Saturday, October 14, 2006

Now that I’m feeling a little better…

Today is a brighter day. My head’s not as stuffed and my nose is almost swell-free. My ears aren’t killing me and I think I’m getting there. Unfortunately, I believe I’ve given my germs to the boy as he started sniffling last night.

Anyway, now that I’m feeling a little better, I thought I’d share a few pictures I took with my mobile while I was there. I haven’t bothered to upload the ones from my camera, cause to be honest, I didn’t have the right charger (or adapter for the charger) and there aren’t many on there.

But here’s one of the things I love most about Canada.

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…the absolutely beautiful outdoors.

I took these while on the ferry from Vancouver to Vancouver Island. I swear, there is no place on the planet that’s as beautiful as British Columbia, Canada. At least not a place as beautiful that I’ve seen, nor that my parents have seen, who are pretty much world travelers by now.

It’s funny how you don’t realize how much you’re missing until it’s really gone. Since my trip, there’s a lot I want to share and a lot I’ve been thinking about but I simply don’t have the energy or will to bother just yet. What’s the point, when you know few are listening and fewer care?

8 Comments:

Blogger MASS said...

Verily! In the creation of the heavens and the earth and in the alternation of night and day, there indeed signs for those of understanding

Those who remember Allah (always in their prayers) standing, sitting and lying down on their sides, and think deeply about the creation of the heavens and the earth, (saying)"Our Lord! You have not created (all) this without purpose, glory to You, give us salvation from the torment of Fire.

Our Lord! Verily, whom You admit to the Fire, indeed, you have disgraced him, and never will the transgressors find any helpers.

Our Lord! Verily, we have heard the call of one (Muhammad PBUH) calling to Faith "Belive in your Lord" and we have believed. Our Lord! Forgive our sins and remit from us our evil deeds, and make us die in the state of righteousness with Al-Abrar (this who are obediant to Allah, follow strictly His orders)

Our Lord! Grant us what You promissed unto through Your Messengers and disgrace us not on the Day of Resurrection for You never break (Your) Promise

So their Lord accepted of them (their sublication and answered them)"Never will I suffer to be lost the work of any of you, be he male or female.

3:16 PM, October 14, 2006  
Blogger nzm said...

Good news that you’re on the mend!

Great pics, and you're right, there's beauty that you never realise is missing in the Sandlands until you visit somewhere like Canada - or New Zealand - or Germany! lol. But each place has its merits, and the UAE also has some magical places - you just have to get out of Dubai to find them, and they can't be found on everyday trips like ferry rides!

I'll soon be posting some of my images from our recent week spent in the German countryside.

What’s the point, when you know few are listening and fewer care?

To answer this, you'd need to ask yourself why you blog, and what's the motivation?

For me, it was to put stuff out there on our blog for our family and friends to read and catch up with what we're up to. Over the past year this has proven to be detrimental, because I feel that once it's on the blog, I don't have to tell them about it in any other way - it's there on the blog, read it! However, not all of them do read our blog, so now they feel neglected and unloved because I haven't personally contacted them to tell them what we're doing - they feel ignored!

There's nothing to replace personal contact and building relationships with people who value you and care for you, and blogging to a largely anonymous audience will never replace that. So I'm back to writing personal email letters to all my friends and family, as well as blogging (albeit less often at the moment) because I like to see my results and it's now a hobby.

I have met some wonderful people through my blogging - both in person and in cyberspace. You quickly get to know which bloggers you connect/identify with by their personal values and ethics that often show through in their writings, and are similar to my own.

At the risk of offending some of them, as I know that some do read your blog, I can say that while I am honoured to call them my friends, I haven't yet formed a close relationship with any of them that comes anywhere close to the friendships that I have with my longtime friends, or members of our family. That's not to say that I wouldn't drop everything and rush off to help them if they needed my assistance, because that's exactly what I would do.

But each of these people has their own private network of closer friends and family to turn to before they would need my help, and that’s the difference between the relationship that I have with most members of the blogging community and the one that I have with my friends and family network. Right now, it's more distant, disconnected and less personal – and maybe more time spent getting to know some of them will change this, but it needs the time to develop.

In short, (and as I’m known for my verbosity, hardly anything that I write is in short! lol), I don’t expect the blogging community or visitors to our blog to care about us anywhere near the level of concern that is shown by our closer family and friends.

Our choice is that I also don’t blog about any personal issues that are affecting us, and believe me, at the moment there’s a lot of crap going on for us. We prefer to share this info in a more personal manner – face-to-face, phone calls, chats, emails - with people who we know can help us, steer us in the right direction or offer us advice on what to do next.

If your choice is to blog, then do it for yourself and without any expectation that you will receive anything from anybody else in return. In this way, you can’t/won’t be disappointed!

Blog because you want to blog!

4:30 PM, October 14, 2006  
Blogger Tainted Female said...

Q8ti… I hope Ramadan is treating you and yours well.

Nzm… I think I have too many faces for me to handle, let alone others. Lol. Those who have followed my blog from the start can probably notice the total change in tone, far more than just once in this book.

To be honest, I was probably just feeling a little depressed when I wrote this. As most people know, I started this blog out of sheer boredom. While I was away, I realized just how deep I got into pointless debates around here and how much time I actually wasted on them. There are so many other things I could and should be doing otherwise. (Can you believe that while I was in Canada and not blogging, I still got emails concerning past debates or current things people thought I’d be interested in debating? More of them than I would have guessed.)

I started out of boredom, to share my opinion, which is vastly different from the majority of expats here. I wanted to stir things up, because honestly, most UAE based blogs do nothing but bash this place. The responses almost always turned into nasty debates and prior to me leaving I had a rather large audience; most of which simply loved to hate me. Debating is all good and fine and I can even handle people hating me without knowing me, but most people debating around here don’t even seem to attempt to understand a conflicting view, let alone accept that it exists. And many more have formed cliques, so once one person decides not to like you, the rest follow. So, nothing gets changed in any form despite all the time spent. Believe it or not, I’m not that bad a person and I can’t warrant wasting the time. I simply don’t believe in being fake (even if real isn’t always pretty), and I guess that looks really bad to some.

Right now, I just don’t see the point in it all. Maybe that’s why my tone has changed once again and a lot of what I’m writing is more personal and not political? I don’t know, really.

Welcome back form Germany. I can’t wait to see the photos. I agree with you, the UAE has some serene places like no other as well. But I swear, when you get off the plane in BC the first thing you notice is how sweet the air smells – I guess from all the lakes & greenery. Did you know that Canada has more fresh water lakes than the rest of the world combined? You just feel like it’s a healthier place to be. I’m pretty sure if it weren’t for my son, and the boy… I’d have stayed on the natural grounds alone despite my dislikes for so many other things there.

Thank you for your thoughts. You really gave me something to think about, didn’t you?

2:28 AM, October 15, 2006  
Blogger Tainted Female said...

Nzm… I wanted to send a note your way about this, ’ and believe me, at the moment there’s a lot of crap going on for us. We prefer to share this info in a more personal manner – face-to-face, phone calls, chats, emails - ‘, but realized you don’t have an email listed. Just thought I’d let you know I can be another shoulder to share with if you need one or you’d like.

2:36 AM, October 15, 2006  
Blogger Shaykhspeara Sha'ira said...

My parents say the same. They loved British Columbia and Prince Edward Island as well.

The pics remind me of Sweden.

4:19 AM, October 15, 2006  
Blogger Unknown said...

TF: Thank you for posting these great pictures of the beautiful outdoors. It's so serene and calm, so tempting a sight, so pristine & calm, it just makes me want to escape from the hustle-bustle fast paced life we live in.

'What’s the point, when you know few are listening and fewer care?'

Well, you have no idea how much we missed your posts while you were out in Canada - so blog your heart away because we're the biggest subscriber to your posts.

NZM: Even I couldn't have said it in a better way than you just wrote here. We're 'like minds' when you say blog because you want to and not because you expect anything in return. I know exactly what Sunshine would say after reading your comments here 'Very-down-to-earth, intellectually superior - a rare find these days'.

TF: This applies to you too kiddo :D

9:30 AM, October 15, 2006  
Blogger purchasewoods said...

I am so glad that you got to ride on the ferry. And it looks wonderful. I'm now feeling homesick. lol! But when I go back I get homesick for here. Dilemas.

Hope you are 100% very soon.

xx

3:06 PM, October 16, 2006  
Blogger nzm said...

Tainted: thanks so much for the offer - it's really appreciated. Right now, it's all about lawyers and share sales - all business and on the personal front we're as strong as ever!

We're still in Germany, but would definitely love to catch up with you when in Dubai. Can't say when that will be, but it will happen!

Thanks again.

9:03 PM, October 17, 2006  

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