where is this sun you speak of?

Trang An, Ninh Binh, Vietnam We are all facing the biggest challenge all around the world right now and it is so easy to just be depressed and anxious about it. However, we always need to ensure to find joy despite the situation we are in. During these times, I am grateful for... Being with my family in Abu Dhabi just before the lockdown was in place. I couldn't imagine not being with them during this pandemic.  Back story: it was a Thursday and just finished work (at home) when my sister called and asked me if I want to go to Abu Dhabi just before the lockdown Dubai started at 8 in the evening. At first, I said I can stay in here and there is nothing to worry about anything (I had bought lots of food; enough for a two-week lockdown). I had to call her back after two minutes and asked if they can pick me up. They drove from Abu Dhabi to Dubai (picked me up and my a few of my things - which is mostly food that I had ready just-in-case) and back to Abu Dhabi in 3 hours. 😁 W...

Marina, Abu Dhabi, 2020 Ten things I am grateful for: Kuya Mel and Ate Aking for celebrating Valentine's day with me. Kuya Mel for giving me a rose on Valentine's day - twice in a row for the last two years! Kuya Mel and Ate Aking for being so thoughtful and bought me two boxes of facial masks since there are no available masks from any pharmacy near me (and workplace). My teammates for a job well done at work last week. Teamwork makes the dream work! The internet for holding so much content to drive creativity. I just prepared my meal for next week based on the recipes I found online. So for the upcoming week's lunch will be a fruity shrimp salad and dinner will be roasted chicken with vegetables. If not for the internet, I would probably just resort to instant noodles or online food and definitely laziness 😂 For the free digital garage course from Google. I am currently going through the modules and hopefully get a certification once I am able to finish soo...

Sunset at The Louvre, Abu Dhabi Looking back to my late teenage years/the early twenties, I had so much time to linger with my emotions. In retrospect, most of them were unnecessary. I guess I have also put so much content about it in this blog which makes me cringe every time I read them although, at that time, I knew that writing how I felt was the best channel I had to pour out those negative thoughts and emotions on. Although I wouldn't want to be on that road again. those years were not too scary to the point that I would actually want to end everything. What scares me is the strong pull of negative forces around you. It just makes you think of the world as a bad place that there is no good left in every little thing. This is not true and that is what scares me the most for myself and for everyone. I'm thankful that I did not go through that tunnel completely because I never really cut myself out from the people who surrounded me and, most especially, who were ther...

Dubai sunset, January 2020 I always wonder  how many sunsets can we witness together and how will it be  if it were the last?

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline To continue on an update of this almost-forgotten space, let me try to recall what happened since September. The only thing I remember was that a lot has changed in my work since that month which probably explains why I did not have the time to update my blog since then. September of twenty-nineteen was very challenging but I was all up for it! It was not definitely very easy but everything went well. October and November were amazing months since I went to visit Siem Reap, Cambodia after a year and then Hanoi, Vietnam for the first time. The trip was extra special as I had with me Aurelien who has never been to Asia and seeing him enjoy the experience throughout the trip added more awesomeness to it. Additionally, in November, my brother came to visit Dubai for the first time. It was amazing how he travelled to three different countries: Singapore, Dubai, and Georgia. It was such a great time for him because he never really had the chance to h...

This is my second attempt to read a Stephen King book. First was The Dark Tower which I stopped reading a few years ago and decided that it's not my genre though I want to give it a second chance!  11/22/63 is about time travel, love story, mystery, suspense, and conspiracy story on JFK assassination. The protagonist is Jake Epping who is a high school English teacher and is good friends with Al Templeton who owns a diner. Al has found a wormhole in his diner and has gone through a couple of times already. The wormhole goes back to 1958. Al's mission was to stop the JFK assassination that happened on 22nd November of 1963. So he had lived from 1958 through 1962 but could not live one more year to stop the assassination since he got sick with cancer. So he goes back to the present year (2014). Let's discuss how time travel is in this book. Basically, when Al enters the wormhole and spends 4 years (from 1958 to 1962), and comes back through the wormhole, he is only gon...

Magpupungko, Siargao, July 2019 I'm staring at this blank space trying to figure out what to write, or how to start writing about being 29. This is my last year of being in my 20s. It sure felt like I need to do certain things that I don't know about. As someone who writes lists every day, I wonder if there is a list of things to do before becoming 30. I used to be so excited about becoming a year older. When I was in grade school, I remember that I would stay awake until the clock strikes 12 to see if any magic happens. I guess that's because I have watched too many Cartoon Network and Disney shows back then. There is usually none, but then looking back, in retrospect, things have changed the way they should be. When I was in high school, as a teenager, I always get excited about being a year older because that means I am closer to becoming a college student. Funny how I look back and divide my life into educational stages. College was more than half a decade ago a...