Keefak Beirut!

“Bonjour!  Welcome to Beirut” I was  greeted by a tall young man with a French accent at the Beirut airport.”Let me take your bag” he insisted and carried my bag to his car.  Pancho , is my driver for a week here in Beirut — aged 22, a Germany supporter for the European Cup did this driving work as a part time (He studied Physics he said — I asked him the next day if he’s still studying after seing a PCB at the back of his car . And suggested he should read Feynman books — ” Quantum Mechanics ? “he asked . I stopped  the conversation there  avoiding the details — Hey! I don’t want to mess around with a student of Physics  though I had a book about Tesla in my bag .

He drove the car to Hamra Street and we were lost for 30 minutes before finding our way to the Marble Tower around 12 midnight on that Sunday. The Hamra St.  a one way street like most of the road here, is a popular road in Beirut and the area around it is full with restaurants , bars , apartment and hotel.  At certain area there were road blocks with military people – I told Pancho that Lebanese army are friendly and more human than .. hmm you know

[OK the day had finally come and I can't give any valid reasons for not accepting this trip to Beirut, not that I am avoiding this place as I said before -- being abroad alone without the family is not a fun thing to do--I missed my kids I left Riyadh on 15th June after got the visa (though I could get it on arrival at the Beirut-- but I hate the hassle explaining to the immigration if there were problems) ]

First day, was a tough day to me — I was given a list of tasks to do completed a few but went into some problems that caused me to stayed up until 3am at customer’s place! Thank Allah problem was resolved a day later (man I told my colleague I will always remember my first day there!)

Beirut is only the 3rd Arab city that I had visited after Dubai – French is widely spoken here, indeed they greeted with “Bonjour” and said “Merci” instead of Shukran as a way of say “Thank You”. The Lebanese  had French as their 2nd language and taught widely at school — I always amazed with people who can speak multi-languages. My friend Pancho, spoke fluent Arabic, English,French,Spanish and German too He asked me do I speak Arabic ? — considering that I have been living in Saudi for almost 2 years . Not much I said — though I can read Quran , conversational Arabic is not something that being practised –and the fact that we were taught classic Arabic — I bet that he would laugh if I  said “Kaifa Haluka!” to him  and he burst into laughter and agreed that he last heard of that  phrase perhaps from his Arabic class ages ago !  People greet with Keefak here in Lebanon [ Keef Halak in Saudi!]

Heading to KL

I am on my way back to Kuala Lumpur — will be in MY from 21st to 30th April 2008 .
Currently on a five hours transit in Doha, Qatar before leaving to KL at 1am tonight.The kids was having fun on the playhouse, I just hope that they don’t get exhausted/sleepy before boarding!

International Day 2008

The International Day for Ammar and Imran is here again. Imran was the main feature for his class this time round – I was surprised!

Does it really matter?

Just read comments from brother Zahid regarding the “suprising” results of the recent PRU12 –site might be down again! Being a big fan of his writings (at our mailing list) and living in Saudi for a year I just can’t help myself to agree with his email — my favourite line is :-

. It does not matter to me if we get zero economic growth if Pas ruled Malaysia. Allah holds the key to all rezeki, He gives to whomever He pleases and He denies whomever He pleases. The richest country in this world is not one governed by the most worldly capable group of humans. The richest country in this world is one who obediently implements the law and the life as commanded by Allah

We just need to have some faith!