“Feels like I’m running, not away, but to take off and fly.”

Run Away - Georgia Anne Muldrow

Hey there Kuwait,

Crazy things happened and are happening. In less than 5 days I am getting out of here. Leaving you for good after 7 wonderful years together. I am thankful for the opportunities and the good times as well as the bad that smacked a lesson in me or two.

I spent a better part of growing up here with you. I arrived a wide eyed angry 19 year old rebel who wants nothing in the world but to fly back in the Philippines. Funny how time changes everything, especially one's sense of perception. Seven years, 4 houses and 2 jobs later, it is finally time for me to go home and face the music.

I am ready. Willing and able.

Will post more once I've actually managed to un-clutter my brain.

XoXo,

Mac

The Turkey Situation

Thanksgiving is a huge affair in our home. It's up there with Christmas and Easter. Every year we throw a Thanksgiving feast for family and friends and as part of tradition we roast the biggest turkey we can find served with classic beans casserole, mashed potato, gravy, pumpkin pie, ham, lasagna and loads more.

This year, we started the preparation early as we thought we have learned our lessons from the past. Apparently, based on what I've been twittering yesterday, we have not learned an iota.

THERE WAS TURKEY SHORTAGE everywhere!

• Macsiomai: Is on a fat turkey run!!! #Kuwait is experiencing a turkey shortage at the moment =| #Thanksgiving - posted Tue 23 Nov 20:50

We looked everywhere and by that I meant to Lulu Hypermarket, Sultan Center Mangaf, Sultan Center Al Kout, Sultan Center Fahaheel and finally we found a 6 KGS buttercup baby turkey at GEANT at 360. We got two. We have friends who are inside Sultan Center and they have confirmed that all the turkeys was sold out that night.

• Macsiomai: Tomorrow's #Thanksgiving Menu: 2 roasted turkeys, 2 baked ham, 2 lasagna, classic green bean casserole, baked beans, macaroni and cheese etc - posted Wed 24 Nov 20:16

You read it right TWO turkeys and 2 baked ham & lasagna on top of everything else. Why TWO? I've no clue except that we're a bunch of hoarders and we think that our guests eats like an elephant =))

• Macsiomai: My family is seriously insane.After the turkey panic last night, we are now roasting 3- 7 to 10 KGS turkeys for 2moro's #Thanksgiving feast! - posted Wed 24 Nov 23:29

YEP! It has now become 3 turkeys in matter of hours. We went to Sultan Center looking for pecan and pumpkin pies but we ended up buying the biggest turkey since the craziness began. How can we walk away from 10 KGS Buttercup young turkey? We can't so we bought it and now we discovered that there's STUFFINGS SHORTAGE too! Psh. Fail.

• Macsiomai: It of course means,no sleep as each turkey roasts in approx 4 to 8 hrs depending on the size & oven capacity.Spell WALANG TULUGAN! #thankful - posted Wed 24 Nov 23:31

Our turkey last year was such a huge success the tragedy was we did not write down what we did so now we're back at counting on our capabilities to be a bunch of geniuses in the kitchen. Our Wansa oven does not help either =|

• Macsiomai: and I'm up for the first shift on the first turkey rotation. Kuya Lino and Ate Nell on the 2nd and third. Good luck sa oven! #Thanksgiving - posted Wed 24 Nov 23:34

It's 12:09, I'm blogging in front of the oven while simultaneously checking on tweetdeck, facebook and watching The Filipino Channel.

Theory is we should be basting the turkey every 15 minutes to prevent drying out.

Diet be damned. I can't wait to devour!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING people!

Kuwait Ministry Banned DSLR in Public

LOCAL NEWS - Kuwait Times

Multi ministry camera ban frustrates artists

Published Date: November 20, 2010
By Abdullah Al-Qattan, Staff Writer

KUWAIT: After the ban three ministries placed on photography, most Kuwaiti youth are a bit confused about what to do with their cameras if they can't use them in public and why such laws were implemented in the first place. The Ministry of Information, Ministry of Social Affairs and Ministry of Finance recently came to the conclusion that photography should be used for journalism purposes only. This has resulted in the ban of Digital Single Lens Reflex Cameras (DSLRs) in public, on the streets and in malls
.

What most Kuwaiti photographers have come to wonder is how such a decision could be reached by authorities, especially considering that digital cameras and cell phone cameras have the same abilities. What most people think of photography as a hobby has become a bit misguided due to the fact that the country has so little exposure to art. While using a DSLR, passersby may wonder if the camera is being used for the wrong reasons.

Mohammed Al-Eisa, who picked up photography as a hobby more than 10 years ago, said that he has decided to take photos of animals or still life due to the fact that these subjects don't mind having their picture taken and don't make a scene. "I started facing problems the very first day I bought my camera," Mohammed added.

What often happens is that a big black camera tends to worry people. Taking a picture of a stranger would seem like much less of an issue if you were using a more discreet camera or even a cell phone. Mariam Al-Fodiry said that she has faced similar problems with her hobby and that being a girl doesn't help at all. She said that in some cases it makes the problem even worse. "Switching to abstract and landscape photography was one the options I considered after getting into enough trouble," Mariam said.

Majed Al-Saqer said that sometimes people stop him while he is in his car with his camera, as if he were planning to kill someone with it. He said that he isn't sure what the real problem is, whether it is people taking photos of each other or the size of the camera.

________________________________________________

Now what would PINDOT do?

Personally, I think it's a dumb law because if people really want's to take pictures they can without the DSLRS. There are amazing point and shoots in the market like my G11 who can do almost what DSLRS can. Heck, even my Sony Ericsson W995 mobile phone got 8 mpeg resolution and can perform awesome zooming in if I want to. The article does not really say the reason behind the banning but it probably have something to do with privacy and security which again takes me back to my point above.

Cirque Du Soleil Kuwait Tickets For Sale

Hello Kuwait,

I'm sure by now you've heard about the Cirque De Soleil brought by Al Ghanim groups here in Kuwait and most have been astounded by the ticket prices.

Well here's your chance to see this world renowned performers! My sister was given a ticket date for the 25th of November but unfortunately we're having a Thanksgiving party on the same day. Expectedly, she choose Thanksgiving with family over the circus so she's selling 2 tickets for 15 KD each.

If you're interested or know anyone who is, please leave a comment and we will get back to you. Thanks!

Filipino Pizza Hut Crew At Avenues Kuwait Jamming After Work

Pinoy's For The Win!!!!!!



Talentado kahit saan man sa mundo =D

Logos Kuwait Anniversary Celebration

Got this from Facebook verbatim:

"To All Friends here in KUWAIT,
You are all invited to attend the 1st year anniversary celebration of Logos Kuwait on 19th November (friday) at 10AM-12NN @ King Palace Restaurant, Kuwait City.....Hope to see you all........Surely, We Will Be Blessed! =)"

Pacquiao vs Margarito Live in Kuwait

At 4.30 a.m. today, me and my family trekked over to my aunt's place to watch the ultimate fight between Pacquiao and Margarito.

Woozy should be the word that describes the state of my head due to the flurry of activities such as snoozing the alarm clock one too many times, running around Dunkin Donuts to buy 2 dozen assorted sins in the form of sugar and figuring out why I'm there in the first place.

You see, I'm not a Pacquiao fan. In fact during the fight, I was quiet right until Margarito punches the heck out of Pacquiao wherein I would shout profanities. Seriously, I wanted him beaten too.

Welcome haters!

It's not like I want him to lose, no. I am, after all, born and bred in GenSan thus I still feel a sense of loyalty to the guy as he's also born and bred there. I want him to win but I also want a blow by blow punching from both sides. It looks so uneven watching him beat the hell out of Margarito. It's not exactly Pacquiao's fault since Margarito was slow with his return jabs and I have to admit that Pacquiao is really great with what he does. He is the epitome of a great boxer. Also, Margarito brought along his son, it should be illegal to make your child watch you get beaten to a pulp but you got to hand it to him for enduring the fight for 12 rounds.

Waleylung. Parang kulang sa bugbugan. Oh, speaking of beating the crap of each other, I am a little miffed with the undercard games result before the main event. The one with Jones and the Mexican guy. The mexican guy should've won. Jones did a flurry of punches, 89 punches, approximately during the second round but that was that. He lost his wind and his power punch that the rest of the game he was so out of it. The Mexican on the other hand had the pulpy face but he boxed on and he threw heavy punches. Real good ones too! So when the judges decision came out, I was a bit miffed that Jones was still undefeated. That Mexican dude deserved it.

Hhhhmm, I sound like I always go against the expected results but what the hey, I'm no expert in boxing, just my two fils worth.

Anyways, during the game my aunt served the best Chicken Arroz Caldo I've tasted in years since I've been here. It was comfort food to the fullest! Right after that, I fell asleep and just woke up past noon.

On top of all this, I'm still not over my flu, upper respiratory infection and a cough that won't let me sleep at night.

Tonight, we are going back to my aunt's place for a little victory party for Pacquiao. Should be fun. If my itchy throat would leave me alone for a second so I can eat the "papaitan" and "bopis" served.

Today is a good day. I'm beginning to think that it's going to be a good week because of the super long holiday due to Eid Al Adha =) So yey!

Congratulations Manny Pacquiao. Thank you for giving us Filipinos something to be proud of once again and for the humility/ compassion you've showed towards your opponent. I don't know how you're going to split or even count your 2 billion pesos winnings, not including the pay per view share, with the rest of your entourage but seriously Jinkee Pacquiao should have unlimited shopping credit in all the shops in Beverly Hills. Go team Jinkee!

Halloween Awesomeness

I am going to over use the word AWESOME! Because for the past couple of months the family and extended family has been nothing but AWESOME!!!!

Just look at our masterpieces below and try to counter our awesomeness.

Blair Witch Area

It's amazing how the whole group united in a whole month worth of preparation. We did not only converge every weekend but sometimes twice or thrice a week.

The sleep overs were especially super fun!

We bought the spider webs from Party Land and some to New York. We painted the tombstones and cut out spiders and bats out of black card board papers. Don't let me start on 2 hundred balloons and crepe paper flowers.

Skeletons were bought from London to Waleed Super Toy store at Shuwaikh

You've been warned door

How awesome and lifelike are these?! =D

Spider webs with spiders and bats cut outs

The Halloween banners on the other hand was printed at my office using HP free art prints. Thanks HP!

More skeleton stuffs from Waleed Super Toy Store

Skulls and scary pumpkin bottles galore

At closer look! This skull flew all the way from London! How cool is that? =D

Oh I can tell stories about this graveyard aquarium! Up next!

I can't even begin to describe how proud I am of my cat skills =D Well, my ability to persuade my younger cousins to draw numerous different cats and to persuade the gang to cat out different kind of cats and rats!

Yes! All kinds of scared rats =)) Awesome right?

The main table designed with random skulls from Sultan Center, Ikea candles and holder and a huge glow in the dark skull from Party Land!

For the pool/ garden area we have forewarned people of the danger they were about to embark on

Mr. Scarecrow should be enough to scare the bejeesus out of you. If not then the door bats and the big warning sign should!

Every party should have a picture wall. Our awesome Dexter's blood spatter was from Party Land and it was huge!!

It was windy that day so we anchored it with bricks. Our photo ops turned out great I tell yah!

One of the most challenging art work we've done was the coffin. Good thing, we bought a huge aquarium that provided us a kick ass box perfect for our coffin! We bought crepe papers and glued the heck out of it. Of course, when I say, "we", I meant those people I boss around =D

Those people are brilliant by the way. BRILLIANT!!!!

For the kids we made couple of pinyatas filled with candies which went bust. More on that later because right now I want to talk about that scary picture. We have been awesome but we also have failings, case in point the photo above. It's supposed to be a pinyata but 2 super glue and loads of news and crepe papers later, it becomes unbreakable! Thereby rendering it impossible for the kids to get their candies.

But since we are awesome!! - we had this brilliant idea of turning it into a scary pseudo ballooned pumpkin. Whatever that means.

Point is, WE ARE AWESOME! yeah.

Smells Fishy!!!

Been such a couch potato today so I'm giving you silent pictures of dead fish and sea creatures which by the way is yummy once cooked =)

For a quarter of a price, you can get all kinds of fresh fish you can possibly imagine to crave for here in Kuwait.

If you're a good haggler, then you can get a very good price plus cleaning!

Kuwaiti Tilapia yum!!!

I was allergic to crabs, one bite and I break out all over. Gradually, with constant medication and hard headedness, I'm presently able to eat 3 whole crabs!! Wooot wooot!

I've no idea what kind of a fish this is but my mom and my aunt went berserk!!!

Baby sharks!!! I can't imagine eating sharks but I guess some people has special tastes =|

My family is crazy about anything sea food. We devour them like wannabe Pescetarians. Anyone close to us could expect a seafood dish on our table in every meal / party in all kinds of cooked variations.

We usually grill, fry or make a soup but we always makes it a point to spice things up.

No we don't use this one. I've no idea what this is but I found it pretty =)

Fruits!!!!! =B

It took a lot of growing up before I was able to appreciate vegetables! I <3>

There are a couple of fish market that we like but the family's favorite is the one at Souk Sharq just beside the Sharq mall and Sultan Center where you can gaze at an amazing Gulf sea side view.

Fresh fish is a must for delicacies such as "Kinilaw". This is absolutely divine in authenticity.

Rows of soda steamed crabs! Family tradition requires everyone to stand around the spread on the table and just hammer away to get the fatty, juicy goodness!

It's amazing what crab meat dipped into a vinegar soaked garlic can make you feel.

90's Birthday Bash

Sickest party in K town happened last weekend!

I know the photos looks like kinsenyetas w/o the pinyata but believe me we did no cha-cha at all!

What we have was a huge cake, fierce people who are game for a 90's costume party *cough-baduy-cough*, our in house DJ, overflowing food, century old parlor games and fierce party people.

As usual, due to privacy reasons, I can't post photos but believe me when I say, it was awesome! Never had much fun in a K Town party except the ones that I organized. LOL!