it's friday again....

12:45 am....yes, it's past midnight and again it's friday.  i really should be sleeping now but, i don't know, maybe because tomorrow is a rest day and i can't seem to find the time to sleep yet.  well, as for my people, tomorrow is still a working day for them.  i can't blame them, there isn't anything to do back at their camps anyways.  might as well go to work and have some more overtime hours. but for me, even if i report for work tomorrow, my pay will still be the same and so i'd rather stay at home and wait for my kids to go online and chat with them.

i'm kind of excited also, this day being a friday, because it means my driving exam is nearing. i'm scheduled to take it this sunday. i just hope everything works out fine and i pass the exams so i can have my license and eventually my car. back at doha office, they say, my car is waiting for me. maybe if i have my own car, i can get around qatar and see the beautiful places here.

4th day of driving lessons...

yes, it's been 4 sessions already and i have been driving around al khor city since the second day of my training.

now what i've noticed about the way they teach their students is, they are not into defensive driving like that in the philippines. here, they teach you about who's on the right of way road and, it somehow amuses me. one time, i was driving through a crossroad where i was on the right of way road when i noticed a big truck coming from the other road. my instinct tells me to slow down and check my brakes but instead, the instructor told me i have the right of way and the truck should be the one to slow down and stop. i, he tells me, should go straight and not slow down. really now, it was very different.

another incident when i was in a roundabout, qatar do have alot of these roundabouts, i saw a very fast toyota camry coming towards the roundabout and again my instinct told me to slow down and step on the brakes but again this instructor instructed me not to slow down and brake but instead to speed up more cause i am in the right of way. always, he said, roundabouts have the right of way and i should not mind the incoming vehicles.

well, i guess i will have to follow it for now since i still need to take the driving test for me to have a license.

today the clerk in the office told me, after i finished my lessons for the day, to bring my receipt for the driving test. maybe he'll be scheduling me for the upcoming test. i just hope it will be this thursday. they conduct the test every tuesday, thursday and sunday. and would you believe it starts 5:00 in the morning.

i just hope i do good in the exams and pass the test in just one take. what they're telling me is, it's very hard to pass the driving test and usually everyone fails.

driving lessons

yesterday, i enrolled and started a 12 days session on driving lessons. well, here in qatar, it is required to get a driving test before they issue a driver's license. good thing for us pinoys, if you have a valid professional driver's license, you will have the option of taking the exam immediately. but many say, the chances of passing the exam if you take it outright would be slim. might as well take the short course and practice the exam itself before taking it.

so, yesterday was my first day and as i expected, it was kind of different. the instructor is teaching me something i don't normally do when i'm driving in my home country. in school, i started to practice what they call inclined L-parking. well, one thing i noticed different was the way they want you to turn the wheel in getting in and out of the L-parking. they will have you stop the car and then turn your wheel full then after let you drive again.

that is what i did the whole session. just get in the L-park and out. then go around a bit and back to the L-park. the instructor may have noticed that i knew how to drive because after a few L-park, he just sat there and slept and never said a word about my driving.

tomorrow, i'll be again in school for an hour and i hope lesson will be different. i just hope that this coming week they will have me take the exam even if i hadn't finished the course yet. i was told that my car is already in our office in doha and will be issued to me as soon as i had my license. i sure miss driving again....

almost mid of august and humidity here is really getting worst. this morning, i had to go straight to the clinic and had the nurse (ali) check my blood pressure because i started to feel some pain at the back of my neck. well, i am still fortunate, my bp, as ali would say, was as if i am not in my 40's, 110/80, and i hope it would stay that way for a very long time. with the kind of diet we have here, it really is very hard to maintain good health.

i guess the heat really bothers me a lot. imagine yourself being in a sauna for the whole day. being drenched in sweat even if you've changed your shirt for so many times. it would really dry up your body and eat up all your energy specially if you don't drink water that often.

but the surprising thing about this is, i seem to be very well adapted to this environment. as the days goes by, i feel i am getting much bigger, or should i say wider. i really should start on something rigorous and keep my body in shape. I came here to be at least 50 kilos only but now i feel like i am almost 80 kilos.

well this is it for now, maybe tomorrow i'll have something better to write about. i just hope weather will be better tomorrow....

6 months and 14 days

yup, 6 months and 14 days to be exact... that's so far how long i am here in Qatar now and so far I can say I can still stay for more.

it's really tough, since our managers are leaving the company. I really don't know what the real issue is, but 2 of our managers and an engineer(?) have resigned their post and is now preparing us, me and another engineer, to take over the whole project. Well that is of course under a new project(construction) manager, a french, who just came to join us a little over a week ago.

i can't complain. the work is very challenging. i came here to be an assistant engineer only but as it turns out, i will be managing a group of construction team which i really have not experienced before.

since 2 days ago, we've been asked to join the daily manager's meeting and i got to hand it to us, me and the other engineer, we handled all their questions very well.

only problem now is, we get to go home late. before, we usually go home at around 4pm but now, since we have this meetings, preparations and planning for the next days activities and stuff, we cannot go home until 6pm.

i just hope our management will see through this on the spot promotion of our responsibilities and give us some kind of an increase. maybe in our salary or in our allowances.

it sure will be good if management can give us such increase but in any case, i know it will be a very good training ground for me to handle a big group of people unlike before when i supervise only a handful.

Comments from subordinates

Early this morning, I was surprised to see a clear sky compared to what we're having this past few days. They say the clear sky is an indication that climate here has changed and, definitely true, I experienced the sudden change in the humidity at the job site. Well, that is, after 2pm when I went there at the job site cause I had to stay in the office the whole morning and finish some work.

The humidity was, I think, very intense already. I wasn't even moving a muscle but I can feel my sweat coming out from every pore of my body.

It went on like that the whole afternoon but the harsh feeling of the heat was for a moment stalled when one of my chargehand (a leadman) gave a very refreshing compliment.

I didn't expect such a compliment from him since he was about to leave the company in about 5 days but yet he was very eager and very much willing to help us finish our project.

Well I asked him why such an attitude towards his work and he answered it was because I have been very good in handling them in our work. Unlike most of the bosses they had before, I was different as if I was never really a boss but a fellow worker who only lead them in the jobsite.

Hearing this words, it kind of took away all the heat I was feeling during that time and it gave me a feeling that I am doing a fine job.

I just hope tomorrow's climate wouldn't be as harsh as today. My sweat never stopped dripping which really drained my energy. I just hope I can catch sleep fast tonight...

First Time Blogger

Well here goes.

I just created this blogspot of mine and I really don't know if I had it in me to to create such blogs.

It's been too long since I last wrote my last essays, and as a matter of fact, I really can't remember when I did made such.

Maybe because my field of work did not give me the chance or time to to find out whether I can speak out my mind through writing. And having finished an engineering course, it was almost always numbers, figures and equations that our professors feed us inside the classrooms. Our reports were always in "Outline Formats" which required short and concise phrases or sentences.

Come to think of it, is it possible to write a blog in outline form? Can it still be interesting to read?

Well anyways, since I have plenty of time to sit back and browse with my laptop after work, I will try to post some of the interesting (and maybe also those not so interesting) happenings or events that I will encounter here somewhere in the middle east and maybe, when I become much older, I will be able to read my post again and remember, if not all, the things that I will be experiencing in the remaining 18months of my stay here. That is, if I will not return after the 2 years contract my employer gave me.

I'll stop here for now, it's past 12mn, and I have to wake up early for work and tomorrow let's see if I can continue writing some entries on this newly created blogspot of mine.