Another Long Day

It seems to be the case that every time I can take out the car to drive (which is every other day) I end up coming back home at around 7 in the evening which is relatively late especially if you left home around 7 in the morning. I wonder how many hours I spend driving on days like these. I think I must've drove at least 3 hours today. That's alot of wasted time.

So today I went to college, I only had one class which is a piss take considering the one hour of traffic to get to college involves. One hour driving through horrible traffic to attend a half hour of class of Marketing. We used to have another class on Wednesdays but the teacher ran off to the UK a couple of weeks ago and I think she's planning to stay there. I did ask the teacher to change the schedule and she said she'll speak to the dean of the department.

I spent the rest of my time at college acting like a kid infront of Suzy and her friends. I picked round buds from a plant and tried lobbing them into the shirt pocket of her friend.

At around 2 PM Ennie and I left to go to his house so that he could pick up some money and then we went to Sana'a Street so he could buy a hard disk and I could pick up my repaired UPS. And I'm glad to say that I'm using it right now and it's working wonderfully. The guys at the shop even got that annoying buzzer removed for me. I'm so happy. Now I can use the internet with no electricity at all for at least an hour and a half.

We then spent an hour in his neighbourhood looking for some food for me lahma b'ajeen ('meat on bread' looks kind of like a very thin pizza), restaurants. There were 3 of them, and all of them were open but weren't cooking any. It was like some conspiracy, we got to another restaurant that we had lunch at the last time I was over and they had just closed! We drove back to his and realised that one of the lahma b'ajeen places said they'd be cooking by now. So we drove back, and the dude who was supposed to bring the gas to run the oven hadn't got back yet. Driving around in this guy's neighbourhood is a real pain in the ass because of all the potholes in the side alleys.

Ennie's mum wound up feeding me felafels and kebab, and Ennie taught me what was left of the commercial law material for tomorrow's exam. I'm actually suprised we got round to doing it And then I drove home completely knackered.

Farah's back in town, just chatted to her. I wonder how soon I'll be seeing her again. And the UPS is working wonderfully.

The weather has become suddenly alot hotter over the past couple days. It's uncomfortable. A little stroll can lead to alot of sweating. The electricity has also become alot worse since the change in weather. Nahida has chucked a bunch of food out of the freezers into the bin.

Last week-end I accidently shaved my goatie off. Ever since I've been getting remarks about it being missing. It's sacreligous to shave off your moustache or beard here. Well I think it's finally grown back enough to put an end to the madness.

Remy's teaching me how to play blues guitar yesterday he taught me to play a 12 bar blues 1-4-5 progression, today he gave me different chords to play it with. Not being as well acquainted with blues as he is, I'm having to download a Muddy Waters album. I'm still taking too much time switching chords, but I do see myself improving.

Got A New Wireless Connection

And it's going great. There was a palm tree in the way of my grid so the dudes spent a half hour setting up my gird on a long piece of wood so that I could get a decent connection unfortunately they couldn't rotate the grid in the exact direction because of the square nature of the wood. But it's working pretty well. I'll have to get a pipe installed on my roof to improve reception and to use as a durable solution since that piece of wood isn't very well secured. Now to try posting on my blog...

No More Wireless... For Now

Well of the three things I wanted to do today. I got two done. I e-mailed my bro's pics and I discontinued my subscription to my non-blogger-friendly wireless ISP. I did go to Enie's but I couldn't be bothered to study. Next time I should have breakfast and not get to his house hungry. Maybe it'd be better if I got to his after lunch. Well I'll be off to his house on Wednesday. But oh my god does he like to spend time hanging out at college. Well I could go pick up my UPS and come back to college I guess. My UPS better be fixed by then. I forgot that I'll need my UPS to set up a new wireless connection.

Posting Can Be Hard

I've been having trouble posting and editing using my wireless ISP lately. So this is going to be a final test before I choose to switch ISP. Should've had tried out a different ISP ahead of time.

Not much going on.

Did okay on my risk managment test today. Alot of classmates screwed up one of the questions and provided the wrong answer. It's funny cause all of them made the same mistake of trying to write down the '13 rules' of fire insurance (an impossible task) instead of the 3 factors of risk (dead easy). Suzy was the one who walked me through the material for this test. She's a really smart girl.

And I got lucky with cab fares today too. I usually pay 5,000 dinars (just over 3 bucks) to go or come back from college. I got a ride to college for 4,000 dinars and 3,000 dinars on the way back, and without haggling too.

I'm getting pissed off that that classmate with whom I'm supposed to start guitar lessons hasn't called any of the teachers up so that we could start. I'm thinking that I might have to do it myself along with Miz a guy I know through India who's been waiting for someone to take lessons with him.

Spoke to Dad over the phone last night. He gave me a lecture about how the accounts should be done and that I should call up Fozzy at the end of every month to find out the expenses accumulated at the end of the month. When it comes to business my dad gives good advice unlike he does in other walks of life. He also told me he's planning to buy a PC. My dad is the kind of man that can't operate a TV, so I'm left to wonder how in the world he's going to operate a PC.

Was too tired to go to the internet cafe and send the pics of my bro's house under-construction to my bro. I might as well try to send the pics through Picasa. I've got to go Ennie's place tomorrow morning so he can finish teaching me the material for the commercial law test. And I should send those pics in case Picasa fails.

I don't know if I've mentioned this before but it's really not me to be getting stressed out about exams and stuff. But it seems that if I have any chance to leave for the summer I can't fail college and get stuck here to do re-tests and a summer course which I think I've heard being mentioned.

I keep forgetting to mention that Nahida's bro has finally been released from US custody. I was suprised to find him in good health and good spirits. He's spent over a year held up. I'm glad he's back, it means I can finally maybe get a new car or just at least fix up the one I got. He's a very important part of my Nahida support network and it's been a nuisance not having him about. Aside from that he's a real nice guy, always excited about everything and very lively.

I'm really tired I'm going to bed soon. Oh crap posting still doesn't work with my wireless ISP... just going to have to rely on the ever so unreliable modem connection.

I just caught the end of an Iraqi show on the telly with people calling in to talk about internet chat rooms. I didn't catch what an Iraqi girl had to say about on-line relationships between boys and girls, but the rest of the callers seemed not to have had any experience with on-line chatting but expressed disapproval of it anyway.

One woman complained that it creates problems between married couples when the wife catches her husband chatting to women, a man complained that it's wasting the money of the parents of teenagers, and another man described the internet as something that could be used in a good way and a wrong way.

I wish I caught the show from the beginning. It seemed pretty interesting to me, angry adults complaining about the corruption of their youth taking place in front of their eyes.

Still trying to get this post up... giving up on posting using modem. I once managed to sneak in a post before my ISP could screw me up. Not working so far. So after spending maybe over an hour to post I think I'm finally going to do it. I got a nice modem connection working here. So here it goes...

Up At Night Again

I'm so bored right now. I'm having a bad time using Azureus to download torrents. My anti-virus program might be blocking it, it's been giving me warnings. So I've de-activated it for now. So either Azureus will work better or I'll get hit with a virus. It's lame to even try to download stuff with the connection I've got. But after three days I did download a whole Blur album, I just made the mistake of downloading one of the crappy ones. The gimmick should work better when I get that UPS back. Takes the piss to be able to seed for others but not to leech back. If I was coming close to my upload limit that might of been a problem. I don't really know what my upload limit is from my ISP.

I've got some port problem too. Mar might be able to fix that since he works in a company that provides internet to internet providers. He's invited me to come over to his office and slap on my list of requested torrents there.

I've been going to the loo alot today. Don't know what's up with that. I think I'm just having trouble holding it in. I'm sleepy too. Eyelids are heavy. I wonder how I'd feel after letting a poo loose.

I'm going to go crawl into my bed with my guitar and strum randomly for a bit and fall asleep. Things to do tomorrow: Fuel the car, take pics of bro's house under-construction and study for Sunday's risk-management test.

Taguchi

Friday Morning, woke up during a dream about not having enough time. Looking back at yesterday, I'm still finding it hard to believe that all I ate was shawerma sandwich, and I'm still not hungry. I've been falling asleep with no trouble at all lately. The night before last, I just fell asleep sitting with my feet up on my couch.

Fortunatly the commercial law teacher didn't show up yesterday but did have my total quality management test. All the teacher gave us was two questions. And I had think I had most of the material down, except the subject relating to the first question (What's the Taguchi method, it's principles and shortcomings) which after speaking to the teacher I had understood wrong. I even cheated in the exam, and ever so blatantly. Fortunately I didn't catch the teachers glance of disapproval because that would've made me feel bad. But the friend from whom I was copying did. And he said it was funny. Unlike everybody else in the class, I'm not so discreet about cheating because of my lack of experience.

I spoke to the teacher after the exam, I told her I was worried about not being able to pass her subjects (total quality management and marketing). She seemed to be surprised that I was worried. And she basically said that she'll help me out with my grades. I also got her to explain me that Taguchi method stuff.

After that my database teacher wanted to have a word with me about my Arabic. She told me that while reading my enigmatic test paper, she didn't know whether to laugh or cry. My general excuse for not being able to learn Arabic, is that Arabic is bleeding hard language and the unavailability of any courses designed to teach Arabic as a second language anywhere in Iraq. But I can honestly say that I give it the effort that I should. The simplest thing I could do is read the newspaper, but I can't be bothered.

Okay I'm hungry now, I better get myself something simple to eat cause I should be having lunch with Od and his old school gang. And oh my god I've got a risk management test after tomorrow.

Before I Go To College

Don't have much to say. I couldn't be bothered to take a shower this morning so I've got a few extra minutes of free time before I go to college.

My motivation to study is awfully low. I went over to Enie's, one of my classmates, yesterday so that he'd teach me the material for tomorrow's commercial law test. We read through a couple of pages and then called Suzy to ask her something about the material. She told me that somebody said that the test got postponed. We called up different people, nobody seemed to have heard that the test did get postponed but everyone we had spoke to did want the test postponed. Well that was the last little push for me to not to bother studying.

I've been speaking to Enie about what's going on between Suzy and me. He's been under the impression that we're a couple. I myself don't know what Suzy and I are towards each other, certainly without any kind of physical relationship (i.e. I haven't even kissed her) it seems pretty hard for me to say that we are a couple. And then she sent me a generic sms message saying that I've been 'loaded into her heart'. At the time she had asked me what I thought of it, I replied that it was cute. Enie thinks that was my chance to crystallize the relationship.

When I ask her about us ever wanting to go out together to a restaurant or something even if it did include her brother and other friends, she tells me that she'd never. What's the point of a girlfriend if you can't spend a good time with her? Enie suggested that Suzy and I might have been wanting/expecting different things entering the relationship. Well wherever the two of us are in regards to each other I don't want to tamper with it until perhaps the end of the year.

I've also got a total quality management test tomorrow. Haven't been able to bother myself memorizing the material. I have to memorize it because I don't have the language skills to express in my own words. It would've been a piece of cake otherwise. So far all I've done is read through the material once. And there a few things that I didn't understand.

Dissolute Diarrhea

Shat on myself as I was waking up yesterday. Diarrhea. Freaked out this morning when I found out that I still had it. I went to a street where more than half of the shops were pharmacies to get some Imodium. It was nearly 9 O'Clock in the morning and every single one of them pharmacies were closed. Mobile phone shops and grocery shops were open, but god forbid that a pharmacist should get out of bed to open his store. It's like Fridays, pharmacies are closed on Fridays here too, where's the sense in that? Iraqis must obviously not get sick on Fridays. Well I did end up finding a pharmacy open in my own neighbourhood and luckily enough it had some Imodium.

Since I was incarcerated at home yesterday (because of the diarrhea), I spent most of the day practising on my guitar using on-line resources. I spent alot of time looking for something that I could find useful, eventually I ended settling for GuitarNoise.com. I copied some chords into a notebook and practised them. I also tried taking the lesson on how to play "Wish You Were Here" by Pink Floyd, but gave up because I couldn't figure out which way to strum.

So I got to college in time for the second period and didn't miss anything in the first period because it was used to give some of the students a chance to take a test they had missed during Easter. I'm so overwhelmed by all the material I ought to study by the end of the week. They don't give us alot but it's in Arabic and it takes me ages and ages for me to study something in Arabic. I'm not so confident about passing this year.

After college I dropped off my faulty UPS thingie for the second time, picked up some pizzas and went to see K. It's a shame I've only seen him once since he got here about a month ago, and he'll be leaving again in a week. We talked over a few games of poorly played pool. It's sneaky how K would tell the most important things about himself by the by. I think it was while we were talking about Tania (my junior-high crush) that he told me he's planning to marry that girl that lives in Germany he got to know on-line a couple or so years back. He's gone so far as to introduce the mothers.

Regarding Tania he had caught her on-line and began talking to her by congratulating her on her engagement as a joke, Tania responded with surprise by how he had known that she had indeed got engaged a couple of weeks ago. So yes she's really engaged. K suggested that my chances with her are therefore all over. But to see if I still had a chance, I made a test of fate based on whether I'd get the 8 ball by rebounding it on the opposite end of the table and into the corner pocket. I got the ball in, and therefore proved K wrong.

I've learnt two new words recently that were used to describe me: callous and dissolute. Hans called me callous without meaning it in a bad way and someone who read my blog called me dissolute. I recognize myself as being callous, I just didn't know the word. On the other hand, I'm still trying to deal with dissolute, I'd admit that I've proved to be dissolute on more than one occasion, but I don't enjoy being dissolute. I don't enjoy being callous also, but I don't mind being called callous. Being callous is something I've come to terms with a long time ago. So about being dissolute, I think I've got the choice of trying not to be dissolute or coming to terms that I am dissolute. I guess I'll be thinking about that...

I'm done thinking about it. I'd rather admit being dissolute than make any effort to not continue being dissolute, I just hope that life stops putting me in situations where I'm put to the test.

Grumpy Mornings

During the last week I bought a guitar. A classmate and I are planning to take lessons together. I've got no musical talent whatsoever but I'm up for anything to kill time. A couple days ago a computer virus that I had got bad enough for me to spend a whole day to get rid of it. Interestingly I wasn't the only one infected by it, a couple of friends and an internet cafe had been hit by it too. If you happen to have problems downloading files, computer restarts, your folder options are missing and can't edit your registry you might have the same worm. So here's a link for the Brontok Worm fix.

Nahida has been unbearably annoying lately. Just now she asked me if I was aware of the time. Of course I am I've got a bleeding watch on my wrist that I never ever take off. And during the day she can't go on without yelling my name every half hour. I really wish I could shut her out.

The weather had a little schitzo trip during last week. We had rain, crazy loud thunders storms, painfully warm weather, duststorms and cool overcast days.

Well I'm late for college. There are no classes today (but I didn't tell that to Nahida). The 4th year students are celebrating their graduation today. It doesn't make sense to me cause I don't think they've actually finished yet. But I guess it's a way for those that are going to fail to not feel left out. The rules on the dresscode are going to be relaxed and it might also mean that I can walk in with my camera and take some pics yay.

And It Rained This Morning

Riding in the cab to college this morning I realised that I had forgotten what it was like to watch rain. The feeling of being subdued. The peace that comes along with watching rain. The compulsion to remain silent, and just contemplate the world around you as it deals with it's environment. Some were ignoring the rain, some wore raincoats, some were covering their market stands with clear plastic sheets.

Warm Weather

The weather is beginning to become uncomfortably warm. I turned on the airconditioning in my car today. In my experience it's only effective on highways. It might be time to try to see if dad can afford to buy me another car. Techinically I've never had a car of my own. I've been driving my dad's car. I wouldn't want to imagine what pile of junk my dad would buy for me. And a little voice in the back of my head gets slapped for saying: "If you'd work you'd get a car that you'd be happy with.".

Didn't have time to eat before going to the dentist so I didn't bother going to him.

I really need to get back into the student routine i.e. wake up early and study at home. I really need to grab hold of that marketing teacher for help. I should've gone to college today in the hope of finding her. I have to admit I haven't been so nice to the teacher. I've been venting alot of my frustration from not understanding in her class.

I'm going to grab my notes and read now.

Slow Day

I haven't left the house today. Now it's too late to go out. I should've gone out for a walk. I was so lazy today I even had an afternoon siesta. But I did study some marketing today. I didn't really study, I just tried reading the textbook. It's not making much sense to me. Alot of the time I just guess what is trying to be said in the textbook. How easy it would be to be studying in English. I hope I finish the whole distribution chapter by tonight. You know it's bad when you're hoping for something that's within your power. On second thoughts since it's midnight now, I think I ought to sleep instead.

I just tried calling Farah just now. Her phone was unreachable, sent her an SMS instead. I'm only just starting to make an image of her in my mind. She's been forced to skip alot of the innocence that's usually associated with an Iraqi teenager girl. I don't know what else I can say about her. I don't really want to pass any judgement on her yet. She's great in many ways, I don't think I've yet got to know her as well as I could though. I don't think I'm emotinally attached to her yet, and I don't think that it should become the case considering she's already engaged. Anyway, she's leaving for Syria tomorrow. She invited me over there. But I can't go.

Tomorrow's going to be a fun day I think. I got a dentist appointement. Oh no, that reminds me! I need to get some food down my throat before I go there. I don't want a re-run of the last time, when I went to him on an empty stomach and he told me that I can't eat for the rest of the evening. Come to think of it, he did a really shoddy job of the last filling he gave me. Damn it he destroyed half of one of my teeth in the process. The damn filling wasn't just inside the tooth, it shows from the tooth's side too. Well I ought to call the dentist to tell him I might be late. And I'll need to sort out some food too.

Yay Farah just came on-line. She's not gone yet. And she just got disconnected. And she got disconnected again, she's been having trouble staying connected with it lately.

Oh and yeah apparently AsiaCell does have a GPRS service which makes yahoo chatting work on her smartphone. I'd be tempted to switch but smartphones are too big. Whatever happened to the Motorola StarTac? The last one I saw was tiny. That was a cool phone. All the Iraqis here missed out on all mobile phones produced prior to 2003. Iraqis spend so much money on their mobile phones, especially since they don't get to pay a subsidized price from an operator. They don't remember a time when it was just cool enough to have a mobile phone to make calls with, now it's got to have a camera and play songs out loud.

The electricity has become really bad today. It's like an hour of electricity for every 6 hours. Are people turning on their air-conditioners already? I'm getting hungry. I ought to look for some milk. And damn it's getting late (1:30 AM now).

I Got Played And Survived

Oh yeah! I'm alive and safe. There was nothing to be paranoid about after all. After an hour of being half awake and wondering where the hell was my phone this morning, I got up and found my phone underneath the couch which I've turned into my bed. A few missed calls and a SMS message asking whether I was coming or not that was sent an hour earlier.

So I called up Farah (the chick who left the message and that I was supposed to meet today), I told her that I had just woken up and that I could be on my way over to pick her from her place in an hour. She was cool with that.

Yesterday she had told me that she wouldn't be able to make it because of her period. I told my bro and Kiki, the two people I had told about the story, that it was then off. My bro was surprised to find that all my worrying ended up being worthless, and Kiki was relieved for my sake. However, later yesterday night she had changed her mind, and told me that if she was feeling better tomorrow she'll give me a call to tell me to come over to pick her up.

Since I hadn't updated my bro or Kiki, I called up Od on the way to hers to tell him that I was off to meet some chick and that I just wanted to tell him so that someone knows what I'm up to should the worst arise.

I followed her directions, and wound up in a wide road. I called her up to tell her I was in her street. She told me she just spotted me pass by as I was talking to her so I turned the car around and drove slowly backwards. She popped out of a house and climbed confidently into the car. She seemed quite happy and at ease. She was prettier than her pics of herself that she had sent me.

I thought we were going to have lunch together, but she had already eaten. Which left us with no options that would come to mind as to where we ought to go now. I ended up driving to the other side of Baghdad trying to think of where we could sit and enjoy a coffee. I never thought it would've been that hard. Eventually I gave up and decided to go to some fancy yet low profile restaurant.

The choice of restaurant was a stroke of genius. The last time I had walked in to the restaurant was shortly after the end of the war, my friend and I ordered bottles of wine. That was then, so when I noticed that the men (there were no women there) in the restaurant were drinking tall cans of Heineken I was pleasantly surprised. I ordered a bottle of Lebanese white and we ordered some salads to go along with that.

She drank only half a glass, she had told me that she liked red, but I didn't think that someone liked red would dislike white so much. So either she didn't like the white or she just didn't want to get wasted. I sure as hell got buzzed much faster that I usually do. We didn't eat much of the food, we spent most of the time chatting about school life. I started joking about how if she didn't drink her share of the wine, I'd be drinking hers and would get all drunk and then she'd have to drive. So when the waiter was about to pour me another glass she told him not to.

She then suggested that we leave. That was cool with me even though we left the bottle of wine unfinished. But I did get a bit tipsy and my driving wasn't too great after that. We hadn't planned over the phone what to do after lunch, she had said that she'll make up her mind then. Now we were driving back to our side of Baghdad, I suggested that we go to my place and so we did.

Now what's up with girls handing out chewing gum before making out? I hate chewing gum. And as far as I can tell I don't have bad breath. Sure I smoke but is that such a big deal. Now that I think about it, I don't remember where I chucked my chewing gum.

On s'embrassa beaucoup et pour longtemps, on était les deux hesitant de coucher ensemble à cause de ses règles. Bon on a essayé tout de même et ça n'a pas durer, elle a cru que j'ai eu un problème à le garder soutenu mais c'etait pas ça, j'ai simplement fini très tôt. Comme c'est décevant!

After all that, I drove her back to her neighbourhood and dropped her off near a clinic where her mum was supposed to be to do some tests.

I drove over to Od's after that and since I was starving I took with me to Ali Al-Lami's supermarket/take-away restaurant. We drove up from the opposite side of the street and parked there because there was a car parked in front of the restaurant thought to be a car bomb surrounded by cops and a guy with a body armour vest with Iraqi police EOD (forgot what that stood for).

Od spoke to a shop owner where we had got out of the car. I was drunk and didn't care if there was a car bomb. Od felt that it was safe enough to cross the street and get that sandwich. We got us each a shawerma meat sandwich and ate them in front of the place. Od did a little monologue(if that's what it's called) that went something like this:

How do we live in Iraq? We go to Ali Al-Lami to eat shawerma. There's a possible car bomb parked in front of us. But we've got a bush in between us and the car to protect us.

After we finished our sandwiches, a woman who seemed to be the owner of the car showed up.

I'm Being Played

Alright to be honest, I'm not so cunning with the ladies, matter of fact: I'm bleeding incompetent. To demonstrate how bad I am: I once unwittingly walked out of a threesome. So when a contact on my yahoo list that my sixteen-ish cousin added on my yahoo messenger starts hitting on me, I fall for the bait.

My cousin was her classmate in primary school, but they weren't friends. I think my cousin got her yahoo id from a friend of his. I would say it was a rather routine chat at first until she asked if I could call her and meet her. After chatting some more and then leaving her to chat with Nisrine and some crazy Turk that wanted some business suggestions about what to export to Iraq, I called the chick up. And crikey all that heavy breathing on the phone is such a turn on.

We had a brain dead conversation that was full of her heavy breathing. She speaks some English which was great. She told she was 18, but I'm not buying it. Her yahoo profile says she's 17. But she sounds alot more mature on the phone than that. Or maybe I've got all my bearings wrong. I'm a bit confused about my age myself, hanging out with class that's 5 years younger than you could do that I think. When she said she wants to meet me, that's when it gets too good to be true. We're set to meet on the 9th, still got to arrange all the details.

Okay there's alot that's dodgy about this girl. Her dad died a year ago, she got an arranged engagement following that to some guy that she doesn't want, there's the age stuff. Her mum is sick and therefore she and her mum are going to Syria in a few days so that the mum and can get some medical attetion.

Oh and I think she's lying to me when she's telling me that she's using her AsiaCell mobile phone Nokia 6630 to chat with me. We don't have such phone services here do we? And there's no mobile phone logo next to her name on the yahoo list.

She might be trying to put me in a marriage trap. Or even worse, I've got my bro's wife saying that girls are being used as bait to kidnap or mug boys. I regard my brother's advice very highly. He told me that I should make sure I'm not followed and take an odd route to my house, if I were to bring her to mine. He also suggested that I take her to my dad's empty house, but it's unfurnished.

It really sucks that I have to be paranoid for my life to get some action.

Who In The World Is Nahida?

Well since Anonymous gave me such good advice about what router I ought to have bought, I think I owe him a response to his/her question about Nahida. I was seriously considering getting the Linksys WRT54G. It was the one model I had looked up intensively on the internet. Yet to see if the model available here in the market is pre-version 5. But oh yeah, I'm definitely going to buy it even though I don't really need it any more. I'm thinking of using it to play Mario Kart on the net with my DS, just hope it'll work better than it did with my dial-up connection. And if the Linksys would work with my ISP using a static IP instead of PPPoE, I'll be able to get a slightly better download rate with my present ISP.

Anyway, so who is Nahida? She certainly is an important character in my life here in Baghdad. To be honest I don't really know what the whole deal is with the woman. So don't be asking me questions beyond what I already know.

The house I live in used to belong to my dad's mum. As my grandma was getting old. She decided to rent out the top half of the house to Fozzy and his wife Nahida to have someone to help her out. My family was in the UK when all this was happening. So my grandma passes away sometime in the early 90s while I was living with my dad in Paris. Fozzy and Nahida stay in the house.

Then around the mid-90s my dad decides to returns to Iraq and moves into this house. So to put it simply Fozzy and Nahida just came with the house. Sure enough their relationship towards my grandma had established themselves as friends of the family. I didn't come follow my dad to Baghdad till a year later.

My very first impression at the sight of Nahida was that she was some kind of spy. I was 12 and all my thoughts about Iraq were strongly influenced by the cold war for some reason. Such cold war paranoia wasn't discouraged when people would whisper bad words about Saddam even in their own homes.

During the following 2 and a half years, I had a much more healthy relationship with Nahida than I do now. Sure I'd yell that I'm thirsty all the time and she'd bring me a glass of juice or something. And it came to down to her having motherly feelings towards me since she had no kids of her own (something wrong with Fozzy's willy after a fall from the 3rd floor during some revolution). But we still had a kitchen downstairs and I'd often do what I can with it.

Fozzy and Nahida assisted my dad with a lot of things, and at some point Fozzy became my dad's man at the farm running the whole show. When I came back to Iraq in 2002, I wasn't on good terms with my dad and lived them instead of downstairs with my dad. That's when my relationship began to turn even more uncomfortable with her. The expression 'familiarity breeds contempt' comes to mind.

There are things that really piss me off about Nahida. For example, I hate it that so much of our stuff is tucked up among her things or how she has to influence anything that's going on. She sticks her head into everything and anything. She'll do stuff with my stuff that without my permission. Recently she took some new pants that my dad had brought me that were too big for me to the tailor who did an awful job on them. And she's so unorganized it's crazy, especially in contrast to my own mother. Oh and she's got this obsession about keeping the curtains closed during the night which drove me so crazy that I removed the curtains from my old bedroom upstairs.

Now my whole family is in the UK and Fozzy is at the farm most of the time leaving the house to Nahida and me. I've moved downstairs but half of my stuff is still upstairs. My dad hasn't given me any responsiblities and for good reason too. I've got a strong record of being irresponsible. Therefore Nahida is responsible of managing my money and stuff for example.

Nahida now does alot for me: waking me up and bringing me a mug of coffee in the morning, bringing me food when I'm in jail, cleaning up the house, doing my laundry, processing any of my government documents, bringing gardeners and plumbers, cooks my food, the list can go on and on. It would be easier if I were to mention the few things I do and say she does the rest. I do most of the shopping and I get petrol for the car, she does the rest. Oh and she's got her extended family and the Sudanese dude that lives with us to help her help me.

So why can't I get rid of her? Well I can't kick her out of her home which is the top half of the house. But why don't I limit my dependency? That's actually feasible. I could start doing all those chores that I rely on her to do by myself. But it's too difficult. The lazy side is too strong in me. It's too difficult to give up all this luxury. And I know I'd be a better person if I was to rely more on myself, but I'm too weak. And it's not as if she's encouraging me to be more independent.

Ahhh finally! Nahida got me my food.

PPPoE For Me

After a number of days of fretting about which wireless accees point to get to use as an ethernet client, I got a SMC piece of crap access point for 80 bucks. It turned out that I wasn't fretting over nothing. I spent all of last night trying to get the bleeding thing to work last night. Today I gave up on a simple WLAN connection and tried connecting to the ISPs PPPoE service, called the ISP and asked for a username and password.

My Sudanese buddy just knocked the power cable of the access point, and I got disconnected. This thing doesn't put the mind at ease. And it's so annoying having to dial-up. And it ain't that fast! It's just a little faster than a modem connection. Still it'll save me 50 bucks a month. Paying for dial-up internet top-up cards cost me a hundred bucks for a month of use. This internet service should cost me fifty bucks.

Well as long as I don't ever have too much dialing-up then I guess it's not too much of a big deal for now.

I was going to buy a guitar yesterday but didn't find an electro-accoustic Yamaha. The shop I had went to had mostly some other brand that I had never heard of. There's a Yamaha dealer near my home but he's been closed for days. Maybe I ought to ask the neighbouring shops what the deal is.

Nahida went off to Basrah to go see her brother yesterday. I can't imagine what it's like for him. The summer is coming tooHe's been in American custody for about a year. Well, I always like not having Nahida around. She left me some good Kubba to heat up in the microwave for whenever I'm hungry. The one little hitch is that the power has been scarce of late.

And since Nahida wasn't here, I didn't wake up to go to college today. And I had four classes today!

Oh great the electricity is back and I'm famished.

Gypsies And Palm Readers

I just had a couple of memories. One was of me going or coming back from Jen's place (she wasn't home that day). Her home was in the 'white sands' (I think that's what it translates to in English). I was a bit bummed out. It was raining lightly and sporadically. I was sitting on a concrete bench, when an old gypsy lady came up to me offering to tell me my fortune. I don't really remember the how the dialogue transpired. All I had in my pocket was a five hundred Lebanese Pounds coin (about 30 cents). She agreed to read my fortune in exchange of just that coin.

She looked at my face and maybe my eyes. She took a look at my palm. She had made some pretty good presumptions of who I was. And what I remember her telling me was that a curse had been put on me by the father's side of my family. She told me that she could remove it for 10,000 Lebanese Pounds. I reminded her that I had given her all my money. She told me that I could find her here again if I was to look for her and with that she left.

The other memory took place a few years later, shortly after coming back to Iraq in 2002. I went to a fair at my old school. It was a gorgeous day, I was bumping into old classmates that I hadn't seen in years. I had my hand read by a teacher that I hadn't met before. She told me told me that I'd always have money at hand. That was a comforting thought. Never lifted a finger after that.

Now here's the mystery... why didn't I have the cash to pay that gypsy 10,000 Lebanese Pounds to remove that curse? It frustrates me, because I really do feel that I've been unlucky for quite a long while. I'm still waiting for my luck to turn. Still it's pretty hard to gauge how my luck is. I'm getting no where in my life, but on the other hand, I'm still alive aren't I?

Bullocks! I forgot to call dad and do an April Fool's prank on him. I was going to tell him that I had got married optionally to some girl that I got pregnant. Dina told me not to do it because, my dad at his old age might get a heart attack. I ought to leave out the pregnancy part. Anyway, I'm not going to forget next year. I'm putting a Yahoo! calender reminder.

Marketing

Been studying Marketing all day. I spent alot of time watching the tellie and mucking about on my PC too. Just finished the Pricing chapter in the book, that being the only chapter in the book that I read today. It's not easy for me, I have to keep opening the dictionary to look up words. And sometimes it can get really hard when there are two words in a sentence that have several meanings.

Had a good idea of how to get lots of people to open bank accounts by providing a bargain mobile phone service with the hitch being that you need to open a bank account to pay for it. The idea being a remedy to people's lack of trust in banks as a result of the '91 war and what other naughty things Saddam did. Unfortunately, I don't think the government would accept another mobile phone service provider. Oh and the trick is that the mobile phone company deals exclusively with one bank. That wouldn't be fair of course, but I think you can get away with it here. But you'd be expecting to get exclusive mobile phone banking services, which could be cool.

Wikipedia is a great help trying to understand some of the stuff that's being said in my Marketing book. I'm starting to get suspicious. Maybe all the author did was paraphrase everything from wikipedia. Heck if I was proficient in Arabic, that'd be a good idea to make some money.

Well anyway, since I'm done studying I can finally re-open that bottle of Chivas that I bought yesterday.

A few days ago, I went to get a filling job done on one of my teeth. The dentist was reluctant to do it, saying it was still early and that the filling that I had already on was a super duper one unavailable in Iraq and must've been done abroad. I just wanted to get it over and done with. It came down to me not being a regulart tooth-brusher and on that basis I should get the filling done now. Now what I didn't know is that I was not to be allowed to eat for the remainder of the day. And I just so happened not to have eaten anything up till then. I was shocked when I found out, then I became angry. I wasn't supposed to chew, but while having a fit with the kitchen door I clenched my jaw, and a little later I started to feed thin strips of sliced turkey breasts into the opposite side of my mouth.

Wow! Whiskey tastes so much better with ice.

Saw this Lebanese guy called Amin Maalouf on Hardtalk extra on BBC World today. He seemed to be a really nice guy. He's an author. I'm going to buy one of them next time I have the chance. He was on about how this century is proving to be really depressing. And that this will be a century of 'identity', as oposed to the last century of 'ideology'. The critical difference being that one can't have a debate over identity as one may with identity.

Whiskey really tastes good with ice. I wonder if I'll be able to enjoy it during the summer. I'm sure I will be if I'm not here.

Nights Like These

It's nights like these, nights spent drunk that the stars seem to align themselves for you... Yes there's something magical about alcohol.

I've Got Clan MacGregor To Keep Me Company

I don't know of it's the booze or the combination of booze and an aspirin pill that's making it hard for me to type but it in anycase. Hell's yeah, I'm drunk. Alcohol sales haven't been resumed but I was fortunate enought to bump into a certain somebody that was able to hook me up with some alcohol.

It all took place in Abu Nawas along side the river. A little earlier

The Evil That Men Can Do

India scared the crap out of me, just thinking about it now gives me the chills. If what he told me turns out to be true and indeed becomes reality, It would be mad. Sheer madness. It'll be the end of it all. The whole country would turn upside down. New powers would be created. The flood gates would finally break. And a new vector of chaos will churn the already violent world Iraq has become. I'm starting to think that I'll have to take drastic precautions should the chance arise. What India told me it that there's talk about alcohol being banned. Could they do that without a formed government? I'm expecting alcohol sales to resume next week. If they were to open for just a small window of time, I'd be able to stockpile the stuff assuming that the price isn't inflated based on such a fear. I don't really understand who tells the alcohol stores not to sell. During Saddam days it was just Fridays and the month of Ramadhan that they weren't allowed to sell. But now all it takes is the whim of a bunch of scary dudes.

Well heck if they do ban the stuff, there's a weak chance but which in time could increase of a new sub-culture being formed. That similar to the prohibition days of America, but that's wishful thinking when comparing to Saudi Arabia or Iran (doesn't Iran ban alcohol?). This is such crap.

I remember when the war had just finished, and I was sitting with a foreigner outside of pizzeria drinking down a cool beer. And it was the best feeling ever. Openly drinking a beer basking in the warm sun on a main street watching the people passing by and waiting for the pizza. Things have really taken a wrong turn since then.

Big Belly Bulging

Crap Just got disconnected. The internet's been really pissy with me of late. Ah the phone just rang. Somebody's been trying to call. I've had the line occupied for the past 8 hours at least. I'm too evil. Well heck everyone has mobiles now.

Since the 5th of March I've spent about 80 bucks on internet cards. I think this points out clearly that I'm better off spending my money on a wireless internet subscription for about 50 bucks instead. Now I just need to buy the hardware. And I'm really confused about that. I've got another pc upstairs in Nahida's part of the house that's broken down and I think that all it needs a new motherboard. I'll also need a UPS. The good news is that Nahida got herself a power line from one of the neighbour's generators, which means that she'll have electricity even when the national grid cuts off.

The PC upstairs is already connected to a grid on the roof and my laptop has wireless connectivity. Now what's the best way to share the internet between the two computers? Do I buy a router and stick a little antenna to the pc upstairs or do I get a USB wireless thingy that I stick to my pc upstairs. The first option is better in the sense that I won't have to rely on a constant flow of electricity assuming that a router can run on a simple UPS device for hours (need to find out if that annoying beeper can be cut off). The second choice is cheaper, but could end up being a real hassle.

This sucks, there are alot more explosions in my neighbourhood the past few days. I just heard one, and though it wasn't window shaking strong, it did have a strong crisp bass, it was probably small and close. Nearly skipped a heart beat.

I'm pretty sure there was a time when I heard more explosions in my neighbourhood than I do now, but it's been really peaceful for a great deal of time until now.

I just sent my uncle a really long e-mail in response to his request for help and advice about his inherited farmland. My dad split up the farmland and my uncle doesn't like how it's been split up. I think what's happened is that alot of people want to build rifts between them so they've been spewing crap talk to my uncle. Yeah the folks from my farm love to talk shit. So I sent an e-mail trying to be as diplomatic as possible, explaining to him that his threat of "holding my dad responsible" for his 'unfair' share of the inheritance was an empty one since there wasn't much he could do about it.

That same uncle got nominated for a really important government post today. I wonder what he makes of it, being miles away from here. I don't think he'd take it. I don't think it's his thing.

Damn Pirated DVDs

Saw K today. The first thing I noticed about him is how pale he's become from the lack of sun he gets in the UK. He got me some books to read. He got India the whole Friends collection. I'm glad to have K back in town.

I didn't get to see 'Waiting...' or 'Rent' yesterday. They were both 'cinema' copies. The kind that was filmed within a cinema that is. That really pissed me off. I got 4 films so far from that DVD store so far, and 3 of them turned out to be 'cinema' copies. He's a fair guy and told me that I can switch them if they turn out to be 'cinema' copies. But it's really too much effort if I have to keep returning 3 out of every 4 films. I'm just going to have to keep swaping these 2 DVDs till I got a couple good ones. And not buy anymore.

My belly is growing out of control. My shirts are about to pop. All part of being Iraqi. I'm hungry, the internet makes me hungry somehow. I'm not getting any studying done. It's terrible. Next thing I know I'll be overwhelmed by tests.

So I'm getting really bored these days. I've installed mIRC on my pc. I don't really know how to use it for anything besides chatting. I can't seem to find any Iraqis there either. I tried #iraq channel on undernet. And they don't accept visitors. The punks.

I've been listening to alot politics the past couple of days from cab drivers and friends. From what I understand things are not good at all. I don't think we have a democracy anymore.

Stuck At Home Again

I heard an explosion an hour before I left home for college yesterday, and today I hear the same explosion. Well they all sound the same to me. I walk to my main street today and all the traffic that I'm used to seeing is gone. I ask a man what's going on he tells me that he heard that there was an explosion further down the street.

I walk for maybe 20 minutes to the opposite end of the main street, no traffic there either. Saw an Iraqi army guy give a warning shot at an incoming car. I was surprised that the soldier didn't shoot into the sky, which is a good thing. I still wasn't sure if this whole thing was just specific to my neighbourhood or was city wide. I didn't dare ask any questions to the cops, I often get mistaken for an Arab by cab drivers, and now wasn't a good time to get mistaken as such by a cop.

I started to feel that I needed to finish my morning's dump and realised that I had forgotten my phone at home, so instead of walking another 15 minutes in hope of finding some open roads beyond the horizon, I chose to walk back home. On the way back, I overheard that the explosion took place at an intersection further ahead in the direction I was now walking. I hope the land registry didn't get hit, cause that might suck.

Now that I'm home I'm thinking of watching one of the DVDs I bought yesterday. I got the choice of 'Waiting...' and 'Rent'.

Happy To Go To College

Yippee! I'm going to college in a bit. I'm finally going to get out of my house. I'm all ready, had my coffee with milk, my bacon, eggs and baked beans, a shit, shower and shave, I even brushed my teeth (something I usually skip). I'm really ready. And I can almost see all my excitement and high spirits vanish within sight of college.

I was just taking a look at the google ads on my page and even though they're not targeted at me, they are chosen by google by what I post. And in response to all those quit alcohol ads! I wish I was in a position to quit, cause those alky stores are still bleeding closed.

I usually don't haggle with the cabs that take me to college, I've been quite happy paying 5,000 I.D. maybe 1,000 I.D. over what the price I could get if I haggle hard. But last time, they were asking me for more, and I had to haggle those busters down. I wonder how's it going to go today.

When I was a kid I used to haggle much better than I do now. I don't know if it's because I lost my touch much like I've lost my touch when it comes to many things or if I just truly don't care. Maybe it's easier to haggle when you're a kid in country suffering badly as a result of sanctions.

Alrighty I'm off, it's a good thing I've only two classes today. And when I come back I got to take the car to the petrol station. Musn't forget that.

Another Sloppy Day

Nahida woke me up today telling me that my dad is asking why I'm not speaking to him on the phone as regularly as normal. She repeated the question to me. Still in the process of waking up, I didn't give an answer though a few were running through my head. I've been in a bad mood, I'm ashamed that I bought the laptop before getting his authorization, and yeah I've been in a crappy mood.

Nahida just told me that I had left my internet connection on thoughout the night again. This month is some sort of experiment to see how much money I spend on an internet connection at home and then I'll compare the cost to a monthly wireless fee. At this rate the wireless fee, will probably prove itself cheaper. With few days of college, this month might've been a bad month to try this out.

I had thought I told the pc to hibernate after an hour, I guess it didn't if the power had come gone and come back. Which is pretty unlikely. Just checked my account log, looks like Nahida and her nephew were tripping, cause the log says that it disconnected at 6 AM like it was supposed to.

I didn't get to watch Futurama last night, I fell asleep. What's the big idea of putting cartoons at 4 and 5 in the morning? Ackh, I'm going to lie down for a bit.

Get Nothing Done

I had completely forgotten that I should've got petrol today. I would've done it had I remembered to call Zaif, like I had told him I would. I passed by his place around 6 in the evening. I really need to get out of the house for a bit. He told me that the petrol queue was shorter than usual around 4 o'clock today. And that he was expecting me to call since he had told me that he had ran out of phone credit.

I didn't study anything. All I've done is had numerous meals, watched the tellie, and another DVD that I bought on my way back from Zaif's. Now I'm hoping the electricity will come back before my laptop gives in.

There's a chance that I might be wrong about the booze prospectus, and that maybe tomorrow or the day after the liquour stores re-open finally. Fingers crossed.

Back To My Old Self

5 days since I've last been to college. Staying at home is really getting to me. I've reverted to the slob I am. I'm waking up in the middle of the day. I still haven't studied anything. I'll pick up some material to study after lunch.

K arrived from the UK, still going to have to wait a couple of days to see him. Zaif dropped by yesterday, we went to a juice bar, we then went to a video store, he rented an Angelina Jolie Video CD and I got Last Days on DVD. So far it's crap.

Staying up all night has lost its magic effect. But I've found out that at 4 AM Family Guy, The Simpsons and Futuruma show on One TV (Satellite channel on NileSat). When I woke up today I found that my computer had been left connected to my dial-up internet connection till around 12 in the afternoon. That hurt cause I pay for internet by the hour. That was like 5 bucks out of the window.

I need to brush my teeth. Oh and I need to go to a dentist to get that filling. I need to go to drag Nahida to the hospital with me too.

Fozzy wants me to contact my uncle to see if he wants us to manage his farm. I doubt that my uncle would refuse. I just hope that this won't lead to any problems in the future. I'm trying to think of all the possibilies that could occur. It usually is the assumptions that cause the problems. I'm not in the mood of sending the e-mail now.

Today's my day to drive, I really ought to go out for a drive after lunch. Wow, within a matter of minutes I've decided to push back my studies. Where's my lunch. I'm going to have rice with chickpeas and beef.

I'm so sick of sitting on the internet. I'm actually beginning to miss watching TV. I would go watch some TV now if there was some electricity. I ought to go and buy another DVD perhaps.

Need to draw up another accounting calender. Need to borrow some more money too. I don't have any cash anymore. That's something I can try taking care of now.

Happy Pancake Day

After 5 days of whining about wanting some from Nahida, she finally made me pancakes today.

Got no college for the next 3 days. A great chance to catch up some material. I'd suprise myself if I did more than 2 hours worth.

I watched Schindlers Liste today. What a great experience it is to start watching a movie and finish it hours later. I didn't understand how the man died though.

Yeah it looks like I've got a long boring night ahead of me again. Earlier I started reading that book I got. I fell asleep on page 36. It's looking good so far. It takes place during the 50s. The fifties must've been great.

When I was a kid I remember thinking that the world is always becoming better. Now I lean more towards the belief, that the world is just getting worse. People used to work and participate in society until a later age than now. Companies paid more taxes than citizens. Artisan work was still flourishing. I imagine people were happier.

People had more freedom to think, sure enough social barriers, taboos and injustices have been set right since then, but so many new ones have been built under our noses and without control such as the need to look beautiful or the want to have more than we need, and a largening of the gap between the rich and the poor or big brother governments.

And Iraq was a better place.

Foo Hoo

I'm nearly bored enough to pick up that book I got to read. Maybe I should study something. I've done nothing productive since I've woken up 2 hours ago. I'm not sure if I've got classes tomorrow. Kind of hope that we don't.

I'm spending too much time on this laptop. I really need to get off of it. But it's so easy to just mindlessly click on stuff.

Last night I finished watching Basilisk, a 24 episode Japanese cartoon about two feuding ninja villages that have been under a peace treaty with unsubsiding hate towards each other that now by order of some shogun they must kill the other. However, the two protagonists in the story, the leaders of both villages were about to be wed and love each other but can't help prevent the killings from taking place so strong was the hatred between the two villages. It was such a sad story.

What shall I have for lunch? Remy gave me a recipe that uses those Dried Shitake Mushrooms that I had bought a short while ago: fry it up with bits of chicken, broccoli, olive oil and soy sauce. Note to self: get broccoli. Now I still need that recipe for minced pies.

Kiki and his friend in Malaysia has just moved into a new appartement with a couple of chinese girls and a brother of one of them. He's now paying 50 bucks a month and is getting greenish-yellow tap water because of the rusty pipes.

I'm going to see what's happening in regards to my lunch.

Someone Owes Me For This

grumpth frunk rarkh pich... (Damn it! I lost again)... If you're happy and you know it clap your hands, if you're happy and you know it and you really want to show it clap your hands. If you're angry and you know it click right here, if you're angry and you know it and you really want to show it click right here... We now return to our regular programming... ghakhiki shhesghsh

One More Minute

And the power should go out just about now... uhh any second now...

Still not gone.

It's 4 AM. It's been a while since I've been awake this late. Doing this from time to time is pretty funky. Sitting at home, with the lights off, everybody's asleep, feeling a little drowsy but with no will to surrender to sleep.

And then someone from out of the blue appears on-line on msn messenger. I paused at that name earlier today while going through all the names on the list. This one in particular is one of those that I haven't spoken to in years. First time since that I've seen them on-line. I wonder in what time zone she lives in. Oh she's gone off-line, that was quick.

I'm spending way too much time on the internet. I might get piles again.

8 minutes past 4, and the power is still not gone.

I just finished watching Lord of War. Certainly an entertaining movie. Damn I'm hungry and ready to sleep. But armed with cigarettes to last through the night I fight. I remember hearing that sleep is the brother of death. Oh she's back on-line. No I'm not going to initiate a conversation. My batteries are too low.

In 5 hours I've got a bleeding pathetic test that I haven't studied for yet. I could probably get a just barely failing mark without studying, and make up for it with ease. The stupid things I study. I really hate my major.

I really need to find some food. I've got some Hob-Nobs stashed away, but I'm saving those for a farm trip. When I took a peak at the cupboard I also saw some Robinson's Minced Meat. Hey I wonder if they still put a picture of a scallywag... Nope no scallywag. Did have a picture of Willy Wonka as depicted by the artist, forgot his name, that illustrated the books. It had something to with some Roal Dahl promotion. Did you know that Roal Dahl has been to Iraq? As an RAF pilot. In his autobiography there's a pic of these amazing arches that I got to see a few years ago, when Kiko and his mate came from Lebanon for a visit.

It's a good thing that the mince meat won't expire for another 2 years. Cause I haven't got the foggiest clue of how to cook that stuff.

The things I miss to eat in the UK... Scotch Eggs, Cornish Pasties, Minced Pies, Jam filled donuts covered in sugar and a Full English Breakfast from a greasy spoon cafe. Oh and burgers from Schwartz! But the Scotch Eggs are my favourite.

I'm starting to get worried about that blood test result. I still haven't gone to the hospital to check it out further.

4 more hours till the test. I wonder when I should start studying.

And the power's gone. So did my internet connection, but it's back now. Nahida just had a go at me for being awake.

I'm thinking tea now... Just made myself a mug of peppermint tea, too lazy to add honey. I just walked past the window I opened earlier and now I'm cold.

Peppermint tea is good, and since I recycled the mug there's still a taste of honey.

I might run out of smokes soon. What would I do then? Probably fall asleep. I don't think I've much of a choice, cause I'm ready to go. Damn with only 3 and a half hours to go for the test. Let's see half an hour to shower, shave and get dressed and another half hour for breakfast, an hour to get to uni. That means I should start getting ready in just over an hour.

I can hear the morning birds chirping.

I can barely type anymore. Will I sleep or not? I don't know.

I've Been Losing All Day

There's this game, it goes like this it's very simple: If you remember it, you lose and you have to say:"I lost". That's it. Well I've learnt this game over 5 years ago, and I think this morning I laughed at myself for remembering about it. The problem now is that I can't stop remembering it. Plagued by the game, I began teaching it to other kids at college. Some got it, some didn't. But it didn't help me get it out of my mind.

I resorted to sending an e-mail to the guy that taught me the game. The evil Kasofa. By the time he reads it he would've have lost too and that will be my final consolation. Oh and there's also all of you've who have read this post are now also infected. mwahahaMWWWWAHAHAHAHAHA

I still feel aggravated.

Late For Bed

A very uneventful week-end. There was no anticipated traffic ban on Friday, which meant that I could've gone to the farm. But I didn't and gladly so, because the day before I had slept over at Fal's with India and Wath. That sleep over screwed up my sleeping schedule which is no surprise at all, happens every time.

Lilly's been really bugging me on yahoo messenger with her buzzes, 'I'm bored' and 'I like you alot' messages. This girl is dumb beyond beyond belief. The recurrence of the 'I like you alot' worries me. Well I hope it's something she tells all the guys and not an infatuation, it's hard to tell with such an airhead. Just now I started to give her advice to see a shrink in regards to her 'I'm bored' messages. Unfortunately she didn't buy it.

I think I'm... I forgot what I was going to say. Got interrupted by some Iraqi chick on yahoo messenger she just showed up on the hi5 website a few months ago. Weird girl, she's Iraqi and lives in Holland or Germany and pretends to be stubborn much like Iraqi girls do here thinking it's cool. I don't really know what drives a chick to chat to me, I don't really understand why someone would want to chat to another person that they don't know in person and even don't share some kind of activity or interest in life. Guess she's hitting on me maybe finding herself a husband from Iraq that her parents might approve of, or more than likely just wanting to chat to some dickless dude from Iraq.

I have some kind of prejudice against Iraqi expatriots. They usually have a tendancy to talk with authority about everything to do with Iraq. Sure enough I do find a brotherly bond towards any Iraqi I meet abroad. And I respect those that I see who are struggling and in whose eyes I can see a true Iraqi that's gone through all the shit there is to have gone through. But then there are those who seem to have had it so easy, and they're the loud ones that have the luxury to talk, getting all patriotic on my ass, it's dispicable. From another point of view I might see them as deserters.

I'm already past my bed time, it's going to be so hard to wake up for college tomorrow.

Day At Medicine City

Od called and woke me up at 6:30 in the morning today. Told me I had 15 minutes to get ready. He came and picked me up. We went to his uni. I sat with him and a couple of classmates who were getting ready for their test. I read some notes about obstectrics.

Around about 9 I went off to get a panoramic x-ray for my wisdom teeth. At the entrance to the building they took my mobile phone from me, which is quite normal. It took me 2 hours to get it. The x-ray lady was at a meeting I think. And then when I took the x-ray she gave me my old x-ray from 8 months ago and lost the one I just took. So I had to take it again.

After that I went to donate blood where at the entrance they took my pack of smokes instead of my mobile phone, that was a first for me. First I had to give my information name, address and phone numbers, then I had to take a blood test which I had to take to a doctor to check. The doctor told me that I had too much blood. So I said that's bad for me but good for you quizzingly. And again he told me I had too much blood and that I had to go to Ibn Al Nafeess hospital. After a little confusion I understood from him that I the test result showed that my PCV level was 52% and should be 45% and that he won't accept it. It would've saved time had I asked him to explain in English. Doctors study in English here, and can express themselves in medical terms quite well. That doesn't mean you can always have a real conversation.

I then met up with Dina at the hospital building where she worked nearby. I haven't seen her in ages. I had called her yesterday to tell her that I was coming. And oh my she looked good. She keeps telling on the phone how she doesn't like her job, but she really does seem competent and enjoying it or maybe was it that I caught her at the end of her shift. She explained to me that I have too many red blood cells and that it's because of smoking. And that these red blood cells could clog up my blood vessels. And I guess that explains why instead of taking my mobile phone at the door, they took my pack of smokes.

After spending half an hour with Dina we met up with Od, and I then walked her half way to her cab. Caught up with Od and left. As we were driving out of the car park, Od pointed out an Iraqi Police Technical (a pick up truck with a machine gun on the back) carrying a dead bloated body blindfolded with a head cloth and hands tied behind his back. Od pointed out that the man had been tortured and thrown in the water (Od's been studying his forensics).

We decided to go get some lunch instead of going home. We called Zaif to have him have lunch with us near his uni. Zaif and I had some chicken shawerma, Od ordered a basterma and egg burger which is really tasty but takes ages to cook. Zaif and I had finished our food by the time his burger was ready.

Now I'm home and waiting for my 'good morning' coffee that I missed in the morning.

And I hope my blog page opens up now, cause it hasn't been working eversince the last time I posted. Damn I forgot to find out what my blood type is.

Home Just Before Sunset

Checking out the prices for a DSL connection at home at the Uruklink website. Uruklink is part of the State Company For Internet Services (I think that's what the SCIS acronym stands for). I think the DSL service is new. Alot of things are cheap, very cheap even in Iraq from petrol at 17 cents a litre to a manual labourer for 60 cents an hour, but an internet subscription is so bleeding expensive. Check it! 100 bucks a month for 64kb/sec connection and 270 bucks a month for a 256kb/sec connection.

Heard loads of booms at college around mid-day at college today. Pretty funky. While we were sitting in our last class of the day we could hear the voices of the guys in central plaza of the campus roaring mockingly in unison each time a boom was heard. There's a recurring message from all our teachers that goes along the lines that despite all the crap that's going on around us, we have to get on with what we've got to do, otherwise we won't get anywhere.

Od called just now suggesting that I come to his to sleep over, so that I may come with him to his uni for fun tomorrow. I didn't want to go to his in my car because then my car would get stuck at his place because tomorrow's a odd-day, and the day after I need to go to uni. Od tried to get to my house but there was too much traffic. So I'm just going to try and wake up really early tomorrow so that he comes and picks me up on his way to uni. It's a medical uni, so I'm planning to try to donate blood and finally find out what blood type I've got. I also want to get a panoramic x-ray of my teeth to check out where my wisdom teeth are now cause they've been kind of stuck for the past few years.

I Got a Notebook

Wahay, I've got a new toy. I finally have my own laptop. It's the first time that I own a laptop. uhm, I mean notebook. Still stuck on calling them laptops for some reason. It's a Toshiba Satellite. It's got a widescreen and a DVD writer. And it's very warm. I wonder if that's okay.

I woke up early today and made it on time for class. And now I'm awfully sleepy. Must stay awake. I think it's this laptop that's making me sleepy.

My brother in the UK gave me a missed call on my mobile phone. I called him back told him I got a new computer and not to tell dad. He then passes me my dad, and my dad starts talking about how when all the farm accounts are done that he'll buy me a computer. A few minutes later I called my bro to make sure he didn't tell my dad. Sure enough he was about to, but didn't but I would be sleeping easier had I not told my bro that I did got a new computer.

Well I'm going to be able to make alot more posts now that I don't have to go to the internet cafe anymore yippee.

Friday Afternoon

Spent the past couple of hours tweaking my iPod. I'm now downloading some vintage cartoon and making my pictures viewable on the iPod.

A few days ago I went over to the dermatoligist to get a skin rash on my chest checked out. He said I got it because I've got such a hairy chest. He prescribed me some ointement and some pills to take. A couple evenings later I reached into the pack of pills and found that it was some some kind of head pill. That I didn't really like. And I've become really pissy during the evenings. I don't know if it's the pills or something else like my bad mark in marketing or Nahida's looming presence when I get back home.

The other night I was asking myself if I was dead. If somehow I was born again. Portions of my life seem so disconnected. There's very little left to connect one portion. The friends I had are no longer in my life except on the odd occasion that we chat on-line or call each other.

It's nice having the internet cafe to oneself. I wasn't aware that today there was ban on car traffic. But the internet cafe is awfully close to my home and I don't need to pass through any checkpoints. I think the curfew just ended now that it's 4 O'Clock.

Was supposed to go to the farm today. But I couldn't be bothered, and didn't have to put much of a fight since I was in such a bad mood yesterday. Nice one.

India is being such a dick for not lending me his iPod charger, and I'm going to hold that against him. He says that he doesn't want to lend it to me out of fear that I break and won't be able to replace it. But I can within a few months.

College should restart on Sunday, unless another curfew is imposed. We might've had over a month of vacation since our mid-year exams ended.

Enjoying Day Time Curfews

I really love day time curfews. It makes the whole city feel like an oversized park. The weather these past few days has been gorgeous too. Kids are playing football in the middle of the roads, I saw a couple with kites too. I wish I had repaired my bike. It really sucks that I'm somewhat stuck at home. Even the internet cafe where I'm at is going to close as soon as the electricity cuts off which is pretty soon.

Kiko called me today. That was a pleasant surprise. He's a crazy guy, the only dude from Lebanon to have visited me in Iraq. I also chatted to Jen a couple of days ago. It's been ages since I've chatted to her too. She's just moved, and seems a bit out of place or something.

I'm so worried about pulling off a decent summer. I need to get out of here for the summer cause it's going to be way too hot with no electricity to bear. I'm hoping I can make it to the UK and that my bro will hook me up with a job for a month or so. Save some dough. And then pick some place to go.

I'm still shocked that I got a 3/25 on my mid-year marketing exam. Damn, if I fail that could ruin my summer plans, probably not completely but it might make me spend the second half of it in Baghdad to take summer classes and do the retest. And that will hurt. I'm still not sure of the implications of failing a subject. But I'm pretty confident that with a reasonable amount of effort I could pass the stupid subject.

Cousin Visiting

Had a really long day yesterday. After I made my last post I drove over to go pick up my cousin and her mum. I parked infront of their friend's house and called up Suzy. We spoke for a while, she said she'll show up at college on Wednesday. About time too.

Things between Suzy and I haven't grown into any kind of romantic relationship. India did point out to me that there is some level of intimacy. And that in itself was something. It's all fine with me, just wish I could hook myself with some chick eventually as unlikey as that seems. I do fancy her best-friend Sandy though. That chick has a petite but oh so fine body. And she's really perky too.

I was hoping to take my cousin and her mum to a restaurant after I picked them up from their friend's house but it was 9 PM and the whole neighbourhood was closed down. When we got home, Nahida hooked us up with some pasta. And oh my god does my cousin have an appetite.

We played scrabble and this time I won. After that her mum went to sleep. And my cousin and I spent the night chatting about how our dads are so messed up. She then went to sleep.

And even though I was really exhausted, I decided to call up Remy who had sent me his phone number. It's only when I speak to a guy like that do I realize how much I miss the bugger.

Clumsy And Exhausted

Clumsy and exhausted is how I feel.

They joined together the two sections of our class today. I think it's pretty fun. Everyone else is mockingly making antagnostic remarks at the other section. It's pretty funny.

Unfortunately we got our old schedule, which is a shame cause the their section had a better schedule that starts later.

I haven't seen Suzy since the vacation began. I finally got through to her on the phone a short while ago. I'll try to call her later.

I've seriously got a case of the clumsies this past week. Don't know, but as much as I hate it, it's refreshing for some reason. I nearly had a car accident while I was mucking about with my iPod hadn't Zaif pushed the steering wheel. It would've been my first serious accident.

But I was in tune with my iPod today. That I guess is an exception to my clumsiness.

There are things that I think about while I'm driving in my car that I want to express on my blog, but I keep forgetting them. I guess they weren't that important. That or I've really got to fix my mind-set when I get to the internet cafe.

I spend so much time in traffic, that some great ideas have to emerge.

Time's up. Got to go pick up my cousin and her mum, see if I can take them out for dinner.

Cafe Closing Soon

Got back from spending a night at the farm yesterday. My cousin and her mum slept over at mine. Her mum beat me at Scrabble. I was so glad to finally have someone to play scrabble with. It's been months since I got it.

Went to uni today. As usual no bleeding classes. There's talk that the two sections in my year are going to be sticked together which is pissing off all the kids. I don't really care. But sure that does bring the quality of education which is awful as it is already even lower.

Spent the day with my cousin, I think it's the first time we actually have a good time together. We had lunch and picked some gift for her dad's birthday. Turns out that both of my uncle's are born on the same day. One was actually born past midnight but in those days that didn't mean that he was born in the new day. Something to do with the lunar calender my uncle tells me.

My favourite internet cafe's generator has been repaired since the last time I came here. What a relief but it's late now and they're going to close soon.

It Ain't Ramadhan But It's Similar

The rumbling of an electric generator is a pain. When the electricity comes back and all the generators turn off, I'm often tempted to not turn the tellie on just so I could enjoy the silence.

Getting up this morning for college was really hard. Took me ages to get ready. Half way there the road was blocked so I got out of the cab and got on foot. Took me ages to get there. Didn't attend any classes because half the class wasn't there. Had some lunch with guys from college and went to the computer market to look for a laptop.

India's so lucky to have found such a cheap laptop with such high-specs. I couldn't find any laptops with a hundred gigabyte hard disk. Well it's not big deal yet, since I don't have the cash to buy one. Hopefully by the time I do have some cash some US forces convoy full of laptops would get hi-jacked.

I got a book today. Le Petit Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery, I've now got the chance to live that French childhood that I missed out on all my life. It's a good book so far. Once I'm done with it, I'm really not sure what else I could read. I'm just going to have to go through the kid's book section and hope there's something just as good. French books look awfully dense.

Got back home exhausted, read some of the book and then fell asleep. Woke up and had some chicken with rice for dinner. Feeling a bit queasy right now. Think I need some tea or something. I think I fancy some coffee when I get home.

Not being able to buy booze is something I'm trying not to think about. The liquor shops are closed this lunar month of Muharram. I think we're about half way through it now. It's a Shiite thing, it's the first time they pull this off, and it's not cool. Not really sure what the deal is about Muharram. But as usual there are rules. As far as I know you can't party, marry, or move into a new home.

The liquor guy warned me and I did buy 6 bottles of wine. But I'm seriously regretting not getting any vodka. It's true that I was becoming alcoholic a while ago, and from that perspective I'm glad that I can't buy any booze. Now if only they had a month you can't buy cigarettes.

And It Starts Again

Bugger, starting to feel a bit lazy. Uni re-starts on Sunday. Everybody else has just started their vacation. Most of the kids plan not to attend class this week.

I didn't get round to moving my stuff downstairs. I did make a to do list though. And that's a big step. It usually helps alot if I write what I want to get done first.

Got some new DS games from Bab Al-Shargi today. We also went to Sana'a street to check out some laptops. We being India, and 3 other guys.

Lots of women on the streets today. Not sure what's up with that.

I'm not really bored. But I really feel dis-interested. Somebody I met on-line told me they think that the reason I don't have a girl-friend is that I'm rude. I want to ask some chicks if they agree. Got to find out what the best translation of rude is in Arabic. But I will admit that I'm awfully rude when I'm chatting on-line.

I'm hungry. I want to go home and get some food. Play a little Mario. And I should go to bed early because I have to go to college tomorrow. Yay!

Day with Dick

Spent the day with Dick yesterday, I just got rid of him and his girlfriend who had both slept over at my place. Scorched my allowance, drank my booze and made me pay for the worst booze that I ever drank. His girlfriend was supposed to bring me his sister so that I get some action too. But she had a fight with her daddy and so couldn't come. This is the first time I ever have a girl sleep over at my place by the way. Nahida of course wasn't too pleased, but so far she seems quite cool. She did make me say that it would be the last time though.

There are so many issues with having a girl sleep over. I don't like taking risks with people myself, never know what to expect. The first fear being the girl's brother knocking on my door coming up with something like you've had sex with my sister and now you've got to marry her. Or that she's scounting for some place to heist or something. Or maybe she'll turn into some psycho.

Dick gave her a big pack of lies, he's even got a different name when he's with her. But it seems like he goes by two names. Pretty sly if you ask me, and awfully dodgy. Dick is a seriously dodgy guy. He's my classmate, but he's got this story that he's a business man, I'm one of his partners, and that my house was belonged to the company.

So yesterday I had met up with Dick at around 2 PM. We went to Betaween (it's the dodgy neighbourhood near the IZ that I think Fisk is refers to as the place next to the IZ as being unsafe), to get some booze from some hotel. It was a sneaky sneaky deal, because all the booze shops are closed on the occasion of Muharram, and in adherence to the rule of sneaky sneaky deals, we got screwed and paid three times the price for some of the worst whiskey ever.

We then picked up some food and rubbers, and killed time till it was 5 PM to pick up Gladys and her sister. Sure enough I was seriously expecting the girls to not show up. Wasn't too far off. Only Gladys showed up. She was tall, nearly my height. She had big eyes, big cheeks and a big nose. Her skin was fairly dark, and it looked like she was packing some big breasts, or alot of tissues. (note to self: ask Dick about that).

We drove straight home. I had forgotten to buy something to mix the whiskey with. And all I had left was some powdered Lipton Iced Tea that I had bought months ago. They tried drinking the whiskey, it was really bad. Here they would describe it as pure alcohol mixed with flavourings and colourings. Not too inconceivable. So they drank my bottle of white Piat D'Or. All in all it was quite an expensive venture on my behalf, 5 grand for some food that didn't get eaten, 15 grand or more for some of my home-made food, 15 grand for that shit whiskey and another 15 for my wine. That's a total of 50 grand. Damn! (that's over 30 bucks). Oh and another 10 grand for their cab ride home which Dick says he'll pay back. For the books that guy owes me 25 grand, 15 for the wine and 10 for the cab ride, I'll let him off for the rest.

At around midnight, after spending the night watching Arabic music videos, them drinking my wine and me drinking that screwed up whiskey mixed with Iced Tea; I shooed them to bed. At around 1 AM, I turn off the generator and start getting ready to go to bed. Dick shows up telling me to walk into the other bedroom and screw Gladys, a cheesy porno scene begins to run through my mind. I tell him I can't do that, I suggest that if she wants to climb into my bed that's fine. I did do one dick move hehe: I took the big bed and gave that the coffin sized bed mwahaahaha.

Dick came back several times to talk me into screwing the chick. And even though it might of been a ploy to get me out of my own bed so that they could spend the remainder of the night in mine. But it is a 'custom' here that in the case that one guy brings a girl and another guy provides the place to screw, the shelter-provider has the right to screw the chick too. It's pretty damn sick-minded. Well eventually I went over to Gladys and asked her if she wanted to get into my bed 'because my bed was bigger'. She declined, and that put an end to Dick's attempts to pursue 'custom'.

In the morning Gladys woke me up with tickles. I got up acting slightly grumpy. And then drove them off to the main street. Dick was expecting me to drive them home, and that I wasn't going to do. Today's an odd day, my car being evens and not allowed to drive. I could get pulled over and with my Arabic, I can get fucked with i.e. accused of being a foreign terrorist and today being a shiite event only made that worse. So I had to drive back home and give him cab money, because I forgot he was out of cash.

All in all, it was big hassle for nothing. But it's been a while since I've had a day like that, and for that I'm kind of grateful.

I Got A New Phone

Yeah yeah yeah, I got a new phone finally. After one month of bearing that piece of crap Nokia 1100 which had a faulty IC chip that made the phone turn off whenever I spoke through it.

So now I'm the pround owner of the Nokia 1101.

Mum left yesterday, she left the house at around 7 AM to go to the airport. She had to wait about 12 hours for her delayed plane. I've no idea how she bore through those hours and keep her sanity.

So things are back to normal at home.

I'm enjoying the vacation. I spent all afternoon with Nahida's brothers. One of them boozed me up with Arak (Alcohol commonly made from aniseed, but in Iraq it's made from dates). You can make nearly anything out of dates (something the sanctions proved during a period of which Saddam banned manufacturing with the use of sugar).

Dad's been calling alot lately. I don't know what's going on with him. He's usually too frugal to make international phone calls.

Should be going to the farm in a couple of days.

I've Become Boring

I've been very boring the past few months. I no longer stay up all night staring at my PC screen waiting till the floodgates of my mind break open anymore which is a good reason why my posts aren't as cool as they were. Maybe knowing in the back of my mind that some of my friends might be reading my blog also is a factor.

I did get a camera a few months ago and haven't made much use of it. Well here's a picture of a tree I took at my grandma's house. It's so gay. But I know that in a couple of months I'll be missing the sight of clouds.

I've Finished My Mid-Year Exams

Yes, I'm done. I think the mid-years are harder than the finals. So I'm really glad to be over and done with these. On the other hand, I'm kind of bummed out now that the excitement associated with them are gone. I think I did alright all-round. I might have messed up in a couple of the tests, but I should be able to make up for them.

Mum's still here, she'll be leaving in a few days. She'll be leaving some stuff in my house. I got to make sure I don't lose any of it somehow, which is kind of hard when Nahida re-arranges everything all the time.

I was supposed to start moving my stuff upstairs downstairs today. Starting with my PC. Moving my work-out bench is going to be a pain. I think I'll need to dismantle it. It's going to be hard doing all things I plan to do. But I really need to work on creating a boundary between Nahida and myself.

I'm noticing my spoken Arabic is improving alot. I'm alot more confident talking than I was six months ago. I still sound foreign, I don't think I'll ever be able to fix that problem.

Idiot Classmates

I don't know what's worse the bad quality of teaching or the IQ of the students here. What's so hard about figuring out which area is bounded by three linear inequalities. For crying out loud it's high school stuff.

Mid-year exams are a pain. I don't think I'll be doing all too well. One thing that caught me by surprise is how noisy the exam supervisors can be, this while I'm trying to express myself in Arabic drove me nuts. Yesterday one of them began yelling everytime a student began cheating. And cheating is very tolerated here, not a single student got kicked out. How else are they to pass the people say. Yeah never mind learning. Not much point of learning since the teachers themselves don't really teach in the first place. It's a vicious cycle of idiots. Every generation becoming stupider than the one before it.

When they cheat they're not trying that hard to be discreet about it. Just talk with a normal voice and ask someone two rows away what the answer is. Unlike that put the test paper in view of the person behind me style that I'm somewhat more used to. I was never good at cheating. But I do keep my ears open to pick up answers being given. Alot of the time, that's a good enough method to get nearly all the answers.

Oh yeah and I got my pre-mid year marks, all but risk managment. They rock! I got two full marks, and the lowest is a seven out of ten. These mid-year exams are going to bring those marks down though. I can't be bothered to memorize all that accumulated material.

Mum wants to leave in a few days. That really sucks, I really enjoyed having her here. Although her phone calls every few hours do sometimes get on my nerves. I can't believe mummy's going. It's not cool.

I haven't got an e-mail in a while. Maybe I should send one or two. But to whom. Jasso has been sending me crazy junk mail. Recently made a filter to make all his e-mail go to a folder just for him.

Kiki made it to Malaysia a week ago. The nutter. He's planning to do a master's degree over there. Knowing Kiki's study discipline, that's a pipe dream. But he did it make it there, which was a quasi surprise to me, but not to India. But who knows maybe his encounters with she-males for which he has a fascination for will give him the inspiration to study.

I'm Soo Clean

I finally got my haircut today. And then I showered, and shaved too. Wow the feeling. And I popped that nasty zit on my chest.

Not much going. Still playing video games. Got a test tomorrow. Mum has an anti-study aura when she's around me. I find it so hard to study when she's around me. It's not as if she's preventing me from studying. I don't know what it is about her that makes her have this effect on me.

Oh got to go pick her up from my Aunt's now. I hope my Aunt doesn't catch the smell of whiskey on my breath.

Messy Me

I'm hungry. Not really sure what I want to eat. Not very sure of what there is to eat. I think I need to go do some shopping.

I'm a freagin mess today, I think I've been wearing and sleeping in the same clothes for the past 3 days. I really need to get a haircut. I think the last time I got a haircut was back in October. I've got a zit coming out on my chest just below my neck. And damn it hurts when I touch it.

Zaif just called, I found someone to have lunch with yoohoo. I'm bleeding starving.

Didn't Go To The Farm

Bullocks to the farm. It was raining the morning that I was supposed to go, so I said 'oh it's too dangerous'. And then then the next day I said I had to study for my mid-year exams.

Eid was somewhat cool. There was more social activity because my mum is here.

Got some new games for my DS yesterday, Some other tactic game and Mario Kart. Not getting very much studying done.

Nahida's driving me up the walls. I'm thinking of building that wall between us. Move my shit from upstairs to downstairs. Shut that door between us. And not have to see her roam infront of me anymore. Oh the bliss of it.

Off To The Farm Tomorrow

Yippee, off to Shamiya tomorrow. I really don't want to go, but I guess. I have to. Right now I'm at the internet cafe charging up my iPod. This iPod thing is not easy. I'm supposed to be able to view video on it, but so far I haven't been able to make use of it. I really need to fix my PC or get a new one, but I'm too damn lazy to go around looking for a good deal. I use a whiteboard to record all my expenses and then I type it all out on the PC. But I'm in a rut now that there's very little space on the whiteboard left.

I'm thinking of getting a laptop, but I'm not sure if I should go expensive or not. The idea of a laptop is really sweet since it can run for a limited time during power cuts. Electricity is so rare these days. It's off for more hours than I can bother to count. I just overheard some guy saying it's 7 hours off, and 1 on. That's painfully boring. But I've got my Nintendo DS. It did suck when I finished the Urbz though. I'm back to playing Final Fantasy Tactics (GBA) which is a really mind numbing game.

Today's Eid, mum took me to her recently deceased brother's place. His decease is what prompted her to come. Had lunch there. Visited senile Grandma. She's really senile i.e. suffers from dementia. I remember when Grandma was staying with us in the UK. She is a right nut case. She'd sometimes ask me for a cigarette. Once I gave her a joint. But she got suspicious and only pretended to smoke it without inhaling.

I'm gaining weight again, not good. Haven't done any exercise in ages. I'm smoking too much. I've kind of got grips on myself again when it comes to drinking. Last week was damn stressful, I think I'm recovering. Those two tests in Arabic last week really got me worked up. Did well on one of them, got an 8 out of 10. Was really glad about that. I didn't get my grade on the other test though. I was really curious to know my grade to see if I'm doing enough to get a good grade on my mid-year exam.

Well tomorrow, I'll be going to the farm. I might have the oppurtunity to see some animals being slaughtered. Might try to take pics of that with vomiting on myself. Damn I should've bought some booze. Cafe's closing up better post, because these guys have become really cheeky and just cut off the server to get the people out. And so I must now venture home, hoping that celebratory rounds don't land on me.

Great Start

Now I've got to write for 5 days worth of posts. Heck well...

Mum came over on the 1st. I'm really glad she came, I've really missed her especially of late. She got me an iPod just before she left Dubai to come here. So now I have a mum and an iPod yay. Trouble is that my PC doesn't work and the damn thing doesn't come with a charger. India came over yesterday to hook it up to his laptop to charge and to give me some mp3s.

Last Tuesday Suzy was pissed off at me because she had told me that she'll call me moments before midnight New Year's night and I didn't answer because I was asleep. Actually, I was passed out, from lots of booze. Wound up in bed before 11 PM.

After India left my place, I started to make my way to Ennie's place so he could teach me some subject that's all in Arabic that I we had a test on today. As I was driving through Qadissiya by the rail tracks (one of the commonly used routes to get from one side of Baghdad to the other), I was about to make a left turn into a wide alley and some crappy Korean car filled with armed men dressed in civies blocks my path. Nothing strange so far, it's quite normal to see convoys with civilian dressed security, and it's quite normal for them to block paths to let some big honcho from the government to pass. Then I turn my head left to look into the short wide alley and I see a white mini-van filled with armed men. Still okay. Some guy is standing waving a handgun. Still nothing out of the normal. Then there's a guy further left of my view staggering backwards with a distraught face only a meter or so away from the standing man with the gun. Getting a bit weird. Then the guy with the gun pops 5 rounds into the distraught man's stomach. The distraught man collapses backwards onto the ground. Disbelief, hell this ain't normal. I look ahead, the road in front of me is clear and I realise I ought to get out of here. I drive half the car onto the curb and peg it. Some car ahead of me sees some cops moments ahead and tells him that something's going on behind us. The cops just stand there. I don't care to provide any information myself since I don't speak Arabic too well, and that could get me into trouble, so I just continue driving. And for the next 20-30 minutes I'm freaking out and the death metal music coming out of the iPod that India had just filled up for me wasn't helping.

Today it took me ages to get to college (about 3 hours). The whole city is covered with checkpoints. I wouldn't have gone had it not been that I had two tests today. Neither of which I was fully prepared for. After taking one cab which I told to take me back home, I called up the only classmate that lives further from college than me. And he's there! He tells me one of the highways to get to the other side of Baghdad is open. So after sitting bummed on the porch of my house bummed that my bike's pedal is bust and beyond my repair, I decide to take another cab. Later in the day I find out that the reason for all the checkpoints is that the Minister of Interior's sis or daughter got kidnapped. I don't care, he probably deserves it, if he thinks that he's so special so as to screw up everybody's day. People are getting kidnapped in the hundreds everyday.

This year is proving to be quite testing on the nerves.