Sick & tired no more…
Hellloooo people….. I’m back!!!!! And back at work. I must say that by Sunday I was yearning to get back to work…. I know – there is CLEARLY something wrong with me! Those antibiotics must have “defected” my brain J. Then it was a public holiday on Monday!! Oh the frustrations of public holidays… a whole story onto itself (*shaking head in dismay*)!
It’s going to be a short week for me this week; first the fact that Monday was a public holiday therefore no work, then this Friday I am off, off and away in a plane on 3 weeks leave…. Still feeling a little “blah” about it all really! Oh well I suppose it could be worse!
Being sick was terrible (duh) I hate, HATE having to rely on someone else to look after me.
Anyway enough about that – not important… here I am with only a few more days before I depart… hmm – there is SERIOUSLY still sssooooo much that I need to get done – too many gifts that still need to be bought – I am partly packed and have popped a post-it note on my bedroom wall reminding me of all the things that I still need to pack.
Eid is on tomorrow – EID Mubarak everyone… its gonna be a hectic one for me to say the least!
Mr M has been intriguingly attentive of late… there is no other way of putting it. The man finished his accounting exam the other day and called me while walking out… I cannot remember the when he was this attentive to me… no actually, that’s not true – I DO remember but it was too long ago! Anyway; these days the guy messages me and responds within a 5 minute interval – if not then he actually says sorry! Him??? Saying sorry??? Seriously… It’s all far, far too strange??!!!
So it got me thinking – Mr M is (apparently) coming to see me while I’m on this trip (he says that he’s going to try). In all honesty I couldn’t particularly care one way or the other. I am currently totally ambivalent to his antics these days (which makes me wonder if maybe he can sense me waning and therefore ‘upped’ his ante) but do admit that I am not looking forward to getting our mutual family members asking me to tell them what’s happening (or lack thereof). So I pose it to you – people of the ‘blogsphere’ should I just freak him out and ask him now – while we’re both in mutually respective countries the following burning questions:
So – what’s happening here? Do you love me and is this going somewhere?
Or should I wait until we’re face to face and then ask him? Before you say that the above question may indeed freak him out – seriously at this point who cares? If I freak him out then isn’t that an answer in itself?
Whatever…
I wanna go home :(
I have a sore head… a throat that is so, SO sore it feels as though its closing in on itself. A nose that is now commencing to run and eyes that are watering up….
Healthy and Feeling great is hardly words I would use at the moment to describe how I am feeling right now.
Did I mention that I have begun to sneeze? A lot…. And that this is causing my eyes to water more?
Oh and I have an assignment to proof-read that I need to respond by the end of the day…..
Doe’s anyone wanna trade places?
Ramadan & my social life…
I’ve noticed that this Ramadan the tables have turned; where normally I would have this social life and constant barrage of places to be, people to see, parties to be at I (due to the fasting month) have curbed all of this. The events that I have been to of late are instances where I really could not get out of, and in order to maintain some semblance of calm in my household I have ensured that I am home by as close to 10.30 as possible and that I do not leave the house until I have at least opened my fast and prayed Magrib with my mum (I must say though that even with this my mother is still not happy with this!). I have also been the dutiful daughter and taken mum to tiraweh on the days where I have not been fasting and then (obviously) picked her up again at the end of it. I’ve continued on in smiling silence with all 23 rakaat’s when I would have much preferred to have done the 11 as I had to be at work the very next day (mum would say that she wanted to stay for all 23 so ‘lo and behold I suck it up remain…. This means I am home waaaayy past 11pm only to get up again in 4 hours for sahur then get back up in about an hours time to get ready for work… oh to be at home and not have to work!)
Anyway; this Ramadan my mum has been following up on invite upon invite (seriously, she’s turned into this little hijabi butterfly). This in itself would be no problem at all – if anything the thought of having the house to myself for a few hours would be joyous beyond belief welcomed breathing space. However, each and every aunty of course invites her and me for Iftar (I personally think this is out of politness). And for some reason, try as I may to explain to my mum that aunty X, Y or Z wouldn’t particularly be fazed if I wasn’t there because they’re her friends and that there is not going to be anyone of my age-group there I am still forced obliged to come. In order to ensure that I do go I have found that my mum will go through the following process; advise of said invitation, not provide any other option except that I must go, advise that if I don’t go everyone there will think that I am a bad daughter then get told that this is the holy month of Ramadan and yet still I don’t want to make my mum happy + to remember that heaven lies beneath the foot of your mother… so of course I go.
Whatever – in the grand scheme of things I just focus on the fact that at least they’ll be great food!
Anyway last night we went to this barbeque for ifar at my mum’s friends place. I got home from an afternoon of watching football (4pm) when my mum promptly told me to get ready for this barbeque. I told her that since it wasn’t till past 6pm and their house was a 5 minute drive away that we could chill for a bit. No way… I was told that I needed to get dressed now… to make matters worse when I dawdled (seriously, it wasn’t even 4.30pm at this point!) mum went and sat in the car and beeped at me. Now, I must say if there is one thing that is going to annoy me it’s when someone sits in my car and hurries me along by beeping at me!
Patience; its Ramadan…. I get into the car and asked her what she was bringing to this barbeque (bear in mind muy mum had the whole day to herself) and she shows me this nice presentation of fruit in a bowl! Fruit…. in a bowl???? Fruit??? To a iftar feast??? Fruit? The following thus ensued;
Me: mum, you cannot seriously be bringing fruit to this? they invited us out to dinner a few weeks ago and we all went to a lovely restaurant; you then invited them over for dinner and they brought cake and an additional plate of food for all us to share… I don’t think fruit will cut it.
Mum: But I’m trying to clear out the fridge because we leave for overseas in just over a week.
Me: I don’t care… we cannot go to this thing with fruit…. we’ll get a cake…
Mum: then I will go put the fruit back in the house.
So mum puts the fruit back in the house and then we stop off at the Cheesecake Shop and get a lovely cake… correction – I get a lovely cake. As I get into the car I realise that with each millisecond that is passing I am getting more and more annoyed… let’s get some facts straight here;
- I am going to a barbeque I don’t want to be at
- I’m going to be around people who I don’t reaaaallly know and that honestly I already know that the conversation they have with me will be stifled as they don’t really know me, that I will have to listen to comments about the fact that I’m not married + hear my mum say (as she now says rather loudly so that I hear) “make dua that insha-Allah my daughter will meet her husband soon and that he is Arab and a good Muslim” (yes people, she says it in that order!!!!)
- There will be no-one there around my age group and so I will somehow end up playing babysitter to the aunty’s 10 to 15 year old girls (there is only so much Hannah Montana that I can watch!)
- I am bringing and buying the cake to the occasion that I don’t particularly want to be at
- It will envitably end later than my mum says it will meaning that I will be doubly tired for work tomorrow + have a headache by the end of the night after listening to the gaggle of girls giggling all night
Anyway, as I am driving there and mum I holding the cake and making sure that I have bought something that she will eat (as she is waaaaayyyyy pedantic particular with what she will and won’t eat) I am wondering if my mum will ask how much it cost (my mum always asks how much the things I buy cost… always… to which nearly always my mum will say that it cost too much) and maybe offer to give me some money or something… I wouldn’t take the money mind you, but it’s the principle here. About 2 minute’s away mum says;
“You know I not ask you to buy cake for them. This was your decision to bring for them….”
Thus ensuring that she did not need to say anything more or offer anything in regards to said cake.
I must say that at this moment the only think keeping me silent is that it’s Ramadan and that I am trying to immerse myself in Pink’s new song (which was playing on the radio); the silence was obviously deafening to my mum also as she then said that she wanted to listen to that new Arabic CD I got last week – I said that I didn’t want to listen to it just now but she said that she wanted to hear some of it now and on the ride home…. So on went the CD (*insert false smile on face*).
Yes, I must say that the food was good – I did end up spending most of the night with 15 year olds but at least this meant that I was sitting and (internally) seething next to mum. I did get home far, FAR later than I expected at which point mum said that she apparently totally forgot that the next day was a Monday (she thought that it was Sunday the next day) but did say that all the aunties’ lllooovvveeed the cake that I picked out (apparently that’s my solace).
I drove home in silence (with the Arabic music in the background of course) thinking, wishing, praying that I was anywhere…. Anywhere alone, anywhere at all (with anyone else) except here….
Serenity now…. serenity now…
Quote for the Weekend
“Some people cause happiness wherever they go…
Some people cause happiness whenever they go…”
Have a great weekend everyone…
Mr A & Bali…
As you peeps may be aware I am heading off on holiday in October with my mum. In order to provide myself with some solace I am thus planning another trip about 6 to 8 months after that to somewhere ‘beachy’ and relaxing where the Aussie dollar is fantastic… Cue: Bali.
Just some quick info: I spent a good 5 years in Bali when I was little living in Kuta where my parents owned a hotel there. Even after i was at school we (mum and I) would travel over there about 2 to 3 times a year and so all in all I think I’ve got a pretty firm understanding of Bali, where what is and the people. Lets not forget that I speak fluent Indonesian and that overall even after my mum sold the hotel we still went over to Jakarta (the capital of Indonesia) every year and Bali every other year. In the last 4 years Bali has sorta come off the radar as mum didn’t want to go and I didn’t travel alone… so gone was Bali from my itinerary L
So I am planning this trip and have asked if Mr A wanted to come with me and soak up some sun and chill! Comments/statements I am hearing are not merely disinterest but disdain! They have included all (plus some I cannot recall at this moment);
“Why would I want to go to a country that hates Australians?”
“I don’t want to go to somewhere where the government is corrupt”
“They just throw any white person they don’t like in prison”
“The cops there plant drugs on people; I don’t want to rot in an Indonesian jail”
“It’s a hole…”
“The whole country is poor and corrupt”
“I hate the place”
“Its shit”
“Why would I want to go to someplace where I’ll get bombed?”
(And today) “Balinese police have just arrested an Australian man who they suspect to be carrying drugs… “
“They just pick on Australians”
Overall you’re catching my drift… with each and every statement, sentence, comment and ‘argument’ (let me tell you that with each lamentation I am getting annoyed) I am becoming more dumfounded by his idiocy… YES… IDIOCY!!!!
I responded with comments that have included: “I’m sorry? Did that Aussie guy actually have drugs on him?” (Him: eeerr… we don’t know – he might not?) I then said that this comment was totally F%$ken redundant as he might actually be carrying drugs and that he cannot use this as his basis for argument because it was flimsy at best! He went on with repeating some other comments (“why would I want to go to a country that hates Australians?” And “They just pick on Australians”) which totally made me lose it:
“I’m sorry – listen… I’m gonna need to say something here. YOU have no idea what’s its like – to say you ‘hate’ somewhere you’ve never been maddening – I’ve never tried bacon and I don’t claim to hate it. I simply say that I chose not to eat it. to say the government is corrupt – I’ll give you that; bribery may be rife but I’ll put money that just about every developing country has a level of corruption to it. They don’t have a welfare system and they don’t much have a middle class. The rich are richer than you can fathom and the poor are just that. I am angry and disappointed that you think you don’t want to go to a country on grounds that you feel they penalise YOU because you’re Australian. I know how that feels – I’m Australian but am penalised for being Muslim… My cousins who have lived nearly their whole lives abroad have to be regularly stopped in US airports and searched for over an hour on grounds of their fucking ethnicity, name and the fact they hold a UAE passport. Muslims and Arabs are considered suspicious full-stop… if that’s your claim then you’ve got no idea!”
He went on then about the legal system and how its “fucked” and then made the comment about the Indonesian legal/corrupt system. My response;
“Whatever – don’t worry about it… I think I’d know how the law works there – as a person who has at last count 4 cousins practicing criminal law in Jakarta I think I know what I’m talking about. As a person who speaks the language, goes there often and is more than familiar with the culture, not to mention has an uncle who is a judge at their supreme courts in relation to criminal and illegal actions and actually presided over the Suharto case years ago I think I know exactly what I’m talking about. Do you seriously think that if you, an Australian in a foreign country is caught in illegal activity and needed legal representation that Indonesian law should allow an Australian lawyer to represent you? Is that it?”
Do you know what that idiot responded with??? “yes”
YES??? Is he insane????? Does he have any brain cells in that head of his???
But (trying to be patient here and show him the HUGE holes in his argument), I tried to rationalise what he was saying: “So Mr A, let me get this straight – you’re saying that if an Italian or Greek man was prosecuted for some illegal activity that we; the Australian government should allow him to get legal representation from Italy/Greece? Really… is that what you’re saying?”
He said; “yeah… why not?”
Me… being really passive-aggressive at this point; “because it doesn’t make sense sweetie (*sarcasm*), that little Italian/Greek lawyer is totally and utterly unfamiliar with Australian law, legislation and policies – to let seek legal council of this type would actually be unfair to him… you’re not realising that one countries law and penalties and set of regulations is not the same as another…”
Do you know what his answer was??? What he said???
“Well… its all dumb – they’re all corrupt… and if you’re uncle is a criminal judge over there maybe he’s a bit that way also……”
Oh no you didn’t….
“Don’t worry about it Mr A, I am disappointed and more angry that you can fathom that you’d say that about my uncle – the person who was the father figure in my life and taught me the value of education and encouraged free, rational thought. Forget you – don’t come to Bali… I gotta go… bye”
So… I’m off to Bali on my own… any takers to come with me next year say about April-ish?
FYI: I just got a missed call from him and a message a few seconds late: “hey, jst tried to call to see if I’m still in trouble with you? I’m thinking about you”
I am choosing to not respond.
Ooohhh – I am very annoyed right now…
The trip is nearing…
So I’ve been a bit vacant of late (sorry guys). I am not certain if its because of Ramadan and have thus not really got the energy to write as my days seem to be a jumble of sahur (waking up early before sunrise to eat then pary), get up to work, come back from work, Iftar (open fast and eat), tiraweh prayers at the mosque and stumbling into bed only to have it all start over again. The weekend has some small variation including religious discussions/Quran reading and then staying longer at tiraweh…
My trip is impending… yes; I can tell that the time is near as I start to receive the barrage of emails from my cousins/aunts/uncles/more cousins politely asking for exactly what they want as “gifts” from Aussie-land which have so far included; 2 pairs of Havaianas thongs, Junk Food t-shirts (it’s a brand), Mylanta antacid tablets, vitamins and apples – yes you did hear right… apples! Apparently my uncle has a penchant for our fuji apples (also my mum’s favorite). I’m not that fazed really about the whole gift giving thing – at least I know they’ll like what I get them (since they asked for it!). Plus my family are generally quite “generous” in the gift-giving area so it should be work out!
If my trip to Thailand was anything to go by I am an avid packer – not that I packed weeks in advance; although I will say that apart from toiletries my mum is actually already all packed???? Seriously, the longer I live with my mother the less I understand her… truly! Rather I think about what I want to bring with me… think about what I want to be wearing over there.
My mum has already cut out knee-length skirts from my packing wardrobe, telling me that my denim skirt is apparently not ‘appropriate’ at my aunty’s house… *sigh* so I will be wearing either long skirts or pants during pretty much the entirety of this trip.
Do I sound bitter about this trip? Slightly… actually I think despondent is more the word to use
Do I sound like I would much rather not go??? Hell yeah…
Have I made my feelings ABUNDANTLY clear to my mum but to no avail??? Is the Pope Catholic???
Of course I have… over and over, and then more over again to such a point where apparently each time I have mentioned it to her that I am apparently “killing her” and that I should stop talking about it if I want her to be happy. So what do I do? I sit there… silently…. seething on the inside… appearing like everything is FINE… when really all I want to do is be anywhere except there!!!!
Hmm – I’ve just realized that this post has suddenly turned into a major rant… sorry people but I am going to proceed anyway (chris this is your fault as you said that you wanted a rant!!!)
Now before you go and say that I am being tottalllllyyyy ungrateful for a trip that I am not paying for let me tell you that my mum is excited (beyond belief) at the prospect of spending time with me(I am going to quote exactly what she said to me):
“I’m so happy that I will be spending nearly 4 weeks going with you every day. So good – every day I see you. We be together every day – not work; just with me… every day”
What do I say to that?
I have tried to organise shopping expeditions with my cousins while I am there… you know, to give me some “space” however if I am with one of cousins she will constantly call my mobile (so I just switch it onto silent and ignore) then alternating to their mobile so that they feel ssssoooo bad/impolite/rude for making my mum so sick with worry that we cut short said shopping expedition/catching up and then it just becomes too hard that either they or myself just gives up. Or the other tactic that my mum has employed is to make the entire trip ssssoooo busy and put all (her) necessary business on different days and insist that I do it with her… so there I am on holiday but DESPERATLY yearning to be on holiday….
Or even at work…
Proof: I did NOT get that bill!
Got a bill you haven’t paid? Final demand notice received without any prior invoice received? Here’s the culprit…
Postman hoards 20,000 letters in Germany
September 10, 2008, 12:32 am
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – A Scottish postman working in Germany hoarded at least 20,000 letters at home because he felt his work was too taxing, police said on Tuesday.
The postman in Frankfurt was caught when a neighbour saw him tipping a mail delivery into a rubbish bin and alerted police.
“It’s worth mentioning the 23-year-old didn’t deliver mail addressed to himself either,” local police said in a statement.
Investigating officers found rubbish bags and boxes full of letters and other post stashed around the man’s flat and cellar. He told police he had got behind with deliveries because of his night school studies and felt too “overtaxed” to catch up.
Police said at a conservative estimate, the hoard, which the man had built up since August 2007, comprised at least 20,000 letters. Two vans were needed to remove it.
(Dave Graham; editing by Elizabeth Piper)
If it can happen in Frankfurt my friends….
I wonder if I can use this excuse to avoid paying my speeding ticket?
Also – can I just say how is; “It’s worth mentioning the 23-year-old didn’t deliver mail addressed to himself either,” seen as some sort of justification or rationale for his behaviour????
Marketing & Baldness – the new trend
Ahhh…. Those New Zealanders…
Marketing at its best I suppose?
Airline to offer bald facts on new services
September 10, 2008, 12:36 am
WELLINGTON (Reuters) – New Zealand ’s national airline is planning to give the bald facts on plans to speed up check-in queues for passengers — literally.
Air New Zealand said on Tuesday it is looking for 50 people willing to be a “cranial billboard” with a message temporarily tattooed on their shaved heads for two weeks advertising new speedy check-in services.
The airline said it will pay NZ$1000 (Australian $666) per head, making it easy money for bald-headed frequent fliers.
“How better to tell our customers that Air New Zealand is going to do something about (long check-in queues) … than through messaging they can read while they’re standing in a queue themselves?” the airline’s marketing manager Steve Bayliss said in a statement.
(Editing by Bill Tarrant)
The girls got game…
I’m not necessarily a Victoria Beckham fan but I must say the girl has game when it comes to chopping off her hair!
Her new
As a gal with long hair there are moments where I wish I were slightly more courageous with my hair… having curly hair does help as the grow-back situation is somewhat slow (to say the least)! Plus I have found that I might love the short hair thing on someone else; namely those with a stylist who is patient and paid enough to ensure a gleaming professional finish each and every day!
Although I might not like this cut that Posh has now – I think its too short for my liking; I did like her previous cut… I am also rather enamoured with Rhianna’s current cut… I see it in the video clip and swoon with the deep colour, the gorgeous cut, her rock chick attitude that has come along with said cut… the straightness of her hair…
Oh – I DO really, REALLY like the cuff bracelet that she has on though!!!
