This is the story of my household for a little more than a week now.. I've had an "incident" with a Segway that left me hospitalised for 5 days, am still in bed forced into bed-rest by the doctor to try to fix my damaged back but he insists that this will go away and I will make a good recovery if I follow instructions... I'm following instructions.
While I was in hospital, my eldest daughter Amna had a cold... which now developed into a secondary lung infection, so she's at home coughing and spluttering away.
Hanan, my second daughter, had a stomach bug 3 days ago and she was off school, she says that she thinks she's recovered now and she'll probably be able to go to school tomorrow.
Arif, my son, has whatever Amna had, but he seems to be the least affected, so he's designated care-taker for the moment.
Frances, my wife, had whatever Hanan has had, and she's in bed since last night!
Phoebe, the dog, seems to have scraped the side of her mouth somehow, and a friend is coming over this afternoon to take her to the vet.
I have no idea what's happening with our other dog, Gnasher...
The only person who seems to be relatively okay at the moment is our maid!
I don't believe in superstitions, but with what has been happening to us over the last couple of weeks, I should think that some wanker has put their evil eye on us. BEGONE you bastard. We didn't take food from YOUR table whoever the hell you are.
What a screwed up month so far.
We've been entertaining almost every night for the past week. If it's not entertaining, it's a business meeting at home which entails, well, some sort of entertaining (coffees, teas, drinks, chocolates, sweets, etc) till late hours, certainly later than I am used to. And it's not over yet. We've looking forward to entertain my sister and her friend tomorrow night...
BUT, today was MY day in the garden... after a business meeting which lasted all morning and ended up with a potentially good partnership. But after the gentleman has left, Frances and I attacked the garden centre and came back with more than 180 seasonal flowers! Geraniums, Allisums, Colliuses, Salvias, little purple fluffy things, Snapdragons and Alternanthera... so Arif and I went and planted all of these things in their respected places around the garden, watered them, tinkered some more in the garden till about 6pm.. it was tiring work to be sure, but it is that kind of tiredness that makes you feel that you actually accomplished something! So I won't complain about the gardening this afternoon. I enjoyed it a lot, and hope to do some more of it tomorrow.
For now, enjoy this picture I took through the Cassia (scrambled egg tree) looking into the front garden. Once I get my "proper" Canon camera (I hope!) I will take another picture from the same place and you should see the plethora of colour and texture that should have taken good hold.
The season has started!
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So what do you do if you're bored out of your wits in the office? Cruise of course!
First finish reading all the news, blogs, etc then what do you do? Flickr! The Explore feature is fantastic and it never ceases to amaze me to see the talent and eye for photography some people have. Then what? Well, the game I have is put any word that crosses my mind in the browser's address bar and see where it takes me!
Today, I put "Viagra" in there and of course it took me to the famous Blue Pill site, and wouldn't you know it? The first thing you're faced with is another of those silly questionnaires... as there is nothing better to do, I thought I might as well answer 6 simple questions and see what happens. Sure enough I answered the 6 questions, and am absolutely happy to report that, yes, my virility, libedo and sex-drive are all a-okay, as you can see form the result bar above, but the proviso is:
What changes for goodness sake?Your answers show no signs of ED. Be sure to talk to your doctor if your condition changes. Your doctor can suggest effective treatment options like VIAGRA.
I won't need these magic pills for quite a few years (I hope!), but it also reminded me of that time that I found THREE of these Male Ego Boosters in the safe of the Dubai hotel room as I was checking out!
and I'm not really complaining. In fact I'm enjoying the sense of pain! I know I know, but I'm no masochist really, it's just that contented feeling that you have worked hard and have given it your best and hope that things will turn out well, as I'm fairly certain they will, fingers crossed.
I spent the whole of Saturday in the garden, doing this:
Apart from the petunias, I've got tall grass which I placed at the apexes of the curves to provide backdrop.
Of course, I had to redo the complete drip system as well as move the sprinklers a bit inside. Unfortunately I have had ot cancel one which was right in the centre in front of the jar, but I'm sure it's not necessary as that patch is now serviced by 10 sprinklers so I should still get good coverage.
I've also planted some yellow and orange marigolds in other flower beds, but offset them with the shocking red and purple petunias. I hope the effect will look okay, if not, then I'll yank them out and put a different variety.. it's still very early in the season to do this!
It's 31 minutes past my usual bed-time.
My bed-time is 10pm. And that's pushing it.
But it's Ramadhan. It's Thursday night. And it's the start of the weekend tomorrow with no plans whatsoever!
I don't want to sit here and stare at the screen any more...
I'm going to bed then.
Good night!
Talk about quality of service.. the internet has been on the blink all day at the office and it's a hit or miss affair.
I wish I did this even before Nasser Jr. arrived, not that I'm complaining mind you, but I think the thing that allowed me to jump on a plane with Hanan and Arif for a quick overnight visit to see Abeer (my sister) & Co. was me finally doing a two-day weekend. This was the third ever two-day weekend I have taken in my life, and now I can tell you that I know what I have been missing... I plan to utilise these weekends a lot more now, and it will be very difficult for me to accept to go back (personally) to 5 and a half or 6 day week.
Anyway, my brother-in-law Alaa picked us up from an airport directly from the 70s! You never know how advanced the rest of the world is until you pass through Sharjah airport. It says a lot about the atmosphere of the Emirate itself and how it's run I think; people hardly smile, the airport staff obviously have got better things to do rather than sit behind ancient counters taking forever to stamp a passport, and forget about getting a welcome smile, Khaleeji or no Khaleeji. We didn't allow that to change the mood of our trip.
We exited the airport and Alaa drove us to his appartment we relaxed a bit and chatted, and obviously demanded that Nasser be woken up! Abeer complained a bit that he didn't sleep much last night and it's best to leave him be, but I was not having any of it, and obviously neither did Nasser as he woke up almost immediately!
The boy is lovely, he grew up a bit in the two weeks we didn't see him, he is a lot more alert, and he's got eyes that none in the family even approaches, truly unique! His eyes are deep green and hazel. I don't know if they change in babies after 6 weeks, but I hope they don't, they're very striking, like he is as well.
We chatted some more, Nasser got settled in his day-sleeper-thingy-whatever-they-call-it-baby-crib with dangly bits which focused his attention, and then the tornado Hussain his elder brother wanted to make his presence felt and he's just got to switch on the vibrating springs to soothe his brother, and swing him from side to side and give him a smooch somewhere on his face, if it lands on his cheek then that's just pure coincidence. I picked him (Hussain) up and tickled the bejeezus out of him and that distracted hiim a bit to leave Nasser to try to get a little more shut-eye.
Zain and the eldest Yara were hapy to see us too, and they liked their little presents we got them. We couldn't really get anything for Hussain but something that moves, so we got him a remotely controlled yellow Porsche 911 which he loved. He has other remote controlled toys as well of course, one that his father really enjoyed playing with (as well as the other boys) is a remote controlled set of wheels which flip and turn and make a good racket. I would hate to be their downstairs neighbours when that thing is being used. Fortunately it got switched off after a while and the preference went with the somewhat quieter Porsche. :)
Had lunch, relaxed a bit more then Alaa took us out to check out some of the malls in Dubai; the first was Ibn Battuta mall, named after a famous Arab traveller and contains whole sections done up in Chinese, Indian, Persian, Tunisian, and Egyptian architecture. It is trule a marvel and is a huge place filled with named brands and other novelty shops. Hanan went wild with shopping! Arif got a couple of things there I think, so did I for the house. I bought 5 hand-made South American pottery works from Peru and Columbia which are quite nice I think, and they arrived (obviously) at home where they are displayed around our living room now. Arif got a neon-lit Union Jack guitar wall clock which I have to drill a hole in his wall to hang this thing. It actually looks cool though and perfect for a young teenager's room.
We had some coffee to just take the weight off our feet and then onward we went to the next mall in the area, which was Mall of the Emirates. If you think you've seen malls before and you're yawning, close your mouth and get on an airplane and go visit Dubai simply to spend some time in that mall. It is unbelievable by any standards. The architecture and design and fittings in this mall are breathtaking. The facilities are astounding, and the kind of shops and activities you get in it are unmatched in any that I have visited. They've got a full built-in ski slope as well, so if you think that it is impossible to have snow fall in a desert, think again!
Needless to say both Hanan and Arif took the opportunity to buy more stuff, and so did I. We arrived back home after 9.30pm shattered - at least I was and so was my wallet! Instead of going out, which both Abeer and Alaa wanted to do, I suggested that we should order in as we're all tired and the road to Dubai was backed up all the way into Sharjah, so it wouldn't have been worth going out, especially that we received news that Saturday might be the first day of Ramadhan, which means that most people are in a mad rush to go out and buy stuff, even if they don't need to.
We spent some more time with Nasser and then Arif, Hanan and I decided that it was time for bed. We awoke the next morning and headed out again to a local mall in Sharjah which is called Sahara Mall. We were the first shoppers there! It was 9.55am when we entered the mall and the shutters were just begining to be rolled up :) We didn't let that stop us from shopping; technically it was Arif's turn to go crazy with my credit cards, but I kept on pushing Hanan to go buy more stuff! She ended up with a couple of pairs of nice shoes and more clothes; Arif faired well there as well as he got some clothes too, unfortunately none of the shops in any of the malls had formal suits his size, he wanted one for Eid, but they all said that he is at the difficult age-group that no-one produces suits for. We decided that we would have to have one especially made for him in Bahrain and that he should continue to get whatever else he needs.
Alaa took us then to the mall that I am familiar with, the City Center, which is I think the oldest mall in the area and is the one that gave birth to the zillions of malls we now have in the Gulf. Arif spied the Converse shop immediately he got off the elevator so he bought some Converse shoes and outfits, so did Hana. I got a pair of Oakley t-shirts (they actually fit me, barely! ;)) So the 2nd day spending started in earnest! Unfortunately as our departure time crept closer, and as I wanted to spend more time with my nephews and nieces, we arrived home soon thereafter and spent a little time with the kids after we force-packed everthing in the backpacks and my single small suitcase I brought with me. We had another wonderful lunch which Abeer cooked us and off we were dropped at the airport for the flight home.
Now it's Amna's turn to travel with me at some forthcoming weekend! Hopefully her mother would come with us as well... and as if Gulf Air were listening to my thoughts regarding cheap fairs, they sent me something by email this morning about a promotion they're running in Ramadhan where return flights to Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Kuwait, Muscat, Salalah are for BD 18 (US$ 48) and Athens, Istanbul, Sanaa for BD 38 (US$ 100)!
So which will it be for next weekend?
We would like to profusely thank Alaa and Abeer for being excellent hosts, and to Yara for allowing us to kibbitz in her room for the night, and of course to lovely Zain and that bloody tornado called Hussain, and Nasser Jr. too. It won't be too long before we descend on them again!
I spied a few water features in the garden shop next to our office a few days ago, this one grabbed my attention:
I almost decided where it should go, but wanted my wife's opinion first (yes, permission!) so she was good enough to drop by the garden shop this afternoon so I can show her what's available. She too - thankfully - thought that this is the one and left it to me to place it in our garden. I paid the guys and they agreed to deliver it within the hour!
Lucky me that today is Monday, that's the day my part time gardener drops in to do the odd jobs, so when they did deliver it, not only my regular gardener was around, but also my previous gardener and their manager! So I set them all to it and after selecting where it should go, we got the shovels and wheel-barrow and started working.
It works!
After the guys have left, I decided to just sit on the grass and listen to the sound of the waterfall...
