and why?
The tales and musings of a British man who worked in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, but is now in England. All photos are mine unless otherwise stated.Email Me
Read my posts About Me --My Story in Pictures--Books--Diet--Saudi Arabia--Football--Mecca--Medina--My Face--Travel--Teaching--
50 Questions to Expand Your Mind--My Photography-- or Recommend me Ask me anything
Read my posts About Me --My Story in Pictures--Books--Diet--Saudi Arabia--Football--Mecca--Medina--My Face--Travel--Teaching--
50 Questions to Expand Your Mind--My Photography-- or Recommend me Ask me anything
April 8, 2012
March 3, 2012
Anonymous asked: Youre going back in 10/11 months?
In sha Allah, that’s the plan. I have an idea of what I want to do and it’s something I’m going to, hopefully, spend the next 10/11 months on. Regardless of whether that plan works or not I should have between 8 months and about a year and there’s no where like Saudi in order to save money. It’s not 100% that I’ll be going back but it really looks likely that I will.
October 29, 2011
October 14, 2011
If money wasn’t a problem…
and time wasn’t an issue…
and you could go anywhere in the world…
Where would you go?
October 12, 2011
Online shopping is so easy
It’s scary how readily a person can part with over $1100 and not even bat an eyelid.
Technology is totally geared towards people spending money.
Capitalism is evil!
P.S. I don’t mean to be insensitive towards my followers who are struggling for cash right now - I don’t squander my money and what I bought was actually a very valid purchase. I was just commenting about how easily you can part with cash because it’s all electronic.
October 3, 2011
Hahahaha @ marriage!!! (and replies)
foudaism replied to your post: You know,
omg! you’re getting married!
No, I’m not getting married :P I said a milestone not a rite of passage. Getting married isn’t an achievement!
istandforme replied to your post: إِنَّا لِلّهِ وَإِنَّـا إِلَيْهِ رَاجِعونَ
Doesn’t this say “I belong to Allah”?
From Wiki:
Inna: Inna is really inna-na. The first part is “verily”, the last part is “we”–but Arabic tends to simplify, so it is written as inna (with only 1 noon and shadda for stress). It means “Indeed, we” or “verily, we”.
Li-llahi: Li is a harfu jarr (preposition) meaning “to” or “is for.” It is used as a kind of possessive case. “a laka akhun” (the la is really the same as li) means “is for you a brother?” or “do you have a brother?” So here, “lillahi” means “belong to Allah SWT ” or “are for Allah SWT”. (It’s also because of the ‘li’ that ‘allah’ takes kasra.)
Wa: Wa means “and”.
Inna: Same as above.
Ilay-hi: This is two parts, it means “toward him”. Ilay is actually a form of ila (a preposition), which means “to”. A grammatically similar phrase is “thahabtu ila masjidin” — “I went to a masjid”. “Hi” is actually “hu“, the third-person possessive pronoun (”his”). (It takes kasra because of “ila”.) So the overall translation is “toward him”.
Raji3oon: This is a form of raja3a, “return” (the 3 represents the letter ‘ain, which is voiced with a tightened throat). Raji3 is a noun/adjective form, meaning ‘a person who is returning’. The oon at the end makes it plural (so that it refers to 3 or more people). Raji3oon basically means ‘returners’, or better ‘returning ones’.
hearts-and-crosses said: Don’t give up! It will be ok yeah? Just stick with it for a little longer and see how things go :) x
I don’t know, George… Things have been hard and I’m just not enjoying it out here at the moment, you know.
thatslegit said: show me the money!!!!!!!
SHOW ME THE MMMMOOOOOONNNNNNEEEEEYYYYYY!!!!!! (I love the bit when his kid says “that’s my motherfucker!”)
September 27, 2011
You need to watch this over and over and over again and really understand how governments and banks think and the differences between them.
September 12, 2011
I just got home from work
Alhamdulilah.
These last few days have been really tough. On Saturday I worked from 6:45am until 5:15pm. Yesterday I worked from 7:30am until 5:15pm. Not only that but I was working twice my usual workload on those days. I had to cover classes which meant I was teaching for 8 hours a day. That’s a lot when you’re only used to four.
Today it finally settled a little bit. Right now it looks like I’ve been given the AM shift at work (which I actually wanted). This morning I taught from 8am until 11:40am and then I was done with the day. I had to stay until 3:30pm but that wasn’t too bad. My class is actually fairly decent. There are a couple of characters but they’re the kind of make it fun. They’re level two but their English isn’t all that bad.
I’m so glad to be taken off double shifts. Sure I would have made another couple of thousand dollars a month but money doesn’t motivate me at all. I’d rather keep my sanity.
So yeah, the last few days were tough in a lot of ways but it finally looks like things are on track now work-wise. I have a very interesting year ahead. May Allah make it easy for me.
August 29, 2011
I had one of the best meals of my life tonight.
I went to CF Chang’s (on my friend’s recommendation) and was totally blown away.
For starters I had something called Dynamite Shrimp. I swear, it’s one of the best pieces of food I have EVER tasted. It was delicious beyond description. The tastes, the texture, the presentation… everything! Wow!
For the main I had Mongolian Beef served with a side of rice. The beef was cooked to perfection. It was marinated in this soy sauce based dressing thing… I don’t even know where to begin talking about it.
For dessert… I had banana rolls with ice cream, fruit, and caramel. Each bite was like heaven.
THE HAVE TO BRING THIS TO RIYADH! It’s a good job I don’t live in Dubai or else I’d be broke because I’d eat out everyday and be super-fat.
(I’m so sad I didn’t take my SLR. These pictures are from my iPhone and they don’t do the food justice at all)
August 2, 2011
I feel like I’ve been writing about religion a lot recently…
It’s not that I’m particularly holy or pious. I’m a sinner. I’ve wronged. I’ve done things I shouldn’t have. Regardless of all that, I’m trying to be good. I’m trying to improve. I’m trying to bring my faith closer to the centre of my life.
This impacts things. It forces you to change you who are and how you act. It forces you to re-evaluate your life and how you fit in to your surroundings. I don’t think I am the person I was a year ago; I’m certainly not a person I was four years ago.
July 24, 2011
37. If you just won a million dollars, would you quit your job?
A million dollars isn’t what it used to be. In fact it’s not all that much at all. For that money you can get a very nice house in one of England’s northern cities, a nice car, and have a few pounds left to relax and take it easy for a few years. It wouldn’t be feasible to not supplement that with some kind of work. That is, of course, if you choose to live in a place like England. If you’re willing to live elsewhere it’s a whole different matter…
July 20, 2011
33. If you haven’t achieved it yet, what do you have to lose?
I feel like I’ve achieved a lot in my life. I feel like I’ve had some wonderful opportunities to do some great things and I’ve certainly taken some of them. Saying that, I feel there is a lot more in front of me than there is behind me and I feel like there’s a lot for me to do, there are things for me to achieve. Some things are big, though. Bigger than me.
July 8, 2011
Charity
My brother started a charity with a couple of my uncles a few months ago and it’s really kicked off in a big way over the last few weeks. I didn’t really know all that much about it but I talked to him a couple of times and, I have to admit, I was very impressed with what I heard. Let me tell you all about it…
June 23, 2011
So I talked to my sister today
and I told her how I really couldn’t wait to go home and how everything was and she gave me some advice, a suggestion, and I’ve not been able to shake it all day. I’ve not been able to stop thinking about it and the strange thing is that when an idea plants itself in to my mind like this I can’t help but see a domino that has been flicked over and the inevitability of the chain reaction that follows.
June 23, 2011
6. If happiness was the national currency, what kind of work would make you rich?
I don’t know if I’m the best person in the world to be writing about happiness right now but I’ll give it a shot. Sorry if this answer isn’t up to scratch…
The ‘you’ in this question can refer to a specific ‘you’, i.e. me or it can refer to a general ‘you’ i.e. the population at large. I think I’ll answer the question from both perspectives because I feel they’re very different answers.
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