My experience with Jazeera Airways wasn’t a good one at all. To begin with things were going really smooth at the check in counter until we got to the boarding gate. It was overcrowded because they had two flights (Beirut and Dubai) going in one boarding gate. That was the strangest thing ever. I couldn’t believe how messed up the queue was. They didn’t let parents with infants or children go in first instead everyone just pushed they’re way in. They had no respect at all for that. 

It didn’t stop at that, then there were some stairs going down. My baby was asleep so I had to take him out of his stroller and hold him while waiting in the long line. Rami had to fold up the heavy stroller with little space to move and a few handbags on his shoulders, he had to carry everything down those stairs, putting in mind that the crowd wouldn’t move forward quickly, but he was lucky enough someone offered to help him out. I ended up being pushed from every side. There wasn’t any space to move and the heat was so unbearable. When it was our turn to get in the bus, it wasn’t easy to carry and load the stroller onto the bus because there were damn steps!!

Getting on the plane wasn’t easy either and the cold wind blowing in my baby’s face made me push my way in. I got so pissed when the flight attendants did nothing to help us out. I looked for Rami and I saw him leave the stroller outside, next to the stairs going up the plane. He caught up with me and told me they didn’t give him a tag for the stroller. What if it got lost?

We got the seats up front and all I could hear was the noisy fans, it hurt my ears and I couldn’t move in the tight seat. It was very uncomfortable. I waited for an extension belt and once the plane was ready for take off, I quickly called for the flight attendant to remind her I needed one. Looks like passenger’s safety wasn’t top on their list?

The curtain separating the business class from the economy class was almost touching my face during the flight, it was so annoying. 

The only two things I liked were the gray leather seats and the lemon chicken sandwich, other than that I hated everything else about the flight. Talk about a baby unfriendly flight.

At the end of this week we’ll be leaving to Dubai for the Eid holiday. I’ve never been out of this country around Eid or New Years. I don’t even celebrate New Years at all, though I’d usually watch how the rest of the world celebrates New Years on tv. 

The only time I went to Dubai was in 2003 to see my brother and I didn’t get to explore it as much as I wanted to so I hope this time I’ll get a better look around. I really want to eat at Al-Mahara restaurant in Burj Al-Arab but I don’t know how in the hell I can do that with the baby and a husband who doesn’t eat seafood lol.

I’ve made plans to send the babysitter by the end of this week too, probably Wednesday. I have no idea what I’m going to do when I come back.

Today is my first day back to work after a one month vacation in Scotland from 10/8/06 to 9/9/06. Last week my co-worker told me that my manager wants us to come back to our other working place, and I’m so glad she did the honours of packing my stuff lol.

I spent the last few days in Aberdeen doing the VAT forms, visiting the old ruins of Dunnottar castle near Stonehaven and just relaxing at Duthie Park.

Dunnottar castle was amazing and it might have been the film location for Mel Gibson’s version of ’Hamlet.’ We had to walk up and down several flight of stairs to get to the castle in freezing weather plus later on it rained and I remember thinking there was no way I can do this with a baby in my arms. I couldn’t even use his stroller at all, but I managed with the help of Rami and Dad.

Now I have to seriously work!

We went to Inverness for a couple of days and we came back yesterday night. On our way there I realized I left my baby’s formula at home. We went to the nearest Asda and to my surprise they’ve never heard of Similac, so I had to go for any brand. I choose HiPP, an organic milk formula but it wasn’t good for my baby because it gave him diarrhea for 2 days. I couldn’t do much about it. I just gave him more fluids to make up for that and as soon as we got back I stopped feeding him that brand.

Anyways the first day in Inverness we didn’t do anything. The second day we went to the Lochness lake, took some pictures there but we didn’t see the Nessie monster. Then we went to the exhibition to see a documentary movie about the Lochness lake, monster and a history of other things related to it. Once we were done we went to Eastgate shopping centre. It’s really huge comparing to Glasgow’s mall. I liked it.

Later on we grabbed some takeaway food from Pizza Hut and went back to the hotel. The next day we went to Cawdor castle and it’s a shame we couldn’t take any pictures, it was not allowed because the owners are still living there. There were so many portraits and expensive furniture dating back to 1454 and I really wanted to take some shots but that was not possible. At least I took pictures of the beautiful gardens and amazing maze.

After that we stopped to eat at Baxter in Fochabers (famous for their jams) which was on our way back. I had the deep fried haddock fish, it was so yummie! I don’t think a few days in Inverness is enough to explore everywhere especially when you’re with a baby!

Yesterday night we came back from Glasgow. Their weather reminds me of London so much. It’s very sunny and way warmer than Aberdeen. The first day we got to Glasgow it was very late so we stayed at the hotel unpacking. We didn’t do much, just ate at Pizza Hut. Then slept until the next morning.

The next day we drove to Loch Lomond and we took some pictures of the lake there. This place is very special to my dad, back in the 80’s when my dad was still a post-graduate student he used to go there a lot with my mom to picnic and it was cool going back to the same places and re-living the good old days again. On that same day, we ate at The Bay Tree cafe and I think it was a Turkish restaurant because of the music playing, but their food was pretty good. Then later on we did a little bit of shopping at Braehead mall, it was so much crowded and stuffy that you’d feel the floors vibrating underneath you but it’s huge comparing to shopping centres in Aberdeen.

The third day we checked out of the hotel and we went to the Safari Park or Zoo. It was fun to drive thru the Zoo in the car, passing some endangered species, lions and tigers. We even rolled down our windows to have a better look at the lions, it was risky but everyone else was doing it. My dad parked the car, we walked around and we had a chance to pet some animals too. Hassan was enjoying his time there. Meemo tried feeding the ducks some toast and they actually surrounded her from every corner. She was running away and they chased after her. It was terrifying! One duck even stood in front of the car behind us and it wouldn’t shoo away lol.

We got here on Thursday afternoon, our flight was delayed an hour for security reasons and as I was typing my last post I got a call from my sister who was also concerned that I might be at Heathrow airport, I told her not to worry because we weren’t. I’m just so glad that we didn’t take that route and took another one instead; I wouldn’t want to be stranded in London! When we got to Aberdeen airport we were stopped at the security point at first, then again the police stopped us for a few minutes, asked us some questions and let us go. But we didn’t mind because everyone was being extra friendly.

Tomorrow we’re planning to go to Glasgow and my dad will be driving us on his rental manual Ford something. We’re staying there 2-3 days. We might be going to Stirling to check out the Safari Zoo. That should be fun, I guess.

P.s. Why haven’t I posted until today? That’s because it took a whole damn week to get this dsl connection!