7-minute miles

Typed up at some point during the recent Euro Trip (Blogged about in the previous posts below). Believe it or not, yours truly has actually took a break (albeit a short one) from ranting to write something that can somehow be motivational... Happy reading peeps


We are all different people on this earth , we have different races, backgrounds, experiences and aspirations in life.

Due to the variety in people out there, this smorgasbord means that different people will always have their own ways of doing things, they will probably be influenced by things such as social norms, upbringing and the culture, amongst many others deeper and more micro reasons. I'm not a psychologist, doctor or expert in cultures, so I won't really scrutinize the matter, people do seemingly endless researches and studies into this, so my likited insight on this should be kept to that, I.e. Limited

Motivating oneself and trying to see the more positive side(s) of life is not always an easy or a straightforward process. Some of us have funny ways of doing so, some might go binging (ice cream cravings?), some might surround themselves with positive people and ultimately positive energy, others may spend time alone to reflect on things and regather momentum, while others may indulge in uber cool activities (cool only to them perhaps). Some may punish and agonize themselves to make themselves eager to prove themselves and perhaps the people around them wrong.

Yours truly is one helluva moody and odd individual, so perhaps it wouldn't come as obnoxious or eccentric to me to admit I may do any of the above to get myself back on track (hold on, I actually have a track to begin with? I might...). One recent addition to my list of random sources of motivation would be jogging/running. I never imagined myself saying this, but as boring and mundane as jogging might sound, it is really rewarding to me, especially since I've somehow not only managed to run at a decent pace. With an incline, but I also manage to do a mile in 7-minutes (apparently doing one in under 8 minutes is somewhat challenging). Not bad for a lazy bum/geek like me.

Just so you know...

The previous posts were typed up during my recent trip to Europe (Paris + Barcelona to be precise) in September 2010

Hope it will be an enjoyable read, especially since I have not updated this blog for quite a while

Nou Camp

Last day of the trip, revisited the Nou Camp stadium, this time on the stadium tour rather than a spectator, read about the entire history of the club, truly amazing stuff. Really shows you how massive this club is and gives an inside on to how crucial it is to the 'Cules', not only in footballing terms, but also socially and politically. The stadium (and the club overall) oozes with class and european pedigree so to speak. Too bad the same cannot be said about some of its fans in the Middle East.

*Burp* Olympic

Excuse the vulgarity of this post's title, had the first proper meal of this vacation at a touristic strip on the sea called Port Olympic. It was awash with half empty restaurants mainly (and predictably) serving sea food. A couple of fortunate ones had huge groups of Asian tourists, there must have been at least 300 tourists filling up the two outlets.

Food was great and a fitting end to the afternoon after spending most of the day on that 'hop on hop off' tour of the city, food was good, but nothing to write hone to mom about. Got a couple of decent subset shots from the marina/port before the last of my cameras ran out of battery.

Forgot to mention that I met up with the brother of a very good friend of mine, lucky bastard saw Armin Van Buuren last night at Amnesia in Ibiza! The guy didn't even know his proper name lol! Might see him (my friend that is, not Arnin) later on tonight at some club

Hop on hop off

Eventually found my way back to the hotel, went with a coupla vacationing friends to a club Opium, not my favorite typa place but had fun nevertheless. On an open bus tour around the city and the suburbs. Fun but I'm a tad exhausted and famished! (a breakfast of kitkat, frappé and a single espresso shot wasn't enough I reckon). Managed to find the street that my friends referred me to head to to find camera chargers, sadly couldn't find any of the accessories I needed (or even interesting lenses). Oh well, I'll make do with whatever battery I still have in the 2 dslrs.

Currently in the outskirts of the city, just passed Espanyol's stadium which hosted the 1992 Olympic games. Lots of history in the area.

Barca on and off the pitch

Day 4 - Barcelona

Ok WHAT A DAY! I fell in love instantly with Barcelona as soon as I stepped outta the airport! It is VERY relaxed and chilled out, made me realize how uptight Paris is (I still like you Paris though).

After checking in at the hotel (which by the way made the one we stayed at in Paris seem more like a hostel lol) I ventured into town to one of the malls (glories, or something like that) to try and find chargers for my cameras and possibly tickets to a FC Barcelona game in the Champions League. Eventually couldn't find either an ended up going to an area called passage Garcia or something like that to catch up with some of the peeps. Had a breather, bought some souvenirs and gifts before heading off alone to the Nou Camp stadium. Was an epic experience! Got an expensive ticket and saw them put 5 strikes against a hapless panathanaikos side (did I spell that right?). Was thrilling to see the excitement levels and the passion, even when the Catalans were leading 4-1 (ended 5-1). Making my way back to the hotel now, quite lost to be honest lol!

Sleep-deprived

For some reason I'm quite knackered today, had a very, very eventful evening yesterday as I finally managed to go to a place that was not touristic at all, it was called Quartier Latin, or the Latin quarter I suppose. Went with a classmate from university who is doing her internship in Paris, ironically we never really met properly back in Dubai, but it was quite nice to catch up with a fellow EAHM-er. Turned out there are a few other 'academians' in Paris too now, too bad they could not make it. I took some photos there, finally using my new tripod for that. Used up a lot of battery though in the process, so I really have to find a Canon shop to charge my cams! Well worth it though hope

Just an observation (or two)

Typed this up while chilling (a cooler way of saying waiting for a ride my friends are on to finish) at Disneyland. If I were to describe the park using as little words as possible, I'd probably call it overrated, way too family-centric, bit overpriced and dare I say cheesy. Having said all of the above, it's probably not like that to the visitors of the park and their kids. I should know better especially since I was a huge fan of anything and everything that had to do with Disney as a kid! A lady at a souvenir counter described the park today as "quiet and calm", as opposed to weekends when double the number of visitors would show up. Not bad I reckon
tt-see attractions that you will probably not consider visiting again

That pot

Your soul is a massive pot, fill it up with good ingredients and you shall reap he rewards, mix some rotten additives and the outcome will probably. Well, not the best analogy but you get the drift.

It's probably not an easy feat to know how to take the best actions and make the best of decisions, especially when you are relatively young, but the trick is to embrace change and appreciate mistakes that you commit along the way. It's part of the (often painful) learning curve, rest assured that as long as you learn from these mistakes, then you are definitely on the right track.

Doing the right thing does not necessarily have to feel or seem right.

When the morning comes

Overslept and missed the morning batch's trip to Disneyland, having breakfast and coffer now at a small cafe next to the hotel. Sunny day so far!

Yesterday was quite chilled, went on the river seine cruise before going to the moulin rouge are, was a bit awkward walking towards the place in hat dodgy area (was full of sex toy stores, strip clubs and god knows what else!)

Today's agenda: catch up with the morning crew at disneyland then go to see a coupla friends from Dubai for dinner back in Paris :)

Seine breeze

Caught up with the gang and went on a cruise of the river Seine, was quite fun! Got a few minutes to spare as people refresh and get some souvenirs and warm beverages and such. Was quite a chilly day thus far compared to day 1, don't mind that at all, especially that in less than a week I'll be bearing Dubai's 40+ degree temperatures!

I love the unpredictability of the climate here, was drizzling when we woke up and by afternoon the sun was out with some clouds scattered around the sky (great for the pics!). So far this evening the sky is clear and it is breezy and chilly, loving it!

Having mentioned the pictures, I had a brain fart while packing for assuming that I won't need any camera battery chargers, which predictably turned out to be an ill-fated decision. Now I will have to find the Canon shop tomorrow to make sure I'll still be able to snap away for the rest of this trip. Thanks to Stouts for helping me out with the store addresses!

Bird s**t

Day 2 - Paris

So, another exciting day thus far. Went to Champ-ellisys again after going to the Louvre museum (yes I saw the Monalisa). Quite an eventful day, love the confusion when it comes to the metro stations and the routes.

I probably saw the biggest LV and McdonLd's outlets so far in my life in champ ellipsis, massive! Ended up paying for a yummy (but overpriced) meal at a 'smaller' Mcdo (still was bigger than any branches in Dubai).

Off to catch up with the rest of the gang for a seine river cruise! Not sure what the rest of the night holds for us!

Before I forget, a bird shat on me a coupla hours back, hence the title. Is that supposed to be a good omen?

Clear blue skies

Day 1 - Paris
So day 1 of my small Euro trip has been quite a random one so far... From waiting at the airport for an extra hour or two till the whole brigade on this trip gathered and made it successfully to the same terminal section that we were at, to having to wait for another coupla hours at the hotel we are staying at to get our rooms cleaned (and inspected). Add to that the restauranteur at the Italian bistro next door that turned out to be an Egyptian from "6an6a", aptly announced that right after we settled the bill (very, very awkward, especially since we were typical Arabs making the occasional mean remark). That was followed up with me missing a metro ride as I forgot my fancy tripod at another section of the station. Thankfully I somehow caught up with he rest of the crew back at the hotel and we ended up going to the Eiffel tower after a lot of gesturing and asking around in the French capital's dodgy underground stations. The day is far from over, it's already 8 in the evening and the sun hasn't set yet, eagerly waiting for it to set so we can take some neat images of the infamous tower.

Enjoying the great weather, the clear blue skies, checking out the women (well, not all of them are all that attractive, but it's not bad nevertheless).

Random- Other than the awkward incident with the Egyptian gentleman, an Algerian/north African on one of the metro rides thought we were Israelis or at least Jews lol! I'm proudly wearing a Palestinian scarf :). Love you Falasteen <3

Belated post

This was typed up when I was coming back from Jordan after the quick raving trip (Early August)... Found it on my iPhone when updating similar travel notes on the trip I went on after that (Some updates of that coming up)

Written on the way back from the trip that was mentioned earlier. Have I satisfied my wanderlust? Well, somewhat. Ironic that as soon as I started typing this "As The Rush Comes" comes up on the iPhone's shuffle

New friends? Check. Bad service? Check. Countless chuckles, check. Another rave? Check. Many other things that don't come to my sleep-deprived mind? F*** yeah

Random flight thoughts

Written on the 28th of July, 2010, haven't proof-read it or edited anything in it as of yet, so expect some grammar and spelling blunders:

On a relatively small Royal Jordanian plane midway through my flight from Dubai to Amman. Just watched Date Night again and had a good laugh. Having some thoughts now since I'm sitting idle (a very, very uncommon situation I should say).

What is it that I really want? I'm still indecisive, always opting to just go with the flow of things, waiting for the best and working hard. Now life over the past few months has been rather generous with me. God had answered my prayers by opening a new career path for me. Now the past couple of years have been grueling to say the least, but every now and then I'd try to remind myself that I was still better off than many people and that God probably had other better things in store for me. I admit that it was a struggle, a huge learning curve which has changed me as a person and made me somewhat indistinguishable from that young bright fresh-graduate a coupla years back who was full of life, albeit low on confidence an experience.

I hope my parents are proud of me, I'm probably still considered in the spoiled brat category to most people, but that has no bearing to who I really am. I might have a snappy attitude, I might be moody as f**k, I might have failed to stay in touch with people I value and love in my life, but I'm still that somewhat self-doubting & reclusive introvert. I still try to help out whenever I could and as much as I can, but I have created limits, limits so i don't drain myself and my resources when there are bigger priorities.

My perspectives have changed, I just want to rediscover that free spirit I had, but that will be rather tricky, but as I say, it is doable. The recent events will probably help me become a better person. I hope my folks are proud of me, I wonder what they and my amazing sisters describe me as to their acquaintances and the people around them... I'm sure that it would be a combination of praise and humorous flack.

I am disappointed and infuriated with the service levels on display here in Dubai. It goes from delivery boys not even being sure if they can deliver the goods or not to car technicians who blatantly pretend everything in your car is perfect while it is under warranty, while confidently asking you to pay once that warranty is over to pay for anything and everything that may require repairing or replacing.

Social media: now I am glad I became addicted to twitter over the course of the past few months. A lot of people do not see the point in it, but in all fairness I have the same thoughts nowadays when it comes to Facebook. That's just a personal opinion. For those of you who would like to follow me on twitter, you may definitely do so here: www.twitter.com/omardxb

Sorry for the incoherent blabbering, been up for quite some time and my brain is pretty much hibernating now.

Hav a good one

Not that either you or I care or give a flying f*k anymore, but...

... I'd like to wish you a happy birthday, idiot :)

100th post

Happy 100th post to me and to the irregular visitors and stalkers of this blog and yours truly

It’s been a while since I made time for this little blog of drivel and self-inflicted angst. I usually need a motive and/or an inspiration, or sometimes some sort of provocation to entice me to babble. Credit for this post goes to a young (Well, she’s older than me) fellow blogger… Missed the blogging sphere in all honesty

So, what’s new? Quite a lot!

Thankfully started a new job, and pretty much enjoying my new field. It’s certainly a major step in the right direction. I am doing e-commerce and e-distribution for the chain of hotels that I started my post-university career with. It keeps me occupied, gives me an opportunity to actually use my brain's overtly analytical cells (As opposed to the brain numbing repetitive routine that I had sometimes in my previous post). Hamdella for everything

Other than that, went sky diving, and to my surprise, it IS such a big deal. It didn’t occur to me until I saw the reaction of people when they found out… Didn’t find it that scary or nerve-wrecking as some people make it out to be, namely because the guys behind the sky diving operations here are so good at what they do. I mean come on, what are the chances of something going wrong, and me being the poor sod who ends up getting injured, or worse, dying? Very marginal at worst. Heck, there is a higher probability that one would die on Dubai’s roads sitting in the back of a cab than while sky diving or flying somewhere for that matter.

Since I’ve touched on the topic of public transporation, God bless the Dubai Metro. Had my first proper ride on it (Gold class, because I’m posh, wannabe posh that is and I have taste for the finer things in life). The ride is extremely smooth and quiet, the staff are professional and efficient and the trains are extremely clean and almost always on time (But taking one’s car is not as time consuming, which may among a few negative). For green, hassle free and affordable commuting, I would hail the metro as a total success! Sadly (Or maybe fortunately, depending on how you see things) I don’t need to get on the metro that often. Why did I even use it? Well, the place I did the TOEFL (A point that I would get to in a bit) was literally on the other side of town in an area that I don’t recall ever going to as an adult or a kid for that matter. A massive taxi fare would not have been very justifiable in such dire economic conditions (As if I’m starving myself to death to stave off creditors).

So, TOEFL you say? What for? Part of the big plan to do masters somewhere, somehow at some point. Speaking of which, I find it ironic that a certain university here still requires TOEFL for its post-graduate courses, even if you provide adequate proof that you did your bachelors degree in English elsewhere. That is in stark contrast to some schools in the States, which in theory should be much pickier about this, but they are actually more than satisfied to waive off the TOEFL if you provide documentation proving you studied in English. Oh well, the imperfections of this world are staggering.

What else? Went back to working out, it is notable that I have never been so out of shape appearance-wise in my life as I am at the moment, yet I am quite fit exercise-wise and got a decent endurance level which I never had during my ‘skinny’ days. Paradoxes of life? Or maybe I needed the additional fat to store energy and God knows what else, and hence the improved stamina and endurance levels? *sarcasm*

Other than that, I’ve become more picky and careful with my time, learning time management skills the hard way, the ‘compromise’ way. I still make time (Barely) for photography and trance, which are still my legal drugs, but I kind of toned down on certain activities that consume time and/or are tedious in nature.

Such a self-centered post, but heck, after having to deal with some narcissistic boring individuals often, I reckon I can cut myself some slack and blabber a bit about lowly me :).

On a more outwardly note, well, more bad acts of nature happening around the world, be it the endless volcano ash-gate, or the PMS-ing weather (It’s been quite weird for this time of the year in this region, thunderstorms in Bahrain, rain in UAE, flash floods in Riyadh to name a few) If that wasn’t enough, then you have the man-made hot topics, such as the Greek economic meltdown, the mini-civil war in Bangkok, the continuing agony in my homeland (Palestine), the stupid elections in the UK, the football World Cup (And the endless scandals unfolding in England’s 2018 World Cup bid), all strive for journals' attention to ensure they have some headlines, columns and 'in-depth analysis' to sell more papers the next day…

Small piece of advice for the masses- Put yourselves first whenever possible, and when you don’t, make sure it is justifiable in some way or another.

Thanks B =)

Right now

I’m knackered and half asleep as I lie on my bed with one eyelid open that is struggling to focus on the screen (I’m long-sighted, you know, or whatever the proper medical term for that is). For some reason I’m compelling myself to half-arsedly type this up

So, it seems that everything in my life is nicely falling into place, all but one thing. It’s fascinating how God tests our patience and our willingness to move forward in life. I’m rapidly jumping to a conclusion that I fathomed and digested a couple of years ago before I indifferently decided to chuck it outside the window and just start having a new outlook based on a nonexistent recipe.

That simple (defunct) recipe/perspective used 2 years ago stipulated the basics: Easy come easy go, and whatever you don’t strive and work hard for just loses its allure, value and meaning.

Maybe there is no test here. Maybe it is just a part of my life that I should learn to live with rather than try and alter. Maybe I’m destined to be a ‘giver’ in this life rather than a taker (Well, to a certain extent). Maybe it’s better to be misunderstood than to be exploited and vulnerable once found out. Open books are not as fascinating as dark, twisted and deceitful novels that twitch every existing cell in that brain of yours.

M&M- Thanks =)

En route...

Typed up a few days ago (26th Jan to be specific)

This must be some achievement, blogging twice in the same month. I can’t really recall the last time that happened. Oh well, not something to dwell on

So moving on to more important things! Sitting in the passenger seat for a change while my sister is driving, usually I’d be the one driving, but I don’t mind the (slight) change of perspective and in scenery. Was a bit blank when I started typing, so I asked her ‘What should I blog about?’, got the predictable ‘I don’t know’ from her. In return I asked her about topics we might have discussed that ticked me off, so she joked and mentioned the renaming and rebranding of Burj Dubai into Burj Khalifa or Pluto not being an official planet anymore, and just being a wannabe-planet that is actually a big lump of rock floating peacefully in space. Just for the record, these are things that my elder sister off was baffled about, but she has thankfully come to terms with it. I have no qualms with either thing, yet (Well it’s not like I will have something against either life altering issue here)…

Anyhow, I might be slowly realizing how it is not worth it to fret about certain things, and more importantly people (Sad, eh?). I should understand slowly that certain people are not worth the hassle, but it is Important not to make matters escalate to reach a dead-end where no one of the parties involved reach the point of no return (In simple words, keep it in a way that things can be ‘worked on’ so to speak)… That does not work with everyone of course, but maybe that’s to the better.

More randomness to follow some other day/night, since we reached our destinations *Switches social butterfly mode on*

Blah blah blah

Alright, new year (And decade). Was a decent start in all fairness… Spending the first day of the year in the Lebanese mountains with some of the coolest and funniest people around and recalling the previous night’s eccentricities and the random moments… Too bad it was a brief trip, but it was well worth it. Spent some excellent quality time with my father, experienced some unique weather conditions (Well, not exactly unique since I experienced it twice or thrice before in Lebo and Jordan, but you know, you savor the most recent experiences sometimes and put them ahead in nostalgic and ‘intriguing’ value than relatively older experiences and events)… Also got to see some old friends before ’09 drifted away into semi-oblivion, and also saw a certain individual that is known to a few million people as Armin Van Buuren, whom if you have not heard of yet is one of the godfathers of Trance and one of the biggest names in the scene.

Armin Van Buuren, number 1 dj in the world, globally famous, has the most popular and successful radio show blab la bla (All should change in a year or two hopefully, as Above & Beyond slowly, yet surely take over the reigns ;)). Why out of all places on the planet he chose to play in Beirut on the 30th of December, 2009 and then Dubai the following night on new year’s eve?! Beats me… (Well, Dubai probably threw a lot of money at it, but still…)… Oh well, sod it… The event was a success (The one in Beirut, of course), in comparison to the Dubai one (At least from the limited feedback I heard thus far about the latter)…

What else… I always have the urge to babble, rant, bitch and bicker about things when I cannot do it, let’s say when I’m in the shower before work (And running late), or when I am heading back to the office from lunch break, or when I am out and about with no means or ways of jotting my ramblings on a piece of paper (Or hotel paper for that matter, as that teenage crush of mine Michelle Branch used to ‘rhyme’)… I thought about updating it from my BlackBerry, but it does not feel the same to type up something on a tiny screen like that… Speaking of the BlackBerry and ranting, Twitter is perfect for that. It’s quick and concise, and chances are you would find a funny/good (Very recent) update from a friend or via some news agency/dj/football team/whatever… If FB nonchalantly encouraged stalking, then Twitter in a way is the next step of stalking (But I doubt anyone would really give a flying f*k about how many hours of work are left for me or how many times I mention the likes of Armin and Schulz per day…

One thing I wish I could fix- The inconsistent moods, the ups and downs… I don’t want a lovely shrink-suggested medication or anything; I just wish that consistency could prevail instead of disharmony… Maybe there is a way of eradicating certain aspects of one’s personality, or at least play down their significance in one’s daily life… But then again, when you think of it, it takes up a lot of energy and may lead to more stress, and heck, every flaw can be ‘repositioned’ to be a trait… God bless marketers and the subconscious psychological warfares

Wow, maybe I really should stfu… I will not even proof-read it for another week or two perhaps, so please bear with me and make excusation for the makation of mistakes in the grammar, sbellinj and or not making any sense whatsoever overall

A late edit to this:

For the tranceheads out there:
Simon Patterson "Miss You"
Sunny Lax "Misgrey"
Lange pres. Fireweall "Wanderlust"
Stoneface & Terminal "Don't Give A F*ck"

X
O