| i cant believe its been almost a year since our last blog here. Coming back to read this, i noticed how i miss blogging and for the first time since my loooong holiday i miss going to work... i'll be blogging here for a while then moving to my own space sometime soon... have a lot of catching up to do... will update soon.. cheers |
| lately i have been going to this gym and bumping into an unpleasant crowd. i just avoided mingling with them by just not revealing my identity. without lying, i left them to their assumptions, and they assumed i wasnt from around here... anyway weeks went by pleasantly and i was happily exercising... until yesterday... wearing my puma cap, waiting for my trainer, i glimpse a familiar face... squinting from a distance, i panicked... OMG it is someone i know.... i pulled my cap down and stared at my shoes.... OMG OMG... what to do my cover will be blown... its not someone i know personally but its someone i bump into all the time... OMG OMG... she stands next to me, and acts as if we never met.... Pheewww 4 a moment i was relieved... she didnt know me.. then as i started my Pilates session, she stood next to me guiding me on how to do certain stretches... i faked a smile... and we chatted briefly... its either she noticed my discomfort and ignored the fact we kinda know each other, or she didn’t know its me... either one... my cover is blown, if not yesterday it will be tomorrow... Gdamt, Dubai is tiny... cant fake an identity anymore ;) |
| how funny that the 6 of us on imonaplane are suffering from a bloggers block.... lack of time? lack of @#*%(#@??? no idea... anyway i decided to break this bloggers block with utter gibberish and hopes it makes sense.... here goes nothing.... 4th of Feb... arooj is 26 and one day!!! yesterday was my birthday i turned 26... (bloggers block again arooj fight it) ok let me talk about my day from 12:00 - 12:00 3rd of FEB 12:00 AM- driving back from the Marina Walk with a friend who is visiting for a few days... i look at my cars clock its 12:00. am another year older!! i look at my friend quitely, "where is my mobile?" she digs into my bag and hands it over. i already have one missed call and a msg, i check my msg it was my friend and her husband wishing me a happy birthday... i check my call its a dear friend... just as i was about to call back an old friend who recently jumped back in my life calls... Awww how Thweet.. great so i have 2 phone calls and a msg... its 12:20 am almost home... my family is out of town.. so what to do? i ask my friend: "wanna come with me to visit a friend"? she raises an eyebrow and goes "ok, its your country do whatever you want" i call up my friend giving an FYI we will be there in 10 mins... then after a struggle we spend a nice 30 mins at my friends house and then back home... 3rd of Feb 12:45: the msg... 3rd of Feb 1:15: the reply... 3rd of FEB 3:00- AlQasr... lunch with my friend my sis and my baby nephew... my Kuwaiti friend is over excited with the whole architecture as we take a cruise in the Abra and a stroll in the souk... 3rd of FEB 6:00- Left Madinat Al Jumeirah heading home for a quick prayer break then of to burjuman... 3rd of FEB 7:10 - Burjuman for a quick 10 mins at Swatch... 3rd of FEB 7:45- Governors house heading towards Buddha bar... 3rd of Feb 8:00- Buddha bar lounge waiting for the rest of the party to join, eating nose tingling mustard covered nuts and having some fusion drink... 3rd of Feb 9:30- Buddha bar restaurant flipping through the menu with a pen like torch. 3rd of Feb 11:00- Buddha Bar, the Cake and the big happy birthday song (come on guys we are not 18 anymore) 3rd of Feb 11:15- two maybe drunken but sweet ladies stop by our table to wish the birthday "person" a happy birthday... 3rd of Feb 11:59- almost home... thinking am not old... but am not a kid anymore... Happy birthday moi!!! Made sense? boring? anyhow just trying to nudge the bloggers block.... promise to post somthing more interesting soon... regards, arooj |
 I was in Kuwait the day he passed away, my brother tried to wake me up at 6 AM telling me that he passed away! and since my brother has a great sense of humor and I was so tired from the night before I thought that he was just trying to wake me up by telling me something so absurd, to get me all worried. but wait a second, he wouldn't joke about death! That's when I woke up!We had to go to the cemetery that morning because my cousin's one year old son passed away the night before! I picked up my phone from the nightstand and found 7 messages!!! I thought how come? I slept at 4 AM! who would send me that many messages so early in the morning! and in less than 2 hours when everyone is supposed to be sleeping.. I opened them and each one of them confirmed what my brother had just told me! I was shocked! so shocked that I was speechless.. I went upstairs to the living room and I found my parents there, standing in the middle of the room, so early in the morning.. no one said a word, but the look on everyone's face was enough to tell that the loss is big.. I was born a few years after he was named Emir of the State of Kuwait, and I just found out that 65% of Kuwaitis were born during his reign... Baba Jaber, that's what we all called him! he wasn't just the Emir.. he was our father! Jaber has been through a lot with us, beginning with the assassination attempt by one of the neighboring countries' terrorist groups that was going to take him away from us in 1985, through the invasion of Kuwait and to the re-building of Kuwait after it's liberation. I still remember him coming on Saudi TV when I was in my uncle's house in Khobar , Saudi Arabia telling us that Kuwait will be back, and I still remember the day I was in my uncle's house in Riyadh when he gave his speech infront of the United Nations asking the countries that love peace to help Kuwait in it's crisis, and I still remember him when he gave his second speech after the liberation thanking the leaders of the world for what they did and everyone stood up and clapped for him in respect for him! The speech was touching, enough to have been printed in every Kuwaiti's memory, every Kuwaiti remembers that speech and they all cried when he cried at the podium of the UN that day.  I've been reading a lot of articles about the father of Kuwait, in the past few days, and I couldn't stop the tears from falling whenever I read more about him! it's such a great loss. he was the model leader, Modest and Wise. Wise enough to have made the Next Generations Fund which saved Kuwait during the invasion, and wise enough to stand up behind his idea of creating the Gulf Co-Operation Council (GCC) and calling the initiative to start the United Arab Emirates which was his idea along with his brother Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al-Nahyan God bless his soul. and wise enough to start the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development when he was the Minister of Finance, which not only gives long term low interest loans to Arab countries but to all developing nations that required help. Modest enough to live in a less than ordinary house, modest enough to joke with the kids, and modest enough to drive his own car before the attempt on his life, he drove an old model middle class car just because he didn't want Kuwaitis to think that he's better than them, but he wanted them to know that he's an equal! he's one of them! he's the father of the Kuwaiti House!I've been lucky to have met him in person on numerous occasions, I still remember the first time I met him when I was just a little kid. and I met him at least several times a year since that. but not in the last 4 years due to the fact that I moved to Dubai. I've been reading a lot about him in the past few days, I thought that I knew a lot about him already! but after reading what was written, I realized that what I knew was nothing compared to what he has done! God blessed us with this ruling family, starting from the day the Kuwaiti's chose Sabah The First, to run the day to day tasks and solve problems between Kuwaitis when the merchants were off to India and East Africa in the 1700's, to this day when Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad is recommended by the cabinet to succeed Sheikh Saad Al-Abdullah Al-Salem where the Kuwaitis proved to the world how civilized they are and that we have a constitution that we go back to to solve our problems, and that the democracy in Kuwait is not just a word we say! Now, The Parliament voted today to oust Sheikh Saad due to his critical health conditions, the cabinet nominated Sheikh Sabah to succeed him. and in the next few days the parliament would vote for or against the cabinet's choice and if they vote for Sheikh Sabah then he would be our next Emir, but if they vote against, the cabinet would have to recommend 3 candidates from the ruling family and the parliament (which is elected by the people) would vote and the one with the highest number of votes would be our next Emir!  After they do that, the same process will be repeated to nominate the Crown Prince.Sheikh Jaber will always be remembered as the leader we all loved, he guided us through the hard times along with Sheikh Saad, and we shall always remember and respect them and wish Sheikh Saad a quick recovery. God Bless Kuwait! God Bless Bu Mubarak! Please click on the topic of the article to watch the speech of Khalifa Ali Al-Khalifa the editor in chief of Al-Watan newspaper during the march from Dasman (The residence of Sheikh Jaber) to the cemetery where he was burried. |
| Its been almost a year since we last met... i wonder what the hell are you doing. i know for a fact that your somewhere "there" and probably you’re married to "them". but what the hell are you still doing there??? a funny character, whom was forced to come back home. when finally back, couldn’t wait but to go back again and that is why i suspect they are married "there"... you're too old to be studying, and you have stayed too long to be partying... so what the hell are you still doing there?!! you had a naughty twinkle in your eyes, a devilish yet childish smile, you acted dumb, but the lines on your face weren't numb... and that is why i suspect you are married "there"... this blog is so silly and makes no sense, and probably sounds like a 7th grader trying to rhyme his homework... just woke up today and you were on mind... so wherever you are may god bless and only time will decide if shall meet again or not.. |
| After reading your last blog, I thought pinki just blogged out what I have been thinking of a lot lately. I would like to quote a few of lines that sums up every “I miss my previous carefree self but simultaneously i am growing to appreciate the more nurtured and spiritually conscious me ... i'm marching through an unstable phase that beholds alot of future mystery lol i think i am getting a bit overly philosophical now lol it's just that i miss the magic ... my magic.. khair inshallah” I miss my old magic too, I don’t know if its fading away or is it still there? Certainly cocooning in my own tree doesn’t help much to find out either, I stopped socializing unless am forced to. Other than my work, family, extremely close friends, and my bed; I have no life whatsoever. Need to break out break free and smell the “desiel” in Dubai’s crowded roads. Oh well, until then.. I will have to find out if I have lost the magic or is it still there!! Time for some hocus pocus in arooj’s huge but empty cauldron. Quarter life crisis maybe!!!! Cheers all. |
why do we get so excited about new years? isn’t it just another day where the sun goes down and rises back again? oh well, time in general was created to organize our lives and to have something to look forward to?! each day the twilight gives us a mini alarm that the day is ending or the is just beginning. 7 of those twilights make a week and 4 of those weeks is a month. 12 months later we celebrate the New Year. Isn’t it just another twilight?! |
| SEAGULL IS BAACCCKKK!!! i.e. meaning me... since I don’t like to use the computer from home anymore, I have restricted my self to the office hours for blogging, email checking, e-shopping, and any other casual surfing, that is of course alongside the remaining work I do on the 'puter here. Annnnnnywaaaay since Xmas is slow at work, i decided to take a couple of days of and relax and de-stress my stress. Now am back hoping to be ready to tackle and attack the world again. About the title SEAGULL is back, heard an Australian guy saying it once.... never made any sense out of it... can you make sense out of it?! is it some Australian lingo that am missing? regards, arooj |
| Although surrounded by misery lead people, I never appreciated what I had until recently. I am 25 and had my share of miseries throughout the years. Each one was big in its own way, but optimism and positive energy always helped me to pull out of it quickly. I would get upset, but not devastated. Life would go on no matter how big it was. Anyhow, not until recently that I experienced the real pain in life; regardless of the situation!! Reality bites!! How I wish it was 4 months back where problems were as small as they were. Now I share the heartache of every stranger with pain in their eyes. Life in such a short period of time burst my fairy tale bubble and welcomed me to life. Happy birthday arooj. |
 iopBlogs is up and running.. sorry we've been so occupied with it and weren't posting much here.. Now 3 aggregators are up and running with over 50 blogs.. UAE was the first then Egypt and South Africa followed 4 days later.. and we expect to add more countries soon..So what are you waiting for?!! Hurry and submit your blog.. |
 This Blog needs some spicing up, and I have no clue what to write about. I really want to blog and blog but really have no idea what to blog about.So here goes utter nonsense. I Spy… I spy with the corner of my little eye…. something begins with the letter P… Any guesses? |
| The work is divided between Huh and me, he's working on the designs I'm working on the content and the SQL database.. but I messed up :( ... so we're a bit behind schedule.. he's working at night I'm working during the day.. we never talk except for an hour when our sleep arrangements overlap. Now..... we're ready to launch.. it's official.. it's out.. it's iopBlogs...  I'm optimistic! We need your support :) So go ahead and submit your blog to the best blog aggregator out there.. Please note that we are still in the testing (beta) period.. so excuse us if there are a few bugs.. and please report them to us if you could on the iopBlogs.com Blog or using the iopBlogs.com Contact form. |
