Paddling

Buwahahaha... Why? I dunno.

So yesterday, I participated in the 2nd Dragon Boat Paddling Competition held at Mina Siyahi, Dubai. After registering and receiving my Dragon Boats Alive (DBA) t-shirt, cap and bandana, wifey and I relaxed by lying on the beach chairs admiring the white sand and view.

The main problem with the DBA team is that there are more women than men members, while other teams like DFD (Dubai Flyin Dragons) and the Noodle House teams have ample members to make 2 teams. That would make me a huge asset (Hah, they wish).

So there I was, on my first round of the day, on a 20-man team with 7 males, and 13 females, and our opponent had around 12 males (I think). As we paddled to that starting line of the 500 M course, I instantly knew I made a huge mistake by not stretching properly. See when the race started, I gave my all, and by the last 200M I was almost out of breath. My arms were exhausted and my plam was almost numb. Wifey told me that the first match was the most exciting because no one knew who was going to win, since it was neck and neck. Sadly, we lost by 2 seconds. :(

When we got back to the beach, I immediately went to wifey to have my plam massaged, because it was so numb that I couldn't even clench my hand to a fist. After resting for 45 mins while watching the other races, I told her that I want to quit now before joining any other races because my body couldn't take it. So I go to Chantelle who is the DBA coach, and before I could even say anything, she goes "Glenn, the 12-man mixed race will be starting in 10 mins. Get yourself ready, and you're one of the 5 guys in." oh no.

So I get on board, and apparantly, we have to do a 5 minute paddling because The One TV news crew is on board and the interviewer wants to make his statement while we row. :( Thats an extra 5 minutes paddling. But guess what, we won the first match! My kabayan in front of me (Dan) was a big help. He had so much energy that it fed into me, and in the last 100M, when we were pulling away, he just gave a small grunt and paddled like anything, and I did the same. Wow. We were so exhausted and overjoyed at our first victory! That puts us in the finals, where we started to pull away from DFD in the last 250M! We won! Woo hoo! I WON!!!!

So there you have it. Our picture (sadly I wasn't seen in it) was published in Emirates Today today.

Listening for instructions

Getting ready to paddle

Pa-cute muna

Wet, tired and contented after winning

Baarrffff

Since I'm on my "save-money" mode, I have started eating Shawarma for lunch again... not that I'm complaining, coz I love shawarma, but wifey has been complaining about my drinking with Coke/Pepsi in the evenings because when I burp, the smell of wild garlic just comes out... I do think that it's gross, but I can't help it. I like garlic filled shawarma... I guess I just have to buy mint gums from now on.

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Champions League Finals tonight. Where do I watch? Grrr.. I know it will be showing on ESPN because I have seen the adverts for the last week, but I'm sure Dubai Orbit will block it. Grrr..

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Donna from Dragon Boat Alive have invited me to participate the 2nd competition this Saturday (May 26). I know I'm 60% fit, but I can't miss this chance! So look for me at Mina Siyahi this Saturday morning, 8am.

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Episode Update: I am on a House - Season 1 Marathon. For an obnoxious, grumpy, selfish doctor, Gregory House is sure so likable. I love that show. Also, waiting fore the season ender episodes of 24 and Heroes (currently downloading at home).

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Movie Update: Pirates of the Carribean: At World's End will show tomorrow. Woo Hoo!!! Ayy, Captain Jack Sparrow... (On a side note, researchers claim that the decrease number of pirates in the world is the main cause of Global Warming. - read here)
Also, have you seen the awesome trailer for Transformers Movie? Wow! That will be the film of this summer.

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Pimpin' my car is currently put on hold. Let me have my RAV4 tuned up and have the wheels changed, and if I have enough money left, go Apple Green! LOL

Dubai Festival City

Allan and Mau have also joined the move-bandwagon, and they decided to get a new room of their own (no more sharing).

To all who don't know, Dubai is ranked 25th on the Cost of Living Survey, and the main factor is rent/accomodation. It is not surprising for a small room to be rented out to 2 or 3 familes/4-6 bachelors. Heck, we were actually on the same boat, by living in an appartment occupied by 10 people.

So anyway, AllanMau needed some stuff to improve the look of the home, so wifey and I accompanied them to Ikea... See, Ikea has been a favorite place to go to... more so than the regular malls like Bur Juman, Mall of the Emirates, etc. We love looking at furnitures, decorations, and all those little itsy bitsy things to make the house look so homey. And everytime we go to Ikea, we always buy something... We can't help it... it's like Ikea = positive, Us = negative... attraction. Sigh.

Since Ikea is inside the Festival city, we went around after shopping. To all who has not been to the festival city, make sure you go there... as soon as possible.. after work even. It's not crowded, lots of cafe joints, and by the man-made creek, there is a made up stage where this chap plays his accoustic guitar while playing hit songs from Sting, U2, REM. Totally coolness. Oh... go to Cinabon too... A box of chocobons which normall costs AED 66 are on special promo, and costs AED 33. Fun day.

Will upload the pics of the newly decorated room tonight. I need to eat my shawarma lunch.

Surprise Surprise!

Yesterday, Wifey and I went to our old villa to meet up with our former housemates, and found out that it was Aldrin's birthday. So instead of hi-and-go, we stayed for almost 3 hours until it was time to go. We arrived home by 10pm.

Normally, once we reach our appartment, Mimi would normally greet us by the door and start meowing like crazy. See, from the elevator she's able to hear our footsteps, and the keys unlocking the door.

This time around something was obviously different. She was thinner, which only meant one thing..... baby kittens!!!!! Mimi gave birth to 5 kittens last night... And we got to know who the father-cat was, from the fur of the other baby kittens. LOL.


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BTW, the Warriors-Jazz NBA Playoff game 2 was amazing this morning! What drama! Derek Fischer, wow dude... They made you into a superhero, you and your 3rd quarter appearance. In 2 years time, this game will be an NBA classic game.

TV Listing

As most of you know, I love watching TV serials.. Well, downloaded ones anyway. It all started a few years ago (2001? - LOL) and I used to be a big huge fan of F.R.I.E.N.D.S. However, the actual show on the telly would only show Season 1 and 2, when in fact Season 5-6 were already being shown in the States. I got to know about Napster/Morpheus/Kazaa/Limewire, and the power of P2P (peer-to-peer) sharing, and I was hooked. In non-techy terms, a person in the US would record an episode from tv hooked up to his computer, and upload the episodes on the internet.

Nowadays, the quality of the episodes is much much better due to new video codecs, as well as good bandwidth speed. If an episode is shown in the US today, I would have it after 4 hours of being shown on the net.

The episodes I look forward to every week are as follows:
Monday - Desperate Housewives (for wifey)
Tuesday - Heroes, 24
Wednesday - House
Thursday - Bleach, Naruto, Lost
Friday - Grey's Anatomy, Smallville, Pimp My Ride, Scrubs

Sigh. I can't wait to watch Heroes and 24 tonight. Also, apparantly Grey's Anatomy last week was a 2-hr episode. Dang, and I forgot to download the second hour.

Happy watching!

Happy Birthday!

Just a quick shout out.. Today is my dad's birthday.

Happy Birthday Papa! We miss you.

Mimimimimimimi

When wifey and I were still living in the villa located in Jumeirah last year, little did we know that we would meet our current housepet. See, I was never a fan of pets because I used to be asthmathic when I was just a little tot. But for years, Wifey had been wanting a pet but our residence didn't allow pets.

Anyhow, the villa we used to live in was big... huge even. It was occupied by around 150 people so the villa gates/entrance doors is kept open. There are around 5-10 stray cats, out of which 3-5 would come inside the villa meowing for attention/food. We saw this tiny thin cat, probably around 6 months old, and was normally bullied by the other big cats, hence a permanent scar in her nose. One day, this cat came up to our door, scared out of her wits, and wifey felt sorry for her. She decided to feed her, but the cat would only come if we kept distance.

This went on for a few weeks, and by then she had grew fond of us. One day, Allan brought a box (a bit bigger than a shoe box) which would eventually become her bed. She was now living in the common kitchen, but this was becoming a problem. Every night, she'd be up and about and would become hungry. She'd go through the trash and just make a mess out of everything.

That's when we started buying cat food (whiskas). It started for just a breakfast/dinner meals, but by then she stopped eating left over food. The cat had become spoilt, and was no longer thin and small. She's also known now as Ming-Ming. She knew that we had her back, so when the cat bullies came near the kitchen, she'd scratch them with her claws and would run back to us when being chased.

A few months ago, wifey and I went out, and when we came back, we saw poo on the kitchen floor. I first got upset because normally, she'd use to go to the garden, dig a hole for her dump and then come back up. I got the cleaning materials, while wifey had a look at the cat. She then saw that Ming-Ming had two big holes on her tummy which could only be bite marks. It was horrible, and blood didn't stop gushing down. She was so in pain because she wouldn't eat, move or play, and wouldn't even Meow.

We tried cleaning up the wound by putting disinfectant but Ming-ming gave a loud cry and ran under the sofa, not wanting to go out. That was probably the first time I felt sorry for her, and I spent probably the next few hours trying to get her to eat and drink. We took her to the vet the following day, and she stayed there for a week. That was now the first time where we had to spend so much on her, for the vet fees, medicine and accomodation. Her name changed from Ming-Ming to MiMi.

A week later, we returned her to the villa and oficially brought her inside the house. That was when she oficially became the house pet because we allowed her to sleep inside our room, and at night, she would snuggle in our bed for body warmth until she falls asleep. It took her about 2 weeks before she ventured outside the room, and a week more before she was able to go to the garden by herself.

Then, before moving to the appartment in the province, something weird happened to MiMi... It must be the time of month or year or whatever, but one fine night, she wouldn't stop meowing... And it was a different meow, like the loud meowing which was calling to the other cats... She also would not stop squirming when you stroke her back near her tail... Her head would go to the floor and she would shiver... Waitaminit! This looks vaguely familiar! That's right folks... The cat is horny! LOL. Why the need to mention this?

Because.

She.

Is.

Pregnant.

Sigh. So any day now, we're gonna have tiny kittens in the house, making noise in the middle of the night, and we would have to be extra careful not to step on them.

So before that happens... Here are a few pictures.

Family Training

Family Pic

Net User

Santa? Ish dat u?

Painful....

During college around 10 years back (holy crap I'm old!) a friend of mine invited me to try out for the Dragon Boat team. For those who are unsure what this sport is about, a team would consist one drummer, 20 paddlers (max) and one steerer. Nowadays it could arguably be cosidered the second most popular sport worldwide, and at one point in time been considered for the olympics. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon_boat

Last week, Obet called me up and said that he saw an article on Emirates Today that a dragon boat team has been set up in Dubai since March, and that they are recruiting new members. He says that if I join, he'll join too. So I called up Mhinx who was my gym buddy and told him about it.

So yesterday, I woke up at 6am, watched a bit of NBA playoffs (go Nets!) then headed off to pick up Obet and Mhinx. The only drawback is that since I am living in the province (International City, LOL) I have to travel 15 mins going to Dubai (35Km) and then another 15 mins going to Mina Siyahi Beach Resort (another 30 Km). Sigh. Good thing it was a Saturday and there was no traffic whatsoever.

Anyway, Mhinx, Obet and I had a very light snack before heading to Mina Siyahi. We got lost inside the beach because of the huge number of yachts, and Mhinx' oogling with the ladies in bikinis. We arrived to the spot while they were doing their stretching excercise, and we immediately followed. Since Obet and myself have had prior paddling experience, we were put in the group with the current paddling team. Mhinx was put in with the other n00bs.

Man that was tough. We did 3 sets of rowing, around 10 minutes each session, and on the 3rd set, I just gave up. I rested around 2 minutes in that set, and to think that I considered myself fit. I still did better than Obet and Mhinx though, so that's a relief. It's too bad I wasn't able to take pictures of the training, but I will surely try next week. Yes, yes, I plan to do this week after week.

My arms and calves were sore after the training, to the point that I couldn't grip my car's steering wheel properly. By afternoon, my lower back and shoulders were also sore, and by evening I couldn't bend properly. Sigh. No pain, no gain.

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This morning, as wifey and I were on our way to work, the right rear tyre just burst. It was a good thing that the speed limit on Al Khail Road was 100km (I was travelling at 80km/h), else something bad might have happened. So I went to the right most lane and decided to change the tyre right then and there. But man, my back was still killing me, and what normally I would have completed in 5 mins took around 15 mins. It streched my muscles though, and I guess it's a good thing since I'm suppose to do my stretching anyway. Oh well.

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Short plug: If anyone from Dubai is interested to join me in Dragon Boat paddling every Saturday, please call me.

A week that was...

Did I mention that I love living in International City? I decided to go to Bur Juman a few days back, and got held up at traffic; 45 minutes from the office! The number of cars in Dubai has drastically increased, and a 10 minute drive now takes 45 minutes? What about those people living in Deira, or Sharjah? In comparison, a drive to International City on a work day (during rush hour) is 30 minutes (MAX).

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According to an article from Emirates Today, Dubai will have a population off 11M by 2020. Consider that there are currently 1.3M living here, that is roughly 750K per year! Wow.

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Last Saturday night, while coming home from Dubai town (it's safe to consider International City as a province) we took an alternative route by heading towards Emirates Road instead of the normal Al Khail Road. On the road before reaching Fruits and Vegetable Market, Wifey said that there seems to be something on the road ahead. So I signalled left, did the normal side mirror, rear-view mirror and shoulder checks, I transferred to the left lane, knowing that this was going to be a close one. On the last second, we saw that there was a body in the middle of the road, shirt covered with blood. Wifey just gasped and we were both frozen with terror. I contemplated on stopping the car, but since it was a highway, I told wifey to dial 999. The cops told her that it was already called in and that help was on the way. Apparantly the guy was on the emergency lane and was trying to fix his truck when he was ran over by a Sudanese fellow, who claims he lost control of his car. Wifey had trouble sleeping that night.