March 8 2005

Confessions

Inspired by And Far Away
1. When it comes to cheating I’m a total loser. I was left in a closed office with my own books for 2 hours and still couldn’t have the courage to open the books and write the answers to my test!
2. I’m really good and creative at making up excuses 😛
3. I faked being Miss Jordan once in Germany using a Burger King carton crown turned inside out (it wasn’t my idea though, it was my class’ and teacher’s idea).
4. I always complain when others drive fast, but I admit that I somehow find myself speeding up when I drive.
5. I’m easily affected by marketing ads 😛
6. I’m extremely bad at geography, my teacher gave up hope on me when I marked Russia in the place of England on the test map 😀
7. I love pampering myself, dropping me at a day spa is way much better than giving me a diamond.
8. I was known as: the “tearless” lady, but after I left my family, a song with warm melodies or touching lyrics is enough to make me cry even if I was in the middle of a festival (but I’m good at hiding my tears though).
9. Can’t concentrate on serious work or reading or homework if music’s playing.
10. Somehow people get the impression that I’m good as a nutrition advisor and keep asking me for ways to get the perfect weight, great part is: my advice always works 🙂
11. I can win the trust of people so easily, and I never betray them or hurt them even if they became my worst enemies… hmm, it’s so hard for me to trust others.
12. I always manage to break my glasses one way or the other.
13. I hate doing anything to get attention or win competition.
14. This may shock many, but I hate reading, it takes me ages to end a book, UNLESS the book is health, environment, or religion- related or is about a real life incident 😀

March 7 2005

Arabic Bread

Dear fellow bloggers, I would like to proudly announce my success in achieving my nr.1 challenge away from the Middle East: Making Arabic Bread!
YIPPIEEEEEEE!

In Tunisia there are three kinds of bread used: baguette (French bread, which is their main used bread) and tabouna bread (which is somehow like Egyptian bread, a bit thicker) and Mlewi bread(kind of between Iranian bread and kmaj bread). They’re all great, very tasty, and I love them, but when I want to eat Middle Eastern food, the whole taste changes if the bread is not the normal fluffy Arabic bread.
I looked for places that sell Middle Eastern food, and found around 4 restaurants (all Lebanese) that sell that bread. Problem is it’s so damn expensive.
And since I love cooking, and adore homemade stuff, I decided to try baking my own Arabic bread at home. I knew it might end up as a total failure that could embarrass me and shock my husband, but still, I took the risk and baked it anyway.
It took me around 4 hours to have the dough perfectly prepared! But I’m telling you, it was worth every second of it. I enjoyed every bit of making it, and while baking, I sat in front of the oven just to make sure I wont miss watching the bread circles rise and puff up 🙂
The result: it was SO YUMMY!!! Just like the one I know in Jordan. Ah! I could eat and eat and eat nonstop!
I’m so happy…

Now my next challenge is: homemade labaneh! A creamy mixture between yogurt and cottage cheese. I know how to make laban (yogurt) and I made it here in Tunisia, but never tried to make labaneh, this weekend hopefully I’ll have the time to make labaneh! And I’ll let you know 🙂

By the way, if you’re reading this Jalan-Jalan, please tell me if you got the “makdous” recipe. I don’t know why it kept coming back to me all the time. But the last time I sent you the email I didn’t get it back. So please confirm you got it either by leaving a comment here or by emailing me.

February 21 2005

Worried :(

Can’t stop worrying about my dear husband. he was ok Saturday morning, then became really sick and had this annoying fever. He couldn’t go to work today and I left him asleep with a really high temperature!
I knew he’d get sick from the bad weather last week. I just hope he’ll get better soon. Can’t wait for my lunch break to come so that I’d be with him…

February 14 2005

Run AquaCool… Run !

It’s so damn cold outside, extremely windy, raining like crazy, and the great part is: I DON’T HAVE MY UMBRELLA, neither a hat, nor a big scarf to protect myself from turning into a water-sponge! 🙁
How would I know! The weather was amazingly beautiful in the weekend! AH!
I don’t want to get sick 🙁

Anyway, if you are keeping yourself warm in a romantic restaurant surrounded with candle lights, red hearts, and the smiles of your loved one, and then you suddenly spot a “headless” black jacket running in the streets shouting “I HATE MY JOB”, don’t panic, that would be your one and only AquaCool making her way back home, and guess what! She’ll be 100% Aqua, and 500% COOL!

Now it’s time to RUN…wish me luck guys… and Happy Valentine’s Day to all those who celebrate it…

January 31 2005

If I Were…

Another post inspired by Subzero Blue (I was so excited that I added 5 more points to the list :D)
If I were a musical instrument, I’d be a flute.
If I were a song, I’d be “I will survive”.
If I were a word, I’d be “Hope”.
If I were a color, I’d be green.
If I were a home, I’d be a country house.
If I were a place, I’d be a green mountain overseeing the sea.
If I were a car, I’d be a 4×4.
If I were an animal, I’d be a wild horse.
If I were a fruit, I’d be a mango 🙂
If I were a language, I’d be Arabic.
If I were a piece of art, I’d be a painting.
If I were a machine, I’d be a camera.
If I were a season, I’d be spring.
And if I were environment, I’d get rid of all human beings 😛

January 27 2005

Our Little Adha Corner :)

And this pic is of the corner we made for the Holy Eid Al Adha in our home. It has mom’s chocolates, greeting cards my family sent for the occassion, the Holy Quran, some other chocolates and some ma3moul I was strong enough to resist eating 🙂

January 27 2005

Our Adha Sheep ;)

My husband and I were preparing some Eid Adha pics to send to my family when I thought I’d share a couple with you.

This one is a pic of mom’s home-made chocolates, a specialty of hers on Eid Al Adha. The pic is featuring our cute yummy sheep 😉 and is surrounded with different shapes of chocolates: tigers, flowers, and lions( but you can only see the flower shapes here). Thank God I took the pics before eating up all the chocolates 😉

January 19 2005

A Great Start :)

Today is simply great, and I thank God for that…
In the morning my husband and I went to the customs to pick a luggage my parents sent me from Jordan, as they always do in this time of the year: Eid Al Adha.
They sent us gifts, some home decoration stuff, clothes, middle eastern food supplies (yes sahlab was included) and MA3MOUL! YIPPIEEEEE!
We have ma3mouuuul 🙂 God I miss it!
But most important of all mom sent me her home-made chocolate! YES! Also a sheep shaped big one 🙂
It took us 2 hours to get our luggage, but it was worth every second 🙂

Also the weather is great (for staying at home that is ) it’s freezing, windy and raining with hail (or barad as we call it, or tabrouri as they call it in Tunis) occasionally. The lightning and thunder are so strong that the car alarms go off every few minutes 😛
Ah, I feel like relaxing at home… this weather is perfect for watching TV at home.

But you know, I can’t stop thinking of other homeless and poor people. I mean we can afford the rent, we have central heating, and still we feel winter cold, what about them? How are they surviving winter?
The only way for them to survive is to help them as much as we can. Give away some money, a sweater, some food, an old pair of shoes, anything at all. I know many people who have clothes that weren’t taken out from closets for more than 2 years, why store them when they can warm up someone in need!
We must always put ourselves in their shoes. Be good and caring, and I’m sure anything would help.

January 10 2005

A Happy Note :)

Despite all the work pressure I have, and regardless of the fact that I just couldn’t sleep last night. I started my day with a big smile, because today is a very special day. In case you’re wondering why, the reason is that today is the first day for my husband in his new office. The company my husband works with moved its headquarters to be only one building away from my office 🙂
YIPPIEEEEE!!
We had lunch together today, something we weren’t able to do for so long because of the distance and the traffic jam. And then we took a walk around the place and I introduced him to “my work neighborhood” 🙂 So from now on, we can have lunch together whenever we want, and I wont have to wait ages for him to come home after work, because the area we work at now is only 10 minutes away from our home.

I’m so excited and wish he’ll be happy with the new place.

Ah, I’m really happy… THANK YOU GOD!

December 31 2004

At This Time Of The Year

So, few more hours and we’ll be starting a brand new year.
As usual, most of us start thinking. Thinking of the past year, thinking of the coming year. Wondering what was the best of last year. Regretting the wrongs we did. Calculating the many goals we’ve missed. Being excited about what the new year has to offer us. Or maybe being a bit scared of what it would throw our way.

Many would go over their sweet-memory album. Pick the photos of those they lost, hang it over their beds, and drop millions of tears to warm up their empty homes.

Many would pick the photos of those who are away, hug them tight, smile for a moment, and then cry for hours, wishing things weren’t the same, hoping the pictures were flesh and blood, and that the world was too small, that no matter how far their loved ones would go, they can still see them from a distance.

Many would pick the photos of the little new members added to them. Such photos always help refresh the memory of the time they were kids, when their parents took pics of them at that age. And then they’ll start picturing this peaceful little baby as he grows, and wonder if they’ll be still there to see the pic of his new born son.

Many would pick the photos of things they possess. Things they like. Mom’s vase, grandpa’s chair, uncle’s frame, wedding ring, first anniversary’s pic, 18th birthday watch.
Many others would draw pictures of things they wish to have, and then an old dried up red rose falls from the book on the table. A rose given to them by someone they once loved. A painful flashback of their memory haunts them. If they were the heart-breakers, they’ll grab the rose and cry this (X) a river. If they were the heartbroken, they’ll grab the rose, smell it, put it back with a smile, maybe a tear. They’re still in love… or they decide to throw it out the window. They got over their old love. Now the rose will fall in the hands of someone new, to light their lives with love, or to break their hearts too.

And many would pick their albums, look in, look again, and again, and again, nothing. No pics. Not a single picture, because there are no memories in the first place. They wasted their lives doing the wrong kind of thing. They spent their time with the wrong kind of people. All they cared about was the joy of the moment. They didn’t expect their life will fly by that fast, they never expected to become weak one day. They never thought a day will come when they’re left all alone, not even an album to capture their wasted moments.

At the end of each year, and the start of a new one, many will try to put some goals. Many will just enjoy the clock ticking 12 in the place they’ve been planning to be at many many weeks ago.

Many will witness a big change, many wont. Many will work hard to become better, and many will become lazy and silly enough to become worse.

In the brand new year, many will decide to have a brand new life but still, in the brand new year, many will choose to repeat their old same life.

Let’s all look for change, fruitful change. Let’s all put goals, constructive ones, and let’s work hard to reach them.
Start your new year with a prayer to God. Begin your new year with a smile, and be sure to draw a smile on someone else’s face.
Begin your new year with a brand new high spirit. Be a peaceful soul that aims at helping others. Try to make a positive change in this crazy world. Because you can’t change the world, but you can change yourself, and that makes the whole difference.

Happy New Year 2005 Everybody! May God bless us all, and may HE grant us good health, happiness and good company.

Category: Just Personal | Comments Off on At This Time Of The Year