This Time Last Week,

I was in Karachi, and I couldn’t wait to get back home.

My New Favorite Photo

Happy Belated Birthday Rani

December 13th – We went to Al Ain for Rani’s birthday. I was going to make a post about how excited I was before we went, but I didn’t want to jinx it. Plus I didn’t want to show off. Al Ain is a big deal you know, atleast for my family. This is the first time me and my immediate family have gone on a picnic by ourselves. The only other times we’ve gone is when mummy has been morally/socially (never maternally) obligated to tag along with someone else from her family. And then too, all she does is make sure no one goes within a mile’s radius of the water/sand/all things that might involve going home not as tidy as you were when you left. Boring. So we’ve been planning to go to Hili Fun City for sometime now, and Rani finally tricked Sobia into it. Sobia, who happens to be my mother’s true daughter, hates picnics just as much.

I am also my mother’s daughter (coinkidink) but I LOVE picnics. So much so, that when I was much younger (twenty one, to be exact), I was willing to marry into a family for picnics. Seriously my criteria was a) does he speak english? yes? and b) does his family go for a lot of picnics? yes? ok then Qabool hai, qabool hai, qabool hai. I’m easy like that.

Just so you know, I risked my life taking these pictures. It was a very dangerous ride!

Thanks!

We were planning on making an office trip

Rani’s Birthday Cake

Not bad, if I do say so myself.

Tadaa! Leaning Barbie Cake

After spending 3 hours making the cake and icing, this was my slice. I was sick of cake! Now I’m hungry again.

At the end, Hamzo hinted that he wanted a Spiderman cake for his birthday. Aww man how am I going to do that?

The Economic and Financial Crisis

Finally, something serious. This guy who sits next to me at work talks allll day, so I thought I might as well put him to some use and got him to explain the crisis to me.

I remember discussing the subprime in Economics class in 2007, but its only now that I really understand what happened. This is a really cool presentation with stick figures that explains everything (all my work presentations have stick figures):

Subprime Primer

And this is how almost 3 trillion dollars just vanished from the US economy. The people who took the loans from Mortgage houses like Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae defaulted, and since the loans were so many in number and the amount so high, it didn’t help that the banks got their houses back – there wasn’t a market for them anymore.

A lot of people I know in Dubai, think the main cause of the crisis is Bush’s war on terror. Yes, it did contribute in a big way, but the crisis started with the subprime, and has 2 years later trickled down into every other sector of the economy and every country in the world. Even timbuktu!

We usually read about something like this in the papers and my standard response is Meh. But this time I don’t think my tried and tested solution of putting my fingers in my ears and yelling lalalala will work. All of a sudden, all everyone’s talking about is the financial crisis. People are losing their jobs left right and centre. It has affected everyone and even the UAE with all its oil money can’t make it go away. The two sectors most affected here are Real estate and banks – and 80% of the people I know work in these two sectors (that statistic was easy to calculate – I know 10 people, 8 work in real estate and banks – 80% tadaa!)

Even my clueless sister has noticed – she sent me an email a few days ago saying ‘You know theres a financial crisis? I hope none of us are affected by it’. I sent her a thousand word reply saying so you finally woke up? blah blah yeah everyone’s losing their jobs and everyone is this and that, the other day imran from college told me that even restaurants have seen a 10% decrease in revenue because everyone is cutting back. A couple of hours after I sent her my long ass reply, she emails me back:

who is imran?

Aaj Dil Dukha Hai, Tum Yaad Aye

Definitely my favorite song.

RIP humaira

On Sunday, I thought ‘hmm I never get any exercise’. It was too late to drive to the beach, so I went down and up 10 floors of stairs. Thrice.

My chances are slim.

Eid Mubarak

Mummy’s Home Remedies

You know how every gharelu woman has home remedies for little ailments? Well, these are my mother’s home remedies for everything related to me

Humaira: Mummy my head hurts – Mummy: Zyada sone se hota hai (This is what happens when you sleep too much)

Humaira: Mummy my arms hurt – Mummy: Zyada sone se hota hai (This is what happens when you sleep too much)

Humaira: Mummy my eyes hurt – Mummy: Zyada sone se hota hai (This is what happens when you sleep too much)

Humaira: Mummy my whole body hurts – Mummy: Zyada sone se hota hai (This is what happens when you sleep too much)

The only time I get a different response is

Humaira: Mummy my tummy hurts – Mummy: Bathroom jana hoga (You probably have to use the toilet)

I’m not 5 anymore mummy. Or 15.