Today is an utterly unusual day in every way. I shall include a photograph of the view outside my window. It is white, with zero visibility. If I was in Edmonton, the cause would be easily determined: the smoke of raging out-of-control wildfires. Look for diagnostic assistance from my iPhone. Cloudy conditions from 11am to 1 pm, with partly cloudy conditions expected at 1 pm. It is not cloudy. My phone tells me that it is mostly cloudy in Edmonton at this moment, there is a a slight difference in the temperature however – 50 degrees Fahrenheit. I laughably convert to celsius, learning there is a 29 degree difference. That is not the only dissimilarity between the two places as my yet unwritten Tale of Two Cities will reveal.
WhatsApped a man met in this hotel who lives in Egypt., including a GIF showing a grouchy person saying SHOO..GO AWAY saying: I am getting that popular. Never thought that would. happen. Hahaha😂
He: How so? On the blog?
Me: No the blog has been popular from the very beginning – some seven years ago. I mean with people of all ages. The other night a little girl about 3, when I was leaving Iftar dinner, came running toward me, hugging my leg, clinging to me. It was so darling. Her parents smiled. I knelt and gave her a huge hug. Of course I did not say SHOO. Everyone knows my name, beckons me and smiles. Very different from cold Canadians and Entitled Americans. It can be overwhelming sometimes. Being in the spotlight I guess you would say.
He: Yes the Arabs are quite warm like that.
Me: It is a very good trait. Particularly when you compare them with Canadians Hahaha
This man lived in Canada for twenty years – we met joking about our Canadian connections.
I am in avid WhatsApp conversations with nine people, all but one are Muslims. Most live in Saudi Arabia, Noor is in Malaysia, Hannah in Wales. None of these people are from Canada, the USA, are relatives, are former boyfriends, husbands or lovers. Not been in active communication with so many people at one time. All of the people from Canada, the USA, the relatives, the former, boyfriends, husbands or lovers are too lazy to communicate. It is lazy – everyone is busy. I am just not a priority in some people’s lives. Bye, bye to you guys.
This was going to be an extremely serious blog today – it obviously is not. There is a distinct danger that this will not be posted as Chris, my computer guru, is celebrating. Our email exchange went like this:
He: Its my 50th birthday in 2 days, we’re going away tomorrow for a few days to a dog friendly hotel on the south Devon coast, and then on to see my mum in great Yarmouth on the east coast for the easter weekend. They say we gravitate to the sea as we get older. I want to go nightclubbing like I did in my twenties, but I know if I actually did that, I’d be the wierd man at the back, and I would want to be in bed by 10:30, and they never really opened until about that time, and it would be uncomfortably noisy. Anyway, my availability might be patchy but as always I will be online and checking stuff most days Have a good one !Everything for today is posted Much love Chris 🙂 and Clare and Beryl .
He attached a photograph, which you can view at the blog’s conclusion. You will be able to figure out which one it is. I dislike dogs, we joke about Beryl (the dog) constantly. We do not joke about Clare (the wife), she is darling. Of course, I responded.
Me: Listen Buddy I cannot even remember 50. Well actually I can. It was an hilarious story with a bad ending. Got surprisingly engaged to husband #3.
Thanks for warning me! I can maybe give myself a break -give this up for Ramadan for awhile or just wait patiently. It is so funny 😂. It is going to rain but it is a joyous event here. Not like almost everywhere else on earth. Just read that Kate has cancer. And not M????! What is wrong with the world???! I do long for the good old days of getting smashed! I have a new friend from Wales who is coming back. We have secret plans to cross over to Bahrain 🇧🇭, where liquor is readily available. Not worth the risk though. Having that on your record on Judgment Day would be worse than a drunk driving charge. But we can dream, can’t we? Enjoy!!!! Happy Birthday my dear. Alexis the blue-eyed cancer-free Queen. 👸
I did see a video of Kate announcement. She looks heart brokenly old. It seems so unfair. Well not as unfair, horrible or tragic as the Gaza Genocide which the UK supports. It is occasionally comforting to have a little perspective.
Not sure I can attach it to this blog but a fellow Muslim WhatsAper sent a YouTube reel which talks about the world wide conversion – Koreans, French, UK, USA, Germans, Canada, Japan, Russia, Norway, etc etc. It is the fastest growing religion in the world.In the USA – four times as many women as men, by the way.
I responded.
Me: Interesting!!! But I want to be unique. A woman from Saudi TV I met at Ithra said she was going to do a feature story on my reversion to the Faith. She met me at Ithra randomly, interviewed me twice about bools and writing but when she talked to me more said she wanted to do a full length feature on little old me. Famous, I am famous – and humble. Hahaha
Now a digression. Faithful readers will know that I am, shall we say, technologically challenged. I balk at all of this reliance on iPhones, the internet. I yearn for the old days of paper airline tickets, paper itineraries, books, journals, stuff like that. Well, wait until you hear this. This hotel has plastic cards that one uses on the elevator to reach your floor and then opens the door of your room. I was deep in conversation with MAW (Manager Awesome Woman).
She: You need to get the App on your phone. We are running out of plastic, the way you keep forgetting your key and having to have a new one made.
Me: I know, it is a habit of mine. I plan to cover a wall with them
She: You need to get the App.
Me: You must be joking!! An App on my phone.?? I hate that.
She: I will help you. Be brave!
Me: Okay, okay but you must help me.
She did, downloaded it on the phone, found my magic number, took the photo for face identification. plugged me in so to speak. Then took me on the elevator pointing the phone telling the elevator what floor to go to and then pointed it to open the door to my room
Do admit that I was cooperating with a secret goal in mind, but she foiled me.
Foil has two applicable meanings. 1) prevent (something considered wrong or undesirable) from succeeding 2) • frustrate the efforts or plans of.
I planned on not using the App, instead just keep asking for the plastic.
She: I am ordering staff to refuse to give you plastic.
Me: Oh no!! Foiled again.
Foiled again by Maeve Maddox. A line associated with the 19th century mustache-twirling stage villains thwarted by the hero was “Curses! Foiled again!” Foil as a verb meaning “to frustrate the efforts of” is popular with headline writers and journalists. This another version from the Internet.
The origin of the line “Curses, foiled again!” is from the wonderful and hilariously popular cartoon show, The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle (1959–1964), also known for a time as Rocky and His Friends. If you’re too young to remember Rocky & Bullwinkle, you’re too young to rule the world…
“Hey, Rocky, watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat.”
Bullwinkle pulls out a hostile rhino face, or sometimes a roaring lion’s head, and pushes it back in.
“Wrong hat.”
Now I am stuck with a digital key. What next????
But this has been a seemingly endless diversion from the weather. It is still white outside. Luckily I did download Riane Konc“s Wow, Weather from the New Yorker.
“Have you seen the weather? It is so much weather right now, I’m considering staying home instead of dealing with all this weather. All I know is that NO ONE can drive in this weather. People from my state are the worst at driving, especially when weather comes. It’s like they’ve never seen weather before!
Do you remember what we were doing in yesterday’s weather? Compare that with today’s weather. It’s, like, are we even living in the same weather? And look at this chart: record weather, and that’s not even if you count weather! And compare that to the weather from a hundred years ago. And people want to tell me climate change isn’t real? Tell the animals that this weather is good weather when their homes are just decimated by weather. But, speaking of animals, what about that hilarious video where animals react to weather? Whoops! Right into the weather. One thing I can tell you about animals and weather—some of them like it, and some of them are dead.”
You can read it in its entirety should you choose: https://www.newyorker.com/humor/daily-shouts/wow-weather. This is the concluding paragraph.
“Check out this picture of my weather! Only in my state could you have this weather today and this weather later on. In my state, one day it’s weather, and the next day—bam! Weather. People from other states are such feelings about weather. They see weather, and it’s just vehicles and weather and school. Two hours! On the hill? Back home in my day, we would say, “Well, weather,” and just keep on at the weather. I guess that’s why in my home state, and nowhere else, we always say, “If you don’t like the weather, weather weather weather.”
Another diversion. I am having man problems – I cannot keep track of them. They dress the same (white thobe, red scarf )They all have brown eyes. They all have complicated, unpronounceable names. Finally you learn the name, its meaning and how to pronounce it find that several have the same name. Learned the name, the English spelling etc etc. of Abdulrahman which means Servant of the Merciful. There are three of them in my life at the moment.
Me: So Abdulrahman has a friend, a sort of relative who is helping me with my Saudi residency.
She: Which one?
Me: Not the distinguished man who brought me here, not my ‘son’ but the other one.
When I first learned the meaning: Servant of the Merciful I was quite excited upon learning this because I am merciful. Therefore, I had three servants. It was not to be – Merciful refers to Allah (SWT), not me. Merciful is forgiving, compassionate, gracious, lenient, clement, pitying, forbearing, humane, softhearted, tenderhearted, kind, sympathetic; humanitarian, easygoing, magnanimous. I may be all of those things, but do not have enough of those qualities. God has it all. .
Found out why it was weird weather – the lack of visibility and whiteness. POAG, a Saudi said it was a sandstorm. Wikipedia:
“A dust storm, also called a sandstorm, is a meteorological phenomenon common in arid and semi-arid regions.[1] Dust storms arise when a gust front or other strong wind blows loose sand and dirt from a dry surface. Fine particles are transported by saltation and suspension, a process that moves soil from one place and deposits it in another.”
Then goes on to tell you more than you ever wanted to know.
Photographs are a strange collection. The white weather, the meaning of Abdulrahman, photo of Beryl and Spicy Nibbley Nibbles, short reel of weather condition in Riyadh and one of me at a Ritzy Breakfast. It was sent to me with this caption: You with gaze I love you. Of course, I responded. Me: Such a lovely and beautiful thing to say. I love you.
