Well today has been another quiet day. Weather was not very great - rained early in the morning and then was cloudy and windy most of the day with a few sunny breaks - not conducive to working in the garden. Actually the last four days - since Aymn left - have not been great for working out doors and I promised him I would get some work done - thought he would be gone for at least a week - but should have known better - he is on his way back - crossed the border a couple of hours ago - now I will never hear the end of my not getting the yard work done - oh well - such is life in the fast lane. Would have done it - but the weather has been really quite windy and chilly - did manage to get the garden watered - ended up getting quite wet myself because it was so windy - and even got Popeye a bit of a shower - not sure he appreciated it much. Since there is not really a lot of news to report I will put some pics of the garden in the blog - so you can see what we have - of course the pics were taken last year in the fall - and it looked much better then than it does now - most things have gone to sleep - with the exception of the weeks. We still have some hibiscus blooming and the geraniums are doing really well. Anyway - hope you enjoy the pictures.



One of these days I am hoping to get some pics taken of the apartment and then I will give you a tour of the new (well sort of) place. Just need to get my mind and time going at the same time - I always think of it at night -and of course it will be better to take pictures during the day.

Okay, this is view is on the east side of the balcony - looking south - kind of - not really sure of the accuracy of the north-south line. But you can see the gazebo Aymn had built, one of these years we are hoping that the bouganvilla, jasmine and other plants will cover it and make a nice shaded area.

This view is along the south side of the balcony - notice the tall building on the right side of the balcony wall - well it was 18 floors high - but a new governor came in and is enforcing the building code that no buildings can be higher than 11 floors, and he is not open to bribes - so that building had to have seven floors taken off - needless to say the governor is not in favour with all the builders - they arelosing money. In the foreground is the rose garden - there are 50 little rose bushes planted, quite a sight when they are blooming - a real disaster for weeding though.



Another view of the gazebo - to the left at the corner is one of the norfolk island pine trees that Aymn bought for me after I noticed them at a 'garden centre' and commented how much I liked them. He came home with two of them a few days later.









One of my favourite plants - love the two colours on one bush - unfortunately the plant is quite brittle and the winds destroyed both of them - will get two more - and stake them up so the wind does not knock them about so much - will also make sure they are planted much deeper.

And of course a picture of my favourite gardener, he spends a lot of time looking after his babies, in this picture he is washing down the balcony, needless to say I am quite happy to leave this chore to him - only fair as it was his bright idea to have such an elaborate garden.

ARGH - do not like it when these programs will not cooperate with me. Could not manage to add the photos to the previous post - so will add them as a P.S.




Decided not to include a pic of sulky sue - as I do not have her permission - not that she would ever find out - but you know.

At the right is a pic of the birthday girl - she is a real sweety - she turned 10 today actually (the 24th) - sitting behind her is Aunt Mahasan.

Next up is a pic of my two SIL - Gehan is on the left and Suzanne is on the right - Suzanne is the one who lives in my building - she is a real life saver.

Here is the naughty picture - Uncle Samir and I - he is such a sweety:

Well here it is Saturday evening. Managed to get the apartment tidied up before I was hauled off to the b'day party yesterday evening. Good time was had by all - at leat I think it was - although I do not think Aymn's daughter was happy - she had this scowl on her face - especially prominent after I arrived - and then the dance started - her evading me at all costs - managed to get a few shots of Ms. Mary Sunshine on my camera - will endeavour to include one of them - much laughter was happening - it is great to see the family together and enjoying each other's company. I managed to embarrass Uncle Samir - will attach the photo and let you see for yourself.

Today has been a quiet day - the elevator went out of commission last night whilst I was at the party - so much to my horror (not really) I actually had to walk up four flights of stairs - was good for me - they are currently working on the elevator right now - so no elevator for the day. And on top of that I did not have internet connection until around 4:30 p.m. - after I had messaged Aymn and told him I had no internet - he called the internet guy (Aymn is in Libya) and found out that he had hooked up the internet feed box to the elevator as a power source - and since the elevator was out - so was the internet - so he told the guy to hook it up to our power - wonder if we will get a discount - not likely - but one can always dream. As soon as the internet was up and running my 13 year old nephew Mahmoud was up to get online to play his game - he was here for two hours - must say he certainly has more time than sense - but then not my call to make - although I know his parents are despairing - as his marks are starting to slide - gotta love teenagers - I am so glad that mine is 25. Last night at the party there were a couple of little girls - man I was so glad that mine is 25 - no more running around, screaming - I am much to old for that.

Managed to get some laundry done, washed down the bathroom and even managed to water the garden - need to do up a few dishes and clean up the kitchen again. I think I am going to head to bed early so that I can get some sleep - last night was a bust as far as sleep was concerned - woke up with a major headache - have had it all day. Need to get some sleep so that I am feeling better tomorrow - I do not like feeling like this.

I really do want to get busy and start getting more exercise - I just keep putting it off - mother of procrastination.

Well time has flown by. Unfortunately or fortunately, depending on how you want to look at things I have not really had time to make any entry in my blog because Aymn was around so much. He has taken to spending the morning with me - no matter if it is my day or not - he does not like to stay home alone and when it is his day with his family they are at school/work all morning until around 3 p.m. He has also taken to spending every evening with his kids - spends 6 hours with them studying - not sure how that works - but - I have a real funny feeling that he likely spends a fair bit of his time glued to the TV - as he is kept much to busy here to watch a lot of TV - and he certainly goes through withdrawal when he does not get to watch all his TV shows, news, documentaries - whatever. His sons have been running him a merry chase - unfortunately I 'caught' them - and all heck broke loose. He is one very stressed out man - I sure do feel sorry for him and the kids. It seems that my cowife has decided that she is no longer going to be a parent - but a best friend to the kids - so all the discipline is landing on Aymn. And unfortunately the kids are paying the ultimate price and it really tears me apart seeing what is happening to his kids. His children are quite obnoxious - but that can be laid at their parent's door - Aymn and Amel have certainly failed them in a lot of ways. Last Thursday I noticed that his eldest son had been online - after having been told he could not go to the cybernet - commented on it to Aymn - and he basically called me a liar - after all his kids would not disobey him like that - so needless to say I took umbrage - and had a shower and went to bed. After thinking about it - he opted to go home and see what was going on - he went home and eldest son denied having gone to the cybernet - as did the youngest one - but Aymn contacted his two eldest nephews - who were staying at my MIL' place - and they both confirmed that both of Aymn's sons had joined them at the cybernet. Discipline followed - and the youngest one recanted and also included his big brother in the mess. Well big brother continued to refuse to admit that he had lied and that he had been at the cybernet. Aymn did not return back to our home - I called him at 2:30 a.m. to find out what was going on - and he did not answer - called him three times - and he finally sent me a text message saying he had overreacted with eldest son and would talk to me later - needless to say I was some ticked - as it was my day and night - but I am learning that my time is not of much importance - whenever something happens at home with the kids he is gone - but when something crops up with me - I am on my own. Great life - will be interesting to see how long I choose to live like this. I am still working on making myself happy and letting go of the rest - as I cannot change Aymn - I need to work on changing myself. Not meeting with a lot of success on this - really need to get my butt in gear and get out and get some exercise - either that or find some money and get myself a treadmill - should look around for one and see about getting one - because I know that if I had a treadmill I would get up and get moving in the morning - but the thought of getting fully dressed / covered from head to toe to go out walking does not hold much appeal - but either way I need to make a decision and get things moving. Of course today really helped - have spent most of the day baking - make rice krispie squares - for my niece Mawada's b'day party tonight - the family really likes them - and also made matrimonial squares as I have lots of dates and also made brownies - and all I really want to make is a spice cake - should have just made one and had done with it - will take a lot of the stuff to club on Monday and share it with my friends - LOL.

Weather here has been quite good. Have had a few days of wind and rain - but I have managed to spend a few hours sitting out on the balcony enjoying the sun - even have some colour - Aymn does not like me going out on the balcony wearing my shorts and big t-shirts - he is worried about me - yeah right - he is worried that someone might see me and connect me to him and think badly of him. I told him when I bought this place that in my own home I do not cover - unless I have company - and I consider the balcony to be part of my home. And when I am sitting outside the 'men' are at work and the only people I see out on balconies are women hanging their clothes out - so it is not a big deal. Sometimes there are men working on the roof of the apartments around here - but they are far enough away - and besides they should not be looking - but of course that is not acceptable. God forbid that a man should follow the edict set out in the quran to avert his eyes - no it is up to the woman to cover herself from head to toe - now that is another topic that I am not going to get into any further.

I am babysitting my g/f Sharon's animals while she is stateside. I am now the proud sitter of an Amazon parrot named Popeye - he is a real character - can get quite noisy when he feels he is being neglected - and then there is the cat - named Cleo - she has been here for 3 weeks and is finally getting used to it - so I am actually seeing more of her - to the point of tripping on her as she wraps herself around my feet - and then there is the turtle - Myrtle - who lives on the balcony - she is not much trouble at all and last but not least is the fish - no name - he is very quiet also. I will endeavour to include a pic or two of Popeye - as I said he is a real character - loves to be held - and if your hands are busy and you cannot scratch his head he will rub his head against my cheek. And when your hands are not busy he loves to have his head scratched and goes "OH YEAH" - real character. Notice how Aymn is leaning away from him - he was afraid that Popeye might take a nibble out of his ear - lol. You can see a bit of our garden behind Aymn - one of these days I will take some photos of the new place - and the garden and add them to the blog. He is right now trying to get my attention - by talking away.