Monday, April 28, 2008

Easter with my Husband


Today I celebrated Easter with my husband and his family…

Mom and dad are out of town. They headed to the north coast along with their friends for a couple of days. My brothers stayed with Granny at home, and I enjoyed the day at El-Ahly Gezira Club Down Town… where the atmosphere was cheerful, the weather’s warm and sunny, and the company was nice.

I remembered back in the days how we used to celebrate Easter all as one family… We had many customs and good habits…

We used to wake up early at 9:00 in the morning and find mom boiling us many eggs and prepared all the colors we can use to draw on our eggs… On one condition (We have to eat the eggs we’ve colored).

I always hated boiled eggs, but Easter Day is an exception… The colored egg looked so tempting and tasted delicious with salt and cumin, on a condition that the yolk has to be hard and well done.

I competed with Mohammad, my brother, on who’ll make the best drawing and colors on his egg. I usually drew a clown or a man with a very big mustache or a blond girl with heavy make-up… I really can’t remember why I was influenced by those three drawings?!
Sometimes I ask my mom to make me a drawing or a shape, and this used to make me soooo happy. And sometimes my brother Mohammad let me draw for him.

After we finish coloring, drawing, and eating, we wash up and put on our summer colorful clothes and head to (El-Mokkatam) hill.

It used to feel so dizzy and frightening to see our car moving up so close to the cliff, but even though, we used to enjoy watching Cairo from the top in that pure and warm weather.

We probably go to El Galaa Club afterwards which was near to our old apartment at Heliopolis, or go to visit grandma and grandpa and eat salted fish, sardine, and anchovies with tomatoes and onions.

As for Easter Celebrations at our school, we used to make cards and draw colored eggs and bunnies… I sucked at drawing bunnies.. and I still suck.
But Mom was very happy with my cards and my drawings, that she’s hanged them on the fridge.

Those memories though they seem so far, but they still are very clear in my head and make me so happy and eager to have the same customs with my future kids:)))

Friday, April 25, 2008

The swing


Sometimes I feel life is like a swing… It goes up high, then it goes down… then it stops, all so quickly.

In order to move it again you need to push hard… either you’ll need the help of somebody, or try to move your shoulders back and fro hard in order to feel the motion again.
I never thought about that when I was a kid, swinging was so much fun and so was life. But when I got older… I could never find the place where they allow big girls my age to swing or to enjoy life!!
I need to swing like I did before… but it’s a dream of course.

It was a time of freedom, no responsibilities.

No one to judge you or judge your actions, No worries about money, the end of the month, paying the bills and the installments… Thinking about cooking, cleaning, working, finishing my articles, taking a day off to spend it only with my husband, organizing the budget, shopping for groceries, ironing our clothes…

Thinking about our ups and downs, good days and bad days, people we should pay visits, family and friends events… OH, MY GOD… Do I think that much?!

I wish I had a swing to put it in my garden in the backyard… I wish I had a garden and a backyard actually… and a big house of course…

I really need to find a swing which could take my age and my weight (I’m fit and not fat at all)…
I need to energize and revive that feeling when I was young… So if anyone knows where can I find a swing (FOR ADULTS) here around Cairo… please tell me.

I need to swing to throw all the heavy stuff and bad memories off my shoulders… I need to swing to feel fun, fabulous, and free again.

Sunday, April 6, 2008

Anti soda … Anti COLA!!


After I got married exactly a year ago, I started eating a lot of junk food, drinking a lot of soda, especially dark (coke and Pepsi), and got so passionate about eating lots of chocolate, cream, and fatty food.

My body has always been perfect and my weight is uniquely adequate and I knew I don’t have the tendency to gain weight because that comes from my Family genes… We simply don’t gain weight that easy and we have no fat members in the whole family (from the side of mother and father).

I started noticing about 10 kilos more in my weight.
All the new clothes I bought right before my marriage is not fitting anymore… I lost my flat belly… Everywhere is full of fat… I’m not that active and slim girl who used to eat whatever she wants, then lose all the carbs and calories, by running and walking and even practicing some exercises at home.

But after marriage, I stopped having long walks, stopped eating my mom’s healthy food, and never stopped eating EVERYTHING!!!

During Anxiety and stress, I let it all go with a bar of stuffed chocolate… And of course about more than 1 litre a day of SODA… My fridge is always full of sweets, chocolate, and lots of soda. And when soda specifically run out, I plead to my husband to buy me some from a kiosk at our street that stays 24 hrs open, and sometimes that happens at 4:00 a.m.!!!

The day I clean my home, I usually find not less than 10 cans of soda all around the place, in the living room, in our bedroom, on the dresser, on the floor… it was so pathetic!

So it turned into addiction, which is a disaster by all means.

I decided last month to stop and start this new phase on the 1st of April… No coke and definitely No Soda… I’ll try hard to do my best, and that’s with the help of my family and specifically my husband.

When he orders me food now, He exchanges the coke with fresh orange juice along with my combo, when I feel thirst I drink water or juice or make tea.

Now it’s the sixth day and I’m still going good and doing great till now… I’m drinking canned apple juice now and mmm… blogging of, course!

So see you again tomorrow.. Bye:)

Tuesday, April 1, 2008

April’s Fool, Not that Cool


Today’s April’s fool… I used to remember that date and prepare some funny tricks with my friends and sometimes we just make jokes and laugh about it.

But there’s that year at school when we decided to take it real serious, and it actually went sooo far. WAY TOO FAR:)))

I remember it was our last year before getting to join high school, and we were a group of friends (4 of us), Fatema (She’s now married with 2 kids), Amira (Also married with 2 kids), and Heba (I don’t that much about her now), and of course me.

We used to call ourselves (Jet Set) and I really can’t remember why?!

Back to April’s Fool … It was Heba’s idea I guess, then it grew in our minds, and the least one who joined or approved was Amira as usual (She was the school’s angel, but being with us all the time I guess that didn’t last long).

Oh… Here is the idea… We have to get cockroaches (Real Big American Ones. Actually those who swim in the sewage pumps!!!) and then let some free in the classroom and put some in certain girls’ bags:(((

You see how cruel and dirty?!

Heba managed to have a deal with her doorman; she gave him some money so he’d gather some cockroaches and put them in a glass jar.

When the deal was done and April fool’s arrived, everything was prepared. A very big jar with about 7 big cockroaches (Our little beasts) was prepared to blow everybody’s minds, the problem was that we ourselves were so frightened and disgusted, so we decided that we’ll leave only three alive and kill the rest.

Heba handled all the dirty work. She opened up the jar and 1,2,3… she let go of only four (I really can’t remember how’s she done it?!)… they ran free and we chased them and then crushed them with our shoes… YUUUGHH!!

Those who were killed were put on four girls desks. The 3 that were left alive, one was put in a girl’s pen case, and two in others bags… of course we used tweezers to move them from the jar to their new places!

It was a disastrous day… Screams in the classroom, girls running in the corridors, a girl somewhere vomiting and others are crying… We created a real mess.

It was hilarious for us and horrifying for others… but when we all used to remember it we laughed till our stomach aches… Girls… We’re sorry for that (after 12 years now) but we couldn’t help it… Happy April’s Fool:))