Michael Angelo's Bday Bash....

Birthdays and a wedding...

My weekend had begun to trip along much more quickly these days once again. Friends, parties, weddings, more friends coming back, myself and I – though not necessarily in that order – created a neat and effortless pattern to follow, which means I’m glad, being almost happy in a profound kind of way – keeping the dream away for two days in a row.

When friends celebrate birthdays or significant events in their life happen, we tend to spend time with them, although I missed one very important episode of a friend’s wedding last Thursday. I sucked at equally dividing myself and where to place it, which actually makes me envious of people who can slide by in three different occasions in one day lol. If I could do that then I would crawl of exhaustion already, although it happened last Thursday.

I was with Jam, Bong & Bryan early morning at Thursday, for the nth time we visited redsand, trying to be as hospitable as we could to Bong who’s fresh from Alkhobar since it’s his first time to the place. All in all, we enjoyed the picture taking as usual, and then head for late lunch on our way home at a Thai Asian resto which Jam I believed is a regular to the place.

At almost 3PM, I was with chin to help prepare for his birthday and despida party no matter how a little exhausted I was to the redsand trip. I didn’t let chin down like I told her to count on me on the preparations. I wouldn’t have to explain to her or to anyone why I was looking a bit tan more than my usual color that time either because of the sun that morning. I showed that I would want to spend more than I already did although I was already trying to find the strength to get to my feet all the time. Chin was ecstatic of my presence I supposed; no matter how zero my culinary skills could have been, not to mention that cooking involves heat.

I stayed up until 8PM with chin, not knowing that I have a wedding to attend to at 7PM. In other words I missed the wedding, or I intentionally just have to miss the wedding. It’s like my subconscious delivered a verdict that I must stay with chin. My dead cell phone must agree, I received quite a few missed calls from Poch, Mike, Rey earlier that evening. Of course I was willing to attend the wedding to show my support to a friend, I just couldn’t ignore the busyness at chin’s place that time, and I could not force myself out to escape. I could have crawled away if I had to, but I did not.

As soon as I thought of the wedding, a few questions came running through my head. What’s gonna happen next? How can one handle all the peer pressure? etc, a few questions being directed to a friend. Overall, the one answer that I got as I quote him “Let’s make the feeling rest in its proper place in my heart”. This seems positive, and I can feel the relief he obviously felt right now. I salute you my friend for having the braveness to control your thoughts and emotions towards all these. Instead of dwelling on the negative and terrifying possibilities of being alone, you step up, you survive and concentrated to give your support no matter how thorny it could have been for you.

No matter how unreasonable love can be, in the end we must be thankful that nothing within ourselves had been broken. People keep saying life is short. Maybe it will seem so when we’ve reached a certain age, but really life is short not to be happy for ourselves and for others. We have to experience something and learn a lot out from that experience. A few mishaps here and there, doesn’t mean the end of the world.

To this friend of mine, I guess with all these hysterics going on he should took a love sabbatical this time, for him to have enough time to reflect on things and move forward. First step, learn a sport like tennis maybe, and stick to it or surround yourself with friends.

To sum it all up, the birthday of chin was successful, the wedding was successful, however with a few bloopers to add flavor to both occasions.

I posted pix above taken at redsand and during the celebrations, and some pix from a trip to Badia Bridge the day after and an hour before the flight of Vil to Jeddah.

P.S. Happy Bday to Chin, Rey, and congratulations to S.

P.S to P.S. To Mike, finally you’re back, looking forward to a power lunch with you one of these days. Welcome back my friend.

Lost in Hofuf....

Have you ever gone to a road trip that you don’t know exactly what to expect? Adventures of a lifetime which apparently became a reason why we finally realize that we only have one life to live? A different kind of feeling came rushing from within because of the uncertainty of it all? The adrenalin rushes, and numbness while on the road to la-la land, whatsoever?

It had been a while since I went on a trip outside of Riyadh, and it all happen again last Friday. The euphoria of emotions ignited upon learning of the plan in going to Judas cave in Hofuf. The anticipation, the excitement, the fact that it is a new place to visit never gets in the way for me to have reasons not to go. I was never hesitant, instead more than willing, much more than willing in spite of the lack of sleep or no sleep at all the night before.

We reach Hofuf at midday with very little idea where Judas cave was. But we all had the same description of the place though, it’s small and not much of an ideal place for us compared with the bigness of Riyadh that me and my friends have learn to like through the years. We stumbled and asked a few people within the city proper while some gave us a few incorrect directions. Until finally two Saudi natives showed and guided us to the correct place after almost an hour of trying our luck.

We took pictures, lots of them while we explore the inside of the cave. The place is captivating and a bit scary of the danger of falling rocks, huge rocks! But I have never seen such a breath-taking sight ever before in the caves arena. They develop the place so much so people could see such a place like Judas cave. We stayed for 2 hours while discovering the place.

So what brought this weekend trip on? We just needed a change, maybe; a sort of an escape from the pressures of work, and the big city etc. I have learned that it all started with a dream of Obe. To make the story short, the Judas cave was the perfect place to go because of its biblical background, I supposed. I just don’t know what Obe’s dream have to do with the cave.

I’d like to say personally that the rest of the trip was not all fun, it comprises of gruesome endless silent screams from me. Talk about the driving! How fast Rommel could go almost hitting 200 miles per hour! It was too much to convince Rommel to slow down, esp. that I was not the driver, coz obviously he drives and I don’t, while I get an “okay” and “shush” response as he stared out the windshield while he rolled his wide eyes. As if saying, why am I so scared? I mumbled, and tried again. I mumbled yet again, and I tried yet again in convincing him to slowdown and not try to be the queen of clutch or maybe become a clutch manipulator.

It was really hard to convince R, but sometimes he surrenders because of the many excuses I had to cleverly come up with as I settled into my seat more comfortably, but of course I couldn’t think of any more reasons all the time. I felt a sigh of relief every time we would stop for a gas and the calls of nature. In the end I was the one who surrendered, I gave in, I just shook my head to dislodge that train of thought, feeling panicky. But I always paid attention to his driving, murmuring and gasping in horror as called for.

Road trip has become an art to some recently, experiencing and celebrating the open road.

Thanks to friendship allan, he came up with the title of this post. This came up while we were in the midst of finding the Judas Cave. We were discussing and laughing at how lost we are. I was telling them what an adventure this might be, and it could be an interesting topic to my blog.

Movies i liked...

There are movies we watched that made us feel human because it moved us while we immersed ourselves through it. There are movies that we like and dislike. Movies we simply devoured ourselves with the ones that catches our attention. Movies we can relate to, one way or another. Movies that eventually became a love hate relationship in us, we watch them again and again and then we don’t.

I must admit, there are times when I rarely watch any movies, it’s unpredictable.

But one of the things that I am proud of and claim responsibility for is that, over the years I have collected a bunch of movies to my liking, ranging from action, comedy, drama, sci-fiction, suspense-thriller, and love story. It is being well-kept. Like a priceless possession it is something that I could get back to someday.

A friend, who had the same passion as mine or maybe more, once told me that his collection may outlive him. We also have this habit of reading the review of the movie at wikipedia; if it does have a positive review from critics then we watch it. This is how we gauge the movies that I watch.

Recently, I have added a few very interesting movies to my collection with superb stories, plot and twist in the end you wouldn’t expect.

TWILIGHT

Twilight is a 2008 American romantic-fantasy film directed by Catherine Hardwicke and based on the novel of the same name by Stephenie Meyer. The film stars Kristen Stewart as Bella Swan, a teenage girl who falls in love with vampire Edward Cullen, portrayed by Robert Pattinson.

REVOLUTIONARY ROAD

Revolutionary Road is a Golden Globe award-winning 2008 British-American drama film directed by Sam Mendes and starring Leonardo Dicaprio and Kate Winslet. The screenplay by Justin Haythe is based ont eh 1961 novel of the same name by Richard Yates. The film opened on December 26, 2008.

THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON

The curious case of Benjamin Button is a 2008 American film, very loosely based on the 1921 short story of the same name written by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The film was directed by David Fincher, written by Eric Roth, and stars Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett. The film was released on December 25, 2008.

Just Watch The Fireworks...

2009 is finally here, which means I have to say, “Goodbye 2008”. I thank you for the wonderful and not-so-wonderful times we shared last year. Nevertheless, there have been many memories to live-by, memories which made me laugh and cry a bucket-load of tears. Triumphs and desperation. Success and failures. Name it. 2008 has it all for me to remember.

I do not expect too much of 2009 personally, but a lot has been said that this year we expect the worst especially with the economy plummets into piteous low and still unraveling. The very obvious dramatic state of global financial crisis which cause political and economical instability, that even the most developed and most powerful countries had been affected by it.

But I have high hopes that we can survive this, notwithstanding. I just have to think that this year will be the year like no other. Hopefully, my eagerness will last long enough to fulfill all my goals before the year 2009 ends.

P.S

For starters, I and my friends opened the New Year with an intimate celebration of Poch birthday with mouth-watering delectable casual home-cooked chow for us to dine.

I posted some pictures taken during the New Year celebration and Poch bday bash. We had fun at both celebrations!

X-Mas Party Pix 2008...

The memories that bring Christmas of 2008 having been celebrated with people I consider as friends made a lot of sense. I consider the celebration as one of the best. Through the years I had celebrated Christmas away from my family. I could hardly remember anymore how we spent Christmas together because of the many years that I am away. Or maybe I’m just trying not to remember all those memories for it will only make me feel poignant. Here in the ME celebration like Christmas is taboo. But we had our own celebration in a very small and intimate way of celebrating in the comfort of our own homes. The pictures I have posted above shows how we celebrated Christmas in a very simple way.

The Ties That Binds....

2008 is almost gone and over. There have been so many memories during this year and a lot to be thankful for.

During the early part of the year I had episodes when I felt like I was walking on unsure territory and I could hardly see beyond and what’s in store for me. The middle part, I was struggling and into so many emotions, but I survived.

Definitely the year 2008 brings a lot of fond memories that are surely worthy of remembrance, either me or the world. I may have ups and downs but at the end of the day it is me who decide which side I should be. I have discovered a lot of things from around me.

I made a big transition in the latter part of the year. Lessons learned. Then things happen and flow in random. All I know is that the last quarter of 2008 made such an impact personally and socially.

Significant events transpired. Awards won. Singles and albums have been released making it at the top of the chart not to mention the world. A new black US President paving its way to history with a big promise to the world, change. It’s never-ending. I could spew out every single detail in here but I chose not to.

2009 is in the coming days and I wanted to break out into something new, experience a new major undertakings and a new adventure. Looks like another year, another drama!