Pasta

My 2nd attempt on Pasta, Made it for the guys today (well yesterday) to celebrate getting the highest mark on my Vehicle Engineering coursework which counts as 50% of the whole module, got 46/50 (Qoolu mashallah). Which means I'm sitting the exam with a pass mark already. Though want to get more so that I raise up my average.

Ingredients:

~1 Onion

~3 small Tomatoes

~Dolmio Tomato (Bolognese) Sauce

~Grated Cheese

~Salt

~Black Pepper

~Tuna

~Fussili Pasta

Added hot sauce if you're wondering what's the red shiny stuff :p

They loved it, unfortunately I didn't make enough, they said a packet and a half is enough, but was enough for everyone to eat, though they were still hungry.

Going to Oman this afternoon for 3 days (bro's wedding). So will update from Oman if I manage to. 

Got 6 exams starting from 11th of May to 19th of May. Got it all covered inshallah thanks to the guys. We have a study group of 13-15 guys and they all come to my apartment and I gave them my keys so they come study while I'm away.

See you around.

When my parents came to visit

Just found this on my drafts, Don't really know what it was doing there, thought I published this!

From: Monday 17th of November - Thursday 27th of November.

My parents and my sister came for a visit, they came for my sister's graduation and once it was over they came here to visit me. I had enough space for all of them since I live in a 2-bedroom flat on my own (which I took for the purpose of hosting guests haha).

I wanted to take them out for dinner but they were too tired for that, so I ordered dinner for them and I forgot that they're new here (in Pakistan's capital in the UK) where all food is spicy, even if it was mild (I got used to it). So when I ordered food for them they couldn't eat properly since it was too "hot" for them (when I ordered very mild, allah y3een if I ordered Medium or Hot for them).

With my parents here, it meant that I can't ditch any more lectures. So I was in the lovely routine of sleeping early (11:30pm - 12:30a.m max... and wake up in time for the lecture). Back when I was alone, if I woke up 50mins before the lecture, I'd ditch it thinking there wouldn't be enough time for me to take a shower, change my clothes and have breakfast, so I'd ditch the lecture. But one of those days my father woke me up 40mins before the lecture and it pissed me off so bad haha but I kept it to myself. I mean, if only I could continue sleeping, 40mins wouldn't be enough .. but to my surprise, they were. I was there on time for the lecture.

My mother kept herself busy every single day in those 10 days by cleaning the apartment. I always thought the place was clean (well not perfectly clean) but clean as in acceptable clean .. but when she came she cleaned the whole place it was shining. I wish she lived here with me until I finished my studies :p

What I hated most were their comments about me facing the laptop 24/7. They think we're still at school and should read the lecture notes etc. and study. They kept bugging me telling me you don't even study etc. But now everything is on the laptop, my lecture notes are on my laptop, I write my lab reports on my laptop. Everything is done using the computer these days, we do not use books, pen and paper!

What I loved most was waking up, walk to the living room and find breakfast waiting for me on the table and then come back from the university and lunch/dinner is ready (HOME FOOD!!!) so basically when my parents were around I did not go to any restaurant. We always ate at home which was the best feeling ever!

It was a wonderful time, but my mother keeps saying if you want us to come again move out to another cleaner apartment hahaha and I keep saying that this is how male students live and that my colleagues are in a situation worse than mine.

صوت للنهضة

الله يرحمك جدي

كلمات الانشودة 

Goodbye OmanServ

Just recieved this E-mail from Omanserv's Adminstrator, Don Khaled:

Dear guys,
I believe closing omanserv forum should have done some time ago, as every time something goes wrong with the forum I have to jump in and work on it. From hacking, to corrupted database, to etc.. It's all a hassle for such a forum where it is almost dead and if such posts are posted, then it is chidlish. With no doubt, when you guys post, it is good, but chidlish posts are then thrown into your threads.

OmanServ had been launched since June 2001, that's around 8 years now. It's actually very hard for me to let it go also, but if I don't do it now, then I will do it later in the future. Am sure I will have good memories from it, and it is enough I made friendship with you guys, and that was an honor as you guys are the one whom pushed it till it reached today. Also other moderators whom I didn't put in this e-mail had their role with no doubt.

For now, I will launch a blog @ omanserv, sometime in the next week. I will let others post their thoughts about their closing of omanserv.

Please do reply to me or all of us in this e-mail if you have any final thoughts or so.

PS/ I intentionally left omanserv down till today, so I can see the reactions of some, and from the result I made up my mind for closing it.


-- 
Regards,
Khaled El-Khoury

-------------------------

It saddens me that OmanServ shut down, it's the 1st forum I participated in, and was a moderator there when I was 13 years old. I made many friends through OmanServ, and i consider it the starting point of my cyber-world.

Goodbye Omanserv.

Published

Two of the pictures published were taken by me. Read the article for more info on the event. Nice to see my photos in Oman Newspaper, this is the second time that photos I've taken got published in a daily newspaper. The first time was in Al-Najm daily newspaper in January (at that time it was daily to cover Gulf Cup 19) so my photos were used for Oman x Indonesia Asian Cup 2011 Qualifiers.

Funniest Train Ride

I never witnessed something funny going on in a train ride before, this is my 3rd year here and I use the train frequently to move from city to another. Everybody is just minding their own business, listening to their iPods, reading book/magazines or using their laptops. They all do their thing to kill time.

But today as I was coming back from Leeds with my friend, we took our seats, an aisle separated our seats from the other 4 seets on my right where 4 women (in their 30s-40s) who all had the same hairstyle (boycut) and they were playing crosswords in a magazine, one of them reading the questions out and the others telling her the answer or giving her the spelling.

Before the train moved this man came and sat right next to us, opposite me. I thought he was drunk or something, every once in a while he kept looking at the women not giving a damn what anyone would say if he was seen looking at them. I thought he was out of his mind, I thought there sure was something fishy going on.

The man's phone rang, he kept talking with his "mate" until he said these 4 lesbians sitting next to me, they all looked at him (I didn't notice they were lesbians .. silly me) the way they looked at him it was as if he commited a crime. He kept on talking on the phone telling his friend that he said the "L-word" and they didn't like it. He kept on saying "they wanted to be different, and now when they are different they don't like the treatment". The only reason I thought it was wrong from him to say that word was because there were some kids sitting 3-4 rows behind him.

He kept saying the word, and he would've stopped but when he saw how they reacted he wanted to wind them up a little bit. The drama went on and after he told his friend "Why can't I say the L-Word? So I can't call something as it is? I can't call a Black person black? I can't call a man a man? You know what, let's just call them Lezzers .. it's all good in the hood..it's all good in the hood .. so if the last 2 were alive were lesbians .. what would happen to mankind?"

One of the "Lesbians" got up and wanted to come do something about it but her fellow lesbian friends made her sit down.  The whole thing was extremly funny, my friend and I would've exploded from laughter but held ourselves until we left the train, we sat there quietly and politely and those 4 lesbians noticed that and commented on that when we were leaving the train and he said: They're muslims .. (meaning that Muslims are peaceful and polite). We left the train and he said: "You're muslims, what's Islam's view on these people? The same as the bible right? These people just come out of nowhere thinking that oh it's the 20th century we'll make up something new .. why would they be gays and lesbians .. how would they bring babies? Read the Quran . . read the bible, both have the same view on this!"

I admit this was one funny ride .. I missed out on a lot of what happened on the train if you don't find this funny, I just can't remember the rest.

I also never thought he'd know somethings from the Quran and that both books have the same messege.

رسولي قوم بلغلي إشارة .. إلى عند المليح الحالي الزين

وهاتلي من حبيب قلبي أمارة .. لكي نعرف بها ما بيننا البين

وإن به عندكم شي قلب عارة .. تعيروني فقلبي ما دريته اين

لقد دورت له بين الجوانح .. ولكن ماوجدته في ضلوعي

سألت العين أين القلب سارح .. فقالت عند من أجرى دموعي

وإن به عندكم شي قلب عارة .. تعيروني فقلبي ما دريته اين

رسولي قوم بلغلي إشارة .. إلى عند المليح الحالي الزين

وهاتلي من حبيب قلبي أمارة .. لكي نعرف بها ما بيننا البين 

Paranoia in The Great Kingdom?

All started when I tagged along with a friend of mine for some photography in Leeds to take some snaps on the wonderful architecture there, as this Omani friend of mine is majoring on Photography and his final year project is on Heritage and Architecture in the north of this Great Kingdom..

While we were taking photos, each of us shooting pics of buildings, old buildings and modern ones a police car approached us and started taking details about us, our names, student cards, date of birth and addresses... But that didn't happen once, it happened twice.

What surprised me most is that there were some other British photographers nearby and no one approached them. 

The second policeman who stopped us told us that we didn't do anything wrong and we're not in trouble, but this is a well-known public place so they have to be careful and so on.. (bullcrap)

Since when is taking photographs of beautiful buildings with professional considered a terrorist threat? If a terrorist wanted to blow a building up why would he take these pics, do it in the open in front of everyone, using a professional camera? 

I've been in Blackpool last week, Liverpool a few weeks before .. took pictures in front of the police but nothing happened?? I know there's a new rule in England that you may be fined or prosecuted for taking a picture of policemen etc.

My question is, is there something going on with the MI5? Why are Brits becoming paranoid?

What concerns me most is, if (lasama7 allah) something happened in that area, maybe a terrorist attack or something .. is that they suspect my friend and I. I even am afraid by publishing these photographs I took .. someone might use them at their own will and put me in trouble?

Anger, Random Thoughts and many more

There has been a lot going on, this post might be read and might not be, but I'm just writing to let it all off my chest. I only come back here when there is no other source of someone listening to me, maybe it's just the keybord listening to my fingers but typing it off makes me feel a bit better. Looks like I only come here when there's no one that listens. . . and that's the story of my life, no one listens...Whenever I talk it's mostly ignored.

Warning, long post and contains some words I'm ashamed to use.

Sometimes you need space from some people, those you see in your daily university life, those who are Omani and think that there are no limits for anything. Those who ring your apartment bell without prior notice that they are coming. Not only that, but if you say you're busy or you're at someone else's or that you want to sleep or you actually are sleeping they'd say "inta t'thillna, inta ma tb`3ana ngi 3indak..t5aleena n7is inna mthaqleen 3aleek". Ok now, that last one, tell me how can I tell you AIWA INTU WAGD MISTWYEEN T'THAQLU 3ALA IL WA7ID. Sometimes people need privacy, sometimes people need to stay alone and visiting hours shouldn't be as long as way after midnight. The other day friends came over and stayed until 1a.m until they saw the DVDs I have and insisted on watching, I was really tired and sleepy, I tried to say I'm not in the mood for a movie..but they kept saying "aah inta ma tb`3ana ngls 3ndak..etc" so when someone says that you'd want to prove them wrong .. funny thing is, what they insisted on watching was "The Notebook", being the horny Omanis they are after seeing the cover of the DVD thinking there might be some sex scenes in the movie etc. Want to hear the funny part? After that they wanted to watch "Hitch" .. they lasted 50mins of the movie until they said they'll go home because they're so sleepy (at 4a.m on a weekday).

 Those who do not know how to talk in public areas without a loud voice. Those who think they can come over at anytime do whatever they want as if there's no limits, maybe that means that they are totally comfortable with you to a point you mean a lot to them and that they feel that you feel the same..sometimes you do and sometimes you don't .. but that's not how things work!

Oh yah, how about this .. you go out with the guys but one decides to stay in your apartment to use the net .. I hate leaving my apartment with someone sitting there, it's not about trust or anything .. but I just hate that, I'd never do that unless that person went out for only 10-30 minutes . Today one of the guys did it, but it's okay .. problem is he took something without permission, that's okay because I know he thought: Ahmed won't say no even if I asked him, Ahmed never says "no" .. Well, okay take it .. but don't take my PS3 Game which I spend hours on every single day playing online! What's worse is that he thought it's a movie! Who the hell would think Call of Duty 5 a movie? Anyways he didn't get away with it just like that .. there were two missing croissonts .. but they were rotten :P .. How's your tummy doing now Abu Shahad? HAHAHAHA

It sucks when someone you care about more than the whole world lets you down, doesn't support you.. just turns 180 degrees on you suddenly just like that .. and you don't even know why..maybe I did a mistake of trying to talk to that person at a wrong time when that person was not having a good day or something .. if that's so, then I'm sorry and I deeply apologize for making it worse for you, but it's always that I need your support and positive feedbacks and comments, finally when I think I'm good at something, and you're the only one who isn't always there to support me. I need it more than anyone else, even if it was criticism. But the thing is, this never happened between us, never .. why now? I'm clueless and lost .. I think about all this all the time. You matter a lot to me and I remember being there for each other in ups and downs .. this can't stop. Whatever it is, I'm sure I did something wrong, whatever it is, I know I went wrong somewhere because this wouldn't come from someone like you just like that. You don't care, and it clearly shows.

I seriously hate the travel agent at my family's travel agency. Before I come back to UK I booked my return back to Oman on the 28th of March thinking that that's when my easter break will start, but it starts on the 3rd of April and I asked him to change my booking from 28th March to 4th of April .. but he proved his roots true that he's such an idiot and booked for me to come back to Oman on the 28th of March and stay in Oman until the 4th of April and go back to UK on that date! Luckily my father asked him about my booking if he got it done and said: Ahmed want's to come back on the 4th, did you book it for him? That's when he got confused and asked me to call him .. that's when he told me all flights are full until 8th of April and that he issued a ticket for me to go back to UK on the 4th of April. In the end I couldn't get a booking until 7th April, night flight.. Everyday I call Emirates service center in Manchester but they tell me all flights are booked until 10th of April, and joke around with me asking if I want to change it to the 10th! Thanks to that mistake, I will only spend 10 days in Oman before I come back to this miserable depressig weather, 4 seasons of the year in 5 minutes.

Speaking of airplanes, I've been watching a lot of Air Crash Investigations few weeks ago until I got 3 continuous nights of nightmares of seeing airplanes crashing..does that mean anything? Or does it only show that I was obssesed with the program I spent a lot of time watching on YouTube? I swear to god the last dream made me think that this time something similar will happen to me, even if I wasn't involved with it in the dream .. more like nightmare.

Want to hear something stupid? I broke my camera lens a few weeks ago. My camera strap was loose and it fell off when it was hanging from my neck.. it fell on the pavement.. thankfully nothing happend to the camera and it was only the lens which I replaced with a new one and took the broken one to repair.

Bad news? Some relative of my parents passed away about a month ago which lead to my brother's wedding posteponement until the 1st of May .. I won't make it. My only brother and I won't be there for his wedding. It breaks my heart, everytime I remember it I break into tears.

I don't know what I'm doing up right now, I fixed my sleeping schedule until the Tuesday that just passed by when I went to the library to work on a lab report from 8pm and finally left the library to hand the lab report in on Wednesday 12p.m and went back to sleep.

This coming summer is the last summer holiday I'll have until I finish my Bachelors Degree. Inshallah next year I will be doing my final year in my course so after that, I don't know how my life will be, if I'd continue masters, start working or have one big holiday.. I want to plan something but I do not know what to do for this last summer before the next big summer. I'm torn between having work experience in the summer or go visit friends in Australia or go for tourism in other countries, I want to make the best out of my holiday but I do not know how .. I think the best thing would be to go not come back to Oman as soon as I'm done with exams in May but spend between 7-10 days somewhere in Europe or visit more than one country and then come back to Oman and start with the work experience. I guess that would satisfy both options but the thing is, for that I'd need a group to go with me straight after exams..and I'll only be in Oman for 10 days this easter to get a Schengen Visa for Europe, and for that I'll need hotel and flight bookings .. it's a short time to plan something.. who to go with .. where to go. My main purpose is for Photography and have a break before I go back to Oman.

I think I should just shut up now, this was a long post and if someone read this, I know you skipped through a lot..

ايش بيقولون لك عني الاعادي

كلام ماله اثر

ما قصدهم سوا عثرة جوادي

حشى علي ما اعثر

مازلت ماسك على عهدي محادي حافظ ودادي

و خير الناس الي هم يحفطون الوداد