Blogging becomes hereditary!

Dear Bloggers and bloggees…this is a very special post to introduce to you a very special blog by someone who is very special to me (I’m gagging!). I am pleased to announce that the blogging world is very lucky to have now a new talented and witty member of the Balfaqaih family enriching it. Oh yes, by (not much of) persuasion and encouragement, Hiba has now her own blog! (You may clap now!)

Toxic Waste Dump is the name. (Yes, it does seem that we all have some kind of disposal sites for our wasted thoughts)

Go ahead and visit it. That’s an order!




Oh and for those who didn’t bother to ask, the holiday seems to be going extra fast!! The days had started to fly past the way they do in films when the director wants to convey time passing quickly, i.e. the pages of a calendar turning over very speedily in a high wind. And tearing off and blowing away. With brown leaves blowing with the pages to indicate Autumnal days and then a few flurries of snow to indicate Winter’s arrival. Except in my case it would be with lots of sand washing over, and the pages are combusting (because of the heat, if you didn’t figure this one out) instead of turning over.

The weekend was over before I knew it.

I’m terrified that the rest of the week will continue to trot briskly. I’m losing sleep over this.
I will need to take off next week too to catch up on sleep and relax! Doesn’t sound bad…hmmmm….maybe the boss will understand. Yes maybe he will. RIGHT!!!

I better calm down and ignore the sprint of the days. Yes…enjoy it as short as it lasts!

Holiday! Celebrate!

If we took a holiday
Took some time to celebrate
Just one day out of life
It would be, it would be so nice


Yeah it would!

And I have 9 days starting the second I leave the office today!

I’ve spent the last two days making plans for this break. I was concentrating on going to Salalah, Muscat, or Manama. I shot down a suggestion to go to Yemen.
Now don’t get me wrong, I’m really proud of being Yemeni, it’s just that I’m not ready to have my first trip to Yemen this month…or this year! I’ll go there, soon. (As in this life)


Though it is the end of the month, I am someone who cherishes the luxurious life, so all of my plans were looking to cost me an arm and a leg.
If it was going to cost me the fat I carry around so shamelessly, and which I have plenty of (fat that is, not shame), I wouldn’t have thought about it for a second.
An arm and a leg will leave me handicapped. I thought about the benefits of being handicapped. But as is, I already park in the handicapped spots. Temporarily insanity is a handicap you know. So is laziness. Empty spaces always seem to be the furthest away from the entrance. And I just can’t walk all that way.
I know you might think that if I did walk, I could lose the weight. Of course I wouldn’t. You don’t lose weight after 5 minutes of walk!!!


My wise sister Nana (this is her pet name, and she’ll kill me if she knows I’m using it in my blog, but she won’t be reading, and I’ve never called her by her given name, and I’m not in the mood to tell you the story of her name now, and if you have lost count of how many sisters I have, that’s ok, I don’t know how many sisters I have myself!) gave me a good advice.
She said if I was going to spend that much money, I might as well stay in Dubai, and spend the money on myself by going to a good spa and try every single new restaurant in town. As I told you, she is wise.


So all plans cancelled. After sleeping all Friday, I plan to spoil my self rotten. It would be also an early birthday treat for myself (I’m sure I’ll treat myself to something else on my b-day). Haifa will be coming from Oman, and the plan is that we hard-working women will paint the town red….without the drinking of course.


The rest of the family will come back from their vacation on Tuesday, so I’ll be spending the rest of my holiday with them. (Life is so unfair, they went to Paris, London & Montreal and had 2 & ½ months holiday and I have a 4 working-days holiday and I’m staying in Dubai!! But then I chose not to work with my dad! Serves me right for wanting to be independent!).


So I might not blog for the duration of this break and then I might blog more than once daily. It will depend on my “writing mood”.


(Did you notice how many times I wrote “myself” in this post? I’m getting nauseated myself with my self-centeredness. For god’s sake, I’m kidding…I love Me!)


Till the next post…Lets all sing...


Holiday Celebrate
Holiday Celebrate

If we took a holiday
Took some time to celebrate
Just one day out of life
It would be, it would be so nice

Fair = Lovely?! I don’t think SO!

Another ad that gets on my nerves is the Fair & Lovely skin cream commercial. Apparently this cream will make you “fairer”. Of course you need to be blind not to see the (white) foundation used or the extra brightness in the “after” shots. I don’t mind that really. They could do whatever they want to show that their product is effective.

What I hate is how they are doing it.

This is the story line.
A teenage girl is always holding a make-shift microphone (a hair brush or a rolled up magazine) and pretending to be a presenter. As she grows up, her mother removes the hair brush from her hand and gives her a tube of Fair & Lovely. The end concludes that because she has a fairer skin, she becomes a famous presenter.

The message of the commercial (just in case you were blinded with the light and didn’t get it!!): Women need to be fair to be successful!

To be honest this commercial reflects the old mentality of our culture. A woman is pretty just because she has a light skin (even if she is the devil incarnated) and her chances of going places, therefore, are higher.

I’m not the fairest of them all. Actually I have the darkest skin among my siblings and I use sunscreen 30 spf as a part of my daily beauty routine but I’m still proud of my caramel color (well maybe its not caramel and more toffee, and sweetness would be the only common attribute!!). It insults me to think that some people promote fair skin, and ignore talent and IQ.

Mind you, mom thinks I’d be more successful if I give up my nun-like attire. It is almost a year since I started sporting the look, and I’m getting bored with it, but it is unique and I get my share of looks (no, they are not the what-in-god’s name-is-she-wearing variety!!).

But for the love of god, we are in the 21st century and commercials should be educating people and correcting their old fashioned thinking not supporting it.

There are 2 positive things I could say about the commercial, just to be fair (fair as in just not pale):

• It has a catchy tune…something about realizing your dream with your own hands, blah blah, which is still stuck in my head!!
• Because of its prejudiced concept, it caught my attention. Ads come and go in front of my eyes without getting registered. If you ask me what’s my favorite commercial, I’ll most probably mention one that I saw when I was a kid and the model is no longer alive!

Any way, the commercial is a failure. Any woman in her right mind should only think of Oprah and realize that you could be black, ugly, and fat but as long as you have the talent (and Oprah has plenty of that!) you can be the most influential woman in America (and very rich in the bargain!)

Oops people are reading!

Asif quit blogging cause he didn’t get lots of interaction (what a loss!). I blog cause I think Asif, Maya & Tina only read my nonsense (cause my live garbage isn’t enough for them!).

During the last week, I’ve been getting emails from friends commenting about some of the stuff I write about and I have been going Oh My Gosh!! You see I forgot I sent the link to all those I know (and hardly know) when I first started (I was very eager then!). It was kind of a shock to know they are still reading.

There are certain posts that if I was thinking right (like I am now!) I would never have published! (Can you see me blushing? Hmmm, no? Good, cause it’s just my Dior blusher!) It’s a very funny feeling to know that I’m exposing certain junk in my head, which I would usually tell to close friends (if they are lucky), to anyone who would bother to read!!

It has crossed my mind to watch what I write from now on.

It crossed and stopped at the door of Shyness and before it knocked, the caretaker of the Junkyard bounced at it and killed it!!

Yeah.

I’m supposed to write whatever I have up there in my attic (aka mind). And I will…so if you are reading this, and I completely forgot you are reading it, and it somehow insults you, then stop reading! If you read it and you think Oh My Gosh she is not the same girl I know, well that’s because you don’t really know me.

No one does.

Not even me!

So Hooray for Free Blogging!! (Or is it Blogging with no shame?!!)

The Myth of the Perfect Mate

Bader, Hiba (my youngest sister who just came back from her summer vacation) & I went to see the Perfect Man (Hillary Duff & Heather Locklear) on Thursday. As we got the tickets I remembered that joke where the perfect man, the perfect woman and Santa clause were involved in a car accident, and the perfect woman must have been behind the wheel, as the other two are imaginary characters. I was still rolling it around my head when I got my nachos with cheese, salsa and jalapeño peppers.

It was not a perfect start.

The movie was starting late, so we had to wait outside the theater room for ten minutes, and then wait to see the few movie goers fight their way into the theater before the attendants can clean it. Why do they fight to go in so quickly, when, unlike other cinemas around the world, your seating is already booked and assigned?!
Eager hoi polloi!

The nachos salsa was as hot the melted cheese. Have you ever tried hot salsa? Don’t. Except if you are into eating soggy crisps!!

The movie was of the family variety as expected. I wondered about that in the beginning as other than the three of us, all those watching were couples. I guess the men thought they will score high on the romance scale if they pretended it was a date movie. One particular guy kept laughing loud at scenes that hardly raised a smile from the others. I’m almost certain that he was trying to impress his date with his cheerful demeanor. For his sake, I hope his date didn’t sense the forced exuberance.

If you have read my previous posts on movies, you might find it weird that I’m concentrating on the audience rather than the movie. Or maybe you figured out that the movie was borrrRING.
See it if they pay your ticket (as it was in my case, Hiba actually treated us for this one!), or rent it when your estrogen is at its highest and you need a cause to commit suicide!

The perfect man in this movie was someone who cooked, solved Time crosswords with a pen (I’m not sure about the significance of this point, but have you tried solving a crossword in a glossy magazine with a pencil before? Of course you will use a pen!!), and thinks that the moon is not just a rock in the sky!

Ok, I understand that these are the common traits between the man and the mother, but what if he cooked the human remains of his latest victims, solved the crosswords with a red pen (red = love not red = blood or so you think), and believed that the moon is god, does that still qualify him as the perfect man? (mind you it could as she seemed really desperate!)

Any way, that made me mull over what makes a man the perfect mate for me?

Now the perfect man is a very popular topic of discussion among single and married women alike. Any girlfriends meeting will sooner or later turn into a conference on this matter, with all imparting with their own ideal parts.

As a single woman, I’m constantly on a horrible merry-go-round of trying to meet the right man, finding out that he was already married, or pathologically stingy, or sleep-inducing boring, or very shallow (meaning flat!), or that his best friend is a pimp, or he is a chronic womanizer, or has corrupt ideologies (meaning not like mine), or any one of the thousands of character flaws that weren’t immediately obvious the first time I looked at him and smiled into his eyes and got a warm buzzy feeling in the middle of my chest, that had absolutely nothing to do with any non-prescribed drugs that I might or might not have taken earlier that day, and thought to myself, “hey, this could be the one.” (You can breathe now!)

Most single woman I know are in a situation where every man is a potential husband. They feel that they are in a world where there are nine hundred exquisitely beautiful women (and six times more non beautiful women) to every one straight single man. And this is even before we start weeding out the truly hideous ones.

I come from the opposite school; every man is not suitable until proven otherwise! And so fare it worked quiet well as I’m still proud and single.

As a romantic woman in my deep deep heart (humor me, even if you believe this is a complete lie), a perfect man is someone who would love me and win my heart. I’m sorry but I will have to use a lot of clichés to describe this.
My perfect man will make me walk on air.
I’m even sorrier to say that I expect to feel that I’d known him all my life.
And I’m going to compound things by telling you that I also expect to feel that he can understand me as no one else can.
And as I’ve lost all credibility with you I might as well say that I expect him to make me feel safe, sexy, smart and sweet (yes I must be dreaming of Superman!).
And sorry about this, but I really must say that I also expect him to be my missing other half who will make me whole, and I promise I will leave it at that. Except maybe to mention that I also expect him to be a right laugh and a great companion. Now I mean it, that’s all, positively all.

Yes the perfect man will make me fall in love with him. The falling is of course preferred without the tripping, getting hurt, and getting scratch marks. I get bruised easily and they take forever to go.

Now seriously, what makes my perfect man? (I could be serious now and then you know! And if you are wondering why I’m blogging about this, why do care what I blog, read or leave!)
Answering this is very hard. It’s hard because I see myself as the perfect woman. Yes, I do. Seriously. (Full egocentric alert!)

Here is a list of must-haves in the perfect man:

• Sense of humor – that goes both ways. He has to make me laugh (without being a full pledged clown), and he has to laugh at my absurd & eccentric humor.
• Intelligence – If you have been reading, you should already know that I believe I’m smart. Dimwits get me frustrated. Now that doesn’t mean he has to be a rocket scientist, but he should at least be able to hold an intelligent conversation that is not focused on his job or his favorite sport. Intelligent people have lives. That’s why we are called the Intelligent Life!
• Stable – I’m the moody one, so he has to be stable. It’s that simple. He could be adventurous but not the type who would sell the house cause he had a vision when he was high!
• Mature – That means no boys and it covers the 50+ years old boys too. If I wanted a boy I’ll adopt one.
• Positive – They say opposite attracts. Not in my case. The glass is half full, and negativity will drive me off the wall.
• Good listener – I’m a great listen, but when I decide to talk, I need full attention.
  Assertive – If he is timid, I’ll kill him one day and killing men isn’t really something I aspire to do.
• Loving – Well DUH!
• Ambitious – I can’t stand a man who has no (realistic) dreams and who is always content with what he has.
• Able to earn a good living – That’s a double DUH!
• Pleasant to look at – I’m not after someone with Rey or Pierce’s looks, nor someone who is even globally considered to be good looking. However, my eyes shouldn’t get hurt just by looking at him! Of course I still to meet the man who thinks he is not good looking. They all think they are. It’s true that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but please take an independent opinion (that means not your mother, sisters, aunts, grannies, etc) and be humble!
• Religious – well yes of course but the moderate type. Though these days with all “freedom” around I’m considered to be the fanatic type!

Wow I’m impressed with myself. I really thought that this list will never finish, but it’s done!
And if you are a man with the above characteristics, please apply here (as in the comments on this blog, and I don’t have to say you need to be single, right?!) Actually if you are a man with most of the above, you could still apply, and I would be delighted to forward your application to the right friend of mine.

If you kept reading and you have reached this far, please give yourself, on my behalf, a pat on the HEAD!!

Obsession? Yes, but not by CK

A couple of days ago, one of my gals sent me an email with pictures of the most gorgeous man I’ve seen in a very long time. This guy won the title “The Most Handsome Man in the World” and I say he deserved it. Being the sweet girl I am, I forwarded the email to all the girls I know to share with them the thrill. The responses varied. Some thought that I was sending them the picture of some monkey and were silenced forever when they were shocked at how beautiful this specimen of the male species is. Others called, when they hardly call, to check if I know the name of this Adonis. And yet others where surprised that I would go for looks only and argued that he could be an airhead and/or gay (As if it really mattered!! But I argued back that all men are stupid any way!!) Since I didn’t know anything about this guy, and because of the popular demand, I did some research. I found out that he was Brazilian (I personally thought he was Italian, though someone told me he was Indian and that depressed me), and found a link online to a site that spoke all about him. Of course I couldn’t access the link thanks to Etisalat which blocked it. It’s a conspiracy against women so we don’t see what better types there are in the world and remain content with the junk we have here! A woman in a mission, I sent the link to the girls around the world and begged them to send me the info there! The response was wonderful. It has been 2 days already and I’m still getting new more pictures of Reynaldo Gianecchini, which of course I keep forwarding to those who suffer the blocked syndrome! Reynaldo (Rey to me) turned out not to be just GORGEOUS but also had the brains to be a lawyer, and the ethics and moral values not to practice law!! Aaaaaaahhhh!

Because of Rey, Pierce Brosnan is now relegated to the second position in my best looking (aaah) men list. Pierce held the number one position since I saw him as Remington Steele. His looks charmed me for good and I was just a kid then!!! Loyal to Pierce, the decision was hard. But Rey is 33 years old, and that alone tilted the scale to his favor.

Rey, babe, welcome to my world!!

Weekend Extravaganza

Last month I went to Madinat Jumeirah, where I saw a poster for “Whose line is it any way?” performing live in Madinat Theater on the same day. A fan of the show, I was somewhat disappointed that I didn’t know about it before hand, and so I got enrolled in the Theater’s notification e-list. I didn’t get any emails throughout the month, till last week. The email said that in recognition of my support of Madinat Theatre they would like to offer me two tickets for the price of one for the week’s show. Wow! I didn’t know I was supporting the theater, but I wasn’t going to tell them that! So I called Diana up and told her we can go to see Rainer Hersch for half price. Neither of us has heard of him before, so I checked his website, told her he is half German, and so she should support her fellow Germans!
On Thursday, we went to see Rainer’s show “All Classical Music Explained”. Rainer started with “As everyone knows, I am half German, half English which means I'd like to take over the world but I'm too polite”. I’ve read that “joke” in his website before going and didn’t think it was funny. I don’t get which part is the polite? The Nazis German or the Brit who invaded the whole world? I groaned internally and hoped that it won’t set the theme for the rest of the show. It didn’t. Rainer is definitely hilarious. I couldn’t stop laughing all through the show and left with my cheeks aching from the stretching exercise. His show reminded me of the Seinfeld show. It had the cynical humor of Jerry, the pitiful wit of George and the physical silliness of Kramer (both looks- and moves-wise). Rainer is also a pianist and his talent was an integral part of the show. At the end of the performance, I wished I went to the Wednesday show, so that I could have told people not to miss the last show on Thursday. I also wished that my best friend Christine was in town, she would have loved it. During the Uni years, Christine, a pianist herself, tried hard to get me interested in classical music with no avail. My listening to classical music is still restricted to Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen!!

I recharged my sleep battery on Friday. I slept for exactly 12 hours. Now don’t get so jealous, it was not continuous. I was up for an hour here and there. It was goOoOod! Except that I couldn’t sleep at night and I had to wake up early on Saturday!


After doing a couple of errands on Saturday morning, I went to the cinema. Accompanied by a family size Mars Maltesers bag, I went to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Johnny Depp & Freddie Highmore). The first two minutes of the movie reminded of my trip to Hershey’s Park last summer and in particular the Hershey’s Chocolate World tour. Though I’m a chocolate junky, bombarding all of my senses with chocolate, turned me off it, so I passed the chocolate shops after the tour without much damage. (Not a fan of Hershey’s chocolates also helped!). For the first half of the movie, my Maltesers stayed in my bag, while I munched on the small popcorn I got (Yeah, popcorn, Maltesers and coke as a substitute for breakfast and lunch). My comments are:

• Great filming and delicious colors.
• The movie lacked depth. It was going annoyingly very fast. I imagined myself explaining the events to kids if they came and saw it with me.
• Freddie, who I loved in “Finding Neverland” was great till Wonka appeared. The lines seemed to have thinned down to silence or silliness.
• Charlie found 10 pounds and instead of taking it to the police, as the good kid he was portrayed to be, goes and buys another chocolate bar. Bad boy!
• Willy Wonka…urgh!! I Loved Depp in “Secret Window”, adored him in “Finding Neverland”, hated him in “Pirates of the Caribbean” and I’m bored with him as Willy. He must have studied Michael Jackson for this role. Willy dresses in a bizarre way, lives alone in his “dream” factory, acts in a very weird way (at least in a way different to normal people), has small people who lived on trees as his friends (Not Chimpanzees!), has a problem with his father, and invites kids to visit and spend the day with him!! (Need I say more?!)
• Deep Roy portraying the whole population of the Oompa-Loompas (the small people) was amusing at the beginning and maddening at the end.

All in all….it was better than the Fantastic Four!! And I only ate half of the Maltesers bag!


Of course the weekend isn’t a great weekend without going shopping. I bought brown shoes with a matching belt and bag. Why? I have no clue!! But it seemed a good buy then, even though they were not on sale! I really should learn how not to buy on impulse!

a huge loss

I remember when I was a kid, and first heard of South Africa. It was in connection to the great man Sheikh Ahmed Deedat. I saw a debate between him and a Christian priest and I thought how wonderful the way he spoke was. His smile never left his face, and his approach was kind yet firm. He had the knowledge to debate and win the minds and hearts of all. I loved the man instantly. As I grew up, I read a couple of his books which were very enlightening. Sheikh Deedat passed away on Monday 8th of August, after succumbing to a severe stroke that left him paralyzed for almost a decade. Even though he lost his ability to speak and couldn’t move anything but his head, he remained active in explaining and defending Islam.

With Sheikh Deedat passing away, I feel that the Islamic world as a whole has lost one of its few remaining great Islamic workers. My heart aches and my eyes shed tears for the loss of Deedat.

May Allah’s forgiveness, mercy & blessings be upon him. May Allah the Almighty accept Deedat as a loyal servant and grant him heaven. May Allah the Most Merciful accept his efforts for the cause of Islam, and grant gracious patience to his loved ones all around the world during this trying time.

Read Deedat’s books here and don’t forget to pray for him.

Glory Morning? Definitely Not!

It is one of those days again.

I was waiting for the elevator when a lady came and waited beside me. As the elevator doors opened, she rushed into it before me. How Rude!! I was going to ask her if she missed my full attire and confused me with a chivalrous man, or am I now the invisible woman?! I restrained my tongue from lashing on her, as I didn’t want to get upset so early in the day, and just gave her a look of complete disgust. I pressed level 11 after she pressed 15, and waited. When I saw that we reached the 10th floor, I went close to the elevator’s doors prepared to leave. I saw 11 light goes off, but no door opened, and the elevator continued its ascend. It stopped at 15 and we both looked at each other bewildered. As she was stepping out she asked me whether I pressed 11 or was she imagining it. I confirmed that she didn’t imagine it, and continued saying that it seems that the elevator chose to ignore my presence too, and then pressed “close doors” followed by 11. I swore under my breath and promised my self that if this elevator continued its conspiracy, I will just leave the building and go home. No such luck. The doors opened at 11.

The minute I walked into the office, I asked the office assistant to get me a “Glory Morning”, hoping that this Starbucks muffin would cheer me up, and a large hot chocolate, skimmed milk of course. I needed the fix. He came back with a chocolate doughnut from Bytes instead as there was no "Glory Morning" (is this a sign or what!), and my drink. And then he told me that Starbucks has increased its prices. My already one of the most expensive drinks has become 2 dirhams more expensive!

Yes, it is one of those days for sure!

Lux for self esteem!

I detest the Lux ad seen on many Arabic TV Channels (and now to haunt me in Movie Theaters). A model who is beautiful in every aspect: tall, slim, well proportioned, nice features & nice hair, uses Lux beauty soap, so that she would feel like a star. I’ll let this pass for now. But why have Mona Zaki as the star? Why would this goddess of a model want to look like Mona who is petite, heavier and though has lovely eyes, can’t be the ideal look a model like this thrives to be? So she is a star. Does that mean that this model can’t draw looks except if she was famous? Even the clothes look better on the model. The Ad just doesn’t make sense to me. The roles should be reversed. Mona should use Lux so that she could feel as pretty as the model!!

Actually the ad in itself is all wrong. It promotes the need to feel like someone else to be noticed. What happened to promoting self esteem? If that model has self esteem problems, god helps all the females watching the ad.

You think you have a problem with your self-esteem? Try this quick test. I turned to be normal with a score of 78. My ego must have been bottom low when I did the test!

Humid?! Fantastic!!

The weekend didn’t start well. The minute I arrived to my room I was assaulted by the heat in it. Opening the door to my room was like opening a hot oven. The only difference is that the walls and the floor were slippery with condensation. HUMID ROOM ALERT. The maid left my balcony’s door open, and that explained the humidity. Chanting in rage “stupid, stupid, stupid” I went to the air conditioner to switch it on. Ten minutes later I discovered the real catastrophe: the AC is out of order. No AC for the weekend, what a nightmare. Luckily for me, we have a spare room, and the headache was limited to moving my pillow, duvet, ear plugs, book, mobile charger, mobile, prayer mat & clothes and myself to there every night.

The rest of the weekend was not so gloomy. I managed to read Forbes of all the magazines I was supposed to read. Big accomplishment! Ok, I didn’t really read Forbes, but I did read the cover page, looked at the pictures, and read some captions. It’s still an accomplishment!

I took my nephew (Bader) with me to watch Fantastic Four (Ioan Gruffudd, Jessica Alba and Chris Evans). What a disappointing movie. It’s true I was not expecting Oscar winning performances, but I did expect some acting. I also expected a plot and some lines. Ioan should quit acting. He definitely doesn’t have the looks nor the talent. Mr. Fantastic was a miserable sad character. Jessica, well I never thought of her as a talented actress, but I like her. I always liked her, and all because she looks so like my lovely niece Zain. The Invisible Girl had some charm, but should have been called the Robot Girl! As for Chris, he can do a couple of more movies, as long as they are funny (I can’t see him doing a Tom Cruise in Few Good Men). All in all, I was happy I took popcorn even though I was full. Popcorn was more entertaining than the main feature!! I should note that Bader liked the movie. But then what does he know!!

Sunday :(

It is the first day of the week again and it seems to be one of those days when people cheerfully say to you “good morning”, and you look at them in bewilderment and ask: “Is it?”

Who starts on a Sunday anyway? Don’t most normal people start on Saturday or Monday?
I’d like to start on a Friday, as it’s the only day in the week that I never greet it by complaining. Saturday will be the last day of the week of course. Two days could constitute a productive week. Yes, I’d like that!

Now I have to prepare for a couple of meetings (URGH!)

You got to “hand” it to KDD

I was already snug in bed, happily getting ready to sleep, when Manal came into my room with a box. In that box were dozens of KDD’s Luly ice creams in all flavors. KDD’s products (Kuwait Danish Dairy) were our favorite during our lovely childhood in Kuwait. Lured with KDD, I got up, and joined Issa to play against Haifa and Manal in a game of Hand. Eating my lovely ice cream, they explained the game to me, as I never played it before. Being the novice, no one paid attention to me. But after a couple of games, Haifa was shouting that I really didn’t know how to play the game. I told her, it doesn’t matter if I did or did not, as long as I’m winning! They did admire one game which I won with the worse cards I could ever have. It was great, as Haifa was cocky at the start of that particular game, having the largest numbers. The only thing that beats winning is spoiling the victory for others. Since my sisters team was very tense, I had fun teasing them mercilessly and provoking them persistently while chit chatting, singing and laughing loudly. They’d win, and I’d cheer for them happily, while telling them to relax. Oh yes, nothing is better than having a very annoyed opponent. We stopped at 5 games each. Not bad for a novice teamed with a righteous man who can’t cheat!


I’m supposed to read books to power me for my new responsibilities at work. Fortunately, an alternative is reading current magazines. The only problem is that they are financial and scarce in pictures. The weekend is already looking grim, with The Economist, Banker Middle East, Islamic Banking & Finance, UAE Banking Review, Forbes Arabia and Al Idari (The Executive) all ready in my carry bag. I already know I will not be reading them. I also already know that I have to make the effort. We’ll have to see if I will listen to reason during the weekend.


Asif’s asked me why I’m not blogging…Asif, all this and I’m not?!!


Till Sunday…drive safely & keep away from my way!

Good Mourning!

We didn’t get days off to “mourn” Fahad. Oman however, did. Three full days. So my sister (Haifa) and her husband (Issa), packed their bags and drove to spend these days with us. Since all local and Arab TV and radio channels stopped their regular broadcasting and were only playing Qura’an recitations, entertainment was very limited last night. After watching Discovery for awhile, someone suggested playing cards. My sister (Manal), her daughter (Shahd), Issa and I, started a game of Khasseronoh (“Flop him”). It’s a Yemeni card game where you have to pile the cards in the center (I’m terrible at describing games!). The essence of the game is that you watch out for other players’ mistakes and shout them out. And I mean SHOUT! The more you startle them, the better. Since my brother in law never played the game before, shouting in his ear and shocking him was great fun. After a few shocks, Issa traumatized, relented his spot to Haifa. Of course winning the game is fun too, so after I won, I left my spot for my nephew.

It was an enjoyable evening. All thanks to the absence of any channels worth watching. And all because of the mourning! I guess something good did come out of Fahad after all!

Einstein’s riddle

I received the riddle below hundreds of times, and I always printed it to have a go at it. I never seemed to have the time to do it though. I received it again yesterday, and as I was clearing my inbox, I decided to really attempt to solve it. Amazing my self, I solved it! (Not really, I always knew I’m smart!)

C’mon take your shot at it!

It goes like this

1. There are 5 houses in 5 different colours. In each house lives a person with a different nationality.
2. The 5 owners drink a certain type of beverage, smoke a certain brand of cigar, and keep a certain pet.
3. No owners have the same pet, smoke the same brand of cigar or drink the same beverage.
   

The question is “Who owns the fish?’

The Facts:

• The Brit lives in the red house.
• The Swede keeps dogs as pets.
• The Dane drinks tea.
• The green house is on the left of the white house.
• The green house’s owner drinks coffee.
• The person who smokes Pall Mall rears birds.
• The owner of the yellow house smokes Dunhill.
• The man living in the center house drinks milk.
• The Norwegian lives in the first house.
• The man who smokes Blends lives next to the one who keeps cats.
• The man who keeps the horse lives next to the man who smokes Dunhill.
• The owner who smokes Bluemasters drinks beer.
• The German smokes Prince.
• The Norwegian lives next to the blue house.
• The man who smokes Blends has a neighbor who drinks water.

Einstein wrote this riddle last century. He said 98% of the world could not solve it.

The right answer (that means the answer I got!) is in the comment.

Is that a quilt on your head?

I went through so many looks during my university years, from gang sister (complete with baggy pants, caps and multi silver necklaces) to the smart business woman (suit jackets, branded accessories and subtle hairstyle). As a science student, my chemistry experiments never stopped in the lab. I loved the drugstores at that time, as each look meant a new hair color. I’ve tried almost every make of every dye and of every color! I had to, as whatever color I used, turned me into a stop sign (though never as thin!). I even once had highlights done, which resulted in “highways” of bright orange. Oh yes, those were the fun years!

When I started working however, I knew I couldn’t get away with home hair coloring. I had to say bye to my old pals L’Oreal, Clairol & Garnier and meet the professionals. I’m a regular now at one hairdresser and the girl who does my hair does wonders! I kept it up even after I decided to wear Hijab. Deciding that my 1” long roots needed retouching I phoned them yesterday and I asked for an appointment. My girl is on leave!! Since I cannot let anyone but her touch my hair, I decide to forget about the matter.

I dropped at Spinney’s on my way home, and there in the cosmetic section, I saw my old pal L’Oreal waving at me. “I missed you”, it shouted. My heart melted. I couldn’t ignore it after this. I decided to renew my old relationship and took it home with me. Thirty minutes later, I was wearing the latex gloves, and happily applying the mixture. They really did improve their products!

Thank god I’m covered, or I would have insulted everyone with the new multi-colored patched head of mine! I’ve booked with another girl at the hairdresser, and decided that L’Oreal is completely out of my life. For now at least.

The Circle of Life

Simba is the only king I actually like. He’s cute! I won’t mind living under his reign!

Yes, I can’t think of anything else but the joke that is happening in Saudi today. It is a joke that happens in every other Arabic country of course. A ruler dies, and another is put in his place, and the people just have to pray for his death, to have a new face on their currencies!! The joke of course is when they say the people are appointing these rulers. What nonsense!

Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz is the new “custodian of the two holy mosques”. Wow! He is in his early 80’s with a crown prince (Sultan) who is 77 years old. What do I see wrong in this? Plenty…here are some of my (quick) thoughts:

1. This is the second sequel to “Grumpy Old Men”. It will of course be called “Grumpiest Old Men.”
2. Ancient blood should be discarded. Saudi needs fresh blood. Blood that doesn’t “love the good life” for the monarch family members only, but for all the Saudi people. “The world's largest oil-producing nation” should not have people are living under the poverty line. “Show the people the money” I say! (And on that alone I can go forever, but I do have to work!)
3. Can someone please take their head gear off and check their expiry date? I don’t know about you, but I could see that the blood is clotted!!
4. Ban Duracell!

A bigger joke is that there will be no days off to mourn Fahad as it doesn’t go with the Islamic laws. I guess gambling and drinking which he was famous for are within these laws!!!
UAE will also not take days off. Gosh what a sad day!

Fahad Dies!

“King” Fahad Bin Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia died today.

I never liked the man. I can’t feel sorry about his demise. It must be mean to think “it is about freaking time!” but it was my first thought. I was actually waiting for this piece of news for few years now!

Keeping with the Islamic spirit, I will recite a short prayer for him (May Allah Bless him with His Mercy) (But Allah I’d like to see him punished too!!). I'm also praying that his death would be valuable and UAE would announce a mourning period! (HOLIDAY!!)