Things That Go Boom During The Day

So another morning just got wasted, nothing to cry about I hope. I woke up at around mid-day; my dad just came back from paying the fees at my university. But didn't enroll me into the department I wanted. Of course I found that very annoying and tried taking it out on him, it didn't really work since I didn't really care. It would've however got rid of some uneasiness regarding my application to a university in Vancouver had he enrolled me into IT studies instead of business administration. I hate studying business; it's so boring especially with the kind of curriculum we follow here. My classmates are first class idiots which makes the experience even more loathsome. But I guess I could skip all my classes and just take extra-curricular IT classes only for myself at the university instead. Well whatever, never mind.

I don't really remember much of today... was it really such an empty day? What did I have for lunch? Umm, I think I had tandoori chicken pieces and fries or was that dinner? Later in the afternoon I felt like taking the car out. I noticed K on-line, so I asked him for a traffic and security report. CNN's slogan: be the first to know. 2 explosions in Hai alJamiea and Haifa St. closed up lead him to tell me to stay at home.

A few hours later, I saw the windows behind my pc left ajar move an inch along to the sound of a bellowing boom. It wasn't really that loud but definitely within the area. I called up K to tell him about it. My dad's cousin was downstairs and told us that the explosion was targeted at zie Americans and took place in front of the AlMansour Club. I called K again to update him. I then go up to the roof to see the cloud of black smoke rise. It's always impressive to see such a site. And I can't help hide the smile on my face. Life after the war here is just too boring without things going boom. I go back to my computer, turn on the tellie and flip over to CNN. About 10 minutes later, the news breaks, a quote appears on the bottom of the screen saying that an explosion took place in the AlMansour district of Baghdad. And hey! They got my name wrong, my name isn't Reuters!!! K calls a little later thanking me for making him leave the comfort of his hotel room. He explained to me that Reuters got to the wire before them.

Okay so it's nearly night-time, I guess it's safe to go out now. Explosions never happen during the night unless you're near or within the green zone. So I head off to my uncle's. While waiting for my uncles to arrive from a meeting, Mazin called and invited me for lunch tomorrow. He was a couple hundred meters away from the explosion near AlMansour Club when it took place. He said it made him feel invincible to have survived that.

His computer network is a mess; the one computer that has printing capabilities can't connect to the internet or open a PDF. And the opposite applies to the other PCs. Having found one of the articles that I had downloaded already laying on his desk was a sure sign that I was going in the right direction. Fortunately he was quite happy with the work that I did. He even gave me a title to my primary function (always useful so as to know what one is supposed to be doing): Research Assistant I think it was. Ah I've got to make it clear to him that my memory works like a sieve. He asked me to start digging stuff about Iraq's influence on and integration in the gulf region. There was a term for it, but I can't remember it. Around 10pm I head home, and I forgot to call my uncle to assure him that I got home safely. He called eventually and I'm sure he reminded me the name of that term. I guess I'll just have to call him back tomorrow.

Nahida says that we're going to have a guest from Lebanon for 2 weeks who wants to open a really big supermarket here and that we'll be driving him about and helping him out during his stay. Imagine a Spinney's in Baghdad. That would be nice indeed. I can imagine it full of mums with their girls all dressed up looking their best while performing the menial chore of shopping. If anything is going to bring a civil society to Iraq it's got to be something in the shape of a big supermarket or a mall. My dad's going to the farm tomorrow for a couple of days so I'll have to wake up at 7 am again and fill the car up. I tried to sleep early but failed. I printed out a couple of articles. The second one came out bad; I'm out of ink, after a shake of the ink cartridge I squeeze out another print. I wonder how many people know of that trick. I really need to buy an Ink cartridge. I've been postponing the purchase of new computer kit for 2 months now. Well I'm off to university on Sunday, the computer market is nearby I'll take the opportunity to get my fix.