Dull philosophical thoughts

How often do you say to yourself , when eating a delicious sweet in a pastries shop or a café , that if you owned this place you would never pass a day without having a piece of that delicious sweet you order almost every time you go into that café . Your tongue never gets tired of having the sugary taste sending pleasures of yummy signals to your brains making you feel all high and content? and then , here comes a time when you are there feeling like trying something different for a change , and suddenly , that pastries shop is out of all kinds but your sweet , but the problem is , you don't really feel like having it this time , yet you have it , simply because there is nothing else , it may still taste as good . But it also may taste less than usual , simply because you are out of options , and this is your only choice.


Same thing applies to life, whether it’s a person, a hobby or a job, whom or which you dearly care for and cherish, once you get over dosed with any of those, you probably will feel the need for some space, an open window where you can see another view , exhale some fresh air, and acknowledge the presence of other things in life other that what you have been destined to see for a good amount of time. Okay, I admit that I might have got carried away with trying to find resemblance between a piece of yummy pastry and other vital life issues, and I know that many wont probably agree with me putting people, hobbies and work all at the same rank, but maybe, if you looked at it from different angle and wear a different shoe – similar to mine - then maybe, you could see some rightness with my point of view ,( or it could be that I should find a better pair of shoes ! )

Do we hold affection for the people and devotion for the things we always cared for forever? Or do we pass through times where we loose that affection and devotion and feel surprisingly chocked with its magnitude? I mean, sometimes, caring for something or someone deeply and continually, can blind us from other things around us, especially if that thing or one is totally consuming, where you point all your efforts towards building, maintaining and keeping it. And it all evolves around it , where you have no choice to look for other "it(s)" around . But aren’t you entitled for a break? Where you can recover your breath, and forget all about forcing your whole-self to one thing? or does this analogy sound vague and a bit selfish ? I cannot quite decide.

I don't know, this could be a late night hallucination, a dull philosophical random thoughts, or a side effect of excessive and long work hours , that I might feel like crossing once I sober of this weird phase I am going through. But it does feel good to spill few thoughts out, I have not done it for a while, and now I can feel all good and comfy for letting out those cranky thoughts out of my head.

Thoughts on Cairo Trip ..

"First , a little note , I would like to thank you all for dropping by my blog , and asking about me , I am fine , and I miss all of you , and I miss reading and communicating with you and commenting on those thoughts you leave on your blog sites . My “lame” excuse is work, and I think this will last for a while. But hopefully, I will manage to escape the load every now and then ( like today) and post something and check some blogs . Also , I would like to post a special thanks to the caller (Rasha ) for her kind idea of meeting while I am in Cairo , which unfortunately did not work out , due to the short time , however , I hope it will work out in the coming trips , inshallah :). "

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“Its way after midnight , and I am sitting on my bed in my hotel room , I can hardly keep my eyes open , or my lips from drawing that content smile on my face . Today was our final full day here in Cairo, tomorrow, we will be heading back to Amman, and despite the fact that those past three days and half were
extremely loaded with work , yet , I had a tiny chance to check out some parts of Cairo , mostly being in the car moving from one place to another , but I had a chance to go and set at Alfishwaie coffee place . One idea was running in my mind the whole time that I should come back here, for a vacation. I simply envy the people of Egypt on their transparent funny lovable spirit. You simply cannot feel anything for them except love them, and feel like coming back, despite the huge traffic problem they have, but that is a minor reason that wont stop me from going there again, since everything there makes me feel like coming back.
I can hardly keep my eyes open, I should get some sleep and I’ll write more later

That was one of those random diary style paragraphs that I typed during my stay in Cairo. It’s been almost a week now since I got back. Still, I carry the memory of that short trip with me. We headed to Cairo Airport last Saturday, that’s about ten days ago, and the overall feeling I had back then was being anxious and worrying about several business meetings I planned and wished that will go just fine , having some management personnel with me , made me stress over the visit , because I wanted things to go perfect . However, the minute we landed, and headed to our hotel , things started to feel good .

The three days we spent where full in exhibition (Cairo ICT) activities from early morning till around 8 p.m. at night , but it gave me a slight idea of a country I’ve never been to before , yet always dreamed of visiting ever since I was a little kid , since I grew up reading for a lot of Egyptian authors, in so many parts of literature , like Najib Mahfouz, Yousef Alsebaei, Ihssan Abdalqouddous , the series of Rajol almosta7eel , Malaf almostaqbal and ma wara2 altabee3a , add to that “alghaz, which where very popular when I was a kind and teenager “, so it was always a dream to pass by and be around places like Helioplois , Maadi , Down town Cairo , Khan alkhalili , Alqobba square (Midan 7adae’q Alqobba) , the river Nile, pyramids ( I only saw them from a distance , but I will come back for all the Pharaoh ruins again ) as well as the Smart city (very neat !!!) And many other places.. Everything was so lovely in a dreamy way. I did not get to shop though, only passed for a fast food pickup , by a big mall called city stars , but there was no time at all for shopping .

I met wonderful people during this trip, the partners who has hosted us, there is always something nice in meeting someone you always knew through the phone for business, and then meeting him/her for real . You have already broke some of the ice , having dealt before , but the actual meeting always add to the relation and strengthen it in a good way .
The Egyptians are definitely a warm nation, loving and always open for guests. and I also came to knew they have a big thing for the Levant people “ahel Belad elsham” .. lol:). Its funny when dialects between us cross, and we start trying to explain what do we meant by this or that. But also, I have learned that Egyptians are workaholics! most of whom I met , worked day and night , and saw their families during weekends only . Or this might be restricted to the sector that I am in , which has to do with telecommunication and IT .

All in all , I am planning to visit it again inshallah , if things went fine with business , then there is a good chance to have another short business trip , but I have already set my mind to come again for vacation , tour around , and enjoy the lovely spirit of that ancient country .

Going to Cairo ..

I have finished packing my suitcase a while ago. I tried to limit myself with cloths I am taking, but winter cloths are heavy! and I am trying to imagine how am I going to handle my suitcase , my purse , the laptop and the brochures bag . Use your fertile imagination to picture a tiny person buried under all of those bags and struggling her way to the checkout point!

So, why Cairo ? It's definitely not for leisure (I wish if it was though), it’s a business trip, and the schedule so far seems loaded. I will spare you the headache I am living lately, and wont blabber about the goals and the preparations for this visit, however part of it will be exhibiting our products in Cairo ICT. I still hope that we'll have sometime to tour around and see some of Cairo's features; it would be such a pity to reach it and not visit its famous places.

I just wish if I don't worry this much when traveling is involved in any plan. I think I have some sort of a pre-traveling phobia. My mother traveled today to visit her hometown , tomorrow's morning it will be me , and around noon time my brother will also take off to another destination . I know this is normal in many houses around this glob, but it feels a bit new to our house, to have three members out of country, leaving the other three handling their business on their own.

I am scheduled to be back by Wednesday, and as weather news says, snow is expected in Amman that day. I have this tiny evil wish that it would snow after I arrive, so that I won't have to go to work the very next day, because we have another business trip scheduled to Damascus, and I feel exhausted already by the mere reminder of it!

Being a regular .. or too much of a regular ?

I like going out, trying new places, having hot steamy drinks and chocolate rich cookies in winter time. And sometimes, when I get so comfortable with a place, I rank it as a favorite, and I become a regular customer there . It feels good to be a regular at some place, because you make sure that, the staff will welcome you, take care of you , finds you a table , and pamper you with their service , and it also feels good to feel familiar with the place and the other regular customers around . But, when does regular get to be too much?

This evening, I was out with a good friend of mine. It's been a while sine we met, just the two of us, and exchanged latest news on all levels. I just love my meetings with her, because no matter how long it was since our last meeting, no ice ever builds up, and we easily go into conversation. So, today we hit one of our favorite coffee bars, asked for our coffees, and then had a seat and started chatting.

The staff has been joyful and helpful , and we usually smile back , and act nice , yet , the idea of joking and exchanging conversation does not appeal to me very much , I like to keep things semi-formal ,not too stiff , and not too friendly, just friendly and nice but in a formal way.

Anyway, so we decided to change our table into another more comfy table that others were occupying and just left, so we moved and waited for someone to come and pick up the latter group mugs, but no one came, I guess because no one noticed the table exchange. So I thought, I'd go and ask someone to come and pick them up (it's not very pleasant to be sitting with others leftovers, even if it was coffee mugs!). So I went and asked for some of the staff's help, and there were they all standing, grinning, and trying to be "overly cute" joking with me saying "Why don't you pick it up?" . At that moment, I was not sure how should I react, to frown or smile yellowish-ly , but I was not very comfortable with that remark . I simply turned on my heels and headed back to my table with no more words. After a minute, one of the staff came to our table to pick up the mugs, apologizing and saying they were just kidding, and they always joke with their regular customers. I couldn't help it to let him know that this kind of joking was neither pleasant nor funny. He apologized again, and after a short while , we were sent complimentary coffee ,on the house.

That coffee bar is still one of my favorites, for many reasons, regardless this tiny situation. But, was I right in showing my annoyance? Is it okay when people of the staff cut that line and start acting like old friends? Well, the only thing I know, their apology gesture was kind, I would still go there, but maybe I should shift towards more formal way in conversing!

Shooting star .. self journal

Too many things are taking place lately at my work, lots of work load, and I am still trying to squeeze it all in those 8 hours, without any success, to end up working for 10 and 12 hrs sometimes.

I almost forgot how does it feel to be free of all work obligations, and to be at home , wearing something comfy , a PJ or a training suite , with soft slippers in my feet , wearing my glasses on instead of those annoying contact lenses scrunching my eyeballs warping my hands around my big hot mug of green tea , seeking serenity and warmth . And enjoying that soft track for Corrine Bailey Rae singing in the background :

"Just like a star across my sky,
Just like an angel off the page,
You have appeared to my life,
Feel like I'll never be the same,
Just like a song in my heart,
Just like oil on my hands,
Honour to love you ….."




And no, I am far far far away from falling for any "star". My star is still wondering somewhere in that endless glamorous space. I simply happen to find the song soothing and romantic , and the words seem are easy to murmur ..

This does look like another self journal post, though I just cannot resist it. It's been a long tiring energy consuming week, and the hardest is yet to come...


And Corrine is still singing:

"I wonder why it is,
I don't argue like this,
With anyone but you,
I wonder why it is,
I wont let my guard down,
To anyone but you
We do it all the time,
Blowing out my mind.. "

Morning race ... RUN !!!!!!

You open your eyes slowly, letting the sunshine penetrate into you. You're feeling extra comfy this morning. And while you are still enjoying the warmth while tucked in under those warm sheets, stretching your arm to the table next to your bed, grabbing your mobile to check on time, and then as if a bee has just stung you, you jump out of your bed, you are LATE!!!!!!!!!

So, you have over slept, snoozed your mobile's alarm several times , and when you finally decided to wake up , its just late , you have about 20 minutes to get dressed , have breakfast , and then 5 minutes to fly to work . You discover that you can, go to toilet, iron and slip into your cloths, do your hair, grab your breakfast, and brush your teeth in 20 minutes. And then you run to the garage storming out with your car.

Great !!! traffic today is working against you , everybody seems to be taking a pleasant "drive" this morning , doing some sight-seeing in their way to work , and not going over 30km/hr. and you are trying to by pass them , but it is a bit hard . Your first traffic light, and the line of cars is WAY too long , and you start thinking that they should find a solution for this annoying daily jam on that traffic , and you start day dreaming that your car will convert to a grindizer , and start jumping between cars or flying in the sky to reach work , and you smile with frustration at the thought.

You have less than 5 minutes left! So traffic light is green, Thanks God!! and you think that your way will be open above that bridge , and you'll sprint between cars , to be stopped by big trucks this time , where the hell did they came from !!!! Aren't those huge vehicles supposed to stay parked until evening time! So, you are slowed down again , day dreaming again , about having a huge car with rubber side contours to push other cars from your way , just like that car game you used to play in the entertainment park when you were a kid. Back to reality and start trying to maneuver your way to by pass those monstrous vehicles , and racing with time .

And you finally there, one minute late, its an achievement!!! To be at work after 25 minutes from your wake up time and still manage not to look as if you jumped out of bed to your desk .

Time to relax, have your morning Nescafe, and making another promise to yourself, you will never wake up late .. again !

5 Things that you may (not) be very interested to know about me ..

I have been away from blogging and blogs for a while now, I am not able to read my favorite , regular blogs , nor check on them . you will have to excuse me guys for that , I really miss reading it all and catching up with every blog, but I might still need more time . add to that , I haven't been posting anything for sometime. It happens I guess .

So, I've been tagged twice, first time by Summer and second time by Tamara , to tell five things about me that you do not know ..

Hmmm.. this should be easy , since technically , no one reads for me knows me personally , well , okay , some might know me from work , and some might be my friends in real life , but the majority , do not know me in person . So, let's see:

1. I am intimidated by public speaking, especially in front of a group that is over 6 people of total strangers! I fear it to the maximum limits! I once had this workshop, the group consisted of 20 people and the workshop lasted for 2 days, one exercise was to stand in front of the U-shaped table and explain something on the white board. I was fine, until I realized that I'll be speaking in a loud voice in front of twenty something people whom I've just met! And, I'll spare you the details of my utter embarrassment, or I might just share it in another post one day!

2. Everybody seemed to mention the food and fruits they hate, and my share of that would be Eggplants and Guava, still, I like Baba ghanouj and Guava juice! And since we are still on food, I eat "7elbeh" and I do not find it gross! I bit many people will find this weird , most people I know hates it !

3. When I become passionate about something or someone, I just become "passionate" and I give it all my energies and resources, because I end up believing in this something or someone, but the bad part about that is, I am never patient enough to wait for results, I always unconsciously demand or expect fast results, whether at work on in my life, and I have to admit, that one should be patient and sometimes I lack this asset.

4. I am a hopeless case when it comes to singing a song with the its right words ! I can mumble my lips with what seems like its words, I could get a couple of words right, but the actual lyrics, never. And I'd end up making up a word to fit in instead of the real one, and sometimes a whole line ..


5. I over analyze things, and I am "the mother of assumptions" as a dear friend of mine calls me. There are things or situations that I would go over and over and over in my mind to an exhausting limit (makes me sound paranoid .. eah!) I assume all the time, and the annoying part is that; I believe my assumptions! And adjust myself to them before even the situation happens, very bad.. Yeah I know..

So, here I have shared a piece of my personality, not very cute, but true. And look at that , I thought I had nothing to write about , and I ended up with a medium sized post !

I will leave the tagging chain end here on this part though :) .. But whomever feels like sharing their "private 5 things", is always welcome to write them down.

Mumbles and inside wonders

How often do we mean the things we say?

How often do we mean it when we say to a friend or a close one that I'll be there for you in anytime and in any situation and we are THERE for them when they need us?

How often do we think that old flames of affection for people whom we've grown fond of will remain and stay the same or even ignite as time passes?

How often do we mean it when we say to someone we miss them, and when they say it back, do they really mean it? Then why is it we don't hear from them, unless if we picked the phone and dialed their numbers?

And how come "love" is a word that can be thrown on someone's ear, that in a matter of years it vanishes as if it never been pointed to our hearts , and they are strangers in the street?

And how many times we thought of a person as a friend, that we'll depend on his/her unquestioned and ongoing support and love, to find that years will steal those precious friendship senses of the relation, leave it all formal and dry?

How often we build dreams and wishes on imaginary basis, and then fall into our delusional illusions , to be shaken up later from those dreams and fall into the street of real life?

How often our sweetest memories of different intervals of life shape up our relations to some people , and as we think it will remain and sustain it forever , we get smacked by the one and only truth that nothing remains the same , even the best of relations ?

Is it that we love our past more than present? Is it that we "imagine" that those were a better days and yesterday is a day we lost and can never get back? Then why do we run for our future? Because it will be a past one day?

Who does even care …

A warm winter night spent with "Sho Hal-iyyam" ..

My friend called me this evening asking me if I was free to hang out. Its been a while since the two of us went out for a cup of coffee with warm cozy chit chat. And as we were wondering about where to go, she mentioned a concert being held in the Terrasanta schools theater later this evening for a local band called "Sho Hal iyyam" . I paused a bit when she said the name trying to remember where have I heard it before , and then it came back to me that few weeks ago , as I was skimming the newspaper , I saw a half page article talking about this freshly formed band , which consists of six members. I remembered that the review was praising their performance in a newly opened coffee place in Amman down town. So I thought, what the heck, lets go and hear them out!

My friend picked me up, and we were in Alwaibdeh area, where Terrasanta School is, before the concert time with ten minutes. I love the area there, there is this unexplainable passion and coziness in the old parts of Amman like Alwaibdeh , Jabal Amman and some parts of down town . That made me remember a funny remark of someone I know "Those places are sexy somehow"! and despite the fact that I was not able to relate to that , the comment blinks in my mind , every time I pass by them.

The whole event was organized by Arab Group For the protection Of Nature, where the funds raised from tickets will go to implant olive trees in Palestine and Jordan. Around 7:30 the theater was full , and after a couple of speeches from organizers , the band started , and I should say , it was one of the nicest , loveliest little concerts I've ever been to. The band consists of 2 ladies with lovely heavenly voices and 5 talented guys playing different cords based instruments, such as O'oud , guitar and Bouzoq in addition to Daff . They played and sang a collection of heart warming oldies, by Fairouz, Marcel Khalifeh , Shei7' Imam and Ziad Rahbani , such as , "Zouroni kol sana marra" "elba7r beyed7ak leah" "Inni i7'tartoka ya wa6ani" "sho hal iyyam". The theater was really cold, yet their lovely voices with that touchy play of instruments, and down to earth performance and attitude warmed everyone's hearts. And with every song performed, applause went on and on. It's really lovely to hear such a local young band, with beautiful voices and talents like that singing respectful, patriotic and romantic songs. I enjoyed every moment I spent there. And I encourage anyone to hear them out in any upcoming performance for them.

Random thoughts .. Piece of my journal

It has been a while since the last time I posted anything. I can't really think of anything specific to write about, other than the fact that the last couple of weeks passed way too fast and were kind of loaded, I managed to have 4 days away from work though, taking a day off between Christmas holiday and weekend. I was kind of forced into taking that day off , since the HR announced , that any left over vacation since 2005 should be taken , otherwise , they will be gone with the wind the moment 2007 starts ! And since I am the type of person, who does not know how to take random days off – call me crazy, but seriously, I don't feel a vacation is worthy, unless well planned to be spent somewhere else ! – So I still had a couple of days from the year 2005.

I spent a whole four days away from work stress , did not even dare to check my work email , since I did not want anything to disturb this inner peace I was feeling , being totally relaxed , away from stress , numbers , figures , proposals to be prepared , purchase orders to wait for , reports before the end of the year , customers queries to be answered , excuses to be made for out of hand delays and staying late to finish pending issues and going over it with the manager. So I had a nice little vacation , went shopping a bit , watched TV , read a bit , worked out , went in family visits and of course slept as much as I can .

I got back to work yesterday, and I feel that I am kind of being punished for having that day off, because of the amount of work that should be finished now! I was planning to take Thursday off too, now I am not quiet sure if this will work out, I need to be done with so many things. Everybody wants to close this year, wrap things up, calculate budgets for next year and start fresh and clean in 2007 .And you know something; I still find it weird that 7 years have passed since the starter of the new millennium, time passes REALLY fast.

That was random diary type post, its probably boring, but who said diaries should always be interesting to read !

Enjoy the rain.. I think I have to go back to work and I'll plug my headphones , listen to some Arabic oldies , they always work perfectly with rainy weather .. don't you think so ?

Fairooz & I ..

I don't know what is it with me and Fairooz , it doesn't matter where , what or when .. but whenever I hear any of her innocent romantic love songs , I just melt away with the rhythm , while her voice awakens those tender hidden feelings in my heart . I simply live the words in a world of dreams, it just sinks in me, deep down , knocking on a seemingly hollow sleepy heart . and then it pounds and yearns for a mysterious love and an unknown passion . My eyes shed tears, and my mind visualizes pictures and scenes of her words creation. And in winter, it gets even worse, as if her songs are MADE for it, it just fits those cold long nights, those foggy grey rainy mornings, and lonely hearts ..

I wish I knew how to post a song , but I'll leave you with links for some of my favorites of hers ..

2adaysh kan fi nas

layali elshemal

Kenna netla2a

Allah Ma3ak ya hawana

7abaytak belsayf

Ba3dak 3ala bali

wa7don

Keefak enta

Questions ..

I just cannot understand what's going on in Palestine anymore.. why? Why is this chaos taking place? Why is everybody throwing accusation on the other's shoulders? Why is everyone trying to show the ugly part of the other? Why have they diverted from the one basic and original cause which standing one against occupation, to self and political wins matters? Why all of the sudden killing of other's children is a tool to punish a person who is a parent before being a person holding any political position or being in authority ? What by Allah's name justifies the civil war Palestinians are being driven into? And the most important question is.. Who is the beneficiary?

It surely can't be any of the Palestinian parties involved, because if they think they do, then struggle is surely doomed...

A day in Damascus ..

Yesterday's afternoon :
-G.M. : Tealover, we have an appointment tomorrow at Damascus , noon time .with a key customer to conduct a presentation of some of our solutions . You are among the team going, be ready .
-Me (Tealover) : Oh ! what! okay!

So , today , I had to wake up early , had breakfast , dressed up , put my high heals boots on (and that was a mistake , I should've gone in tennis shoes !!!) , and was ready at the premises by 8 sharp ! .. Well almost sharp..

It was three of us , and the plan was to go , conduct the presentation and come right back. Boarders were empty , it was really cold , and the horizon was misty , by the time we arrived to Damascus around noon , the atmosphere around looked grey and dirty . Not sure if it was pollution, weather or the effect of both.

After the presentation, we decided to head towards Hamediyeh , and female readers , can imagine how nice and comfy is it to walk it with 7 cm high heals ! Anyway, we went to a restaurant in one of those aisles that one of the colleagues recommended, it was okay. Then headed back to Hamediyeh , and in our way passed by Bikdash , my colleagues had some , I had none , I don't rally like it , and I can't quiet get what people finds in it ! After that , we moved on in our way , all the way back to our car , and headed for Amman. A stop over by the Syrian duty free was a must. Then we headed back to Amman, was there by 9 p.m.

A funny thing that caught my eye at the Syrian boarders, was this sign that was saying in Passports, Private with the women, and that translated to
استلام الجوازات, خاص بالنساء … I wish I could capture it , but it was a bit risky at the boarders building!

Anyway, its good to be back to the warm home again ..














Syrian Candy box

Souq

Shanglish

Where we had lunch

From the car

Inside Hamedieyh

A tribute to ....... Nablus

Usually, when someone starts talking about where they have descended from, and which village, town or city they originated from, people around them, whether colleagues, friends, or in-laws may mistake it for either disloyalty for where they have been living for the past decades of their lives. , or simply, for a show off display.

However, the thing is, that we as humans tend to belong to a place, a home, something that we feel solidly hugged and immersed within, the question is, could it be more than one place? I believe, yes, it could be.

It’s a known fact that the population of this beautiful country, come from both sides of the river, we have both shared the resources and elevated up with everything that this generous land offered. And there is no doubt and no question to any of that. However, our hearts are divided in between. I have lived almost my whole life here , I've grown up here , had my full education here , have friends allover , know the streets of Amman like the back of my hand . Yet, I have this warm affection for my home town "Nablus".

Why am I bringing this up? Who cares about my home town? Who cares what do I feel for it, or in which way do I long for walking in its streets? For having some khdoud elset "whish is a yummy type of sweets prepared in Nablus, I prefer it even better than Kunafeh!" There is a good chance, no one will care. But that's okay, I simply felt this desire to type down few lines about it, and send it a tribute through them.

What has triggered it then? It could be those family chats about the old times, the way brothers gathered their families, having all cousins growing up under the same roof, knowing each others like siblings do. Those naughty funny stories of uncles and aunties deeds as kids, those richly colored memories with the taste and smell of the places they speak of , those pure little love stories , or even traditional marriage stories " they still had so many funny details within", it could be anything.

The truth is , as I'm typing these lines , I can picture myself , sitting on the garden's stairs on my grandparent house , overlooking the E'bal mountain ""عيبال , then walking down the street , all the way to the old town , smelling that roaster store on the way , entering those rocky aisles of the old city , celebrating my visuals with the ancient look of those stores going back to hundreds of years , hearing the old strong unique accent of my people blabbering . Passing by the spices merchants, and the soap factories, smelling that unique aroma for the Nabulsi soap. Heading towards Khan , buying some halaweh and Zalabiyeh " another Nabulsi sweet" and then going through the old neighborhoods , and all the way to the famous centre with the clock.

I can keep on talking about my childhood and teenage years memories there , and take you into a journey. But I think , this will probably need another post .


And to those whom are away from their hometowns, regardless which hometown they came from, I hope you'll be able to visit it again and celebrate your memories within.

I love you ya Nablus .. ya Jabal Elnar ..

Random non-business thoughts on ICT forum

I had an extremely busy week at work the past few days , and I've been cut out from the world of blogging for a while ,hopefully I'll be back to read my favorite blogs and post more thing now.

Exhibitions are usually boring, nerves burning and tiring by all means! having to stand up most of the time, being nice and talkative to people visiting, networking,on stand by mode for any one inspecting about the business line, to give a full detailed explanation for the really interested visitors, and even when the audience are out of the business scoop and end up to be random individuals looking for neat giveaways to take home and blabber about.

However, the Dead Sea ICT forum is more oriented and well organized to serve the genuinely interested individuals and companies in the information, communication and technology sectors.

I won't be diving into the technicalities and the agenda of sessions and discussions of the forum, nor the latest that has been officially announced or launched within, since I believe many other bloggers ((whom I have seen and recognized there, and to tell you the truth it was fun seeing them in real)) has already shared that with you in a very professional and elaborating form. I would only say that we have participated as partners with Int@j . After participating as delegates for the past years.

So, yesterday, I had to wake up early to take my time dressing up and attending the work before time to head afterwards with colleagues toward the Dead sea , convention palace.

The palace was crowded for sure; you would sense the business aura in the air, everybody pulling up the professional business looks and smiles, looking sleek and shiny. People were mingling, shaking hands, and business chatters all over the place.

I attended part of the conference opening, and then headed back to the booth, where we had a very busy, yet promising attendance.

After lunch, the session period started, and traffic on booths went down to minimum. However, the only session I attended was "Outsourcing Trends in the Region" which had a very interesting group of speakers and discussions .I would sum it up and say : people , outsourcing will be playing a part in the business process in this region in the coming few years !!

By the end of that session , I had no energy left to keep my eyes open , my feet were killing me for wearing the high heals for the whole day and standing up , climbing stairs , and my brains were about to explode after all of those business discussions during the day .

To conclude I would say All in all, it was good event to attend.

And … Its good to be back !

Answering the book TAG

A new wave of tagging is hitting the blogsphere shore lately .

I've been tagged by my sweet humours fellow blogger Mala2e6 to answer a very nice and short tag .

So here I am responding to the TAG attack !

the tag rules says :


-Grab the book closest to you
-Open to page 123-Scroll down to the 5th sentence
-Post the text of next 3 sentences on your blog
-Name of the book and the author
-Tag 3 people



And here is the answer ..

القطن الفلسطيني انقطع بعد عقدين من الزمان , يوم جعل ظاهر العمر مدينة عكا كرسي حكمه في اواسط الأربعينات من القرن الثامن عشر , و أفلح , بمؤازرة ابراهيم الصباغ , مدير اعماله المالية و مستشاره السياسي منذ مدة مديدة , في ان يحل نفسه وسيطا بين

التجار الفرنسيين و تلك القرى اللتى تزرع القطن بين القرى الخاضعة لــه....ـ

اسم الكتاب : اعادة اكتشاف فلســطين - اهالي جبل نابلــس 1700-1900

اسم المؤلف : بشــارة دومـــاني

Tags goes to , and I am not sticking to 3 , because I thought it is such a nice easy task :

Tamara

Abdullah ( even though you don't have a blog )

Hareega

Qwaider

Sharifo

and Finally Dar (although you have such an interesting funny idea when it comes to books on your profile ;)

Anyone is more than welcome to answer the TAG on the comment section as well , it would be nice to know what do others read about .

And since Summer started this TAG , yet did not answer it , so here I am tagging you Summer !

**updated ** 7ala .. you are tagged :)

A piece of news ..

- So .. what happened during the weekend ?

-- Oh .. well … I became a citizen on JP !

- No Kidding !!!!!!! ..

-- Oh Yeah !!!! .. check it out :) !

And just for the record.. I think this is the shortest post I've ever wrote.. Saving you from a long long wordy read :) !

Sho Zareef halZareef !

Another loaded Thursday! I always thought Thursdays are supposed to be the lamest work days, everybody is usually mentally and emotionally prepared for the weekend. So by noon time, you'd find everyone wrapping up their pending work matters in an attempt to adjust into the "weekend mood" rather than the "work-holism mood" .

So today I had dinner plans with my friends, celebrating a birthday of one of them . And since we made it a habit to go out and try a new restaurant out each birthday . this birthday pick was the new Iranian/Persian restaurant "Zareef".

The place is located at Abdoun circle, occupying half a building of two stories "I think ! but who would really care about this piece of info. ! Anyway ..." .We arrived there after 8 . it was still empty by then .We climbed the stares to the 2nd floor where the better scene is . Our table was located next to the big windows overlooking the street and the shops across.

The general atmosphere of the place is cozy , and clean . Iranian music plays in the background , slightly dimmed lights , enhancing the coziness effect , not to darkness degree though ,I don't like places with minimal light , it always gives me the feeling that something creepy is going on , besides , eating would be such a hard task , considering the fact that you can barely see what's on your plate !

The menu had Iranian/Persian names with explanation of the content of each dish. We started with appetizers .Shami , which is very close to Koufta balls , along with some Nan Panir Sabzi , which is Iranian cheese , served with hot yummy bread , and some Kashk Badenjan , which is mainly fried eggplant topped with kashk , fried onions , mint & garlic.

Main dishes that we ordered were all about rice, meat and chicken. Rice is done in three different ways, either with saffron, vegetables or with Zereshk (some kind of sweet and sour dried fruit close to raisins). Persian food seemed a bit dry to us, since we are used to have rice with something to gravy/Vigi base to the side, We needed to moist our dishes so , each one of us ordered special Iranian yogurt to go with the dish. The food was good, the amount of rice was huge though.

I liked the place, the service was more than great and the prices are reasonable. Food wise , its okay , may be it lacks variety . but for rice lovers , I think it will be a perfect pick !

New policies..

One of the things I liked most about my current work is, they never were critical about the time we arrive nor we leave. So if we are like half an hour late, it would be deducted from our lunch break time , which was half an hour anyway , or we can simply stay for another half an hour in the evening and compensate . So you may say, my colleagues and I , have been living in a work paradise when it came to times of arrival and departure..

However, as any company grows from small sized to medium sized enterprise, the number of employees has doubled if not tripled in the last couple of years , and the management sensed the need to organize things better , so new policies were set that we had to follow , and time of arrival and departure was no exception. So, a circular was sent to all employees, that from now on, we should be at premises by 8:00 and we are entitled with 15 minutes to be late, but exceeding that will be considered extremely late, hence, a warning will be sent!

Picture from gettyimages

So having in mind the past couple of years of tolerance and previous policies, the warning part did not really fit. So, on Sunday, I did not really make any special effort in trying to follow the new policy, since we had a lot of those for the past couple of years, and they went down with the drain. The employees in general thought they were immune to changes. So anyway , here I am getting 23 minutes late for work on Sunday , and performing my usual tasks , until I get that email around mid of the day , the email was simply a warning for my late arrival , and cc'd to concerned parts in the company ! Eah !!!!!! when I saw that , I had this hysterical laugh , thinking "Oh my God , they are not kidding !!! that was my first REAL warning ever in anything that I've ever been too, whether school , university or previous job" . I have to say , geeee .. it felt a bit humiliating !


Not wanting to have such a warning AGAIN , I decided that I should start getting up and starting my engines earlier than what I used to for the past years . The problem is , I am not a morning person mainly , I usually feel grumpy in the early mornings , but I guess , I will have to start changing that !


But that is not all.. There will be a completion for this stream of thoughts .. but I guess , I'll keep it for another post !

Perspective ??!?

Is our perspective of people distorted?

What do you mean?

I mean , what are the elements that we take into our consideration on judging a person.

You mean like , honesty , morals , respect , intellectualism and things like that ?

Well, yeah ! Those are some elements, though definitions for these elements you mentioned differ from one person to another.

How! Those are general terms that we talk about!

Yes !!! And that's why I say, it differs from one person to another. a group of people may agree on a general definition , but each one of them may add their own personal ingredient to that .

Now you lost me, what do you mean?

I mean, the definition of, hmmm , lets say intellectualism . You may describe someone being intellectual , for knowing a good deal of information and details , in a particular or a number of subjects , say for instance ; literature , religion , politics , history , languages, sciences . There might be a general agreement on those lines of knowledge. Yet , there are people who consider not knowing about latest video clips, movies, series , world wide clothing brands is such an unforgivable crime !

Okay , that’s extreme ! But that’s a personal definition. The two groups you are describing, apparently have different orientations and perspective.

See, we are back to square one . How can we judge people? Say, you met someone, and he proposed, how you can tell that he applies for the definitions you have. What if he does not apply to your mental definitions, yet he applies to your heart definitions, what if it the other way around ?


Hmmm , I don't know .. but does this mean that you and all of your friends share the exact same orientation or perspective ? I don't think so , there should be variations .. otherwise , there will be no spicing in your relation , whether with your friends , or with your possible significant other .

Could be .. it’s a complicated subject ..

Well , not complicated ... but debatable!

*picture taken from gettyimages .