Mind: Experiences

Thursday, January 12, 2006

The Adha ritual we can never go without - BBQ - YAY!!!

So it's that time of the year again, when the whole family gathers at one place and we do good old BBQ.

Be it hot or cold, this never stopped us from enjoying this one ritual that puts all of us in one place, sharing the effort and the fun.

This year, it happened to be very cold, and nonetheless; my father and my brother in law set to work in the cold weather, preparing and grilling … and at the end of it we sat and enjoyed the yummy food, and of course there were lots of appetizers and after lunch goodies, fruits and sweets.

My camera was a witness to some of the action, but I could not take many pictures because of the cold, so I leave you with the best two!

Happy Eid to all!!

My brother in law is watching over the grill and dad is in the back preparing more!!

The Grill looks inviting, don't you think?

Thursday, January 05, 2006

They Stole My Car!!!

They really did!

Here is how they did it …

I purchased my car last year in December and am still paying installments; will keep doing so and not for a short while.

Needless to say; the license renewal was due last December but I did not have the time to do it assuming that the delay month would end on the 24^th of Jan, however; checking my car license I realized that it ends on the 14^th and not 24^th, so I had only today (Thursday) and Sunday to renew it, so my dad rushed this morning to the registration department to do that for me (thank God for dads).

The problem started at 9:00 A.M. when my dad thought he was finished, after he paid the money and they handed him the receipt and went ahead with issuing the license, but when dad checked the receipt he realized that it was issued to someone else, and by the time he went back to bring their attention to it, the "efficient" clerks had already issued the license to that someone, and just like that, my car was not mine anymore … the screwed up and STOLE MY CAR!!!!

Can I scream now?

No, not yet, because they do not have the authority to rectify the terrible mistake they did, they only have the authority to do the mistake!!!

Apparently they had to refer the matter to the head office to get their approval to rectify and give me my car back, and they gave dad the money back and told him to wait.

My poor old diabetic dad sat there and waited till they called him to start the whole process all over again, and every time they send him again to another one of their clerks behind the dirty windows, they shout in his face: "b el dor ya 7aj" i.e. stand in line; they had the nerve to do that at every window till dad felt sick to his senses but he wanted to get the car back at any cost.

By the time he was done it was 4 hours later, and no they did not apologize to him. I am so pissed off that I don’t know what to say or how to react so I chose to vent so that anyone who reads this post would be careful to check and double check what these idiots do before leaving their position in front of those dirty windows!!!

Thursday, December 29, 2005

New Year's Eve Rituals I am not doing any more!!!

Boy oh boy!!

Another New Year's Eve in my lifetime, and guess what? Like all the previous years; I am still alone, i.e. with no companion; in other words; I am still single, you know what I mean, *sigh*

I remember when this night used to be so much fun. Me, my sisters and friends used to have rituals that we do every New Year's Eve, partly because we did not have the privilege of going out and at the same time; we did not have companions (boyfriends, fiances, husbands) to celebrate with.

Sitting here now and thinking of the good old days; I would love to share these rituals with you in an attempt to make fun of myself and prove to poor me one more time that I am finally mature!!

Now, these were important ingredients for the long night. We used to give each one of us a task to do, so one would bring the potato chips (she has to bring several flavors), and another would bring the popcorn; whether ready-made microwave type or the good old dried corn in the pan; it is her responsibility and she has to do it.

Fruits, juices and milkshakes are the next in the line when it comes to New Year's Eve rituals. Again, all this effort is shared and divided by all.

Good old homemade cake ... nothing beats that. Mom used to put it on the heater (el9oba) and the smell would be all over the house. We used to do it in different flavors as well, but I did not like the nuts that mom used to put inside, I love my cakes plain.

And how can we pass the night without some lebanese appetizers (Mazat)? It was fun preparing them; especially the "yallanji"

Then we would wash it all down with the good old Pepsi ... nothing beats it!!

We would play lots of games together and dance to the sound of the latest albums of famous singers at that time, like Ragheb 3alameh, 3amr Diab and others.

Now we reached the final and most peculiar ritual of all. I don't know who planted the myth in our heads, but this ritual is about an orange skin!

The myth states that if you peel the orange without breaking the skin, just like the picture, and then place it under your pillow, so when you sleep, you will dream of your future husband ... DUH!!

These things sound so far now. My friends and sisters are all married and have their own lives; I don't see my old friends any more, and I guess that our relations died with these rituals, and to tell you the truth; I do miss them both!

Hope you will all have a lovely New Year's Eve with those that you love and care for!

Saturday, December 24, 2005

JP meet-up from my angle!!

Dim lights and warm cozy ambiance; that was the first impression I got when I entered Canvas last night to participate in the JP meet-up. Like the majority of the attendees; this was our first time in Canvas and I think it will not be the last; cause we all liked it.

Unfortunately; we did not have the chance to interact more on a personal level, but we sure had the valuable opportunity to meet the people behind the great blogs that we came to follow on JP. The familiarity of the meeting was an experience to talk about; it seemed like we knew each other from before, and we got along like long lost friends.

At the end of the meeting and after some of the attendees left, we had a chance to gather around and discuss a few things in a group activity. We got to discuss topics of common and national concerns like the education in Jordan; I am actually waiting to see some nice posts about it; and I might do one myself.

I leave you with the pictures that I took from my angle, cause right now I just can't sleep, so I decided to use the time to post about the meeting that took place last night, and by the way; Laith Zraikat and myself were the first to arrive and among the last to leave. It was raining outside when we finally left after four great hours. We had so much fun, and looking forward to doing it again some time soon.

Jordan Planet and all its citizens are way so cool, thanks to all those who made it possible.

Click on the images to enlarge

One of the waiters took this picture from the other end

Rami taking notes

Isam looks like he was singing :)

I could not hear what people at the end of the table were saying, yeah it was a big meeting!!

Discussing

The waiter took this one; this is me with the long hair

Laith Zraikat introducing himself to the group

Laith Z, Lina and Roba is trying to take a picture of Laith Majali

Laith M introducing himself, Mariam is listening and Laith Z likes his Mango Cocktail

Ziad seems to be getting the attention here

Mariam is finding it hard to leave, she is trying! :)

Nader, Ammar, Mira and Abeer (Mira's Santa's hat looks good on Ammar)

Saturday, December 10, 2005

My turn for a short trip downtown

Yep, you read right ... today I took a short trip downtown and tried to document it with some photos that I took. Our friend Firas advised me to take my cam along and that's exactly what I did; I will tell you the story as you go through the photos, so here you go!

I parked my car in Shabsogh; it was so full that I had to go all the way to the upper floors, and the view there was pretty nice, so I captured it :)

(Click on the photos to enlarge)

The whole purpose of my trip was to buy some fabric, cause I want to have some dresses tailored, so I headed straight to the best fabric shop in town; Bayazid in Souq Mango. 3am Abu Faris and his sons run this shop and they have the best textiles ever.

The shop from the outside

3am Abu Faris (Owner of the shop)

Faris (The eldest son)
I got myself some of the tooty fabric he is holding, cool ha?

The shop from the inside

Souq Mango was quiet today, not so many shoppers around

This path leads to Souq Bsharat

These very old stairs connect Souq Mango to Basman Street

Souq El 3arayes in Souq Mango

Then I went out of Souq Mango to go back and took more pictures :)

Far view of Gold Souq

I took this while crossing the street

Heading back to Shabsogh where you can see all the old restaurants

Some people were having lunch at Al Naja7 Restaurant

I bought a glass of the country's best fruit cocktail (you all should try it)

An inviting smile from the owner

Finally, a friendly smile from the Shabsogh employee responsible for the ground floor of the multi-level parking.

So, there you have it guys; I hope you enjoyed my very short trip downtown; maybe next time I will spend some more time and capture more of downtown beauty - I promise.

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