My world has fallen apart many times since leaving Saudi in July 2021. Typhoons, Chinese construction near your dream home and skin cancer tends to do that. Inevitably, after each set back, I wondered why - why me? why us? why now? Unsurprisingly, I almost felt like we (or I) were under some sort of curse. However, nothing could have prepared me for what God had lined up next. I can tell you the exact moment when my world began to fall apart again: I had spotted a tiny 1mm black spot on my chin in the mirror at work and thought it was just a blotch of ink, so I tried to rub it off but it was ..read more

When the busy summer season ended, I was offered a lot more work than I expected in the first couple of months of the autumn. While it meant bringing the Gerson juices to work, the extra money was more than welcomed with an expensive two years of nutritional therapy in front of me.  Alongside the work, God delivered some truly magical days of solid northeast swell groomed by offshores. They were surprisingly powerful and the water was warm enough to be sans gloves and boots for now.  I guess I felt like everything was going as well as possible in October and November: both my wi ..read more

When I was first diagnosed with nodular melanoma nine months ago, I immediately saw it as a death sentence. From the very beginning, I had googled obsessively and developed symptoms I’d read about soon after: everything from painful or possibly swollen lymph nodes to new irregular black patches on my skin. Of course, I knew some or all of these symptoms might be psychosomatic or benign, but I utterly convinced myself I was already either stage 3 (nodal involvement) or stage 4 (distant skin metastasis) and likely to die soon. A month later, a melanoma surgeon in Davao took a large swathe of sk ..read more

Before leaving the Philippines, I’d contacted my brother via WhatsApp and asked him to “give us a year” at his home. I’d carefully explained what had happened to us and the danger of melanoma. After some time, he said his wife had agreed “in principle” for us to stay one year, but it was likely they’d need a break from us during the year and suggested we move to my mother’s house later in the year. Overall, it was clear they wanted to offer us the exceptional help we needed, but it might unravel at any time given the general pressure of their family life.  On July 1, 2023, we arrived a ..read more

The three dramatic events, which had hit us one after another (between December 2021 and January 2023) after our Saudi escape, were enough to drive us and a few suitcases from our Siargao Island home back to my country of birth, England, for my first winter there in fifteen years. You see, the Chinese construction looked like it was going to take years not months, my melanoma prognosis had left me in a very fragile state emotionally and fear of recurrence dominated my mind, and I had already made a decision to attempt natural healing via the Gerson Therapy, which required huge volum ..read more

Three years ago, my family and I left the Saudi Kingdom behind right in the middle of the Covid-pandemic. It was a highly-charged, truly epic departure, where we felt the presence of God himself as he worked a series of miracles to lift us out of Arabia against the odds and bring us back to our family house on Siargao Island, Philippines. Final deliverance itself was sweet enough, but once back on the isla we were able to build our dream house (using funds saved from my second Saudi season), surf every day and look forward to a five-year residency on an island we truly loved. Far from th ..read more

It might seem like our final deliverance was easy and I'm somehow exaggerating the barriers which lied in our path in the days before exit. But I don't think I'm exaggerating them at all. In reality, we were hit with two completely unexpected blockages: my final exit visa wouldn't issue and Saudi banned all flights (including our flight from Dammam to Dubai, connecting to Cebu) to the UAE. In a country like Saudi Arabia, one challenge might be enough to scupper all your plans, but having two really made it feel like we had a large mountain to move away. As soon as HR confirmed they couldn't ..read more

After saying two goodbyes in Khafji (one to my polytechnic workplace and the other to the city), ejection came slightly early due Saudi’s unexpected and totally unjustified flight ban. My company transported my family and I to the city of Dammam, where we decided to stay for our final night in order to get a PCR test as a precaution for any unexpected demands during our journey to the Philippines. Alongside the test, we decided to throw caution to the wind and rent a two-bedroom suite at the Ramada Inn and eat at one of Dammam’s finest seafood restaurants.  First stop was at a travellers ..read more

As part of a YouTube series my family and I are doing on our YouTube channel, I filmed this short film "A Day in the Life of an ESL Teacher" about one of my last days teaching in Saudi Arabia. Right now, it feels too familiar and somewhat disturbing, but I hope it'll make me smile in the years ahead when I look back upon my time with less emotion and stress.  It's definitely worth watching this film if you want to know more about how it feels to teach in Saudi Arabia. While there isn't too much classroom action, you'll still get a feel of a typical day in a KSA school or polytechnic and ..read more

Sometimes it seems like you’re up against the world itself. Two days ago, from out of nowhere, Saudi Arabia decided to ban all flights to UAE and three other nations. This unexpected flight ban, alongside my company’s indifference towards issuing me a re-entry visa, left my family and I in an extraordinarily precarious position. Our long standing booking on an Emirates flight from Dammam to Dubai to Cebu now looked potentially unviable even if my company decided to relent and issue the visa.  In normal times, a flight ban like this wouldn’t be a major problem. Nor would my final exit vis ..read more