My Cluttered Desktop

The challenge going around Libyan blogs these days is to Show Us Your Desktop. Well, here's mine. I usually just download everything onto my desktop and then when it's gets too crowded to see the background I sort it all out.

• I've got my calendar on there so I know what day it is.
  
• The Yahoo weather widget so I can see how hot it is outside and how hot it will be for the next few days (It's totally depressing to look at the weather in summer!) .
  
• The background is a tile of Jenna made by Mahmud from a picture I had previously posted. He played about with it and sent it to me and I liked it so much I use it for my desktop background.

I had thought about 'cleaning house' before I let guests in, but I decided to let you see the real me instead. So now you know how messy and untidy I am! What does your desktop look like?

Too many confrontations for one day!

Yesterday was a day of confrontations. Jenna and I were out and about in the morning and had to stop at the gas station to fill up the tank. There was a huge line of cars going all the way out into the street because, as usual, there was only one of the pumps working. So I get in line and a taxi driver decided to try to get in line in front of me by attempting to squeeze his taxi between my car and the one in front. He's hanging out in the road at an angle, causing a traffic jam. No way was I going to let the idiot in ahead of me! I moved up, putting my car as close as possible to his without hitting it... he's trapped and has no choice but to have an argument with me.

We both roll down our windows at the same time. 'You are not getting in front of me!' I call out. He starts yelling back, saying he was there first. 'NO! I was here before you! How dare you try to squeeze in front of me!' The shouting match had begun! He probably thought I was some weird foreign woman and he could get away with being rude and obnoxious. But this weird foreign woman knows how to yell and shout in Libyan Arabic and I know ALL the swear words too. Finally Mr Rude Taxi Driver backed down and said I could go first but he asked if I would move back a bit so he wont mess up the paint on his taxi.

I went home and had confrontations with the kids who had done nothing the whole time I was out except watch TV. By some miracle I didn't have any confrontations at work.

After work I usually drive home the secretary, and usually a few students too (they're Nora's friends). My secretary asked if I'd take her to a shop to look for a house dress for her mother. She said the shop was full of bargains and as I'm always looking for a good deal I agreed to take her. We got to the shop (in an area of town I usually avoid because it's a bit on the rough side) and Nora and her friends decided they didn't want to go in the shop, they preferred to stay in the car and chat. So my secretary and I got out and the girls had to all get out too so they could change places in the car (to talk better).

We went in the shop and I found some cute pajamas that would be great for Ibrahim. I held them up and asked the price - the guy looked straight at me and said 'Two dinars and a half.'. So I grabbed two of them. There was nothing else interesting in the shop and I went to the counter to pay. I handed the guy 5 dinars and he said 'No. It's 8 dinars.' I told him 'You said they were 2 and a half dinars.' He said 'No. it wasn't me that told you that.' I looked at him straight in the eye and while putting down the pajamas on the counter I pulled the 5 dinars out of his hand and told him 'You're the only person in this shop. No one else could have told me 2.50 but you. You can keep your pajamas.' With that I walked out of the shop. I went in a shoe shop next door while I waited for my secretary to finish in the bargain store.

We walked back to the car and found a huge fight in progress. About 50 boys and men, all of them shouting and boxing each other in the street next to my car! We quickly got in the car and asked the girls what was going on. Apparently as the girls were letting the secretary out of the car and getting back in some guy made a comment to one of the girls. The girls ignored the guy but someone in the street took offense and challenged the guy and the result was the big fight breaking out! The girls were stuck sitting in the car waiting for us to get back. I got the car out of there as fast as I could and took everyone home.

By the time we got home I was exhausted. The house was a mess and I was back to having confrontations with my kids. It took me about an hour to straighten them out.

I think it's the heat... it's making us all crazy!

Links to add

Here are some more links to add to my collection. And here is the disclaimer that goes along with them:

"Please remember that even though I am adding these links their writers may not hold the same views as I do. Also there are some blogs that are written in Arabic or other languages besides English. Although I can speak Libyan Arabic (my grammar is awful, but comical) I can neither read nor write Arabic, or any other language."

krekma - Krekma is a North African game, used to be popular when parents and relatives wanted to put kids to sleep. - I'm not sure the blog will put you to sleep!

Just Keepsmile 5 - a Libyan in Toronto

Tripoli blogger - an Arabic and English blog

Libyan Mental TV - Video blogging in Libya!

Sweet World - a communications engineer in Tripoli

My Mind Room - Iranian female expat in Libya

Journey of life - Libyan, ibeebarbie looks at life from California.

Fatboy - Young Libyan boy in Tripoli

On the edge of something - A must read blog from the Condo By The Sea!

Plodding through my inbox

Finally, I am off dial-up and back on adsl. This morning I logged on to sort out my mail situation. I had hardly been able to even approach my email on dial-up because the connection was so weak and I kept getting cut off, so today I plow through and weed out all the junk. And believe me there is lots of it!



It is amazing what people will send you. I don't mind reading jokes... but I hate the fwd:fwd:fwd:fwd: that people send. At least have the courtesy to remove the addresses of the five thousand people that have forwarded the email before you.



And then there are people who will email you the weather report for your area.... I know what the weather is in Tripoli! I live here remember!



Hardly anyone wrote to tell me the news in their life. My mom wrote me her usual note, IN ALL CAPS, AS USUAL - makes me wonder if she is yelling at me. She wrote to say she was still having problems with her computer... I wish my siblings would straighten it out for her. I live too far away to do it myself and mom's been complaining about her computer for well over a year now.... sigh....



Then there are those that think I need to read their horoscope... now why would I care what their horoscope is??



Delete, delete, delete.. I keep hitting the delete button. I should be finished going through my inbox sometime this month...



Anyway, I am back online. The weather is HOT here and my friend's horoscope sounds ominous... or was that mine?..... sigh....

Just tie me up and torture me!

I'm still on dial-up... my connection is killing me! Most of the time the connection is so weak that I can't do anything. Occasionally I can open my mail, but usually it won't let me do that. Download speed 18.4 kbps - upload speed 17.0 kbps...





I will be in Gargaresh in the mental hospital soon... I think they allow visitors there. I'd appreciate it so very much if you'd bring Doritos for me when you visit...

LTT Sucks!

I've finished my 5 gbs for this month's allotment of adsl. I'll be able to get back on adsl after midnight on Saturday. In the meantime I'm on dial-up or making a trip to the neighbourhood internet cafe.



With dial-up I can internet from home, dressed as I like, but it's extremely slow. At the internet cafe the connection is a little faster but I'll be stuck sitting with a whole bunch of weird people and the internet isn't open in the morning when I'm free (and I can't go there at 2 in the morning either).



I wish LTT would get their act together and provide better service. I can't understand why you can't just purchase an extra few gigas when you need them. Better yet would be if they offered more to begin with.... sigh...



Anyway, if you email me and I don't get back with you right away it's because I am stuck in internet limbo... I've probably clicked on reply... but it's just taking forever to get there. Eventually I will get back with you... I hope so... I really do.

The Heat is On!

The weather has become scorching hot here in Tripoli. Everyone is complaining about the oppressive heat.



Today I was home all morning, inside the comfort of air conditioning. When I finally went outside I was immediately surrounded by hot air. I opened the door to the car and was blasted by a wave of blistering heat that was so hot I thought about just closing the door and going back upstairs. Unfortunately I had a list of errands that couldn't wait so I reached inside the car with one arm, put the key in the ignition and turned it on. I decided it would be best to open all the windows and turn on the AC before I actually got inside. After a few minutes I climbed into the driver's seat but it was still sizzling inside the car.



When I got home all I could think was to get upstairs and head straight for the fridge and cold water. Shortly after that the electricity went out... No electricity means no air conditioning, no lights, no water... no water because the water tank is filled by a pump that runs on electricity. Panic! No water - just when I was hoping to have a shower!



After about 45 minutes the electricity came back on and I headed straight for the bathroom. The water was boiling hot... that's because the water tank is outside in the hot sun all day. So forget about having a refreshing cool shower during the summer.



I'm going to just stay inside next to the air conditioner until fall.. and pray the electricity doesn't go off.



How are you coping with the heat?