This Is My Life, Rated

I've been asked by a friend of mine "Still Breathing" to take a life rating test, and here are the results:

This Is My Life, Rated
Life:	7.8
Mind:	7.8
Body:	8
Spirit:	8.8
Friends/Family:	6.5
Love:	1.5
Finance:	7.7
Take the Rate My Life Quiz

It didn't say something I didn't know ! :D I scored almost 8 which means that I have a good life but need to find somebody to share it with ! :P ;) Any takers ! :P:D

Strange Times

We live in a strange time, where people consider those who are loyal to their people and country as infidels, who think that proper democratic thinking is a form of heresy ! Sadly this is the case of many people in my work place (Muharraq) where the majority think of the "National Democratic Action Party" Parliament candidates as infidels instead of national heroes ! It's a shame when people kid them selfs and claim that everything is nice and dandy and hide their heads in the sand ! Oh well, this is sadly the situation nowadays ! Where sincere uncorrupted people are considered to be hypocrites, evil or even worse ! Communists (This is so 1950s America like)!

DR. Moneria Fakro you've made us Bahrainis and your self proud, Good luck to our other candidates !

Fun at the BIC

I am not much of racing fan. I've never got the point of watching cars driving past you and cheer them for that ! But this didn't mean that going to the BIC (Bahrain International Circuit) with the lads wasn't fun, WE had a blast ! To be honest I just enjoyed the executive lounge and the weather, oh yeah and the footballing arguments we were having, which was funny because we totally forgot about the race.

Bond, James Bond!!!

As you all know, the biggest movie of the year is out (sorry Sacha Cohen Baron) and it’s been the talk of the media for the last few months. Even the queen herself thought it was worth watching. A lot of people think they know everything about Bond including those people who initially criticized Daniel Craig before they saw him in action and later on claimed that he’s the best Bond since Sean Connery. So how much do you really know about James Bond?

Tall, good-looking, spends as much money as he wants, drives the fastest cars, has a license to kill and always gets the girl. Now we all know that!!!

Now let’s get to the real stuff. James Bond made his initial debut in the novel Casino Royale by Ian Fleming although the first movie starring Sean Connery was released in 1962 (Dr. No). There are now 6 Bonds, Sean Connery starred in seven movies, George Lazenby in one, Roger Moore in seven , Timothy Dalton in two, Pierce Brosnan in 4 and now Daniel Craig in the latest. They all have one thing in common, they’re taller than six feet.

Statistics show that:

• In the first 20 movies, Bond made love 79 times. Looking at the girls involved (58), 25 were blonde, 29 were brunettes and 4 were redheads. On a naughtier note, the ladies involved moaned “Oh James” 16 times.

• In the first 20 movies, Bond mad love in: London flat (2 times), her place (15 times), someone else’s place (2 times), hotel room (19 times), barn (2 times), gypsy tent (2 times), forest (2 times), plane (2 times), hospital (2 times), submarine (1 time), train (3 times), motorized iceberg (1 time) and finally in, around, under or next to water (25 times).

• In all of his appearances, Sean Connery only uttered “shaken, not stirred” once and that was in Goldfinger.

• In the first 21 movies, Bond has 20 martinis (5 he orders of which 3 were received, rest are brought to him).

Now you might wonder, where did the 007 sign come from??? Well, it dates way back to the 16th century, during the time of Dr. John Dee (1527 to 1608) who was the first British secret agent and an advisor to Queen Elizabeth I. Not only was he a smart mathematician, but also a philosopher, alchemist, astrologer and a magician. Dee designed the 007 code during the war with Spain in order to facilitate his correspondence with the Queen. The 2 0s stood for “for your eyes only” and the 7 is a cryptic number.
Am definitely going to watch this movie sometime soon, whenever things cool down. All my friends loved it, even the Queen herself thought it was worth watching!!!

Riyadh Trip (part 2)

So if you think that touching at Riyadh was the end of my bad luck, well, think again ! :P

Arriving at Riyadh:

I managed to finish with the customs guys in a record time of 6 minutes and was out of the arrivals area in 10 which was a nice thing to do after all the trauma I faced in the way to the capital of Saudi. I dashed through huge sliding doors and looked for somebody holding a board with my name with a huge smile on my face (I've been told that I would find one on my arrival) this yielded nothing, but anger ! Yup, you've guessed it ! Nobody was holding a board with my name ! :x anyway I managed to get out of the way of the stampeding arrivals behind me and continued looking for the driver for around 15 minutes (by this time I was exhausted and very grumpy) and finally I noticed the ignorant twat sitting at the cafe having a nice Mocha Grande ! :o I almost died right there and then ! :x It took me all the will power to not go there and kick his ass ! :x He looked puzzled as in "how on earth did you find me ?!", so he took my bags and dashed to his car. After 20 minutes we arrived to the beautiful hotel "Fahad Crown Plaza", I was greeted with the traditional coffee (and all) and checked in.

The hotel's Oasis SPA was nice, I know the picture doesn't give it any justice !

Got to my suite which was nicely decorated, so what do you do after that ? Look out of the window obviously !! Well, my luck just continued to go against me ! The view which I was greeted with was a huge heater/boiler (Smack bang infront of my view and nothing else!) :x And that was when I thought OK ! Where is the razor ? it's time to slash my rests ! :D

The Conference:

The sole purpose of me visiting the grimmest city in the gulf was to attend a vocational/blue collar training standards workshop/conference, which I enjoyed ! (Wouldn't dare and bore you with the details) :P :D Anyway, I'll let the photos do all the talking :)

The sign ! Nothing too fancy (This is a Good Example of the sense of style which WE Engineers benefit off !) :D

The SEMTA Rep. (Bill Sutton) Giving a presentation on training standards at the UK

ME giving a presentation on Blue Collar Development (While doing my David Copperfield impression "Notice the hands") :D :P

NVQ Mates from my days at dudley ! Saif (Oman), George Orr & Sanjeev Ohori plus this other guy Chillin' at the lobby after a tiring day !

Riyadh Trip (part 1)

So it had been a while since my last post but unlike my not so super sidekick I was having major decisions to make (Khalid where the hell are you ?). Anyway I promised you all a post regarding my trip to Riyadh (Saudi Arabia) so I am obliged to do so (Me and my BIG mouth, I knew that I should've kept it shut!:P)

Anyway I decided to cut the story into 2 parts because my (Blogging for dummies book, says that I shouldn't post long posts, JUST kidding ! :D I am just Lazy :P)

Going to Saudi:

I knew that it would be bad news when the HR Department contacted me regarding a trip to Riyadh, the woman (who spoke to me) was quite excited (I wonder why ? Riyadh is NOT exactly Disney land, or is it ?) So I decided to decline the offer but all my efforts went to pot due to the sudden change of tune in the Lovely woman's voice which scared the living lights outta me ! :D :P Anyway so I dragged myself to the happy department and went through the regular boring procedures of signing papers and finally picked my tickets. Two days later and on the day of my trip I discovered that my passport was expired (Bad Omen ?) I hope NOT ! Thank god, I discovered it early in the morning our I would've missed my plane ! :P Cutting a long story short, I managed to reissue a new one in a couple of hours. Good, now that this problem was sorted, I went to pack my bags and asked my father to drop me at the airport, and yup ! I got stuck in traffic for 30 minutes (Road works, how on EARTH do you go and do such a thing without informing people ?):-x Anyway, I finally reached the airport just to discover that I have missed my plane by 2 minutes !:-x I started to think, now this might NOT be a good idea!). So I rescheduled for the next flight on a different airline and went back home just to return after 3 hours ! There is no chance on EARTH, I was gonna miss this flight ! :P The plane was awful but the food was good which made it better. 30 something minutes later I touched down in Riyadh and I couldn't help it but I felt under the weather instantly ! Plus looking at the huge LCD screens my local team was losing the Asian Cup final ! GOD ! please let me outta my misery :(

What a way to greet your guests ! :D I didn't like this water fountain (No pun intended) ! :P

10 Weird Things About Me

Well, I've been tagged by our frequent visitor and friend Gazza to post 10 weird things about me which I am dreading but what harm could gazza's little curiosity do ? So here are 10 weird things about me:

1- I could NOT focus on or think of two things at a time ! And no matter what I do a could not multi-task.

2- When I like something/want something I'd keep talking and thinking about it until I get it or lose interest.

3- I get opssesed with lossing wight every now and then !

4- I am a huge Liverpool fan to an extent of refusing to do anything on the day they are playing (until the match is over that is !)

5- Most puzzles bore me. I’ve had a little sudoku thing going for the past couple weeks, but I’m sure it’ll pass soon. OK, maybe not that weird!

6- Sometimes, I get annoyed by silly small things, just to laugh it off after a short period.

7- I have 2 favorite shows "My Family (BBC Comedy) and That 70's Show" I can watch reruns of these two shows a million of times and still enjoy 'em.

8- I used to have trouble talking to strange people on the phone (For example complaining on a certain product) but not face to face. HOW starnge was that ? But I managed to beat this :P

9- I can't eat Shrimps or crabs although they are very popular in Bahrain ! (This is considered VERY weird in Bahrain :D :P)

10- Ouija Boards freaks me out, and I mean MEGA freak out ! Although I am not that superstitious. So why ? I don't really know.

These were 10 weird things about me. OK, I tag Lorena and tooners ! OK Ladies you're it ! :P

Stranded Moe!!!

Well as most of you probably noticed, we haven't been around much lately. Am actually in the US for a conference and Moe is in Riyadh for the same purpose. Earlier today, we spoke on skype and it was clear why he's been away for a while.

Staying at one of Riyadh's finest hotels, Moe was sitting down comfortably on a sofa asking me for help, not typical of him. It turns out that he doesn't have access to a web browser, everything is blocked for some reason. To compound his misery, the hotel staff have no clue what's going on. Good thing though, he's still alive ;).

Moe, it's only a few days and you'll be back in your room surfing as much as you want. I'd love to start the "Save Stranded Moe Campaign" but I'll pass on that one for now. In the meantime, enjoy Riyadh as much as you can, if you can.

Expect more from us very soon :).

The Winds of Change

Having the title of the scorpions "rock band" famous hit "the winds of change" as a title for a post about the nearing elections seemed to be appropriate (Trying to be too smart amn't I ?)

Now with the parliamentary elections nearing, I couldn't help but feel positive especially with this being my first ever (was at the UK in the previous run). The main reason for my positiveness this time is that all the opposition parties are in it (ُBahrain Democratic Activism front, Alwifaq Party & others). The previous parliament proved to be a failure due to the extreme Islamists taking the lions share of seats, their failures are well documented, so I won't be giving yous a headache nor will I raise the blood pressure of mine. But I'll be discussing how impressed I was after my attendance to the launch of A.Rahman Alnaiime's (Democratic Activism Front) campaign. The attendance was massive; I didn't expect this; I struggled to find a place to park my car but still I was happy while looking for one (this is a first) for this only means a good thing, doesn't it ?

Upon reaching the campaign's base, I was overwelmed with the level of attendance (I know that all Naiime is a great man and a national hero but this was amazing)

Anyway cutting a long story short, at the keynote everything was disccused, every rock was turned and I was left with a feeling that the winds of change are coming and things will hopefully be brighter at the near future, but only if the opposition reaches the parliament.

At the end of this serious post (boring for some :P), I call upon all my fellow Bahrainis to take this run seriously and give their vote to those who deserves it regardless of their sect, clan or race and kick the extreme islamists and the "government's" MPs out of the parliament. It's time for a change, the time is NOW !

Ok off to Riyad (I am dreading this) for "The Regional Blue Collar Development Conference" which will take a week. Hope I get wifi at the hotel (very wishful thinking") :P

History Series 1: Ancient Bahrain

Given the response to the other thread, I’ve decided to start a history series about Bahrain. I’ll start off with a brief history about the Dilmun Era and expand more later on in the series.

Bahrain has more than 5000 years of history (before 3000 BC) and it is home to the ancient civilization of Dilmun (third oldest after Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt), which was the main trade post between the Indus Valley and Sumeria.

As time passed and during the period between the first century AD and up until the 7th century AD, the Greeks referred to Bahrain as Tylos, the prosperous pearl trading center, which at that time was under the control of Alexander the Great.

Many people have the misconception that Bahrain was also named Arados, whereas it was actually the island of Muharraq which was named that and testament to that is the existence of the modern day town of Arad.

Bahrain eventually did become a center of Christianity, although it was never officially part of the Roman Empire at the time and historical records have shown that Bahrain was the seat of two of the five Nestorian (a Christian doctrine stating that Jesus existed as two persons being the man himself and Logos (son of God)) bishoprics that existed on the Arabian side of the gulf, until the arrival of Islam. Traces of Nestorian Christianity are evident in Muharraq, which still has Christian names such as Dair (parish in Arabic) and Samahij (name of a bishop at the time).

Between the time of the end of Tylos and up and until the arrival of Islam, Muharraq was the center of worship for the cult of Awal (idol looking like the head of an ox being worshipped). Awal was the ancient name of Bahrain for the next 8 centuries to come.

During the 4th century AD, Bahrain was occupied by the 2nd Persian Empire, Sassanian, which lasted from 226 – 651.

That’s it for now. Hope you learned a few more things that you didn’t know before. More to come later :).