Sick

Sucks to be sick.

Thoughts

How do you feel when you have something in your sight, yet it is far away? What do you do, when you see the finish line, yet cannot make the last two steps? What happens when you think you are done, but find out that the end is the start of a new path?

These questions reflect real life situations, that we all pass through and struggle to cope with. Questions, questions, questions????????

Ok, now to some post material, I noticed that my last post generated a record number of comments, thanks for commenting, I appreciate your interest. I promise to summarize my findings in a post soon, and try to give my perspective on the matter.

After 2 and a half weeks on vacation, and talking to many many people here, no one has yet to tell me come work back in Kuwait. Everyone says, stay out, never come back, it is a mess here, and very negative about everything. I wonder, why so much negativity? Is it really that bad? I did notice that in many places, people just do not do much, compared to what I see in my own work place.

I have still time left, so I will take advantage of that and try to see more of my friends. I had kanafani ams, did not like it, but I still ate left overs today :). I was with a friend ams looking for it, and I did not know where it was exactly, I had an idea, so we went to the old ghandoor place, which now is Alkhabaz, and my friend saw a bulky guy outside, so he goes "hatha shakla ma63ami", so I go " shno??", he says "ma63ami, ya3ni mal ma6a3m wo akel." The guy was mashallah big kel mokan :). Turns out he knew the place, and we followed another of his cars to it.

I am not sure what to do this weekend. I have an invitation for dinner at a friend, but have not decided to go and on Friday, another bunch at qahwa, not sure about that either. We shall see.

"The One, makes me feel good, goooood. The one, makes me feel happy, hap-ppp-yyy. The one, makes me re,re, re, reeelaxed. The one, makes me feeeeeeeeel special. The one belongs to meeeeeeee and IIIIIIIII belong to the one, one, one,....one."

My woman, my women, my woman

My women are nice and sweet, my women are very tender and cuddly, my women are sincere and honest, my women are beautiful and lovely, my women are big and tall, my women are mine, and ain't no one taking them from me.

This post is not about the women I know as friends or lovers, past or present, but rather on something else. It is about what women look for in men. I am not interested in knowing what you women look for in prince charming, but in real life men, who make you interested. You are not allowed to mention money or looks as answers.

Ladies, start commenting, keep them short, mabee qesat 7ayatkom.

PMC

khalas mabee ared, I found the channel I need, khalas 24 hrs ehni.

Kei sucks

Kei sucks, the setting sucks, the food sucks, it has no taste of flavor, why is it considerd as a good Japanese place? or has it changed since it first opened? I went there ams and had dinner and afterwards went around, and saw tata (yes I think it was you), of course no one knows how I look without my helmet :)

Afternoon post- shrimps

I do not usually like to post many times a day, but I felt like posting that I have finally entered the kitchen here! I miss cooking and now I have one of my recipes cooking outside, for me only of course. |It will be grilled green shrimp with green pasta. The green part comes from using a marinade of parsley, dill, garlic and of course salt and pepper. Sometimes I use green chili shwia. The juice of the marinade is mixed with pasta of course, hence, you get a green dish, like my blog.

I smell like food now and I love it. Have to take a shower later of course before the parents of the kids maloot ams come, to complete their devious plan, or maybe I should greet them with my cooking smell :)

Goede moooooooorgeeeeeeen!

That is what you hear on the radio early morning driving to work from a gay musician, artist (this was added only for GF) called Gordon. However, I only hear it a couple of days a year when I car pool with my buddy Leon when my car is in service, the rest, I am up late and go to work late. I hate waking up early when I am outside Kuwait, I like to sleep sleep and sleep. Here, I only sleep max. 5 to 6 hours as I mentioned before.

Friday morning, yakh, I used to hate this day when I was younger. Friday is a dead day, you had one channel or two on TV, nothing much to do, and of course school on Saturday. It does not compare to boring Sundays in the Netherlands, but it can be close. However now, there are several options and things to do on Fridays. Not that I would be doing anything different, I am a lazy toad by nature, but at least there are options.

I am not sure where they will take me tonight, might be sushi though. First question I asked, "is it expensive?", although I am not paying, but it is the Dutch mentality, always look at price first.

I have been here now two weeks and I can say I do not miss work at all, glad to be away from it. I did not take a decent vacation in 4.5 years, so this one although not totally active, is good for me.

White hair showing again at top of my head, which means I am one week away from my hair cut usually, wonder if I should cut it here or wait till I go back?

Ok dokie, this has been the morning post, tot straks.

Hook me up!

Today I got a visit from my cousins, young kids in their teens, and early 20's, who have not seen me for over 5 years. They came to say hi and stuff. Of course for some, they did not know me, they never saw me, or saw me when they were babies, only heard stories about me. For other, the older ones, they knew me.

I found out that my cousin is emghazlchi 3ood, well according to my brother at least. Wonder where he gets that from, he is also the one who wants to get married quick, poor kid, does not know what will come behind his choice.

The girls, well some were ok and they all came wearing what they call today e7jab and I call sharshaf or table cloth. They came before their parents, who come bacher, and knowing their mom, I think she sent her daughters so they check me out and let me check them out. However, little do they know that I am not the type to attract attention just for being single. I am not as funny as my brother, not as social as my sister, I am my own self, only with close people do I reveal myself. Anyways, back to the girls, I think they wanted to hook me up with one, however, they are way below my age limit of any relationship.

Hopefully being myself distracted them away and made think twice before coming close to me. Who wants to have an aunt or uncle as his or her father or mother in law, no thanks! let me marry a stranger, out of my family circle a7san.

I managed to convince my brother and sister to invite me out for dinner tomorrow night (clever fox that I am) and we shall go have dinner on their expense of course (free food yaaaaaaaay). After all, I am the visitor, and I do not know where to go and which place is best.

I am still recovering men ams, long trip and my body is aching, I woke up at 6 am today, do not know why, but I sure need to sleep sometime today, however, for some reason I do not manage to sleep more than 6 hours here, oh well, maybe some day I will get my sleep.

My trip

I just got back from my trip to the gulf, which lasted about a week. I went by road with my father, in his 1992 Cadillac road master station wagon, one of only five ever brought to Kuwait. We decided to go by road as we were not lucky to get good reservations for planes, and it gives us more flexibility.

So we left Thursday morning around 5 am from here to Oman, arrived there around 10 pm. We both have lots of friends in Oman, and enjoy the place. On the road, you see the differences in roads between the countries and how each country is organized. In Oman, I met my college buddies, one is now head of internal tourism, the other has a very big house, the third, has big cheeks :)We had fun talking about old times. Few discussions about se7er, but not for you, only for me private ;)

Then to UAE, Dubai first, man is it crowded!!! it was full full full! We stayed in Sharjah, nice hotel on the beach, but the trip each day back and forth was terrible, kella za7ma, how can they live like that!!! I also saw the media and internet areas, lots of development.

Then to Abu-Dhabi, was nice there also. One thing I kept noticing is the Special forces style phones, everyone walking looking they are on some commando mission. Also, the women are cuter than before.

In short it was a good trip, bought some shirts, some nice authentic stuff, and relaxed.

Now its back to blog land, and hunting down Sheba :P

I felt like posting

I should have posted before typing my "out of blog" notice, but I felt like it, so that is why am writing a bit.

Nothing dramatic, just some normal bumble bee stuff, BZZZZZZZ BZZZZZZ BZZZZZ.

Bumble Bee #1: I watched Espn sports center from Kuwait today, was nice to see it again after long absence.

Bumble Bee #2: I think I met Zaydoun ams, but then again maybe I was imagining.

Bumble Bee #3: I have been eating mostly chicken and fish since I came back, I do not know why, but I have always been a chicken guy.

Bumble Bee #4: War, War, WARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR.. reminds you of my evil self? he says hi by the way, might come back sometime in the near future, but he is relaxing now.

Bumble Bee #5: If I used 666 on my car, would that be a good idea? I am thinking of writing it in a big circle somewhere, but not sure where, how about Nascar style?

Bumble Bee #6: If you did not get what I mean by bumble bee, it is another way of saying "buzz".

OK, now time to go, doei.

Beyond Space and time

This blog will be inactive from tomorrow until mid next week.

Adblue piss

I read in Al-Rai Alaaam that piss will solve the pollution problems from diesel, because piss contains Urea, and bla bla bla.

Although what they intend to say is true, the way it was explained, just makes me want to go "what are you talking about, do your own good research and write something constructive? why do we need to know each day that piss has some benefit! "

Anyways, back to some science, to meet Euro 4 and 5 emission limits in Europe for heavy duty vehicles, selective catalytic regeneration (SCR) is fitted on trucks. The main element that gives less emissions is the use of the Adblue solution, which is made of 32 % urea in water. This solution interacts with the emissions from the exhaust, and gives less harmful substance. I will not go into more details on this subject, because it would be only interesting for people dealing with the subject, but that is it in a nutshell.

As for the piss articles, the guys who look for them are sick, and should look for better things to do.

A&H Kuwait

Albert Hein or A&H is a famous Dutch super market chain. It can be found all over the Netherlands and is known for quality, but according to the Dutch it is expensive.

Today I went to one of the Kuwaiti co-ops, and was amazed by the things done to make the customer comfortable, although I call it dala3.

A few examples:

- in the fruit section, there is a scale where you weight some of the items, and there stood this Indian guy who takes your bag, weighs it and puts the sticker on it! I was surprised, in the Netherlands, we have that too, but we do it by putting it on the scale, selecting the items and putting the sticker.

- at the end, you take your shopping cart. Of course, the normal procedure I am used to in Kuwait is to the customer puts the stuff on the scale, then if available, a guy puts them in the bag, and you usually take it or he takes it for you and you tip him.

Now, it is from start, he takes the cart, he empties it, he puts stuff in, he takes to car, he empties in car!!!! In A&H, you do all that yourself, and bags are not free.

Do people need all this luxury? can't people do that on their own? It is nice to have luxury, but I think that is overboard and extreme.

Coming home

Ok, now I can post after a few days in Kuwait. That was the main reason why I did not post in the last few days, but some of you wondered why, so now you know why, because I was getting ready to travel and of course the flight.

I will not talk about how I surprised people or my mom saying I more tanned than when I left, but talk about other things, like the most common conversation.

someone: (greetings and kisses)
me: (does the same)
someone : how are things, eshloonek, long time no see.
me: (mumble something)
someone: when will you get married??? or telling my mom , yalla zawjoo, or my uncle, nabee nefra7 feek.

now that was one of the main reasons why I did not come sooner? shakoo? athooni, ma 3endhom shay ghair marriage? well I give the same answers, taw elnas, inshallah, alla kareem, zawgoo my brother and sister awal, etc.

So far I have not done much, its been slow, not in any rush to do many things in a short time, but I have been around a few places. The weather is not as bad as I expected, today was a bit dusty, but that is normal, this is sand country, esp. in Ahmadi. What else? hmm..people have invited me for a blog meet, though I do not know who would want to go, except a few.

I have not contacted all the people I know yet, taking it slow, because I do not want to be asked questions and questions, let me relax awal :).

TV sucks, the channels we had are much better, at least I had variety with only cable channels, and now I have tons of useless channels on SAT.

Our house has been painted like bootha 3arabya, but they said it has been this way since I left in 2000, but inshallah it will be changed for total maintenance once a few things gets settled and arranged.

Anyways, do not want to make this a long post, so I will stop here.

Beyond space and time

This blog is inactive until further notice

Let's .. Play.. DARTS!

I never used to watch darts, nor have I ever really played it (except the time I made holes at a friend's place when they had a darts circle), but it is an exciting sport to watch. I think it is one of the things I picked up here.

Now its the Bavaria championship, and you see the world's best competing. The Dutch and world best is Raymond van Barneveld. Before the start of each match, the fat announcer (also ref.) begins by the typical sentence, "lets play darts", similar to the sentence "lets get ready to rumble". Each darts player comes down accompanied by his own choice of music, and a hall full of fans start cheering and singing or dancing. For example, Raymond's piece is Rocky, Fitton's piece is madness and Fordham has I am too sexy for your shirt, too sexy for your shirt..(you know the song, we all bought the single when it came out). Then they start playing. It is intense sometimes, the match can hang on one dart.

Most of the players have a big belly, mostly from drinking beer, and some have odd jobs, like undertakers.

You have to watch a few games so you can enjoy it, same with other sports, such as baseball or American football, once you watch a few you get hooked.

"Lalala lalala...lalala lalala...
ik Ik kwam jou tegen ooh weeee oooo,
jij was verlegen ooh weeee oooo.
Loop nu al dagen ooh weeee oooo,
want ik wil je wat vragen ooh weeee oooooooooooo

Heb je even voor mij,
maak wat tijd voor me vrij.
Ieder uur van de dag denk ik steeds aan jouw lach alleen jij maakt me blij."

War (part III)

Maybe some of you are wondering what is new in my war. So here are the answers:

1. Is it still going? Yes
2. How is it going? Good
3. Is victory near? Yes
4. What will happen? You will find out very soon

I WON

I WON I WON I WON I WON I WON I WON.

HAPPY HAPPY... JOY JOY

Choose wisely

Make your choice and explain why

1. Choice A
2. Choice B
3. Choice C
4. Choice D
5. Choice E
6. Choice F
7. Choice G
8. Choice H

The green post - as promised.

As promised, I will post on one of the topics mentioned by you. I have chosen to post on.......Something positive as Rampurple requested. Hopefully she will like this post, then again it might not be as positive in her opinion.

The nice thing about living abroad is that you get to see life from a different perspective. You learn more how to work things on your own, how to interact with different cultures and develop new skills. For example, before I came here, I never cleaned a garden. Now I do, which is something I hate. Another example is language, it is always nice to learn new languages, makes it easier for a person to settle down and feel comfortable in a country. English is still useful, but it is always better to understand and speak the local language.

This might seem like it is a post as requested by PSS, but it is not. It is about me.

I have lived abroad since 1991, with a few breaks in between going back to Kuwait. Living in the States was a unique experience and I learnt a lot from it, cooking for example. Living here gave me another perspective on the world. So now I have an idea of three different cultures, European, American and Arab culutre.

Some of you might be wondering why I am still abroad after all this time. Frankly, I do not have an answer for that. I think it is a matter of being able to adjust, without much attachment to one location, or one person.

I tend to do lots of analysis, risk/benefit analysis. I do that on a regular basis, to determine what is the best situation. Examples, single vs. married, abroad vs. Kuwait, gay vs. straight (that is to make sure grandmafunk is reading and to keep her interested :P),back to what I was saying.., work vs. not working, etc. Sometimes these analyses get mixed up and elements from one become elements in another, making it complicated to reach a clear answer. At that moment, one has to take a risk.

I do not like long posts, so I will not continue longer on this, I must say blogging has made me a bit happier, thanks for the person who introduced me to this wonderful medium.

Are you an Ass-head?

Sometimes we interact with people and find out they are full of shit. These type of people I call Ass-headed. They are found in all cultures and in all regions. They have an ass inside their head instead of a functioning brain, and what they do is usually bullshit a lot (kind of convenient when your ass is a head).

The results of all this bullshit is a cacophony of useless information that come in the form of lies, false statements and exaggerated claims.

Example: I play football for Al-Qadsiya wearing the latest kit (truth: he cleans their locker room and stole it from Mohammed Ibrahim).

Example: I spent all weekend working on this document (truth: 5 minutes, time to steal from a web site, cut and paste and save file).

Example: I am the king of Zuma Duba (truth: He is the Zuma Duba of the king). If you do not know what Zuma Duba means, ask mama Fusla, she is good with these things.

So many examples, so many cases. You wonder sometimes if they clean their ass, sorry I mean their head, after each bull - shit. No wonder they call it bullshit, as it is chunky and full of it.

If you have other examples of ass-heads, you can post in the comment.