A Walk To Remember

When was the last time you had a long walk with your family? If you can't remember then I think it's about time you have one now. It's best to do things while we have our strength.

It has always been about family. Why do we even work and struggle to live in a place where we are called foreigners?, where a lot of people look down on us? where others even struggle in having to wait for their long delayed salaries (probably this only happens in Saudi Arabia). Where others struggle a day working under the bright and hot sun.

I am blessed to have my family with me (I always thank God for it) and I pity all our kababayans out there who are working alone in this kind of place specially in Saudi Arabia. I get to spend a lot more quality time with my family whenever I want to.

Last night I asked my wife if we could go to the bay area near her former workplace. It's just near our house. It's not a few blocks away from us but it is quite near so we decided to go. The walk wasn't tiresome since it is quite windy. At first, we felt hot (coming from an air conditioned place of course) but apparently it became windy and it's a good thing that as we went near the bay side the wind started get cold (not so cold). We've walked from home to the bay area for about 25 minutes, I'm not really sure coz we did not notice the time.

We saw a lot of people there and we realized we are the only Filipinos walking there. With full of excitement, my son started running as soon as he saw the playground full of "friends". We told him to call other children "friends" not kids hehe and it's kinda cute when he say "Look Dad, there are lots of friends!".

I then realized that we should have done this back in Manila when we had our vacation. I should write it down. We brought our digital camera, I anticipated a really good view awaiting us and I'm glad we brought it with us. Took some pictures - KODAK moments! Guess you can call us the Kodak family coz we all love to have our pictures taken hehe! It's a good thing their government put up some of sort of machine to rehabilitate the bay area, I remembered the foul odor emitted by the water. It is smelly because they have closed some areas connecting it the sea brought by their continued expansion and reclamation. I heard they are going to make a new way to connect it to the sea - probably underground hehe.

We stayed at the bay area for about an hour or so. We just let Ize enjoy the moment with his local friends (Saudi children). It was almost Isha prayer (their last call for prayer for each day - night prayer, it is their longest prayer that takes about 20-30 minutes) when we left the area, again we walked.

We decided to retreat on a nearby grocery store called Marhaba in Hael Street. Good thing we brought Ize's stroller, he got tired of playing and slept while we are walking on our way to Marhaba. When we reached Marhaba it was closed for prayer so we have to wait for about 30 minutes. We took some pictures and made fun of their Pepsi billboard. When they opened, we bought some food supplies like egyptian bread (healthy bread - you should try it), youghart, juice and tinapa (I badly need it for my palabok that I'll be cooking later - my first attempt). I was always fascinated with Marhaba Superstore coz it looks elegant. I remembered we ate their along time ago and it felt like I am eating at the airport.

After we bought what we need we decided to go home but on our way we decided to just spend a few more minutes on the park along our way. By the way, we are still on our foot. The place could really use some tidying up, the trash is almost everywhere. We saw a lot of family there. Ize is already awake and wanted to run. We didn't allow him to play with the other kids coz we saw some broken bottles scattered and we're afraid he'll stumble on it. So we just took some pictures again hehe.

I got hungry and Ize could use some too so we decided to eat. We can see McDonald's banner from our location so we decided to go there and eat. It was out of our way but it is still near our place. We ordered McArabia (me and my wife's favorite) meal - UPSIZED it. I still have a few coupons with me given by a friend so I gave them my FREE McFlurry coupon and enjoyed it after our meal.

We went home happily. I'm surprised I didn't even get tired, it really helps to lose some weight. It was a great day. Again I thanked God for it. It was really a walk to remember.