Ramadan Mubarak

As the month of Ramadan greets us again, I would like to wish you all Ramadan Mubarak. I pray that we attain Allah’s (swt) mercy and blessings throughout this blessed month, and we benefit from our fasts.

The Last “Visit”

This is officially my last “visit” to Vancouver. The next time I land here it will be for the long haul. This is a short trip, only a week, as I didn’t want to be here during Ramadan because of the possibility of getting sehri at 4am whilst at a hotel, plus all the other logistics.

Well I arrived Monday morning, which for me is unusual as I generally fly in on the weekend, so I can be at work first thing Monday. I figured I could catch an early flight and with the time difference still make it into the office at a decent hour. Well those hopes were dashed as the flight was delayed 30 minutes because the door to the plane was stuck. Not sure if it was stuck open or closed, but it was stuck nonetheless. Then in Vancouver it took close to an hour for me to get my 1 suitcase. I finally made it into the office close to noon, but no one was around…well no one from the team. Every Monday there is a team meeting at Olympic HQ so John had not yet arrived. One of the guys was sitting in the next desk and commented how I am expected to work 80 hours in a 40 hour week. Apparently the John had been telling people how he was flying me in to get 80 hours of work from me in 40 hours. When John shows up, he wisecracks “how are you supposed to do 80 hours of work when you come in a day late? You’ve already lost 1/2 a day”. Needless to day I heard this 80 hour comment a few more times that day. All joking aside however, there is still much work to be done. Every so often when the conversation turned to stress, or what’s left to be done, John would bring up how he’s not letting me return to Toronto. When I tell him that my flight is already booked, he rebuts with “how does Sept 1st sound?” He was quite serious about this. I can’t do September, for numerous reasons. That evening we had a discussion over dessert about all things work related, and I told him that the earliest I could come out was the end of October, on condition that I get 2 weeks off to fly home in December, as well as a guaranteed weekend in January back home also. Well, its been approved. I just have to wait on the paperwork now, so that’s another month added to my Vancouver stay. This means I have less time to wrap up my move details and everything Toronto side, esp with Ramadan being a busy month in general.

In other news:
I woke up rather early Tuesday morning, before 7am, and called down to the front desk to cancel my wake up call to be greeted by “Good afternoon, what can I do for you today Mr. Amir?” It was too early for me to say anything to her though

That same evening while walking the streets of downtown Vancouver with some friends looking for ice cream we happen to see Tony Todd walk by. Twice. Granted, I didn’t know his name until I got back to the hotel and googled, but I know his face anywhere! For those of you that watch 24, he played General Juma in the last season. And for others you may know him as the Candy man. NO ONE recognized him. I did not approach him though, as he didn’t look too friendly or approachable. He looks exactly as he does on TV.

Should I Stay Or Should I Go

“So you got to let me knooooowww…..Should I Stay Or Should I Go”

Lets just say you are lucky you don’t have to hear me sing

So back when I discovered that I would be working in Vancouver for 4 months I began contemplating what I should do with my apartment. I considered keeping it, so that way when I came back I would still have my own place, but then paying rent for a place for 4 months and not using it would be a considerable waste of money. I thought about talking to my landlord and asking him if he would put the lease on hold and tack on 4 months at the end of my lease so I don’t have to pay rent for the 4 months. There was also the option of moving out completely in November. I had discussed this with a few friends and my parents but it wasn’t any of them that caused me to make a decision. It’s my landlord’s kid!!!

I may or may not have mentioned this before, but the my landlords kid makes a lot of noise. When I first moved in, it was mostly playing noise, laughing, running, toys banging, and it didn’t really bother me. After all I have kids of my own and I know how it is and I’m accustomed to it. Kids play and they get excited, its all normal, and of course on the weekends they have to deal with my kids playing/shouting so I see it as being equal. However, for the last month or two the younger kid has been crying….constantly!! When I say constantly, I mean at least once an hour. Even at night, at 11pm, 1am, 2am I hear him crying. And this isn’t just normal crying, this is full blown, from the bottom of the gut, work those vocal chords screaming types of cries. A couple of times a day would ok, but ALL THE TIME?!?! It’s finally gotten to the point where it is driving me up the wall. Now the older kid has started screaming too. As I type this they are upstairs screaming and running around. GAAAH!! My kids are loud at times, rarely cry when they are here, but they do have a tendancy to talk with their outside voices. But its just talking, and laughing, and once a week. Even talking and laughing I can tolerate, but the constant bawling and high pitch screams makes me want to pull out my hair!!! Thankfully its too short to grab

So there you have it. I have officially decided to to give up this apartment and move back in with mom and dad. I am sad to see this place go, its a nice apartment, nice layout, big kitchen, practically still brand new, but alas it’s taking every last ounce of patience from me to keep from marching upstairs and shoving a sock down this kids throat screaming for this kid to STOP CRYING ALL THE TIME!!!! aaah…ok…feel a bit better.

As you were, and rest assured no children will be harmed, I shall endure for 3 more months

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A Substitute for My Summer Activity

Last year I became a golfer. Sadly, due to time contraints, crappy weather, and work I’ve only been able to take my clubs out twice this year, and both times it was only for the driving range. There is a vendor invitational coming up in August which I registered for only realize a day later that its during Ramadan. Golfing while fasting is no fun…you need to drink water at least. On those cloudy and rainy days I would wish that I had a Wii so at least I could pretend I was playing

It seems as though my summer of golf is doomed. A few weeks ago I played the Wii Sports version of golf….its quite frustrating! Especially putting! You move…nothing happens…try again…nothing happens…you do something stupid with the control…THEN the player makes a bad putt! My cousin and I were getting quite frustrated. So that puts a hamper on the Wii solution.

I needed to get it out of my system. So I finally decided to buy a game for my PSP. Any PSP owners out there? I bought Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09. I have to admit, its pretty good! A bit difficult to get the controls in order, but once you do, its a lot of fun! One of the coolest features is designing your player. You can create a player with different hair styles (from afros, corn rows, balding, receding hair line), skin tone, blemishes, bags under the eyes, pot bellies lol, then for you ladies out there you can buy clothes and dress him/her up as you please. I’ve only played for a part of a day but I have to admit, its definitely quenching my need to play!

Summer – It Feels Done

Since the weather started warming up things have been quite hectic. I spent the month of May in Vancouver. Being away for so long really makes time fly. I came back from that trip to spending 2 weeks with my cousins that were visiting from the UK, which meant not much time at home. Once they left, I had a little time to try and get back into routine, but that was changed by making plans for my parents’ birthdays, followed by 3 weeks with my sister and my nieces. The summer has flown by.

Now with a few night shifts, another week in Vancouver coming up, and then Ramadan just around the corner, before I know it, summer will officially be gone.

By the end of Ramadan we’ll be practically be in October which will be my second last month in Toronto for a long time, and also may contain yet another short trip to Vancouver. Last week I received my official offer letter to work in Vancouver for 4 months fulltime from the end of November to the end of March. I was bombarded with emails from the logistics team out west with all the rules and regulations. We are allowed 1 phone call home a day free of charge, our daily stipend for food and taxi/transportation and laundry is $48.75, for November and December we are only allowed 1 flight home per month, and Christmas holidays may not be granted if we are behind schedule. Oh, and the best part….we get a uniform!!! I’ve never worn a uniform in my life, this has got to be the strangest thing I’ve heard. We’re IT guys…a uniform???? Our normal attire is jeans and a t-shirt. I’m not complaining though, after all, it is an opportunity of a lifetime, plus I escape the horrible snow Sure its being substituted for rain, but…no shovelling!

Disruptions

Beeep Beeep Beeep Beeep

What’s that infernal noise?!?

*open eyes*….6:30

Oh my alarm.

I don’t need to wake up today

Hit the button…..hit the button again….

Why is it not turning off!!!!!

I’m hitting the wrong button

….must…..muster…..more….energy…………..

aaaahhhh….peace

Time Passes…..

diddleydiddleydeee diddleydiddleydeee diddleydiddleydeee

aaaah…more noise!!!! Leave me alone!!!

Its my pager….8:30am……maybe I can ignore it….416-

AH CRAP!!!

I pick up the phone, still in bed, start dialing.

tech: Hello…

me: Hi, this is Amir, you paged?

tech: Yeah, sorry to call you on a Sunday morning, but I have a customer that says they are not receiving email.

me: What is the problem? How do we know for sure?

tech: I don’t know, the website* doesn’t work

For crying out loud you are making me get out of bed!!!

me: you do know that website isn’t free anymore?!?

and hasn’t been for over a year! How is it that you are still employed?

I crawl out of bed and head to my desk, feeling rather grumpy that my sleep has been disrupted.

me: how do we know for sure, maybe nobody sent them any email?

tech: hahahaha, I wanted to say that to the customer but decided against it, hahahaha

If only I could reach through the phone and smack you!!!

me: …ummm…we don’t manage their email. This isn’t our customer

You woke me up and made me get out of my nice warm bed for something that’s not even our problem!!

tech: How did you check that?

Hasn’t your momma taught you that google is your friend!?!?

me: there’s a different site…go do blahblahbah slash dig.php

tech: hold on, ok….blah blah…dot com…blah blah…slash…blah gig.php

Please tell me this isn’t happening!

me: noo…dee eye jee…DIG, not gig

tech: yeah, ok, jee eye jee

me: DEE!!! DEEEEEE!!! DIG!!!

LEARN TO SPELL I WANT TO SLEEP!!!

tech: aah ok…dig…got it. So we don’t do their email?

me: NO. I don’t know why they are calling us, but please go away and leave me alone it looks like a problem with their mail server which again we don’t manage.

tech: oh ok…thanks man. I will let them know

aaah….peace….again

RRRIINNG RRRRING….

Cousins and Birthdays

As I mentioned in my last post my sister is in town with her 2 daughters. Naturally I’ve been busy with them over the past week. On Friday, after school let out for the boys (last day of school!!), I picked them up and took over to my parents for some barebeque. They haven’t seen my nieces in a little over 2 years, but they fell into routine immediately. They went to the park, played in the backyard, made jokes, and had a lot of fun. My older niece is very good with them, equally dividing her attention and making sure each gets a turn at whatever they are doing. Finally around 10-10:30, though they were still quite awake, I could see they were beginning to tire so we went home, they were torn between spending the night, and going back to my place. They wanted to spend the night at my parents but also longed to spend the night at my place. We went home

The following morning after a pancake breakfast we went back. It was going to be a long day. That evening my sister and I had planned a dinner get together for my parents’ birthdays. My dad’s birthday was the following day (his 65th) and my mom’s is tomorrow (her 60th). Since neither of us had any idea what get them, we headed to the mall and did some shopping. Dad got a new digicam, and mom got some nice perfume, and I got ice cream . Well, Deen got ice cream, and I gotshared some of it. After rushing home it was time for Deen’s haircut, followed by baths, picking up cakes, heading to the restaurant. It was a fun evening, mom shed quite a few tears, and I think even dad shed a tear or two. All in all it was a loooong day. But where the kids were concerned, they had a blast. It’s always fun when cousins get together and have fun. I don’t want my kids to be strangers to their out of town cousins, so this time together is valuable.

Tonight its off to Niagara for the night and all day tomorrow. Isn’t it cool to have fireworks on your birthday! Mom gets fireworks every year. Let just hope it doesn’t rain.

Been a While

Its been ages since my last post. Do I still have a blog even? I did notice I have a lot of spam comments though…they have all been cleaned out.

As for an update, well, my life has been pretty non-eventful. Since my cousins left, I’ve kept quite busy with work and running (gave up on the push ups, and taken up jogging), and the kids. One weekend my eldest has a birthday party to go do at the movie theatre, but since his brother wasn’t invited (poor kid) I bought us tickets so we could see the movie too. We saw Night At The Museum 2. I’m know the kids enjoyed it, but I have to admit I quite enjoyed it myself. My favourite scene had to be the Darth Vader scene, I thought it was absolutely hilarious (I’m a Star Wars fan in case you hadn’t guessed ). I also took them to see Up, another really good movie! If you have kids (and even if you don’t), I definitely recommend this one.

As for my cooking, I have done anything new. Made a few dishes that I’ve already tried, and with so much work, and things that have to get done, I haven’t had a chance to prepare anything new. Hopefully soon I will cook up something new and share it.

What’s coming up? My parents are having milestone birthdays this year. Mom will be turning 60 next week, and dad turns 65 this weekend. My dad was talking about going on a relaxing vacation somewhere in the southern states, which then turned to a cruise, which then turned into a week in Hawaii, which ended up in, “we’re staying home” and now my sister is coming with her kids for 3 weeks. My dad is so indecisive it drives me crazy! On the plus side its been over a year since I saw my sister, and in that year my younger neice has learned to talk so it should be lots of fun. And my boys have a lot of fun with her older daughter, who is as full of energy as my kids are. I’m sure if they all ran into each other you might actually discover a quark (don’t mind the lame humour….if you get it even, haha).

I hope to blog more often now, and keep things alive so I don’t lose all my readers

Reconnecting with Family

I’ve been home for over a week now. The weather has definitely been better in Vancouver, but oh well

I have some family visiting from England, my aunt (my mom’s sister), uncle and their 2 daugthers. Another of our cousins got married over the weekend, and they came to attend the wedding. That last time I saw the older of my 2 cousins was back in 94, and the younger one a few years back, but we never really had a chance to talk. Needless to say, I’ve been busy over the past week. Its been a lot of fun reconnecting with them, since our mothers are sisters we been have a good laugh at their expense :p My mom is the second eldest, while my aunt is the second youngest, in a clan of 7 kids, we laugh at how my mom bosses my aunt around. All around though, it was just good to connect with immediate family again.

My cousins have been through a lot in life and those experiences have made them very independant. It allowed us to connect at a more realistic level, and not just horse around or be fake, if you know what I mean. Not to say we didn’t go out, and have fun, or stay home and just chill, or play with my kids, we did all that as well. I have to admit it was a fun week and I am sad to see them go back home tomorrow, but I will definitely keep in touch with them on going.

Now, gotta get back to cooking. Since they have been here I haven’t cooked a thing, just been going to my parents for dinner every night