Call us crazy – this is the 4th time we’ve moved in our  five years in Dubai.

First, we lived in a room inside my company’s guest house for three months after arriving in 2007. It was tough. We weren’t allowed to cook so we ate outside all the time. Pristine got a terrible stomach bug because of that. Nightmare! We didn’t have a washing machine as well so had to wash laundry by hands (or else pay for laundry services – we didn’t have a budget for that and we had mountain load of dirty clothes with a small child).

Plus, the building is very near the airport and flight path of planes approaching Dubai International Airport. There would be these noisy, huge planes every five minutes or so, all through the day and night!

We spent three long months because the building where we were supposed to live after arriving wasn’t finished yet.

Our next move was into a real-ish living space. The two bedroom apartment about 15 minutes drive from where I work was ok. Nothing fancy, but better than the guest house room we lived. It was really small with a kitchen only to fit one person, much like living in a dormitory. But we have to make-do of the situation, lived there for three years!

It was small but with a great view, especially in the morning:

During the global economic downturn, rents dived down and we found a spacious apartment within our budget. It had a bigger kitchen, bigger living room, bathroom, bedroom, bigger everything. The downside? It’s located in the inner courtyard of the building and we could only see our neighbor’s windows outside our own (see above photo). We had no balcony!

This is what we can see from our window:

Aside from Pristine’s cute face and a mommy bird building a nest, the view is really awful! I terribly missed taking photos of the sky. Plus it could be suffocating not to have an outside view. We have been in this current apartment for two years.

So…

By the end of this month, we are moving again. With a new baby, it is a brave move, I know. I hear the “have we gone crazy or what?” and the “I hope the new apartment is worth the trouble!” remarks from friends.

Have we gone mad? Maybe but not really. Is the new apartment worth all the trouble? YES. We are moving to the same building complex (so effort for moving is minimal), but the room is on a different side so we get to have a balcony and an outside view. Same convenient location for us, only we could ‘breathe’ more with the bigger windows & balcony access.

Here’s the difference from our now apartment room and the one we’re moving into:

Hurrah for balcony and proper outside view! I am able to take photos of what’s outside again. I love the Dubai sky in winter. I can’t wait to breathe in fresher air.

It was a difficult delivery but my new son compensated me so much after by being such a good baby who lets me sleep for three hours straight and allows me long fifteen minute showers. He only cries when he is wet or hungry.

Each pregnancy and child birth is truly different and I know now that this is true.

While I couldn’t forget what happened on those painful days in October, where I labored for 45 hours and still ended up having an emergency c-section, I am just glad, happy, thankful that I got a wonderful gift in the end.

I love you, Benjamin Kazuki. You, together with your sister and dad,  light up my life.

We stayed at the Jumeirah Emirates Towers Hotel, one of Dubai’s soaring symbols last weekend to celebrate our 8th wedding anniversary. After relocating to Dubai, we decided to save up and make it a tradition to stay at a city hotel every year on our anniversary to take a break from our monotonous day to day rush. We started in 2009 at The Palace Hotel and in 2010, at the Crowne Plaza Hotel. For all our anniversary getaways, Pristine has always been with us. She loves exploring places – vacations, visiting friends – just going to places different. She LOVES it when we stay at hotels and almost always begs for another day when we are about to check out!

*How in the world did my thunder thighs get in the picture, I don’t know!*

Standing at 309 meters, the Jumeirah Emirates Towers is one of the tallest hotel buildings in the world and the architecture is simply beautiful. In 2007, when we were so new to Dubai, we took a photo just across it and hoped one day we could stay. It took us four years but the wait was really worth it.

Dubai hotels offer a lot of discounts during summer when the deluge of tourists come to a mild halt due to the extreme weather (highs of up to 120F). This is where residents like us do a happy dance. Included in our room stay are complimentary passes to Wild Wadi Waterpark…

….30% off on dining bills at all the restaurants in the hotel and voila, even an anniversary cake!

Pristine and M went to the hotel first since I had to work on the day we checked in and when I arrived, they already consumed almost half of the cake! Oh well, it saved me from overshooting my daily calorie intake.

We were on the 13th floor. The husband didn’t seem to mind that but I slightly did after all, 13 isn’t a favorable number (although my life has been surrounded by a lot of “number 13“). I asked a few people on Twitter and most of them said, they won’t mind and one smartie was quick enough to point that it’s not the 13th floor anyway, if you count the ground floor as 1.

We can see the Dubai International Finance Centre from our 13th floor room window. Everything is so peaceful and quiet on an early weekend morning the next day.

The pool below us looked really nice, if only it wasn’t too hot.

Since my sister is here, we decided to bring her along with my mom and we had adjoining rooms which Pristine would shuttle back and forth and do “stuffs”.

We had a really lovely time and temporarily forgot about our hectic everyday lives outside the walls of the hotel. Who wouldn’t want to stay longer but we all had to go home.

We look forward to another year together and our next breather at a hotel somewhere – with Pristine and a little baby in tow.

For the past couple of weeks, Pristine had been sleeping with us in a day bed connected to ours because for some strange reason, she gets blocked nose in the middle of the night at the other room. We don’t mind because it even has benefits – we are ‘forced’ to sleep earlier and thus wake up earlier and more refreshed.

So it’s safe to say that lately, I’ve been sleeping at 8:30 pm. I’m ready for pre-school.

The problem is – there are nights when she snores. A lot. That granny type of snore. The one that refuses to go away even if I move her. And me? I am a light sleeper. If my husband starts snoring in the future (knock on wood), I guess one of us had to transfer to the other room or file for divorce. I’ve not been sleeping well for the past days because of her snoring loud. I asked my mom to take Pristine just for one night while I cope up with my lack of sleep. Pouting however, off to the other room she went.

I woke up when the husband came home at 11pm after afternoon shift from work (that ended at 10pm). He saw the kid was not there. He smiled.

Stop. It’s not about that.

It’s not like we need to get something done and a child in our bedroom is a disturbance. *cough cough*

The man is a night owl. He changed into his pajamas, lay down beside me and started… CHATTING – about his day at work, his lunch, the news today, Arnold Schwarzenegger, among other things. The man just couldn’t stop! I was only half awake. His chatting marathon lasted for 2 hours!

Dude, I have work tomorrow!

Husband: “It’s my day off tomorrow.”

…that’s why he’s talking like there’s no end. Because he has no work tomorrow and he can sleep in! And also said because it’s the only time we can really talk without interruption.

Point taken, yeah but I really wanted some sleep and by the time he dozes off, I’d probably be waking up to pee again and again. (tiny pregnant bladder is the evil)

By the way, we’ve been married for 8 years today. Though sometimes these sleepless nights get to me, I still look forward to more years with the same man…and a lot of stories together!

[Top Photo Credit]

An update regarding my father’s accident case…

I got a call from Rashidiya Police Station regarding the status of my father’s case. He was a victim of hit and run while in Dubai for a visit last February.

“We have finished the investigation. Take your file number: xxxx/xxxx.”

“When can your father appear in court?”

The thing is – my father has gone back to the Philippines as he was here for visit and his visa was for 30 days only. I have told them that before when I requested them to speed up the investigation before my father heads home.

Right after I said that my father is no longer in Dubai and is back in his home country, the police officer’s voice toned down, weakened as if giving up. He asked me if it’s possible for my father to come to Dubai as soon as he can but no, that is not possible. (But I could represent him, if possible.)

There are visa issues, not to mention travel issues that would mean money and time. And what guarantee do we have that they’ll contact us while he is here? Visit visas only last 3 months maximum. It took them almost 2 months to contact me about the case being officially filed despite several witness accounts including the exact number of the car plate.

It’s been three weeks since I got that phone call and Dubai Court has not called me yet. I called the police station again and they’ve asked me to go there. Why can’t they just discuss it on the phone!?

Though my father survived the accident, he is not completely unscathed. He needs physical (and mental) therapy, his movements are limited now and he is not even back to playing tennis yet. And we don’t know if he will be capable of playing again. We want to pursue the case so the driver will be prosecuted as he deserves over reckless imprudence and leaving the crime scene, hitting a pedestrian and leaving him for dead – thank God for good Samaritans who called the ambulance and took down the car plate number of the culprit.

I feel like I’m facing a dead end now. Why do I feel they’ve let the criminal go just because the victim is no longer here?

I got a call from a local number last week and I answered the phone thinking it would be the bank or my insurance company or some random credit card sales person. Little did I know I was in for a very big surprise!

It was my brother stationed in Norway who’s now in Dubai – inside a mall, just 15 minutes away from where I work!

Of course I immediately scuttled out of the office telling everyone I have an emergency because yes, seeing my brother by chance after almost three years is an emergency. No one should argue with that!

I picked him up from the mall and brought him home. My mother and Pristine is home and I didn’t tell them I am coming, bringing along the surprise guest with me. My brother Jay and I did a lot of catching up while in the car – I almost couldn’t wait for him to finish his talk before I ask another question again and again and again. Three years (being away) was long.

When we arrived at the apartment, it was silent when I opened the door. No one was there. I called up my mom who was in one of our neighbor’s house.

Me: “Ma, I came home. Where are you?”

Mama: “What’s the matter? Is everything alright? Why did you come home?”

Me: “You see, there was this man I saw…oh just come back home and I will tell you later!”

Mama: “Ok ,ok, wait there! I’ll be up in 5 minutes!”

I heard my mom hurriedly walking towards our front door. I hid my brother in the kitchen.

Mama: “So, what happened? Why did you come home so suddenly, it’s just 3 pm!”

Me: “I’m out of breath, let’s go to the kitchen and get some water…”

My mom lead the way and when she opened the kitchen door, and saw her son (one of herfour sons) whom she has not seen in three years…

She screamed.

She cried.

She jumped.

And she hugged him so tightly!

It was an unexpected, unplanned reunion. And those kind of reunions are the best and the happiest. My mom couldn’t stop smiling.

We are grateful for Emirates Airlines who gave him immediate transit visa to Dubai due to two delayed flights. At least we got to see him this time, not a case of too close yet so far.

Photo credit

My sister, youngest of six will be graduating from university today. Alongside my parents, I feel so proud. Was it just yesterday when I held her for the first time when she and mom came home from the hospital? Wasn’t I the happiest when mom finally brought home a pink bundle after four blue ones?

My sister Ariane is 21 now but we’ve only been together during the first 7 years of her life. The rest was spent on long distance calls, handwritten letters, emails and later on chats, video cams and brief meetings once a year or so. We have spent too much time apart that sometimes I feel I do not know her at all. I’d go back home once a year to see my sister changing, growing up and developing a personality so different than mine. We’ve had petty arguments, patch things up again only to argue again. I can’t count the number of times I’ve shook my head in disbelief of the things that happened between us.

But deep inside, I still love her just the same.

Growing up in a brood of five (me then 4 brothers after me), I’ve always wanted a sister. I only got one when I turned 13 and didn’t really ‘need’ a sister anymore. I was not into playing Barbies or braiding hairs in high school. When Ariane was 3 and started inviting me to do girly stuffs, I was starting college. When she turned 7 and finally needed a sister not just for play but for company, comfort and girly cuddles, I left for Japan to study.

My parents would regularly send cassette tapes with recordings of my siblings’ voice while I was in Japan. Those cassette tapes were my line to sanity, especially during winter time when everything just seems so dull and lonely. I would play it over and over until I sleep. Ariane who dominates most of the cassette time, had a shrilly, kiddie voice like Pristine now. Heck, every time Pristine speaks now, I am always reminded of that little sister I had before so far away, calling out my name and singing me songs. I missed that girl and that girl has grown up to be a woman without me by her side.

All these years I have spent wondering why we’d have arguments when we rarely see each other or why she’s like a perennial teeenager who sometimes gets so stubborn, strong willed and defiant. But it must be her way of coping with growing up with 4 boys in the house, it was her own way of standing out in the crowd, to make herself heard. Or is it her way of showing resentment for all my years of absence?

Partly, maybe, yes.

Today I wish I was there as she marches down the stage in her graduation robe to show her how proud I am of her for completing school. But with this post, I apologize for being an absentee sister again.

Soon she’ll be living near me as she starts that journey into the ‘real world’. While I can’t promise to be the coolest sister, I will try hard to make up for the lost time we had.

I just got home from the airport where I sent off my father. He is leaving Dubai today to the Philippines, physically well and able to travel 18 days after his accident.

While I am very happy that he is still with us, alive and without any disability and I am deeply frustrated and angry that the driver of the car who hit him and ran away, left him for dead is still free – out and about somewhere driving carelessly, waiting to hit another innocent pedestrian. And then run away again.

The police have his car plate number and the case is already filed weeks back. I am not sure what keeps them from catching the suspect. My skin crawls at the thought that he could be the next car driving beside me in traffic.

My husband has pacified my frustrations by telling me we’ll just be contended that my father is still alive but I guess that anger and other vengeful feelings are innate human instinct because I have not made peace with all that has happened. I have not moved on. I pass by the accident site and cringe then my stomach turns. I seriously want something back – punishment for that reckless driver!

THE TORTURE OF MENTAL TRAUMA
I’m saddened by the fact that he is left with very traumatic feelings – he gets nervous around the road and around vehicles, his heart races as he crosses a street, his stomach aches because of nervousness and he falls weak to his knees. While my father has not completely bounced back to his previous self before the accident, I know in no time he will be. As for me, I just really really hope we get a call from the police that the bastard have been caught and punished. I don’t know, maybe suspend his license and let him pay a huge fine, anything that will make him realize his mistake and NOT repeat it.

Only until then I can have my closure.

Life had been very good to us, especially lately: my father and mother happy here in Dubai, my father overjoyed with seeing the Dubai Tennis Open, my free trip to Thailand, etc.

One reckless driver would change the course of our lives forever, scarring my father physically and mentally for days to come. Not just my father actually, every one’s just shaken and I’m still having nightmares about everything that happened.

Papa was a victim of a HIT and RUN incident in Dubai.

The thought of that just drives me mad. The crazy driver did not apply brakes before and after he hit my father. This kind of monster should not be allowed to drive at all. Such danger to the society! Generally, any person involved in an accident is required to stop, provide information and render aid if necessary. What kind of person runs away after hitting another person and endangering their lives?

My papa was not on the main road when the accident happened. He got out of the train station (Emirates Station in Marrakesh Road) and crossed the small service road after checking there were no cars coming through. Suddenly, without signaling and with speed exceeding what is allowed in service roads, a black SUV came rushing, hitting him on his left body, sending him flying on air and landing in the asphalt road.

There were witnesses. An Arab expat who was following the car who hit my father stopped to take down the car’s plate number. We are forever grateful to the kind stranger! The crazy hit and run driver needs to be taken out of the road or else he’ll hit people again and run away like nothing happened. I talked to a woman who saw what happened and she couldn’t believe how lucky my papa had been. “He flew for more than 5 meters!”

We have submitted the police report and filed the case against reckless imprudence and dangerous driving resulting in injuries. Please keep us in your prayers that this criminal will be caught soon so he won’t hurt other people again because others might not be too lucky.

February 27, 2011
Papa didn’t exhibit any scary life threatening indicators like vomiting, headache or loss of consciousness after the accident. A full body x-ray was done and we had to wait for the result. Precious minutes passed. I couldn’t bear seeing him in neck brace, eyes staring at us and telling about how the accident happened over and over again. He’s been an athlete (playing lawn tennis) regularly for more than 30 years now and he told me that when he was thrown into mid-air by the speeding car, he was alert and “planned” how to strategically land to minimize possible injuries.

And I think his strategy might have saved his life.

He had a huge contusion in his head, bruise on his left elbow and pain in his left hip and waist but miraculously, no fractures were found, including in his skull. It was too good to be true so the neuro-surgeon asked for a more comprehensive CT scan.

I can’t remember how hard I prayed outside the laboratory. I was alone. My husband had left the hospital to fetch my mom at home.

NOTHING SHORT OF A MIRACLE
With the circumstances surrounding his accident, it nothing short of a miracle that all his bones were fine and there is no damage to his brain. My papa’s been a fighter and survivor all his life. He’s strong will kept the family together during difficult times in the past. I know he won’t give up that easily.

3 HOURS AFTER THE ACCIDENT
The doctors told us if papa was not feeling any vomiting or nausea or headache, we can go home (unbelievable but true, especially when you see he still has a huge bump on his head). The nurse removed his neck brace and head support and asked him to sit on the bed. He felt fine and I was wiping away happy tears. Just then, a minutes later, papa screamed that he was dizzy and his body stiffened and shivered.

We called for help (screamed on top of my lungs!) and doctors rushed. When they arrived, papa was already ok, albeit very shocked about what had happened. Sudden surge of blood pressure triggered a tonic-clonic seizure. Our fears are not erased yet.

We were asked to stay for 24 hours observation.

TRAUMA
Papa was shaken about what happened. He refused to sleep thinking he might never wake up if he did. He kept himself busy by flexing his fingers and toes repeatedly. He kept asking me questions, trying to hold long conversations. His mind was sharp as usual. However he doesn’t want to be left alone and trauma set in. He started asking, “Can we really rely on their testing machines here?” or “What if there was an error?”.

No amount of reassurance stopped his questions.

RESTLESS
While watching him in the hospital, I couldn’t rest. Anything could happen with head injuries and that seizure that he had, I was so afraid it’ll come again. My mom was with him and I went home anxiously at 3 am because Pristine was not feeling well at home. Of course I couldn’t sleep well at home.

THE MORNING AFTER
I got up after 4 hours and  readied Pristine so we can go back to the hospital. I did not get any call from my mom with updates. I called her over and over but her battery was low. I hate being put in the dark.

When I arrived at the hospital, papa is still the same – coherent, conscious and this time, eating properly, drinking lots of water and passing urine normally. The contusion on his head also subsided greatly.

18 HOURS AFTER THE ACCIDENT
A team of neuro-surgeon came to see the ‘miracle patient’. Papa was talking to them like how he does, injecting jokes here and there. The doctor gave us permission to be discharged from the hospital.

He was asked to sit, stand, walk a bit which he did slowly. We went home at 3pm.

RESTING AT HOME
Papa is now resting at home, only feeling dizzy when he rests his head on the bed. We have propped it up with pillows so he’ll get a good incline. He’s sleeping and eating well. As of this writing, it’s been 4 days since the accident and I think he is doing good.

Next: How the accident happened and where do we go from here.