Shanissa's World

Conflict Diamonds

2007-04-16T17:54:00.000+10:00

After watching the movie Blood Diamond which is such an amazing movie, i decided to do some research into the idea of a conflict diamond.
i have placed references after the paragraphs, if you want to read more into it.

Conflict diamonds captured the world's attention during the extremely brutal conflict in Sierra Leone in the late 1990s. During this time, it is estimated that conflict diamonds represented approximately 4% of the world's diamond production. Illicit rough diamonds have also been used by rebels to fund conflicts in Angola, Liberia, Ivory Coast, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Republic of Congo

In July 1999, following over eight years of civil conflict, negotiations between the Government of Sierra Leone and the Revolutionary United Front led to the signing of the Lome Peace Agreement under which the parties agreed to the cessation of hostilities, disarmament of all combatants and the formation of a government of national unity.

http://www.un.org/peace/africa/Diamond.html

A diamond merchant shows his wares June 15, 2001 in Kenema, Sierra Leone. Muslim militant Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network has collected millions of dollars from the illicit sale of diamonds mined by Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels in Sierra Leone. © Chris Hondros/Getty Images.

While the wars in Angola and Sierra Leone are now over, and fighting in the DRC has decreased, the problem of conflict diamonds hasn't gone away. Diamonds mined in rebel-held areas in Côte d'Ivoire, a West African country in the midst of a volatile conflict, are reaching the international diamond market. Conflict diamonds from Liberia are also being smuggled into neighboring countries and exported as part of the legitimate diamond trade.
http://www.amnestyusa.org/Our_Issues/Conflict_Diamonds/page.do?id=1011014&n1=3&n2=74

Sierra Leone
The economic and social infrastructure of Sierra Leone is not well developed. Around two thirds of the population survive by subsistence agriculture, although alluvial diamond mining (mining that extracts diamonds from deposits of sand, gravel and clay, which have been naturally transported by water erosion and deposited along either the banks of a river, the shoreline or on the bed of the ocean) accounts for nearly half of the country's exports and is the most significant source of hard currency earnings.
Diamonds were first discovered in Sierra Leone in 1930. In addition to diamonds, the country also has several other natural resources - titanium ore, bauxite, iron ore, gold and chromite.
Between 1991 and 2002, the country suffered a brutal, ten-year civil war during which the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) committed horrendous atrocities, terrorizing the population and gaining control of the country's diamond mines.

Eight years of protracted war left tens of thousands of people displaced and unknown numbers dead or mutilated. Half a million of Sierra Leone's people were forced to flee the country. The UN Security Council established the Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) in October 1999 to help restore peace. At its height, UNAMSIL had 17,000 troops and was the biggest UN peacekeeping operation in the world. The Abuja Agreement in 2001 finally led to a reduction of hostilities and by early 2002, tens of thousands of ex-combatants had been disarmed and demobilized. By January of 2002, the civil war was over and Sierra Leone became a democratic country.

http://www.diamondfacts.org/conflict/background.html#sierra

German Coast Guard

2007-04-01T16:53:00.001+10:00

My sister nat referred me to this clip... makes me laugh every time

extreme break dancing

2007-04-01T16:50:00.001+10:00

Its so cool.... i played this video for gaetan in hopes that he will try and get back into break dancing... but it didnt work

THE OFFICE'S RAINN WILSON GETS SPIRITUAL - Talks about the Baha'i Faith

2007-04-01T16:35:00.000+10:00

http://www.ifmagazine.com/feature.asp?article=1976

...

2007-03-31T19:00:00.000+10:00

Naughty Ribena

2007-03-29T18:11:00.000+10:00

Ribena maker admits misleading public

The Age: March 27, 2007 - 10:30AM

Global drugs giant GlaxoSmithKline has admitted that it misled the public
over the vitamin C content of its popular blackberry drink Ribena.

The company faced 15 charges related to misleading advertising in an
Auckland court today, risking potential fines of up to $3 million.

The Commerce Commission called for penalties of between $275,000 and
$300,000 to be imposed on the firm. It also said the company should be
forced to take out adverts to inform the public that it had been misled.

The case came after two high school students, Anna Devathasan and Jenny
Suo, tested the children's drink against advertising claims that "the
blackcurrants in Ribena have four times the vitamin C of oranges" in 2004.

Instead, the two found the syrup-based drink contained almost no trace of
vitamin C, and one commercial orange juice brand contained almost four
times more than Ribena.

"We thought we were doing it wrong, we thought we must have made a
mistake," Devathasan, now aged 17, told New Zealand newspapers of the
school experiment.

GSK paid little attention to the claims of Devathasan and Suo until their
complaints reached the Commerce Commission.

Isra's Mac computer

2007-03-26T18:17:00.000+10:00

So last weekend Gaetan and I went to Sydney to visit my family, the first time we had been back since we moved here (Canberra) over 2 months now.
we met up with gaetan's cousin Badi who is visiting venus, which was nice to finally get to meet him, especially since i had heard so much about him.
so we all decided to pop in and see Isra....but we ended up spending more time with her chic apple mac, she has this amazing photo program which completely distorts your face..it was hillarious.. and im still laughing at the site of the pics.

here are just a few

HAPPY NAW RUZ

2007-03-21T09:29:00.000+11:00

Russell Peters Part 1

2007-03-11T13:59:00.001+11:00

Russell Peters - Beating Your Kids

2007-03-11T12:11:00.001+11:00

Ive recently been introduced to Russell peters and cannot get enough
check this out

MY GRANDFATHER

2007-02-25T16:12:00.000+11:00

I thought since i hadn't blogged in a while that the first one i do would be about my Grandfather who has passed to the Abha Kingdom.

About two months ago, my dear grandfather passed away in his home town of Sari, Iran. He was hit by a car while walking down a main road. No one in the family knew what had happened, as we all live in Australia (he went back home to sell his property), my mum became worried when we hadn't heard anything from him for a while, but all her calls to family members and friends proved fruitless as no one had any idea where he was. we found out one month later that he had been hit by a car, went into coma and because no one had raised any alarm bells querying his wear abouts, they took his ID and claimed he was Muslim and was going to bury him as such. The only reason we found out was because a friend of my uncles who is Muslim started asking around, and eventually found out that there was an unknown old man in the morgue. and when he investigated further he found it was him.

It came as a big shock to us as he was a man of great strength, health and full of life. He would always tell us, his grandchildren, some advise on life, that in everything we do it should be directed to the Cause of God, he was a great source of strength for the whole family. He was such a beautiful man, so loving, gentle and kind and I hope that I may follow his example.

" ... life in this fast-fading world is as fleeting and inconstant as the morning wind, and this being so, how fortunate are the great who leave a good name behind them, and the memory of a lifetime spent in the pathway of the good pleasure of God"...

Abdu`l-Baha

WHERE AM I

2007-02-01T17:39:00.000+11:00

Hey all
excuse the LOOOONNNNGGGG absence, ive been travelling around France for a month for my belated honeymoon and just recently moved to Canberra for work
so when i gaetan and i move into our new place shortly i will resume the blogging
well lets hope

cheers

ALL OVER

2006-12-16T21:12:00.000+11:00

working as the admin manager for the city of Sydney contract for Spotless has come to an end.
no more 5 am wake ups and getting home at 6.30 going to bed at 9pm, and having absolutely no life. YIHOOOOOOOOO
and in 3 days we (gaetan and I) are going to Paris for our honey moon, and then travelling all over France, I'm so excited as you can tell by my random posts about Paris
:)

7 Days

2006-12-14T11:28:00.000+11:00

click on the photo to see a panoramic photo of PARIS
im so excited only 7 days and ill be on a plane flying on my way to my honeymoon.
YIHOOOOOOOOOOO

THE TREE

2006-12-13T07:57:00.000+11:00

the perfect tree for a cubby house, straight out of a childhood fairy tale.
i strting thinking to myself do trees like these actually exist.... what a perfect setting, theres even a stream running next to it. perfect for that picnic after playing in the tree dont you think...
ok so your probably thinking how old is she??? but you all know secretly you wanna be playing in the cubby house in this cool tree

heres a close up of the branches, how awsome do they look....but on closer inspection, it looks as if there is something in the tree....

so ummmmmm yeah, it may be fake but it still scares me.............

i was so much happier to see this butterfly. but its still weird how they have carved this into the tree... poor tree :(

hello world! :)

2006-12-12T23:06:00.000+11:00

Link to theheyday.com. It's so hot right now! :)

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

2006-12-12T11:02:00.000+11:00

YAY ALL DONE

2006-12-11T15:55:00.000+11:00

I have now officially finished UNIVERSITY YAY
i passed my exams... pfew, i really didnt think i would pass, and i did with flying colours YIHOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
i never crammed for exams, but this last semester i really coudlnt care less all i wanted was 50% seeing i had been offered a grad job already, so i procrastinated and then the night before i was studying like crazing, thinking you silly girl why didnt u study.
i freestyled through 2 questions, hoping the examiner wouldnt notice, knowing full well he would... but was like ehhh cant do much about it now.
and then,...... i logged into my account..... and when i didnt see FF i was like YIHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
i have officially graduated and i can now officially say i am going to canberra
yay

SOOLIES BIG DAY

2006-12-11T09:38:00.000+11:00

Soolie got married YAY....and i missed the wedding :(

doesnt she look beautiful

look at isra, ohh lala

love you ssssssooooooliiiiiieeeeeee

THE HOFF

2006-12-08T12:11:00.000+11:00

IT SAYS IT ALL

HEAD

2006-12-06T12:08:00.000+11:00

poor guy was hit at work by a metal grinder, and yet the company refuses to acknowledge the incident ever happened

FRANCE

2006-12-05T11:50:00.000+11:00

gaetan and i are finally going on our honeymoon YAY.... well kind off a hybrid honeymoon/family visits, but still YAY... we're off the eurpoe, im so excited, ive been doing research for places to see, were going to be in paris for a week (honeymoon) and then were going to the south of france visiting family and site seeing, nice, monaco, st trope, cannes, marseille, ive never been so exceited i can hardly contain myself

this is me.. well kinda minus the red hair, and make it curly. but it represents how i feel right now.
so even though my husband is french, and nows the ins and outs of his country, what to see and so forth. i still wanted to reseach places of interest. and i came across this site about paris http://www.tour-eiffel.fr/teiffel/uk/#, and i became even more EXCITED, YIHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

theres even a sections on the site where you can view the landscape of the city of Paris and click on the different sites to view.......... i know ive already said it but YAY

ooh and everyone probably knows this but, they have shops on the eiffle tower

LADIES WATCH OUT

2006-11-28T12:42:00.000+11:00

THIS IS NO JOKE
now what money you are carrying! You will see why as you read!Be sure every lady is aware of this. Share it with your wife and daughters.Know what money you are carrying. This was the first I have heard of a scheme like this.. I wanted to pass it along. Be safe! It is something very serious to pay attention to.Criminals are coming up with craftier, less threatening methods of attack,so we have to be extra cautious. Read on.I live near the Blue Mountains but I often work at North Ryde, staying with friends when I'm there. As you know from Australia's Most Wanted TV program,as well as the new media, there is a serial killer in the area.I just want to let you know about an "incident " that happened to me a few weeks ago, and could have been deadly.At first I didn't go to the police or anyone with it because I didn't realize how serious this encounter was. But since I work in a jail and I told a few people about it, it wasn't long before I was paraded into Internal Affairs to tell them my story.It was proximately 5:15 a.m. I had stayed with a friend there and was on my way to work. I stopped at the Caltex Station to get petrol. I got $10petrol and a Diet Coke. I took into the store two $5 bills and one $1 coin(just enough to get my stuff).
As I pulled away from the store, a man approached my truck from the backside of the store (an unlit area). He was an approachable-looking" man(clean cut, clean shaven, dressed well, etc.). He walked up to my window and knocked. Since I'm very paranoid and "always looking for the rapist or killer," I didn't open the window I just asked what he wanted. He raised a $5 bill to my window and said, "You dropped this."
Since I knew I had gone into the store with a certain amount of money, I knew I didn't drop it.When I told him it wasn't mine, he began hitting the window and door,screaming at me to open my door, and insisting that I had dropped the money! At that point, I just drove away as fast as I could.After talking to the Internal Affairs Department and describing the man I saw, and the way he escalated from calm and polite to angry and volatile....it was determined that I could have possibly encountered the
serial killer myself. Up to this point, it had been unclear as to how he had gained access to his victims, since there has been no evidence of forced entry into victim's homes, cars, etc. And the fact that he has been attacking in the day time,when women are less likely to have their guard up, means he is pretty BOLD.
So think about it...what gesture is nicer than returning money to someone that drop! ped it?????How many times would you have opened your window (or door) to get your money and say thank you.... because if the person is kind enough to return something to you, then he can't really be a threat....can he???? Please be cautious! This might not have been the serial killer... but any one
that gets that angry over someone not accepting money from them, can't have honourable intentions. The most important thing to note is that his reaction
was! NOT WHAT I EXPECTED! A total surprise! But what might have happened if I had opened my door? I shudder to think!
Forward this to everyone you know...maybe they can be as fortunate as I was!P.S. Ladies, really DO forward this to EVERYONE you know Even if this wasn't a serial killer, he looked nice, he seemed polite, he was apparently doing an act of kindness, but HE WAS NOT A NICE PERSON!!! Men send it to all the women in your life. What you do today is important because you are exchanging a day of your life for it.Make it a good one! Please forward to anyone you think might benefit from this story.

ATEF

2006-11-20T13:56:00.000+11:00

One of my husbands friends from France has just released an Album
his name is Atef, he is a Baha'i from the south of France, and was discovered while playing in monacco, this amazing artist performed for the famous charity ball hosted by Elton john in England and the rest is well history
its so exciting not only for him, but that he's a Baha'i
check him out

]http://www.atefmusic.com/

plastic surgery

2006-11-14T12:54:00.000+11:00

and i thought plastic surgery was supposed to improve your look...........

Birth of Baha'u'llah

2006-11-13T11:39:00.000+11:00

In this grim setting, the rarest and most cherished of religious events was once again played out: mortal man, outwardly human in other respects, was summoned by God to bring to humanity a new religious revelation.
The year was 1852, and the man was a Persian nobleman, known today as Bahá'u'lláh. During His imprisonment, as He sat with his feet in stocks and a 100-pound iron chain around his neck, Bahá'u'lláh received a vision of God's will for humanity.
The event is comparable to those great moments of the ancient past when God revealed Himself to His earlier Messengers: when Moses stood before the Burning Bush; when the Buddha received enlightenment under the Bodhi tree; when the Holy Spirit, in the form of a dove, descended upon Jesus; or when the archangel Gabriel appeared to Muhammad.

Bahá'u'lláh, whose name means "The Glory of God" in Arabic, was born on 12 November 1817 in Tehran. The son of a wealthy government minister, Mirza Buzurg-i-Nuri, His given name was Husayn-`Ali and His family could trace its ancestry back to the great dynasties of Iran's imperial past. Bahá'u'lláh led a princely life as a young man, receiving an education that focused largely on horsemanship, swordsmanship, calligraphy and classic poetry.

this link takes you to an amazing presentation created by the Baha'i community in the USA

its amazing

http://www.nybahai.org/bahaullah/birthofbahaullah.html

Brussel Sprouts game

2006-11-03T14:54:00.000+11:00

So if like me you are at work and really do not wanna be there
looking for something to procrastinate with
check this out

http://www.eyegas.com/xmas05/

RELIGION

2006-11-03T08:29:00.000+11:00

As last semester i decided to do a religions course just out of interest to learn more about how the wider community views there religion, and hoping to gain some insight so i can better teach friends of other religions
during the course of the semester we had to give presentations on different religions. during a tutorial on Islam, one of the students made a comment about one of the sects of Islam, and the lecturer made the comment OH thank God i thought you were going to say something about the Bahai's. So i thought hang on, as a Professor of religion surely you would know that the Baha'i faith isn't a division of Islam. so i decided to say something. and i made the comment that he should include the Baha'i faith in the curriculum for next years group. since the course is about world religions .

he looked shocked that someone had challenged him, and that i had corrected his misconception.
so he said since he knew i was doing the follow up course the following semester to do a presentation to the whole lecture group on the Baha'i faith
so last Wednesday, i had the bounty of speaking to a lecture room of university students of what the Baha'i faith was, and i had a very good response from the group with almost everyone asking me questions, from what bahai believe in the after life, do you have to be bahai to go to heaven, reincarnation, how progressive revelation works, whats the difference between a social teaching and a spiritual one. why Israel, whats the significance
it really was amazing to see such a positive response, especially since except one individual no one had heard of the faith.

i never thought i would have had such an opportunity and i probably would never have been given it if i didn't take the religions course and speak up when the lecturer was misleading the class about the faith.

so if you too are a uni student, consider taking a religion course, and who knows what opportunities you too will have to teach the faith..

"Blessed is he who in the prime of his youth and the heyday of his life arise to serve the cause of his Lord in the beginning and in the end adorn his heart with His love. The manifestation of such a grace is greater than then creation of the heavens and earth. Blessed are the steadfast and well is it with those who are firm"

BAHAI COMICS

2006-10-27T15:54:00.000+10:00

199BONGO

2006-10-26T08:45:00.000+10:00

I heard on the radio this morning
about this messaging service available called 199BONGO
were you can sms the name of a person and it will tell you information about them
i haven't tried it myself
and I'm not sure of the accuracy of it
but i think its pretty freaky that some messaging service could have information about you

RED PAPER CLIP

2006-10-24T13:29:00.001+10:00

I was browsing the net during my lunch break, and i came across this interesting article in
www.oneredpaperclip.com

it is really awsome how this one guy goes from trading a red paper clip and one year later lands a house

is it really possible????? with the net anything's possible now huh

Im so going to give it a go, first though i have to figure out how to use the barter program..i

if anyone has had any success with this let us know

Pedro

2006-10-23T16:24:00.000+10:00

This still cracks me up

the movie was a complete let down

but this dance will go down in history

http://www.flashplayer.com/music/napoleonnumadance.html

HURICANE KATRINA

2006-10-23T09:38:00.000+10:00

THESE IMAGES ARE AMAZING- NATURES DESTRUCTIONIS BEAUTIFUL

GOTCHA

2006-10-23T09:12:00.000+10:00

ABS

2006-10-19T08:39:00.000+10:00

i received a job offer from the ABS which i am really excited about, the only thing i have to do now is pass my exams........ i just wanna pass now, dont care so much about a distinction or even a credit, im just so tired of uni, it feels like i have been here for ever. its really exhausting after a while, but now there is light at the end of the tunnel.
the only down side is that the ABS is in Canberra, which really sucks, having lived 10 minutes from the beach practically my whole life, to then move to a place where it is 2.5 hours to the coast is such a huge change. i feel so closed in. But as someone reminded me, there is an awesome Baha'i community there in Canberra which im really looking forward to, for the first time in my husband's and my life we will be in a community were there are other youth which is so exciting. we dont have to travel an hour to go to Baha'i functions and have to turn down invites to go out with friends in the city because of the distance, we can finally have a normal social life YAY
but its Canberra, i mean what do they have??? a national gallery? parliament house? and wait the highlight of the year must be the floral festival !!!!!! YIHOOOOOOOOOO- how many times can you see those attractions - ONCE IS ENOUGH I think.
you know whats really funny, when the ABS sends its info pack they have a huge booklet which they have obviously gone through so much trouble to produce, in order to influence you into thinking that Canberra is an awesome fun filled place to live. didn't really work for me.
so if anyone out there thinks otherwise, please tell me id really like to know, what is so great about Canberra

JESUS CAMP

2006-10-19T08:17:00.000+10:00

check this trailer for an upcoming movie called Jesus camp

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RNfL6IVWCE

its really stirring
it shows how any religion no matter if its in a "western" or eastern country, it can be completely fanatical
its not a plug for the movie- although i think it would be very interesting to watch

The pastor who is running the camps and indoctrinating the
children- poor little ones

This is a link which explains what the movies all about

http://www.jesuscampthemovie.com/

THE OFFICE

2006-10-16T15:25:00.000+10:00

you would think that as a manager, your staff would be a little careful about how they act around you, little cautious, and generally be afraid of their manager and not the other way around... that's cause you haven't met M (i wont use her real name- ill just call her M). She's not mean in the sense that she's rude, makes you feel really small, and is just bitter, but she would scare even the bouncers in the clubs with her bluntness and voice. and what's worse is that I'm her manager and I'm afraid of her (its really not that funny....OK maybe just a little).
she's the data entry lady in the office, and is very organised and meticulous, she works 8 hours a day no more no less, has her lunch at exactly 12.30 every day and comes back to her desk at 1pm without fail, she does the filling every second Friday, and even if there is an earth quake she will not leave until its done. as her manager sometimes if we have a deadline which needs to be undertaken asap i will ask her to put her filling away because it is not very important and help out with the deadline, usually that causes such a fuss, because now i have messed up her precise schedule. (now I'm not sure if its just me, but when my manager says to me we have a deadline usually i rearrange my priorities so that it gets done, i don't yell at my manager, i value my job too much. but hey that might just be me)
her desk is so organised that if you take a pen from her desk she knows which one you have taken and God help you when she unleashes her furry on you because you have messed up her organised desk.
one day she was away and her computer is the only one which links up directly to the colour printer, so normally she save the document you need in colour in the shared drive, send her an e-mail and she prints it for you no problem. But when shes away you either wait till she comes back, or take the risk that she will scream at you for sitting at her desk.
so where was i..... OK so she was away and i had a report to print out, so i log into her computer using my account and do my thing print my report. the next day first thing i feel her eyes on my back and I'm trying to pretend that i don't notice her looking at me, so she puts her arms up and starts waving at me. and then it comes. WHY WERE YOU AT MY DESK ... i look at her and think, why should i be scared I'm her manager, trying to gather all the strength that i have being little and everything, and then i decided I'm going to stand up to her, so in a very assertive voice i told her exactly why i was there, adding for her not to worry cause i didn't eat anything on her desk.
i felt quite proud of myself

Technology

2006-10-13T10:07:00.000+10:00

I have finally surrendered to the idea that im falling behind with technology
for the life of me i cannot figure out how to add links onto the blog
its really scary, im the grandma who cant figure out how to use a mobile phone.
and i cant figure out how to put video clips onto it either
i feel like crying :(
its weird i never thought that i would be lost with technology
and you know what im going to ask my husband to show me, cause im not going to be left behind
im going to figure it out,
and post the clips i have been wanting to post since ages
peace out

NRMA

2006-10-09T08:19:00.000+10:00

Have you ever been stuck on a deserted (or almost deserted) freeway or a motor way at night all by yourself???? that's exactly what happened to me, i was driving back from uni at around 8.30 with my sister, just cruising along, happy to be going home after a long day, singing along to the music pretending we too had decent voices, minding our own business, trying to stay under a suitable illegal speed limit...
Natalie turned to me and said "how beautiful is the night sky with all those stars" and i thought to myself how nice would it be to drive with your headlights off, (if it was safe enough to of course) like driving in the sky..... and then it happened, the music stopped playing, great now we have no music to sing along to, i look at my dashboard and the lights are out, i look up and my headlights look really dim, so i turn them off and turn them back on thinking i must have accidentally somehow turned them off. THEY WON"T TURN ON, and i was freaking out, i see a section of the freeway where they have those blue phones and i try to suddenly reduce me speed but i miss the safe area, but luckily I'm off the road, only just. and then my lights go out completely. i try to reverse so I'm not so close to the road, but my car wont move. and I'm so freaking out..... there's bairly anyone on the road, which is good and bad, (good cause hopefully there isn't any psycho's on the road, but bad cause its so dark without the cars headlights.)so anyways luckily the car has road side assistance
but i didn't know the number
so first i call my husband to let him know that I'm going to be late and I'm stuck in the middle of no where cause the car ran out of battery.. and then i call my dad to find out the number' once Ive got i then remember hang on where only a few meters from the blue phone box and that hooks up straight to NRMA-
so i get out of the car and tell nat to stay there, shes like yeah sure, loving the fact that its so dark and everything - meanwhile I'm freaking out, cause Ive heard one to many stories.. so i walk to the phone box and talk to the lady from NRMA and she informs me that since I'm a women all by myself i would be a priority one, and that the next available person will come out to me. so I'm thinking GREAT it will be 0.30 minutes at the max. so i call my husband and my parents to let them know by now its like 8.45 and they are like OK were coming, so my house to the uni is a 1 hour drive up the freeway so they wouldn't get here before NRMA well that's at least what I'm thinking. but anyways they want to come,
then Natalie turns to me, seeing that I'm so freaked out and says hey wouldnt it be so cool if like someone jumps onto the front windscreen of the car, i just look at her and think she's completely lost it.
so half an hour passes, and still no NRMA at around 9.30 NRMA rocks up, and i think to myself, that;s a priority one, i would hate to think what it would be if i wasn't a woman all by myself.
but I'm happy to the guy yay i love nrma,
he'll fix the problem and we will be back on the road. just then my husband and dad arrive on the scene, now I'm loving the dark and the stars, finally i begin to relax.
but its so not over. apparently the oil from the power steering was leaking onto the alternator and so it couldn't do its thing. so we had to wait for some other guy to bring an alternator so the car would be drivable.
so my dad tells us to go home in his car, and he will wait with my car until its fixed and then drive it home for us.
so we finally set off, again singing along to the music, getting home a little later than we thought, 10.30 to be exact...... but now i can laugh about being stuck on a freeway
NRMA is fantastic apart from their time frames-

words of wisdom

2006-09-27T11:45:00.001+10:00

true reliance is for the servant to pursue his profession and calling in this world, to hols fast unto the Lord, to seek naught but His grace, inasmuch as His Hands is the destiny of all His servants

THE ARAB

2006-09-26T09:49:00.000+10:00

Hope this gives you a good laugh!

An old Arab lives close to New York City. He would love to plant potatoes in his garden, but he is old and weak.His son is in college in Paris, so the old man sends him an e- mail."Beloved son, I am very sad, because I can't plant potatoes in my garden.I am sure if you were here you would help me dig up the garden." The following day, the old man receives a response e-mail from his son at3:45 pm: "Beloved father, please don't touch the garden. It's there that Ihave hidden 'the THING'. Love, Ahmed". At 4:02 pm, the US Army, the Marines, the Rangers, the Police, officersfrom the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI and the CIA, visit thehouse of the old man, take the whole garden apart, search every inch, butcan't find anything. Disappointed they leave. A day later, the old man receives another e-mail from his son: "Belovedfather, I hope the garden is dug up by now and you can plant yourpotatoes. That's all I could do for you from here. Love Ahmed.

POEM

2006-09-26T09:11:00.000+10:00

one of the girls from work sent this to me

FEMALE POEM

I want a man that's handsome, smart and strong One who loves to listen long, One who thinks before he speaks, One who'll call, not wait for week I want him to be gainfully employed, And when I spend his cash, he will not be annoyed. Pulls out my chair and opens my door, Massages my back and begs to do more. Oh! For a man that makes love to my mind, and knows what to answer to "how big is my behind?" I want this man to love me to no end, and always be my very best friend.

MALE POEM

I want a deaf-mute nymphomaniac with huge boobs who owns a Liquor store, a big boat and a golf course. I know this doesn't rhyme and I don't give a shit.

CHINA

2006-09-24T18:39:00.000+10:00

so yesterday we invited out close friends over for a BBQ for the first time at our home, it was alot of fun, of course some of them couldn't come, but it was awesome, we live only 3 houses up from the waterfront, so we decided to have the BBQ down there, some chicken which we had marinated 2 nights before. it took us back to the haifa days when we used to have bbq's almost every night in the summer time, take a taxi down to camel beach with all our pots full of meat and charcoal and bags full of drinks, ahh those were the days, missing those days......
so anyways we had our chicken and Gaetan convinced me to buy some fish which turned out to be a favorite amongst them all.
it truly was a great day, when i get the chance i will post some pictures up

today was INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PEACE and we decided to go to the temple for the service, we met up with our friend Mehran, who recently moved to our city for studies, it was quite funny, cause we had been teasing him for a while, cause he was not able to come to the wedding but hadn't told us that he couldn't make it, so we milked it for all it was worth, and it was actually quite funny to see him reacting, feeling all guilty, but he knew we were just joking, which was good, hes a great friend. so it was nice to spend time with him. we also bumped into nima from china, who worked at china desk at the world centre while i was there is 2003, he gave a presentation on life in china and was encouraging all those that could to go pioneering to china. apparently it is the place to be. back to mehran, who couldn't stop talking about china, putting in plugs where ever he could, i think if he went on for another 2 minutes i would have packed my bags, lucky me huh .LOL
he's a pretty amazing guy in the sense that he's very energetic and into projects, he started this website a while back called propertyseek, and now apparently its looking like a pretty lucrative project with some big names look into his website.. hope everything goes well for him.

anyways it is stinking hot in this room, and I'm exhausted
i think ill go and watch some movies...oh yeah, we have no TV so instead we have been downloading movies off the net, its been great, i haven't seen so many movies in my life, if you haven't seen 16 blocks i would highly recommend it, its such a god movie, bruce willis who I'm not usual a fan of, did an amazing job on this film
i give it 4 out of 5 stars

And so it begins

2006-09-17T13:15:00.000+10:00

ok so i gave in to the urge to start a blog
not sure yet if i will actually maintain this, but hey ill give it a go
lifes been really crazy lately,
we just celebrated our second month wedding anniversary (ok i know an anniversary is a yr- but hey, if i want to call it an anniversary if i want). we're both working full time, and im just finishing my final yr of uni, cant wait, it feels like ive been there forever
YAY 2 months to go
and then we're off to FRANCE
YIHOOOOOOOOO
cant wait