Weekend In Pictures

I had a relatively quiet weekend. Other then being sad over the train accident in Egypt and being pissed off at inconsiderate and rude people, it was an enjoyable family-bonding weekend.

Me and my husband take turns sleeping in on the weekend. So Satruday was my day to get some zzzzzzs. Woke up at 9am to this scenario:

Push harder

Apparently my 6 year old has decided to abuse the free labor of his 15 month old brother.

I had a healthy breakfast of Indian Figs.

Yes it’s an IKEA knife. I love that store, always have. Even if I had never worked there I would have still loved it.

If you don’t know this fruit I suggest you go out right now and buy some. While they don’t look that appealing, they taste like heaven; not overly sweet with interesting textures. They are one of my favorite fruits, along with pomegranate and guava. I used to buy them off street carts in Egypt during the hot steamy months of July and August. And eating these symbolizes the long lazy months of summer, the salty breezes and pure white beached filled weekends by the Mediterranean in the North Coast. Be careful when cutting them though, they have some nasty splinters embedded in their skin. Says the lady who had to pull them out of her fingers one too many times.

We then got dressed and went to our local Registry where I sat for, and passed, the written driver’s exam. I now have to wait 3 weeks for my Egyptian license to be approved and I can sit for the practical exam. Which I’m pretty sure I’ll fail at least twice. To further understand why I am positive I will fail, even though I’ve been driving for 12 years, look up Egyptian drivers and traffic. Well, at least I have my learners permit which I can use once we get our car. We finalized the paperwork of said car on Saturday. We’re currently looking at the Nissan Rogue (anyone out there would like to tell us what it’s like?) and keep your fingers crossed, but we may have a car by next week. That means no more walking around with 10kilos of groceries in -15 degree weather.

My driver’s license (yay)! And the car we’re thinking of buying

Then it was off to Boston Pizza for dinner (more of that here). And our weekly grocery shopping whereupon we froze while we puffed and huffed to carry our food home. See above paragraph.

Give me a smile…..

Adam multitasking; drinking and coloring at the same time.       

Sunday, we took a walk around the neighborhood where Adam got to ride his bike and Jo took a nap.

We’re tapering off from two naps to one with Jo and he’s giving me pure and utter hell about it. There are days where he will sit in his bed for hours but stubbornly refuse to sleep. And Sunday was one of them. So going for a walk was the only way we could guarantee he would sleep.

You can’t make me sleep.

We ended up walking quiet a bit and decided to stop by the nearby shopping center for a cup of coffee. I went to Second Cup because it was closer than Starbucks and remembered how much I love Second Cup. Other than the fact it’s Canadian, which in itself makes it awesome, they have great coffee. Plus they are so much more cozier. Check out their Christmas display. I love it.

And look at those the Britto mugs. So pretty!

Anyway I had a caramel cappuccino. Which was really good and pretty useful for the walk home in long sleeved T-shirt and -2 weather. Unfortunately, by the time we got home it was iced cappuccino.

But memo to self; I need to go to Starbucks less and start going to Second Cup more.

My (hot) caramel cappuccino

All in all it was a great weekend. Productive, fun and relaxing. Just my kind of day (days?). Makes me all set for the beginning of the week. So crazy week, here I come!

 

 

Shameful Apologies & Confessions

I’ve been bad. Very, very bad.

I’ve been absent for two whole weeks. Even though I promised myself over and over agin I would stick with this thing to the end (like that’s never happened before).

Anyway I have a multitude of reasons that I’ve been gone. The first thing is our container finally arrived from Egypt and I had a houseful of this stuff to take care of:

Ironically I assumed that once our stuff arrived, my house would feel more settled and less depressing. Ironically I found out that I packed way too many clothes and toys and way too little furniture. The only piece of actual furniture we brought with us is a large sectional couch which turned out too big for our living room. So we’re still sitting on cushions on the floor. Looks like this house will be a loong work in progress. Let’s hope we don’t move before I finish – or maybe we move before I start?

The second thing that has kept me very busy is Eid.

Happy Eid to everyone out there who celebrated it. The whole Eid celebration and crafts cooking thing is gonna be a whole (or maybe two) other post, but until then I thought I would make a shameful happy comeback and tell you about a moment I had yesterday. Actually make that two moments.

I was watching the Glee (yes you found out my shameful secret – I like Glee) ‘Break-Up’ episode yesterday and the William/Emma fight scene hit a little bit too close to home. When Emma responds to Will’s query of

“I thought you were supportive of this?”

“I am because I know how much this means to you. But this is for you. I didn’t know you just expected me to drop my entire life…. I don’t want to sit alone in some hotel room somewhere while you’re off fulfilling your dreams.”

It just hit me that this is me. Don’t get me wrong, I approved of this move. Heck I even pushed for it, but I feel that everyone is off fulfilling their dreams while I’m stuck at home after giving up my whole life. Selfish I know. And mean, but what can I do?

Anyway I decided maybe it’s time for professional help to get out of this funk that I’m constantly in. So I manned up and called the counseling help line that my hubby’s work recommended in the re-location package. It took me half an hour of psyching myself and mustering the courage and when I finally did it I got an unanswered dial tone. Go figure.

So I leave you with the promise to be much better and post more frequently. And since I highly doubt a lot of people are reading this, that means I can break my promise easier, right?

Love and cheers

Labels & Kids; Can I Avoid ‘Nerd’, ‘Terrorist’ or ‘Stinky Pants’?

Yesterday I read an article about an American muslim mom (On Telling My Children They Are Not Terrorists) and what it was like growing up in Florida and what it’s like for her kids growing up now amidst all the ‘terrorist scares’. I have to admit I can totally understand. Well in a way I guess. Growing up in Toronto in the 80s and 90s, we obviously didn’t have the whole ‘terrorist’ issue to deal with. And my 5year old A. and 1 year J. are still not in any position to experience anything, being that we just moved from Egypt where they’ve been living all their lives.

But I can still relate. Growing up I always felt different. My parents weren’t like other parents. I couldn’t date, couldn’t drink, didn’t celebrate Christmas, Halloween, Easter and so on. Add to that my age difference (I skipped a year, so was the youngest girl in class), my different cultural and religious background and my social disabilities; I couldn’t (can’t) make friends easily and was a bit of a loner and rebel. I was pretty much a poster child for the classic unpopular geek/nerd portrayed in movies.

My parents relocated to Egypt when I was in junior high school. Which means that I don’t know how I would have blossomed had we continued in Canada. But I do know I blossomed in Egypt. Don’t get me wrong, I was still different. Not in terms of culture and religion but in pretty much every other aspect. And it’s back in egypt and the upper economic class that I grew up among that I started dating. And was subjected to drinking, drugs and such, maybe even more than I would have experienced in Canada. I was still the rebel, the nerd, the geek. But this time I rejoiced in the difference. I embraced it because it made me who I am.

And now I have kids and am back to square one. A. is a miniature copy of me in terms of character, temperament and personality, if not looks. In him I see all the trials and tribulations I went through as a child. And it cuts me up. I don’t want him to be lonely. I don’t want him to end up playing alone on the playground because he doesn’t know how to befriend kids. And now I have to add another worry to my list; I don’t want him labeled a terrorist, a savage or a backward.

Life always finds a way to catch up with us. So no matter how far you run, eventually you will have to face that big bad wolf one day. And my monster has arrived. So how does an ADHD, unsocial and awkward mama who currently has no friends in the city she lives in help her equally ADHD, unsocial and awkward son build his social skills? I don’t want him to be voted ‘most popular boy in school’. I just want him to have good and sincere friends he can always count on.

And on that note, I end my week. With the major challenge up ahead all I can do is try, keep my fingers crossed and hope for the best.

The Radio Ruined My Life Tonight

All day staring at the ceiling
Making friends with shadows on my wall
All night hearing voices telling me that
I should get some sleep
Because tomorrow might be good
For something 
Hold on feeling like I’m heading for a
Break down and I dunno why
I’m not crazy
I’m just a little unwell 
I know right now you can’t tell
But stay awhile and maybe then You’ll see 
A different side of me

Yep, it’s one of those days; a day where the struggle to battle depression and homesickness gets harder and harder. Being prone to strong bouts of depression is not a good thing to bring to a major life change like the cross-global move I just did. Some days it’s a struggle to get out of bed, others it’s not so bad. But I had been making some progress on the ‘trying-to-keep-upbeat’ front, mainly ever since re-starting this blog. I guess having a sense of purpose helps. But then yesterday my husband ‘accidentally’ reset my IPhone and I lost all the photos on it that I was working on for today’s post. Which means I subsequently lost it too. I got so mad and sad, it’s unnerving. I know I’m blowing things out of proportion but I just can’t pull myself above water again. And there is one person to blame for all this; the radio

The radio has not been helping. I usually listen to a lite FM station at home; mainly old and popular upbeat songs that will be fine for the kids to listen and dance to. Their tag-line even reads ‘The feel good station’. But they have definitely not been helping me feel good this morning. Playing songs like Matchbox’s Unwell (above) has been pulling me under even more. And it’s all because of that darn radio.

Yes, I’m petty and small and blaming the radio. After all, isn’t that better than blaming my husband?

Press Reset

So what’s new?

Nothing much; gave birth. Got mastitis – had an operation. Got my dream job, worked on my dream job for 6 months, travelled half of them, missed my family, missed my kids. Then my husband got his dream job – in Canada! Quit my dream job. Packed my life, my two kids and moved to Canada. Currently living in a city where I know no-one and no-one knows me. Have become the dreaded stay-at-home-mom/housewife. Career going no-where, social life non-existent and completely killed my sense of self.

But life is still good. So I’m back to blogging. Especially since I had to give up my weekly blog on Supermama. Up till now haven’t decided where this blog will head; parenting? Interior design? Life? Writing? Life as a transported expat?Who knows, maybe one of the above, maybe all of them, maybe none of them. Either way,  I’m on for the ride…