An old picture of Tripoli

A friend of mine sent me this picture of a fountain that is in the Green Square in Tripoli. It's an old picture, maybe from the 50's. Wow! no crowds or cars. The fountain was built during the Italian occupation of Libya and is a work of art. It's really hard to tell from the black and white photo. I haven't seen any recent pictures of the fountain anywhere. I have been wanting to take a picture of it for ages, but everytime I go to the Medina with my camera it's either surrounded by people, or plastered with banners and signs (or garbage). It is really a pretty fountain - hopefully I will get there at the right time, with my camera and get some pictures taken. I think if I go there in the middle of the night - or maybe the crack of dawn . . . I'll have to convince Mustafa somehow . . . sigh . . .

Thank you Amer - for sending me the pictures!

I think it's fixed!

The Magic 8 ball was correct - Mustafa didn't hire a plumber. But he did spend a few more hours on the plumbing situation and has fixed it himself.

Seeyamee looks grumpy - she was taking a nap and Sara woke her up.  

I think spring is on it's way! The apricot tree in my neighbors garden is beginning to blossom. I can see it from my back balcony. This is a picture I took yesterday. In a few days the tree will be totally covered in blossoms. 

Will Mustafa hire a plumber?

I asked the Magic 8 Ball - Will Mustafa hire a plumber?
It replied 'Don't count on it.'

More Plumbing in Libya

The bathroom sink developed a leak - drip , drip, drip.
I asked Mustafa to see about getting a plumber to fix it. He said, 'Grumble, grumble, grrrr.'

Drip, drip, drip. A few days go by.

'Hey, is this going to get fixed?' I ask. Mustafa doesn't say anything - just glares at me.

I decide not to interfere. Finally after a few days he comes home with the flexible pipes that need to be replaced. Nice shiny, new ones. Oh good I think - progress!

Drip, drip, drip - two more days go by. I am getting tired of this - the bag with the new flexible pipes is collecting dust. But still I decide that I won't interfere.

Drip, drip, drip. Chinese water torture!

Mustafa comes home one evening and has his dinner, his fill of Aljazeera and the daily news. It's about 10pm - he gets the bag of new flexible pipes and looks at it. Then he procedes to the tool box. 'Grumble, grumble, grumble.' After jingle-jangling the tools around for a while he finds a wrench and heads toward the bathroom. Bang, bang, bang! I go to see what's happening and find him banging on the pipes with a wrench. I watch quietly for a while and then say, 'Wouldn't it be alot easier just to hire a plumber?' - 'Grumble, grumble, grumble.' I just shake my head and find something to keep me busy. I decide the stay out of the way policy will be wisest.

Bang, bang, bang. - This goes on for about 2 hours.

Finally Mustafa gives up for the evening. - Thank God!

In the morning Mustafa gets started early. He's determined to fix this. Bang, bang, bang - with gusto now. After a while the banging stops. Mustafa heads for the storage room and comes out weilding power tools - a power saw to be exact! Then the hunt is on for the extention cord - I pretend not to notice what he is doing - continuing my stay out of the way policy.

After a search of the boys room he gets the extention cord that they use for their computer. What is it with men and power tools? I hear him in the bathroom sawing on something - I can't resist - I have to look.

He is sawing off the faucetts!

'What ARE you doing?' I ask. 'Have you lost your mind?' He says he's trying to get the faucett off with the saw because he doesn't have the right size wrench. I tell him 'I think plumbers usually have the right sized wrenches with them.'and I add, 'If you don't stop this right now, I am going to get the camera out and take a picture of you - because YOU look STUPID!.'

He stops - and decides to call it quits for today. - Maybe he will hire a plumber tomorrow.

Where are you from?

I've added a guest map - please click on and place your pin!

My own domain!

Yes I finally did it! I bought my own domain. This is something I've been wanting to do for a long time. I will still keep posting to my blog of course, but I will continue to add to my website too.

For anyone who hasn't been there - please visit. It is all about Libya and also has a gallery for some of the graphics that I do using photoshop. I am also hoping to add a section of photoshop stuff - brushes, shapes, etc. - Have a look:

New address for my website! www.khadijateri.com

Freedom!

Today I turned in my grades, books, and timesheets for a ten week course
that I've been teaching.

What a nice feeling to be free for a while!

Now I will play a bit, catch up a bit, and mess about a bit.

Eventually I will get around to thinking about doing some 'work' again.

You never know with this course work whether they will have another - or
even if they'll hire you back again. If they have another course and call
me back I'll go - but if not, I'll find some other challenge for myself. . .

. . . but in the meantime - I'm enjoying the feeling of not having to work.

World Customs - more on my world theme at this sight - click on the image to see the link! 

Farda-farda! 

Ever get the feeling someone is looking at you?

My friend Sydney came over to visit me today - she was driving her brand new car. So when she was leaving I told her I was going to come out and have a look at it. I was wearing a long winter house dress - so I threw on a kinda long denim shirt that I have over it, put on a scarf, and slipped on some shib-shibs (rubber beach shoes).

I had only meant to run downstairs and have a peek from the gate. But of course, seeing the car got me all excited and I ran out in the street to examine it up close. (a new car for Sydney is really a big event!). Of course Sydney opened the door so I could see inside and I climbed in and then of course we had to take a spin around the neighborhood too. WOW! She even had Led Zeppelin to listen to!

She stopped in front of my house and I got out and was leaning over chatting with her through the door. . . . Ever get the feeling someone is looking at you? - well, I looked up and there in front of the embassy next door was a whole bunch of men a looking at me like I had just dropped out of the sky or something! I looked down at my self and remembered I was out there in my house dress - and not only that - in my haste to see the car I had put on two different shoes - one was navy blue and the other sky blue!

I told my husband about it this evening - he said - 'How embarrassing - the whole neighborhood will think I'm married to a gypsy or something.'

I think after living here 16 years the neighborhood should be used to me by now.

A Musical World

This kinda goes along with my world theme -

The nations of the world, brought to you by Yakko Warner!

(To the tune of the Mexican Hat Dance)

United States, Canada, Mexico, Panama
Haiti, Jamaica, Peru,
Republic Dominican, Cuba, Carribean
Greenland, El Salvador too.

Puerto Rico, Columbia, Venezuela
Honduras, Guyana, and still,
Guatemala, Bolivia, then Argentina
And Ecuador, Chile, Brazil.

Costa Rica, Belize, Nicaragua, Bermuda
Bahamas, Tobago, San Juan,
Paraguay, Uruguay, Surinam
And French Guiana, Barbados, and Guam.

Norway, and Sweden, and Iceland, and Finland
And Germany now one piece,
Switzerland, Austria, Czechoslovakia
Italy, Turkey, and Greece.

Poland, Romania, Scotland, Albania
Ireland, Russia, Oman,
Bulgaria, Saudi Arabia
Hungary, Cyprus, Iraq, and Iran.

There's Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan
Both Yemens, Kuwait, and Bahrain,
The Netherlands, Luxembourg, Belgium, and Portugal
France, England, Denmark, and Spain.

India, Pakistan, Burma, Afghanistan
Thailand, Nepal, and Bhutan,
Kampuchea, Malaysia, then Bangladesh (Asia)
And China, Korea, Japan.

Mongolia, Laos, and Tibet, Indonesia
The Philippine Islands, Taiwan,
Sri Lanka, New Guinea, Sumatra, New Zealand
Then Borneo, and Vietnam.

Tunisia, Morocco, Uganda, Angola
Zimbabwe, Djibouti, Botswana,
Mozambique, Zambia, Swaziland, Gambia
Guinea, Algeria, Ghana.

Burundi, Lesotho, and Malawi, Togo
The Spanish Sahara is gone,
Niger, Nigeria, Chad, and Liberia
Egypt, Benin, and Gabon.

Tanzania, Somalia, Kenya, and Mali
Sierra Leone, and Algiers,
Dahomey, Namibia, Senegal, Libya
Cameroon, Congo, Zaire.

Ethiopia, Guinea-Bissau, Madagascar
Rwanda, Mahore, and Cayman,
Hong Kong, Abu Dhabi, Qatar, Yugoslavia...

Crete, Mauritania

Then Transylviania,

Monaco, Liechtenstein
Malta, and Palestine,
Fiji, Australia, Sudan!!!

WHEW!!!!!!

A Rose for Valentines Day! 

Food Etiquette

How well do you know food etiquette?

http://fekids.com/img/kln/flash/DontGrossOutTheWorld.swf

Spring? and a visit

Maybe spring is on it's way here - the weather is getting a bit warmer. I opened the windows today and let the air blow through the house.

__________________

Last year my sister-in-law died and her husband remarried last week, so a few days ago I gave the new bride a phone call and told her I would come over for a visit to meet her. My sister-in-laws were not too thrilled with the idea that I was calling her - they had all kinds of nasty things to say about their dead sister's husband. But I told them -'Hey, do you think the guy should stay single forever?' 'He has three kids to look after and a big house. And he has only one sister and no brothers so his family is really small - he's lonely.'

Yesterday I went out to buy her a gift - I couldn't decide what to get, but after a while I bought her two very pretty scarves. I wrapped them up and put them in a pretty gift bag and the girls and I got dressed up and off we went to visit her.

She was very nice, not pretty, short - normal looking. I liked her. My girls liked her. But most of all she seems to fit right in with my neice and nephews and her new home.

I hope that my sister-in-laws get over their jealousy - it's very ugly of them.

Everyone is sick!

I think everyone I know is sick, or has been sick recently, with either the flu or some kind of cold - almost all my students have cold sores! uuuggghh! I have taken to using antiviral cream on my lips as a preventitive measure. It's bad enough being sick - but if you have cold sores it makes it just that much worse.

And being sick seems like a worldwide thing, because my family in the US are all suffering too. Is this a winter for colds, or what? I don't ever remember it being this bad.

I think I'm coming down with something. I came home from work and took 'night nurse' and went to bed. - but 'night nurse' makes me woosy for about 12 hours. When the alarm clock went off I could barely make it out of bed to wake up the kids for school. If was so dizzy and weak - my legs were wobbling all over the place! I turned on the lights in the girls room and said, 'Get up! This is the first and last time I am going to tell you! I'm going back to bed because I'm not well!' - then I did the same thing in the boys room. I usually have to go in and tell them to get up about ten times before they finally get out of bed.

I went back to bed and slept until 10 o'clock. Nora missed school because she didn't get out of bed - but she had tidied the house so it was ok. After a few cups of coffee I feel a bit better - the 'night nurse' finally wore off. My throat feels a bit scratchy and I feel achey, but I will pull myself together and get through the day.

I'm not sure if I should dose myself with 'night nurse' again tonite. It will depend on how I feel.

Mosque (former cathedral) 

This is a mosque in Tripoli. It was formerly a cathedral during the Italian occupation of Libya. 

What do you think about my blog?  

Cleaning the house

Cleaning the house is such a drag. . .

I am sick of all the laundry and the dishes. It seems like it never ends and it's depressing. That makes it hard to get motivated. Maybe it's a winter thing - being unable to open up all the windows and let the breeze blow through (freeze if I did that now). I can't get the girls interested either - no reward or prize even slightly tempts them - daily drudgery. Actually Nora and Sara do a pretty good job of helping out - but they grumble the whole time.

I was thinking of taking the girls out for a walk to the suk to do some window shopping - but they are teenagers now and attract too much attention. I asked Adam if he wanted to go with me and he said 'No!'. Maybe I will just have to venture out by myself then. I definitely need some fresh air.

Tongue Twister

Here's a tongue twister I found and liked:

A pessimistic pest exists amidst us.

Can you say it ten times . . . quickly?

Libyan Desert from Space

Two volcanic peaks in the Libyan Desert, Jabal Arkenu (Mount Arkenu) and Jabal Uweinat (Mount Uweinat), are clearly visible in this image transmitted to Earth from the shuttle Discovery.

Corbis/Digital Image © 1996/Original image Courtesy of NASA
 

The World!