Holiday Cheers

Howdy all,

Hows everyone coping with the holiday season the shopping,cooking,planning,traveling and so much more ?

I've been crazily busy planning for my trip to Cleveland and Detroit and I'm sooooooooooooooo excited.I've been going shopping for the perfect winter wear which looks elegant, keeps me warm and still has plenty of material on it to dress me modestly.Now thats a major hassle.Back home in the UAE, I never had problems finding clothes that were long enough to cover my derriere or loose enough on me to look like they were a comfy fit but not the perfect fit where all the curves of my body could be made out.Plus my petit size doesn't help me at all.So been hopping around from Kohl's to Macy's to Forever 21 to Zara's.

Besides all that shopping around, I've been procrastinating on so many posts on my eid affair and post eid.I can be such a lazy bum I know.
Also, I've started posting job vacancies that I find out about through my network in the middle east.The link can be found on my profile http://land-a-job.blogspot.com/.

Hmmmm, back to my holiday plans...So my hubby gets off work on thursday.We'll be leaving early morning on friday for cleveland if we do not encounter a snow storm.A day in cleveland then we'll drive on to Detroit.A day or two in Detroit and we might be headed to Chicago if we're not very tired and still upto driving some more.

I'll take pictures of anything crazy I encounter on my trip for my lovely blogger buddies :) and I look forward to hearing all about your holiday plans.

By the way this isnt my happy holidays post.I have another one to post before I leave for the trip.

Toodles

Capital Punishment for murderer of Moosa Mukhtiar Ahmed

After reading Alia's post where she wants to bring back real capital punishment for rapists and the like, my thoughts floated to a conversation I had with my Emirati friend a couple of years ago while I was at university doing my undergraduate studies.She seemed a little sad one day.I enquired about it.She usually had minor issues like stress and family related since she was a mother of two young girls.She would talk to me about her day to day challenges and would feel bettter.We would then head off for a steaming plate of Fettucine Alfredo with hot red sauce and laugh off all the worries.

Imagine the look on my face when she told me her source of concern for that day.She told me her mother's brother was at her place.Since she had 2 little girls and was a full time student, she stayed at her mom's place during the week where her kids were taken care of in her absence.So anyway, her uncle came over.He was very distressed because his son was behind bars.The reason being he had raped a young girl.

I was shocked to simply put it.My expression showed it all.I have never known a rapist or come close to someone thanks God.This was the closest I got.One of my bestest friend's cousin was a rapist awaiting trial ....

This was just the beginning.The bigger shock had yet to come when my friend told me her uncle was unhappy and she was unhappy for her uncle and wished her cousin got back home free.I was shocked,angry and upset.I was shocked because I couldn't imagine my friend being a woman herself with two young daughters felt sympathetic towards a rapist.I was angry because I felt she was acting selfish.She didn't care about the girl, the victim.All she cared was about her uncle and the cousin.I was upset because I couldn't believe this was one of my best friends talking  about rape like it happened everyday to every one and was no big deal.So anyway I totally flipped a lid and just went on and on about abuse and the physical and psychological effects on the girl and asked her to give a thought to the trauma she was going through.Finally, I asked her to imagine if something like that were to happen to her daughter.

Later, I felt sorry for her.She was confused.She didn't know how else to support her uncle.Her cousin was only 18 years old.She totally agreed with me on everything.She just felt it was unfair to her uncle.

My psychology professor used to say," Life isn't fair or unfair.Life just is."

Sexual abuse of any kind is a big deal and should be dealt likewise.I strongly support capital punishment.Besides being a severe punishment for perpetrators of sex crimes , it would be a lesson for other evil minded people to take heed and resist such temptations.I'm sure if they knew they'd be killed for it, they would not commit such criminal acts towards women and children.Of course, things are different thanks to our legal system.A crminal can easily get away with paying blood money or serving a sentence.

The story of 5 year old Moosa Mukhtiar Ahmed is so heart wrenching.My mom was so upset on reading half of the story, she couldn't finish reading.And to imagine something so monstrous taking place in the bathroom of the mosque.It was a sad, sad thing to happen and that too on eid.

Please remember the little boy's family  in your prayers.I hope justice is served for the sake of our daughters and children around the world.

The link to Alia's post is http://chasing-jannah.blogspot.com/2009/12/bring-back-real-capital-punishment-in.html.

More details on the tragic death of the little boy can be read at the following links.
http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20091203/NATIONAL/712029832/1041

http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20091209/NATIONAL/712089912/1042

Prezi - The zoooming presentation Editor

Check out the cool online tool for delivering better presentations with many effects such as zooming,visual effects and so much more.Its has an extra edge over the regular presentations with new features and the extra feature of publishing your presentations on the web.

There's a variety of presentations available on the website titled showcase.Do check those out for some cool stuff and info.In fact, even the not so interesting info looks so attractive on the presentation and makes you want to read more on the prezi website.The presentations can be zoomed in between the generic and the specific.It kinda looks like a movie.
The website has options for users.There's the basic free prezi and two other advanced features with payment plans listed.

http://prezi.com/

Candylicious, World's Biggest Candy Shop - Eat Happy in Dubai Mall

The pictures are enough to send you in a frenzy.Tens of thousands of candies in different colors and varieties are stacked up high along the walls.

Welcome to the worlds biggest sweet shop

Look at all those colors YUMMMMMMMMMMM

LOVE CHOCOLATE Oh yeah don't we all

Jelly Beans of every color and flavor imaginable

Candy Lollipop Tree

I know I got you all drooling by now...

Candy Shoppe plane for your candylicious travels

I could go in there and find myself lost amidst all that candy and I would be loving every bit of it.

I remember when I watched Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory and  I was like, " I would love to have a chocolate factory like this where the walls are made of candy and there's tonnes of chocolate around me."

Looks like its come true.

Oh and if you're wondering the whereabouts of the chocolate factory.Its none other than Dubai.The totally cool unheard of stuff comes from there isn't it like the Burj Dubai,Ski City,Emirates Palace Hotel,Atlantis and the list goes on.I have been to a smaller version of candy shop like this in Las Vegas.But it was not even close to this one... at least in size.I can't tell about the variety as I have not been to the store in Dubai.So anyway, whatever you do we sheikhs can do it better ;)

Thats their motto by the way.Eat Happy :)

Do check out the links below for more eye candy :)

http://newslite.tv/2009/10/07/worlds-biggest-sweet-shop-open.html

http://www.candyliciousshop.com/

Images courtesy of FB group Candylicious

Thank you Google for Google Wave Invite

Surprise Surprise !!!

I received an invite from Google for Googlewave :).It was such a pleasant surprise when I logged on to my gmail on the night of November 30 and saw an email from Google.

I'm so excited about this new technology and can't wait to try it out.The best part is I've already got Nadia of the purple journal,http://thepurplejournal.wordpress.com/ and Mona of zaiqa, http://zaiqa.net/ as my contacts to start a conversation with.As I've already said, Google wave is a collaborative tool where multiple users can hold a real time conversation.Contacts who are online can be added to a single wave and can have a conversation with multiple contacts at the same time and also share stuff.Google chrome needs to be downloaded for googlewave to work though.

So girls, how about we get together on Googlewave and have a random,crazy conversation to check out the new technology and all the features ? Lemme know so we can have our very own all girls party on googlewave ;)