GUILT

I don't know why I am feeling guilty all of a sudden for not keeping up my blog, even though I have been back from my trip back home for a little over three weeks. I am back to my normal routine, getting ready for the cold, no snow yet (thanks god ) but still quite cold, back to work and the daily grind of working away at your desk. Having to leave the house at 7:20 a.m when it is still dark and returning home between 5:30 and 6:00 when it's dark again, but I have managed to overcome this feeling of darkness by looking forward to spring and summer which is quite beautiful here in the prairies.
My eldest son is still giving me grief by not wanting to keep up with his schooling and I am trying not to give up on him. I know that he does not realise that what he is doing will affect all his life for the next coming 50 years or so, he is still too young to comprehend that the bad choices we make early in life and which appear simple when we are young will actually be what we live in our future . I am trying to make him see that what he is doing is not right and that he has no right to give up his education just because he doesn't feel like studying. My boss told me to take my son for a drive in what is known as BUM town here, and let him see for himself what the bad choices can lead to, or else to threaten him that if he doesn't continue his school I will throw him out. Of course throwing him out is not even an option, I dont think I as a mother can actually do it , because I think that for someone who has been coveted all his life, to find that kind of freedom it will just make him loose whatever last bit of mind he has. I have told him repeatedly that I understand that as a young man he needs to feel independent, but even in independence we have rights and obligations but of course I think he is just standing there without even listening to what I say, but I have to keep on trying.
Hopefully, he will come to his senses when it is not too late.

AT LAST

That's it ! It is confirmed ! I am finally packing and going on my long awaited trip back home to Libya. The timing couldn't have been more convenient, since winter is fast approaching here the chance to get much needed heat and sun couldn't have come at a better time. My problem is to decide on what to pack ! I wonder if I will have the chance to enjoy some time at the beach ? anyway too many questions and too many last minute things to do, but Sis looking forward to seeing you ! I don't know if I will have time to check my emails or do any blogging but will try .

HAPPY EID

I guess that after being away for so long and not wishing everybody a Ramadan Mubarak , I should at least make amends and wish everybody a Happy Eid.
I have been extremely busy this whole summer, with my parents visiting, the boys out of school, my full time job, etc etc , anyway I hope that with winter coming I will be back to my normal pace. I have a tiny hope in my heart that I will get the chance and travel back to Libya even if it is just for a couple of weeks. I really need to go , even though I saw most of my family here I feel that I should go, I want to have time out with my friends, relatives and just to walk around Tripoli. Hey sis I really miss you and the baby, she has really grown and that last picture you sent was just georgeous. HAPPY EID.

BREAK ? YES ? NO ?

Sometimes it is better not to take a break ! My 1 month break which I had planned and booked well in advance to travel back home to Libya, did not happen, or rather my homevisit did not happen. Since my mother came to visit , my father came as well and we decided to take the vacation here in Canada instead. Everything went well, lots of excursions and events going on, so we decided to take the train for the coast to coast experience. It was a 24 days trip with stops along the way and the chance for us to visit my sister and her kids in Montreal. The train trip was great , we saw lots of beautiful and breathtaking spots, it really is one of the best vacations I have taken even though the sleeper cars are not that comfortable but anyway on our way back the VIA rail decided to go on strike and left us stranded in Winnipeg. They offered us alternatives, either fly or travel by coach. We decided to use the coach since it is also a chance for us to finish our sightseeing, but now that I am back at the office I think I need another break. The weather is still gorgeous and we still have a couple of weeks to go before Ramadan so I hope we can fit in more activities before we start our winter hybernation and I guess I will have to travel to Libya some other time maybe before the year end. I have been so looking forward to going but better late than never.

DISGUST

I really am disgusted at the way some bloggers have been voicing their frustrations and inability to cope with their individual situations and blaming it on either the Libyans as a whole or the country or everything and everybody except the actual cause. To say that the streets are littered with garbage shouldn't really be a problem because it is something that we all have to deal with and can see, not to like libyan food or any other food is also not a problem because it is a personal taste, like who can eat monkey brain ? raw fish ? barely hatched eggs with the chick inside ? frogs ? horse meat ? dogs/cats ? snakes ? the list goes on and on but like I said everyone is free to eat what they want and what they are accustomed to , but does that give us the right to say that because they eat something we don't like they are dirty ? they are smelly ? of course not.
The site name should be changed from all libyan blogs to all libyan haters blog. Once that is done then us LIBYANS WHO LOVE LIBYA (with its smelly food and people and garbage ) would gladly continue to blog on the all libyan blogs site and not have to worry about reading a new insult !
Blogging does not mean you can always be positive, but it does mean that you should respect others. To discuss negative aspects is not wrong but it should be done to find solutions and ways to deal with issues, I personally would love to see that people are made aware of these problems and how they can solve them, but by being sarcastic and insulting I don't see it happening. We can all start by changing ourselves and our immediate circle and then like a puddle it will enlarge itself to include everybody.
Now having said all the above , it really is time for us to be constructive and not destructive.

MONEY WORRIES

Just talking about money gives me a headache. It is amazing how living in what is known as an industrialised country is stressful. Even if you make enough money by working you end up with less than 25% of it at the end of the month. Let us start with the taxes before your money even hits your bank account, then it is time for rent, car and insurance payments, power, utilities, credit card, gas, and last but not least groceries. Now you barely have a couple of hundreds in your account and you think okay now I can maybe have a break and go out somewhere or invite some friends over, but reality soon sets in that you better not because of the economic situation and what is going on and how businesses are doing really bad, and the downsizing of the employees and that you might be out of a job ! Every body is gloomy, and I thank god that at least it is summer and the weather and sunshine is free to be enjoyed by all, but imagine if all this gloom carries on into winter what it would be like !
Like I said it is summer and the weather is amazing, so some positive thinking will go a long way.

TIME FLIES

It's amazing how time flies sometimes and how slow it is some other times, but I guess it is all relative to what a person is going through. I appreciate the advice I was given by the fellow bloggers about boys and how they should be handled, and I have actually come to an understanding with my son that I was only concerned about his future meaning his academic and professional development being my main concern and that I wasn't against him enjoying being a teenager , so I hope INSHALLAH that he will sort himself out.
My mother has finally arrived and we have decided that the best way to enjoy her visit was to do what the tourists do, so we set up a program with all the interesting places to see and go to. We are doing okay so far, the weather is improving, we are enjoying some nice spring sunshine and temperatures ranging between 1 and 10 degrees allow us to do lots of outdoor activities ( we had some snow ) but it was only for a couple of days so there was no build up and it melted away. I did not take time off from work even though I wanted to but I am saving it for my trip back to Libya in summer and my mother said that it was okay with her to stay home in the morning and catch up on some sleep. The boys get home before I do and they like it that lunch is always ready and the house smells of delicious food and it is a chance for them to act responsible and sometime take grandma shopping downtown until I join them on my way from work. So all in all we all needed this . My mother's first impression of Canada was WOW this country is really huge, and according to her even if the population of the whole world comes to settle in Canada it won't be enough, there will still be lots of space. It is not just the wide open spaces, but the monster trucks, the cars, the malls and the food portions as well. One person's serving equals a serving for 2 or more in Europe , as well as the giant burgers ( she just can't get over it ) .
I am enjoying this time very much and thank god for this beautiful time and may Allah bless all mothers !

BOYS

I would like some advice/feedback from the male bloggers with regards to my dilemma. My son who is or should I say was doing really well at school seems to have decided that being in senior high means that he is done with studying and it is time for him to enjoy himself.
I am and try to be a mother and a friend at the same time, because I found out really early that parenting wasn't an easy thing. I try to discuss most topics with my boys and keep an open mind, and I make sure that I am not judgemental so imagine my surprise when the first thing I see this morning in my inbox is an email from my son's teacher/advisor informing me that my son is being late for classes, his marks are slipping, and that something is not quite right and of course it is her duty to let the parents know. I of course freaked out and called her on the spot even though I know that we are not supposed to do that and call only during lunch time or arrange for a meeting by email, but of course I just couldn't stop myself, so I called her and apologised for disturbing her but of course she told me she couldnt talk as she had class but will call me back when possible. I sat around for the next couple of hours trying to concentrate and complete my work but it sure wasn't easy, but anyway she did finally call me .
Apparently my son who is 17 , is just not paying attention in class anymore, texting and receiving messages on his phone when he is supposed to have it on silent and not use it in class, (but they are allowed to bring it to school with them for safety reasons), and of course giggling when reading the messages and just not giving a hoot about what is going on around him, so of course in cases like this the parents are notified. She thinks all this has to do with a girl he started hanging out with !
After thanking her for letting me know , I sat in my office trying to figure out a way to approach this problem, but I finally gave up . I usually pride myself on finding solutions for most problems but in this case I really dont know what the best approach would be, that is why I would really appreciate receiving feedback. I know this is a phase he has to go through and that it is not a big deal but for him to let it affect his studies right from the beginning this is what is bugging me. I am ready to choke him , but of course I can't, I have been going through different scenarios in my head but they are all just too not realistic, and I feel that I am just too emotionally involved in all this and not thinking straight. Of course saying this doesn't solve the problem , I try to think how I would react if it happened to someone else but I couldn't come up with a solution because I am too worked up. I am thinking that maybe I will think of something in a day or two but I can't imagine myself sitting around and not saying or doing something for a day or two, so if you bloggers out there care to help me out , I sure would appreciate it.

VISIT

My mum has finally agreed to come over for a visit, she arrived last week but is staying over at my sister's place for some time and then will be flying out to stay with us. My kids and I are so excited we have made all sorts of plans already. I just hope that the weather improves or at least doesn't get worse for us to enjoy our outings. My youngest son thinks he should be the tour leader because I get in late from work , so he should take care of his grandma while I am at work. Well I guess I will just have to wait and see how he copes but I am sure he will do great , since like they say,
like MOTHER like son ! or at least my version of the saying.
Shahrazad, I am waiting for my Basboussa, (this is one of the sweets) I love , so please hurry up and show me the steps. Thanks in advance.

LOVE

I woke up this morning quite decided to be in love with the world !
This decision is for me to judge if by loving everybody and everything my day will be smooth sailing so to speak. So when waking up at 6:10 a.m, I got ready first, switched on my coffee machine ( which I fill the night before ) prepare breakfast, then wake up the kids, it is now around 6:30. The young one jumps out of bed and dashes into the bathroom, I let him have about 15 minutes then I start waking up the eldest one. He of courses only wakes up when my voice gets louder and I start trumpeting, after I pull off all his coverings he rolls out of bed and of course if he walks towards the bathroom and the door is closed then he knows his brother is in there and he starts questioning about the sense of me waking him when I knew that the washroom is actually occupied. So of course that is another reason for him to start moaning, but of course this morning I decided to ignore him and start to tidy up a bit . I completely ignored him and managed to be out of the door at 7:10 to take my young one to his school bus stop which is just down the road. I get there, stand around until 7:29 thinking that the bus is not going to show up so I decided to go back uphill to the house and just drive my son to school. When I am about half way up, huffing and puffing down comes the bus and of course we have to retrace our steps running so as not to keep the bus waiting ! Now I have to go back up the hill to the appartment to pick up my bag and drive myself to work, but what do I see as soon as I open the door, my eldest sitting or should I say reclining on the sofa, drinking a smoothie and watching TV. After standing there for I dont know how long (with my mouth hanging open of course ) I ask my son what is going on and he replied as cool as can be that he was waiting for me to drive him to school since he knew that I wasn't taking the bus because I have to do some grocery shopping on my way in from work. Since my decision was not to blow my cool I simply said no to him and walked away . I think he was more shocked than I was when I saw him, but of course that didn't stop him from moaning and complaining, but I just told him that why should he even think that I will drive him when I just took his younger brother to the bus stop, I give the same treatment, I don't differentiate and that was that ! If he wants to go to school he knows the way to his bus stop and that he has to go because there is no way I would let him stay home, so after much muttering under his breath , he finally opens the door and leaves . GOOD, now after all this and I am still deciding to keep loving the world.
I go down to the parkade, get in the car, leave the building and start on my way, of course it being around 8:10 the traffic is just horrendous, and there is a rollover and trafic is only allowed in one lane so what used to take me 20 minutes stretches into 45 minutes, but guess what I have the radio on , and still decide on being smiley. I am sure the other commuters were wondering about my big smile, or maybe they thought I was on my cell phone I don't know but I just kept smiling away. Got into the office, started the daily routine , kept smiling but I have to say that by noon I thought my jaws have locked and what started as a smile soon became a big grimace of pain. Well that decided it for me, NO MORE SMILING ! I will just revert to my old self , in comes one of my coworkers who is quite nice and asks me what is wrong ? I of course am puzzled and want to know what she means , so she said I saw you come in this morning with a big grin but now you seem to be in pain ? So this is the last straw , from now on no more smiling around for no reason, smile only when necessary or something funny is being told. Believe me trying to love the world apparently isn't easy, do you think it is because we just have too much going on , or is it because of our daily grind, or that smiling for no reason is just not done any more ! I guess Toba really explains it !!!

April 1st

Today at the office we were told to make sure that our PC's were off once we leave the office, and not to switch them on tomorrow until the IT guy tries to access our company's server on a separate laptop, and all this because of the threat of the new virus, and this made me remember when the Computer world lost it on the eve of the year 2000. Back then nothing happened, so lets hope that this is another hoax.
I have a great interest in food, and I appreciate it, but unfortunately it seems that everytime I like a place the first time, my second experience is never quite as pleasant as the first, I don't know if it means that I should diversify and not go to the same place more than once, but that will cut my choices and narrow down my options, or whether it is because I am a perfectionist and when I go out to eat I want it to be really exceptional, of course I am not talking about the regular Pizza, sandwich or burger, but rather the sit down restaurants where the meal is enjoyed over a couple of hours, with adults for company and a varied discussion but the other thing is that people in my age group have young children which need supervision so they can't actually go out in the evening unless they get a babysitter and then every half hour or so they have to call to check on the kids, so in the end I think why bother and just go with my husband and enjoy each other's company.
The good thing about being away from your home country is that you get to spend so much quality time with your spouse and children, and you focus on them only and your spare time is for them only. I think for a family to bond they should have this sort of sabbatical from our regular social hectic life. This does not mean that I don't miss it, but I am grateful as well for this chance to be really close to my kids who are young adults Mashallah !
I really liked one comment made by a blogger some time back where he said that he thinks that blogging has become female rantings ! This comment is really brilliant and I congratulate whoever is behind it ! I think it truly describes blogging and why not !
I personally don't like to go into politics, or news so maybe the female rantings is the thing, I dont know, let's just wait and see....

HUNGRY

Saha, Shahrazad ! Your babkbuki really made me hungry. By the way I tried to write you a comment and after writing it wouldn't publish so I dont know why, something might stopping the publishing on your blog. I will keep my comment short except to say that my coworkers were drooling over the bakbuki, and they are all waiting for me to do something about it! Hmm, maybe I will have to ask them over, or bring it into the office, we will see.
To be told that I am suffering from depression just because I dont understand it when someone doesn't like to mix with people, well ......
I rest my case.

Prayer

Today, while sitting at my desk working and listening to the Egyptian Radio live broadcast, the Maghreb Adhan came on and I found myself listening with tears in my eyes. I never realised how much I missed actually hearing the Adhan at each prayer, and the Friday Khutba. When in Tripoli I lived near a Mosque, and listening to the Adhan was really beautiful, I remember on Friday specially when all the neighbours men would walk down the road with their white robes and the children following and playing along the way, the women waving at each other from the doorways and then making the family meal which will traditionally be Couscous. So you can imagine how hard it is when because of the cold you rush from one place to the other and don't even have time to stand and say hello, or enjoy the scenery which is quite breathtaking. The views are remarkable, the sunlight is dazzling, everything is nice but the most important thing missing is the human touch. Which is something I was discussing with a friend who used to be in Libya with her family, she made her husband give up a good position with great expat benefits just because there werent enough places to go to for eating , and she didn't like that people were trying to be friendly and always inviting them over etc... so I told her that I hate where I am at the moment because of exactly the lack of what she had plenty of ! She said she preferred to be left alone, and only go where she wants. I told her that this was the way that people show you how much they care and they thought they were being friendly and they didn't want her to be lonely or to be homesick, but our discussion was just a waste of time because she really did not understand it ! This makes me wonder why ? Why is it so strange that people actually want to make you feel welcome ? why is it considered that it is an imposition ? why is it uncomfortable to some when the whole purpose is thought to be good ? I am baffled ! I do understand that a person isn't always feeling social, but not always , and being in a strange environment would actually make you want some type of human contact, other than your immediate family, but like I always say it takes all kinds to make this world .

Thanks everybody

I would like to thank everyone who has posted a comment and assure you as well that I am not angry or anything like that, it is just that life is unfair . ...
We don't always get what we want, I remember the first time I had a fight with my husband and packed up my bags and gone to my parents, my father gave me till 6 p.m and then called me into the sitting room to be on our own, and said to me : I only have one question for you, so I said ok dad go ahead I am listening. His question was : The man you married, who's choice was it ? Of course I replied that it was my choice, so he said : I have nothing more to add, except to tell you that you just have to take your bags and go back to your house and sort it out there.
I sat there with my mouth hanging open , and my dad just opened the door to the sitting room and went out, I of course went straight to my mother in the kitchen and started crying that parents are supposed to stand by their daughter, and that my husband will never respect me because my parents did not give him hell, blah blah on and on until I finally understood that I am better off by going back to my house and ranting at my husband and not speak to him for about 2 weeks and then life just went back to normal. Since then I learned to never complain to my parents because they just weren't going to be involved. Now many years and 2 children later and being away from my country and parents, I am thinking that my dad is actually the greatest and my mother too of course, for not actually getting involved and letting us sort it out.
Amazingly enough my husband thinks that my parents are the greatest because they never got involved in our squirmishes, like so many of his friends who have to deal with the wife and her parents too, anyway to cut a story short, we all make choices and no matter how bad sometimes things are , I personally would never think of exchanging my life with someone else, I am just happy that I am alive and well and that things do happen and we can't always understand nor expect everybody else to understand, so if I was a bit on the flip side , please forgive me and I do apologise.
Now, I would love to post some photos, we have beautiful scenery here, but I have come to realise like my singing that I wasn't the best at photo taking which actually makes me want to take some classes ( whenever I have the time ) , In this life you are either artistic or not, so obviously I am not . I can describe what I see from my office window or the view from our appartment building, but of course it is not the same, all I can say is that everywhere you look the blinding glare of the sun on the white snow is unbelievable, the cold is cold, the air has a knife-like feel to it, the crunch sound under the tires or your shoes is just like crunch !
I am very excited about Shahrazad's cooking blog, I personally am a very good cook but I always like to learn new stuff, I would like Shahrazad to post a recipe for Fasouliah (Beans) the Libyan way, Macaroona Mbakbaka, Chicken Tajine with vegetables and Reshta.
I do miss Libya, the sounds and smells of the Souk Al Turk, all the weddings, baby sboua's, the Lama for no reason, the Eid get together, the Friday Zarda everything except my mother in law and her daughters, there I said it .. It is really amazing how much I abhore them , and if I start ranting about them it is a never ending story so I better not, just mentioning them started my blood boiling and like Music Lover said it is not worth getting all worked up and ending with an ulcer when the world is actually going on with or without me.
Life isn't always as we want it , but we should make the best of what we have.

LIBYAN THIS, LIBYAN THAT ......

I have been trying to decide if I should continue this blogging thing or if I should just forget about it and do something else worthwhile, but it still did not stop me from thinking why do we have to be judgemental...
Libyans are and and and and
I think I have demonstrated how the Ajnabia thinks of her hubby ! ( I am surprised why they still stick around )
I personally said that in general the foreign women (irrespective of nationality - just the non libyan ) are well respected within the society, nothing was said about sadist, rapist, abductor, torturor etc.. we all know that it takes all kinds of people to make this world, but we are supposed to be talking our modern everyday social life and not what goes on behind closed doors or weird conditions.
Anyway, each one of use has the right to her opinion.
As for saws hanging over a doorway and being there for ever just goes to show that nothing catastrophic must have happened or else they would have been moved, ( you could have just mentioned it to the storekeeper and told him in a joking fashion that it was a weird place to showcase dangerous equipment, and left it at that - he could have taken the hint and changed its place or maybe not, it is up to him ),
Not carrying coins around, people would if they had coins to carry, before the European Union no one would tip in coins but now they do because the coin has a value and it is in circulation, as for kidnapping and and ... anyway the list is just too long.
I think we need more positive thinking in our lives, and please don't start again about Libyan this , Libyan that.

What Exactly Happened

Can someone tell me exactly what happened. I was surfing the web pages for some features, so I started goofing around to find what I want to post and what may be suitable and
imagine my surprise when I found that they have actually been posted. Thanks god not everything did get posted, I was logging into some stuff to see details and how it would look, but I am sure having on my page would have been quite shocking, ugh. That should actually teach me not to have my account open while trying out things ! I am lucky it was only my packed suitcase which I have open and ready for my travel in JULY, and the one in the boat is how it feels being stuck at WORK. I come in the morning dazed and sleepy, after my first dose of cafeine, I sort of wake up, and start doing some work, then lunch time comes and I have my lunch which makes me go back to step 1 where I have to resort to the cafeine again, and the good thing is that by 5p.m I am wide awake but dead tired, so really I think I am due for a break before I break. So anyway my advice to anybody who is interested don't surf the web while you have your page account open.

Simsim

Our Life

After being absent for a couple of days, due to an increased workload (at the office) and being dead tired by the time I get home, with time to do a couple of chores only, today I have decided to dedicate my lunch time to going over blogs.
First of all, thanks Shahrazad and congrats on your new twin sisters !
Now my question is : how come only foreigners get to see the weird stuff that is going on in our society ? Is it because when they are around, they are considered not even there ! or is it because the women present think that they dont understand so they just talk about anything and everything , no matter how trivial it is !
I know that in every society there are these little myths or cure miracles or whatever one wants to call them but I dont think that it is in each and every gathering that KT goes to, unless her entourage is a little bit uneducated !
Anyway, I would think that the Ajnabiyas living within Libyan society are somewhat even revered to put it mildly, and given priority treatments wherever they go, correct me anybody if I am wrong, so I was hoping that we can maybe get to hear how they enjoy living the life they do, and maybe they should compare themselves with their peers from back home, or their school friends and what they have become and what type of life they are living !
I know that we all have our opinions, and like it has been pointed out to me over and over again that we all have freedom of speech, but speaking for myself I find it a little too hard to digest that someone would pour medicine over their head to straighten their hair, (oil, lemon juice, BEER ) maybe, but .....
So folks like they say, the longer you live the more you see and hear.

LET IT SNOW

Just when I started thinking that snow was over and I kind of had all heavy clothing separated and readied for putting away, it started all over again. It ruined the weekend and it has been snowing and snowing non stop. Sorry sis, I didn't mean to upset you, and please dont worry about me or the kids, we are all doing great, and last week's depression was only because I am homesick and thinking of you all in Tip. As you can see from my countdown I am keeping good track of time. Writing it on the blog is not like sending you a depressing email, so there is really no need for you to create a storm and have everybody worried. Now I will have to be careful with what I write, since you are reading it. I will attach some really nice pictures once I have a free moment, you know I can't get my hands on the computer at home, cause of the kids of course ! and in the office during lunch time it is never really free time so ....
How come there are no updates on your blog ? baby keeping you awake ?
You know time passes and this will soon be history, so enjoy it while you can.

I am having a really shitty ( excuse my language ) day today at the office. I dont know why coworkers could be mean and spiteful, is it because they are jealous maybe , or maybe it is because they cant understand how people different from them could be smart and clever . They have to understand that when you do not originate from the same country as them , that is actually gives you an advantage because you have a different set of experiences and you come with a different outlook, we come from a bigger world where we mix more since we are not on an island at the end of the world like in their case. Please try not to be offended by what I am writing, this is just me letting off steam after a bad incident, and this is my way to complain.
Thank you for being patient and understanding and just knowing that there is someone out there who can understand the feeling is enough.

Here we go again, a new day and the countdown starts towards the weekend. This is really becoming very weird, ever since I started counting the days towards a certain date which has a special meaning to me I have found that it appears as if the days are slides in a projector where they just whiz past.
I dont know if this is just me, or it is actually happening. I find it very hard to believe that today is already the 18th of the second month in the year. Children are already looking forward to the spring break, but for us poor office people, we only have the yearly vacation.

It is interesting to notice that all working women are the ones who complain the most about working, I thought I was the moaning type but this morning I met a nice lady at the bus stop, and we started chatting and the first thing she said was that she was fed up of working already even though it was her second day at work ! can anyone believe this and here I am thinking that I complain after nearly 15 years of hard work, but what can I say ? Maybe all women are the same ! they all like to complain ! Anyway it was something for me to think about and make me feel GREAT.

Blogging

Hi Music lover,
I am really surprised by your comment, the whole idea about blogging is to actually make friends and share your daily experiences without having to judge anybody, it is like having a diary but where it can be shared. As for not saying that I am a muslim ( why not ? ) . I have been repeatedly asked about being a muslim and by our different lifestyle by non-muslim people, and when I wrote it, it was to stress my view of certain topics.
I would also request you to refrain from being insulting ! What are you going on about voodoo, black magic , etc... are you really living in this day and age.

Being in the office today, after an absence of 3 days, it really piled up the work, but I have found the time to read my post and to wonder why some people like to dampen your spirit by being critical or just assuming that you are a stereotype of someone they know and dislike or is it just being spiteful.

That's all for now , and I hope that I haven't offended anybody today.

Friday the 13th

Something really strange happened to me today, I went into my boss's office for some papers, so he was signing something and asked me about the date, so I automatically told him Friday the 13th, and he actually stopped what he was doing and stared hard at me and said how can it be that today is Friday 13th ( which is considered bad by supertitious people ) and that tomorrow would be Saturday 14th which is Valentine's day, so of course I told him that being muslim we do not believe in either one of the above , and I am sure that he must have started thinking that this was just me being a snob, so anyway as soon as I sat at my desk I started getting this feeling that maybe he was superstitious and I kind of made fun of him and that it wasn't a clever thing to do ( me and my big mouth ...... ) I should really think before I open my mouth but, what can you do this is human nature , and of course you guessed right, when he went out for lunch his car skidded because of the frozen roads and he ended up in the ditch, so the first thing he did was call me and yep you are right gave me the stick. As he got into the office, everybody went running to ask him what exactly happened and I was the only one being chicken and hiding in my office, but of course I insisted that this was just his bad luck and nothing to do with Friday the 13th.
The good thing is that I am looking forward to the long weekend and my plans with some friends to take the kids out skiing .
So long and have a good weekend everybody !

At last

At last I can look forward to the weekend, even though it is still not till tomorrow Friday that it starts , but I guess I am used to the Libyan weekend where it starts on Thursday afternoon. Luckily enough my youngest son has only a half day today at school, but of course tomorrow is a full day, at least he can enjoy the afternoon since the sun has come out a little bit today and we are only at -15 with the windchill factor. They are saying on the weather forecast that this weekend is good for skiing and toboganning, so maybe that will be our plan for this weekend. Other than winter sports there is not much you can do. With all your outdoor clothes, even walking is an effort let alone trying to run or ride a bike. I personally would prefer to curl up in my pyjamas and watch tv and the only arabic channel we have is AbuDhabi and with the time difference the only time to see a decent show is during the weekend but with children I think that is practically impossible, oh well c'est la vie.
As usual work is always the same, busy the first part of the day then I end up doing nothing for a couple of hours, which I find really frustrating but...
I am still waiting for someone to help post my blog on the Libyan Blogs page so any help ????
That's it for today, my lunch time is finished and I have to get back to doing some work.

Today is Tuesday February 10th, 2009 and it is only the second day in the working week and it already seems as if I have worked for more than that. I personally like it when work is stretched out over the whole working hours, but it is never the case or maybe it is because I dont take my time doing it, I dont know but it really is a problem for me to find myself doing nothing after a couple of hours at my desk. Maybe I should learn to do my work slowly and then I won't have this problem anymore, because even to pretend that I am busy is not easy for me, and you can imagine when you are sitting at your desk and staring at the walls and someone passes by , what kind of impression you give, so I think I should come up with something to overcome this problem. Maybe if you bloggers can give me a hint that would be awsome. I am actually looking forward to the weekend, specially that we will have Monday 16 Feb off as well since it is known as family day in Alberta. The problem is that the winter time is very boring and difficult, the days are short, the cold is extreme and everybody looks or feels depressed. I have come to realise that the sun actually affects people's outlook to life. I dont know if you guys agree with me but this is my feeling and it also my personal observation of the people around me. Anyway enough for today , and write to you later.

Bored

Hi, like I said previously I am sitting at my desk at the office and I am quite bored. While checking other blogs I would like to compliment Shahrazad on her Shakshouka and it made quite hungry and I even decided to pass by the supermarket to buy Jerki and make my own shakshouka later, and just thinking about it changes my mood, otherwise nothing interesting going on at the moment.
p.s . I have a question , how can I have my blog published on the all libyan blogs page.
Thanks for letting me know.

Happy to join

Hello Everybody,
At last I can reach out and be with my fellow libyan bloggers. I am a libyan residing in Canada and it is boring, so this way i can at least keep in contact with my homeland. I miss it a lot and hope to visit this year inshallah.
Hope to hear from you all.