Interview

Tomorrow.
4pm.

Its a job I reallyyyyyyyyyyyyyy want to do.
Not a job.
A carreer!!!
I really want to do well.

Will report on what happened tomorrow when its over.

Just When You think nothing can go wrong...

After 3 days stuck at home, a miserable baby who won't sleep or eat AND paying 174Euros for a new car seat, this morning I was really looking forward to going to the market with my aunt. The irritable baby seemed happy to be going out as well.
This evening I had planned on leaving ym daughter with my mother while I go for a yoga lesson and then go for a coffee with my book, wind down a bit, not hear any crying and whimpering after being stuck with a miserable baby 24/7. I was just sooo delighted this morning.

So, in bright sunshine, smiling and delighted, I buckled the shining new car-seat, prepared a few ice-cubes of pureed vegetables, and set out.

GROAN

My car wouldn't start.
The guy from the garage next door said the battery is flat.

Now I've been getting a lot of flat batteries lately - not because I forget the lights on or anything, simply the battery is old and is dying when I don't use the car for more than a couple of days.

So now - 35-40 Euros for a new battery. When I'm still on unpaid maternity leave.
On top of the lawyer's fees.
Constantly buying nappies and milk.
Clothes for the baby.
The new car seat.

And I'm stuck at home with the baby tonight as well, so much for the planned yoga lesson and coffee break away from home!

Keith Ellison

Yesterday HardTalk on BBC interviewed Keith Ellison - a black Muslim Democrat Congressman from Minnesota. He was articulate and gave good applaudable answers with respect to medical insurance, medicine availability, education. Being a Muslim convert he was sworn in using Thomas Jefferson's Koran. Virgil Good, the Virginian Congressman shot off his mouth saying something alongside the lines of Let one do it, they'll all be doing it. The United States has proved to be a success story in multi-culturalism. Irish, Italians, Hispanics, Natives, Creoles, Blacks, Pakistanis, Indians, Arabs, Chinese, Japanese, Jews, and more, all flooded there and live together peacefully. Agree or disagree with the War on Iraq, the same is being attempted in Iraq. A country artificially planned in the Treaty of Versailles, without thought to the different population denominations that make it up - the hope is that will be the next America of the Middle East - where Shiia, Sunni, Kurd, Christian, What-Not live together in peace, in a modern democracy that respects the different needs of the different people making up the state.

MashaAllah / God Bless

She's beautiful.
Everyday she learns something new.

One day we'll travel to Libya together - I'll take her to her Grandfather, the dear old Baba Salem's grave, I pray for him and still love him like my own father, whatever happened with his son.

We'll travel a lot together - Finland to meet Santa Claus, Euro Disney, and if she loves the ballet like her mother does, and dances it as well as her mother did (until I became too fat for ballet) we'll go to Russia together.

I won't bother her with too much religion.
She's too young for that.

I'll teach her values - to ba a good girl with values, with love in her heart, with wisdom in her head, with compassion in her speech.
That's a good Muslimah. That's a good Christian girl. That's a good Jewess, even. A good whatever.
Goodness transcends religious denomination.

Everyday Life

Aminah and I are doing great.

The little everyday things we do together.
Wake up, feed of cereal; we go to the shops, play together, then we do some fresh vegetable purees, she sleeps an hour while I take care of the clothes and some other errands that need to be run.

In the evening my parents come home from work, more playing with Anna, more activities together - sometimes we go out; for a walk, to visit relatives, or we stay at home reading stories.

She sleeps, I stay up for some more hours reading a good book (I'm back to reading Jeffrey ARcher adventures, after a long time reading heavy literature by the likes of Ian McEwan and Zadie Smith) or watching television.

Yes, that's the time I most miss Ali - the Ali I married in the beginning who talked to me and joked with me, not the Ali he had became towards the end.

Time to fall in love again....???

Ali's been gone for more than 2 months now. Sometimes I find myself thinking about him - of our walks in Sabratha, of his coffee with two sugars, his voice, his singing in the shower...

But sometimes I find myself thinking forward.


My old friend Carlos.
The attraction was there. We always found each other great company. But he is 10 yrs older than me, and he was divorced with a daughter, so back before Ali, it was a tall order, and we kept it as friends.

But now...

We're meeting in London very soon. He's as excited as I am that we're meeting again, and while I'm making coffee, I don't just think, Ali likes two spoons of sugar, but I think, Hmm, Carlos doesn't like sugar.

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday, Dear Elena,
Happy Birthday to you.


I will only sing with the typewriter, not with my voice

London Calling

Yipeeeee!!!!

My Aunt Maria is going to London for a week, and has invited me to join. As it is the week of my birthday my parents are paying my airticket, so I only need to bother about the accomodation, food, and spending money to get some nice clothes and toys for my baby. Malta is quite a small market, so we don't get a lot of the brands one finds in the UK.

Also my friend Carlos, half Spanish half Puerto Rica has a month of holidays so he is going to join me there for the week. Our frienship goes back many year, so it is going to be funny fighting over politics and playing practical jokes.

I just sooooo love my family, they are really great, and they are giving me so much support now that I need them, even though I hurt them a lot when I chose Islam over what they had given me. They didn't turn their backs on me, but accepted our differences and are being a rock of strength for me.
I can't wait to be in the UK. Normally, London is definately not my favourite city, but I know I'm going to enjoy it a lot this time.

Messy Monster

And that's just the beginning