Reminding Me of Hull

It is very windy outside, and it is raining a bit too. This weather is reminding me of the windy days at Hull. :-)

Story of Goldfish (still continues....)

The story continues.

Lady luck was not that generous with me. After a short while all my happiness and excitement fizzled out.

When in the evening I brought my sister back from her college (she has classes at such unearthly hours) she said she wanted to see my new fish. She went in the bathroom where I was keeping my fish. She yelled from there that she could see only two and not three fish. I ran to her and looked in the tub, and there were just two fish.

For a second I couldn't grasp what could have happened. Then suddenly I looked on the floor and there it was, my third fish, being eaten my ants. :-( I realized that it must have jumped and fell out of the water and landed on the ground.

I was extremely sad. So sad that tears started running from my eyes. My mother was laughing and saying that those were the reasons she didn't allow me to have pets. I was just feeling so helpless. Another fish lost and I couldn't do a thing to save it. It just hit me from nowhere. I was not expecting it.

So now I have two fish left. They were ok in the morning. I covered their tub with something so that they would not be able to jump out. I gave them food so they wouldn't die out of hunger. And I changed their water so that they don't suffocate in dirty water.

Now I can only hope and pray that they live, and live for a long time, till I get myself a proper aquarium and can shift them into it.

Story of Goldfish (continued...)

Now there are static pet shops or fish shops where you can go and get a pair or more for yourself. You can even order an aquarium there. Then there are the traditional, mobile sort-of fish pet shops. In that a person carries different fish in different plastic bags filled with water. All the bags are mounted on a big stalk-like thing. You can choose the ones you like and that man will give that plastic bag to you. You can then bring the fish home and put them in a container.

Now Tuesday morning, I said to my father that on our way home, if I saw that "mobile" fish man, I want to get partners for my fish at home. He resisted this but then agreed. Lady luck favoured me and when we were near our house, I saw that fish man. And I got a pair of goldfish from him.

When I reached home, I took out my 'lonely' fish, threw the dirty water, filled the container with fresh water and put all (now three) my fish in it. All of them were so active. Even my quiet fish had suddenly got energy and was happily swimming around with the other two. I gave them some food and they quickly gulped it down.

I was happy that now I had three energetic goldfish as pets.

Story of Goldfish

For a long time, I had wanted to have a pet. My mother was not allowing it. She said that if I keep a pet I will have to take care of it myself, and since I don't have the time, I should not do it. Deep down I also know that I don't have much spare time to take care of a pet, but I still wanted one.

So lately I was obsessed with having two small turtles or some fish as pets. My mother was still not allowing it but suddenly this Sunday when she came back from grocery shopping, she brought a pair of goldfish for me. I was excited beyond explanation.

My mother put the fish in a glass jar. I was leaving for office that time (yeah for office on a Sunday) so I couldn't pay more attention to the fish. But I was excited that when I came back, there would be two fish to welcome me.

In the evening when I came back, the first thing I heard my father say upon entering the house was "One fish is dead! The other one is dying". That was a really big shock for me. Not even 24 hours had passed, one fish was already dead and the other one was dying.

I quickly took a very big container, filled it with clean water and shifted my 'living' fish to it. Gave it some food. Till I went to bed that day, I kept checking on it. It was ok, but a bit dull. Maybe because its partner was gone. I felt sorry for it and decided I will get some more fish to give this one company.

Yet Another Mehandi of Another Friend

(Written on 24 April 2005)

On Saturday evening, I went on the mehandi of my friend Ghawas. The time was of 7:00 pm. I was quite late and reached there around 8:30 pm. But alas, seemed I was early after all. I was invited from the 'larkay walay' side (the boy's family). The girl’s family was already there at the reception. I had to wait about half an hour before my friend's family came.

But finally they did come. They brought the 'dhool walay' (traditional drum beaters) with them. The atmosphere remained loud till the 'dhool' was being beaten. But turned very quiet afterwards.

To tell you the truth, I was extremely bored becasue i had gone there on my on and was alone in the crowd. And also there was nothing else to do. No songs to sing with the 'dholki' and no 'bhangra' or 'luddi' to see.

All I did there was sit and smilingly stare towards the stage where my friend was sitting with his wife. Took a few pictures as well. Went up to my pal and said Hi too. And then when my father came to pick me up I went to the stage again to say my farewell and left.

Myself getting bored in such a situation was inevitable. I was expecting it and so it happend. But the main thing is that I wanted to be a part of my friend's wedding, and wanted to be there to congratulate him, and so I did. :-)

PS: I wonder what will happen on the 'walima' on Monday. ;-) heheheee

Long Title?

Now it seems that the title of my last post is longer than the content. Funny! :-D heheheeee

All Work & No Play, Makes Monazza A Very Dull/Moody/Unhappy Girl

We all in the office have been ordered to work on the weekend. We worked on Friday (22 April) too while it was a national holiday in Pakistan because of Eid e Milad Un Nabi.

Today is my 6th consecutive day at work. And I think that I will be working at least 12 days in a row till next Friday. Unless, I have to work that weekend too. And then I wonder how many consecutive days that would make. The fear is creeping up my spine, giving me jitters. Oh I want to work, but not that much. Once again, somebody save me!

Sun Burnt Hand

There were three consecutive days of driving from my home to Islamabad and back. And that resulted in a tanned hand. Mine, off course. ;-)

The colour of my right hand is now a much darker shade than the left one. And there is a light coloured band on my wrist that marks the existence of my wristwatch. ;-)

Now only the right hand got roasted and not the left one. Well for one because the car is a right-hand drive. And secondly the blazing sun is always on my right in the mornings when I am driving to work.

I did use the sun-block lotion (ok one of those three days I didn't) but it didn't work either. Now I guess I can either wait till the 'true' colour of my hand returns, or use "Fair and Lovely" on it instead. LOL ;-)

Embarrassed By An MSN Nick

Well it might seem really funny and strange that how can one get embarrassed by an MSN nick. But tell you what, it can happen. It happened to me so can happen to you too.

I myself am a person who keeps changing the nicks almost every day. And gladly provide the small background tale to whosoever asks me about it. And when my friends change theirs I ask them too, about the background of their nick.

Now sometimes it happens that people choose nicks adorned with swear words. :-P No problem with me as everybody is free to do whatever they like. And no problem if nobody is looking at my PC screen. But such a nick can be the cause of extreme embarrassment if a colleague of yours is standing right beside you, showing you something on your PC and spots a tiny window popping at the bottom right of the screen flashing the 'hideous' nick.

It happened to me once. And I dealt with it by completely ignoring it in front of my colleague. I pretended that I was so engrossed in what he was telling me that I didn't notice anything. And finally to spare myself from more embarrassment, I blocked that ID. :-P Now no matter what nick that pal of mine chooses, it will not be flashed at my screen.

No more embarrassment! Unless, some other 'pal' of mine starts fancying swear words and starts throwing then in the MSN nicks. :-S Somebody spare me!!

Customer Service: We Have A Long Way To Go

One of the things that I noticed while my stay in UK was the good customer service. And that is why if there were occasional bad tempered, moody people to attend a customer, they were highly noticeable.

Now here in Pakistan it is the other way round. If customer relations’ people (be it be on shops, in offices or at restaurants) are nice and helpful you suspect if they are out of their minds.

A recent example of bad customer service was at Red Onion, a restaurant, where we (Khala, Sanaa, Fati and me) went to have a pizza snack a few days ago.

When we went, more than half of it was empty. Still we were lead to a seat in a corner at the last of the restaurant. We didn't mind. We just asked them to turn on the fan or the AC as it was hot. To this the manager started a long tale about how only 5 minutes ago a "breaker" had short-circuited and the electricians were working on it, implying that the AC could not be turned on. My Khala pressurized him a bit by raising the voice a few decibels that if the AC could not be turned on, we should be given a place where the fan was working at least. This resulted in a cool breeze from the AC within 5 minutes. {;-) Cruel us!}

Then the manager came again to take the order. We all told him at least thrice that we wanted a "thin" crust. And again when he turned while repeating the order he said "Ok THICK Crust". To that all four of us nearly yelled "THINNNN". This embarrassed him a bit and said, "Ok sorry, thin". {Silly man :-P}

Then we asked for "plain water" and got "mineral water" and we asked for "cold water" but we got "room-temparatured water". We asked for a salad bowl so that we could fill it up in the salad bar "ourselves", and the waiter who brought the bowl was adamant that he will fill it for us. :-P {Good that Khala scolded him a bit. ;-) heheheeee}

Finally the filled salad bowl (filled my Khala and Sanaa) and the pizza came to the table. Thank God both the things were good to eat, otherwise we had a strong urge & tendency to burn down the restaurant at that time. ;-) LOL

And this is just one example of poor customer service. There are many many more. ;-) Will bring them to you shortly.

Orkut Gone Bonkers!

Orkut has gone completely "Bonkers" today. It is not working at all. The bad server error keeps creeping up. Its not letting me post on a community forum (i have littereally tried 50 times). It is displaying one of my community with deleted forums. You name it, it's happening here.

I wonder if a day would come when i would be able to go to Orkut, do whatever i like and not see the sight of this dreaded error message for the whole duration of my session.


When will it turn good!

Yummy Cold Coffee

Thanks to my dear Khalas (aunts) I got the chance to have cold coffee, twice at Kudos and once at Rahat. And that too within one week. ;) heh heh heeee We 'the kids' looted them for sure. But they were so sweet so as to keep offering more. :-D

Don't worry Khala and Kakai Khala, there will be other times, SOON. >:-D

Mobile Junkie

There used to be a time when I thought that mobile phones were a luxury, a drain on the pocket and a means to show off. Look at me now! I am the same person, only not without a mobile anymore. I have not but two connections right now (Mobilink & Telenor), and I am looking forward to the launch of another mobile company (Warid) so that i can get my hands on their connection as well.

Am I mobile junkie or what! :-D LOL

PS: Junkie or not, I still feel that mobiles are a drain on my pocket as I cannot resist sending off texts. And when I call to tell my Mom that I will be late from office, she starts scolding me then and there, thus making me loose even more credit. :-D hehehehe Funny!