Tuesday, March 28, 2006

My Life, Today

When my clock alarm rang today 6:50 am, I switched it off and set it on 7:00. I was too sleepy and my only wish for this morning was to sleep a couple of hours more. 10 minutes later, I was up washing my face thinking of nothing but going back to sleep.

The night before yesterday, the boss called and said there will be no work for a couple of days. We are moving to a bigger office. Yesterday he called and told my father that I have to work from home, checking everything online.

Today 7:45 am, dad and I, as usual, were waiting for the driver. He was late. I asked dad if he was sure that we have work today. He assured me. 8:03 and the driver was not here yet. Dad called the boss to checkā€¦ today was a day off too.
The first thing dad said was he'll go back to sleep. I said I have a lot of stuff to do. I entered my room and thought of going out for jogging, as I've been postponing that since ever. I changed my clothes, put my training shoes on, and was looking for the key when the power went off! I thought there was something wrong with the lamp but I checked the house and there was no power at all.
For a moment, I felt there is nothing wrong. We, Iraqis, are used to the lack of electricity. When I wanted to go out there was no elevator working. I gave up. My jogging would be delayed few years again. I looked at my cell phone there was no network.

My room is a bit dim now. There was no computer, no cell phone, no lights. What to do? I took off my training shoes and dived into bed.

For a moment, it felt that life has just stopped.
I fell asleep, after all, that was all I asked for this morning.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

I haven't posted anything about my everyday life for a while. I got two things that I've been hiding on the blogsphere.

The first thing:
January 23rd, my parents went to visit my dad's boss's wife who gave birth recently in a hospital. When they arrived home, my mother told me that the boss needed someone who can "read & write English, knows how to use the computer & internet". His English was bad so he needed someone who can take care of his mail and e-mail.
Next day the driver came to pick us, my dad and I. We drove to Dubai.

Nice place, nice people... Everything was easy and the job was terrific. I have neither work experience nor any idea about what I was going to do. Therefore, it was ok for me to volunteer for such kind of assistance. I have the chance to practice my English and understand what a career means. Later I even was in charge of his phone calls abroad (I talked to Malta). Now I'm even filling applications on-line. It is a tourism company.

The second thing:
I felt I'm doing nothing at home. The situation in Iraq is getting worse and worse. I was depressed. I want to do something to help but there was nothing in my hand. Here in UAE, alone, no friends, no sisters, no relatives, I felt so lonely I had to clear my mind. There was nothing to do except to ransom my talents. I made a phone call and checked if it was late to register at an Art course again. There was only two days to the deadline. So I ran to register. I'm back into art classes. I started my first oil painting. I'm back to sculpturing and ceramics. I started working on the wheel for pottery.

To sum it all:
9-3 I'm at office. The driver comes to pick me at 8:45 and I get home around 3:30

5-8 I'm at classes. The driver comes to pick me at 4:40 and I get home around 8:30

Hectic life! I'm sleeping about 6 hours a day; eating 5 minutes before I go out, praying only 3 times a day. But I'm still writing before I sleep.

I'm planning to buy a lap top (acer: for 2295 Dirham=$625US) I don't know if it is good or not but this is the cheapest thing I found. And I'm planning to buy a digital camera.

Can any one tell me what the best memory size is? I'm not good with digital life.

Help, F1.

7 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Baghdad to Dubai looks like a long drive. Must you go through Kuwait and Saudi Arabia? Coming from Baghdad it must truly be like going to another planet.

3/30/2006 10:13 PM  
Blogger attawie said...

Hi daniel..
I can't answer you in one simple comment. My next post will be "My journy from Baghdad to Dubai"

I hope you'll read it.
Thanks

4/03/2006 1:09 AM  
Blogger A. Damluji said...

hey Attawie:

Camera? if u want something that is Good, will last a good couple of years, and gives good quality pics, get a Sony CyberShot, or a Canon, i dont know current model types (mine is old, p72, but beautiful), look on yahoo, something 5.1 MegaPixels or more (that way it'll be from the current generation of cameras)

EVEN IF IT IS A BIT EXPENSIVE NOW, it will be madly handy later, and you will love it.
if u buy a cheap one, after a while u will regret it and stop using it and start hating it!
but thats what I would do!



bout the 'puter:

what are the specs of that Acer?
i mean, processor, ram, harddisk, screensize, and more stuffs..

a good starter 'top these days should have:

- no less than 1.8 GHz PENTIUM processor, (FORGET ABOUT CELERON, unless it is in the range of 2.7 (?) and higher -Celeron D-)

- no less than 256 DDR Ram, 333MHz speed or higher, with upgrading options

- Bus Speeds? i dunno..really, all i have in mind is high-pricey-speeds which i am salivating to own :D

- 40,60,or 80 GigaBytes of HardDisk, the bigger the better, you WILL need extra space someday!

- Screen size, 15" or more, preferably wide-screen

- Combo Drive DVD-R/CD-RW

- Video and Sound cards shouldnt be a problem cuz ur buying a laptop which is not for heavy gaming, so whatever comes with it is good enuff..

anyway, do a product compare on yahoo shopping, and they will give u ratings on the best computer in ur price range..

and in the end, it all comes down to u and what do u intend to use it for:
me myself, i use a pentium2 300MHz laptop with 128 Ram as a backup Word-Processor/Storage Device.. NOTHING more..(it simply cannot do anything more!) it attempts suicide if i try to install games on it!

4/03/2006 8:32 PM  
Blogger A. Damluji said...

And Cheers now!
:D

4/03/2006 8:34 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Like your blog so much.

One question though, jogging????!!!
Is that possible for a woman in Iraq.

4/03/2006 11:59 PM  
Blogger attawie said...

Hi anarki..
Thank you v. much..
I'll see if the Acer I intend to buy reach these excellence.. wish me luck
and about the camera, actually we have a sony one (video and digital) but my little sister is so attached to it that she considered it hers.. She is great in snapshot..

I'll let you know if I'll buy any soon.

Miraj.. Welcome to attawie's blog
About your question. Jogging was possible in Iraq. I knew a couple of ladies who used to jog, early mornings in Iraq before the war. Now with such circumstances I don't even think men can jog.

Anyway, I'm in UAE now. I can jog but I can't put that in practice :)
Thank you for your visit and keep in touch

4/04/2006 3:38 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I have a Canon PowerShot SD550 I got for my birthday last year. It's 7.1 megapixels (which is ridiculously good quality) and I have a 32 MB flash card (that came with the camera) as well as a 1 GB flash card, which was given to me as a gift. I hope this helps!

4/04/2006 9:52 PM  

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