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Today we are saying hello from Ukraine. I wanted to choose Ukraine to say Spasibo to my first Ukrainian friends. There is one in particular who has made me laugh so much over the last couple of days which to be honest I’ve needed and we all know how much I love to laugh.
Anyway, can you believe that it’s been another couple of weeks since I last wrote. Actually, to be more accurate it’s been 16 days since I last posted. Honestly, I feel that it was just yesterday and not the two weeks. There have been so many things happening that I’m not sure I’ll be able to include them all so I won’t and just cover a couple of the important ones.
Why don’t I just start from where I left off. In my last update I gave you a preview of some of the potential highlights that I wanted to talk about in this post. To be honest most of the things I wanted to talk about are so irrelevant now and I really should skip over but there are a couple of things that will bring smiles to your face so I will include them. One of course covers my favourite topic of all time… MY WEIGHT… Did you all just imagine me rolling my eyes or lying on the floor in the fetal position? If you did, then you would be correct. Usually you would be correct, this time I am quite proud of the topic at the moment.
Since coming to Dubai I have lost OVER 10 KILOS. Okay, Okay no need for the applause. No stop it you are embarrassing me. Did I just secretly courtesy at my accomplishment? Yes, yes I did. To the people who doubt it and say they cannot see it, I say SHHH to you, can’t you tell? My wrists are totally skinner than what they were in September. Let’s be honest we all have to learn how to celebrate the small wins and 10 kilos isn’t a small win but a pretty HUGE win in my books. Actually, it’s one thing that I’m willing to lose in life.
I hear you all asking how did I do it? Honest answer? I have NO IDEA. I guess it is a combination of weighing myself at the right time, having interesting and limited food choices (thankfully no more curried pea sandwiches) not having a bank account to do any online shopping, and the heat. It’s still crazy HOT and has been since I’ve arrived. It seems like Dubai is singing to me that song “Girl I want to make you sweat. Sweat ’til you can’t sweat no more’
First off, I want to clarify that I do know what this song is actually talking about!! But if you take this song at face value then it’s quite relevant to my situation. I keep hearing people saying that the weather is going to get better and that it will cool down but I’m yet to see it. Okay that is a lie, I have seen it only in the last day or two. What I am seeing is the heat causing the pounds to melt away slowly.
One of the most common questions that I get from my friends and family is if I’ve found my street rat. Side Note: if you don’t know what I am referring to when I say street rat than consider the following.
- Are you even a Disney Fan?
- Can we still be friends be friends with lack of your Disney knowledge. We all know how much I love Disney!!
I just wanted to let you know I have found him and I didn’t even need to go looking he came to me carrying a heart shaped pillow.
Pause: I literally can’t even write that with a straight face. It is just too funny. I wonder how many of you actually believed me when I wrote that. But truth be told a guy really did came into the pavilion with a heart shaped pillow for me and a box of chocolate. I don’t even know the guy’s name; I think I should learn that before he becomes the street rat of my dreams. Un-pause.
What is the story you ask? We shall call him Egypt guy for lack of his actual name. The other day Egypt Guy came in to visit our pavilion where he found Muru using the Poi that I had made. Starting up a conversation about how he used to do Poi on the beach somewhere he asked Muru if he could teach him how to make it. Of course, as the maker of said poi Muru came and got me.
For the next half an hour I tried to explain the intricate details of Poi making. I don’t think he was understanding it all. In the end I just said if you bring me wool and a pillow then I would make him a pair. Then in true Destinee fashion I completely forgot about the interaction and continued about work and life.
That is until Egypt Guy turned up at the Pavilion once more with all the things I requested. I almost lost it though when he showed me the pillow, he brought me. If you know anything about Poi making you would know that one of the methods of making the ball part of the Poi is using stuffing, I usually just go and buy a pillow from Walmart, Kmart, The Warehouse, or IKEA. But Egypt Guy turned up with a heart shaped sequin pillow, I’m not sure what he was thinking or why that shape. The first thing I told him is that I was going to have to break his heart.
I don’t think he realized that I would have to literally have to cut the heart and pull out the stuffing so that I could make what he wanted. I just hope that it’s not a metaphor for anything. Again, in true Destinee form I still haven’t made his poi and it’s been several weeks now. To make matters worse I might have already eaten the chocolate he gave me. I will get right on that for sure.
Over the last couple of posts, I feel like I’ve been quite open and you’ve all been getting to know me. This post I thought I would let you see another side of me. Another serious side. I’ve known for a long time that I am a people pleaser. What is a people pleaser? This is someone who always seeks to please others. I struggle to say NO, I change my attitude and personality depending on who I’m with or more importantly I try and portray myself as how I feel like they want to see me.
If there is something I can do to make someone else feel better or happy I’m going to do it. Many times, I will put my own happiness and comfort on the back burner to help others find their own. Sometimes I can become quite aggressive in my pursuit in the happiness of my friends. Sometimes I can become a ‘Karen’ to help my friends. Especially if I think that there is some sort of injustice happening.
Fortunately, my friends here in Dubai have not seen the ‘Karen’ side of me. I’m not sure if she will come out. Except in my dreams, recently I have been dreaming of becoming extremely protective of some of my friends there have been a couple of times that I literally flipped the table for them. Lucky it hasn’t crossed into the real life.
Back to the topic as hand, talking about my dreams is another conversation. As I was saying I often put my own happiness and comfort aside to make sure that everyone else is happy. Over the last couple of days or more like weeks I’ve seen my people pleasing tendencies come out in full force. This has led me to have built up resentment, a feeling of failure and just being unhappy all around.
Over the last couple of days Dubai has been teaching me several lessons about trust, true friendships and how far I’ll go before I crack and finally stand up for myself. These last couple of days I’ve had to stand up for myself in a way which I believe is best for me. I know that others might have handled some of these particular situations differently. But I realized that if my friends were in the same situation, and felt the same way I did, I would’ve pushed them to do the same thing. So, I needed to do the same thing for myself.
Actually, more importantly I didn’t want to be a hypocrite. Every year I participate at a youth camp for my church. One of the things that I stress to the kids is, if they find themselves in similar situation, they should put themselves first. If I didn’t do it myself, I wouldn’t be able to look at any of my kids again.
On another side note I’ve really learned who truly has had my back and is willing to support me with whatever decision I make in my life, who won’t judge me for those decisions, and who just want me to be comfortable and happy. Who accepts all of me.
In my latest post I mentioned that I had been asking a series of questions to my co-workers to get to know them better. On one occasion I asked a co-worker what would be one rule that he would want to enforce everyone to follow. After answering the question himself, he turned the same question back on me. I quickly stated that I would want to force everyone to be kind and happy. This co-worker did not like my answer, he thought that it was a rule that I wouldn’t be able to enforce people to follow.
I’ve been thinking a lot about this rule and the fact that I am a people pleaser. I came to the realization in the wee hours of the morn that being sad, angry, and frustrated is really exhausting and not much fun. That and not many people want to hang around sad people. I sure don’t. So, if this is my rule, that I want everyone to follow shouldn’t I try to follow this rule myself. I’m not going to force myself to be happy but I’m going to be making a conscious choice to be happy.
Due to my new found desire to be happy, I’ve also decided to become like Elsa in Frozen and Let it go, let it go, turn away and slam the door, I don’t care what they’re going to say. Let the storm rage on. The cold never bothered me anyway. This does not mean that I condone the situation I was put in nor did I make this decision lightly but for my own sanity and happiness I need to move forward and put the past behind me.
This conscious decision to be happy has already seen results. The first one would make my co-workers very happy. This decision of being happy has given me the feeling of baking again. As some of you all know I do a lot of baking. Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve felt like baking has becoming more like a chore rather than something out of love or to make me happy. Those good feelings that I get from baking might be coming back. That and my evil master plan of sabotaging everyone else’s diet is making a resurge. Especially while I continue to sweat mine all out.
Since being here in Dubai I’ve noticed that the day after my day off is usually a horrible day. I don’t mean because I’m back at work but more like I always hit an emotional wall. This time I had a great day. After being a model for some work photos, they didn’t have choice on the model part as there were only a couple of us at that point, after work I visited some pavilions and every one, I visited I went to was giving away free stiff. We all know how much I love free stuff. I came home with lots of books, food, a pen and even a photo frame.
What better way to finish an amazing day but through an amazing dinner!! That night Leteesha, Muru and I went to a seafood called Dampa. It is a seafood restaurant here at Expo and they literally dump the food on the table and you eat everything with your hands. I feel like there is no better way to eat a meal than with your hands and just dig into some beautiful seafood or just food in general. I would recommend using the gloves as eating anything with your hands can become quite messy. Oh, and did I mention the Justin Bieber mocktail is to die for.
There is no better way to end a stressful week with a great night, great food, and more importantly great friends.
Life is too short to be angry, sad or just one emotion all the time. My time here in Dubai is too short to be spending it on people that don’t deserve the space in my thoughts. I’m not going to waste any more time than just be in the moment, be happy and enjoy the #adventures of a chunky girl
Adventures of a Chunky Girl 