Monday, September 27, 2004
Monday's draft ...
Decided not to go to work, for the second day today, for no reason. Had taken the trouble to send an SMS to boss yesterday. This morning it did not sound like too much of an an original idea, and could not come up with another way of informing him without having to talk to him, so decided to let him figure it out by himself. He proved a smart guy, and did great on the figuring out by himself part.
Why did I not feel like going to work? Well, for one thing, I hate to go back to that desk and stare at that report that I was supposed to submit September the 5th, and have yet to really get started on same. Secondly, I think I am too tired from our trip to Al Ain and back, and need a bit of rest. Thank God we had Aziza driving us back, or else if I had to do that too, I would have had to take a whole week off, and in a week's time even my docile boss would have got tired of figuring out (every morning) that I were not coming....
Al-Ain, the garden city, the city which amongst other things can boast of being the only place in the world where yours truly was born. A distant second in its list of distinguishing features is a mountain called Jabel Hafeet, which is not too high really, but is probably the highest point in the UAE, and the coldest ... or least hot if you may. The road leading to the top is beautifully lit, we had gone there in the night, and has two tracks going up and one coming down. Atop the mountain is a flattened and paved area of considerable dimensions. My sense of measurements stinks, so I can't tell you what the height of JH is or how wide the paved area was in exact terms ... But, I can tell you this that the mountain is high enough to be visible from half of the city inhabited by 350,000 people, and my guess is the paved area is in the vicinity of a 1000 square feet. A pleasant wind greets you as you step out of the car at the top, and this in September when the day time temperatures still hover around 40 degrees celsius.
We found ourselves a corner, and while the kids played, and Wifey and Aziza strolled, VGA and I indulged in a high scoring scrabble game - a game that was brought to an abrupt end when the princess accidently kicked the board away.... The prince spent the whole evening running after his ball.
We left about a couple hours past midnight, and Aziza drove us back, which was a lot of fun since she was alert in the driving seat, and VGA was alert right behind her.... woken out of her slumber by the realization that she was about to be driven by Aziza on the highway ... Aziza, whose license still carried the finger prints of the traffic police guys. I had a nice nap, at least between the times Aziza stepped on the gas and the needle went the wrong side of 100km/hr.
Reminded me of the time, I had passed my driving test, and Atif's mother had handed me their family car's keys the same evening ... three days before I had got my license. The fact that she'd sat through the whole ride with one hand on the dash board is of course another story ...
¶ 9/27/2004 03:32:00 PM
Why did I not feel like going to work? Well, for one thing, I hate to go back to that desk and stare at that report that I was supposed to submit September the 5th, and have yet to really get started on same. Secondly, I think I am too tired from our trip to Al Ain and back, and need a bit of rest. Thank God we had Aziza driving us back, or else if I had to do that too, I would have had to take a whole week off, and in a week's time even my docile boss would have got tired of figuring out (every morning) that I were not coming....
Al-Ain, the garden city, the city which amongst other things can boast of being the only place in the world where yours truly was born. A distant second in its list of distinguishing features is a mountain called Jabel Hafeet, which is not too high really, but is probably the highest point in the UAE, and the coldest ... or least hot if you may. The road leading to the top is beautifully lit, we had gone there in the night, and has two tracks going up and one coming down. Atop the mountain is a flattened and paved area of considerable dimensions. My sense of measurements stinks, so I can't tell you what the height of JH is or how wide the paved area was in exact terms ... But, I can tell you this that the mountain is high enough to be visible from half of the city inhabited by 350,000 people, and my guess is the paved area is in the vicinity of a 1000 square feet. A pleasant wind greets you as you step out of the car at the top, and this in September when the day time temperatures still hover around 40 degrees celsius.
We found ourselves a corner, and while the kids played, and Wifey and Aziza strolled, VGA and I indulged in a high scoring scrabble game - a game that was brought to an abrupt end when the princess accidently kicked the board away.... The prince spent the whole evening running after his ball.
We left about a couple hours past midnight, and Aziza drove us back, which was a lot of fun since she was alert in the driving seat, and VGA was alert right behind her.... woken out of her slumber by the realization that she was about to be driven by Aziza on the highway ... Aziza, whose license still carried the finger prints of the traffic police guys. I had a nice nap, at least between the times Aziza stepped on the gas and the needle went the wrong side of 100km/hr.
Reminded me of the time, I had passed my driving test, and Atif's mother had handed me their family car's keys the same evening ... three days before I had got my license. The fact that she'd sat through the whole ride with one hand on the dash board is of course another story ...
¶ 9/27/2004 03:32:00 PM
