I am sitting in a smoke-filled internet cafe on a backstreet in Ajman, surrounded by men in checked scarves and thobes, with Arabic shouting in the background. It'd all be quite quaint, except for the fact that Freddy Mercury is being joined in song by some very strongly accented dudes shouting WE WILL WE WILL ROCK YOU!

Globalization can be good. It can be bad. But mainly it's ridiculous.

That is your pearl of wisdom for the day. You have been enriched.

*bows out*

I AM INVISIBLE!




*runs superman style around the room*

Some days I have good days. Most days I have bad days. But today has been a good day. Through no great skill of my own, two wonderful gigs dropped straight into my lap, I got my point across in a long-awaited group meeting, I baked killer cookies to share, and I spent most of my day laughing. Alhamdullilah. :)

Whether or not I hate this place, or I tolerate it, depends on the balance of these good days and bad ones. It’s been a rough couple weeks, with me spending most of my time seething at the powers that be and being absolutely incredulous at the mass stupidity we seem to have no power to avoid, but I’m working on seeing the positives.

I’m trying to compose a list of the ways to survive life in what is the weirdest place I’ve ever lived. I think laughing is top of it, along with remembering to thank Allah that you’re life is only vacuous at worst, not dire, depressing or deadly.

I also need to remember the things I used to do for kicks before my life got sucked into work. I used to sketch. And bake. And write. And go for walks. And think. And relax.

Earlier this week I opted to stay in from and pass on an invite to sit through two hours of traffic for two hours of a movie. Instead I just ran around the house alone in my PJs, singing at the top of my lungs, eating popcorn for dinner, and stealing clothes from my brother’s enviable wardrobe. It was time well spent. *grin*

Next to that goes vegging out. I spend probably 80% of my waking hours wracking my brains about work. Sometimes I just need to fade into my sofa, a good book in hand, and forget I am a beetle on the Sheikh Zayed Road of life, and everyone is driving Landcruisers that spew bugspray as exhaust.

And of course, making fun at the elephants makes it all the more bearable. I have to laugh when I hear our handful of rain days in this giant cat box being lamented by my colleagues from the British Isles. Dude, the sky is leaking. How cool is that? Quit your griping and go get wet! It’s a scary thing when you become so serious as to not enjoy the quirks of nature, like your office flooding.

You know what else is funny? Angry rich people. It never ceases to amaze me how delicate and neurotic people who live the high life can be. You see them flipping out every now and then at malls and hotels over the most absurd things. You have to wonder, do they know they’ve voluntarily reduced themselves to overgrown children, throwing a fit because they can’t have their way? And do they not know they’re wasting their breath yelling at the poor customer service rep for something utterly out of his control?

And is it REALLY necessary to tailgate me within two inches of my bumper? Does it make you happy? It doesn’t really bother me, because if you hit me it’s your wallet not mine, but it must be a bit stressful for you to work so hard to keep close to my car. And when I finally do move my car, isn’t it funny that we catch up at the same red light and you haven’t managed to save anytime by being obnoxious at all. Dude, there’s egg on your face and I’m enjoying the view.


Sigh. But work should never be so toxic that a person requires serious detoxing to recover from it. This lifestyle is most definitely not sustainable in the long run. I gots to find me a peace of heaven somewhere.

So we have transmutiformed Owlie's blog, but we cannot get the comments link to appear anything greater than tiny. Suggestions anyone?

Also, the style2 tags in CSS are supposed to be blue, so that the dates and style2 headings are this color but it ain't werking. HELP!

Abez sez: I am rebuilding, I just keep breaking things first. But a new layout is coming soon, InshaAllah. :)

Three men were sitting together, bragging about how they had given their new wives duties.

The first man had married a woman from Indiana, and bragged that he had told his wife she was going to do all the dishes and house cleaning that needed done at their house He said that it took a couple days, but on the third day he came home to a clean house, and the dishes were all washed and put away.

The second man had married a woman from Utah. He bragged that he had given his wife orders that she was to do all the cleaning, the dishes, and the cooking. He told them that the first day he didn't see any results, but the next day it was better. By the third day, his house was clean, the dishes were done, and he had a huge dinner on the table.

The third had married an Alabama girl. He said that he told her that her duties were to keep the house clean, dishes washed, lawn mowed, laundry washed, and hot meals on the table for every meal. He said the first day he didn't see anything, the second day he didn't see anything, but by the third day most of the swelling had gone down and he could see a little out of his left eye, just enough to fix himself a bite to eat, load the dishwasher, and telephone a landscaper.

Abez was here, hehe