TBK eats at Tata Ed's of course!- The Last Friday gang

Well it has been a long transition. Neil Stupidly thought that he could walk out of Bapco and Bahrain on 14 Feb 2021, 11 years after he arrived, and straight into his new retirement life in Palawan the next day!

COV 19 prevented that happening and at the request of his friends, he stayed cool and made the most of the 5 months to slowly transition from Bahraini Neil Porter into the British Kabayan.

There to support him on his long journey were the Friday gang ( Corleen, Jake, Coco , nugget and Beshy- and Miss A from Time to time) and his Anaks in Team Neil in Palawan ( Jhoanna, Grecil, TJ and Kit) .

We had so much fun along the way learning Tagalog, and Cuynon and Bisaya. There were the 41 ways to become Phillipino ( coming soon in a three part Blog) and adjusting to the typical Pinoy day:

Coffee

Breakfast

Merianda ( snack)

Nap

Lunch

Nap

Merianda

Dinner

Massage

Sleep

Then there were secret Birthday parties, gifts, Pasalubong, karaoke, Tik Tok, Boodle fights and so much more to master!

But with some amazing help along the way from Tata Ed, the Friday gang and my anaks the journey is nearly complete.

It seems years ago that Writer Relocations packed my belongings in Awali on December 5th, and then in February Jhoanna and Grecil started to unpack in my rented house in Puerto Princessa.

Sadly COV prevented me from joining them, and still does, but there are little glimmers at the end of the long dark tunnel. Thailand is allowing vaccinated tourists into Phuket since July 1 and El Nido reopened to local tourists on 7 July. They started allowing people like me to apply for SSRV again through PRA ( Retirement Visa through Philippine Retirement Authority) and they are now allowing those whose Visa expired whilst they were out of the Philippines to return and renew them for a limited period.

Together with some beautiful gifts like the framed picture above from Zainab Salman I left Awali on 14 Feb for the Spot Residence in Juffair. After they had no Wi-Fi for a week I moved again to the Ramada Hotel in Adilya, and when they got overbooked moved here to Dar Al Hamra where I have been for 4 months. Jake has worked very hard to clean the flat and slowly they replaced the damaged furniture and equipment ( e.g. kettle) with newer ones. They managed to clean the outside of 2 of the 12 window panels ( 5th floor and no cradle system) but the pool is still "closed for Maintenance "and I still have only one working electric ring and constant noise at night from partying guests in the adjoining apartments.

Back in Awali I distributed the sauces, pickles, flour etc. that I had not used to my friends and neighbours and the electrical equipment I needed to my last day ( kettle, toaster, washing machine ) and then Alpesh came and took my furniture polish! I moved on with one suitcase and one bag and added another to my collection for all my leaving gifts from Bapco and Vlogging equipment.

As I head off to Dubai Corleen is looking after 2 suitcases for me, I have distributed the last 4 months one pot cooking ingredients and the famous one pot to Jake and Miss Andrea , and I bought biscuits from Red Croissant for the Dar Al Hamra staff ( they still came back twice to see where their 10 bd was !!) and Jake washed my hire car for one last time.

Beshy bought me a man bag and lucky mascot for my travels and Corleen arrived with 6 pairs of new shorts and extra large ( sadly Chinese children) size tee shirts as he will no longer be doing my laundry.

I took Jake for his final breakfast at Dome and we went to say hi to Mark at Alosra in Riffa Palms. Then we stopped at Red Croissant in Juffair for cakes for Beshy, Jake and Corleen , and finally when everyone had done their chores, headed to Tata Ed's for lunch.

The place was heaving with Birthday parties and the Karaoke was on full blast and so, as we did not preorder like we did for the Boodle fight, we had to wait over an hour for the food to be cooked. When it did come it was amazing and HOT , and we managed to clear the platter in 10 mins between four of us. This was my final Pinoy practical exam consisting of:

Taking and uploading photos to Facebook before Jake
Singing Karaoke
Doing Tik Tok with Beshy ( who told me my first Tik Tok has been viewed by 200 people so stick that up your big ass Isa)