Bahrain

Of course its my country so I love it, I love going there and visiting family and friends.  The relaxed atmosphere, and the unpretentious state of mind with everybody is something that cannot be denied.  Poeple still set on the floor, have lunch on a sufra (a round mat made from palm tree leafs), and smoke the Gadu (a pottery sheesha and a bamboo stick, which by the way is used by some parents to hit their kids if they don't study).  Also, everybody is a cupcake maker, and every one does catering and sell things on Instagram.  The thousands of Instagram accounts for food lovers, shoping sites,Bahraini style Ebay hash tagged to the rest of the gulf countries, so everyone from the gulf buys Bahraini products.  I was surprised to see watches and shoes sold on Instagram too as well as Halwa, khanfaroosh and Rahash, so a lot of our delectable are not only being sold but also are being displayed to the world to feast their eyes on!! 

Sipping coffee in one of the most crowded cafes (Costa in country mall) I can hear students discussing their assignments, tutors teaching kids, lawyers discussing cases and of course the umpteen number of politically minded people and those bloggers and tweeps discussing what is being pushed on those internet sites and what is written on twitter and on blogs.  I found it so interesting that sometimes you see the black cars of the police hurrying on the roads going to a certain place and people continue to drink their frappuccinos without even a blink.  I think black cars and and smoke had become a fact of life and people had continued their lives as normal. 

My son decided to go and live in Bahrain, so my husband and I didn't discourage or encourage him, he is an adult and he can do what he likes.  Anyway, one day he calls and says that the country is going to shreds, and on another day he calls and says that he loves how everyone asks about me.  He says that people first ask him who he is, and as soon as he says that he is the son of Suad, they all say great, say hi to her as I played with her when she was little, or I was a friend to her dad, or I am her cousin, and so on and so forth.  He says that some people just try to make it sound that he is a relative even if it is from the grand grand father side.  He thinks that something like that hadn't happened to him when he lived in Dubai, or when he lived in New Zealand; that is why he thinks that living in Bahrain is an experience and he thinks that everyone in the world should try to live in Bahrain for a while.

I agree with my son, and now my daughter will also get married and go to Bahrain to live there, she will be proud of my family and I, as everyone she will meet will tell her that she is a relative.  Of course its not that everyone in Bahrain is a relative, its just that everyone wants you to feel welcome and live happily in that marvelous Kingdom. 

I was at an exhibition for the past four days, simultaneously there was another conference going, so during the break some of those attending the conference come to us as everyone has a daughter or a son who needs to study abroad somewhere.  One of my visitors asked me if I was Bahraini? I said yes, and he almost wanted to kiss me, of course he was also a Bahraini, and was wearing the emblem of Bahrain, so I asked him to get me one; to my surprise when I arrived today, the university Rep that I was helping at her booth gave me the golden emblem and said that it was from my Bahraini friend!!! I scratched my head thinking, which Bahraini friend will bring me this? then I remembered the guy who came the previous night and I had asked him to get me one of those broaches.  Do you think that a non Bahraini would do something like that? I guess not.

I am not racist, nor a discriminator, and I will never differentiate between people on any basis, but I must tell you this, The Bahraini people are outstanding, and whoever I talked to had or have a Bahraini best friend; during this exhibition a lot of the exhibitors told me so themselves.  Of course I am a best friend to almost 191 nationalities, so there you go.

I think socoilogists will have a fun time studying Bahraini people, and I am going to take my friend Dr Ivana to Bahrain so she studies us first hand.

House arrest or mind arrest??

I always thought that kids are smarter than us the grown ups, in actual fact kids fascinates me, and if I want anything to resurrect it will be my childhood. Kids never give up, they never feel that what they want is not going to be obtained, they never think of the word failure, they are persistent!  they have attention to detail and they can feel trouble before it sometimes occur.  I was once looking at my dad (RIP) and felt that there is something wrong! I was merely five or six then, then what happened confirmed my feelings, we had a fire in the house, and all of Dad's stuff of his shop were damamged .  Now, even if a disaster happens in my house or at work, I will be oblivious to even realize this fact, why? because I am a grownup.

What brought this up? okay I admit, its another movie that I watched this morning, plus the fact that I hadnt written for a while due to many things happening to my life.  I have a grand daughter, and when I open my eys in the morning (except yesterday as I was so deppressed about something that happened with one of the universitiese that we represent) I see her beautiful face, and think oh my god, she is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen in my life; previously I listen to my friends who became grand parents going rara about their grand kids, and I think to myself, why are they behaving that way? they had kids themselves, and were happy about that, and we all got involved in child rearing and changing nappies, do we want to do that all over again? well, now I would say with absolute certainty that yes, I would do that again and again, in actual fact I want my middle daughter to get married so fast now and get us those little angels so we get involved with changing nappies, and I almost told my youngest daughter that she doesnt need to complete her masters and maybe its best if she comes back and gets married, but then I thought that was drastic, lets take things one at a time!

You know, I saw the look in my husbands face when he carried Anfal (that's her name by the way) I could see that he is a different man, yes a different man, who had accomplished his duty in life and is a grand father to a little Einstein, or a Little Alkhayam, or a little Picasso, or a little of all of those people put together.  Its alright if we didn't breed  the likes of Einsteins, Picassos, Alkhayams or Ibn Sinas, but their kids may will be those or better.  Maybe they will also be like or better than Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Justin Beiber,  Kim Kerdashien, or maybe presidents like Obama, Khalifa bin Zayed, Mohammed Bin Rashid or the likes (now these three are my favorites from all the presidents in the world).  Oh I digressed a lot

The movie, oh yes! two kids were upset as their parents are going to separate, so they decide to lock them up in the basement of the house; their other friends heard and soon there were three couples and a single mum in that basement.  The house at first was chaos, but then slowly things were fine with the kids upstairs, the dog and the snake, but the ones in the basement didnt budge! the kids fixed a camera and they started a therapy session with them, gave them kids food, and told them that they will only let them loose if they make up and settle the difference. 

Well, it worked, and so I wish that things are as easy as that, to begin with we don't have basements in our houses to lock up our parents, or for our kids to lock us up if we have misunderstanding, or we think of giving up on our lives and marriage.  I still remember when my husband and I had some issues, my son told me that if we ever split up, he will become a drug addict? this was alarming, so whatever happened in my life and with all the difficulties, I thought its this or having a drug addict? and I preferred the trouble in my life.  Of course all of that is water under the bridge by now, and I guess time tames every human being, all we need to do is persevere a little and see where life would take us.

Of course if its left to me, I would rather go back to my childhood and be be psychic to prevent the fire in our house.  Magic wand, abra ka dabra.

Credit Cards vs Debit Cards

I love both, as either of them is better than holding real cash in your hands.  From the time I had a bank account I had felt that we should never hold coins, notes or anything to do with money between our fingers! I am not the paranoid type of person, however holding money in the hand is as easy as eating a pack of crisps, it goes faster than it comes. 

So when my bank handed me my first ATM card, I went for it.  I loved how in more civilised countries they ask you if you need cash out too (like if you need to put some money in a card for a birthday) or (if you need to give cash out for any occasion like kids pocket money and so on).  Then my bank asked me if I want to use a credit card? Now whats that, I thought? It turned out to be a way to know what one is spending ones money on, and an organiser.  I had never used a credit card as a loan; the banks would lose if all their clients are like me, I pay the used amount on the due date, in actual fact I don’t pay on the due date, the bank pays for the card on the due date (via a standing order). 

I find it easy to organise my expenses and to know what I spent the money on, and reflect on whether I needed that thing or not?  However, comes the next month, and I still see more coffees and cakes, more dinners and more cinema trips, do we ever learn?? I wonder. 

Its my 20th year using a credit card and longer for the ATM card, my daughters know my pin code and can sign in my place, so its not me that has a statement as an organiser, its them.  sometimes I receive a hundred sms messages  from my bank to tell me that I had to top up the plastic, so some time I do, some times I don't.  It depends if the girls had left some money in the account or had also topped it up!!  guard your loins guys, keep those plastics in a deep hole, else the kiddies will get hold of them and make you declare bankruptcy sooner than later. 

The last sentence is of course a figure of speech.

The Wall- Berlin

Yesterday after resting for a while, I decided to go for a walk and for some food.  I was famished, so had a nice vegetarian pizza and a very cold drink, of course it was in th eout doors market near Europa centre in middle of Berlin.  Berlin is a huge city, and if you remember it had a wall to separate the east (which was part of the communism country and the west, which was part of the normal country) don't ask me anymore questions, but all I remember is that when the wall was removed there was rejoice in heaven, and everyone was dancing in the streets, as the families were united and people were able to commute easily in the neighborhood.  I visited Berlin twice before and in both times I didn't venture out to have a look at the remains of the wall or the check point Charlie??? that is what it was called before.  This time I decided that I must go and see. 

I started a witch hunt, as no one that I had met knew what the wall means?? I think the Germans need more English to be taught in their classrooms. I had the map which had two circles, one was the the hotel, and the other was the wall, so I showed it to the bus driver, he said he will let me know where to stop and then he asked me to walk in a certain direction.  Very nice place really, I need more time to have a look at the other stuff, one day I shall do that. So I came off the bus, and walked for longer than an hour, asked many people and everyone was telling me something different, until I met this woman who knew that I was an Arab, so she spoke to me in Arabic, bingo.  she said that she was born in Germany but she is of Palestinian origin, and she had seen the wall, she even was in the metro stations which passes in east Berlin at the time, but the train will not stop, according to her it was not nice at all.  She says that Berlin was huge and the wall was removed completely, some people took part of it and made it into art pieces and hung them on the walls of their shops and so on.  According to Salma (my treasure trove guide) she prefers Berlin now, and she loves it, amongst the German cities this is the best place to be in, as it is full of art, culture and fantastic shopping.  I believe her.

I reached the place and here are the pictures:

The last photos is at Check point Charlie, and of course to take a photo of that with the Soldier, you need to pay two euros.

Enjoy the photos. I think the Wall should have stayed as a monument so people will remember why it was built and how the whole world was separated in different parts.  This is happening to us too these days, however, we will over come these acts of separation, and I am working on it.

Art and Architecture Portfolios

I write a lot about Art, because I love it, I want to fill my walls with art pieces, it doesn't matter if it has a value or not, it just needs to be lovely to look at, and makes you go in it, and imagine that you are walking in those roads, or swimming in that water.  OK, I went to far, soon you will think that I am Mary Poppins!

In my job I get many students who want to study Art or Architecture, of course knowing our schools, we hardly teach fine art, especially once the students reach the high school level, that art class is taken over by extra Arabic, or extra math.  I will change that one day, wait and see.  Anyway, I ask the student to show me his or her work, so we prepare a portfolio together. Or just ask the student to bring a portfolio! mentioning the word "portfolio" to the student is enough to give them a heart attack, so I try to use anther word so he or she are not scared and push art out of the window.  That is why whenever I go to a university or a college I take lots of photographs for students' art or architecture portfolios, just to make my students feel easy about the task.  My latest visit to University of Plymouth, I did the same; the students have their own studios, which hosts their art pieces, and the architecture students also have their own walls to display their projects.  I admire their thinking and how they came up with those perspectives! I wish I can do the same, but hold on a second!! I am not an artist, daa.

Have a look at these art peices:

You must notice that art comes in many shapes and forms, you are not restricted with canvas and paint, so remember that.

Have a look at the Architecture projects, notice the perspectives too:

So, my kids, don't restrict your brain, let is guide you to make what your thoughts real, on paper, or on anything else.  Just do it.