As I sat at the blue line Western train station, waiting for the train to pull in to take me to work, I suddenly thought of words that had dropped out of my vocabulary.
These were words that formed part of my childhood, were specific only to the experience of growing up in Sharjah, in my school, with my siblings and (erstwhile) friends, and how they were so not part of my lingo anymore because of the changes I've been through in place and as a person.
Here are a few:
1. Controller (i.e. the TV remote)
2. Luncheon meat (I loved sandwiches made of it; now it grosses me out)
3. Shopner (I actually always just said Sharpener, but heard lame people at school use it frequently enough)
4. Zero period (pre-Sports Day sessions of training that took place before first period)
5. Copybook
There are probably many more but these are the ones that come to mind now... maybe I'll update the list later as they come to mind.
It's strange how old memories just come to you on random occasions and in random places. Hmm.
**Update on 2/28/05**
6. Rubber (Tamanna)
7. Prepone (Tamanna)
February 24, 2005
The Bright Side
The first blog of February... and almost a month later! Of course it's all Yammie's fault because she stopped blogging and then I forgot about it as well!
Plenty has happened in the last month, which is interesting because when you're asked, "How's it going?", one always says "Same old, same old", but if you have to recall the activites of the past 30 days and type them up, you suddenly realize just how much took place.
I was really sick with an ugly viral throat infection for a week and had to eventually take anti-biotics to get well. Of course, this also meant finally getting my very own doctor who gives me prescriptions! And I'm scheduled for a (soon to become) annual physical next week! I'm finally a normal person. No more going to fancy specialists (gynaecologist, dermatologist) - I've got one doctor for all my medical needs! She's from NU's Medical school and believe it or not, her name is Anne Franke. Bizarre.
My father-in-law's health sadly deteriorated with a few scares, but he's under control now. Sarwar might fly out there if doctors decide he needs urgery. Hopefully all will be well.
I've finally moved off Army to Disney (yay!) but that also means that I am back to feeling like a new hire with no clue what the hell is going on around me. Actually I do have some idea, but I wish I'd quit feeling like the new kid in the class, too shy to go up and make friends, and actually be able to go to my peers and say, I'm bored, can I watch you for a bit? (It's realllllly slow now). Oh well, awkward job is better than no job.
Speaking of which, Sarwar's office has gone through major layoffs but alhamdolillah we're safe. It's sad 'cos a lot of his friends and managers will have to leave due to the re-org that came about due to cost-cutting rather than bad performance. One wonders about the frivolity of life and work. Rizq is all provided by Allah, and he can take it away just as quick as he gives it to you. 30 people here might be jobless, but 200 in India just hit gold. It's all a delicate balance innit?
In family news, my mother has moved to London now, on her way to permanently settling in Toronto, and Farhat decided to take her on a trip for fun. They almost managed to get to Portugal but much to Farhat's chagrin, they discovered at the airport that mum's Schengen begins after 5 days, and hence all sorts of manic rescheduling had to be done. Poor F.
Ooh Ooh! I've also received and watched my wedding video and pictures (I must say I look rather wonderful after all the airbrushing), but the video was sadly seen on a crummy laptop because Dear Father didn't bother to have them recorded in Region 1 and they don't play on our tight-ass DVD player. We spent an entire day trying to re-program the tight-ass DVD player to become multiregional but despite all the web hunting and trying to turn my never-used Palm into a remote that would re-program it via the IR, we were unsuccessful. Luckily, we found out that there's a video store in the burbs that can convert DVD regions so we'll get that done soon.
Valentine's Day came and went. I was mostly sick that weekend with a hacking cough and constant queasiness but Sarwar managed to make a wonderful two days out of it anyway by surprising me with a day's getaway to a wonderful cottage resort type of place near Lake Geneva, WI. It was a great trip and we had a lovely time :)
We're also hunting for a honeymoon before (like all the others) we forget about it. The Lake Geneva trip sort of rang home the fact that we really need time off to ourselves for a lot of R&R, so screw Rome's sights, let's go chill on a beach some place! Sadly, Florida is still recovering from the hurricanes and California just drowned in mudslides, so I'm a little confused about what to do now. Maybe Puerto Rico?
See how much happened in 30 boring, normal days? It's all what you make it out to be I suppose :)
Toodlez.
Plenty has happened in the last month, which is interesting because when you're asked, "How's it going?", one always says "Same old, same old", but if you have to recall the activites of the past 30 days and type them up, you suddenly realize just how much took place.
I was really sick with an ugly viral throat infection for a week and had to eventually take anti-biotics to get well. Of course, this also meant finally getting my very own doctor who gives me prescriptions! And I'm scheduled for a (soon to become) annual physical next week! I'm finally a normal person. No more going to fancy specialists (gynaecologist, dermatologist) - I've got one doctor for all my medical needs! She's from NU's Medical school and believe it or not, her name is Anne Franke. Bizarre.
My father-in-law's health sadly deteriorated with a few scares, but he's under control now. Sarwar might fly out there if doctors decide he needs urgery. Hopefully all will be well.
I've finally moved off Army to Disney (yay!) but that also means that I am back to feeling like a new hire with no clue what the hell is going on around me. Actually I do have some idea, but I wish I'd quit feeling like the new kid in the class, too shy to go up and make friends, and actually be able to go to my peers and say, I'm bored, can I watch you for a bit? (It's realllllly slow now). Oh well, awkward job is better than no job.
Speaking of which, Sarwar's office has gone through major layoffs but alhamdolillah we're safe. It's sad 'cos a lot of his friends and managers will have to leave due to the re-org that came about due to cost-cutting rather than bad performance. One wonders about the frivolity of life and work. Rizq is all provided by Allah, and he can take it away just as quick as he gives it to you. 30 people here might be jobless, but 200 in India just hit gold. It's all a delicate balance innit?
In family news, my mother has moved to London now, on her way to permanently settling in Toronto, and Farhat decided to take her on a trip for fun. They almost managed to get to Portugal but much to Farhat's chagrin, they discovered at the airport that mum's Schengen begins after 5 days, and hence all sorts of manic rescheduling had to be done. Poor F.
Ooh Ooh! I've also received and watched my wedding video and pictures (I must say I look rather wonderful after all the airbrushing), but the video was sadly seen on a crummy laptop because Dear Father didn't bother to have them recorded in Region 1 and they don't play on our tight-ass DVD player. We spent an entire day trying to re-program the tight-ass DVD player to become multiregional but despite all the web hunting and trying to turn my never-used Palm into a remote that would re-program it via the IR, we were unsuccessful. Luckily, we found out that there's a video store in the burbs that can convert DVD regions so we'll get that done soon.
Valentine's Day came and went. I was mostly sick that weekend with a hacking cough and constant queasiness but Sarwar managed to make a wonderful two days out of it anyway by surprising me with a day's getaway to a wonderful cottage resort type of place near Lake Geneva, WI. It was a great trip and we had a lovely time :)
We're also hunting for a honeymoon before (like all the others) we forget about it. The Lake Geneva trip sort of rang home the fact that we really need time off to ourselves for a lot of R&R, so screw Rome's sights, let's go chill on a beach some place! Sadly, Florida is still recovering from the hurricanes and California just drowned in mudslides, so I'm a little confused about what to do now. Maybe Puerto Rico?
See how much happened in 30 boring, normal days? It's all what you make it out to be I suppose :)
Toodlez.
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