It gets to me when I want to park somewhere and I see one of the cars have parked in the middle of the line separating an empty parking spot. Because of such selfish and inconsiderate drivers I have to find myself another spot! Why not show a little courtesy?

Another thing that annoys me is when I’m about to get in the lift and some selfish guy thinks he came first, gets in before I do followed by a bunch of guys who just arrived this minute. I have to wait longer for the lift because of such self-centered guys. That’s just plain rude! I can’t stand such people. It’s like a race who gets in the lift first, men or ladies. Sometimes I give them a disgusted look and get in before they do. Now they give me an embarrassed look. Keep it to yourself! This is how you want to learn how to respect people’s turns, fine with me!

1. Buy herbs in the mornings. They’re fresh and available.

2. Leave your kids at home when you’re shopping for groceries.

3. Driving is crazy now. Better to avoid going out unless it’s necessary. I was so close to getting into two car accidents yesterday, first wasn’t my fault. The guy in the van turned on me and I hit my breaks hard. The second one was because the car in front of me took a sudden stop and I wasn’t focusing well.

So I got away with the last two but it didn’t take me too long. Today I hit the car in front of me but my feet were off the pedal so no harm was done. Again I got away with it …

It’s nice that three girls are pregnant, bad news is I’ll be taking over for two of the girls when they give birth in march. I’m sure the other girls will not help out with the work. I’m already pissed because last year I took over her work and I’ll be taking over her work again next year when she gives birth. No one takes over my work when I’m away. Everything is left as it is. My friend dodo takes over part of my work and I don’t mind doing her work when she’s away but the rest never help out, why should I?

On Friday I decided to go shopping with my sister in law and I couldn’t think of any other place that’s open other than Souq Salmiya. It was her very first time there, so I showed her around. We bought some uniforms for our housemaids. We were enjoying our time until we noticed we were missing some of our shopping bags. Turns out a lady in niqab who was standing next to us snatched them right off the counter as we talked to the sales guy! She didn’t buy anything from the store. Sij matestihi! She took the potato chips as well, ma agool ilaaa mokan ma yasri ma yemshi!

I’ve been fasting since Saturday, I think. I don’t usually wake up for suhour I just feel too tired to wake up. The thing is I don’t feel hungry but I feel so very thirsty during the day. So yesterday was really tough on me. I’m not repeating it today so I made myself some eggs. I didn’t want to wake up the poor housemaids, what they go through everyday is enough.

Anyways, the day before yesterday I wanted to get some things from il-tawmeen. It was so crowded so I was told to leave my dad’s civil ID with them and come back the next morning. I did. Got up early the next morning. I got there at 8:15am, not bad for someone who’s on vacation. It was crazy crowded. Most people have sent their drivers to pick up their tawmeen but there were some really old men. There were a few old women, 5 including me. People were already angry. Some were waiting as early as 6-7am and haven’t received anything!

I was told that my dad’s civiI ID was lost. I tried to stay calm as much as possible. I couldn’t help it. It was so disorganized to the point of chaos that some people were swearing at eachother and at the workers too. I got pissed too but didn’t say a word. One guy threatened to come back Thursday and kick their butts. 

I asked “wain shibaak ilhareem?” (Translate: where’s the ladies’ ticket booth?) I was given a blank look. Then the worker told me “mo taboon ilmosawat!!” (Translate: “you want to be equal with men!”) WTF!! Shako? I tried to stay calm but I couldn’t stop myself from laughing at him.

What really annoyed me was how they treated the elderly!! I’m speechless. One old man was sitting on the bench. He took out a piece of mint, kept on sniffing at it like it was the last thing he’ll ever smell. I felt sorry for him, as well as the other old men standing in the heat, sweating like crazy. Nothing was being done to speed up their orders. This is how the elderly are treated here. Shame on them! Shame on us! I couldn’t take it anymore. It could have been my mom or dad standing there and it disgusted me to the point I wanted to leave. Then they found my dad’s civil ID, called my turn and I got my tawmeen finally at 9:45am. I was just happy

Why can’t they have il-tawmeen 24/h? Or at least pay workers overtime for this month and the next!

And btw, when you go pick up your tawmeen you’ll receive a gift consisting of three boxes of pasta, yareesh, harees and 6-8 bags of flour. Good luck, I hope other areas are more civilized and respectful with the elderly!

My friend at work has been telling for ages to buy my spices from Samraa Adan spice shop but I haven’t been cooking much at that time and I ignored. This year things are different and I wanted to use fresh spices in my food. I asked my friend and she suggested this same place again. I gave it a shot this year because I want to try new flavours in my cooking. I got there at about 11:30am. It’s a tiny shop. It wasn’t crowded when I came in, minutes later it was filled up with people mostly housewives and retired men. For some reason I felt like I’m one of them.

I haven’t tried out their spices yet but I can tell they’re good by the smell. I can’t wait to try them with cooking. They’re not that expensive. I paid KD 4.650 for a 1/4 kilo of meat & chicken marag spices, 1/4 kilo machboos deyay & laham spices, 1/4 burger spices, less than a 1/4 kilo veggie sambosa spices and 1/4 kilo tandoori. I think that was it. I wanted to buy more but I thought I’ll wait until I’ve tried them out and finished what I have before getting some more.

Location: Sharq. If you know sharq toys, keep it to your left. Take the roundabout to the left. Sharq police station should be to your left and drive a little. It will be on your right hand side.

4:30am: got up and took a shower

6:45am: dropped mom, dad, and mimi to the airport

8:00am: as soon as I got back my son got up, that’s when my dad called and said they’re in the plane

9am-12pm: cleaning and tidying up

2:00pm: lunch break

4:30pm-7:00pm: cleaned some more

8:15pm: had dinner first and then showered

10:00pm: blogging and browsing facebook