Friday afternon blogging

Do you know what day today is? Its Friday! And its a fabulous day outside too. And my eye is still twitching, blah. I got my visa yesterday (haha I just wrote tomorrow and then had to erase it). Yay! I don't think its truly sunk in yet. I'm excited about going, but I think its slowly going to build more and more. Travelling is so much fun. So many wonderous things to see and experience. At times I complain to myself about my life but really, I'm blessed to have so much and be able to do so many things. And I can't wait to see everyone in India either! The kids mostly but the adults too. I only have 8 days there and I know it will fly by too quickly. Lovely day, lovely day, lovely day, LoveLy day....thats all the song I can think of right now. This week has been really busy at work. Have to get a bunch of things done plus extra so things are queued up before I leave for the offshore team. Its good, I always get a lot more done when I have a lot on my plate. Still I could get more done if I felt more stress but I'm not feeling it right now. Which is too bad, I didn't work as hard as I could have and now to make the deadlines I need to make I'll have some work on the weekend. How come whenever I start a blog is when ppl start emailing and msg'ing me? hmm? Did I mention its only like 2.5 weeks til my vacation begins! I just need to book tickets to Toronto. I'm trying to go haha more. Because I've noticed I usually go hehe. Which is not a bad thing. I just want to do more than hehe. I should hopefully, inshaallah, be back in Toronto on April 14th. I don't have much time but let me know if you guys want to meet up. I'll do what I can. Maybe cause I was talking Benson and others recently about the University days and its a natural extension of that but. I miss Highschool too. I need to buy shoes. I've been saying that for ages now. But I now definitely need them before my trip. Any recommendations for a good pair of walking shoes? Ok, I can't do this blog right now cause I got too many emails coming in that I need to reply to (mostly from khanh, hehe email conversations again) and still some other stuff to finish too. So let me leave off with this story that I'm taking from my friends blog. Take care ppls. ps. Satan = devil for those that dont know. A man woke up early in order to pray the Fajr prayer in the masjid. He got dressed, made his aboloution and was on his way to the masjid. On his way to the masjid, the man fell and his clothes got dirty. He got up, brushed himself off, and headed home. At home, he changed his clothes, made his aboloution, and was, again, on his way to the masjid. On his way back to the masjid, he fell again and at the same spot! He, again, got up, brushed himself off and headed home. At home he, once again, changed his clothes, made his aboloution and was on his way to the masjid. Upon his third attempt to the masjid, he met a man holding a lamp. He asked the man of his identity and the man replied "I saw you fall twice on your way to the masjid, so I brought a lamp so I can light your way." The first man thanked him profusively and the two where on their way to the masjid. Once at the masjid, the first man asked the man with the lamp to come in and pray Fajr with him. The second man refused. The first man asked him a couple more times and, again, the answer was the same. The first man asked him why he did not wish to come in and pray. The man replied "I am Satan." The man was shocked at this reply. Satan went on to explain, "I saw you on your way to the masjid and it was I who made you fall. When you went home, cleaned yourself and went back on your way to the masjid, Allah forgave all of your sins. I made you fall a second time, and even that did not encourage you to stay home, but rather, you went back on your way to the masjid. Because of that, Allah forgave all the sins of the people of your household. I was afraid if i made you fall one more time, then Allah will forgive the sins of the people of your village, so i made sure that you reached the masjid safely." So do not let Satan benefit from his actions. Do not put off a good that you intended to do as you never know how much reward you might recieve from the hardships you encounter while trying to achieve that good.

ahmed the chef

Its been over a week again. I haven't been blogging consistently lately. Not even sure why, I haven't been that busy. Anyways, so whats new? Nothing much. I saw Chicago. I went with Umair (he was done for a couple days from Sauga), Aliza, and Anita? or Nita? Something like that, another waterloo'er down from sauga. So Chicago was good. I enjoyed it. It had J. Petterman from Seinfeld which was pretty cool, just to see someone you recognize up there. Didn't do much else with those guys though. Went to the show than just chilled and talked hanging out in Applebees for a couple hrs. It was fun. Its always nice when people from home come. And its always kinda sad when they leave. I'll be going home soon enough though. My visa will take 5-13 business days to go through but then I'll book my ticket back to Toronto. Can't wait for my trip. I'm excited! I really feel like I could use the break from work as well. This last week was pretty stressful. My right eye has started twitching. Just every now and again. Not sure why. Its happened before a couple times. It just goes away after a bit. And it only twitches a couple times a day I think. I was having an interesting conversation with Darrin a few days ago. Whats more important, loyalty or honesty? I think it depends on the situaiton and the people. But for the most part (i'm not going to get into detail cause i'm actually starting to feel pretty tired right now) loyalty is more important to me. I'm going to be loyal to the ppl I care about before I'm honest with a stranger. Though I do dislike lies in general. I cooked Queema today! Or Keema or ground beef or whatever you want to call it. AND it turned out alright! hehe, it didn't quite look right at the beginning. But kept at it and voila it was ok in the end. I just finished watching Rudy. I love that movie. Its very inspirational. Just belive in yourself. Keep working at it. And your dreams can come true. Just work hard and believe. I've always felt I could do anything i want. Though time has passed on a few things. I don't know, I just always thought, if I really wanted it I could do it (though of course there would be sacrifices). Ok, there was more I wanted to say. but i'm feeling parched, and tired. so i think i'll quit here. i'll write more later. 3 more weeks!

In this world there's real and make believe

Walking on, walking on broken glass..... Its been a week already eh. Just been busy I guess. Lets see, a quick recap first then. I left off on Friday. So friday I met up with Maria and I think we went for food. Then Saturday I met up with Romana, Romana, and Nadeem and I think we went for food. After that we met up with Zeeshan at a lounge for some ppls bday parties. I don't know who. The lounge was just kinda meh though so they decided to take off for hookah. But they were going to Queens and it was like 2am and so I just went home to Brooklyn. Sunday, I met up with Romana, Zeeshan, and I forget the name of the other girl, Zeeshans friend, for brunch. Mmm...pancakes. Though by the end of it I was pancaked out. I think I'm good on pancakes for a few months now. Anyhow, after brunch we tried catching a movie but I had plans for later that evening so I just went home. Took a nap, then later met up with Ikram and Ikhtiar for squash. I played fairly well, won more than I lost. but I guess I wasn't 100% healthy yet and I was so out of it by the end. Went home and just went to bed feeling pretty ill. Then Monday night Hillary and Vince came down. They crashed at our place til Wednesday. Didn't really get to hang out with them much cause work and stuff. But it was still nice to have guests and more ppl to talk to. hehe, Springtime for Hitler in germany! ahah I was suppose to meet up with them for dinner on wednesday actually, but Anojan mixed up the directions so that didnt end up happening. Oh well, I did manage to get my passport pictures made so I'm going to go apply for my visa next week. I'm excited! Only like 4 -5 weeks til my trip! yay! Thursday I met up with Maria for some Mexican food. I got the chicken fajita. Its cool, its rare I can find halal non desi (indian) food. It was good but i was really in the mood for tacos (tahts what i got for lunch today at chipotle heeh, veggie though). Then went for desert at tasti-de-lite (is that how its spelt?). Its good, but you know whats really good? Coldstone! Oh man, best ice cream place there is. Beats demetres easily. i went with Darrin, Jenn, Jane, Anojan when those guys were all down here. Any of you visiting NY seriously, go try it! Funny thing, I'm talking to maria and we are talking about donuts and I start talking about tim hortons. and i'm like i'm not a big donut person, i like tim bits. and she's obviously like what? i'm like a tim bit. its like this little round donut thingy. and she's like oh a munch in (or something like that) and now i'm like what? donut-hole. and i'm like ooooh. I still like the name Tim bit. interesting or coincidentallly, Ali msgs me today bout Tim Hortons going IPO soon....interesting....i may look into that. Another funny story. Ben, Bill, James are visiting Ruth for her bday. They stop at DQ to get her a cake. Caker person says "would you llike anything written on it?" Ben goes, "Happy Birthday Ruth!". Caker person: "R U T H?". Ben, turns around to james and bill, "huh? guys am I TH?" lol, its all good Ben. You'll always be English Wicked. Latest lyric stuck in my head: In this world there's real and make believe And this seems real to me I feel good today. It looks nice outside, though its still cold, but mostly I'm just basically feeling healthy again. I got 1 month to get in shape before my trip. Probably won't be anything significant, but I don't know. I'd like to be at least in better shape than I am now before I go see all my relatives again. I was so skinny last time I saw them. I can't wait. Traveling is so much fun. :)

ain't it good to be alive

Its been a long time. I've been sick thats why. Some sort of infection or something. Since last friday. Stayed home Monday and Tuesday. Went to work Wednesday. Then stayed home Thursday (worked from home though) and then back at work today. Feeling for the most part fine now. A bit of coughing, and some tiredness. but otherwise I feel good. Very good, the weather is great today. 22degrees! yay, I hope winter is gone. Plus I talked to Tom and got my time off for work so thats great. Only 6 more weeks or so and I'm gone! woohoo! Now I got to get my visa and look for flights and stuff though. Speaking of which, when I was sick, such a hassle. I actually finally (yes I've been here for like forever now but I was lazy) picked a doctor and dentist and medical coverage plan and all that stuff. I was uninsured the rest of the time. Dumb yes, i know. oh well. So after i selected, I was thinking to myself, I've been healthy all this time and watch, I'll get sick now. And dang man, it actually happened! And so I go to the doctor on Monday and my paperwork hadn't gone through yet, thats just great. Stupid visit to the doctors cost me $100 and and then meds cost me another $100. But my paperwork was submitted already so I just paid cash and I'll get refunded later. I also have to go for blood work. Oddly, I'm kinda looking forward to that. Just to see how I'm doing, making sure I'm healthy and all that. Seeing what I can improve upon. I did this online johari and nohari thing. If you haven't completed it yet for me, please do so. :) You can find it at: http://kevan.org/johari?name=Ahmedullah. Its basically just a personality thingy that lets me know what ppl think of me. I'm surprised by some ppl answers. But they all for the most part make sense if I think about it. I apparently don't have any dominant traits though. I'm glad I have a lot of different qualities and I don't know its neat, but I think I can work harder at being open and letting people know who I am. I think I have come a long way in recent years though. Judging by peoples responses. I can't remember what else I wanted to say. In the morning I had that song/scene from Greys Anatomy stuck in my head. The part where Christina and Burke are dancing. Hehe, I couldn't stop smiling and laughing. Put me in a good mood to start the day. Now I got the window wide open, nice breeze coming in and I'm in a good mood still. Ready to have a nice relaxing weekend. Here's the song of the day. It feels so good to breathe the air Another spin around the sun On this spec of life in the universe the gift of love is there for everyone Angels working overtime day or night to hold the hands that play all alone a babe is born pure to the world as the old man lays down his head and closes his eyes with nothing said every year another promise is made a pint of beer raised towards a better day lets find a star a star to call our own and make the wish maybe we can't make it home ain't it good to be alive to feel the sun strong against your face strawberry blond waves of silky hair spills over me like the milky way ain't it good to be alive ain't it good to be alive alive alive alive alive ain't it good to breathe the air another spin around the sun on this spec of light in the universe a little peace of love in everyone ain't it good to be alive ain't it good to be alive to feel the sun strong against your face spills over me like the milky way alive alive alive alive alive

Lean on Me

The 80s were good fun times. So many of my favourite movies are products of the 80s. And the thing about a lot of 80s movies is they are so distinctly 80s. hehe, that can be good and bad. I went to see Pretty in Pink last night with my friend Maria. Its good movie. Reminds me of the Breakfast club and Ferris Bueller. I like the other ones better, probably just cause I've seen them so many times but this was good too. It was playing at this place called the Bowery Poetry Club which is this small place on the Lower East Side (I find it really cool to say yeah, I'm going to lower east side or upper west side, east village, or midtown, etc, just its so NY, i find it cool hehe). Also went to this place called Chick Pea afterwards for food. Really good falafel and the honey cake is mmmmmm. Something very familiar about the taste, I can't place it but it reminded me of home. I'm actually pretty hungry right now, I skipped breakfast as usual. And had a small lunch today. I actually have left over falafel in my bag now that i think of it...but its probably not good anymore. I'll just toss it. I had this song in my head while waiting for the train this morning. Sometimes in our lives we all have pain We all have sorrow But if we are wise We know that there's always tomorrow Lean on me, when you're not strong And I'll be your friend I'll help you carry on For it won't be long 'Til I'm gonna need Somebody to lean on Please swallow your pride If I have things you need to borrow For no one can fill those of your needs That you WON’T let show you just call on me brother, when you need a hand We all need somebody to lean on I just might have a problem that YOU’LL understand We all need somebody to lean on Lean on me, when you're not strong And I'll be your friend I'll help you carry on For ,it won't be long 'Til I'm gonna need Somebody to lean on YA just call on me brother, when you need a hand We all need somebody to lean on I just might have a problem that YOU’LL understand We all need somebody to lean on If there is a load you have to bear That you can't carry I'm right up the road I'll share your load If you just call me call me (if you need a friend) call me (call me) call me (if you need a friend) call me (if you ever need a friend) call me (call me) call me (call me) call me (call me) call me (call me) call me (if you need A friend) call me (call me) call me (call me) call me (call me) call me (call me) call me