Where is my lip balm?

Little bro has this habit of walking around the whole house when he's on the phone... and his phone calls concerning events, workshops, seminars can be pretty looooooooong... anyway, it wouldn't be bad if he'd just walk around, would it? The thing is... as he's walking around he tends to absent mindedly pick things up... fiddle with them, then "drop them off "in the most ridiculous places on his "trip" around the house... what does he pick up? Anything small enough to be held in one hand ... you name it... pens, small souvenirs, bracelets, nail polish .. whatever comes his way!!

Yesterday I had an evening class... he called me from the military base and told me he'd be home when I got back isA .... coooool...I got back home after a long day and found him getting ready to go pray 3esha in the mosque downstairs... so started clearing up the sort of mess in my room by the time he gets back ... "Now where is that tinted yummy lip balm I'd left on my dressing table when I switched bags before going out? ...nowhere to be seen ... maybe I never took it out of the bag? Nope ... not in bag .... not in drawer .... aha ... he moved it ... it must be him" ....looked around the house ... couldn't find it ... w ba3deeeiiin ... it's one of my favourites... waited till he got back and "politely" asked him :D ... "No, no I didn't!! Why on earth would I take your lip balm ?!??!" OK ... decided to let go of it ... it would show up one day .... then I heard him laughing in the other room ... went to find him holding the lip balm and grinning... it was in his pocket all along !!!

I don't want to imagine how his face would've looked had it dropped out of his pocket while he was praying !!

I miss my Dad

I miss my papa... I miss the way I used to come home and tell him things that happened at work... I miss sitting watching TV in the same room with him as he sorts out papers or reads an article.... I miss making breakfast with him... I miss laughing at his jokes.... I miss completing sentences he starts and doesn't finish (deliberately ... to see if I'll know what he meant to say).... I miss the way his eyes smile at me.... I miss his awkward hug...

Rabena yekhaleeh leena w yegeeboh for the Summer vacation besalaamah

Me no blogger

Alright... I am one LAZY blogger !! I don't even know if anyone still reads this! The scenario keeps getting repeated... I post something... then disappear for ages... then come back and say how busy I was... and that I'm fine... and maybe post something else. Is anyone here "borrrrrrrrrrred" ?!?!? *rolling eyes*

Just wanted to let you know I've been verrrrrrry busy... but el7amdulilah I'm fine :-P

Neighbours

I miss my neighbours back in Benghazi... I miss the family atmosphere... that's been making me get flashbacks of things that happened and how it was being a neighbour in Benghazi...

Back in 1985, when I was 6 years old...we had a horrible car accident... baba was taking us home from school...we were all injured... but I was the only one who had to stay at the hospital for a major operation to remove glass from my leg...anyway... I have vague memories of most of what happened... but what I remember most is the arabic comics our neighbour used to bring me in hospital... for me... they were "different" ... I'd only read English comics and stories... these were "new" :-)... I still remember this lady... she'd come and babysit me... and sometimes even sleep over when my mum had to go back to be with my brothers and dad... such a dear... God bless you Ubla Amaal...

I also remember when someone knocked on our door one evening to tell my Dad that our car that had been stolen a year and half earlier was found in a town called Derna ! This was the home town of one of our neighbours...so baba went with big bro and one of their sons to get the car... to this day... baba cannot forget the hospitality that he was met with by our neighbour's extended family there...

Big bro got married in Feb 2004... our neighbours were all dying to be here in Egypt to see S "their son" who'd left Libya 6 years earlier and never gone back since... when we got back to Benghazi after the wedding ... our neighbours made us one of the warmest parties I've ever been part of ...

Neighbours in Benghazi are about "being there for each other" ... they're about sharing with each other... they're almost family...

When someone's new to the building, the ladies get together and plan a "lamma" to welcome the "new lady" .... when someone gives birth... the same happens... when someone dies everyone is there to share your grief... in 3ashoura... I remember going up and down our building giving out plates of my mother's yummy 3ashoura... and we'd get loads of the traditional Benghazian boiled beans and chick peas... in weddings neighbours are always invited... sometimes it's even quite crazy when you're invited to your neighbour's cousin's wedding !!! Ahh.. Libyan weddings ... but that's another story altogether... needs a separate post!

I guess it isn't all as perfect as I make it sound... maybe I am a little nostalgic... but I do miss my neighbours... maybe because here in Alexandria I hardly know them ... even though I've been here for almost a year now... it feels weird to not really know our neighbours... I mean they're only 8 flats! Back in Benghazi, our building had 38 flats... and you can say almost everybody knew everybody... we weren't all "friends" but you knew the people who lived with you in your "big house"...

"And serve Allah. Ascribe no thing as partner unto Him. (Show) kindness unto parents, and unto near kindred, and orphans, and the needy, and unto the neighbour who is of kin (unto you) and the neighbour who is not of kin, and the fellow-traveller and the wayfarer and (the slaves) whom your right hands possess. Lo! Allah loveth not such as are proud and boastful" (An-Nisaa:36)