these are actually paintings

Hand painting

the other day i was randomly surfing the internet, and i came across these images that i thot were very impressive, these are not my images, ths is the work of someone else, i have no idea who, but the crdt definitly goes 2 them. but i thot tht it was worth sharing

for those who hvnt noticed, those are actually hands!

drivng lessns with the teacher and the maid!!

it seems like my father gets more ridiculous with every idea he has about me driving!!

the newest ridiculous thng he has come up wth is tht when i strt taking driving lessnz he refuses to let me b in the car with a man whom i am not related to, tehrefore hw am i gna take driving lessns??? the law dictates tht a profffesional driving teacher has 2 teach me, i cannot just show up 2 the exam even if i can drive, a proffesional teacher has 2 teach me and sign hours.

and obviously my father dsnt have enuf time 2 waste to come to lessns with me, hs soloution is, i go to the lessons, and he dsnt mind if teh teacher is a man(he says it like he is doing me some huge favour, like he is making some wild dream of mine come true), ofcourse the is a BUT!!

ofcourse tha maid has 2 escort me to my driving lessns!!!!!

WAT THE BLOODY FUCK IS GOING ON IN UR MIND!!!!!

the maid!!!in the backseat!!while im being taught hw 2 drive!!!!!!!

once again very ridculous i cud almost cry

BMW CONVERTIBLE THAT I CNT DRIVE!!

2day was my father and i's day 2 fite over hs messed up interpretations about wat he wnts me 2 do with cars who and when the shall b driven etc...... 4 my seventeenth birthday my dad got me a mercedes as a present,i dnt get my licence here by law until i turn 18, nevertheless its a lovely present to get. as one can magine im very excited to drive it. i live in egypt 2 buy a car there tht is made by a foreign manufacturer you pay a two hundred percent tax(ths is true!) buyng cars made in egypt r also expensive and definitly not worth the money.

so my father ships cars 4 me 2 get around with, but the law does regulate that if u dnt wish 2 pay the full 200 percent tax on the car u r bringing in, u can only bring the car in on visit, u still pay taxes, just not 2 hundred percent, the car can only stay in egypt 4 six months and then it needs 2 leave the country, u cannot bring it bak until six months pass, so basically evry six months a dffrnt car is shipped 2 egypt.

a new car has 2 b sent next week as the time limit 4 the one tht is there is going 2 end soon, i was very excited because my car, the mercedes is gna b shipped, and i will get a chance to drive it there as im gettng my licence soon.

until............. my dad decides 2 throw a bomb 2day!!

he sed the mercedes is not going to b shippd, y baba? i love it, no baby dnt wrry i have a surprise u will love...baba wat is it? tell me tell me............ he was like im going 2 get u a bmw convertible instead, 2mrw pik the color and consider it bought. ths wud make most kids happy, teh idea and gesture its self is sweet BUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

my driver shall b drivng the convertible 4 three months until i get my licence!!! so obviously i dnt wnt it!! id rather ride a bike 2 uni than ride a convertible with my driver!! seriously no one does that!

first of all, no one wud thnk he is a driver, secndly i wud literally b sittng in hs lap if its in the frnt seat, my fathers argument 4 tht was i can sit in the bak becoz it is a 4 seater, ok even wrse!! him driving in the frnt looking like the owner and me in the bak looking like the hi class whore he piked up!!!

latly, gettng in and out of a sports car means tehre is alot of bending and body contortng 2 get in and out, perfect view 4 my driver!!

seriously baba!!! tht dsnt make sense!!!

Driving with my driver in the passenger seat

the reason i am writing ths is becoz my father came out with some of the most ridiculous rules ever 2day, they r soo ridiculous they r amusing!

im going to get my licence in 3 months, i shall b bak at uni then, so 2day at dinner with frnds we were discussing wat and when i wud drive etc..... the topic of wat wud happen 2 my driver came up, then i will have a licence so logically speaking i dnt need a driver. my dad responds by saying the driver shall STAY!! why baba? ur nt gna let me drive? he was like no darling u can drive all u wnt, but the driver will always b in the passenger seat!!

as u can imgaine i was infuriated, wat ?!! now im driving 4 the driver!!!!!!!!!! the driver is being paid a huge ridiculous monthly salary 2 sit hs ass dwn in a mercedes all day!!!!! that is NOT NORMAL!!!!

i may as well not drive in that case!

ths is where the arab thnkng starts to kick in, my dad wnts the driver in the car becoz it means tht father shall no everywhere i go at all times, the driver can report to him hw i drive and wat my driving manners r like, who i allow to get in the car, the hours im driving at(which means then i have to b home at my curfew, note that my prnts live in a dffrnt country, so my dad keeping up to date with everythng im doing is always thru ppl). and the driver will tell hm if get males in the car or not(which my father will not allow).

in ths case my father is payng hm to be my bodyguard!!not DRIVER WHO DSNT DRIVE!!!!!

ali

today i feel like talking about a current guy who i happen to be talking to, he happens to be a frnd, we met at a conference about a year ago, i played the bitchy hard to get game 4 quite a while, when he asked for my number i insisted he gv me a pen which he ddnt hv, so he actually had to get up and get one, he came bak with paper, i ripped it up and ordered for him to gv me hs righte arm, which he did laughng ::) i ddnt gv hm my number, instead i wrote down my full name and told hm if he can get my number within the 48 hours i shall consider gvng hm a chance o talk to hear what he has to say, otherwise i supposdly had no more time to spare and had to leave.

nyhw, he has the contacts to manage to get my number within the time limit, smartass :p

i used to talk to him 4 a while and then get busy, recently we have been talking on a daily basis, last nite he decided to tell me he loves me, sometimes i wonder how all these guys go around sayng they love all these woman, i mean seriously can u reallly fall for 5,6 grls b4 u hit 20??!! it baffles me.

what i have really come to realise in the arab world is "love" can come easy but it is also taken away easy. as far as if they really do love the grls they claim to im nt sure they really knw wat real love is in the old fashioned sense, but wat they do wen they make the claim of loving someone is they live up to all those cliches and expectations expected of two ppl in love.

im definitly not in2 hm, but hs mother passed away recently and i feel like im being a bitch not reciprocatng hs feelings, especially becz of hs current situation, i dnt feel like im in the place to reject hm seeing as he has put faith in me.

abdulla, my driver my everythng

wen i started going 2 nursery both my prnts had work, and were nt going to b able to take me and bring me from skool especiall with timings for nursery kids, i thnk it was from eight to twelve or somethng, so they got me a driver, abdulla!

i used to look forward to riding with abdulla everyday!!!

he used to get me all the candy i wanted, despite the tint miniscule salary he got, he adored me and looking bak now im aware tht he was in no way obliged to stopping by the coldstore and gettng me all the candy i wud greedily select, he did it becoz he ddnt wnt to say no 2 me, aftr growing older, my prnts told me tht he never spoke a word of my hoardings to my prnts, they were shocked to hear it from me wen i wud happily talk about my "rides" with abdulla(excuse the play on words).

abdulla was also great fun because my wicked prnts never used to let me sit in the frnt seat next to them seeing as i was a four year old, but abdulla used to let me, he also used to let me play with all the controllers and buttons on the dashboard, i used to have a ball.

ths amazing driver from heaven also used to listn to all the baby talk i had to discuss with him, apprntly my wantng of a birdie was the utmost priority, i had to discuss it with him vry morning. being the wise man he was he used to play along and pretend to listn, im surprisd he actually used to manage to get me to skool safely, juggling driving and listning to a demanding toddler discussing her non exitent birdie with hm .

one day coming home from nursery abdulla had to stop by hs house for somethng urgent, he obviously cudnt leave me in the car so he had to take me into hs house. it was the frst time i ever visit a house tht wsnt as generic as those of our class. hs house had very tall walls, tht seemed to be made of mud, and they hdnt been painted, and the windows were tiny, they were loads of tiny windows put together to make a large window, there were no tiles or carpet on the floor. it was all very strange to me. it was not a small house, it was quite big, the decor was just diffrnt, later i learnt ths was a typical old arab house.

wat further shocked me on my little trip was that he had ANIMALS in the house, ths is also typical from those of tht class and time, i was infatuated, it was like visitng a farm to me, i had never seen so many animals, i specifically remember being very scared of the huge cow, and wondering how exactly ths was a cow if its skin was all grey, i thot cows were blak and white like the ones they taught us in skool, little did i knw tht the blak and white cows r only "lurpak" or the creme de la creme cows :p

aftr tht he took me upstairs to see an array of hs huge collection of birds, i took interest in a cage full of tiny little pretty neat looking birds, i thnk i liked them more than the rest becoz they were more colourful than the brown or blak ones tht seemed to b in all the other cages.

he told me to show hm which were my favourites, i piked an all balk one, an a blue one a white and a brownish whitish one. he told me i cud have them, i ddnt bother to argue at least for the sake of formality, i started suggestng names for them immedietly. i thnk abdula gave me the birds becoz he was fed up of our conversations in our car rides.

i cannot even start to explain the shock on my grandprnts faces wen i got home bearng them 4 birdies in a cage. i was supposd to b in skool, where on earth did i get them from and y was i soo late, my prnts were still at work at the time. i was too happy to explain, i ust strtd talkn about which ones were female, which wud have babies, and how soon they wud copulate. being considerate and quite old fashioned ppl, my grandprnts were horrified to discover tht i had "made" the driver gv me hs birds, thts hw they interpreted it. how cud i do such a thng, where were my manners, wen did they ever not gv me wat i wnt, hw cud i take somethng from someone so poor and all, and ofcourse hw were they going to repay abdulla for hs gesture.

i wud also like to add tht i got the same reaction years later wen it slipped my tounge tht he used to buy me sweets everyday.

father and the baby

for some reason i have not been retold any stories of my mother and i growing up, tht wud probably b becoz she dsnt gv thngs more attention than they deserve NOT because she wsnt involved with me, with that sed i wud like to get onto how my daddy spoilt me as a baby.

the idea of ths post is to break the prejiduce that for starters arab men favour their male sons (altho there r some tht do, and tht was a trend in old arabia, tht really very rarely applies today), secondly that they r always too busy to gv their children attention.

being the frst child, my father breaking ancient arab tradition, actually wanted hs frst child to b a daughter, and thank the lord i was exactly wat he wanted, he anted a little grl to spoil and spoil and spoil. and i adapted to ht very well as a baby.

i was a very thin baby, so my father used to add sugar to my milk, so tht i cud start to fatten up, being the piky baby i was, i refused to drink any milk with added sugar, i used to reject the bottle, and cry and wail until i was gvn "normal" milk. they tried adding all sorts of thngs including honey to my milk, but nothng wud do, it was milk or nothng.

my othr royal demand was tht i wud never just go to sleep, i had to pushed around in my stroller, and no not for ten minutes or os, im told ths process used to take at least an hour. ths also had to b done if i woke up in the middle of the nite, which was a frequent thng

so father had to wake up during the early morning hours and take me dwnstairs in absloute silence as to not wake up the rest of the household and take me around our long dinning table in circles until i wud fall asleep.

grandmother used to wake up in the mornings and find the pram wheel marks all over the carpet in repetitive circles around our table :P she wud knw, little me had awoken in the middle of the nite:P

notice tht my father is the one who used to feed me, and not the maids, my father was also the one who used to wake up in the middle of the nite to get hs little angle to fall asleep again, despite havng work the next day, despite havng an entire staff of maids at hs dispense, and despite being able to wake up my mother(oh yes, the goes against tht othr stereotype about arabs, tht states tht the men will do nthng and get their poor wives to do everythng).

pls feel free to comment :)

baby stories 2

so... other stories from my "baby-hood", i really cnt remember much, but i do have certain golden memories that i cannot get past without actually giving them the attention i believe they deserve.

these memories are my grandest memories ever, they r the memories i share with my grandfather whom i cherish and love to no limit. they r basic and simple, but they speak alot of our relationship.

memory number one: blue boat/ yellow boat

wen i used to go to pre-school, and the academic part of my day was very short i used to come home sleep, and then wait for my grandfather to come home from work, i always made him watch tell y with me, the story of blue boat and yellow boat is, in dubai there is an annual boat race tht takes place even 2day (17 years later). so watchng it with my grandad was an event, in my little head it was like watching "rub a dub dub" boats:P nyhow the memory is of how i used to cheer with hm for the boat with the colour of my choice to win, the amusing part was tht every year i used to pik a colour i decided i liked to win, leavng aside the quality, speed and type of the boat. but it became a tradition for me and my grandfather 2 watch 2gether growing up.

it is my dream to buy tikets to ths event and take my grandfather to it with me, it wud definitly play tribute to a spectacular childhood.

memory number two: cartoons

i absloutely loved sleepng beauty snow white and cinderela, during my waking hour sthey were the only things anyone in the entire household could watch, being their spoilt little princess my whims trumped all, screw the football, screw the breaking news , screw everythng, their darling wanted to watch her fairytales for the bizilionth time. they ddnt mind, as long as i was smiling so were they.

oh how i wish i cud exert a tenth of that power i had today :P so the adorable memory is how i used to make my grandfathe rmemorise the script and say it in time with the cartoon and myself. i used to make my poor darling family members watch these cartoons 3 or 4 times even a day.

my display picture

just so tht it is down in writing, ths is NOT a picture os me, ths is a picture of google

i wud also like if very clearly state tht i have NOTHING against hijab or those who wear it

i respect it and the religion it belongs to

i have selected ths image becoz i believe it makes a stand and a statement about alot of ppl who pretend to be one thng wen they r actually somethng else, it is a representation of those who lead double lives.

and lastly the outfit used here, is not wat i wud refer to as hijab, i see it as a prop used to convey a messg.

i hope i have made my intentions clear, and have not offended ny1 by using it

baby stories

so i want to start my blog in chronological order and wat better place to start than wen i actually came in2 ths world.

for starters i have to gv kudos to my mother whose water broke 2 weeks b4 she and my father were expecting, being the woman tht she is she actually drove herself to the hospital, no matter hw well she tres to describe the situation to me the idea of a woman in abour driving with water gushing out from between her legs just seems comidic , dangerous and quite terrifyng all at once.

i cnt help but ask questions like:"mama, with all the water hw come ur foot ddnt slip off the petrol peddle?" or"wen u had a contraction did u break in the middle of the road?", ok "wat looks were u gettng 4rm ppl?" etc etc

nyhw apprntly she got there safely , without killing ny1 else on the road either, which i have to admit is quite miraculous judging the circumstances.

she checked herself in, and her doctor who delivered me is the father of one of my best frnds 2day, small world i have 2 say :)

nyhw obviously mother did not have a common natural delivery, i had 2 turn her world upside dwn before i even entered it :P

apprntly there were a number of complications, the biggest being tht i was ready to leave her womb, but i was pressing dwn on the umbilical cord - my life line - suicidal at birth:P

so mama was put in c section immedietly and ta da!!! i came in2 the world

my prnts were overjoyed, i was the "light" of their lives, my dad being thirty was ready to have and take care of a kid, and my mother had beeb conditioned to be a good mother since she herself was a child. so i definitly came in2 a loving family

th bonus was tht we lived with my grandprnts, and i wa sthe newest baby in a while, so u can only imagine hw i was their "baby" and hw spoilt i was, my wish was definitly their command, they showered me with tender love and affection

my walk

ok so i realised that my last post wsnt really talking about me, it was more about hw i feel about blogging and my terrible writing skills.

wat is there i wud like u ppl 2 knw about me......

well, im seventeen, yes i agree that is young, but i have seen the world in the eyes of those decades older than me, walked in their shoes and experienced wat many will never live to experience, so hear me out :)

and going over that it kinda sounds traumatic, but really tht wsnt the impressions i was going for, there is alot of FUN and scandal :)

so obviously im an arab, and no im not covered .

and no im nt opressed the way the media makes arabs out to be.

fyi, i speak fluent english and arabic, and basic french and spanish

i attended one of the top eight british schools in the world, and lead a very cosmopolitan life

i have all sorts of frnds, from literally vry colour race and religion, skool definitly played a good part in tht

overall i have to admit that i do live life torn between both cultures, one morning i decide to be an arab the next i decide to be more english than the queen herself.

nyhw thts basically a quick "get to knw me "

lets get familiar

ok so im nt really familiar with blogging, i have heard alot about them, but never really got around to reading any, only becoz reading off a computer screen is laborious to me, reading a book, with pages, that i can feel and fold and drop water all over as i read is a wonderful experience worth my time.

but recently ihave started to become alot more friendly with computers, credit goes to apple for sure, im in love with mine :P

so im sure those reading ths r wondering y excatly im bloging if im nt even well aquainted with the idea, well, i have alot of stories to tell for starters, if fathers around the world could read this and hear and open their eyes to wat daughters may sometimes thnk and feel, tht wud make me a very happy person, and i wud like to open up the eyes of the world to wat exactly it is like to b an arab growing up in a western world. if none of those reasons r gd, then i hope that my blog atleast entertains those who read it.

i do guarentee some very funny and random stories :)

before actually gettng started i wud like to apologize in advance for the spelling, grammer, punctuation and bad language that i write with.