complete attendance

Over the course of the school year, we had noted that missing school days tends to be a tad more critical during these times. Comparing to last year, where missing a few days wasn't such a big deal, missing school this time meant losing out on a lot more content and therefore harder to recover from...and recognizing that this early in her years is already saying something. While we didn't really gun for it, we were pleasantly surprised that she got a certification for complete attendance last term.

My first thought was yeah(!), she's reaping the benefits of the school quite well...good value for my buck. Typical hardworking dad response, right? But then...on a more altruistic angle, the wife points out that it also meant she never got sick and that she was healthy the entire term - and that that was more important above all else. (insert introspective pause here) Ahrm, okay... my bad...haha!

geez...it's not even summer here yet.

Reading...Stage 7!

The big-little girl set another milestone today. Her reading books got upgraded to the next level... Stage 7 (orange tags). Based on the International School Oxford Literacy Web (naks!)... she appears to be advancing quite well for her age and her age group - she's still in Year 1 (Y1)...and she sounds like she's starting to pick up the British inflections somewhat.

Ambassador Lagoon

Check out the video below.

Watch out for the gargantuan shadow above. Note the massive tank interior.

If you saw a camera flash from the opposing wall, its probably from one of the hotel rooms with this exact same view

Main Attractions!

So, further to the week's celebrations, we'd made plans to spend a whole day in Atlantis! After a satisfying hotel breakfast, we made our way through Palm Jumeirah and onto the Atlantis grounds. It actually is a hotel mixed up with a water theme park and other attractions. However attractive the idea is of sleeping in a room with an awesome aquarium view, the rates were too darn expensive...and given time constraints, we passed on the Dolphin Bay attraction and devoted time to the Aquaventure and the Lost Chambers.

Aquaventure is an amazing concoction of water thrills which include a playground style collection of slides; a wide river that cuts through and around the park and then evolves into white water rapids and torrents of rolling waves...and, of course, the daunting Ziggurat. Inside Ziggurat, there are these monstrous slides that twist and turn your insides, sudden dips and lurches that guarantee a quick chat with your maker. A particularly enjoyable Ziggurat ride was the Shark Attack, which, after a looong twisting, pitch black slide, leaves riders floating slowly inside a transparent tunnel submerged inside a shark filled (and other marine life) lagoon. On all these, surprisingly, the wife and little girl braved through it all with me. The little girl particularly kept wanting for more and more. Not that I was completely brave all the way. I chickened-out of the Leap of Faith, a 27.5ft vertical drop slide...its the one that starts off from the mouth of the Ziggurat and a majestic view of the park and the skies. By late afternoon, we decided to take it down to the private beach, white sands with a distant view of busy Dubai.

After a (not-so) quick bath, we cleaned up and readied ourselves for another chapter. The Lost Chambers was supposedly a quick 20-30min. (or so we were told) self guided tour of grandeur Atlantis. Its much like Dubai Aquarium, if only in principle, marine life foreground to a certain motif - Atlantis myths and legends. Although this one is much grander in scale compared to its peers mainly because of one reason - the Ambassador Lagoon aka the large fish tank with the whale inside. The tank is 10meters deep and holds 11.5M litres of water. Our pictures don't do justice to its grandness. Maybe the video is better...assuming we get to upload it.

Celebrations!

The month or so that passed saw several notable events and milestones. A two-year mark since I moved to Muscat, a favorable court decision back home in Marikina and, last but definitely not least, our wedding anniversary! So, to say that the build-up of the celebratory mood was about to reach critical was an understatement. Fortuitously, Vivian had a term break come up and I had a couple of weeks-leave I had to take. Plans and schedules fell into place, reservations were made and so, again, drove off to Dubai.

First on the agenda, we took care of the things we needed to buy first. So, we had our usual breakfast stop at IKEA in Festival City, then bought a bookshelf and a few kitchen and household goodies. After a quick check-in at our hotel, we sped off to Wafi Plaza. Wafi was a big mall as well and had a pretty unique set of stores...but I really had just one shop in mind - Al Ghandi Electronics - apparently, they were the one and only store that carried the KitchenAid brand. I'd been wanting to buy Thess her own for years now. We got to the store, picked from several hip and cool colors available but finally settled on a classic black finish...tadaa...my anniversary gift for my wife! As for my gift, I opened up mine back at the hotel. Thess had bought me my very first bracelet which I...ahrm...LOVE(!) - am so fortunate I have a wife who knows what I like.

Last on the day's agenda, Jollibee for dinner! It took me a while (GPS! woot!x2) - it was right smack in a construction heavy area and the evening rush was no help either - so, after about half an hour of getting lost, we found it. Of course, pinoys manned the restaurant. The menu featured more or less the same lineup - from the jollihotdog, 2pc chicken, palabok and of course the burgers. Unfortunately, the food was far from the original's taste and appearance. It was good in its own way but it seemed the Jollibee branding was simply a novelty that quickly wore off the moment you chomped on the jolli-less hotdog. The good thing was, the little girl didn't mind it. Albeit, she noticed the taste difference, she was just really hooked on the concept - 'I'm inside Jollibee again!!' and just kept on chomping. And for that, it wasn't a total disappointment. Except for the parking ticket I found back at the car...

Lamon again!

It's been a while. Lunch at CPK! Missed kung pao shrimp so much!

first line....

We got the usual school invite and along with it, notice that the children will be practicing a set of lines each. So, the little girl memorized her lines and we heard her practice after school. We then learned, thru some deductive reasoning, that she'd be the first in the act. Way to build up the excitement... right? In any case , it was delightful...

V's first ever blog entry...

one a upoon a time there a beautful princess who lived in the castle in the mountains.

losing things...

Some time ago, we bought two keychains with very visible, colored Dubai labeled straps. One, I used for my car keys and the other we used on Vivian's water bottle. Weird thing though...

After spending a couple of hours in the mall, we decided to go home but on the way back to the car, I realized I had lost my car keys. I spent almost an hour looking for the keys everywhere we had been to that day - the parking lot, shops, restaurants, bathrooms, bookstores. All this time though, I realized, I wasn't really that worried. I was miffed, mind, with the forseeable trouble of having to hitch a ride with our friends (thanks much to the Velardes by the way) and having to drive back, calling on our landlord to open the apartment and get the extra car keys - and, of course, the non-stop ribbing I'd get from my wife for losing it in the first place - but I wasn't worried I'd like lose the car or that the lost key wouldn't eventually turn up. Luckily enough, we eventually found the mall security guy who found and picked it up from the parking lot. I guess I dropped it on the way in to the mall. If this was Manila, the car would've probably been long gone and I wouldn't have even realized I lost the keys yet.

The very next day, picking Vivian up from school during home-time. She also realized she'd misplaced her water bottle. The wife and Viv tried to figure out where it could be - going to some other places inside the school. Meanwhile, I thought of going to Vivian's class room and true enough, the water bottle was there.

So, the tale of the two keychain straps continues...we haven't chucked them away or anything but one does wonder...hmm.

*an interesting side note - during the car key saga, it was notable that even the people we asked had a common vibe - that we would eventually get it back somehow. it was even notable among Filipinos we asked. whether this is driven or influenced by local laws or not, the positivity was enough to keep one calm and far from frantic. if only somehow Filipinos would be like this even back home...