Jan 25th 2011 ::

A day that will be carved in Egypt's history forever. Egyptians speak after being silenced for decades.

This is today::



Here's another BBC article and video

I want to assure all family members and friends, we are all safe and indoors. We do have wee ones to worry about.

Peace.

Another link. 

***

Updates:

Rumors like this are circulating.

A video for you!

 I've been playing with editing some family videos recently. I made a faceless one to share here. The video is scenes of special moments from our lives.

Without further a due ::



Feedback appreciated.

Peace.

Egyptians are singing...

اُدْخُلِي بِيُوت القَصَبْ
واسْقِي أزْهار الغَضَبْ
وخَبِّرِي دَمْعِةْ بِلادِي
إنّ ماسِحْهَا حَضَرْ

and rapping

To my fellow Egyptians stock up before the 25th 

btw dont't mind the font, it freaked out on me for some odd reason

Peace

Cairo streets Do's and Don't

 a typical traffic sight. here's a fun game-- can you tell who has the right of way?

Do:

Turn on your car light starting at dusk time. No, it doesn't save you gas if you keep them off, it will probably save your life (and others).

Put on your hazards if you're doing something hazardous. Parking by the side of an exit on a highway counts!

Set up your fruit stand right next to a giant speed bump. Brilliant.

Walk to the next speed bump, to cross the street. Chances are, cars will stop or slow down for said speed bump, and then notice you.

Wear bright colors if you intend to walk or cross the streets at night. A lot of the streets are not equipped with street lights and if they are, chances are they're not working. I advised a Niqabi (face-covering woman) friend of mine to wear one of those reflective-cop-arm-band-thingy around her arms. Or better yet, walk with a flag. No you are not visible-- black backgrounds usually merge with dark colors.

Stop for school kids/ elderly/ Women trying to cross the street. it's the least you could do.

Take your right if possible or yield to the Ambulance. Amdist the honking and yelling of other cars, you'll still feel good about yourself.

Paint you Vespa scooter pink and decorate it with cute hearts. Chances are you'll make a couple of young girls very happy.

Don't::

Stop in the middle of the bridge to find/change your tunes. Being a teenager doesn't exclude you from universal laws of conduct.

Run across the highway to get to the other side. Walking the extra 500 meters to the pedestrian bridge will probably save your life. Also doing it in groups of ten doesn't lessen your chance of getting hit. It only rises the chances of lives at stake.

Cross the street in a slope, cars take longer to notice/stop in time.

Flash your brights at the car in front of you. Chances are there's another car in front of them and they can't go any faster or give way. They are also secretly hating you and wishing you were dead. (Not a very nice thing to cultivate in the hearts of human beings, we end up acting more and more like animals *no offense animals!* )

Honk you horn every minute. Even though it's amusing for you. It is probably driving someone nuts driving that same route you're taking.

Yell at other drivers. waving hands is more than sufficient and just as annoying.

Drive... if you can help it.

Can you tell I spent most of today in Cairo streets?

Fun times!

Peace.

elemental

Fire::

(warning, some of the links have disturbing images)

Have you been following the middle eastern news lately? Don't. It's quite crazy. It all started with that horrendous church bombing and continued going down slope. 
Tunisia, is on my friends facebook statuses a lot. Egyptians (and other Arab countries) are inspired. In fact, so far three Egyptians set themselves on fire. the situation is quite grim over here. Also a little scary.
There's going to be a huge protest on the 25th this month. I am praying for something civilized for a change. That's it for my unusual political update. I am not fond of talking politics on this space. But, I am a little worried something big is brewing. May God protect us and this country.


Water::

It's been raining hard every single day for the past (hmn) four days?
We even witnessed glorious, continuous hail for thirty minutes straight. It was crazy fun. In Arabic hail, and snow have the same word. So Mei's Arabic teacher (we were at her Arabic lesson at the time) placed her on a high chair next the window to watch the rare snow. 
 "Mommy, look, Egyptian snow looks different!"
 "that's because, it's hailing love *smile*"

The clouds were wonderful, and I truly wished I had my Camera to capture Cairo's rare weather. I didn't. I had my phone. I clicked as I drove-- the streets were frozen from all the flooding anyway. It was a good day.

I pray it continues to rain, until all the fire is out.


Peace.
 

Smells like rain

"Mommy don't send me to time out. I don't like to be sent in the room by myself." protested Mei.

"Well how do you suggest we go about teaching you, when you do something wrong." I inquired

"Mommy, when I do something wrong, you can always hug me, and tell me the right thing to do" Reasoned Mei.

Now, why didn't I think of that? and what a wise little one I have. 

Agreed!

***
It rained today. And it's news here when it rains. It's even bigger news when the rain lasts for over an hour. Mei announced that it's raining cats and dogs, upon hearing the heavy droplets pour down on our balcony awning. Indeed. It even thundered and veins of lightening forked the skies in my mother's neighborhood in Misr el Gedida.

No one declared it to be judgment day yet-- as is the case when something like a thunderstorm mistakenly passes through the Egyptian skies. But, Cairo streets froze nonetheless. Over an hour of heavy rain, means massive floods everywhere. We were happily tucked indoors, still recovering from a mild cold. Perfect timing.

Also, perfect for baking banana chocolate chip muffins, and finally cooking the duck we had in our fridge for two days. (never tried duck before? now is a good time, they're making a massive comeback in the U.S. {they've always been big here} ) I like my duck thoroughly cooked so I boiled mine and then cut it into quarters and removed the awkward bones sticking out. Then fried it in it's reserved fat until the skin turned golden and crunchy. sliced and served... Perfection.
You won't be witnessing what I just declared, for I have no photos to show for. Also no patience plus no fast internet. You'll just have to trust me!

***

In other news: we retrieved our double stroller. One more bag to go (it's the one that has my much needed night guard)
My mother is in town for a very brief period. I'll take it.
And I started using our exercise machine for ten minutes/day. Not great but it's a start, eh.

Happy friday everyone!

Peace.

twice the cheat

I started this post about four hours ago. It originally contained a story about lemons, cookies and sugar cravings. Since then I ate two oranges and felt just swell. So I won't be sharing the sugar craving story no more. For that, you should be thanking the oranges, or go and eat one. Although I am not quite sure if this will count as gratitude for the oranges. (Yup, this one is going under late night ramblings alright!)

***

I've been cheating. I admit it.

Word has it that some family member on my facebook leaked to another family member who is not on facebook that I've been sharing Portugal photos on my wall. Well, it's true.
You see on facebook, I don't need to scratch my noggin and think about something amusing to say. I just post photos, get a bunch of likes and a bunch of comments with no sweat at all. Instant gratification! *whispering*and I just shared over one hundred photos, shhhhhhhh!

Here, I have to face my bad grammar, my demented spell check,who won't correct 'ate' to 'at' because they both exist in his dictionary.

You get it right?

So here I am cheating again, and pretending that this is a good enough post that qualifies me and you to have a look at a few (more like twenty) selected Portugal photos.

 Horta Da Cotada & Monsaraz ::

 Lisbon::

Lisbon :: Tile Museum

Treats::

 Best Cupcake in the world!

Pastaz Denata (wrong spelling I know!) You can't possibly get enough of these traditional Portuguese treats!

Portugal/Spain Boarder ::

Apologies if you're on my FB and just had enough of photo bombardment.

Peace. 

The Post Portugal Post

 We retrieved three of our lost luggage. Huzzah! two more to go, keep the dua's/good energy flowing people, it's working. My night guard is still in one of the two missing bags (I tried getting an otc night guard, but they don't carry it in Egypt)

***

For some unknown reason which is currently (supposedly) getting investigated by our network providers, our fast internet stopped being fast. Actually it just stopped period. So it's back to Mr. slow-mo USB hookup. And I did manage to download some Portugal photos, but I need my beauty sleep. One photo is enough. Also I couldn't edit and shrink 700 photos so the files are insanely huge (but the quality is superb if you click on it). Sorry about that!

We are still re-adjusting to Cairo. Grabby looks at the skies and warns us of rain. Which is a rarity in  Cairo. But hey, after a week of Portugal rain, she's on the lookout.

Other than being welcomed by luggage loss, Cairo greeted us with a mild dust storm on the way home. It Kept Mei amused and gave her something to talk about (which she doesn't really need) for the rest of our trip back to our apartment. It was both entertaining and headache inducing at the same time(sorry love).

Today:


Mama finally made bread.

Grabby ate brown colored chalk. It was smudged on her lips, hands, and clothes. I thought it was something else!

was Grabby's second day of dropping mid-day nap-time. Mama is alarmed!


Yesterday:

an eight-year-old boy followed Mei around (at the gated playground aka nady), hugging her and holding her hands and telling her that he loved her and asked her if she loved him too. No, it wasn't the cute kind, more like the creepy kind. No, I am not over-reacting, I was there you weren't. I thought I had to wait several years before this. Mama is alarmed!

Right now:

I have two suitcases worth of laundry that I am actually grateful for.

Have a good weekend!

Peace.

Facts::

We spent this holiday vacation in Portugal with our extended family.

It was great.

The traveling back home part was not.

We are still waiting for any of the airlines we traveled with to track down all of our luggage, which could be anywhere in the world by now.

My daughter's nebulizer, my very expensive night guard, my fancy camera's charger and the wire thingy that uploads my photos, amongst other much needed things are in those luggage.

I currently have 689 photos on my camera.

Nope, I will not be sharing any of them any time soon so it seems.

We finally have fast internet. Hazzah!

If you're not familiar with "Hazzah" it's my current favorite way to express joy. It's modern translation is "hooray".

I had labnah and tomato crackers for dinner. They were wonderful.

It's good to be home.

Peace.