Many people admire me for my advance planning. We designed my 2021 Calendar back in August when I was off sick and my Christmas cards were printed then. The calendars started going out from Mark Johns in the UK in November and I distributed mine in Bahrain last week. I had the team from Writer Relocations around in November and my sea and air freight shipments were packed yesterday. Bapco has been keeping them very busy by not renewing expat contracts. They have helped Mike Roche , Martin Peters, Peter Conway and many others. Thanks also to Martin and Mike for passing on Nizar's details and explaining how the system works after 3 months writing to Bapco HR and getting nowhere!
Special thanks to Nizar and his team for doing such a great job ( and hopefully to Bapco for paying eventually) - you can find out more about the Writer Relocation service at:
Tel: +973-17214270, Fax: +973-17214271, Mobile: +973-39958481
www.writerrelocations.com
Chester is now working on my 2021 Birthday cards and I have sent all my Christmas Gifts to the Philippines. I paid for Jhoanna , Elay and Althea to have a night in Puerto Princessa ( thanks to the team at Microtel for making the arrangements for me and finally replying to my emails) on 6 December and they already had money for their Christmas presents.
I am also very proud to be a Platinum Sponsor of the "Paskuhan sa Alimanguan"on 11- 13 December at Barangay Alimanguan in Palawan. The local volunteer groups there have planned a variety of events over the three days to "Imbibe the spirit of Christmas among their constituents in the Barangay by providing social services that will give a positive impact to their well-being". You can read more about this event in my other blog :
At home we had a Filipino feast on 20th November with Baboy and Pineapple Adobo from an Adobo Recipe book Chef Mama Jam gave me many years ago. I also made Pochero ( Beef, chorizio and cabbage) and Avocado ice cream. I snuck in Corleen's favourite Cambodian Dish , Chicken Cashew as well and Jake made Biko ( sticky rice). As usual we had so much food left over I made special deliveries to Mark the gwapo guy on the veg section at Alosra, and Marvin at the Bapco club who had to work and could not join us.
On 21st Nov my Thai friend, Oak, returned and we did some Thai cooking and then the following week I made Lechon Kawali and Pork Torcino for Corleen. I also made an amazing beef Chili Con Carne from a recipe I found in Bahrain Confidential . The last 2 weeks in November were Penang Heritage food weeks in my house. I recreated some of the dishes Chef Bee taught me at the Penang Spice Garden in Malaysia on my 56th Birthday in 2016. I bought a recipe book she recommended and have been working my way through it over the years. There are some great Chinese/ Malaysian dishes like Penang Laska, Char Loay Teow, Hokkien Mee, Nasi Ulam and the Gregory's favourite Lor Bak!
Also at home the nice people at Corporate services gave me a new toilet seat ( after the last one cracked and cut my ass after I sat on it rather heavily), But I am still waiting for a new curtain rail in my spare room. The pest control guy put another mousetrap in my roof as the rodents are keeping me awake at night! In Palawan Daniw had air conditioning fitted in the bedrooms as it will be nearly summer when I arrive ( that's one rainy season missed- 40 to go!) . She also arranged to build a dirty kitchen outside to store all my stuff in until i find a big enough house for it all!
I even started reading again ( no , not the kindle) when I found a book I have wanted to read for ages in our Learning Resource Centre at work. It is called "The Book of Tells" by Peter Collett and is all about Body Language which I have been teaching to the Security guards. I also ordered 10 more books from Jashanmal to fill the hole in my bookcase.
Chester has also designed some new blog footers for the British Kabayan Blog based on our 2018 Recipe calendar and eBook. Once I am reunited with my recipe books in Palawan I will write some more international recipe blogs for you. Special thanks to Chester for all his excellent work this year and I hope you now have enough money for a new laptop!
In the mean time you can check out 12 of my recipes from around the world here:
and the whole Asian Trip from 2016 is in this eBook:
We even managed to fit in some work! The final 5 Customer care courses were run for the Security Officers ( 170 trained over 11 courses by Hazel and I) . After a lot of hard work updating the materials and getting posters designed by Chester in Manila. We then had to get 130 A1 posters printed and 170 workbooks copied and spiral bound , The good news is the delegates gave us amazingly positive feedback. The hardest part was getting the 300 bd I paid out for materials reimbursed by Bapco, another reason for me deciding to leave the company and not renew my contract in February. Only Bapco can make the simplest task so complex you want to give up!
The ILM 2 programmes came to a close with 16 amazing assessed presentations by ILM 2 group 30 on Change on 26 November and ILM 3 Group 10 made some great presentations on the 3 business based projects they are working on ( COV 19- the leaders role in Bapco, The leaders role in Cost Containment in Banagas and Implementing Team of Teams in Bapco) . The marking and Internal Verification is all up to date and we are just waiting for the final assignments before we order the Certificates. In February the two ILM 2 groups 29 and 30 , will make their final presentations which they are designing and organising as a group of 30 + delegates- all this in spite of Cov 19, T &I, and BMP. Gaynor Lewis from the Institute of Leadership and Management in the UK and Saeed AlNasheet from ILM Middle East are joining us for my farewell from the 400 ILM 2 delegates I have trained in Bapco, Banagas and Tatweer over the last 11 years. I am going to have a big box of issues handy just in case.
Saeed and Neil at the final presentation by ILM 2 groups 27 and 28 in 2019
Hazel and I are celebrating in December- she is off to the Philippines and I am off for a week in Dubai. My first vacation this year off the island since starting the year in Palawan in January. I am really looking forward to catching up with my long time friends Jeyboy, Thang and Erickson and a new friend who is going to work with me on my first Vlog from Dubai . Make sure you check out the British Kabayan's new Vlog site which we are testing at the moment and which will be fully live from the end of February 2021. When the Countdown to Palawan ends on 10 Feb 2020 on this Blog, the Vlog will take over to tell you about my new life as a retiree in the Philippines.
You can see the Vlog here:
The British Kabayan Vlog- coming soon
Please do not forget to like and subscribe!
When I return, during my 5 days Quarantine at home , I will deliver my final ILM 3 session on Coaching on 22 December, which the delegates are busy reading their Julie Star and Myles Downy books for and doing their pre course work.
Sadly I will still be quarantined on 25 December, so having cancelled my 60th birthday celebrations due to COV 19, I am also cancelling Christmas this year! I think I will just get a delivery from the Bapco club left on my doorstep and chat to all my friends around the world online!
So , as you can see its been a busy two weeks since the 60 day countdown blog was posted. To celebrate the 50 day milestone we have used a picture I took on Nacpan beach in Palawan back in January of this year. For those who don't know the island Nacpan was arguably one of the second best beaches on the Island ( Long beach - 14km of white sand - at St Vicente is undoubtedly the best and where I want to build a house) . However since I first visited in 2013, like El Nido, it has been over commercialized with three now hotels . The best is Angkla at the top end built by the team that made the lovely woodland rooms at El Nido Cove ) and where you will find many of the ex El Nido Cove staff like Ran, Marnel, Rodel and Jayson. Then there is the Glamping where Rodel's lovely sister Rhoda works and then a great restaurant called Sunmai where Grecil works. I have spent many happy hours there. As Making does not like long journeys, and loves Nacpan , I will be taking him there in March for a weekend to stay at Anglka as his late Christmas gift. So it seemed a good place to use as the background for the 50 days to go poster. As usual, thanks to Chester for the graphic design.
Okay , blog complete, thanks for reading to the end, so all that remains is for me to practice my Tagalog ( are you ready Pav)
Kita Kits
Ingat Palagi
Mahal Kita
( and a special one for Brian) Tumatalbog ang dede!
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I think this is the first blog to cover all the above aspects of my new life- as usual thanks to Chester for the excellent graphic design, setting up the new blog, handling all the emails to the British Kabayan and resolving our technical hitches and getting the Vlog ready- great job Kuya- I hope you liked your special Christmas gift . Chester reminded me that with his first pay check from me ( was in 2015 Kuya?) he bought a laptop, and now, as I have finally paid him the money from Bapco and for my cards and calendars he is going to buy another! Very well deserved Chester. Best wishes ( Malygiang Paskao) form myself, Hazel and all the Security Guards and Hospital staff and ILM delegates at Bapco who always love your work and Birthday cards!
Hello, I am The British Kabayan! Feel free to read my stories.
Aww I love you too Neil 🥰 and yes looking forward to seeing you soon.
ReplyDeleteI do wonder how that Avocado ice cream turned out? 🤔
Say hi to My Dubs for me 💖