This is how it all started back in 2011 when the blog was called
Neil in Bahrain ( occasionally)
The blog was very successful with a total of 500 blogs, 500,000 readers, and some 5000 hours of my personal time invested in it. It was the "go to " reference guide in Bahrain. New employees told me back at Bapco that when they could not get any information about Awali or Bahrain from the HR department they searched on the web and found my blog! Another colleague told me she learnt about the Pearling trail from my Blog ( Her grandad was a Pearl Diver) . Others wrote to say they loved the recipes or the Leadership blogs. I was even asked if other sites could use photos from my blog!
We contributed to other blogs ( https://recyclepointsbh.com/successstories ) and supplied photos for local publications like the one below which appeared in Bahrain Confidential back in 2019 ( Sunset in Awali- Bahrain Confidential)
Sunset in Awali , from the Bapco Club . 5.10.19 by Neil Porter
As well as Blogs about life in Bahrain we carried stories from the Philippines and one famous blog ( which had 5000 readers) was featured in Palawan news, when I wrote that " If you are in search of Paradise avoid El Nido" ( https://palawan-news.com/el-nido-mayor-defends-town-vs-travel-blogger/.
As the Blog grew we produced an annual e book containing the Best Blogs from each year ( see the top of this Blog for the front cover of the 2015 version) . One of the things I hated about Bapco is that people hated success and so I had people copy what I wrote on my Blog and send it to my Manager. She then called me to her office and asked me not to write any more about our company and to delete all references to it. On one of my vacations in Thailand, about a year later, I stupidly posted a nearly naked picture of me in a shower as part of a story about how I had put on so much weight I got trapped in a shower and had to get a friend to let me out. When I returned to work several friends pulled me to one side to tell me that a very unpleasant individual had captured the naked photo and circulated it around my company on WhatsApp. Then I was summoned by my Manager, again, and told to remove the blogs entirely . So there were no more blogs until my Manager left! All that remains of all that work are the "Best of the Blogs" e books, which you can read by clicking the links below:
The Best of Neil's Blogs 2015- 2018
I have many avid Blog readers who would email me or add a comment such as Phil Gregory, Mark Johns, Khalid Abdulla , Brian Worthington, Pav Shroff, Neil Gilbert, John Jaworski, Ros Lovegrove, Sarah Froggatt, Nadya Milner and many others around the world . I thank them all for their encouragement and support.
One of my loyal blog fans, and later Guest Blogger, Phil Gregory
Back in 2016 in Doha, Qatar, I met a Phillipino Graphic Artist called Chester Delos- Santos and after he did some work for me at Bapco I recruited him to help me with the Blogs . He produced the e books you see above. When I was getting ready to retire back in 2020 he helped set up the new Blog and Vlog and Facebook page under the name of "The British Kabayan" as I transitioned from a British Expat working in the Middle East to a man of leisure in Palawan.
The old Blogger Neil footers designed by Chester back in 2016,2017 and 2018.
Along the way he redesigned all the footers for the new Blog and added more as we introduced new Guest chefs and recipes from new countries . These are the ones we used most often in 2021:
Writing new Blogs is a challenging task on a weekly basis and so we introduced Guest Bloggers like Phil , Khalid, Ariel and Carl Max. As the world changed so did we at TBK and some of our most popular Blogs of 2021 were covering the impact of COV 19 on the world... like this one that had 238 readers and was our most popular blog of 2021:
The inspiration for this Blog came from Chester , who also contributed with an update on COV 19 in Manila and sent this wonderful photo of himself .
Chester in full COV 19 PPE as required in Manila in 2021
The blog charted my countdown to Palawan and Chester created weekly posters which I displayed at work. He also prepared a multi page spreadsheet on my travel to Palawan and arranged my quarantine in Manila. Then disaster struck on Feb 14 2021 when I discovered from Ate Beth in Palawan that I now needed a visa to enter the country, and these were not being issued to foreigners. I had left Bapco and moved out of my house, and paid for a first class one way ticket to Manila with Gulf Air. After much pleading and their initial refusal to refund my money they eventually agreed to extend the validity of the ticket to February 2022.
My wonderful colleagues in the Oil & Gas academy at Bapco gave me a surprise party with cake and several most generous gifts for my new life in Palawan. Amongst my most treasured were a watch, some pictures of Bahrain, a beautiful canvas print from Zainab ( of me) , a new mobile phone and money to buy Vlogging equipment. With help from Chester and Corleen we purchased the equipment and Corleen showed me how to set it all up and in June 2021 I produced my first Vlog ( for which Chester Edited and created the Graphics )
Since then the Vlog has gone from strength to strength with many videos from Dubai taking us to a total of 60 Vlogs. The quality has improved exponentially. Have a look at one of the latest vlogs with Guest chef Jeboy showing you his Cheesy Cake!
Was it really 8 years ago that Jeboy first featured in our Blogs when I flew him to Bahrain and took him on the Pearling trail with Jay...
Jeboy and Jay falling asleep as TBK shares one of his stories on life in Muhurraq
Other guest chefs have included my Thai friends Oak , Bew and Adam who showed us how to make Thai Green Curry in Bahrain ( when the massage parlors were closed as part of the COV19 lockdown) . Over in Dubai MK showed us his Beef Kare Kare and I also prepared Tom Kha Gai and Pork Adobo sa Kalamansi. Chef Corleen even showed us how to make his Indonesian Nasi Goreng in a Blog:
We constantly get your feedback and act on it so the "vulgar" TBK cooks (burping) logo has been replaced and we have reduced the music volume and got a new tie microphone . Corleen finally bought a battery while I was in Dubai and now it works!. So this year you will be able to hear me!
As well as adding Chester we expanded the Vlog editing team to speed up the process with TJ in Palawan ( one of the students I sponsor) and she also created some wonderful Vlogs with Jhoanna. I really loved this one that they produced for Father's day, She even got contributions from Bahrain and the Philippines, featuring Chester and his Mum and my "anaks" in both countries which reduced me to tears!:
In the new season of Vlogs in Dubai I had a brainwave, based on the fact that Phillipino's love taking pictures . So we added our guest cameramen Thang, Joshua , MK and Jeboy! I think the best , and certainly for me the best night of 2021 was the Lea Salonga concert at Expo 2020, on Christmas day night . Joshua was behind the camera and Chester did the editing.
Another innovation that Chester and I have created is to use a mix of our Social Media platforms ( TBK now operates as a Blog, Vlog and Facebook page - see the footer below) to tell our stories. One of my favourites , and one of the most popular was the Pinoy Nostalgia series. I saw some old pictures on a Facebook group called " Pinoy Nostalgia ". I downloaded the best, grouped them and shared them with Chester . He then created 5 categories and I wrote a blog for each and he created a vlog.
The most popular was this one :
Pinoy Nostalgia , Childhood street games- The Blog- 123 views so far
Pinoy Nostalgia , Childhood street games- The Vlog- 50 views so far
In January 2022 we extended our repertoire from:
- TBK Gives
- TBK Travels
- TBK Tries
- TBK Cooks
by adding TBK eats!
I just want to pay tribute to all the work Chester does behind the scenes to create the blog format and logos, edit the vlogs etc. Often I send him the videos we have taken at 8 or 9 pm in Dubai , which is midnight in Marikana and by the time I wake up at 5 am ( 9 am in the Philippines) he has edited the videos and published the Vlog for me. Sometimes I get messages here in Dubai saying " I loved the vlog you just posted" and I smile, knowing that Chester has completed his latest vlog! I could never be as creative or have the technical knowledge that he does.
So Chester, many thanks for your part in making TBK so successful!
We have not finished yet though. To celebrate our 270th Blog , 68th Vlog, nearly 17,000 readers and 82 Vlog subscribers ( still less than Corleen's cat) we have designed new footers for 2022:
The dated TBK signature picture in the Chef's hat in Awali in 2017 has been retired, to be replaced by my new favourite photo of me ( taken my Joshua on Christmas Day at the Dubai Marina Marriott hotel)
The Vlog and the Blog have a new fresh look and there is a new British Kabayan logo ( see above) . We even bought my favourite photo to life again and you can see the video of me at The Dubai Marina Marriott welcoming you to the blog ( where the Surprise box used to be. Special thanks to Thang and the team at the Marriott for their help in pulling that one off, and of course to Chester who came up with the concepts and scripts! He has also incorporated lots of new bells and whistles into the new look blog so make sure you check it out and give us your feedback
When I finally arrive in the Philippines Chester and I are going shopping for a new Drone so we can share with you the best shots of my new home. I will also be working with a couple of Pinoy vloggers on some collaborative projects.... more details later!
So for now, this is The NEW LOOK British Kabayan signing out from Dubai with Ingat Palagi and Kita Kits
Hello, I am The British Kabayan! Feel free to read my stories.
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