red sofa for me :D

“home makeover” has always been in nico’s priority list, but he successfully fought the eagerness to buy all the home stuff until I’m here so we can do the thing together. however, the plan has somehow gotten lost among all the other stuff which we chose to spend (his) money on such as a new camera, a laptop & a printer–all bought to appease my sentiment over getting bored (selfish me, huh?). since he’s the only one working (i hope only for the time being) and the cost of living in dubai is 3 times higher than in the philippines, we have to carefully schedule our spendings. our house, which is a studio-type flat, has all the basic stuff we need–bed, kitchen appliances, cable tv, dvd/vcd player, a playstation (does this count as a basic need??), an aircon and the two of us. yeah, we can live with that for now.

even before i came to dubai, he’s been raving about the super cool home furnishings in ikea and has been wanting to invade the store as soon as I arrive, but that plan has not been carried out until last weekend; one reason is that we spent the money on something else, and another is that the store has been transferred from the mall to the festival city which is a bit difficult to visit especially for commuters like us.

last saturday, i finally convinced him to visit the store at least to get a copy of their latest catalogue. he warned me, though, that we would only drool over all those stuff if we went without money. we took the bus and got off at the airport area where we hailed a cab. we eventually got lost in the maze of all the ongoing construction works surrounding the ikea store but all the hassles of finding the place vanished at the sight of all the posh home furnishings in the 25,400 sq.m store. it was the first time i saw nico got really excited about “shopping”!

as soon as we got inside the store, we knew there was no turning back. the home makeover plan has begun!

the store set-up is really cool; it’s a 2-storey building with the second level as the showroom which is the first stop of the shoppers. this level showcases fully-furnished room settings to give shoppers ideas on how to organize their own homes (they even have a set-up for a 22sqm room). all products are tagged with description, prices, section and aisle codes and a shopping card is provided so shoppers can just take note of all this information to be used at the first level–which is the pick-up area. once done, shoppers can proceed to the first level of the store to pick up all the products chosen using the information on their shopping card. I personally find this set-up efficient and cost effective–the “pick-up area” concept eliminates the need for a separate stockroom for all the merchandise and a shopper can be done with his shopping even without the aid of a store staff (so they only need to hire a few hundreds staff to man the 25,400sqm store), –it’s like empowering the shoppers by providing all the information they need.

we have always known we wanted a functional home setting, and that is just fitting for city living. but even when we move somewhere else someday, i think, we will prefer a low-maintenance yet well-designed and cozy home set-up. nico and i agreed on one basic criterion for choosing the stuff to buy–they have to be collapsible, something we can easily pack and ship back home anytime we decide to leave, hahaha! and ikea is just the right place to find them. with this condition in mind, we set to choose our stuff.

first up, a red sofa! nico’s a blue-type of guy (i think he’s been raised to believe that if you’re a guy, you should own blue stuff and nothing else, hehe) but this time, it was his idea to get a red sofa since our flat is really ‘flat’, color-wise, we chose a 2-seat sofa with removable cotton cover (leather sofa just doesn’t appeal to him and i couldn’t imagine burning my butt on a leather sofa once the middle east heat sets in!). the cool thing about this sofa is that we can instantly change its color when the mood strikes…and then we chose a coffee table to match the sofa and picked up a lamp, lamps actually–a floor lamp and a bedside lamp.

the real challenge in this shopping experience is choosing a divider. though we don’t have any plans of renting out our flat to some strangers, we still want to separate the ‘bedroom’ from the ‘living room’ to create a feeling of a real home. however, we both didn’t want the typical divider that stands zigzaggy and neither do we have any plans of spending on a fixture; afterall, the building administrator doesn’t even allow his tenants to put a small screw drill on the wall. after hours of scanning and visualizing, we both agreed to get a shelving unit and use it to divide the area. we picked up other stuff like rug, remote control pocket, magazine rack and a throw. it was almost 8pm when we went out of the store. we had the big stuff delivered and handcarried the small ones ourselves. it was tiring but super fun. there are still a lot of items we need to buy and I have made a long list of them already. on saturday, we will visit the store again to pick up all these additional stuff. can’t wait till saturday!

p.s. did i mention that the prices of ikea products are unbeatable?

perspective

from both our “points of view” (can you see the lovers back there having a picnic?)

nighttime

we’ve been to this place many times before, and each time i’d say i would take a photo of the place at nighttime. never happened; i always got tired and wanted to go home before dusk. so today, i am recreating the sky at night.

bored.com

it’s been two months since i left home and joined hubby in dubai–two long, lingering and boring months! (sigh). i know this is not a good first sentence for an interesting write-up (and definitely not a fitting article for a blog with a title like mine) but this is exactly how i’m feeling so bear with me. i have been fighting the urge to blog about my ‘boredom’ and been convincing myself to just delight in the chance of not having to wake up early and cram through the early morning traffic, things which i had survived for the past 9 or so years of my life back in manila, but two months is just unbearably long!

having been in a busy, work environment eversince i left school, i had gotten used to being up and on the go 5 days a week at the very least. back during my ‘busy days’, i usually had to wake up at 430am, leave home before 6 to line-up through the edsa traffic so i could make it to office at 8am. my only comfort was to find my favorite spot in the parking area empty– i loved this spot cause it’s near the elevator so i wouldn’t have to walk far and it’s a bit secluded which allowed me to filch a 20-min sleep on thursdays- my coded day. on a typical day, i usually had to stay in the office until past 7pm, do some errands after leaving the office, and reach home between 10&11pm, which practically left me with less than 5hours of sleep. i fairly remember an officemate commenting “ngayon ka lang uuwi?? pagdating mo sa bahay, magkakape ka lang at papasok ka na ulet!” and another commented “anong timezone ba dun sa inyo?” they never ran out of creative ways of pointing out how far my place is from the office. back then, i always looked forward to weekends when i could sleep through the entire morning without being disturbed by the recurring alarm that i’ve set on my phone. addendum: during my last year at the company, weekend became such a luxury. friday nights were spent doing price adjustments (which happened almost every week) and saturday mornings were spoiled by the early morning callers who claimed not to have received my late night advise on the move. worse was when i actually had to work on weekends especially when the advise came in late and i already had something planned which had to be put aside. somehow, i came to a point when i wished things were a bit different. i was hoping the pain on my right shoulder which i am most certain i got from years of (improperly) using keyboard and mouse and battling with formulas in the excel spreadsheet, would forever go away. when the decision to finally quit my job and move with nico to dubai was settled, i was relieved. i counted the days to when i was scheduled to take off.

and then it came. and two months after, i was bored to death. i busied myself with household stuff–cooking, laundry, housecleaning and indulged in my regular pastime–books, mags, tv, mall, internet (i actually found a site called bored.com hehe) and quite recently found new interest on reading the daily paper, a habit which i got from nico. on weekends, we would normally go out to explore this new place, always on our own pace. despite all that, my days are normally blank, i always seem to have too much time with not much to do. i still wake up early, around 530am to prepare nico’s breakfast and see him off to work, but i’m back to bed even before he’s able to get into the building elevator. i make sure not to get out of bed before 10am as much as i can so that almost half of the day’s already spent and i only have the rest of the afternoon to laze.

except today! few hours after i dozed off this morning, i was awakened by a call. i was so certain it wasn’t nico since he never calls until lunchtime. i answered the phone with that sleepy voice, which i prayed was not noticed by the other party on the line, and struggled to level my thoughts. seconds later, i found myself explaining my job preference to the caller who happened to be a consultant in one of the (many) recruitment agencies i sent my resume to. side kwento: i only have to stay in dubai for a month to realize that this place has been invaded by people from all over the world, most of whom have only one agenda which is to find greater opportunity. the job market here is so saturated that you can count yourself lucky if you’re able to get an interview invitation within 2months after sending out applications. that’s why i keep wondering why a lot of filipinos are leaving their jobs in the phils to take chance in this overcrowded market (stats says around 30filipinos come to dubai everyday on visit visa!)

back to my story: i was talking to this lady on the phone and she said she has an urgent requirement for an administrative assistant and asked me if i am willing to be considered. admin job is not the first thing on my wishlist but having suffered 2months of boredom, i gladly said yes. at this point, i would grab any decent job opportunity that will come my way just to stay sane (added to the fact that they pay twice my salary in manila, tax-free, yey!). she would forward my resume to the employer and said would call me on saturday if i am shortlisted. the thing about this job though, is that the office is again far from our place, i have yet to find out if they’ll be providing transport service, otherwise i may have to decline. anyways, that’s second to my concerns. first, i need to secure an interview invitation and then the rest can be dealt with later.

i suddenly have this feeling that my sluggish state is coming to an end…

who am i?

still high with the grace of God that touched us after attending last sunday’s fellowship, i went on to search for the website i used to access to download free christian music and chanced upon this station, praise 106.5, that broadcasts live program over the internet featuring contemporary christian music. do check out the website as it has links to other good stuff too like devotionals and other talk programs. would be good to tune in to uplift and inspire your spirit.

the deacon who gave the message about “the amazing gift” (the gift of salvation) in last sunday’s service ended his sermon with a beautiful song entitled “who am i?”, lyrics below (check out link for mp3 version & tell me wht you think ). first time i heard it was last sunday and second time was last night when it was played over praise 106.5, and it immediately became our newest fave!

Artist: Casting crowns
Song: Who am I

Who am I?
That the Lord of all the earth,
Would care to know my name,
Would care to feel my hurt,
Who am I?
That the Bright and Morning Star,
Would choose to light the way,
For my ever wandering heart,Not because of who I am,
But because of what You’ve done,
Not because of what I’ve done,
But because of who You are,

I am a flower quickly fading,
Here today and gone tomorrow,
A wave tossed in the ocean (ocean),
A vapor in the wind,
Still You hear me when I’m calling,
Lord, You catch me when I’m falling,
And You’ve told me who I am..
I am Yours.

Who am I?
That the eyes that see my sin,
Would look on me with love,
and watch me rise again,
Who am I?
That the voice that calmed the sea,
Would call out through the rain,
And calm the storm in me,

Not because of who I am,
But because of what You’ve done,
Not because of what I’ve done,
But because of who You are,

I am a flower quickly fading,
Here today and gone tomorrow,
A wave tossed in the ocean (ocean),
A vapor in the wind,
Still You hear me when I’m calling,
Lord, You catch me when I’m falling,
And You’ve told me who I am…
I am Yours, I am Yours.

I am Yours,
Whom shall I fear?
Whom shall I fear?
‘Cause I am Yours,
I am Yours.