Our old, small cricket bat

So, I'm back with my parents... back to my room... felt nice yesterday having a read before going to bed... I hate reading on bedside lamp light so I always have the main light on when I read before I go to bed... but I'm in bed... and no way am I going to get up to put the light off when I'm done reading... the light switch is quite near the head of my bed... but not near enough to reach by stretching my arm... so what do I do?.... you guessed ....use our good ol' small cricket bat always put handily next to my bed ;-)

Hopeless shopping :-D

A few days before travelling I had to go and get an "OK" on my ticket...left the airline office and found myself in the middle of a area full of shops...with "SALE" written all over them.. so I say to myself... let's see... maybe find something nice... looked in an uncountable number of clothes shops...loads of clothes...loads of styles...and believe it or not... didn't buy anything !!! Think I got confused...couldn't take it all in...I don't know...seems I really can't shop very well in sales.. unless it's offers on skin care products...THAT I do very well on :-D
Oooops... I did get something ... a pair of slippers for my Dad :-D

Ramadan prayer

Was at the mosque last Saturday ... and it was awesome el7amdulilah... starting to get into the "Ramadan mood" ... we even prayed Qiyam and Watr (with lovely doaa).... anyway, mostly the sheikh was talking about how to get ready for Ramadan, and about Ramadan itself ..... and he told us to focus a lot these coming days on a certain doaa...

"Allahoma bal-lighna Ramadan"

Start praying everyone :-)
Ramadan Mubarak to y'all

Change of plans

Have been extreeeeeeeeeeemly busy the past few days ... plans have changed and I'm going to spend part of Ramadan with my parents (was supposed to visit them sometime later).... leaving next Tuesday for like 3 weeks or so....found it was better to spend like half of Ramadan with them, them come back here to spend the rest with my brother... still don't have a permanent job.. so this might be the best time to visit ... might not be able to go later ... got work that starts isA towards the end of October (temporary though) ... and one of the Centres I'm applying to told me a course could be starting, also on the 30th of Oct... so hurry, hurry me tells myself .... just enough time to visit my parents and run back to start work isA....
Still have to buy presents for some people, drop my CV in a couple more places, run a few errands, finish up charity work that is supposed to be done in Ramadan and I won't be here etc... pray for me everyone :-)

Raining in Alex :-)

I love love love it !!!!!!!! Today it rained .... no, actually it "poured" !!! Haven't seen rain for a few months ... haven't felt it on my hands and face.... haven't smelt the air after it for that significant smell rain always leaves behind .... enjoyed today's rain... El7amdulilah.... Lovely :-)

Still hurts ....

Yes .. it still does ... not the fact that he left me ... but "how" he left me... I don't think I will ever forget that ... ever.... Thank God I'm emotionally stable now ... 6 months after we broke up ... el7amdulilah ... I know we were not meant to be and that there was no "naseeb" .. and I've handled it ... it was hard to handle it though at the beginning ... why? ... simply cause he suddenly left .. so suddenly turned around... he seemed pre occupied that day ... asked him more than once to tell me what was wrong ... answer : "nothing nothing ... just stressed out .. loads of things on my mind .. work etc".... not like him to not tell me ... in our short engagement .. always confided in me and respected what I had to say... always turned to me in times of stress .... this time he said he just wants to be with me to enjoy our day ... I respected his wish .. didn't ask him again what was wrong... spent the rest of the day together, knowing that he'd tell me when he's ready to speak....ate till we were stuffed and bugged each other... looked in alleys we've never been to for a mosque to pray Asr .... talked about many things... work .... life ... ideas for charity work...memories of when his dad was having bypass heart surgery ... said he hasn't yet seen some of my cousins ... and I haven't seen his uncles... told him there was problem with one of the CDs he'd given me ... so he said he'd come and try and see what's wrong ..... looked at a really nice furniture shop and tried out sofas to see which was the comfiest and softest .... laughed about "made up" words that me and my brothers use and he learnt them.... looked at watches and we each picked what we thought the other would like ... and so on ........... all through it there was something wrong with him ... but he wouldn't say....

Next day his mum called and said weird things which indicated that we had to end it ... too complicated to write here ... not only complicated... contradicting and didn't make any sense ... don't think I can write it ... cause I won't know what to write ..... his mobile was switched off the whole day ... he just turned away and let his mum do the job ... why?

That part still hurts....

Talk to convince (2)

Another passage I really liked :

An athetist once challenged William Paley to disprove his contention that there was no Supreme Being.Very quietly Paley took out his watch, opened the case, and said: "If I were to tell you that those levers and wheels and springs made themselves and fitted themselves together and started running on their own account, wouldn't you question my intelligence? Of course, you would. But look up at the stars. Every one of them has its perfect appointed course and motion - the earth and planets around the sun, and the whole group pitching along at more than a million miles a day. Each star is another sun with its own group of worlds, rushing on through space like our own solar system. Yet there are no collisions, no disturbance, no confusion. All quiet, efficient, and controlled. Is it easier to believe that they just happened or that Someone made them so?"
"The Quick and Easy Way to Effective Speaking" by Dale Carnegie

Talk to convince

Want to learn how to be one of "those" succesful speakers ? Want to hold everyone's attention ?

No... no .. this isn't an advertisement :-D ... just that my brother bought one of those used books I never thought I'd find myself reading ... it's called "The Quick and Easy Way to Effective Speaking" by Dale Carnegie.... been reading it for quite a while ... quite interesting .... still haven't had the chance to apply what I've read though.... anyway .... today I started reading Chapter 9 : Making the Talk to Convince ... voila !! ... what a coincidence !! .... with all the online debates around ...

Here are excerpts I liked :

"My way of opening and winning an argument," confided Lincoln,"is to first find a common ground of agreement." Lincoln found it even when he was discussing the highly inflammable subject of slavery,"For the first half hour," declared The Mirror, a neutral paper reporting one of his talks,"his opponents would agree with every word he uttered. From that point he began to lead them off, little by little, until it seemed as if he had got them all into his fold"

"Is it not evident that the speaker who argues with his audience is merely arousing their stubborness, putting them on the defensive, making it well-nigh impossible for them to change their mind? Is it wise to start by saying, "I am going to prove so and so"? Aren't your hearers liable to accept that as a challenge and remark silently, "Let's see you do it"?

"Is it not much more advantageous to begin by stressing something that you and all of your hearers believe, and then to raise some pertinent question that everyone would like to have answered? Then take your audience with you in an earnest search for the answer. While on that search, present the facts as you see them so clearly that they will be lead to accept your conclusions as their own. They will have much more faith in some truth that they have discovered for themselves. " The best argument is that which seems merely an explanation."

I wonder.... continued

Been thinking about these "discussions" where people are virtually yelling sometimes..... and how people may find it easier to express themselves through writing.... personally I find talking a better and easier way to express myself... maybe it's cause when I write, all I have is my words to express what I have to say for myself.... there's no intonation... no stress on certain words.... these change how a sentence sounds and feels... I know some people have the talent to be able to express even that through writing ... but I don't, and I guess lots of people don't as well... ever thought how simple words said in different ways can change what you mean completely? Take for example something as simple as "I'm sorry."It can be said in a tone which shows the person is really sorry... and..... can be said in a sneering tone ... which gives a completely different meaning !! .... both are written the same way ... yet give entirely different meanings.... same goes for almost everything.... intonation and stressing on certain words in your sentence really do change the meaning ...

But then again, some of what I've read is just so plain rude that whatever the intonation, and wherever the stress in the sentence, it still is rude ....

I wonder .....

I don't get it.... been reading discussions (if I may call them that) on the blogsphere, and I am gobsmacked.... Can't we discuss things without snapping at each other ?!?! Can't we voice different opinions without biting each other's heads off ?!?! Can't we disagree without being so aggressive ?!?!? Sarcasm... hostility.... mockery... it's all there ... and it's awful ... I wonder if these "discussions" took place in real life ... would those involved be behaving in the same way ?!??! I wonder ......

Old friends...

Was clearing up a few things and I came across a bunch of old photos... lovely ... I love photos.... anyway .. got me all nostalgic and I suddenly felt I miss my old friends ... and made me thankful that I had the opportunity of making this diversity of friends....

Infant 1 & 2 ( which is like kindergarten and Year 1): Stephen (English) and Daniel (Scottish) ...don't really remember much ... just that you 2 were so much fun ....

Infant 3 ( Year 2) : Stephen and Daniel left ..... Marta (Polish) was my closest friend that year .... there were also Kinda (Yugoslavian) and Sophie (English) ... still remember how we all were amazed by your "break up barbie" which could bend her legs and arms Kinda !!!!

Junior 1 through Junior 6 ( Year 3 through Year 6) : Still Marta... with loads of us going to each others houses for lunch ... and her brother Michael was best pals with my brother too... so the visits were even more fun........ there was also Chan-Joong (Korean) who was a character !! .... I can still picture him in class discussions when he'd look up at the ceiling to try and remember something he wanted to tell us out of the tons of books he'd read.... I have your pic. Chan-Joong, sitting in my birthday party aside reading my big brothers pocket aircrafts book while all of us messed around :-D Sure you're doing a great job wherever you are now.....

And loads of others ... Radwa, Jawad, Saira, Agnieszka, Sundeep, Setor, Kristi, Pedro, Robert, Rami, Maria, Lucas, Nadia...... BIG salute to all of you wherever you are !! :-)

Prep school : Farwa (Pakistani) .. you were such a dear ... and we stayed in touch for ages after you left ... wonder why we stopped ... will try and dig up your address and send to you....... Yvonne (Banglandeshi) ... she was my best best best ever ..... got so used to each other and so much into each others cultures ... our familes became friends .. and the visits were family visits ..... Walid (Palestinian) ... still in touch ... we send offline messages every light year ... hope you're doing well in Lebanon now :-)

Secondary school: Still Yvonne ..... and also Nada (Libyan English) .... still in touch with Nada (in England) ... and we were on the phone together a few weeks ago .... she's getting married next Dec. isA .... do miss you Nada loads and loads ... and next time you're in Egypt we'll meet isA....