It's Cold in the Middle East

Two weeks ago, I arrived at Doha's Hamad International Airport. Locally, it was 2:45AM. In the Philippines, it was 7:45AM. I had taken a flight out from Hong Kong to Mumbai then to Doha. Fashion-wise, I did not plan well. I mean, it's the Middle East, right? Like you'd see deserts all over the place and then you'll just burn up and die.

How stereotypical. LOL.

But really, no. The airport's temperature was okay, I was fine indoors. I was waiting for my mom's friend to come pick me up from the airport. I never really met her formally. She knew me from when I was still a kid, but I never really knew her. It was a good thing I had my Philippine number's roaming feature on, so she got a hold of me and we met outside. Before she arrived, I tried to get some fresh air because I was just on two flights which pretty much totalled 12 hours. The moment the doors opened, I felt like I was splashed with cold water.

And I thought it was chilly in Hong Kong. Coming from a tropical country, I complained that we were not getting enough cold weather in the Philippines, but find yourself in a foreign country that gets harsh hot and cold weather, you'd really wish you haven't left home. So yeah, I was unprepared.

On the way to the flat where she got me a bed-space (not a room), I saw that the roads were wet and that in some areas, they were even some big puddles.

I was like, Huh! It rained. It rained in the desert!

 Then mom's friend says that it rarely rains in Qatar. I took it as a blessing, of course. Rain comes rarely to the Middle East, of course I'm thankful.

Now that I'm in the Middle East, the blog title can't really be Life in Zambo anymore. I can change the blog's title, but I think I'll keep it as is.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Korokke / Japanese Croquettes

Image
It's been a while since I posted anything that I actually cooked. If I can just afford to cook all the time, I'd probably be posting everyday. But that's not the case. I'm sort of an anime junkie, and about a few months ago, I got into reading the manga Beelzebub too much and even watched the anime until I got to the latest episode. And one thing that stuck to me was the main character was always eating Croquettes, or Korokke , as the Japanese called it. The first time I made the recipe, people on my Facebook friends list have been asking for a taste, but seeing as I can't afford to feed the lot of them, I thought I'd post how I made it, that way they can always make it on their own. Forgive me for the poor lighting on step 8. The power went out while I was doing it. Recipe after the jump.
Read more

Globe: To Renew or Not to Renew

Image
In a couple of weeks, my two-year contract with Globe will end. During that time, I will have to make a choice between renewing the contract and get the reward phone for being a loyal customer, or I can lose the number and go back to being a prepaid customer. I tried weighing my options, if I renew the All-consumable plan that I signed up for two years ago, I will most likely get a new phone, keep paying PhP 999 every month, and call and text anybody as long as I don't go beyond the credit limit given to me. Plus, with the plan I got, I get 6 hours worth of free surfing and some free texts to other networks. Now if I go back to prepaid, I will lose my number, lose the 6 hours worth of free surfing, and I won't be able to call or text anybody anytime if I don't get myself prepaid credits. But get this, with Globe's GoSakto promo, basically I can get myself 500 minutes for calling Globe and TM subscribers and 1000 text messages to all networks, and that'll last me...
Read more

How to NOT Live From Paycheck to Paycheck

Image
Paydays usually fall on the 15th and the 30th. When I still worked at my first call center, and if the 15th fell on a Saturday, we'd get our pay on the 14th. The funny thing was, it's still the 13th and people are already itching to withdraw from ATMs. We'd call the last few days towards the payday " tingbits ". That's short for tingbitay, an expression Cebuanos use that means "running low on cash". My salary used to be between P10,000 - P15,000 at the time. Since I was a fresh graduate, the frugal living that I led and taught my younger siblings were carried over by habit and I managed to live somehow without asking for allowance from my parents. Then I met Lifestyle. I met Starbucks, Bo's Coffee, met with McDonald's and Jollibee as much as I can, and even forgot that I used to see Carinderia to shell out just P20 during midday. Regretfully, whenever it was payday, I always found a way to spend it and just lived from paycheck to pay...
Read more