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 !