Companions of 2025

I’m back! And what a nice adventure our holiday was!

The main drawback to this is that there’s now a ton of work in the office waiting for me to attend to!

Haven’t downloaded any of the photos that we took during our recent trip, so I’m gonna post my annual tribute to the people in our lives. Here goes, to the people in our lives last year (2025), without which our lives would be so dull. Thank you all, for your time, for your friendship, and for enriching our lives! May you all have happy, successful, and fulfilling lives, full of joy, hope and good health!


Diwali with the Agarwals (Umesh, Bhavna and Dyuti), at their place in Oia Residence, the same apartment block that we share, Oct 2025. Justin wasn’t with us this time, as Diwali was a little early last year, and Justin was still in Singapore


And here’s our immediate neighbour Milind, with wife Rajeshri and umm… niece (right), I think, (nope, I don’t remember her name) who was here doing a temporary job as part of her academic practical training, at our home on Diwali, Oct 2025


And here’re Milind’s kids! Mihir (second left) and Aru (first left), close friends (and ‘partners in crime’) of Jayden, at their home, on Ganesh Chathurti (yes, another Indian festival – dedicated to Ganesh, the Hindu elephant-headed god), a major festival in Maharashtra where Milind’s family hails from, Sep 2025. (I don’t know who the other boy is, maybe Jayden knows!)


Here’s KP Singh (centre, standing, in black) and Abha (second left), our former fellow Oia Residence mates who’ve ‘upgraded’ and moved into a villa of their own! In Victoria Heights, Dubai Sports City. Way to go mates! The others in the photo, are the Singhs’ friends. Diwali 2025


And here’re KP’s and Abha’s kids, Advika (left) and Shreya (centre), at their new home, Victoria Heights, Sports City, Oct 2025


We don’t only celebrate Indian festivals. Here’s a little Chinese for you. Jayden, with one of the teachers in the Chinese Institute he attends, at the institute’s Chinese New Year function at their DragonMart2 branch, Dubai, Feb 2025


And this is his Chinese teacher, Liu Laoshi (i.e. Teacher Liu – ‘laoshi’ means teacher in Chinese) at the Great Wall Institute, Motor City, Feb 2025


More Chinese coming up… Jayden and fellow Chinese language students (I only know one, Rachel (third right), Jayden’s Chinese Class classmate, who’s Indian, but better at Chinese than Jayden!) performing a Chinese poem at the UAE Chinese Poem Gala and Great Wall Institute Anniversary, organized by his Chinese Institute (who else, when it featured their name!), at the GEMS Modern Academy (which, ironically, is an Indian school), Dubai, Jun 2025


Moving from Chinese to music, this is Jayden’s piano teacher, Marc, who is from the Philippines, at a piano recital, where Jayden played Hedwig’s Theme. Not bad, Jayden. Keep it up! Dec 2025


Justin’s back! And here’re his friends, Yiro and Angelina (I forgot her Korean name, which she prefers to use nowadays), both from South Korea, at our home, Dec 2025


Moving to my colleagues, here’s another Indian festival, Onam, the biggest festival of the Indian state of Kerala. At The Island Project site office, where I was stationed for 6 months last year. Here’s Mahesh, Safety Officer for the M&E works of the massive hotel complex project (4 luxury hotels on an island!) (We shared a work cubicle – don’t ask why I was sitting with the Safety people, it’s a loooong story), Sep 2025


And here’s what you do for Onam, a feast! Featuring over 20 multi-coloured dishes served on a banana leaf… but they’re ALL vegetarian! Sorry meat-lovers, it ain’t your day! In the photo are: Sujatha, Senior QS (left, from Tamil Nadu), Noufal, HSE Manager (centre) and Aryan, QAQC Manager (right) (Noufal and Aryan are both from Kerala). The hand that you see on the right, belongs to the Project Director, Mr Konudula Rao


Another feast, but I think this was a farewell feast, compliments of the colleague who was leaving, which I think in this case, was Arslan, the Electrical Engineer (5th from left) (I hope I remembered correctly). The others in the photo are (from left): - For the love of God, I forgot who that first one is; Fayaz Ahmad (Electrical Engineer); Asif (Admin Officer); Sajid Mahmood (Time Keeper); Arslan; Hazir (Land Surveyor); yours truly (ahem); Afsal (Electrical Engineer); Ashik (Sr Stakeholder Coordinator); Sohail (Project Engineer); and Munnir (Storekeeper). At the now defunct Closeout Office, in Warsan 3, Jan 2025


Here’s a party at our company’s Civil & Infrastructure Branch Head Office in Dubai South Business Park celebrating our company getting the award for the Dubai Island Bridge Project. There’s a load of company old-timers in this photo! From left: Han Guang (Assistant GM, in charge of the General Management Office of the Branch – I’ve known him since I first joined the Company in 2008, he was then our site office’s Admin Officer); Xue Bingbing (drinking from a bottle, Timekeeper? Don’t really know); Anilkumar Madhusoodhanan (QAQC Director – knew him, when I rejoined the Company in 2013, I think he joined in 2012 - he retired earlier this year); Prashant Mestha (Tender Director, joined in 2014); Cheng Qianli (General Manager, our Civil & Infrastructure Branch’s top boss); ummm… an HR Manager (I think) whom I know not, he didn’t stay very long in the Company; Khaled Adel (Contracts Director, another colleague from the 2008 times, he was the Contracts Manager of a Project when I joined in 2008, he left the Company late last year, after 18 years of service!); and Ren Bofei (Project Manager, he was a Chief Surveyor in 2008!)


Finally, some complete strangers. Good Samaritans who tried to help Anu to ice-skate, 2 kids from Eritrea! Anu’s a kid magnet! Children just seem to gravitate towards her, like she’s one of their own! And this is not the first-time things like this happen! At the Galleria Ice Rink, Hyatt Regency Dubai, Mar 2025

That’s all for now. God bless us all! (Except those who’re still fueling this stupid Iran War…)

Island of the Hill Myna

Bliss… a peaceful beach at the Berjaya Tioman Resort

I’m in a hurry. I’m going on leave!!!! Yippee! A trip, finally. …On a flight! After seeing the kids fly off and come back (by themselves) in the airport, we, adults finally get a chance to fly ourselves. No thanks to Trump and gang, who totally messed up the situation here. Yes, that stupid Iran war, that Trump and Netanyahu started, got out of hand and nobody knows now, how it’ll end. Damn!

Gotta find an easy post… with pictures, and less writing. Let’s see, since we’re going home to Malaysia, I’ll post something from Malaysia, which I’ve not posted before – Tioman! The island of the Hill Myna!


We’re here! The Berjaya Resort, in Tioman Island, Pahang, Malaysia, Aug 2024

Thanks to sis, Hazel, who gave us 2 nights in this resort from her Berjaya Vacation Club quota






There’s nothing much to do, but chill out at the beach…


Or in the swimming pools


Or we could go snorkelling! At the sea in front of the Tioman Marine Park


Look at the fish around us!


The Tioman Marine Park building…


At the raised footpath that connects Kampung Tekek to Kampung ABC (which is the nickname for Air Batang, …don’t ask me what the ‘C’ stands for). This ABC Village brings back fond memories of the first and only time I visited Pulau Tioman before this, in umm… the early 90’s, 1990 probably, or was it 1991?

At that time, I was a student in a college, in Kuala Lumpur (KL). And I had 2 close friends from our secondary school who were then studying in two other different universities, in different parts of Malaysia. There was a national holiday, Hari Raya Haji, and we happened to meet up in KL, and there, on the spot, decided to make a trip to Pulau Tioman (yup, those were the times, when we could just get up and go! Fuck the planning, haha!) So, we went straight to Puduraya, the main bus station in KL then, and found out that half of the KL population was there, trying to get bus tickets to go back to wherever their hometowns and villages were, because of the Hari Raya Haji (Eid Al Adha) holidays. There were no more buses to Mersing, the departure port for ferries to Tioman. So, we bought tickets to Kuantan as advised by some helpful people in the bus station.

When we reached Kuantan, we went straight to the bus station, and found a bus going to Johor Bahru (JB) at night, with a stop in Mersing. Voila! We grabbed the tickets, but that still left us an entire half-day in Kuantan, with nothing much to do. And so, we headed to the beach in Kuantan (Teluk Cempedak, if I’m not mistaken), and swam and chilled till the time for the bus journey came. I don’t remember how we cleaned ourselves up after the swim in the sea, but we were somewhat sticky with the salt water on our bodies, and finally we made it to Mersing in the wee hours of the day, which was just right, as ferries then, left at daybreak, like at 6am, not like nowadays…

We stayed in Kampung ABC, if I remembered correctly, in a little wooden chalet overlooking the beautiful, blue sea, in a small village, with a path, wide enough only for bikes. On the third day of our visit, on the day which we were to leave, we were having breakfast at the chalet, and asked the landlady about when the ferry would leave Tioman for Mersing. She pointed to the boat chugging away from the nearest jetty, and said that we’d missed it! What a day that was. We waited in the jetty, under the hot, unrelenting, island sun, until we got a boat in the afternoon. Managed to make it back to Mersing in the evening, but not early enough to catch any public buses going off from Mersing. Finally, we ‘bribed’ some members of a tourist bus from Singapore (yup, Singaporeans could be bribed, haha), to allow us to get on their bus, which was heading back to Singapore, to bring us till JB (a big city, which we would be able to get onward bus tickets to wherever we needed to get to). JB was jam-packed with Singapore-bound traffic (as that was the only land crossing to Singapore then). (The next day was back to work, and back to school, and that’s why we HAD to get back that day). To cut the story short, I managed to make it back to KL in umm… the wee hours of the next day, and my architect friend who was at that time working as an intern in Ipoh, had to take a day off!

Oops, looks like I’ve written a lot more than I planned to. Back to the post…




The seas around the Tioman Marine Park along the footpath. By the way, Tioman got its name from a bird, the Hill Myna, or in Malay, ‘Burung Tiong’. Of course, there’s a legend on that… and you can Google it for all you want… (I’m sure it’ll be in the internet, I’ve already written too much as it is…)


The Maori Dive Academy, where there’re toilets that we could use (for changing and other stuff), and food! (after snorkelling)


Time to leave, and get back to everyday life! At the Tekek Ferry Terminal, our arrival and departure point, Tioman Island, Pahang, Malaysia


We’re back on the mainland! Mersing – The Mersing Harbour Centre, Johor, Malaysia

That’s all. See you after our break!

A Show Like No Other

A scene from La Perle

Isn’t it irritating when you have something to post, but there just isn’t time, because the work keeps coming in? (No, I ain’t complaining. Work is the most important friggin thing keeping us alive… I have all the friggin respect for work. O, highly exalted work, keep me busy, as busy as you like, but shower me with lots of income… Isn’t it high time that I get a raise?!?)

Not to worry, I have something up my sleeves just for times like this… an express picture post! Talking about the opera, here’s a spectacular show like no other in Dubai! And I recommend that you go see it! It’s absolutely worth it!


The stage… Looks like any ordinary stage, doesn’t it?


Hi boys! Look how little they are. And, see those masks? Remember the COVID-19 times?


The show begins! The circular hole in the middle, is actually a pool… performers can appear mysteriously from the pool, and disappear when they jump in! Here’s a scene with acrobats and a tightrope walker (or in this case, a slackline walker… O yeah, there’s a difference!)


A clash of cultures? A Chinese Lion and whirling dervishes all in one scene?


The pool boileth over! Oh yeah, the entire stage can be under water!! And waterfalls can spew forth from the podiums!


Here’s a video… (By the way, this is the first ever video in this blog! Took me 20 years to put in a video?!?)


And, it’s dry again! Hey, someone from the audience just went up there and he’s now running and skipping on that rotating thingamajig contraption!


If you wanna know more, go watch it!


La Perle (by Franco Dragone, the renowned Italo-Belgian creative director, who developed many of the Circue du Soleil's prestigious shows worldwide), Dubai, UAE – Aug 2021

A Night at the Opera

I’ve decided to take a break from my Albania posts, to post this post, about the one and only time that we visited the Dubai Opera (so far). Actually, yesterday, Jayden had a chance to perform at the Dubai Opera!! Nice! But it’s nothing big. He was involved in his school’s play, Aladdin, and they did a rehash of one of the songs from that production, for his school’s senior graduation ceremony! (So, that’s why the school fees here cost a bomb!). Anyway, we didn’t go (it’s 100 dirhams per ticket …just to see him and team sing ONE song?!? And then be forced to sit thru the entire graduation ceremony of people we don’t know?!?? Besides, we’ve already watched the full-length Aladdin play at his school earlier, and we’ve been to the Dubai Opera before). We did however, send Justin. He’s never been to the Dubai Opera, nor seen the Aladdin production, and he knows some of the students there. So, it was a kids’ day out, and a night of blissful respite for the adults!

Here’s our one and only visit to the Dubai Opera …for a performance by the National Ballet of China! Compliments of my company, ahem. (No complains when it comes to freebies, hehe). Cheapskates, forever! (Wait till we strike it rich! Yeah, just you wait).


The Dubai Opera House




The stalls at the Dubai Opera




Introducing the National Ballet of China, Jan 2024. Bravo!


Anu at the Dubai Opera


A view of the Dubai Fountain from the Dubai Opera




The Burj Park, just outside the opera house, Feb 2024 (for a Chinese New Year function). You can get a nice view of the Burj Khalifa here, but it's too darn near to have a nice photo showing its full height!


Whoa, what's this? It's an entrance to a restaurant, or is it a bar? (We dunno coz we just went for the toilets, hehe). Lemme see... Google Maps... It's the Salvaje Dubai, a Japanese Restaurant sez Maps, which is strange coz Salvaje sounds nothing like Japanese!


Why does the Dubai Opera feature a shuttlecock? Isn't this more appropriate for a badminton stadium?




That’s all folks! There you go. One quick, express post done!