This, That And The Other Thing

So yea Egypt lost. Oh well. I felt bad for all the people they looked so sad. The Egyptian channels had hours of coverage about Algerian fans attacking Egyptian fans after the match. A lot of eyewitnesses and injured people. It was weird. We lost!

Today my son told me about how his science teacher says Homo-Genius instead of Homogeneous. I got a good chuckle out of that.

I heard the Eid break is until December 6, so that's good. I'm so sick of studies. We'll probably go to my husband's home town. Maybe a little shopping in Alex, inshaAllah and visit my Dad.

I watched Julie & Julia recently. I really wanted to see it but it was just OK, not great. I thought Meryl Streep did a great job playing Julia Child but her voice was annoying at times. I know that's how she sounded. I kept thinking I'd hate to be at the table next to her in a restaurant being disturbed by her loud high pitched OH's an AH's. Speaking of not wanting to sit near someone in a restaurant, the guy that played Amy Adam's husband ate like a pig and grossed me out with his eating habits. Ugh. I like Amy Adams but didn't like her character, Julie very much. Stanley Tucci was good though. I usually don't like his characters. All in all it was cute. I'd watch Meryl Streep read the phone book,though.

I was going to buy a new abaya, hijab and shoes for Eid but I think I'll just buy from Alex. Stuff is less expensive and there's more selection. I did buy a new green hijab. I love it it's really soft.

The kids have "Children's Day" on Saturday. It's only up to 4th grade so Dawood's left out. How sucky right? They're not children? The girls are exited cause they get to go with regular, non uniform clothes and no books and there's a party. Everyone had to bring 2 things. snacks, balloons, party hats etc. It's all they can talk about.

Safiyah keeps saying what letter everything start with, it's cute. She's like look, B. Bird. Mommy, I found T. Tape under the couch. She does it with Arabic letters/words too, but sometimes confuses the two.

I'm gonna go wash the dishes. Fun huh? Later.

Me, Myself And I

Do enjoy quality time with your self?

I grew up with a brother and sister, so I was almost never alone. In the beginning of my marriage, when E was at work, I hated being alone. I never enjoyed alone time much until I had kids. Now, I definitely know the value of peace and quiet.I learned to revel in being with myself. I can appreciate having an uninterrupted phone conversation or an uninterrupted thought, at that.

Now that all the kids go to school, I have time to do some things I need or want to do without distractions. House work, blogging, reading and my favorite, going out for coffee with a friend. Going out without kids was a fantasy not too long ago. My best friend and I have even been to a couple of matinees while the kids were in school!

Mostly what I'm talking about here though, is time alone, by yourself and yourself only. Do you like it? I recently had time to kill and went into a coffee shop and sat by myself in an establishment for the first time. When I was younger I would feel too awkward to sit alone, but it was fine. Enjoyable even.

I can only do so much during school hours though because most shops and businesses here don't open until noon or later and Safiyah comes home at 1:30. So I make sure I'm home in plenty of time. The day continues, everyone else comes home. It's a bit chaotic with studies, dinner and everything else that needs to be done. I find myself, on particularly crazy days, counting the minutes before bedtime. If that sounds bad, I'm sorry, but it's true. And if you're a mom, you know.

After the kids go to bed and alone time is restored, a sense of calm washes over the apartment and all is right with the world. This doesn't mean I don't like spending time with my family. Not at all, I love hanging out with my kids. It's just the everyday monotony that gets tiring.

I think everyone needs time to themselves to be able to think, focus, and reflect. Our lives today are so filled with distractions, and commitments, so we need to savor those times we have to ourselves. Whether it's spent cleaning, doing a soduku, taking a walk or just being, enjoy it.

Yay for Egypt

The kids were so happy to make noise

So Egypt won the big game verses Algeria 2-0, in a World Cup qualifier, The two teams will play again Wednesday in Sudan. The winner will go to the World Cup in South Africa next year.

I'm not a big sports fan and to be honest most soccer games put me to sleep, but the big games like this one are fun to watch and participate in the celebration. After the win we went driving through the main street in Hurghada. There was such a wonderful feeling of joy in the streets. Everyone was out and happy. People were standing on top of everything, hanging out of cars, honking in rhythm and cheering "Masr" (Egypt). Tourists got in on the fun too! I loved seeing all the red/black/white hijabi outfits! It was a blast. We went and got ice cream and came home.



It really makes people happy, winning soccer games, and I think that's great, but to watch all the songs and tributes on TV you'd think this meant Egypt is just so wonderful in every way, when really all it means is that the Egyptian soccer team plays well. I don't say this to be a downer, really, in the end, patriotism is a good thing, whatever the reason, I suppose.



More photos here.

GO EGYPT!

Randomosity

Hey people, no real topic comes to mind so I'm just rambling.

My apartment can't seem to stay clean, it's frustrating. I'm in the midst of switching out the summer for winter clothes and I can't put the summer stuff away till I finish the laundry. So there are bags of clothes all over the place that need to go into the under bed storage soon.

The big Egypt Algeria game on Saturday is all the buzz. If we win by 3, I think? We go to the world cup for the first time in 20 years. If we win people will go CRAZY in the streets. I hope Egypt wins, people are so happy when we do!

I was going to post about Potatoes Au Gratin but I forgot to take a pic and I don't really have a recipe I just layer sliced thin potatoes with cheddar or different cheeses, and salt, pepper, dill, a little bit of butter and milk and bake.

I got a new shibshib. Shibshib is Egyptian for flip flops. No one walks around the house without slippers or flip flops in Egypt, so we go through them pretty often.

Eid's coming up in a couple of weeks, anyone have plans yet? I'm hoping we might go away for a few days, inshaAllah. We'll see.

We got some new winter clothes for the kids recently. There's this outlet type store that sells brand names made in Egypt stuff and they're prices are pretty good. We got 4 pjs, 10 shirts, a pair of jeans, pants and a top for me all for under 500LE. My oldest daughter, Zayneb is 9 and she's starting to really care about clothes and stuff, but thankfully we found stuff they all liked.

I love eating apple slices with cheese! Dubliner cheese is best. I heard of that snack once and thought, huh? But it's really good. Try it.

I don't know what to make for dinner today. The eternal question.

Safiyah (5) is starting to become a bit of a teller of tales. Recently she told us how she went swimming at school and the teacher gave her a bathing suit etc. She adds details. I think she's been trying see how far she can go, kinda testing to see what we'll believe. I'm gonna go ahead and not worry about it. I think it might be normal.

Perfect Housewives is on. Have you seen this show? It's British. This woman Anthea Turner has 2 messy housewives/husbands clean and declutter their homes completely. It's really motivational to watch. Some of their homes are scary. They win a tiara. And a clean home. I like that they do it themselves and not have someone come in and do it for them like on "Clean House". Anthea is a trip. She can't be that perfect all the time. Her house is ridiculous. And she keeps nice nails. I'll bet she has help.

The Beautiful People vs Mr/Mrs. Personality

Do you think that people who are not that good looking have better personalities? Remember that old song "They call you Mr. Personality because you're so ugly!" Well that was an extreme but you know the how people think when someone describes a person as having a "great personality" that automatically means they're not a looker? Of course beauty is in the eyes of the beholder but I'm talking about just general societal standards, so play along. I don't mean any offense to anyone so take this with a grain of salt.

You see, I have this theory: People who are of below average looks are forced to rely on other aspects of their self. They develop a good sense of humor, they're funny. They focus on studies/reading and therefore become better students/smarter. They are more unique. These traits are developed in childhood, more towards the tween/teen years. I also think people who are beautiful get ahead in life more easily. They get special treatment, more opportunities, and attention. When someone who is, let's say plain, doesn't have these advantages, it builds character. Less attractive people learn there is more to them than the outside and build that, while a lot of the time beautiful people depend on their looks to get by because it works. I'm referring to physical beauty here only. A sense of humor and intelligence is more important and more beautiful, I think.

I suppose beautiful people get preferential treatment because humans are visual. We're subconsciously drawn to good looking people. Also, people go by first impressions and think if something looks good, it must be good. It's like The Hunchback of Notre Dame. People hated him on his looks alone and it happens all the time in this world. While hotties get to skip lines, free stuff and better service. It's not fair but it's true.

The best is when you don't care what anyone thinks. I'll admit, I get intimidated around really beautiful women. Just nervous and self conscious. I'm working on it though.

What do you think? Do pretty people have it easier in life? Do less attractive people have better personalities?