzip my pants to let my tummy breathe.


Sauteed Tahong

Roasted Chicken

Spaghetti Seafood Pesto

After the yummy lunch, we went our way and explored the malls of Dubai. First stop, Mall of Emirates. We just walked around and window shopped. Checking out the sale on certain stores.

 

Inside Mall of Emirates

Then we decided to go to Dubai Mall to watch the Fountain show. So we got on the train and went on our way to Dubai Mall station.  Dubai Metro's one day ticket would cost around AED 14.00 but you can buy a one way ticket depending on your destination. But if you would be staying in Dubai for a longer period of time, then you should buy the NOL card, it is just like the Octopus card of Hong Kong. You just need to reload it when needed and you can use when riding the bus within Dubai as well.


 

MOE Train Station

When we got off the Dubai Mall Train station, we just decided to just walk along the streets of Dubai going to the mall while taking photos of the tallest building of the world, Burj Khalifa.









Burj Khalifa

One thing that is very interesting in the city of Dubai are the buildings' architecture. Each building is different from the other, which is really impressive and most were done by Filipino architects.

Buildings near Dubai Mall

Anyway, it was quite a long walk from the Train Station to Dubai Mall. So we had to stop by Starbucks to quench our thirsty throats and relax our tired feet a bit.






Then on our way to the Fountain Show, we pass by Dubai Aquarium and were amazed by the the relaxing sight. We did not went into the tunnel and just viewed the aquarium from the outside area.  But for your info, the entrance fee to Dubai Aquarium is around AED  25.00,    in case you are interested to know more about the Dubai Aquarium, please see this link - http://www.thedubaiaquarium.com/tickets_information.html.

Still it would have been much better to see these beautiful marine creatures in their natural habitat, but probably we all need to have them in our cities for us to marvel on God's creations.






After the sight seeing outside Dubai Aquarium, we went to see the awesome Fountain Show. Just love watching it everytime, the sounds, the lights and the dancing water fountain.






After the breathtaking Fountain show, we got really tired and hungry so we had our dinner at T.G.I.F. I have always wanted to have taste buds experience the mouthwatering steak at TGIF but I did had the means before. So I suggested to have our dinner at this restaurant and my wish came true.












After the sumptuous meal, we just walked around Dubai Mall, had our last top at the loo then went on our way home.









I had fun that day... not just because of the food but importantly spending the day with friends who are always there to brighten my day.

Thank you to all my friends who always make my life here in UAE easier to bear.

Josh

Friday, July 23, 2010

After Life

I watched the movie After Life and it just made me think about my life, about death, the choices I made and have not made.

What if there is really nothing after life? What if the life we have now is both heaven and hell, depending on the choices we make, depending on how we live our lives. That we need to make this life we have now worthwhile because there is nothing after we have passed this world.

What if today is the last day in this world? How did you live, how have you lived those years of life?

What if you only just have that few moments to think about your life before you are completely gone in this world? Will you have so many regrets, for words not said, for things not done? Or will you be able to peacefully close your eyes knowing that you have lived the life you wanted, to live it with happiness, to have explored everything Life has offered you?

I had my struggles and still have them. I cannot never live without it, it will always be a part of my life. It sometimes gets exhausting to live life with complications. It wears out my soul and breaks my spirit at most times. But it also builds my character and makes me a stronger person.

Few years back, I got tired of living the same situation. In the movie, Anna is already dead when she was expressing all her regrets in life. Like the character of Anna who had full of regrets, I was at a point in my breathing life I was living a regretful chapter for wrong decisions made, for choices I was so afraid to explore. I had the same sentiments as Anna, waking up, going to work, doing my work, going home then falling into sleep. Then having the same routine again the following day. It was not a miserable life, but there is just something that I needed to do and I was so afraid to explore it then.

When the opportunity presented itself, I took it. I left my country to work overseas. I still have the same situation with work, but now it is much different. I was learning more about myself here. I miss my country and my family but I am glad I left. This is something that I really wanted to do and so now I am here.

I made a ten year plan of my life. I started it when I turned 30 which was 2 years ago. I was able to accomplish 2 of my goals and 2 are still under process. But now after a few months of living in this country, my perspective has changed. So now I am reassessing my goals and plans for the next 8 years of my life.

But in case today will be the last day of my simple life (which I pray, God will still let me live to see my grandchildren), I would be glad to say that I can close my eyes peacefully even with the thought that there would be nothing beyond this life.

It was not a perfect life, but I did experience some perfect moments. I had made peace with my God (though I belong to a religious group, I still believe that the path of spirituality is a journey experienced by the person at his/her own pace and time), I have experienced life and made bolder choices. I have accepted my painful past, I have forgiven myself for mistakes I have committed and the hurt done to friends I love (but if I have a Hot Tub Time Machine, I would go back and alter it). I have loved and was loved in return, I have made my parents happy, I have met new people in my life and rekindled old friendships, I have learned to focus on improving myself more rather than try to improve others. It was not extravagant but I have lived a good and interesting life.
If given another day, then I will again try to challenge myself, improve on my weaknesses and create better relationships with the people around me. We only pass by this world once, so I guess it is much better to make it worthwhile.

Josh

Thursday, July 15, 2010

My Thoughts on this Week

Another challenging work week here in Abu Dhabi. But I thank God for the time and strenght to be able to accomplish things that needs to be done, it might be just small accomplishments but I did put effort and energy into it.

I'm usually passionate with my work or any activity that would bring out the best in me. Sometimes, I get easily be disheartened. Rechecking my goals, my plans, my strengths and my weaknesses. I greatly fear failure so there are times that I am paralyzed by it. Instead of taking risks, I'd rather not do anything.

But life is full of choices. If I remain complacent and always be fearful of the unknown, I will not be able to reach my goals. I do get affected by other people's opinions, but I am a bit choosy now on who's opinions or criticism's I listen to.

Yes, I do listen to criticisms. Sometimes, I'm affected by it. There are instances I shrug it off, especially those that are totally untrue and nonsense. One would probably say, it's nothing. But in reality, people's comments on you is everything.

In the past few months, I have learned to choose which criticism would help me most and which are just been commented on out of frustration, or arrogance.  I have decided to work on the weaknesses other people sees in me instead of being defensive. I have to admit, I still falter and make a list of complains. But each day, I remind myself to be appreciative of the good things and the bad situations. Every problem has a solution and if it's unresolvable, then better not think of it at all.

It has always been my belief that people would have opinions of you whether you do something right or not. (It's probably in our nature, but hope I'm wrong. I do not have any factual basis on it anyway.) So you cannot always live by their standards. You should live in the standards of your Creator.  

I am not perfect but will always strive for perfection, better yet for excellence. I may just do my job because I'm being paid to do it. But I will try to be committed to doing my work because I want to step up and improve myself to every failure I encounter.

It is just recently that I have stopped comparing myself with others. I am what I am, I am not this person nor that person. So I had peace with myself, striving to be better, to beat my old self. I try to find inspiration from my surroundings, to learn from others and to explore further my abilities - discovered that I'm somehow interested in writing (thank you for the friend who introduced me to blogging - Ivs).

My thoughts are still disorganized but if I continue writing, putting my thoughts into words, I will certainly improve on it (and would definitely strive and hope for).


Josh

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Being more Positive

"Today I will start to focus on improving myself rather than waste my time criticizing others."

I have kept reminding myself to work on my attitude. To ignore people who would drain my energies and will not help me reach my fullest potentials. But we are a work in progress.

Earlier, today I took part in a discussion between my boss and a colleague. I would just like to have avoided it but I just can't seem to keep myself away from the issue since I'm partly affected by it.

It was an upsetting discussion and it seemed we did not made any progress at all. We were back to square 1. Same issue, same arguments, same rebuttals. It is like dejavu, a situation keeps repeating itself like a broken record.

I started wandering whether our boss really understands his role in the company. It seems weird because I have been managed by leaders who has extensive experience in the industry and I can't help myself but to compare the present one with the previous bosses.

Then I started to have the litany of complains. I guess I needed to vent my frustrations but it did not help me at all with the work I needed to complete that day. It just drained all my energy and at the end of the day, I was unproductive.

I have great respect for my leaders, some I may not have liked but I do respect their position and their credentials as leaders. I have mentioned leaders because they have the vision for the company or even just the department they are handling, they were able to inspire their staff. The present B, he is manager alright, but not a leader, at least in my opinion.

Good thing, I am able to motivate and help myself improve on my inadequacies. I may not find inspiration through the present B, but I respect him as a person and as a superior. It would seem unfair and questionable why he was placed in such a position but it is beyond me. I understand he is not perfect but I hope he will be humble enough to admit that he needs improvements as well. Probably he will in the future, I just need to be positive. Positive thoughts breeds positive results, right?

From the words of William Nelson, "Once you replace negative words with positive words, you'll start having positive results." So first goal for the month, use positive and kind words to others even when I'm talking about them behind their backs.

Josh

Saturday, July 3, 2010

Remember Who You Are

We all have our moments of failures and moments of success... Important thing is not to loose the sense of your inner being in this world full of insanity.

Josh

Letting Go...

Letting go is very difficult when someone holds a special place in your heart, but sometimes you just need to let them go so they can move on and grow, and to let yourself grow in your own relationships.

It is such a painful process.. but when you truly love someone, you will let them be happy with their lives, so you can be happy with your own life.

Josh

Getting really bad

Was into battle gear yesterday. Felt bad, but eventually I was okay. If shots were not fired at me first, I would not have retaliated. I can really be bad if I want to, when someone throws a stone at me, I will certainly throw back a larger stone with spikes.. mwahaha....

Posted in Facebook May 4, 2010

Josh