Oscar Schmidt

This is the new guitar the Zizster bought for me. Sweet sounding box, this is. Now all I need is to learn how to play it. Hahahahaa... "Practice makes perfect, Papa", says Josh. For a 5-year old, he is very good at giving encouragement. "Don't give up. If at first you don't succeed, try, try again, Papa!"

Bahrain has its own appeal. You just have to find it

There are burial mounds everywhere on the island and numerous temples. Alas, these monuments are not really exploited fully for what they represent. Probably the conditions they are in are not as pristine as some of the more famous sites in other parts of the world.

This one that we stumbled upon is actually a stone's throw away from our house. Apparently it was a site for a temple with altars for sacrifices. However,there was not much information provided at the site. There was a guard or two and a few stray dogs but apart from that we were the only visitors.

The picture of the tree is the infamous Tree of Life. No trip to Bahrain is complete without visiting the tree. Only that once you get there it all seem very anti-climatic. The tree has been vandalised with graffiti on its branches and bark. How sad a national monument is not really looked after.

Oh, this one is a monument to signify my love to the Zizster...

Quality of life

Living in Bahrain allows me to spend more time with Josh. I still come back late from work but I do not have to spend 2 hours on the road everyday. Home is only 15 minutes away so dinner is always on time and the three of us get to have real quality time with each other.

In KL, the journey home saps away whatever energy is left out of you. Here, it's more relaxing. For that, I am thankful that I have been given this opportunity. Not only do I get to expand my horizon career wise, I also get to spend more time with my kid and wife. Now that my mom-in-law is in town, Josh gets the best attention he can hope for.

Here you see us on volcano eruption day. It's a science kit from Toys'r'us where we get to build and erupt our own volcano. He already did one in KL before coming here but I missed that one since I was here on my own then. So this is Papa n Josh's volcano. Heheh.. I think I enjoyed it more than he did.