Paradise in Me

very bad visitor. . .

2009-02-16T18:34:00.003+04:00

Below is a memo I got in my email Saturday at work. . .

Dear All,

Unfortunately we are facing emergency of a very bad visitor ( a mouse ) . I asked *** to get some poison a kind which make it feel hot , blind and run out side to a wider area . I also called the hot line in Muscat municipality to take care of that as *** suggested, but unfortunately they only serve houses . Please till we get red of him keep your papers safely before you leave , close your rooms doors , done leave any food on your desk/office. Let me know if you saw any effects of it or damages. ***** saw some foot prints in her office , I saw some of it’s effects in the upstairs male path room.

CLASSIC

Can anyone guess where this CW is from??

I am happy to report that the next day, one dead mouse was found in the mousetrap. I am, however, convinced there is a another one or few roaming around..... Cause mice never live alone.... right?

First real job

2009-02-10T19:11:00.000+04:00

After months of sleeping for what seemed to be my calling in life, I finally got a job. As expected at first, it was a lot of welcome-to-you, filling out forms, signing contracts, direct deposits and orientation programs. In that sense, its hard to measure any real vibes when everyone is hiding behind a veneer of friendly formalities. Given time, I’m hoping to identify the different profiles we all run into in a work environment setting : Kiss ass guy, whinny backstab girl, utter moron, spineless boss, IT guy who-can-get-you-anything, flirty receptionist and so on.

I share an office with two other people. On my fourth day, co-worker 1 (CW1) was telling CW2 how she was having trouble breathing and was having mild chest pains. I was working or possibly facebooking – cant remember (nyaaah no proxies at work access to basically EVERYTHING) so I wasn’t really listening. I look up from my computer screen and CW1 faints and hits the floor. Now lets get this straight, CW1 is a big girl. Like really big. She’s probably 40 kg overweight. My initial reaction was to remove her many layers of scarves to help her breath (God knows I suffocate under mines when I’m wearing it and I’ve been opting not to more often). CW2 is pulling passed out CW1 legs ups and rubbing them?! Till this day I have no idea why. After splashing some water on her face she regains consciousness but cant seem to speak or hear anyone which sends her into a panic frenzy; she starts hyperventilating, crying and going all red. Call the emergency hotline no answer. We decide to take her to the nearest emergency room, now how are we gonna get her to the car? Who’s gonna carry her? With the help of pregnant CW2, receptionist, and CW3 we manage to get her to the car. To cut the story short, Doctor said she had an anxiety attack….. But nothing really provoked it. I was in the office with her for more then an hour before it happened, but maybe she has slow reactions? ?

Out of the eight women in the office; three are pregnant, one is currently away on her honeymoon, one married with kids but is slightly older (AKA the boss/elma3azba), and three singles (including myself). Are we running an underground fertility clinic? Is what I think the real work is just a cover for it? Are they going to tell me about it in the next staff meeting?

A lot of fainting, morning sickness, food, weird craving absent minded pregnant women is what I surround myself with for average 8 hours a day.

Oman’s first Online Donations Portal Launch

2009-01-21T13:18:00.004+04:00

ITA in association with the Ministry of Social Development launched the official one-stop-shop online donations portal making it possible for donors to contribute to charitable organizations such as the Association of the welfare of the Handicapped, the Association of Early Intervention for Children with Special Needs, Oman Association for Disabled, Al Noor Association for the Blind and the National Association for Cancer Awareness online.

Great initiative, I wished they had branded it under a more catchy name like Dubai Cares , possibly attached a local "celebrity" face and name to it like any of the national football players.

Interviewed by Mean Red in Muscat

2009-01-21T12:53:00.004+04:00

Who doesnt love to talk about themselves? Interview tag I volunteered to do, also because I need to update my blog more often. So here it goes

You have to link back to the original post and also to your interviewer's post and include the following:

Want to be part of it? Follow these instructions:

1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me and leave your email"

2. I will respond by emailing you five questions. I get to pick the questions.

3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.

4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.

5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

Now, without further ado, the INTERVIEW:

1.You speak often in your blog of your time in Melbourne. Like all of us on foreign shores, you must have had mixed feelings about returning to your home country. When the time came for you to leave Melbourne and head back permanently to Muscat, what frightened or upset you the most, and what exhilarated you?

I had a lot of time to prepare myself, I kept changing my flight dates the last 3 months I was there to a point I was starting to think they would block my calls on the Emirates call center office. I didn’t want to leave for a lot of reason. I had made a life for myself there that included my friends, my little apartment and Melbourne. What frightened me the most was losing that independence I’ve grown accustom to. I was upset to have to come back to wearing the 3abya, curfews, and the staring. Also the relationships I built there I was worried on how they would transition once I’m back particularly with a certain someone. If the success of that relationship was dependent on us being in Melbourne, would it work in Muscat? The first few months back were bumpy I’ll admit but we’ve found a rhythm that works now. At the moment I was and still am excited about starting a new phase of my life and working and finally putting all those years of studying and cramming for exams to use, its been since August - still unemployed and its getting frustrating. But I’m hopeful.

2.Everyone dreams, whether they admit it or not. Recount for us a recurring dream or nightmare you have had, and offer your own interpretation of it.

I always dream of jumping really high into the sky and I get like 50 meters high by just jumping. After looking down for a bit enjoying the scenery and view from above, I never seem to be able to get back down to earth. I don’t fall or gravity doesn’t take over either. I’m stuck and then the freak out/panic attack starts.

This can mean a few things I suppose, I might have high ambitions for myself yet haven’t found the path and means to reach them, I need to set clearer more defined goals for myself.

3.What was the happiest moment of your life so far? What was the saddest?

I honestly cant think of one moment of pure happiness. The easy answer can be whenever my parents are proud of me is when I’m happiest. As humans, we are built to seek love and approval. Saddest moment was a few years ago when my paternal grandfather passed away, I was too young to appreciate him and engage him in conversation like I would now. He was the glue, love and wisdom that held us all together.

4. Reveal to us one of your secrets, something you have never admitted to a living soul before.

It wont be secret anymore if I blog about it! I’m generally an open book and not very secretive or mysterious. What you see is what you get.

5.Two sisters, Blanche and Jane, are attending the funeral of their dear mother. Hidden among the crowd of mourners, Blanche spots someone she doesn't know, the most beautiful man she has ever seen in her life. She gets this feeling deep inside that this is the man of her dreams, the only man for her. She knows it, she is sure. Despite her grief, she decides she must meet this man as soon as possible and give him her phone number. After the coffin is taken away, Blanche races among the people looking for this man, but, alas!, he is nowhere to be found. Blanche and Jane go home. Three days later, Blanche murders her sister Jane in cold blood.
Knowing only these facts, please tell us: Why?

Blance find out that Jane is really her biological mother and that mysterious beautiful man is really her father.

Omaaan wins Gulf Cup 19

2009-01-17T23:40:00.003+04:00

WE WON

WE WON!

WE WON!

WE FINALLY WON!

While hosting it too! Against the Saudis, on penalties but we still WON. For the first time since Oman started playing in '74, a long steady road to the top after being the scapegoat of other teams, past tournaments we've proven to be top contenders and reaching the finals twice (lost to Qater in Khaleeji 17 in penalties and lost to UAE in Khaleeji 18). I was being to think 2nd place was exclusive for Oman, but third time's a charm! el thaltha thabtaah

Tomorrow has been declared a public holiday by His Majesty for both Government and private sector. Exams for thanwayia 3amaa have been postponed till another date.
The players and team are on their way to Bait al Barka Palace to greet HM.

Celebrations arent going to end till dawn, careful while you are on the streets.

We've finally deflowered the khaleeji cup and are no longer virign winnners!

Here's to winning again in khaleeji 20 YEMAN.

Glamolox - Loft965

2009-01-03T17:25:00.006+04:00

Loft965 has been jumping the list of my favorite must check daily blogs of recent months. I love his short music and fashion related posts. The random quotes and videos. Need a break? Check Loft965.

He's been doing monthly (i think) music compilation lists (think mix tapes) with original artwork which I love having on my iPod touch gallery. Most recent one is Glamolax the track listing is available here.

Download Glamolax

My fav tracks are "Unusual you" and "Make you feel my love", the rest of the tracks I have yet to listen to and might update this section once I've got listen to all tracks some more.

Khaleeji 19

2009-01-03T14:13:00.003+04:00

Starting tomorrow Sunday the 4th and till the 17th of January Muscat will host Gulf Cup (Kass al khaleeji). I've lost count on the number of Facebook groups in support of Khaleeji 19 in and Oman winning .

Flags and all kinds of decorations are everywhere, there's a nice spirit of community all around.

One Oman, One Pulse

عمان نبض واحد

Mes-spilled Signs of Boohreen

2008-12-22T14:57:00.003+04:00

Eid in Bahrain

2008-12-06T23:36:00.003+04:00

I'm leaving on Tuesday to spend Eid holiday in Bahrain visiting friends. Haven't been out of the country since I came back Mid-July aside from a few quick trips to Dubai which I don't count as traveling. I'm really excited and looking forward to this trip. All I keep hearing about Bahrain is the food. Apparently the food and restaurant/dining culture is a big deal there. Any tips and musts sees of Bahrain I need to know of?

Jamming to . . .

2008-12-03T01:11:00.006+04:00

The Killers - Day and Age

Duffy - Rockferry

Lady Gaga - The fame

Adele - 19

Radiohead Vs. Kanye West - Reckoner Lockdown

To download Reckoner lockdown click here

Britney Spears - Circus

Oh the things I've seen lately . . .

2008-11-18T18:25:00.001+04:00

Things I have seen in the last few days: sharks in a mall – Dubai mall Aquarium, a chihuahua in a lady’s tote bag in Muscat City Center), a dvd of my friend’s knee surgery, the most beautiful sunset, half a dozen lighted cigarette butts flying towards me on the highway on several different occasions I actually ducked the first time I was that freaked out, MOHE offices, and lastly: an over abundance of the Omani flag.

Happy National day.

What time are the fireworks? I’ve got an excellent view.

Jungle Video you there still?

2008-11-04T23:41:00.002+04:00

After various complaints and requests to check my template because of a weird pop-up jungle video thingy that wants to send readers special mobile ringtones, I guessed it was time to do a little housekeeping. I like the older theme colors better, this one is a standard blogger template where I changed the colors a bit - nothing original or artsy. Maybe one day when I'm bored enough

So readers, jungle video pop out vanished to the dark or my powers to conquer evil are not strong enough?

You had me at hello KK . . .

2008-11-04T17:02:00.001+04:00

Had a job interview early yesterday at 9 am which means I woke up at 7:30, once the alarm rang I realized this was going to be the rest of my life and a little part of me died. I’m just not a morning person. I will never be a morning person.

The job interview went really well I think. I’m hopeful about this one. I was a bit nervous the first five minutes but once I started talking and got a vibe for the place and interviewer it was smooth sailing. I meet with 3 different people from different divisions and I’m probably going to go next week for another in depth interview/meeting.

I had a craving for doughnuts after my pilates class on Sunday so I headed out to Dunkin’ Donuts which I haven’t tried since they open in Oman and was really disappointed. They tasted horrible. Krispy Kreme you had me at hello.

National Day is soon and the streets are being all glamed up with decorations. I missed them last year, personally I think they are nice but its time we let go of them. It’s a lot of work to put them up and take them down. Plus the electricity the lights consume and emission cant be good for the environment and probably expensive. I wonder who pays the electricity bill? H.M? The municipality? Diwan? What difference does it make I suppose? Its all one big pocket right? I only look forward to the fireworks and I’ve got a great view. Wonder when the holiday is going to be, it obviously wont be the same day as National Day (18th of November)cause they like it for people to be in town and in the country for it. But why the secrecy? Why cant they just announce Eid holiday and national day holiday in advance so people can organize and plan their holidays, book tickets and hotel reservations. Build up suspense? Another retarded issue we put up with cause who would we complain to.

This week in kay's world . . .

2008-10-30T15:46:00.001+04:00

This week has been great. Less hormonally and pmsy then last week back to sunshine and happy kay despite stupidly scratching my car on Tuesday : ( its just a car its just a car I tell myself. A preventable scratch I have only myself to blame. I was out and came back home to pick up my mother and go out again. I thought it would be rude to wait outside the house for her and so I entered the garage but didn’t go all the way inside which I should have and the stupid electric garage door started to close and scratched the back bumper. I swear I did not know that would happen I didn’t think I was that close to the garage and I didn’t hear the impact so I thought I was safe. It wasn’t till I clicked on the remote to open the garage to leave and it didn’t open I realized something was wrong. The stupid garage door wheels moved out of the rail after hitting my car so it got stuck and dad had to come push it and that chipped the wall. Yesterday dad said he wont fix or replace the bumper once I start working I fix it myself. He’s joking right? He has to be joking. . . . .

I started pilates classes this week for the next 8 weeks. It was very relaxing and I enjoyed it. My shoulders and back felt less tense for two days after the class but yesterday I felt all sort of knots again. What can I seriously do about this chronic back and shoulder pains?

Yesterday I finally got to go to Cafe Ceramique with two friends. Basically it’s a café/ artsy painting place with all sort of different ceramic pieces you purchase and paint in the café. You get to choose seven colors and pick your piece a week later after its been in the oven and glazed. The food was alright and service was friendly, they replaced my thai ice tea I didn’t like with a regular ice tea without charging me for it. The real fun was in painting. Warning I am severely artistically challenged. I have the worst handwriting and cant draw to save my life; the easiest thing was to pick out a mug and just paint different colored vertical lines on it and even I managed to mess that up with uneven wobbly lines.
Check out Bluchi’s review on Café Ceramique ( link ).

Big cities

2008-10-27T15:48:00.000+04:00

I miss Melbourne. I miss the lights, the sound, the people. More importantly I miss the anonymity of a big city. I don’t even mind the traffic. I loved being in the city. I miss the street art and performances. I miss the jazz bars and the live music scene. I miss my surrogate family of friends. I miss people watching on public transportation. I miss the restaurants and cafes. I miss the different weather seasons in one day. I miss planning my weekend where there was always more to do then just dine and watch a movie. I miss the diversity of random people.

How did you spend your eid?

2008-10-03T15:39:00.003+04:00

Eid Mubarak.

Another Ramadhan has passed and while I love the spirit of Ramadhan and the familyniess after week 3 I was over it. I honestly don’t like fasting. There I said it. Shot me. Its not because I cant drink coffee or smoke cause I do not indulge in either habit, there is nothing to be cranky about like most people who have issues with fasting whine about. It messes up my sleep, cuts back on my water intake and the day is wasted. Plus I just get really tired and dizzy. One time I almost fainted in the shower, could have been the hot water.

L_oman writes a good post on how her family spends their Eid (link) . While ours is almost similar its also a bit different. On the 29th day of Ramadhan we are all glued to the TV waiting for the Eid announcement or if we are fasting 30 days. Once that’s over with, it’s a mad dash to the hairdresser for a quick blow dry. Back home where everyone is making sure their eid clothes are ironed and accounted for. Paint my nails (this year I choose black) and try to sleep early. Eid day wake up at around 7 am in the foulest mood, stay cranky till at least 9iesh. Uncles, aunts, and cousins from my paternal family come over for 3ursia breakfast which my poor mother has been slaving over in the kitchen since fajer prayer (5am). After tea and gifts and money exchange a few family pictures are taken, 3ood and bu5oor mijmar is passed along. Everyone hops into their cars and the tour begins. Driving all around Muscat from house to house wishing family a eid mubarak while trying to compliment the host in eating from their very elaborate eid sweets table. Seriously, how can any expect you to eat so much sweets and 7alwa after 3ursia?? I think I’ve had to explain why I don’t drink coffee at least a dozen times the past two days. Finally, after a long afternoon driving around in the heat we make it to my grandmother’s for lunch stay there till sunset and head home. Sometimes we’d go out for dinner. This year no body made reservations anywhere and after eating the whole day the last thing I could think about was more food. I took a shower and put on my new pjs at 7 pm.

At ten pm I had to go to shatti to pick up my younger brother from the movies. I actually left in my Pjs cause I was too tired to change and franky did not care. Traffic was horrible in shatti and it didn’t seem like anyone was really going anywhere. More then half the guys were just ‘3azing (aka cruising) I kept thinking to myself if you had to pay $80 to fill up your car with petrol there’d be less of you on the streets driving around in your daddy’s menz and ranges. I was quiet amused for the 30 minutes I was stuck in Shatti plaza parking lot people watching. Kids have really stepped it up. I didn’t think I’d see the day teenage boys would be wearing bling bling rapper chains. The tacky vulgar Ed Hardy caps, low low waist jeans with the boxer labels showing, the gelled up hair. Of coarse we cant forget the boy bands in their matching identical outfits. Oh the girls - that’s a whole different post, the hair the makeup and the clothes! And there was kay in her black and white cotton pajama pants and white “I heart sleep” tshirt in flipflops and a headband to keep my hair away from my face and no make up, not even khohl. People must have thought I was the maid/driver hahahaha.

Second day of Eid, woke up at ungodly hour again – 8 am this time – to hit the road to Sharqiah to visit the extended family and have lunch there. I’m not a morning person. I spent the entire car drive of two hours not talking to anyone and listening to my iPod. Once we arrive there, from house to house more 7alwa more meat more sweets more I don’t drink coffee. Lunch and back to Muscat by 5 pm. The weather in sharqiah was at least ten degrees hotter then Muscat and the sun was unbearable. El hawa 7addah ‘3arbee reminds me of this song by Rabi7 Saqar “El hawa Sharqee oo qalbee hawee el shariqaa” he is referring to the Saudi Sharqiah region but we’ve got one too. Went out for dinner last night at Japengo where we sat in the upstairs outdoor section the weather was nice a warm coldish breeze. My only complaint was the music in Japengo its AWFUL. Does not go with the ambiance of the place at all. I think I’m going to make them a mix cd and drop it by on my next visit.

Third day of Eid, I finally get to catch up on some sleep and yaay its Shuwa day.

Tada

Eid is over. Back to work ladies and gentlemen.

Snooze Fest Eid movies

2008-09-30T00:03:00.002+04:00

What's up with the crappy movies showing on Eid weekend??

Seriously nothing remotely interesting. Two testosterone intense "action" movies starting Jason Statham and Vin Diesel, a movie about a spoiled Beverly Hills Chihuahua, an animtated Star Wars movie and finally a step up/save the last dance Drama Musical about rapper/dancer from the hood "making it".

Yawn.

Internet upgrade rant

2008-09-28T17:11:00.003+04:00

Like all citizens and residents, we all have an Omantel war story or two to share. Personally, I’ve never had any beef with Omantel and their customer service. But the past few months they hit a low with me. I applied for the ADSL upgrade from 512 kbps to 4 mbps in July. I have to mention how retarded and stupid it is that you cant apply for the upgrade online through their website. You have to physically go Zakher mall Omantel showroom, get an application fill it out and apply. You cant even download an application online. Since the account isn’t in my name, I had to get the application, have my dad sign and fill it out and go the next day. Even though I took his ID card with me and I had my ID card with me to prove I was his daughter. The lady at the counter refused to process my application without an authorization letter from my dad!! So for the third day I head back out to Omantel and hand in the application authorization letter. It was a Tuesday, she promised by Saturday upgrade will be in effect. Saturday comes and the next Saturday comes and no upgrade! Typical Omantel. I call their customer service and they mumble something about system being down. I’m sure that’s their default answer for anything they have no answer to. During this period our internet was on and off for a few days. Then the land line on our street was interrupted and of coarse no land line signal n adsl – of any speed. The first two weeks of August I kept calling them but it doesn't go through all they do is keep on insuring me how much my call is important to them. Lying apes.

The icing on the cake, after two months of waiting for the upgrade, we get August’s internet bill 186.573 Omani Rails. SAY WHAT?? You’ve got to be kidding me. That’s 485 USD. I call customer service right away. What the hell is 135 rails for September service charge??

I dial 1313, then 1 for Arabic, again 1 for bill inquires. I ask him and the dude has no clue what I’m talking about. I begin to explain s l o w l y. This time he tried to spin it off that the charges are usage charges. The rest of the conversation goes something like this:

Kay: You think I’m stupid and cant read a bill?? It clearly says ADSL monthly charge for September 135 and the usage a few lines below that at 14 rails

Omantel CSR: Default answer: please go to a showroom and talk to someone there. We only help with technical inquires.

Kay: then why do you have a billing inquiry option?

CSR: we only tell are able to tell you how much your current or outstanding bill is at.

Kay: if I’m calling the internet help desk and I presumably have internet, why would I call to find out how much my bill is at, when I can check it online?

CSR: . . . . . . . .

Kay: ok I’ve got a technical question for you, what is service charge exactly? Line rental? Package monthly tariff?

CSR: Please visit the showroom to get your answers.

Kay: Can I please speak to your manager or someone that can help me?

CSR: allaah esam7ik ( god forgive you, like I was insulting or offending him in some way )

Kay: you don’t seem to be able to help me and I need an answer. Ok I’ve got another technical question for you. I’ve applied for the adsl upgrade two months ago and haven’t gotten it yet. Can you check in your magic systems what package we appear to be on.

After being on hold for a bit.

CSR: 512 kbps.

Kay in her head: you’ve got to be freaking kidding me you %$#^(^%$#

CSR: please visit Omantel nearest you.

I hang up.

After the weekend, I make the visit to Omantel in Zakher where I meet with head of internet customer service. Turns out the 135 OR charge is for businesses and not home adsl plans. Now couldn’t the CSR know this? Billing fault or not. They should know the plans and how packages are billed. Also our upgrade was finally implemented last week. Alas, this isn’t the end of the sage just yet. We’ve only gotten an upgraded speed of 1.3 – 1. 5 mbps when we have applied for the 4mbps! I really don’t want to call 1313 again or go to Zaker to deal with their inefficiency at handling a simple simple upgrade. I’m this close this close to closing my Omantel internet account and applying for Nawras 3G internet.

130 and counting . . . .

2008-09-20T04:29:00.002+04:00

I just realized I started this blog June 2005, which means its been 3 years and guess how many posts I've managed to get down? 130 - not including this post. If there is an award for the laziest blogger I present it to myself. Dont worry there is no acceptance speech. I'm too lazy for that kinda stuff. My friend says its a miracle I get out of bed everyday. Trust me, there are some days I wish I hadnt.

Wasteland

2008-09-20T04:07:00.002+04:00

- Wake up at 2 pm.
- Tv in the background as I surf the internet
- Iftar
- Sit with the family
- After 8:30 go out till 11evenish (sometimes I stay home)
- Go online or watch downloaded tv shows or movies till 5 am
- Sleep

Repeat tomorrow (or at least till the end of Ramadan where it will be the same just the sleeping and eating schedule will vary)

Freelance What?

2008-09-05T02:04:00.002+04:00

A few months ago I read Karen Armstrong’s A memoir and its sequel ; Through The Narrow Gate: A Memoir of Life In And Out of the Convent, and The Spiral Staircase: My Climb Out of Darkness. As an avid read of fiction, I was intrigued by her honesty and insightfulness. For a while, they made me forget about fiction.

What stuck with me the most was how Armstrong describes herself as a freelance monotheist, drawing nourishment from all three religions of Abraham. To quote “ I can not see in the essence any one of these three faiths as superior to any of the others and certainly do not regard any one as having the monopoly of truth. I suppose one of my hopes in life is to try to get Jews, Christians and Muslims to realize the profound unanimity, the unanimous vision that they share, and to join hands together to stop the kind of cruelty, violence and obscenity, moral obscenity that we saw on September the 11th.” Even more after writing about Buddhism and Hinduism in her more recent books, her comparative studies on the major religions and how these faiths are deeply similar. Each has its own particular genius, each its peculiar weakness. A melting pot, if you wish, of all that is good and generous into one. This idea of a supreme spirituality I really appeals to me.

A freelance monotheist.
This is what I want to be when I grow up.

Karen Armstrong on Wiki

An Interview With Karen Armstrong

Getting rid of old Computers

2008-08-09T13:22:00.001+04:00

I have a 2002 Compaq desk top and a laptop (before the HP Compaq merger) and an old HP printer we no longer use at home. Anyone know of any place I can donate them? Or dispose them in an environmentally friendly way?

Thank you for renting your marriage . .

2008-08-08T00:33:00.000+04:00

Marriage was once an unbreakable promise. Now, marriage is like renting a car. Thank you for using our service, we’ll pick you up and when you are done with the vehicle we’ll take you home again. Get all the insurance you can get up front, loss damage waiver, whatever, and the risk is nothing. You crash the car, you walk away with nothing to pay. They don’t make no glass slippers no more. They closed that fantasy. The factory that grew pumpkins to turn into carriages shut down. They don’t make no princes anymore.

Its really none of my business and I always tell myself not to judge from a distance, but seriously?? What is up with people getting married so young now? I’m sorry but at 17 you are in no condition or mature enough to make that life altering decision of who you want to marry and spend the rest of your life with. Divorce rates are higher ( I don’t have any studies, stats or articles to back this claim, but all you need to do is listen to a couple stories and women around a cup of coffee and chocolate cake to get the impression). Also, I’ve noticed the stigma once attached with divorce has diminished somewhat, especially, the stigma and shame once attached with a divorce women in our conservative society. A few years ago, not a lot of women had the guts to ask for a divorce. But now women feel more empowered and will not put up with any sort of crap. Of coarse this doesn’t apply to the wider Omani society outside Muscat. Again this is just the impression I’m getting from my surrounding.

Getting married is ridiculously expensive now and getting divorce will not be cheap. Choose wisely and don’t get married because you are horny for someone and it just happened to be the trendy thing now

Smelly Fish

2008-08-02T22:12:00.003+04:00

What's up with nasty smelly fishy smell around town? Even in areas not near the beach. The humidity makes it even worse. Someone told me it was fertilizer. Did someone spray the city with it?

* Update : Apparently, the stinky nasty fishy smell is a phenomenon called "Red Tide". Dead sea weeds, dead fish and algae, as a result of hot weather, humidity or other reasons caused by human activity are pushed to the shore, resulting in this "fishy" smell.

The smell is gone now - Thank God. Ever since Guno happened and now this, I'm thinking property by the beach not a good idea. High up in the hills and mountains is the way to go.

Poe Poe in a Box

2008-07-28T23:46:00.001+04:00

I’ve only been back in Muscat for eleven days and I’ve been caught by the PPB (Poe-Poe in a Box aka speed detector radars) twice. I was only going 10 – 15 km over the speed limit and not really bothering anyone. The roads were almost empty on both occasions and I am a careful driver. I’ve made a promise to myself not to get caught again for at least two months. I refuse to drive like an idiot and slam the breaks on the highway every 300 meter or so in between the radars just so I don’t get caught. EFT. . . .

Snapshots

2008-07-28T00:06:00.006+04:00

Max Brenner - The love of my life

Sleeping Koala
I can see my apartment building - Picture taken at the Eureka observation deck in Melbourne. Win a car if you can guess which building it is.

I went to my first soccer (football) game between Melbourne Victory and the Italian Juventus. My first reaction was "where is the commentary?" No one told me there was no commentary at the stadium. Classic dumb blonde moment.

Salsa night!
Trannies on the street of Melbourne. (I heart Melbourne and its randomness)

A taste of Brazil in Melbourne.

Those rare moments I actually cook a meal. This is a "before going into the oven" picture. Nobody bothered to take an after picture - too busy eating.

Beautiful sunny day on campus - Building is where most of my lectures were held.

Day at the beach

Rain and more rain driving back to Melbourne during Easter break road trip to South Australia - Adeliade.

"Sex it up" sexual awareness week in Uni - click on picture to check out the week agenda.

Guess who's back . . . .

2008-07-27T00:04:00.001+04:00

So I’m back in Muscat, arrived Thursday 17th of June. A few days after results came out and I officially graduated. Sad as I was to leave Melbourne, the last week I just accepted it and I was ready to leave. My brother and sister came to visit for about three weeks where we did a lot of dining, sightseeing and shopping. Even went on a trip to Gold Coast and Brisbane. The city I mostly wanted to visit and I didn’t manage to do so was Sydney. Maybe then I’ll have an excuse to go back and visit. A lot of my friends are still in Melbourne. Who know’s maybe I’ll go back for graduation in October? In the mean time I’m polishing my CV, languidly contemplating looking for a job, and spending time with friends and family. I deserve a break don’t I? At least till after Ramadan. Maybe do a little traveling. I really want to go backpacking around India or Europe with a few friends. But I’m probably too high maintenance and a spoiled khaleeji princesses for that sort of thing. I can never travel light. And I do NOT do backpackers hotel/motels. But it would be a great challenge to overcome. Its good to be home. Lets see how long I last before I start to get annoyed by the general incompetence special to Oman, men staring and the bad driving.

Stay tuned for the next blog entry - a photo journal of the last 6 months of my life.

What's in your Fridge?

2008-06-12T17:09:00.004+04:00

I’ve been tagged! Here are the rules.

1) Go to your refrigerator, and describe the contents in the style of a movie tag line
2) Locate the least popular condiment in and tell us what it is
3) Name the most embarrassing thing in your fridge / freezer and justify it's presence there.
4) Tag five people, and acknowledge who tagged you

1- Greek yogurt rules this lonely planet. We do not cook. We do not re-heat. We only do take away and deliveries. Enter if you dare.

2- I like visuals. So I’m going to let the picture do the talking. If I had to choose something it would be the capsicum dip which has a funny taste. I like to snack crackers with dip when I’m watching tv or reading the many many journal articles for school. I remember spitting out the dip when I first had it and I have orange spots all over one of my papers.

Pretty basic for a student that lives alone. I havent been spending much time at home. Mostly in the library so I tend to eat out a lot.

3- Humm the milk?

4- Suburban over at Other Oman tagged me and I’m tagging her back for pictures of her fridge.

When life gives you lemons...

2008-06-04T16:41:00.000+04:00

Maybe its time I pull the plug on this lonely space? It’s getting harder and harder to update. In between graduate school and life and all the commitments in between, I’m finding it less fascinating to have my blog out there. The novelty had wearied off and facebook has taken on a life of its own. Plus I am no longer anonymous; tons of people who know me personally or as a result of my blog now know my name and family. Some of my readers are members of my family. This blog was never intended to be a personal journal though it did take that tone a few times. I haven’t been bloging mainly cause of the things that I feel like writing about are unbloggable (is that even a word?) and too personal. But that’s a different post all together.

I haven’t been in Oman the past year or so only for holiday. I spent December, January and February in Muscat. Aside from the obvious road changes, everything was the same. My year aboard had changed me and I grew up so much in it and I suppose a little part of me expect to see something different about the people as well.

I graduate this semester (in three weeks my last assessment is due and then I’m done), however, I DO NOT want to go back. Don’t get me wrong I LOVE Oman and Muscat specifically. Additionally I Adore my family but I hate after living on my own for a while I'm confined under their roof, living by their rules, and forced to live my life in relation to theirs. In accordance to theirs. In compliance with THEM. Why? I do want to start my adult life and get a job, make my own money and stop depending on daddy dearest finically. But right now my life is in Melbourne. I heart Melbourne. This phase of my life is not over yet. Sometimes in moments of frustration I seriously contemplate deliberately failing a unit to stay for at least till October for another semester, but I don’t have the balls to do that. It would be humiliating and I wouldn’t be able to face my parents. Plus to have that on my record when I’ve never failed anything academically before, I’ve come close a few times but I’ve always passed. So scratch that idea.

When life gives you lemons, make Mojitios

P.S this post is dedicated to suburban, who without that little push I may have never updated. I promise to blog more often.

Concerts and Horse Races In the land Down Under

2007-12-02T17:17:00.000+04:00

I’m back in Muscat. Been back for a week now and staying till mid February. Past few weeks have been great. I’m not sure where I should even start. The main highlights are The Linkin Park show (High up on the top ten moments), finals and mark of the end of two thirds of my master’s degree, Melbourne Cup Races, and Justin Timberlake concert.

Both concerts were amazing, I’m not sure which one was better because they are of different music genres. The Linkin Park was slightly more hardcore. All around us, the air was buzzing. Entry was chaotic, with masses of bodies squeezing into tiny entrances. My friend and I managed to enter the arena. With generic rap metal music playing on the PA we waited and waited. Chris Cornell and his band played for an hour, the crowds clapped and sang along. But it was really just warming up for Linkin Park. What seemed like a long short break to set up the stage for them, the lights dimmed and the familiar sound of vinyl being scratched was heard and I think I missed a beat. The lights blasted to reveal the band spread across the stage behind the large curtain. The drums and deejay set occupied the top center of the stage with a massive Linkin Park light mural covering the back of the stage. And then it began, for the next two hours a rising wave of sound and screams. Even when I listen to the songs now, after the concert they seem a little different and get a little chill.

*note: taken from youtube - Opening of the show "No more Sorrows"

*note: 'Shadow of the day' + this footage was taken by me

I went to the last show of Justin Timberlake’s Australian tour on the 18th of November with a friend. First off there are two things you will hear in that concert, one is the music and second is the high pitch scream of every women and girl, including myself. Sold out four Rod Laver Arena engagements, all at a capacity of 15,000 (of which I’m sure were 90% female), the huge supporting cast of musicians and dancers was accommodated on the flexible, rotating stage. I suppose for a show shows of this size is that they lack intimacy and personality. But that's missing the point. It did seem a little too rehearsed and mundane for Justin, the dancers and musicians, after all they have been touring the States and Europe for over a year now. This is probably the only main different between the two concerts.

In between the two concerts, I had finals and I’m on my summer break now. In November and right after finals I went to Stakes day and Oaks day- part of Melbourne Cup – Australia’s major annual thoroughbred horse race or the Spring Racing Carnival series, billed as The race that stops a nation. It was a great vibe going on and the great weather was starting after a really cold winter. The first Tuesday of November is Melbourne Cup Day, the biggest race – big enough to warrant a public holiday- and the Saturday before is Derby day. I didn’t go to the first two races as I had exams. It’s a lot of fun when you go with a group of friends. Everyone is all dolled up and dressed up for the occasion, suits and dresses, hats and lots of champagne is involved. It’s not really about the horses but mostly about the betting. I didn’t think it was as serious, but once you experience it, it’s a lot of fun. I managed to make some money on Stakes day; I think it was beginners luck or something. I just picked horses at random based on the probabilities of it winning that are available on the boards.

As for my summer holiday, I’ve joined the gym today and going to learn how to cook, start packing and moving houses soon. My dad loves moving us around every few years. Hopefully this last one will stick.

The past few weeks I've . . .

2007-09-27T22:24:00.000+04:00

I'm still alive and kicking...

A lot has happened since the last post. Was in Oman, flew back to Melbourne. Miserable horrible flight, I still cringe a little when I remember it. So not looking forward to my next flight back. I was sick the first two week I was here. In August, seven friends and I went skiing to Mt. Baw Baw. It was soo awesome, I didnt last so long on the slope - I did more falling down and then actual skiing but it was a lot of fun. Very long day trip but it was so worth it. The weekend after, we went go-karting which was also fun but kinda bleh as well. I sort of got bored at the end of it, I missed not having music so I started singing to myself. Needless to say, I came in last. But in my defense, I have never go-karted before, two people from the group where actual racers back home on the national team, and with a male dominated group it wasn't a real surprise. I think I'm more into cruising then racing. A few night later, I went to an Indian night with friends, it was interesting and fun as well.

The semester is almost ending with only two more teaching weeks plus one week revision and then finals. I'm so swamped with assignments, reports, projects and presentations to prepare for the last 2 weeks. I'm slowly going crazy. The only reason I probably even started with this post; my lame attempt at procrastinating.

Its almost spring down under, I'm really looking forward to that. I hate the cold climate, rain and wind. I cant wait to put aside my winter clothes.

Ramdhan Kareem to everyone. Ramdhan anywhere else from home just sucks. It sucks. Royally. Friends and I have tried to make a habit of getting together for iftar on weekends so far the first two weeks we've been successful , but with so many deadlines and school work piling up I dont see it happening the next two weeks. Last weekend we went to this great Morrocan restaurant La Paella that serves my fav soup harrira ,it wasnt as good as mom makes it but good enough.

I finish finals on the 6th of November. Will be staying for 3 weeks before I fly back to Muscat for the summer break. In that time will be apartment hunting and hopefully moving in, relaxing and sightseeing.

- My iftar today.

- Tickets to upcoming Linkin Park concert on the 14th of October.(click on image for better view)

- View from the ski lodge up on Mt. Baw Baw

I'm home !

2007-07-14T23:01:00.000+04:00

Note: Replace PHD with MSc.

A lot has happened between the last post and now, more importantly Guno happened. The first semester ended and I got my results two days ago. I did pretty well but I suppose there is always room for improvement. I’m currently in Muscat for a short holiday, and leaving on the 21st. I cant begin to describe how devastating it was at first to see how everything was in Muscat. It's shocking and heartbreaking: Thousands of homes damaged. People living in shelters losing everything they own. Roads and bridges collapsed. Cars piled up everywhere. I’m grateful no one from my family and friends was seriously hurt or injured. Slowly recovering and in some places you couldnt tell Guno passed but in other areas, there is still a lot to do.

In 6 days from today I'll be back in Melbourne and honestly I'm ready to go back. I miss the life I've made for myself there and my "family" and friends there but it was good to touch base and just relax in between semesters.

What does Gonu mean?

2007-06-06T17:42:00.000+04:00

Remember when it was Hurricane Katrina two years ago, I posted where and how hurricanes get their names. (Link) Apparently Gonu means a bag made of palm leaves in the language of the Maldives.

Tropical storms or cyclones in the south west Indian Ocean are given their names by the Regional Specialized Meteorological Center in La Reunion Island, which has responsibilities for the Southwest Indian Ocean basin.

Currently, in the North Atlantic and Northeastern Pacific, feminine and masculine names are alternated in alphabetic order during a given season. The gender of the season's first storm also alternates year to year.

But unlike in the north Atlantic, in the Meteorological Center at La Reunion Island, new names are made up for every storm year and not recycled cyclically. This is the only and only Guno hurricane.

Personally I'm calling it Hurricane Sabeecha or Moza. What ever tickles your fancy more.

Source. Link

Tropical Cyclone/Hurricane Guno to hit Oman!

2007-06-05T08:38:00.000+04:00

Its official. Tropical cyclone GUNO is heading directly to Oman.

I don’t know about you, but I’m terrified. And I’m in Australia. Seriously. Who wouldn’t be? This has never happened in Oman. EVER. A little heavy rain and the country goes into complete chaos (flashbacks of last December here and here ).

The Sultan’s Armed Forces (SAF) and Royal Oman Police (ROP) and other authorities have declared a state of emergency. The category 5.5 cyclone Gonu is expected to hit the coast near Masirah Island by tomorrow night or early morning on Thursday. Masirah's population is estimated at 7,000 who have been evacuated to mainland. Gonu could whip up maximum sustained winds in the region of 185 - 200 km/h for a minute!

Expect to hear a lot of rumors about what is going on in the coming days. Like the one i heard about the airport being shut down for 36 hours. Fishermen have been advised to stay off the sea.

Watch this space for updates. Hope everyone stays safe.

Links:

Times of Oman - Cyclone may hit Oman

Gulf New - Oman mobilises 7,000 men to handle cyclonic storm's ravages

OmanForum - Tropical Cyclone to hit Muscat

OmaniCrib - Bad Weather

English Sabla - Hurricane to Hit Oman

Wishful thinking

2007-05-31T22:51:00.000+04:00

Today I had a thought ... what if I'd never met you?

I keep thinking how different my life could have been. How different I could have been. And it makes me want to bang my head on the wall. Repeatedly. Maybe "it" would go away.

Be grateful for your education

2007-05-31T22:44:00.000+04:00

Semester has ended, and the hundred of students who have come to invade the library to cram for finals have made their place and corners known. Some of us are here for the first time, while some are ending their second or final years. Among both groups there are the enthusiasts, the ones who turn up early for lectures and consistently hand in perfectly crafted assignments with a smug little smile, 3 weeks before the deadline. Then there are the rest of us, who perhaps party a bit much, don’t get started reading quite early enough and finish up the term as bleary-eyed, children of the night beings, addicted to caffeine and totally disenchanted with this place of cruel torment they call Academia.

If you belong to the first group, good on ya (said in a very strict aussie accent - one of my fav aussie terms), but if you’re part of the second, it’s good to take some time out every once in a while to look at the world with a broader perspective.

When exams are approaching, it’s easy to forget how lucky we are, but we shouldn’t forget that the vast majority of the world’s population never get the chance to go to university, in developing countries only about 60% of 15-19 year olds are enrolled in secondary school, and among these far fewer are actually able to attend full time, let alone progress to university, or even attend university abroad. Most of my peers have part time jobs, I routinely get asked in class during breaks “where do you work?” when I answer that I don’t work, they assume I must be very rich. Well I’m not. I’m just very very fortunate to have my family provide everything for me and even a little extra.

Statistics, of course, only tell a rather abstract story, so it’s good sometimes to connect with stories on a more direct, personal level. Of course we can’t all hop off to Zimbabwe or Peru every term for inspiration to work a little harder, but we can all go to the cinema, read books and articles, or even do a little online search. There are some great films and documentaries out there which portray desperate realities of poverty and hopelessness which many of us have no idea, or have simply forgotten exists.

I start finals in two weeks. Wish me luck!

100 Books

2007-05-08T19:09:00.000+04:00

Got this off Roba who got it off someone else.

Instructions: Look at the list of books below.
*Bold the ones you’ve read
*Italicize the ones you want to read
*Leave the ones that you aren’t interested in alone.

1.The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown)
2.Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
3.To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
4.Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
5.The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien)
6.The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien)
7.The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien)
8. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery)
9. Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)
10.A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
11.Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling)
12.Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
13.Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)
14. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
16.Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Rowling)
17. Fall on Your Knees(Ann-Marie MacDonald)
18. The Stand (Stephen King)
19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban(Rowling)
20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
21.The Hobbit (Tolkien)
22.The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
23.Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
5. Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
26.The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams) (does some of it count?)
27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
28. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)
29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
30. Tuesdays with Morrie(Mitch Albom)
31. Dune (Frank Herbert)
32.The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
33.Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
34. 1984 (George Orwell)
35. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
36. The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
37. The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)
38. I Know This Much is True(Wally Lamb)
39. The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
40.The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
41. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
42. The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)
45. Bible
46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)
47.The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
48.Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt)
49.The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
50.She’s Come Undone (Wally Lamb)
51.The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
53. Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
54.Great Expectations (Dickens)
55.The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
56. The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
57. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)
58. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
59. The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)
60. The Time Traveller’s Wife (Audrew Niffenegger)
61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
62.The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. War and Peace (Tolsoy)
64. Interview With A Vampire (Anne Rice)
65. Fifth Business (Robertson Davis)
66. One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
67. The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (Ann Brashares)
68. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
69. Les Miserables (Hugo)
70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
71. Bridget Jones’ Diary (Helen Fielding)
72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)
73.Shogun (James Clavell)
74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
75.The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
76. The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay)
77. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
78.The World According To Garp (John Irving)
79. The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
80. Charlotte’s Web (E.B. White)
81. Not Wanted On The Voyage (Timothy Findley)
82. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck)
83. Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)
84. Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
85. Emma (Jane Austen)
86. Watership Down(Richard Adams)
87. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
88. The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
89. Blindness (Jose Saramago)
90. Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)
91. In The Skin Of A Lion (Ondaatje)
92. Lord of the Flies (Golding)
93. The Good Earth(Pearl S. Buck)
94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)
96. The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)
97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
99. The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)
100.Ulysses (James Joyce)

I've read 24/100 which isnt bad I suppose, there was too much science fiction on the list which I dont read at all or enjoy.

I'm bored and supposed to be working on my assignments and essays, but I dont really want to.

i hate you too

2007-05-07T21:05:00.000+04:00

I FREAKING HATE GROUP ASSIGNMENTS. I HATE THEM.

EFFFFFFFFFFFFFFT. WHY WHY WHY? I hate the person who invented them. I hate my incompetent group members. I hate this unit. I hate whoever came up with the idea of testing people on what they learned. and why aren't there any multiple answer tests anymore? I heart those. I can ace those.

I'm back to blogging from Melbourne

2007-04-03T07:26:00.000+04:00

Knock. . . Knock . . .

Is this thing still on?

So I'm in Melbourne, been here for 3 months and I LOVE IT. Seriously. There is so much to do and see. Every week there's some sort of event or festival, so far F1 , FINA , Moomba Waterfest , Chinese New Year, Comedy Festival , Flower and Garden show and much much more!

School has been keeping me very busy (especially this week, which explains the post update if you know me well enough, I'm procrastinating, i have two assignments due Thursday the 5th).

I left Muscat back in February, stopped in Singapore for 4 days before making our way to Melbourne ( Daddy and me) it was really nice spending alone time with him. Weather was pretty hot and sunny when we first arrived down under as it was still summer, but now thats its April its becoming cooler and more chilly. I'm looking forward to spending winter here, maybe even go skiing in the mountains in July.

I cant believe half the term is almost over, this week is week 6 and after Easter holiday another 7 weeks and the first semester is done with.

Hope this update is sufficient enough and I don't get any more hate mail ( ok it was just 2 or 3 emails) but you get the idea.

Keep your fingers crossed that I meet my deadlines on Thursday!

The many uses of Cardboard

2007-01-14T01:24:00.000+04:00

The things you find on the street. Is this even legal? Using cardboard as a car's plate number? I mean if you make the effort into putting this together and making sure it wont fall off (cause you know I just had to try to pull it, but alas it firmly placed).

I think its 3 or 5 rails to get new plates or replace old ones. The fine he or she is going to be smacked with is going to be a lot more higher then that.

Car piles

2006-12-16T17:04:00.000+04:00

Pictures of the aftermath of Thursday's rain showers a friend forwarded I though I'd share.

Muscat Drowned

2006-12-16T16:30:00.000+04:00

Last Thursday Muscat was "blessed" with heavy rains that started at around 5 pm and ended at 10 pm. To say it caused chaos and floods would be an understatement. As beautiful as Muscat the city is, it didnt look very pretty filled with mud and water puddles everywhere. You'd think after 35 years, the municipality would by now have figured a way to get the water away from main roads. All it was was just a bit of rain - heavy rains but it was just water, not hurricanes or thunderstorms or snow or even snow blizzards. Can you imagine what would happen if we had weather like that??

The thing about Wadis is that they dont change course and dont stay overflowed for long, there has to be a way to prevent this. A life could have been spared, a man's body was found near Sultan Qaboos University after being washed away by the waters of Wadi Jifnain. (Link)

These are pictures my friend took of CCC, Qurm - you can see McDonalds and the parking lot completely flooded.

MoBlogging

2006-11-19T00:13:00.000+04:00

Finally some good weather! Took these pictures at around 3.30 today afternoon while I was running some errands. Usually its very sunny and still hot even though we are in mid November now.

Got my ID card renewed last week. This is the collection/issuance desk. I dont understand why some people are standing so close. There is a waiting area with chairs and they call everyone name out. My picture btw looks HOT(took 3 takes till i was happy with it) . Still need to do something about my driver's license.

Happy Birthday Daddy : ) 15/11

I want my fireworks!

2006-11-19T00:05:00.000+04:00

Fireworks are tomorrow (Sunday) not today, which is kinda lame. TODAY is National day. I don’t care if "they" are in Nizwa for some big guns, tanks and machines toy parade link (Arabic) .

I want my fireworks.

What month is it?

2006-11-10T02:35:00.000+04:00

What month is it? Why of Course its National Day Month! The 18th of November. Thank God this year we are spared last year's stupid and silly students performance .

I hope there are fireworks. My favorite part of any national day is the fireworks. I become a kid all over again. I hate how for the entire length of Muscat Festival there are daily 9 pm fireworks. It just freaks people out everyday for an entire month. Once a week is enough or better just the opening and ending of the festival.

How do you celebrate National Day? Aside from enjoying the week long holiday going to Dubai.

Watch this space for more road pictures of flags, street decorations and lights. This was just a rough crappy picture I took with my camera phone at Qurm roundabout.

Shuwa - The Meat Festival

2006-10-27T00:54:00.000+04:00

Shuwa is a typical Omani delicacy prepared only on very special occasions. Eid is probably the most common occasion hence the meat festival! I don’t usually eat red meat and avoid it but shuwa is very good and its made very rarely that I cant help not having some.

The method of preparing shuwa is elaborate. The meat is marinated with red pepper, turmeric, coriander, cumin, cardamom, garlic and vinegar and then wrapped in sacks made of dry banana or palm leaves. These sacks are then thrown into the smoldering oven, which is covered with a lid and sealed so that no smoke escapes. In some villages, the meat is cooked for 24 hours while in others it is believed that meat tastes better after 48 hours.

The meat becomes extremely tender and it is impregnated with spices and herbs before cooking to give it a very distinct taste, usually served with rice.

Happy Eid Meat Festival!

The recipe Link

The Amazing Race Season 9 in Oman digging up Shuwa for a roadblock.

(picture quality sucks cause I took them with my phone - sowie)

Eid and My Extended Family

2006-10-26T02:22:00.000+04:00

Personally I’m not really a fan of Eid. It’s the waking up so ungodly early, the consumption of red meat like it would become illegal the next day – the meat festival cant possible be healthy in that short period of time. The weather isn’t delightful either, still low 30s in October and maybe even November making it running around from house to house in the heat and sun unpleasant. Not my idea of fun.

Unfortunately, last Saturday my great grandmother ( my dad’s maternal grandmother) passed away which canceled any eid plans anyone had. I didn’t really know her, but my dad was upset. Everyone at the funeral kept saying that it’s a blessing she passed away in Ramadan and that the gates of heaven are open the whole month??? Myth or not, it makes the grieving process just a little bit easier. My Great grandmother married twice and had 8+ kids , over 25+ step children, over 30+ grandchildren, countless great grandchildren (including yours truly) and even a couple great great grandchildren. That’s 5 generations! Big family but I only know less then 30% of them, some only by name some their faces only. Got to meet a few of them in the funeral which is always good I suppose.

It would be very rare I would imagine a few years from now to have that many generations alive. People don’t marry as young anymore or have that many kids.

I wish I had a picture of her, but I don’t.

Eid

2006-10-26T00:01:00.000+04:00

100th post!

2006-10-17T01:46:00.000+04:00

This is my 100^th post! Took a while, but I got there. Quality over quantity right?

Thank you for everyone that has continued to visit and comment : - )

The Things you see at the Mall . . .

2006-10-17T01:26:00.000+04:00

How much would someone have to pay you to semi lay down on a lounge chair in a very busy mall with rolls in your hair, earphones (I’m assuming an iPod – cause the earphones where white) and a magazine? At first I thought it was an add for the magazine but a closer look and it was for Renault cars. How does a women with hair rolls go with cars? Beyond me, but I just thought it was funny.

I apologies for the crappy quality of the picture, my friend was so embarrassed that I was taking pictures and wouldn’t let me get closer to take a clearer one.

Least Favorite Season

2006-10-13T02:08:00.000+04:00

I hate the fall. it isn’t in the sense of weather much as the various sign of the season in the background of things that brought back memories with them. And with every attempt to filter them out, I fail. Those events, the aftermath and the consequences that came with them have changed me forever.

I always look forward to the New Year, just because it brings new hopes and opportunities. All I can do from now tell then is say a silent prayer and tell myself it will pass. Just wait for it to pass

The First of Many

2006-10-13T01:45:00.000+04:00

There’s nothing worse then getting your new car scratched or door dinged. When I choose the color black, I knew every little scratch and dust particle would show. I’ve been driving it real careful and “respecting” it, so you can imagine how horrified I was when dad and little bro went to get the plate numbers put on the car, and the incompetent B******D scratched it right near the front plate with his screwdriver! Dad gave him a good yell and refused to pay him for the chrome boarder. But at least now that’s its no longer a scratch free virgin I’m not panicking about when it might have happened. Its done with. I’m just hoping no idiot will park too close to and attempt to redecorate my doors.

Check out Moryarti’s post on door dings and ‘deflowering cars’.

No Laban??

2006-09-28T17:16:00.000+04:00

As tradition goes, in Ramadan most people break their fast with dates and Laban and then what comes next varies from family to family. In our house we usually have soup, bread, qatyaf or lagyimat, and 5afaef. No rice or other heavy things. We then have dinner either after trawe7 prayer or at eleven. Nobody wakes up for suhor, just a glass of water and fajer prayer.

There seems to be a serious Laban(yogurt drink) crisis in the market. My mother went today morning for her weekly grocery shopping and didn’t find any laban in Sultan Center, so she sent me out to find some. I went to Al Fair MQ at around 4.30 and Nada, shelf was empty.

No laban of any kind. My dad likes the kind with sanoot. I asked if they had any in the back and they didn’t, told me to come as early as 9 am to get some cause by 12 pm they run out. 6yab el dinya Ramadan and don’t they know laban is in demand? I don’t remember this happening last Ramadan. In the end I went to Select at the Hawasna petrol station and by luck found the last 3 small laban bottles. On Tuesday I went to AlFair Al Khuwair and didn’t find any laban either.

Tia - friend and blogger also has a post on the quantities of laban you are allowed to buy per person at Carrefour, 5 each person.

Laban (yoghurt Drink)

UPDATE : Devilish has a post on this too

First Step

2006-09-27T00:47:00.000+04:00

After months and months of speculation and second guessing on wither I should go or not, about 6 weeks ago I sent in my Post Graduate application to two universities in Melbourne, Australia - Monash University and Melbourne University . Last week I got an acceptance email from Monash, and this week I got the acceptance offer in the mail (picture above). UM emailed me to say they received my application and are looking into it. I’ll wait till I get a final answer from UM before accepting the offer from Monash. The program I got accepted to is Master of Information Management and Systems Professional at the Caulfield campus.

In Melbourne Univeristy I applied to Master of Business and Information Technology program, which I prefer to the other program.

Summer internship ended a month ago meaning I have 4 months of doing nothing till the end of January when I leave to Melbourne. Will find ways to keep myself occupied. For the time being since its Ramadan, I like not having anything to do. Wake up at noon during Sal’at el 3aser I read some Quran. I’ve promised myself to finish the quran this Ramadan, I’ve never managed to do so.

Ramadan Kareem.

Oil Refinery

2006-09-08T16:53:00.000+04:00

Last Monday at around 5 pm, I was approaching Qurm roundabout and I see all this smoke, I decided to chase it. I’ve been watching too much Veronica Mars and convinced myself that I had to see where and what this fire was all about.

So I kept driving towards the smoke - I was bored and had just left the gym - so why not? the closer I got the smaller the flame and smoke would get.

And then I got here - Oman Refinery - to the right you can still the flame dieing yet still visable.

That area is highly populated how safe is it to have an oil refinery right in the middle of town?

Oil refineries are typically large sprawling industrial complexes with extensive piping running throughout. The refining process releases numerous different chemicals into the atmosphere; consequently, there are substantial air pollution emissions and a notable odor normally accompanies the presence of a refinery. Aside from air pollution impacts there are also wastewater concerns, upset risks of fire and explosion, and both occupational noise and environmental noise health effects.

Source

Treasure chest

2006-08-14T23:27:00.000+04:00

So this is my Jewelry Box I got as a birthday gift last year. I love the wood and how ‘authentic’ it looks, but I can never keep it organized.

I want this . Cant find one here though. Any ideas where I can find one?

50 Coolest Websites

2006-08-14T23:00:00.000+04:00

Time magazines has come out with its annual 50 Coolest sites for 2006. (Link)

I especially liked Human Clock . I’m pretty anal about the time and numbers.

Right now its :

Also bored at work? Try Number logic I’m so over freecell and solitare and most PCs at work don’t have them anyways. So this is perfect for me. Sudoku rocks! I’m so addicted and obsessed.

Abusing Palm Tree

2006-08-13T16:28:00.000+04:00

Was having lunch at Hardeez Al Khuwair during my break yesterday, I look out the window and see this kid in a red shirt climbing up the palm tree. Next thing I see are what I assumed to be his siblings holding a blanket or a sheet positioned right under the palm tree and the little boy just started to shake the living life out of the palm tree branches trying to get the dates to fall. I couldn’t resist not taking a picture. Too bad I didn’t have my digi camera with me (cause my hand bag was too small that day) so I had to take it with my phone camera.

Isn’t there much law that forbids people from picking at public trees whether on the streets or parks?

cake or pancake?

2006-08-01T19:59:00.000+04:00

My sad attempted at baking cake. I shouldn't be allowed in the kitchen.

Instead of puting baking soda I put yeast, thinking they are the same. The second batch I made turned out much better and was even edible.

Summer Rants

2006-07-07T01:31:00.000+04:00

My last blog post was two weeks ago, I do realize that. I've been busy and lazy - but mostly lazy. I start writing something and never manage to get to the second sentence. Summer blues. But on a more brighter note – I've started work, well sorta, it’s a temp job/internship thing at OmanMobile, I started 2 weeks ago, not something I had planned for my summer . It just sorta happened, I was actually enjoying sleeping till noon and bumming around being unproductive. A friend had taken my resume a few weeks ago, calls me and says I start in two days!

I like it, the hours are great. I go in at around 9 sometimes 9:30 – work actually starts at 7.30, but very little people come in at that time and then they spend an hour or so drinking coffee, reading news papers, and talking to each other. A: I don’t drink the office's coffee B: I don’t talk to anyone before 10 am C: reading the newspapers doesn’t take more then 5 minutes. So I skip all that and sleep or else I get snappish. I'm really coming in late for their own good. Best part is that I get to leave once I finish whatever it is I happen to be doing - that ranges between 1 and 3.

First week was kinda dull, but last week was much better and I hope it will continue to only get better. I'm meeting new people, learning new things and actually doing work unlike last summer's miserable internship. People I work with are young, funny and occasionally know what they are doing.

Weather hasn’t been that bad either during the day, the only thing that could make things a little bit better is if I had a shaded parking spot. Other then that I have nothing to complaining about.

Originally, the job is for two months, but they've asked me to stay for a longer period. I'm not sure about that, all senior year I was contemplating working or continuing my graduate studies and only 2 months ago I finally made a decision to pursue a graduate's degree instead of working and now this comes along. The best thing I guess is to see how the first two months go and then make my mind up, in the mean time go ahead with the process of applying to different universities.

A lot of my friends that study abroad are home for the summer and all they do is bitch and whine about the weather. Get over it. Seriously. You'd think they were born in Moscow or Alaska and haven’t lived their entire lives up until high school here. Just cause you've been living in more humanly reasonable climates doesn’t entitle you to whine. Ok I'll even let you say a thing or two, but khalas not every freaking time. It's getting old and I'm sick and tired of it. ahh I feel much better now.

Seriously???

2006-06-23T00:13:00.000+04:00

Seriously?? I mean really 3an jad?? Does this loser really think I'm going to call him?

I was at city center tonight, finding a parking there now is a nightmare with all the expansion and construction work going on. I usually avoid going on weekend nights but today was my brother's birthday (he turned 12) and he wanted to go to Chilies. Anyways, I parked my car and this dude asks me if I would be able to reverse on my way out, his car was right behind mines, it was probably just an excuse to talk to me, told him I was fine. We go in, have dinner, few hours later we leave. On the drive back home after I've reached the grand mosque on the highway (that’s like what 10 minute drive from cc) I then only notice a small slip of paper dangling on my window wiper. I point it out to my sister and I automatically realized it was that dude, my sister was telling me to slow down so the paper doesn’t fly away!!!! I actually wanted to move the wipers so it can fly away. Got home and took a picture of it.

And before you ask, I don’t have a "for sale" sign on my car. This subtle sly method is actually quiet popular, this isn’t the first time this has happened to me. Another way desperate guys leave their numbers on your car is by leaving a note saying they would like to buy your plate number and then include their digits.

Translate of note " if you want to sell your car, please call me on *******"

Disrespectful

2006-06-12T13:45:00.000+04:00

You'd think at a hospital people would respect the handicapped parking and leave it alone, but NO.

The irony is really in who is parked there. If you look in closely you'd see that they are two parking spaces, the first spot is taken by a "security patrol" car and the second car in the handicapped parking is a pick up that belongs to the Defense, hence the sandish paint job. Out of all people you'd think they would be the last ones to park there.

Fireworks?! No! Fire

2006-06-06T16:17:00.000+04:00

Apparently such incidents happen a lot during the summer, not sure why, but I'm guessing the excess pressure with most air conditioners on. But still this is a relatively new area we live in, these things shouldn’t happen. Let me tell you it was the scarcest thing waking up to that sound at around 3:30 am. It took forever for the police to arrive, they couldn’t find the area! Can you believe that. How incompetent! If your life is on the thread you better have your own gun to protect your family, don’t be counting on them.

Anyways at 4:05 the fire department arrived and some people from the electricity company came. By that time everyone was awake, at least 15 houses, people that lived directly from it moved their cars. It was a bit funny to watch from the roof, that’s where I took all my pictures and footage with my camera phone.

At 4:17, the fire died and the smell of the smoke was starting to get annoying. At 4:25 am they started to inspect it from inside, they went in with flashlights no fire extinguishers nothing. What if the moment they opened the door, another fire would start to explode? 10 minutes later everyone leaves, show over. go back inside to your houses. Of course by that time we had no idea when the power would be back. It was a b*tch trying to go back to sleep in that heat.

To make a long story short, power was back at around 5 pm the same day. so that’s 13 hours of no power. Why do I know the exact times? Cause I took notes.

Summer reading

2006-06-05T01:12:00.000+04:00

The other day I was talking with my dad and he was as always urging me to read more Quran and meditate and really look into my faith. And I said to him " I don’t think if I wasn’t born into Islam, I would have chosen it as my faith" and before you judge me, I meant that if I was an outsider looking in from afar through the media and the movies, and all the deaths and blood sheds that happen in the name of God and Islam.

So this is book number one of the summer books series my father wants me to read, I started reading it, reached page 4something and then I got sick (more on that in another post). Still too early to form any opinions, the intro is kinds dragging on but interesting nevertheless, a lot of people don’t really know what Sufism really is, I had a very vague idea on what it was so I'm glad to clear it up a bit, maybe by the end of the summer and after reading a few book and really looking into the Quran I could make my faith stronger and become a true believer cause now I have a lot of doubts and questions. And I have no problem saying that out loud either.

Let me find my own husband

2006-05-27T15:53:00.000+04:00

Mom Dad, Let me find my own husband

Crisis in Salalah??

2006-05-27T03:05:00.000+04:00

So what is really going on in Salalah? I've heard numerous people talk about the "situation" there and of course no official report has come out. Apparently, a few Somalians have managed to illegally cross the south border coming from Yemen. I have no idea how many of them or why, but my guess it's to get to UAE.

At night citizens and residents have been asked to carry their ID cards with them and there are various checkpoints. A large number of the army is around and even here in Muscat they are on stand by. Have there been any acts of violence or something? Why the need for the army force in such large numbers? What's the deal? All hush hush no official statement.

More importantly how does this effect the coming Khareef Festival (arabic) in Salalah that’s supposed to start in mid June?

Unofficaly over!

2006-05-26T16:27:00.000+04:00

So I finished! I actually made it through the semester and graduated. Well not officially, results still pending but I think it's safe to assume I passed. I just hope my extensive ditching and over sleeping and lack of attendance the last month wont bring my grades down. Attendance makes up 10%, but I have confidence in all the smiling and active participation I exhibit when I did attend!

Looks like its going to be a long summer. I've decided not to intern anywhere. Weather conditions just doesn’t encourage anything (40+ degrees) and its only going to get worse in June and July. Last summer's internship was miserable. I thought it would be more fruitful to volunteer and do some charity work. I'm taking this week off and by first week of June, I'll be going round the Orphanage in Al-Khuwair and the Children's Handicapped association in Al-Athiba and see what I could help in. I'm pretty good with kids and I think it would be fun and rewarding, aside from it probably being educational and an eye opening experience for me. I'm excited thinking about it. but not more exicted from finally graduating! 4 years! Wow it seems like only yesterday I finished highschool. Now I actually have a degree.

Next on my agenda is to get my results and starting applying for my graduate studies.

I took this picture while I was studying for my last final Tuesday night. i have my Advil, OrnaminC, and chocolate. All essentail for an all nighter. I had to gather up all the strength in me to study. I actually started studying at 9 pm and had to stay up all night.

Last night I went grocery shopping at Sultan Center (mom was out of town) and somehow one of my earrings managed to come undone and it fill off I looked around for it a bit but I lost hope, it was a large white gold hoop with diamond studs, I left my number with them incase someone finds it and turns it. I doubt it though. Just wishful thinking. Note to self: don’t wear heels next time you go grocery shopping. I have extreme respect for all moms that do this every week. I don’t mind it really I just hate having to push the cart after a few rounds.

Vent over.

The Da vinci code & Shatti Plaza

2006-05-17T00:30:00.000+04:00

Talk about disappointment! According to this Link . The da Vinci Code Movie was supposed to premiere here in Muscat Tomorrow Wednesday 17th of May. Which isn’t too hard to believe, some movies which are worldwide releases are shown 2 days before the States, Uk and other countries. Cause of the difference of the end of the working week and start of weekend. Wednesday nights are our equivalent of the West's Friday night.

Anyways For the past few weeks the movie's poster with the title "Coming soon" has been on display at Shatti Plaza. Today I passed by and it was gone! Vanished. Disappeared. Missing. Gone!

I had previously checked Shatti Plaza'a website and in the coming soon section, the Da Vinci code was set to starting showing on the 17th, even thought they did mention "TBC" which is code for To Be Confirmed. Today I check their website and it says the 31st of May including TBC. Excuse me? Shatti Plaza you suck. (Link)

I check Bahja's website and their next change section had "Failure to Launch" and "Get rich or die trying" and in the coming soon section The Da Vinci Code was not even listed.

Can you really trust these sites? I dread calling and hearing the recorded message cause I always have difficulty understanding what they are saying and not to mention its recorded in bad quality. Who knows maybe I'll be surprised tomorrow and they'll show it.

Good news is that the movie is not banned here. Its banned in Jordan and Egypt. Better late then never ha

Update1: Reviews for The Da Vinci Code are out and critics, journalists and viewers aren’t impressed! Why am I not surprised!

To quote

" At Cannes, one scene during the film, meant to be serious, elicited prolonged
laughter from the audience, and when the credits rolled, there was no applause,
only a few catcalls and hisses. "

Read through this links and reviews for more

CNN

Celebitchy

Rotten Tomato rate it at 0%

Moblogging

2006-05-07T00:58:00.000+04:00

My new obsession. I drink at least 2 a day. best served chilling cold.

Over the weekend I went by to check out the new Café "Caffe Vergnano 1882" in between MQ and Al-Khuwair in Al-Assrain complex. It’s a nice place. Loved the red walls. Not so sure the white leather sofas will stay white for a long time. Black 3bayas will do their damage! Sandwiches were nice. The coffee portions were a bit small compared to Starbucks and 2nd cup. But nevertheless managed to keep me awake till 5 am, I forgot to order my coffee decaf.

Why is this sign still on the road? Last I checked Portofino went out of business 5 6 years ago? Must be pretty confusing for tourist and people that are new in town, probably try to find the restaurant and probably keep going in circles. There are probably at least another 5 signs next to it, don’t they realize whenever they put a new one, It's about time this one goes. . .

The end!

2006-04-26T23:20:00.000+04:00

I apologise for my lack of blog posts and updates. Finals are in two weeks and all essays and reports are due, some I've submitted already. Minus a minor presentation on Saturday and the big enchlada (spling?) [ aka graduation project and report] due on Wendesday the 3rd of March. I still have about 20% (ok ok maybe more) of the project left and the whole report to work on. I have a week left or wait its 6 days. Its going to be a very long stressful week. Not looking forward to that.

“Procrastination or “task aversion” is the irrational delay of an intended course of action, even while expecting to be worse off for the delay (compare temporisation). The procrastinator deviates from the task, usually in favor of another more enjoyable (or less unenjoyable) activity. This behavior is pervasive throughout society - everyone procrastinates to some degree - but some people are so chronically affected as to be severely debilitated.” (link)

Serves me right ;-)

Achooo!

2006-04-26T23:12:00.000+04:00

What does your sneeze say about you? So apparently you can use your sneeze to gage your personality type:

If you're a single sneezer that turns away when you sneeze, Wood would classify you as a "nice sneezer." These people are characterized as being warm, helpful, supportive and nurturing of others.

Or are you the type to let a big loud sneeze out? These sneezers, or "get it done" sneezers, are found to be fast, decisive and to the point. They typically make the best leaders.

Do you always keep tissues handy and cover your mouth when you feel a sneeze coming? These are the "be right" sneezers and are typically the careful, accurate, deep-thinking type.

The last group are the "enthusiastic" sneezers, Wood said. These are the people with sneezes you notice — such as your grandfather whose sneezes perhaps terrify you, or your co-worker who always sneezes five times. The enthusiastic sneezers were found to be charismatic and social and have the ability to motivate others.

Pretty funny eh? I think I would characterize myself as cross between an "enthusiatic" sneezer and an "big loud sneeze." I'm famous for loud sneezes, some have even called my sneezes to be very manly . . whatever that means. Sneezes have genders? Once my sister and I heard this guy sneeze very loudily and she was like listeeen this guy is ur sneeze twin/soul mate!

Single GCC currency

2006-04-08T14:14:00.000+04:00

News that the central bankers of the GCC have agreed on the convergence criteria
needed to create a single currency by 2010 is a healthy development (Link)

Personally I think the Omani Currency designs are very unique and colorful. Here are a few pictures the Omani currency through the past 35 years.

This is the old 100 baiza. I think this dates back to the late 70s maybe? i could be wrong.
notice how it says "Sultante Muscat and Oman"

This is the most recent 100 baiza. FYI 100baiza is 1/10 of one rail. 1000 baiza =one rial.

Above - the old Rail. Dates back to the 70s or 80s

This is the rail that i think came out in the early or late 90s and still in use today. Out of the 3 i like this one the best.

Below- is the newest design that came out last November on the occassion of the 35th National day. Only 5 million notes were printed.

What do you think the single GCC currency should be named? The Rail, the Dirham, or the Dinar? or should they come up with something new to keep everyone happy? The Khaleeji?

Summer!

2006-04-03T20:12:00.000+04:00

Summer has offically started here in Muscat. Today while I was out it reach 34 C. Not very pleasent, and it only gets worse for the next 5 months. Brace yourself.

Deodorants and anti-perspirants are available in all local supermarkets at a cheap price for a reason ;-)

Reblog Links

2006-04-02T14:07:00.000+04:00

Check out more blog posts about Basma Al-Khumei's article "Women in Oman" on both Ali's and Sam's blogs. Both with very different points of views.

Update: Muscati - the Godfather of Omani blogs, breifly mentioned the article and his opinion on his blog.

Women in Oman

2006-03-24T22:49:00.000+04:00

Basma Al-Khumei wrote a very stripped and honest article on Women in Oman and the social, political and economic issues and positions. I’ve never heard of here before. The newspaper she was featured in Al-Quds Al-Arabi , I think made a typo error and stated that Basma is a a male writer from Oman. But after I googled her name i didn’t find any details about her or any other articles she wrote, other then a thread on the Omani Sabla about Muscat: Cultural Capital of the Arab world 2006.

I apologies for not providing a translation.

المرأة في عُمان: وزيرة تحت سلطة الوليّ

في بلدٍ لا تزال فيه للأعراف والتقاليد اليد الطولي، وهي الحكم حين يتعلق الأمر بالنساء، أو الحريم، كما في اللغة الدارجة والارث الفكري. ومما يؤسف له أن المرأة العمانية ـ علي عكس نظيراتها العربيات ـ لم تتمكن من الانخراط في أية تجربة نسائية حقوقية ناضجة وظلت حتي الآن بلا صوت مستقل يعبر عن قضاياها الحقيقية وبلا أية قدرة علي الضغط أو الفعل. وبسبب هذه السلبية والاحجام، استطاعت
الحكومة استغلال قضية المرأة لتلميع صورتها عربيا ودوليا، وأصبح تعيين المرأة في مناصب عليا، بشكل جماعي أحيانا، جزءا من الدعاية السياسية الحكومية والترويج للسلطة، وكأن حقوق المرأة وجهود حمايتها من الظلم الاجتماعي والتمييز الجنسوي تنحصر وتختزل في تعيين وزيرة أو سفيرة ولأسباب سياسية دعائية معروفة.

كيف يمكن تبرير التمييز ضد المرأة في مجال الترقيات ومنح الأراضي وقروض الاسكان وهو الأمر الذي أكدته تقارير برنامج الأمم المتحدة الانمائي ووزارة الخارجية الأمريكية. وفي الوقت الذي تشكل فيه الاناث 49.5% من عدد السكان، لا تتجاوز نسبتها خمس القوة العاملة حسب احصاءات عام 2003 التي تشير الي أن معدل دخل الرجل يصل الي أكثر من اربعة أضعاف معدل دخل المرأة. فضلا عن التمييز الواضح في الحصول علي مقاعد الدراسة الجامعية ومطالبة الاناث بنسب أعلي من الذكور لدراسة نفس التخصص

Personally I think that the discrimination on the accepted percentages to get into Sultan Qaboos University makes sense, at least to me. the system works that, assuming that year the University is going to accept 2000 students, then 50% of them are Female and 50% male. The higher you get the higher your chances are. Girls generally get higher percentages so its much more competitive. Would it really be a good thing if more then 80% of the student body were females? The solution isn’t to just focus on SQU and its system. But to provide alternatives and a few other state collages.

الا أنه من الانصاف الاشارة الي أن الفتيات لهن الأولوية في الحصول علي السكن الجامعي الداخلي، حيث لا يمكنهن الخروج منه الا بتصريح موقع من ولي الأمر، ويستقبلن زوارهن في أوقات محددة في قاعة عامة تحت أنظار المشرفات. ومن المضحك المبكي أن البعض قد تقدم باقتراحات لقطع الارسال الهاتفي في المدينة الجامعية بعد الساعة الحادية عشرة مساء حتي لا تستخدم الفتيات هواتفهن النقالة فيما لا يصح! وهكذا يتم التعامل مع الفتاة الجامعية كمشروع انحراف يجب مراقبته وتقييده

Excuse me! has someone really proposed this?? to cut off the network after hours so girls staying at the dorms cant talk on their mobile phones?? That is sooo retarded and beyond belief. I’m disgusted by the brain farts people manage to come up with. Ya3ni these girls are calling to talk to themselves or their friends? No one asked who is on the other line. Why not just cut off the network on the whole country after hours to prevent the whole population from becoming unmoral and save us from ourselves while they are at it. I mean why stop there? Sa7?

The article goes on to discussing Domestic violence, rapes and other lost rights:

وبين تجاهل المشرع وتغاضي المجتمع، تظل المرأة عرضة للتحرش الجنسي في الشارع ومكان العمل بل وحتي في المنزل دون أن يكون هناك أي قانون فاعل يردع الرجل ويوفر الحماية للمرأة التي تجد نفسها في معظم الأحوال مجبرة علي الصمت خوفاً علي سمعتها في مجتمع لا يعترف للمرأة بأي فضيلة سواها، ولا يتواني عن اعتبارها المسؤولة حتي عن الاغتصاب فضلا عن حوادث التحرش. فكما تعلمنا في المدرسة، من لا ترتدي حجابا تستحق الاغتصاب!! وفي الوقت الذي يتوقع من رجال الدين والمربين التدخل لعلاج هذه المشكلة الاجتماعية الخطيرة وحماية المرأة، ينشغل هؤلاء بالتصدي لـ ظاهرة حف الحواجب

She ends her article by saying:

أنه في الوقت الذي صارت ـ أو بالأحري صُيرت ـ فيه المرأة وزيرة وسفيرة وعضوة لمجلس الدولة، لا زالت هي ذاتها غير قادرة علي التصرف بشؤونها الخاصة، حيث سلطة ولي الأمر لا حدود لها، ونفوذه يطال كل جوانب حياتها كالعمل والتعليم والزواج والسفر. وفي مواجهة أسرتها ومجتمعها، غالبا ما تضطر المرأة للاستسلام والرضوخ والتنازل عن خياراتها ورغباتها المشروعة، وأبسط حقوقها كاختيار التخصص الذي تدرسه ومكان عملها وحتي الزوج الذي ستتشارك معه حياتها. وكثيراً ما يستغل الأب سلطته هذه، فيعضل ابنته عن الزواج من أجل الاستفادة من راتبها ان كانت تعمل، أو يتسبب في بقائها عانسا بسبب المهر المرتفع الذي يطالب به وكأنه يبيع جارية أو دابة، أو يمتنع عن تزويجها بمن
ترغب لأسباب عنصرية وقبلية ما أنزل الله بها من سلطان. وفي كل هذه الأحوال، لا يلعب القانون والمؤسسات الاجتماعية أي دور ذي قيمة لحماية المرأة وصيانة حريتها في الاختيار وتقرير مصيرها. وبعد الزواج تنتقل الوصاية من الأب الي الزوج، في مجتمع يتلاعب بمفهوم القوامة ويستغله كذريعة للتسلط وقهر المرأة والتدخل في أدق شؤونها لدرجة أن اجراء عملية لمنع الانجاب في حالة الخوف علي حياة المرأة لا يمكن أن تتم بدون موافقة الزوج، وكأن المرأة أحد ممتلكات الرجل وظيفتها الأساسية هي الحمل والانجاب ولا حق لها في أن تقرر كيف تستخدم جسدها أو تحمي نفسها من مخاطر الحمل المتكرر. ان حصول المرأة العمانية علي حقوقها الانسانية والاجتماعية وحمايتها من التمييز والتسلط، لا بد وأن يكونا ضمن أولويات الحكومة ان كانت فعلا صادقة في رغبتها في النهوض بالمرأة وتحسين أحوالها. وهذا لا يتأتي بالتغييرات والاضافات الشكلية الدعائية، بل بمعالجة المشاكل الحقيقية التي تعيق تمتع المرأة بحقها كانسانة لها كيانها وقرارها المستقل، والعمل علي توفير الضمانات القانونية الكفيلة بردع أي اعتداء علي كرامة المرأة وحريتها. هذه المسؤولية لا تتحملها الحكومة فقط، بل المجتمع بكل أفراده ومؤسساته بالاضافة الي المرأة، نصف المجتمع، التي علي عاتقها يقع عبء مواجهة تركة ثقيلة من العادات والتقاليد التي ليس لها من الاسلام الا اسمه.
For the full article ( Link )
Do you think this article will see light in any of the local newspapers? hahaha

My hat’s off to you Basma.

Ramblings

2006-03-23T21:39:00.000+04:00

It's Thursday night and I'm home. Past few weeks were crazy and hectic. So I guess it's probably a good thing I'm home. I have to admit I am bored and I can think of a hundred things I can do with my time but do I actually get anything done? NO.

Why am I so lazy? My family and friends think its cause I sleep more then I should (I disagree) and don’t exercise. I've had a plan to go to the gym for humm the past 6 months, I even took a trail Spinning class just one class! And I haven’t stepped into the gym since. It was MURDER. I couldn’t walk up and down the stairs properly for a whole week. All my leg and thighs muscles ached. and now that the weather is starting to heat up and summer is approaching, the chances of me going to the gym are slim. One of the reason I'm not to keen on joining any gyms is that I'm not too impressed by the ones I've visited. They are all overcrowded old and just outdated. But I would like to do yoga, anyone knows of a good place I can check out?

I've been doing a lot of reading, which is a bad thing. It is distracting me from working on my project. Finished Midterms yesterday. So that’s like the first alarm that the clocking is ticking, half the term is over and I only have roughly 7 more weeks to go. I haven’t started panicking. I usually don’t panic. At all. But I find myself worrying and welll terrified I wont get it done in time and even if I do it wont be good enough. It has to be top notch, anything else is just not acceptable. I've started a reward-punishment system to get working but that isn’t working. i'm just not motivated. There is just too much on my mind.

Ahh the life of a restless 20something neurotic student

Mayoo!

2006-03-05T14:25:00.000+04:00

I went by KFC today in MQ and like always, I asked for Mayo to go with my French Fries, not that I particularly like their fries but I was there so wth, the dude said NO mayo! Apparently the Municipality has banned them from selling it/giving it.

Any one knows the reason? Has the implemention only been in effect in KFC only? Or other fast food joints

Mcdeath?!

2006-03-02T13:30:00.000+04:00

The Massacre of Bambi

2006-02-26T15:56:00.000+04:00

Why did they have to take something so pure and innocent and name it after a breast enlargement process?!

Happy Birthday to Me!

2006-02-24T12:38:00.000+04:00

I haven't contemplate all that I have done the past year. Unlike every other birthday, especially last year . I've decided that this year I'm going to be more impulsive and not analyze, ponder and wonder if I had done enough, too much, or too little? No, not this year.

No lists – mental or written- no panic attacks either. Just live and be happy.

Yesterday was a great day, the rain and weather made it even more great. Although it almost canceled our plans but by 5 pm, after the sky cleared up, we decided to go ahead with everything with slight changes. Its too bad not everybody was able to make it.

I'll always remember yesterday for many reason, one being the most embarrassing moment EVER ( its climbing the charts pretty fast. And if you know what happened, laugh but by all means keep it to yourself). But I suppose it’s a lesson learned! Haha

Dog Attack

2006-02-22T00:55:00.000+04:00

My brother was telling me that a little girl in the third grade who lives on our street was chased by a really big dog two day ago. She got scared and ran, which provoked the dog even more and he eventually got to her and if it wasn’t for the kids playing soccer near by who heard her screams and helped her, I don’t even want to think what could have happened to her. It breaks my heart really.

Personally I don’t really like dogs or cats. I don’t want them harmed either, but if you are going to keep a big dog as a pet, please watch them closely and keep them on a leash when outdoors. I'm not sure what happened after this and how the two neighbors dealt with the situation. I'm hoping the girl's parents took action and called the police. If anything, to prevent this from happening again to her and to anyone else.

Another day

2006-02-22T00:42:00.000+04:00

So I've started working on my graduation project. And I'm not having much fun. The deadly diseases of procrastinating has hit me hard and I cant even think of a name for it. How can I work on something when I don’t have a name for it? I'm so artistically and creatively challenged, its so not funny.

Why cant I just fast forward to June and be done with my degree and unemployed? That’s sounds a lot more promising and exciting now.

I'm supposed to hand in the design of the homepage/ portal page tomorrow to my advisor and I'm not even 50% finish (its past midnight now). Not to mention I hate the work I've done so far
anyways. I hate to hand in incomplete incompetent work. Will try to get a continuous and work on it over the weekend.

The weather was great today, finished my only class today at 10 am and went to the beach, it was really nice walking barefoot under the cloudy sky. Cleared my mind.

Where are YOU??

2006-02-16T15:21:00.000+04:00

A few nights ago in one of those restless night, I was trying to fall asleep. And I thought to myself; I’m 21 (well not officially in just a week) Where is HE already??

I'm going through this numb stage right now, most days I believe love is just a myth. Other days when I'm hopeful, I think to myself it’s out there, looking for me as well. Or maybe its right there and I'm not seeing it. How can you be sure? I mean really sure, that defining moment people often talk about.

I would like to know someone before I can say I'm in love. I don't really believe in love at first sight BS. Is that wrong? I've always though that love comes after knowing someone, kissing someone, being around them. I love a lot of people. But I'm not IN love with anyone. Not raising any white flags just yet though.

You grow up with this image of an ideal world, hence, the image of an ideal love affair. In a world where there is really one person for everyone. And if that theory was sound. How do I know I'll even meet him? What if he is some farmer in Mexico? Or a buddiest in Nepal? Or ANYTHING… the list goes on. So that theory cant be right, right???!

In the end I'm just like any other girl, waiting and wishing for the greatest love story of time. I'm looking for love. Real love. Ridiculous, inconvenient, consuming, absorbing, insecure, can't-live-without-each-other love, crazy and event violent weak in the knees love. I don’t want someone that will treat me like some fragile glass that needs protection. I want to be with someone that will make me ill with jealousy and make me question my worth and my humanity. I don’t want a ready-made tailored relationship. I don’t want to be with someone that will want to tame me. I will not compromise on what I believe in or who I am.

When you're young, your whole life is about the pursuit of fun, then you grow up and learn to be cautious; you could break a bone, or a heart. You look before you leap and sometimes you don't leap at all because there's not always someone there to catch you. And in life, there is no safety net. When did it stop being fun and start being scary?

And even if I did want to put myself out there, where would I meet anyone here? Seriously, when I hear couples hooking up and getting engaged, I always ask “how’d they meet?” this haunts me! No joke. Guys here think the best way to pick up girls is to chase them in their cars and possible cause themselves neck strains. When will they invent laser eye popping/poking rays that comes out of your car directed at guys who stare at you longer then its appropriate.

Vent over.

Thank you for your patience.

Update

2006-02-10T16:38:00.000+04:00

I've sort of neglected my blog the past 10 days, I've been a bit busy, and classes have started. LAST semester! I cant believe its been 4 years! My class load is light , silly free elective classes. I've started working on my graduation project/thesis. I don’t know what I'm doing half the time so wish me luck!

Last Tuesday, the 7th I got to meet a few Bloggers! I was a bit hesitant to go and meet them all but I got over that. I kept thinking about how I would lose my anonymity but then again, a few people already know who I am, so why not?! It would be great to finally put faces to the personalities and blogs I read and fallow.

I got to meet LYM , Warda , Arabain Princess , Pizza Queen (a.k.a amo/Balqis) . I cant begin to tell you how sweet and warm they all are. Even though most of them already know each other from before, they made me feel completely at ease. Thanks guys : ) it was really nice meeting you all.

The person I really wanted to meet the most was Samyah , who was supposed to come but had to baby sit her cute little brothers. Recently, we have gotten to know each other and although we haven’t meet formally yet I count her as a friend and look forward to meeting her soon. We've planned on getting all together soon- Sam, Noora and I and if Tia is here from the UK for the Easter holidays- to finally formally meet. I'm looking forward to it.

On another note, something that’s been really occupying and dominating my thoughts. What am I going to do after graduation? I HAVE NO Idea. Too many options and I have a tendency to choose none when offered too many options.

its a bird. . its a plane. . .

2006-01-30T22:04:00.000+04:00

Saw this advertisement for DSL connection in a Lebanese’s newspaper yesterday and it caught my eye. What also surprised me is that Lebanon’s internet providers didn’t provide dsl service till now, we always complain and bitch about Omantel thinking nothing could be any worse or retarded. Maybe not?! regardless this add is much better then the one Omantel had, I cant find a picture for it but it went something like 13 million sites to download songs, movies etc etc with a picture of someone with headphones on in the middle of a dance. Obviously listening to ‘illegally’ downloaded songs or not! might have bought them off iTune. Or the other add with the horse “powernet” how lameeee!

Oral Health

2006-01-26T06:00:00.000+04:00

I'm looking for a new dentist. I've been going to Harab clinic in Qurm for years but want to change to another dentist. No reason really, good service and treatment is great too but I want to try something else. Any suggestions? Recommendations?

I've read that its recommended to visit the dentist at least once a year for a clean and up and general check up. Negligence makes things worse, the common excuse people come up with for not going to the dentist regularly is that they don’t have time, I also read a study somewhere that’s says as we age, our quality of life, general health, and self esteem is directly related to our oral health.

There isn’t enough awareness and knowledge concerning these issues here, I know a few people –adults- that have never been to the dentist in their life!! Shocking! But they think that’s a good thing and they say it like they deserve a reward. It’s the other way around actually! To the contrary, just because you've never been to the dentist does not mean your teeth are in good condition at all. I should know I had braces on for 1.5 years and I saw my orthodontist more then I saw my grandmother at that time.

A few articles, facts and studies about the importance of oral health and visiting ur dentist:

Link

Link

Link

OBA 2005

2006-01-24T19:52:00.000+04:00

Voting on the first stage has began and it only lasts for a week. So start voting, the top 5 blogs with the highest votes move on to the second and final stage for the title of the best Omani blog 2005.

(click on image for link)

(and it wont kill u to vote for me :P)

4 more days

2006-01-19T04:24:00.000+04:00

Today was my last full day in Leeds. Tomorrow at noon we leave to London for two days, come back late Saturday afternoon. And then on Sunday I leave back to Muscat! I arrive back home Monday morning. I cant wait. I miss everything! Right now I’m mostly worried about my packing and suitcase. I hope everything fits in and it doesn’t weight too much! I’ve already banned myself from buying another book. 9 is about enough! And if this time I don’t get my suitcase when I arrive in Muscat airport I will raise hell!

Too many Holidays?!

2006-01-17T21:52:00.000+04:00

Ever since Ramadan and that Eid holiday, there have been a bit too many holidays and time off. Especially for the Government (public) sector. Did they get any work done recently? Probably going to go down as the least productive months. Too much time off and then for the next few months absolutely no holidays. Talk about imbalanced!

A week for Eid. Then we had a few days off for National Day. Then the recent Eid holiday, work resumed on Saturday the 14th for only on Sunday the 15th Amir el Kuwait El Shiek Jabber passed away and they got 3 more days to ‘grieve and mourn’. Are u kidding me? Its holiday! Most ppl packed their bags and off to Dubai they went, sa7 Dubai Shopping festival was cancelled, but that wont stop anyone.

I’m sure there was one more holiday or occasion I forgot to mention. Also I feel really bad for those thanwyia (high school diploma) students who’s exams got postponed till Saturday.

Public announcement

2006-01-16T23:05:00.000+04:00

Changed my screen name from Wicked to Kay. It just seemed a bit too juvenile and time to move on. So if everyone could kindly change it on their blogroll if its not too much trouble.

Thanks.

P.S what do u think of my new template? Personally I was going to barf if I had to look at that shade of pink a moment longer. Change is good right!

Happy birthday F

2006-01-13T01:23:00.000+04:00

So eid came and went, if you aren’t back home with ur family then its not really eid. I wasn’t that sad though. I get to see my family all the time and I’m not really big on meat or eid to begin with. For me eid is usually a good excuse to buy more clothes and stuff, and sometimes trick my dad to taking us to Dubai. I was especially happy I didn’t have to be awake at the crack of dawn!

We finally got our luggage during the past week. We received Psycho’s bag on Sunday and mine’s on Monday, don’t understand why they couldn’t have delivered them on the say day, apparently they arrived here on different flights. Don’t care much now for details now that I got my bag. I did manage to go on a major shopping spree when I was bag-less, which was pretty justified, well that’s the excuse I’m going to use once I’m back home and dad gets the bill (insert evil face).

The airline claims to have 600 bags ‘misplaced/mis distributed’ in Dubai Airport that counts up to about 3 different flights from Dubai to Manchester. I looked all around the net for something or some news on what went wrong in Dubai airport, but nothing. Another friend flew in from Dubai directly to London the next day we left (Friday) with another airline and also no luggage. So its doesn’t seem like its the airlines fault but DXB airport.

In one week we watched 4 movies: Brokeback Mountain, Just Friends, Just like heaven, and Cheaper by the Dozen 2. Tomorrow Memoirs of a Geisha will start showing and we are going to watch that. I bought the book and finished reading it yesterday, wasnt that impressed really. It was really degrading and insulting to women I was disgusting and pissed off while reading it, even the writing was kinda flawed and weak, the story had a lot of potential but for some reason it didn’t match up. I’m hoping the movie is good. I saw the trailer and it looks good. Same director of ‘Chicago’. So I’m looking forward to it.

I’m adjusting much better to the cold weather now. The first two days I was a bit miserable and silently cursing myself on why I decide to spend my holiday here, but now I’m glad I came. I’ve really bonded with my sister, whom I’ve always had a rocky relationship with, we always constantly fight, its just we r so different and but I think we just got older and more mature and been accepting our differences, and we’ve even learned to be friends other then just sisters so yeaaah this holiday has been fruitful, also I wanted to use this little space of mine and wish her a very Happppy Birthday! You rock my baby sister! I may not like u all the time, but I love u to death.

Frreeezing cold

2006-01-06T19:04:00.000+04:00

Finally finished finals last Tuesday and early Thursday morning (yesterday) Psycho(my sister) and I hopped a plane, and now we r in coold very very cold Leeds. I’m freezing. I felt like my nose was going to fall off yesterday. The city is nicer then I expected. Well so far from what I saw today.

Our luggage didn’t arrive! Apparently there was some crisis in Dubai airport, where both flights from Dubai to Manchester got screwed! Something with the baggage belt distribution or something in the airport that the airline couldn’t contorl ( or so they claim), or was it that there were a lot of ppl trying to get into Dubai for the late Sheik Maktom’s funeral or trying to leave cause Dubai shopping festival got cancelled/postponed? Will post more details about this little episode later.

Our bags are supposed to be delivered to our apartment (flat! I refuse to speak/write in the British accent I just don’t get it, I few times today I had to repeatedly ask ppl to repeat what they said) – within the next 36 hours. The number they gave all the passengers to call is only a recorded message but I’ll find a number and person who u I can call and threat or something, if we don’t get our stuff soon. If anything to keep my sister from whining and panicking – she has her first exam on Tuesday and all her notes and papers r in her suitcase. I keep telling her to relax and stay calm, akeed by tomorrow or Sunday max we’ll get our suitcases. INSHALAAAAAAAAAAAAAH

Sleep Deprived

2006-01-01T17:06:00.000+04:00

And this is why I can’t sleep most of the times.

All day long u hear taaak teeek taaaak teeeeek. A few nights ago they were working to the wee hours of morning, by 2 am I was starting to get pissed off. Apparently something went wrong and the walls (sabee’a) collapsed and they had to fix it asap.

Isn’t there some law that prohibits loud annoying construction work after hours? And why do they have to start so early?? Ya3ni at least after 9 am!

Hunt

2006-01-01T01:59:00.000+04:00

My phone is on Crack

2005-12-21T22:46:00.000+04:00

My phone is officially on crack! I sometimes find myself fighting the urge to just throw it unmercifully on the wall over and over again. Why does this keep happening to me? god knows my phone is like an extended body part to me.

To make a long story short, since last week my phone has stopped ringing when receiving a message or on receiving anything new that belongs in the inbox. I don’t even get that pop up notice that I have new messages. I have to manually check my phone every now and then to see if I have anything new. And I don’t get the pop up notice telling me of any missed calls either, I have to manually go to the log and check it myself, this is slowly driving me to lose my sanity.

I'm contemplating just getting a new phone, but I don’t really want one. I like this phone and none of the new models tickles my fancy.

And NO I do not want to get it reformatted again! I just did that and they supposedly upgraded the software so wth is going on now less then 2 months later?!!!

Phones are supposed to be convenient and make ur life simpler, not labor intensive and worrying. I've only had this for 10 months, should I start shopping for a new phone?

stilll around!

2005-12-19T13:42:00.000+04:00

HI … just a quick note to apologies for my lack of updates the past week or so. Been extremely busy, deadlines and finals are coming up, friends from all over (uk, aussie, us) are in town for the holidays. My sister is also in town so things are a bit hectic and crazy. We have been trying to go to Dubai for a weekend laken haven’t been able to find the right time were all of us (the family) are free and available. Wish me luck on my finals next week!

What Does Feminism Mean To You?

2005-12-08T17:02:00.000+04:00

I am a feminist and what do I think that means?

It means I am a human being; it means I am a person ...not a household appliance, not a device for the comfort and convenience of a man or men, not a shadow of some other person, not an extension of another person, not a gift that "God" gave to male persons for their pleasure, not an item of public property to be told by the court or men how I may or may not use my body or my mind, not a natural re- source to be "managed" for the benefit of others without regard to my welfare, not a lesser being.

When I hear the word "feminism" I think of someone who is independent, do-it-myself. Feminism for me, is the belief that women are equal, not inferior to men. Not the same but defiantly not inferior.

Feminism isn’t about wanting to burn ur bra or not shave/wax. And Feminists don't hate men. They just don't want to be idealized or demonized, but instead treated as equal partners.

Being a feminist simply means I can make my own decisions, can expect to be paid a proper wage and be free from sexual harassment. I can dress how I want , choose the person I wish to love, and can work any job that I am physically and mentally capable of. I don't have to stay home and tender the kids, but I can if I want to. If God didn't give me the opportunity to have kids, I can be "ok" with it. I can expect my spouse to help with the house work.

Your "genderhood" should not impede you in any way. You should be able to choose any career and any lifestyle. Society should not be forcing gender rules upon you and your choices.
Not only that -- but I feel that BOTH genders should respect and support you in your choices.

Feminism is not about being "lady-like".
Feminism is about equal rights for both men and women.
Feminism is not about hating men.
Feminism is about breaking through traditional gender roles and finding your true inner-self.
Feminism is not about oppression of the other gender.
Feminism is about liberation.
Feminism is not "liberation" through sexual objectification.
Feminism is demanding respect that you deserve.
Feminism is not anger.
Feminism is change.
Feminism is not over.
Feminism is an ideology worth fighting for.
Feminism is not pink.
Feminism is making no more excuses for traditions.
Feminism is not an easy fight.
Feminism is defining your own identity.
Feminism is not about femininity.
Feminism is for women and men.
Feminism is not a lost cause.
Feminism is standing up for feminism.

Dr Pepper

2005-12-01T23:42:00.001+04:00

Since i cant find any Cherry Coke anywhere i've had to resort to this. sometimes i like this even more, just somttimes. i usally get it from alfair for 400bz but yesterday i bought some from Sultan Center for 250bz!! also in alfair i usually get the regular Dr.pepper but i found this lately and i've hooked

Omani blogs: Where to?

2005-12-01T16:13:00.000+04:00

Warda posted an interesting post about the status of Omani bloggers.

Blog Disparity

Not that this is a new issues. Muscati has talked about it before, but now with the increasing number of Omani bloggers, more alertness and weight is needed.

Warda says:
Have you ever realized how bloggers differ from one user to another and from one country to another? While Omani bloggers maintain a common norm of posting things in general with a reflection towards the country, their daily activities, music or news other bloggers are more daring and venture to discuss issues which we could not conceive of placing on our blogs.
We are motivated by nature to be more on the reclusive side and thus present ourselves in a perfectly acceptable light. If I am looking of variety and daring writers I cant resort to my Kuwaiti Bloggers, who reveal all and are not embarrassed by what they have to say. If I am in search of a political frontier then I resort to my Bahraini Bloggers who discuss all political issue and Bahraini policies. I have yet to venture out into other Gulf countries bloggers, even though I have a miniature idea of the blog style used in each, since I have a few listed on my blog

Grocery shopping

2005-11-29T01:04:00.000+04:00

My mom left to Barcelona tonight for work. I would have liked to go with her but with it being the last few weeks of the term I'm swamped with work and assignments.

So ladies and gentlemen, readers of my humble blog, for the next week I will be playing mother/housewife. I haven’t really been getting along with my 11 year old brother. With my sister gone, and it being just the two of us, we have taken the role and cat and mouse that was once crowned to my sis and bro. It just gets boring at home and u want to create shiwaa "action" and I hate how he always gets his way. nooo I'm not jealous, laken I believe young boys need discipline and I don’t let him have his way sometimes just for the spite of it. After daddy came back from the airport I asked him what he wanted for lunch tomorrow hahahaha, not that I would be cooking – just supervising. Maybe I'll score some points with him which I can save for when I need.

Also I'm supposed to go to the supermarket end of this week to get groceries for all of next week. My mom usually goes to Sultan Center, I've gone a few times with her and a few times myself so its no big deal. But honestly if u cant multitask going to the supermarket is not for the faint of heart. I only have two hands! You have the list, the trolley which after a few rounds gets heavy and u need to use both hands to push around (at least I do), then there's the 3bayaaaa which u have to hold sometimes so the wheels maal eeeel trolley don’t get caught in them, and then picking stuff up and putting it in the trolley, and god forbid u get a phone call or an urgent text u have to reply to asap. Humm what else I'm sure there's something I'm forgetting. So yeah wish me luck on my task!

Mom usually goes Thursday morning but of course I'm going to be dead asleep till noon, what would the best times be? Less crowd ?