CheetahhhhhhhBlog Mark III

Tomorrow is Wednesday, ie the Saudi Friday, which means 2 weeks down, 14 to go.

While I complained a little bit in my previous post about how hard I’m working, I do find curriculum development mildly satisfying intellectually. Also, in the course of calling other universities, etc, we have discovered something interesting. We will be the only university in Saudi with a properly designed, thought-out curriculum. Generally speaking what happens here is this… a bunch of sheikhs (old guys) on a committee will tell somebody to write a syllabus, and that’s that. This, however, is not curriculum development by a long shot. When this project is finished, I imagine I will be able to go lecture at other universities and give presentations at conferences. Not that I’m keen to do such a thing… actually no… but it looks good on the resume. And it is an interesting project because as far as I can tell, nobody has designed an English curriculum with the peculiar Saudi situation in mind. We have a set of factors going on here that you encounter nowhere else in the world. This makes for a unique piece of work.

Van and The Bug are really getting excited for May 3rd. Van is starting to make a list of everything she needs to do to prepare our new house in Capoocan.

Anyhoo the evening prayer just sounded so we’re going off to Kudo for fried chicken, which Van is craving.

I forgot to mention, The Bug is 17 pounds or 7.7 kilos. He’s a big baby. He’s 30 inches long, which is half the length of his mommy fer chrissake. He was born 4 months ago at 19 inches.

I must confess, I don’t want him to grow up. Babies are a lot of fun. He is sitting next to me in bed screaming, but you still gotta love him.

He and his mommy are starting to get excited about going home to Manila. They are going to leave on May 3rd, while the Cheetahhhhhhh has to stick it out in the sweltering sands of the Arabian desert until mid-June.

Not a lot going on here because the Cheetahhhhhhh is busy doing his new job of curriculum development. It consumes all my time and energy at work. Formerly I would spend a lot of time sitting at my desk shooting the breeze with the lads. Now I go in to work and work pretty much straight for several hours. It is mildly stimulating to be using my brain, however, in many ways I miss the old days.

I’m not sure why I seem so sickness and injury-prone lately. I seem to have thrown out my back, mildly, again. It’s not as bad as before, where I could barely walk. However I did walk around mildly hunchbacked today. I can’t imagine what this is about because I’m not lifting anything heavier than The Bug.

One week down and 15 to go for the spring semester. The Cheetahhhhhh spent his first week doing his new job of Curriculum Developer and it was a productive week, if I do say so myself. I have to be concerned with project management here and so I made a big damn flow chart which apparently impressed the dean. I wrote an exective summary and moved to my new office. I miss my old office actually but que sera sera.

The Cheetahhhhhhh notes that the Intercontinental Hotel group is selling off its property rights. What does this tell us? That they expect the property bubble to burst soon and they want to protect themselves against this risk.

The Bug had his 4 month vaccinations yesterday and was none too pleased about it. I went with him to the clinic and so I saw all the other babies. Now, everybody always talks about how big he is, but really I had no frame of reference. He seemed big to me but who knows. Anyway at the clinic I saw all the other babies, such as little critters who were walking, and was startled to realize that The Bug was bigger than all of them at only 4 months. Why is he so big, I wonder? I’m not actually the biggest guy around, I’m 5 foot 10 inches which is just average. And Vanessa is a tiny girl. So what’s with The Bug? I bet you the little critter is going to grow bigger than his dad.

The Cheetahhhhhhh has been really sick for 5 days. I seem to get sick a lot lately, which is counter-intuitive since I have no stress. Anyway this was a gastrointestinal virus and I held nothing down, including water. Yesterday I was so dehydrated, I went to the hospital and spent 4 hours getting intravenously re-hydrated. The damn doctor said there was nothing to be done about it except hang tough. And that is what I have been doing, indeed, I have been going to work despite feeling like shite.

Golden in South Africa is having a party on Thursday and I wish I could go, man.

The Bug ate his first solid food today… lugao, which is a rice porridge. He didn’t seem to like it a lot though.

Here is The Bug starting his modeling career. He’s a handsome little critter, eh?

So there was nothing special to do today for Valentine’s Day if you count out the beach. There are no fancy restaurants. The best restaurant in town is actually Pizza Hut, which ain’t bad actually, I mean, I eat Pizza Hut in the States also. However there is no restaurant with a romantic atmosphere. Indeed atmosphere and good food are distinctly lacking in the local eateries. However we did have a Valentine’s Day agenda. For one thing, we had gone to Jeddah to get Vanessa Valentines Day gifts… her new diamond ring and her new watch. Today I got her 2 dozen pink roses. 2 dozen for 2 Valentine’s Days together. Now you may be asking, why not red roses? That’s a peculiar thing with Vanessa… she doesn’t like red roses. She’s probably the only girl on earth who doesn’t. She is currently cooking me my favorite dish, burritos. Despite never having eaten Mexican food, she makes a pretty good burrito. And we got special cakes from the cake store.

Happy Valentine’s day. There is no Valentine’s Day here, of course; it’s a Christian holiday and of course romance is culturally discouraged. I had planned a little excursion to the beach for a picknick but Van doesn’t think it’s a good idea because of the baby. So I’m not sure there’s anything special we can do for Valentine’s Day.

Some song lyrics stick in your head. Here is a list of the top 1-liners in rock-n-roll, in no particular order. #9 is actually country and #10 is actually reggae, but they get played on rock stations, so here goes:

1. “Don’t need no strings to bind your hands, not if my love can bind your heart” Pretenders, “Angel of the Morning”

2. “Leroy says keep on rockin’ girl” Michelle Shocked, “Anchorage”

3. “Roll another number for the road; you’re the only sober person I know” Wilco, “Passenger Side”

4. “Allison, my aim is true” Elvis Costello, “Allison”

5. “If I was young, it didn’t stop you coming through” The Buggles, “Video Killed the Radio Star”

6. “Please don’t put your life in the hands of a rock-n-roll band; you’ll throw it all away” Oasis, “Don’t Look Back in Anger”

7. “She would never say where she came from; yesterday don’t matter when it’s gone” Rolling Stones, “Ruby Tuesday”

8. “Everybody’s gotta fight to be free” Tom Petty, “Refugee”

9. “Ain’t never been to Vegas, but I gambled all my life” Ryan Adams, “Oh My Sweet Carolina”

10. “Soon we’ll find out who is the real revolutionary, and I don’t want my people to be tricked by mercenaries” Bob Marley, “Zimbabwe”

So it was Little Chris’s second trip to Jeddah and he was pretty cranky about it. He doesn’t like doing lots of activities. For example Van and the Cheetahhhhhhh wanted to go out for dinner. What a treat. There are no nice restaurants in Yanbu, just some rinky-dink restaurants which aren’t very good. Actually Pizza Hut is our best option in Yanbu. So in Jeddah we wanted to go have a fancy lobster dinner at a fancy restaurant. However Little Chris was in no mood for it and we ended up taking him home. The minute we returned to the hotel, he stopped screaming and started smiling. We don’t know why The Bug doesn’t like activities, but he sure doesn’t. Luckily for The Bug, our day-to-day life is pretty uneventful.

 

Our Jeddah trip was mostly shopping. Little Bug has a new playpen. Van got a pink Swatch and a diamond ring. She looks very fancy with it. The Bug also got some clothes since he is outgrowing his initial baby clothes. The Cheetahhhhhhh decided to take his clothing situation in hand (recall he has gotten fat and his old clothes don’t fit), so he got 2 pants and 3 oxford shirts. This turned out to be very expensive. I had been hoping my mom could save me a lot of cash and take care of it in America, where shopping is much cheaper. However it’s not her fault, the thing is, it’s very difficult to buy clothes for men properly. I don’t even buy my clothes mail-order, because unless you try them on, how will you know if they fit properly? And the Cheetahhhhhhh is a prep. This means his clothing style never changes. The important thing about preppy clothes is actually the small details, one of them being the proper fit. Anyway with my newly fat ass, the only pants that look good on me any more are Zegna. Believe me, I would prefer not to pay so much for pants. Unfortunately my old standby, Polo, just isn’t cutting it at size 38. I look like a fat-ass in 38 polo. Miraculously I look good in 38 Zegna and God bless the Italians for their tailoring skills. And the Cheetahhhhhhh has discovered a new favorite brand of shirts, Van Vlaack. They’re German and they make shirts the old-fashioned way (by hand) with lots of important small details that nobody bothers with any more, such as a button on the wrist venting. So anyway the Cheetahhhhhhh, who is really as preppy as they come, is switching to European clothing.

 

When in Jeddah, we usually stay at our home-away-from-home, the Sheraton. However during the Hajj season, the Sheraton’s rates triple. The Hajj is over but there are still a lot of pilgrims poking around Jeddah and the Sheraton is SAR1200 or about $300, which is too rich for my blood. The highest I’ll go for a hotel room is $120. That’s my hotel spending cap and even that’s too much in my opinion. I’m not a cheapscate, I’m just realistic about the value of money. I’m willing to pay a bit for no cockroaches and room service. I’m even willing to put down some cash for wireless. However the cap is $120, and with inflated Hajj prices, that means we ended up at the Ramada, which was nice enough actually, though Van and The Bug and I realls missed the breakfast buffet at the Sheraton.

There are rumblings of war out here. War with Iran. Maybe my readers off in the Philippines or in the States haven’t been paying too much attention to this, but I have, because it’s what all the people out here are sparked up about. The reason is that Iran is a Shia country, while 85% of Muslims are Sunni and loathe the  Shias. And so the Arabs are none too keen to see Iran with an A-bomb, and are actually rather keen to see the Yanks flatten the Ayatolla.

Now the Cheetahhhhhhh supported the invasion of Afganistan, because the Taliban was a very nasty government. And the Cheetahhhhhhh also supported the invasion of Iraq, because Saddam was a very bad man. The Cheetahhhhhhh also believed that Saddam was gathering weapons of mass destruction. But the Cheetahhhhhhh most assuredly does not support a catfight with Iran, and I’ll tell you why.

#1, the Iranian population is actually quite pro-American, believe it or not, and support for the Ayatolla is actually quite low. But if we bomb Iran, this will reverse.

#2 we obviously cannot trust the Bush administration to conduct a war in an intelligent fashion. This is so grossly apparent that I think it needs no further explanation.

Luckily the immediate danger is not too great, because the American military is already stretched too thin. We just don’t have the manpower for another fight. The real danger comes from the knucklehead in the White House, who may well decide sometime in the next 2 years that he wants to go out with a bang.

The other real danger comes from Israel. They may well decide to launch a strike against Iran. This will turn the whole Middle East into a tinder-box and the Cheetahhhhhhh will have to evacuate the Saudi Cheetopia compound®.
This is not to say that a nuclear-armed Iran isn’t something to be concerned about. Indeed if there is any government you DON’T want with the A-bomb, it’s the Iranian government. One reason I like the notion of buying a house out in the Philippines is that Leyte is a remote tropical isle in the middle of the Pacific. In other words, Leyte is far removed from all the nonsense of this world.

It’s been a while since the Cheetahhhhhhh^® had his Google blog reader running, so I’ve been a bit out of date with the MoxieBlog and others. Now I have Google reader as my homepage and while reading MoxieBlog I have noticed a copyright violation. Moxie refers to the Moxtopia compound which everyone knows is a copyrighted Cheetahhhhhhh^® turn-of-phrase and registered trade mark stretching back to 2004. It’s the Cheetopia compound^® and if you pay attention to the fine print of the CheetahhhhhhhBlog^® you’ll note that “my lawyer can beat up your lawyer”. This is because my lawyer is actually a nameless thug with brass knuckles who gets things done the old fashioned way. Yes that’s right, the Cheetahhhhhhh has two retainers living in the Cheetopia compound^®; his Bengali houseboy and his nameless thug. I’m not going to send my nameless thug after Moxie though, simply because I’m on vacation and no business gets conducted in the Cheetopia compound^® until Feb 17th.