Dubai Here I come!!!

I am writng this from the Personal Computer at the Emerates Lounge at KLIA where they offer free food and drinks and there is alot of who is who in three piece suits of the Arab world hanging around waiting for the connecting flight. Funny how there is hardly any young ones in this gathering and most here are pretty much ready for the pasture just like myself.The Sushi at the salad bar should have been in the garbage can two days ago sad to say but i ate it having taken it and most probably will be the downfall of my tummy. I was a little worried at the beginning about taking anything for fear that the coffee might cost like six Rm and the Sushi bad as it was might cast me my botttom dollar. So I SMS my son and he told me to go for the kill it is all free so long as I have my Emerates Voucher. WOW!! Lots of cheap wine and bad sushis! What could go wrong?

My nephew Naser or Jamal as i call him picked me up at the LCCT terminal where Air Asia dropped me off from Penang. The flight was delayed for one hour!! The cabin was beginning to feel like an oven and all those who did not recently had a shower was most uncomfortable. From the sound of the engine I thought we were never going to leave the ground, but thank God for good looking stewardesses in their tight and short red skirts walking up and down the aisle, they kept everyone except the crying infants occupied. This was my second flight experience with Air Asia and the first was my flight to Jogjyakarta. It was not the best of experiences as far as flights went either. But hey, you get what you pay, you pay peanuts dont expect the Emerates Lounge treatment!!

From the sound of it my son Naz has already lined up jobs for me in Dubai! It seems there is two possibilities of mural paintings that is being comissoned already, one to be done in a Villa while the other is for his friend's place. The Buddha might be leaving his mark in the Middle east after all! What kind of excitement lies ahead and to be with my son after all these years! 'The mixed up kid' is now a grown man and a pilot no less! I remember when he visited me in San francisco when i was working on the water front for H&H Ship Services sometime in 1990s. The two of us took a trip up in the Helicopter and flew over the Golden Gate Bridge and Marin County, it was a flight I will never forget. My son sat in the front seat with the chopper pilot and when he returned to germany where he was living then he drew me the whole scene that he saw from the air. It was pretty impressive because he had named all the places in the Marin Headlands area including Green Gulch farm where I used to hang out with him. I remember too having my father and son talk on drugs when he was sixteen as demanded by his mother insisting that the school required it to be so! So I took my son to green Gulch where I asked my friend Peter to go for a drive into the fields in the old field pickup truck wirth my son stuck in between us in the front seat. When we got to our usuall corner of the field out of sight from curious eyes we lit up a joint. Peter took a few hits and passed it to me and I took a few and passed it to my son who by now was like a jack rabbit about to take off but too scared to make the move. 'No!, No Way Dad! he shouted and jumped out of the truck over me. I caught a hold of his Berlin American Highschool Jacket and and pulled him to me and told him that if he could say no to his Dad he can say no to anyone in his life with regards to drugs and that was the end of our discussion on drugs. Till this day I wondered if he ever told his Mom about it. My son went on to become the Batallion Commander of the ROTC for the Berlin American Highschool and won the first place for the Fancy Drill Competition which was held for the entire Western Sector of the US Arm Forces Highschools in Europe. I saw the video clip he made for me of his Group's performance and attended the Flag Presentation Ceremony when he had to relinquish his position to an incoming Batallion Commander when my son graduated from the Berlin American High School. I may have made errors in my life but somewhere sometime I must have done something good to be given such a gift.
And then there is Karim Bahari!! nOW THAT'S FOR ANOTHER DAY and another time!!

I praise the AlMighty for being generous in giving me three beautiful children, ( I still wish I know where the fourth is) and to the fact that eldest has turned out to fulfill a father's hope and dreams. Alhamdullilah!!!