Confession: I buy from ukay-ukay.

Three Christmasses ago, I bought a red maong jacket which I used in a motiffed party with friends. A friend saw it and loved it. I lied and I said I bought it from Gap. He gladly accepted it as a gift.

Some years ago, I purchased an almost-new Lands' End long sleeves shirt colored baby blue for SAR20. I only let go of it -- after around two years of use -- when I noticed that the collar was tattered due to over-use.

Last Friday, I re-ventured the ukay-ukay in Alkhobar to admire its many offerings, and I admit that there were some items that caught my fancy. Hey, who wouldn't love t-shirts for SAR1 each, shorts for SAR5, jeans for SAR15, winter jackets for SAR25!

During Friday afternoon, ukay-ukays become a hub for Filipinos coming from various areas in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia.

Most ukay-ukay stores in Alkhobar are ran by Afghans. In one of the photos below, you will meet Faisal, an Afghan proprietor of one of the decent ukay-ukay store in the area. Some Filipino also work as part-timers in these ukay-ukay stores, earning SAR50 for a four-hour work on a weekend.















Next time, perhaps I could give you a glimpse of some of the 'best buys' in ukay-ukay, i.e. excellent items with their unbelievably low prices.

Fifteen months ago, I wrote this post about my experience queuing at a remittance center.

I said that wouldn't it be nice if someone will invent an ATM-like remittance center where all we need do is key in our details and voila! our remittances will automatically be in the Philippines.

I guess someone's necessity is another else's invention because whatever I wished for in my post all came true. (Pretend you're hearing the Twilight Zone music).

Nah. I think someone already thought of it long before I made my wishes. (Pregnant pause).


It's quick, alright. Convenient. And it's very, very easy. No need for long lines, no need for a long wait.

The best thing about it (for me) is that it's tied up to our payroll account at the National Commercial Bank. The other great thing about is that Quick Pay's dollar-peso exchange rate is as competitive as most remittance centers' in Alkhobar.

Caveat: This is not a paid advert. I just thought I would share this with you just so you know that you can have other options other than suffer the woes of lining up at remittance centers.

Check here to know if Quick Pay is in your area, and how you can avail its services.

I've been using Quick Pay for more than six months now. I only thought of writing about it when I chanced upon my old post about OFW remittance woes.


Who knows? Maybe I have a superpower.

Hmmm...what a thought!

And if ever I do -- you know that kind of power to wish for anything and it will quickly come true -- here's what I'm going to wish for: ...that all the good wishes of all Filipinos come true. Right now. At this moment.

It wasn't me. I'm a soul in peace. My patience is long. And believe me, the last thing I want is a confrontation.

It happened inside Jollibee Alkhobar last night where my friends and I - I don't know what came into me that I agreed to queue along with around 20 other kabayans to get inside the store - had a taste of Jollibee's chickenjoy. Sadly, it's not only JB's chickenjoy we tasted; we also had a sampling of the usual bad trait of Filipinos -- ang hilig sa singitan!

The story goes like this: We're in a queue (the store was jampacked and their chickenjoy was a huge hit!). In front of me is a boy of ten who ran errands for her mom standing at the entrance. (There's a separate line for women and men, and for a while, I acquiesced with mom's 'wise decision' to let her son fall in queue because the male section's line is less longer than the female's). The problem came when the mother's friend -- who just arrived -- handed the boy her own order slip.

Someone quipped: What's happening here?!

I just stood there grinning.

Hayaan nyo na, konti lang naman!, the mother said to us.

Let's be patient, I whispered to my friend.

And then a small girl handed another order slip to the young boy. That's when my friend flared up but the mother and her friend remain unperturbed. I also sensed the discomfort in the store crew's action because he knew what was happening but 'the customers are always right', right? His job was primarily to attend to whoever is in front of him.

I whispered to my friend to let the incident go and just be cool about it. Instead, he turned to me and said: Bakit? May karapatan din naman tayo a! Kaya nga may pila, di ba? (That was from watching too much soap on TFC, I thought).

I said: This will not take us anywhere good, so just hold your horses.

And finally after a long wait (imagine this: three customers were already served on the other line while we stood in our own queue waiting for the boy and his mom to finish their orders), it was my turn at the counter. I hadn't finished ordering yet, when the boy returned and asked for a sundae cone. The store crew rolled his eyes but obligingly gave a sundae to the young customer. I chuckled and I looked (without any disdain) at the mother and her friend who were just chatting there like it was one fine day, er, night. (My friend foamed in the mouth but we managed to control him).

Then I wonder what that simple incident taught the ten-year old! (For all we know, he could be the next president of the Philippines).

That's when I realized the virtues that we Filipinos should always take with us, wherever we go.

Discipline. We should always be disciplined. Fall in line if there's a line, and wait for our turn. If we're in a hurry (unless you know for certain that if you don't eat in the next three minutes you'd fall on your face and die), think of those others in line who were also in a hurry (and who, for all we know, also had the same condition of falling on their faces and dying) but waited patiently for their turn.

Patience. If you're in a hurry (and hungry), don't fall in line in a queue that is longer than a Saudi remittance center on a salary period. If you decide to fall in line, patiently wait. Patience is a virtue that will take us in lots of place. If you're short-fused, never ever fall in a long queue.

Have a tranquil soul. Contrary to what my friend said to me after that incident, grace under pressure is not a weakness; it's a strength. Most people can easily be angered. I said to my friend: There are right battles to fight for, and then there are a petty fights that are not worth your time. (That was from watching too much Boy Abunda on tv).

Pagbibigayan. In a long queue, I will always allow these people in front of me: the elderly, pregnant women, small children (not accompanied by their burly mothers), priests and nuns, the unprevileged, the hungry and the oppressed. I will not, under any circumstances, allow any else to move their way in front of me (unless it's the gas chamber or at the mouth of a volcano to be offered to the anitos). My point is aptly sung by Florante many years ago in 'Kahit Konti'.

Hindi naman buong-buo ang hinihiling ko sa iyo
Ngunit kahit kapiraso mano'y magkasundo tayo
Iba't-iba ang katuwiran ng tao sa lipunan
Ngunit ang kailangan lang tayo'y huwag magtulakan

O kayraming suliranin, oras-oras dumarating
Dahil di kayang lutasin hindi na rin pinapansin
Subalit kung tutuusin, iisa ang dahilan
Kaibigan, ayaw nilang umusog ng kahit konti

This I noticed: Filipinos are short-fused when it comes to queues. Admit this though: Once or twice, we've shouldered our way in a line somewhere, and we didn't feel sorry about it. We even thought it's us being wiser and more cunning. It's not. It's pananamantala to the max. It's actually the starting point of corruption's anatomy: shortchanging others for our own benefits. Let us change for the better. Because I know we can; I just wonder why we won't.


Their chickenjoy tasted like the original recipe. It really is langhap sarap! I just thought the servings are small and, in my opinion, a bit pricey. A small serving of a spaghetti, one piece chicken and softdrinks is SAR9 (I'm comparing it to four pieces of Fawaz broasted for SAR 13 -- with fries and khubus!). But hey, it's Jollibee. It's imported from the Philippines. It's a brand (and anything branded has a price!). Bottomline: Jollibee will be a huge hit to kids (and kids at heart like me who, when wanting to taste something Filipino, will always return to Jollibee for that langhap-sarap, langhap Pinoy chickenjoy!)


They're opening two Jollibee stores in Riyadh middle of this year.

It's not about paper. It's not about paper folding. It's about folding, but not of paper. It's folding of plastic. Hence, it's origami-esque.

It's not an art. But it's green -- it's for the environment.


It's about those plastic grocery bags which we unknowingly and unintentionally accummulate, which we often recycle as trash bags, but most of the time just end up in a bin all together because we gather more than what we normally use up.

This post tells you how you can fold those grocery plastic bags into neat sizes so it won't clutter in your kitchen.

Step 1: Gather your plastic bags, and smoothen them out. Like so.

Step 2: Fold the plastic lengthwise, in four folds, until it resembles a long rectangular shape.

Step 3: Have you seen how they fold up the flag at the end of the day, or during military burial ceremonies? Fold the end part of the plastic in triangular angle.

Fold until it reaches the handle part of the bag.

Step 4: Fold-in the handle on to a slot to lock it in place. Like so.

Step 5: Flatten neatly.

Easy huh? Plus it's neat to look at. Plus it's environmentally friendly. Plus it saves you money from trash bags.

Please, by all means, do try it at home.

How many headers have I been through? Countless!

I say it again as I've said it before: I am my blog -- and my blog header!: ever-changing, ever-evolving and yes, ever-insatiable.

February 2009.


March 2009.

I've something to look forward to in Alkhobar this weekend: Jollibee will be opening in Al Rahmaniya Mall! Jolliyippeee!

It's actually a re-opening because someone opened a Jollibee store in Alkhobar more than five years ago. They were an instant hit but only for a short period. After some time, they begun serving RTE meals which are not a standard of Jollibee (vegetable toppings with fried chicken, pansit, adobo, etc). Plus their chicken sometimes tasted stale. A friend quipped: They should change their menu to Chicken Sad because it honestly tasted bad. The first Jollibee (I think they're not really a legally franchised Jolibee store) folded up after a few months.

And now this...


I hope they last because there's quite a competition here in Alkhobar when it comes to chicken menu. There's an Andok's Lechon Manok store which competes with Golden Broasted and Al Fawaz Broast. (My uber favorite is Golden Broasted -- always crisp, freshly-cooked and the chicken pieces decently sized). There are also other restaurants here that offer grilled chicken (far healthier than deep-fried chicken) like Al Tazzaj, Tandoor, Baba Habbas, etc.

Good luck, Jollibee! Albeit the competition, I hope they become 'bida sa sarap' here in Alkhobar.

(I checked Jollibee's website. So far they only listed the three Jollibee Jeddah stores as their international chain here in Saudi. I wonder how they are competing with the famous Al Baik in Jeddah...

I'm looking forward to seeing Alkhobar in Jolibee's international map soon!)


Here are some of the photos I took this afternoon of Jollibee's soon-to-open store in Rahmaniyah. (The kabayan who's standing there is a Jollibee service crew. He's the one who told me of their opening day).

My cellphone was on an alarm at 6:30 am because of the Friday's annular eclipse. Plus there's a seminar I promised to attend to the same morning related to basic teachings of the Catholic Church.

We departed from home at around 7:30 am but the sun was too bright in Alkhobar that I thought we will not catch a glimpse of the eclipse.

When we arrived at a seminar's venue (some twenty minute-drive from Alkhobar City), the area was covered by a thin fog.



Only then did we manage to get a glimpse of the eclipse.





The sight was divine (although the photos did not do justice to the beauty of that occurence)!


The series of talks that I attended to was sort of a reminder of what Catholicism is about, the mystery of the Holy Trinity, the composition of Apostle's Creed, etc.



The speakers were all good although the whole seminar was quite lengthy. It was supposed to finish before six in the afternoon but at eight, we were still midway the Seven Sacraments.

Here's a page of my scribble about the topic.



Boredom also took over one of the attendees who gave me these caricatures: One of the speakers, the back of one attendee (wearing a hooded jacket), and I. Hehe.




Throughout the seminar, I kept thinking of that line from Angels and Demons that says: "Religion is flawed...only because man is flawed."

Why? Because I personally thought the seminar tried hard to justify why some of Catholic Church's traditions and practices are not bible-based. Maybe because it was necessary for the speakers to explain the claims of other sects about the apparent fallibility of the Catholic Church.

But really, is it necessary to reply back to rhetorics of other sects claiming that their faith is better than mine?

What religion is not flawed?, I asked myself.

Isn't religion merely our vessel towards God?

There were philosophical exchange of ideas during the seminar. The Q&A portion was a bit distracting and, in the end, I went home entertaining more questions than answers.

This is my honest take on the subject: I am a Catholic. I believe in every word of the Apostle's Creed. And because God's Words are in the Holy Bible, then His Words must be a part of my life -- that and the good teachings of my Holy Church.

I will constantly plead God to continously give me His gifts of faith. And hope. And love.

Amen.

I've forgotten the last time I witnessed a solar eclipse. I think I was still in college. Since then, I haven't witnessed any. Shame on me because solar eclipses apparently occur two to five times a year! (Talking about stopping and smelling the roses -- well, in this case, stopping and taking notice of heaven's magical moment).

Tomorrow in Saudi, I'm intent in watching this annular solar eclipse, reportedly starting at 7:45am. Read NASA's site about this occurence.

Why did they call it annular? Because unlike total solar eclipse, the moon's diameter during annular eclipse will appear smaller than the sun thereby creating what looks like a ring. A ring in Greek and French is annulus.

In Dammam, the eclipse will be seen like this (thanks to www.eclipse.org.uk for the animation).


Visit their site if you want to see how the eclipse will configure in your area.

I'm not pertaining to the second version of Pasta de Nebz that I did tonight. Dig in if you want! (Ingredients: chicken, cooked pasta, spinach, strips of hotdog).


I'm pertaining to these ideas about my future posts.


This will contain interviews with Filipinos living/working/breathing in Alkhobar. I've a line up of people I wanted to talk to: a cashier at Farm 9 (where I usually frequent for my groceries), a butcher in Western Butchery (where I buy my beef for sinigang), my barber (who also happens to be my flatmate), a SAPTCO bus driver, an editor of a Saudi newspaper. I even included the Jeddah-based OFW who is running for Senatorial Elections this November.

The problem is that, except for my flatmate, I am embarrased to talk to these people. I, hence, don't know where to start. All I know is that the style will be like this Granta article -- written in first person.

Remember my post about Entrepinoy? I emailed the site owner, an ex-OFW, and asked him if I can interview him via email. He didn't respond. I may get the same response from those I planned to interview for this series.

But hey, if I don't try, I will never know.


Alkhobar is where I live and work and breathe. It's a small city situated in the lower righthand of Saudi Arabia, near to Arabian Sea, nearer to Bahrain than Saudi's capital, Riyadh. This series will feature places in Alkhobar where Filipinos frequent -- parks, malls, restaurants -- as well as events that Filipinos attend to -- sports, cultural or even religious activities!

Why did I call these ideas half-cooked? Because they're still plans up to now. But I'm really intent in pushing through these ideas.

Insha'Allah (as what they usually say here in Saudi which translates to 'God willing' or 'if God wills it, it shall become'.

I wrote in September 2008: I am my blog: (always) a work in progress; ever-evolving, ever-changing. To usher in 2010, I welcome you in my re-arranged, renovated home. (Tell me how you like this make-over by joining my poll -- there, at the righthand of this post. Thank you).

I wish to acknowledge the following as my sources of ideas and codes.

Klodian of Deluxe Templates. I used his Article template and violated its beauty without shame. I'm now one of his Twitter followers via http://twitter.com/deluxetemplates.

Pocket who originally designed the layout of this template.

Webdesignerwall from where I got the idea of shading my post titles as well as instituting that cute little 'conversation icon' containing the number of comments per post.

Dynamic Drive from where I got the source of my navigation bar.

Image Shack for hosting all my graphics.

Adobe CS3 Illustrator and Fireworks which I used in drawing the shades and graphics.

I still have lots of things to change in this blog like, the header graphics, for example (coz I find it too cluttered).

But, for now, I think I'll leave everything as is, unless of course there's something you find unappealing in my re-decorated home. Do tell please.

And if you have questions or you need assistance in your plan to redo your blog, please don't hesitate to contact the list that I provided above. They're a great source of information and inspiration. Not me! I'm away catching up sleep! Just kidding.

(Please contact me if you need help in your blog. I'm no expert but maybe, just maybe, I'd be able to assist you).

I've a confession...I have a blog account in Wordpress also entitled Isla de Nebz. (Vomit if you want but at least I'm being honest). I haven't updated it since March 2009.

I've another confession to make: Although most of my favorite blogs are 'powered by Blogger', my favorite website is in Wordpress (webdesignerwall).

Last confession: I'm contemplating in transferring my site to Wordpress.

There.

I said it.

My loyalty is now out in the open!

Notice this: Three of the PEBA Top 10 winners are via Wordpress.

In my unpublished post about my predictions for PEBA 2009, I wrote: Let's go Wordpress next time! Why? Because I thought Wordpress is a cool platform and clean and organized.

Plus it has lots of cool gadgets that we can make use of.

Another upside is that it has cool Comments section. Did you notice how, everytime you visit a Wordpress-based blog, you'd automatically find your name, email and website on the comment section? And all you need do is type up your comments? Isn't it gracious?

Those in the Top 100 blogs (by Technocrati standard) use Wordpress i.e. Smashing Magazine, Mashable and Perez Hilton. Only two of the 100 use Blogger: Postsecret and of course, Blogger. More info here.

The downside, based on my experience, is that it loads too slow (perhaps because it contains lots of codes) plus it's difficult to maneuver unlike Blogger where everything is 'pick and drop': Want a widget, click 'Add widget'. That easy.


I am not enticing you to transfer loyalty. In fact, you can read Wordpress' other downsides here.

I'm actually just teasing you.

The truth is, I don't have plans to jump ship. But what I plan is to use a Wordpress-based design in the Blogger-based blog. How?

See these cool themes from Deluxe Templates. Some of the coolest templates were originally Wordpress converted for Blogger.

I am, in fact, keen in using one of these cool templates in my blog.

Turn Out Mag
Art Template
Georgia
Article
Watercolor

Enjoy.

I thought Typepad is also cool -- I found out that oh-so-cool-and-inspirational Oh! Joy is using it. But I haven't really fully tried it to make a decent comment about it's usability.


See for yourself which you think looks better. This same post is published both in Typepad and Wordpress.

Title inspired by this Granta memoir.

Scattered papers on my desk.
Sharpened pencils lined up (quite) neatly.
Twirls and curls on a sheet of paper.
A magnifying glass across the keyboard.
Sesame seeds from a bread
I just finished eating.
Language for the things I couldn't say.