Farewell|Not exactly

Q8travelbud had a car accident! 😦 ……given the circumstances and the accident I must say that I am very THANKFUL and glad that I am 99% okay.. that 1% is for the stiff neck and shoulders and the “dealing with the police, insurance, car garage” headache …  I thought that I lost every inch of positivity inside my body when I went through dealing with the latter … it just breaks my heart to see how much long process, routines, and corruption is going on in here!  But most importantly is that I am fine and things are great..

I was planning to write this post for a while but was hesitant about it … You remember I told you that life has been busy busy busy for me and I am very excited about that .. this affected my daily posts and also me getting intouch with other blogs I like … Well I decided to take a looooong break  from blogging … I will come back inshalla with more to say, more travel stories, lots of photography and new ideas inshalla (maybe a new name too 🙂 ) .. but for now this is Good bye! …. until we meet again! I wish you well and will drop by often in your blogs (maybe under Mohammad)…

Your Childhood Dreams

I can watch this video over and over again and I just had to share it with you guys and hope that you’ll do the same..

Bring Back the LANES!

Since the weather is getting better (finger crossed) I decided to get my bike out and ride to work! It was about a 40 mins journey which wasn’t bad apart from the first 30 nerve-racking minutes…Guys if you think that you’re not respected as a car driver imagine what kinda respect you’d get as a BIKE rider!!! I swear at times I believe am invisible (unfortunately this feeling doesn’t come when you most need it 😦 ) … I tried to bike on the pathways but for the most part they’re non existent .. what happened to the 1.5 m path in front of the house law?! and why do some home owners block the pathwaysin front of their homes with bricks?!  The interlock work along the wider roads are mostly broken or sunk into the mud … I must admit that the last 10 mins was a joy ride but I think that it’s time that we acknowledge and encourage bike riders .. I hope our ‘beloved’ government bring back all the pathways in front of the houses (and unblocked) as well as creating lanes to the side of highways and wider roads …. but until then “where there is will there will ‘always’ be a way” … so get out your bikes and enjoy the ride.

The Shame of Breaking the Wind

It’s not due to a lack of interesting subjects that I am writing this but rather due to an uncomfortable experience at work… 

At the doors to the toilets at work I bumped into my colleague.. a much much older guy wearing the dishdasha and qutra and looked smart for work (unlike urs truly) .. we exchanged our ‘salams’ and took our separate ways, me to the right partitioned toilet and he to the left one separated only by a thin Aluminium partition that for some reason does not extend from ceiling to floor leaving our shoes and pants exposed to the public (well maybe the too curios public) .. As I was disposing my 1.5 L of H2O intake … I heard it! 

Upon our exit I felt that my colleague was somewhat embarrassed .. he stormed out quickly (atleast I thought he did) and he looked uncomfortable .. this made me think why does an innocent sound in its right environment make us feel ashamed? we are all human and we know how our bodies react and work so why do we feel this way when we break the silence with what can only be described as ‘normal behavior’ … even in toilets and bathrooms if we feel that we are not alone and somone is around then we become uncomfortable not realizing that we are not disrespecting anyone because we are in the right place .. how come such an innocent action has such control over us ? 

And for some disturbing reason it made me think how nerve racking this  must be for the ‘Queen’ ..can she loose the rspect of her entire staff with a break of a wind?!

Eat{Pray}Love

I must warn you that this is a long post that may be boring to some and too spiritual to others .. it is not very well written and sometimes it doesn’t make much sense, even to the writer, with lots of BSs here and there and jumbled thoughts…but if you insist then I am very flattered and you may continue reading:

This weekend I watched Julia’s latest movie Eat, Pray, Love ( don’t judge ;)).. The movie was based on a book by author Elizabeth Gilbert that apparently gained the attention of many women all over the world!

The story in short is about a woman who decides to get out of an 8 year marriage and struggles to get her life together so she decides to embark on a one year journey  to Italy (the food part), India (the pray part) and Bali (the love part)..

I am not going to talk about the movie since people have different opinions and preferences .. so go and make your own opinion about it .. After the movie I told my friend that few months back I started planning a trip for next year and I was seriously considering taking time of work and taking a long journey around the world (well Asia to be less exaggerative) and I planned it very well but then things changed.. to the better Inshallah..and I invested part of that money saved for the benefit of my own work .. however, after watching the movie and just for the first few minutes (I say minutes because it sounds better in writing but in reality its more like until I woke up the next morning) I doubted whether I had made the wrong decision!? … My friend told me “why do you want to take a journey of self discovery when you already found your self and are doing what you’ve always wanted?”  and this my friend(s) is why I am writing this post..

Besides everything we love to do in life such as succeeding in the right career and the many other things we love that make us different from each others.. Spirituality and love is ultimately what we all (and ‘we’ here is mainly ‘I’ and those sharing the same feeling… it’s not an ego thing 🙂 ) seek out of life.. yes we want many of the other things too and we work hard to get them and it makes us happy to have them and we should be happy if we succeeded in getting them.. but without our spiritual existence then we will always be incomplete .. maybe to everyone the definition of spirituality is different..it’s not necessarily religion based.. but for me being a Muslim there are many practices required that we do without hesitation and follow them on a daily basis .. but how many of us are really spiritual and how many of us have this deep bond with God?

To me (I am leaving the ‘we’ here for a while) spirituality is not about the practices and prayers we do in life.. it’s about surrendering to God, believing in the ups and downs of life because I have faith in God knowing that my shortcomings are not because I missed a prayer or made mistakes but more because for a moment I may have lost faith in God’s forgiveness .. when I feel things are out of my control and I start panicking and questioning life, it’s only due to the weakness in believing in God’s presence in my daily life..when we are truly spiritual we know that no matter what life may surprise us with .. we will always spring out of it with something ‘Good’ .. Only when we are truly spiritual we can accept the guilt and shame we feel and forgive ourselves on our daily mistakes and find peace and happiness in the life we have..

But why do we travel to places so far away and so different from our religious culture and way of life and our comfort to find ourselves? why can’t we find it here? 

I don’t have the answer  but from my experience in order to dig deep within myself I need to remove myself from the surrounding I am questioning in the first place, from the daily routine and expectations ..from people who are constantly judging your life .. traveling the distance means stripping away everything that I don’t want along the way .. being in that place that everything and everyone doesn’t matter anymore .. a place where I can have sex, get drunk, take drugs, practice other religions and pretty much do whatever I want to do because no one is around to judge me and no one matters anyway! 

I think that I am ‘Free’ .. but then I realize that I don’t want to do this or that .. and I realize then that it’s not what I’ve been looking for .. whatever feeling that may come I know that those are feelings coming from within me… this is what ‘I’ believe in and not what others want me to believe in ..I finally can find my spiritual self .. It might be a very ironic way to help us find our spirituality..

Maybe it’s true that after this long journey we eventually come back to what we always had.. to our religion. our family .. our friends .. our work and way of life ..but only when we take this journey we can come back with a different understanding and appreciation of it all ..

So  my friend maybe I did find what I enjoy to do in life … and I don’t doubt or regret my decision .. But what I wanted to find was my spiritual self ..keep doing what I am doing after finding my balance in life… and maybe that’s why for a very short period of time I doubted my choices!

“My Cousin…Buflan”

I had to renew my sister’s car registration the other day and that required a change of the licence plate .. now I don’t know how many of you had the pleasure of such experience but if you didn’t I’ll tease you a bit!

Upon your entrance you’ll be greeted by a multicultural crowd .. the rule is you have to pick yours.. being a Kuwaiti I must admit that you have a slight advantage .. being a Kuwaiti male takes you down a notch.. being a Kuwaiti following the rules puts you back at the bottom of the list..

One of the positive things I saw was the number counter in the ceiling which indicates that you have to get a number and wait in line..the problem was where should I get this number from .. after few Qs&As I was able to find the counter .. I waited in line only to find that the faces of the people in front of me keep changing but for some reason I am still standing in the same place!!!  

Being the smart person that I am .. I was able to figure out how to get in front of the line .. it was as simple as two magical words said in a proper accent: “My Cousin!” aka “Weld 3ami!” 

Now that I got my number 98 (current number at the time was 80-something) I found that the number counter was moving very slow .. 2 digits every 10 mins maybe?!  So I asked the guy why are the numbers moving slow and how come some people who I know were behind me already got their registration renewed? … “well Bro(not the cool ‘Bro’ though) they have the signature of the director” ..me:” and what makes it special to get that signature?” ..”you know!”.. me:”no I don’t” …  the guy in the other counter said that I asked too many questions 🙂 .. I told him it’s because I want to get my paper and get outta here!

I won’t bore you with much of the details .. but the guy behind me was a Kuwaiti guy who belongs to the bottom of the list and he was speaking in Arabenglish … so my last words were “Allah E3eeenaah!”

For Smokers Only!

This is a question for smokers.. do you think that this is an effective campaign? am curious to know since I find it to be very disturbing .. am a big fan of approaching people positively than negatively ..

Sleepless in K-town!

Thoughts in my head “I have less than 3 hrs to go! …need to pack my work shoes tomorrow and my slippers.. s**t I forgot to buy one, I’ll just use the one in my bathroom.. must not forget the shirt like last time .. maybe I should hang it on the main door or better yet take it to the car .. no I think I’ll just do it tomorrow .. I should be quite in the meeting.. I remember I took a nice picture maybe I should use it.. I’ll just leave it for tomorrow .. maybe I should write a list to do so I won’t forget? .. well if I forget then it’s not important .. good if I sleep now I still have 2 hours before I wake up .. Relax .. Relax .. I think I’ll go to starbux after workout  but the traffic will be hell and I don’t want to be late for work .. I should checkout the photo maybe it’s not as good as I thought?! .. I might as well book a hotel too .. No,I think I should save the money.. Oh I didn’t write about my car registration experience! let me do it now,but I have to download the pic first.. No too much hassle .. let me get 1 hr worth of sleep at least .. but if I sleep now I won’t wake up! .. If I don’t sleep I’ll be so tired tomorrow .. but I have to wake up .. akh I have to go to the bathroom I’ll decide later …”

A Postcard from Shakespear|Stratford-Upon-Avon

Starbuxing

One of the things I got into the habit of doing is starbuxing early in the morning (around 6:30 am) .. I enjoy my quite mornings before the day gets busier and noisier .. I began to notice what type of people come to Starbucks in the morning, a totally different crowd as the day progresses ..you have the ‘business’ people heading to work and grabbing a quick “fancy name” coffee, then those getting in or out of the gym ‘the fit crowd’ .. during exams you see the ‘last minute students’ chit chatting more than studying (reminds me of the old days 🙂 ) .. sometimes you get to see the ‘up alniters’ very easy to spot… although I don’t know any of them …they sorta became my morning crowd!

Well it’s time to head to work  now ..