Language Barrier

 Arabic has those weird metaphors especially proper Arabic, we still make fun of the great old poets and their rather interesting choice of words. I always have a hard time when someone, say Kurdish, asks me about the meaning of some Iraqi saying they heard, I go through all the images and tools in my head and try to explain but most of the time the ask-er ends up with a smile that has "what the hell are you talking about!" behind it, now those are Arabic speaking people, not exactly perfect Arabic but they get by. The big test is when a not-speaking-arabic person asks me to translate some Iraqi saying, a text message or even worse a SONG, i always find myself completely lost when this happens and I hit the language barrier.

Regardless how funny some Arabic expressions are, English is worse. A couple of weeks ago I was listening to Taylor Swift's song Breathe and the lyrics go like:  "You're the only thing I know like the back of my hand" and for some reason the phrase just kept buzzing in head, I know that when you know something or someone so well you say you know them like the back of your hand, I looked at the back of my hand and to tell you the truth I don't really know it that well. I looked again, closed my eyes and tried to remember the image but I swear I couldn't so I started wondering if there was something wrong with me, or maybe the phrase actually has a different meaning than what I thought so I started Googling (Ali would agree I'm the best web searcher on the planet, wouldn't you honey?) and I found out that, unfortunately, it does stand for knowing the back of your hand very well, but the good thing is so many people made comments about how they didn't know the back of their hands so well which makes me normal I guess! 

Moving on to another phrase, "Get your ducks in a row", do I really need to say anything? I don't but I will any way. I get the meaning but who has ducks? and who keeps their ducks in a row??? Another one is "Spitting Image" now this is just disgusting, the idea of being created by being spit out of someone’s mouth gives me the creeps. Iraqi is said to be one of the hardest Arabic dialects to learn, although everyone I know seems to speak it fluently :), we simply are blessed with the fact that we have almost all letters, consonants or vowels, whatever you call them, in our dialect which makes it much easier for us to learn any other language and of course make fun of it despite the fact that we have the most outrageously weird adverbs.  

Bottom line is and to be honest with you the reason why I wrote this in first place is to sort of prove that although speaking English pretty much rocks, but Arabic have been and always will be more elegant and sophisticated, after all we don't say, pardon my french, holly crap!! when we're surprised (I couldn't even find the origins for this one), we simply scream our heads off, see I told you it's sophisticated lol.

I'd like to hear some of the funniest phrases you know in any language.

Till next time, see you later alligator :)  

Thanks to phrases.org.uk

Happy 50th!

Yesterday Breakfast at Tiffany's turned 50 and since it's one the most memorable movies I have ever watched I have decided to create this sort of photo blog / Vlog, although all the pictures were from Google search.
Audrey Hepburn Has been and always will be the most famous actresses and fashion icons of the world and one of my all time favorite actresses so here we go, this is a tribute to her and to Breakfast at Tiffany's. Here are some of clips from the movie:

The opening seen, I must have seen it a million times. Can anyone be more elegant?

Moon River:

and here are some of Audrey's Pictures:

And even when she got older, she still looked gorgeous

I think it's time for me to watch it again, I don't think Ali saw it before and since I have never read the book, I've just downloaded it and I'll read it.

Happy fiftieth to the timeless movie.

I'm Simply Bored

I had a horrible nightmare this morning and I felt such a relief when it turned out to be just a bad dream, I have this really strange habit, if I wake up to a bad dream this automatically ruins the rest of my day and it did! it's only noon and I feel like this is the longest day I've ever lived, I just want to go home, go to sleep and wake up tomorrow morning to find myself in Langkawi!!

By now you probably can tell I'm bored, right? I have so much work to do but my brain refuses to coordinate with my eyes and fingers to actually type or do something useful and I have been procrastinating for the last couple of hours. Just to show you  how bad things are, get this, I have actually Googled "How to beat boredom" and for man was I surprised. there are so many articles about this. Apparently  I'm not the only person who actually needs some one else to tell them how to burst the nothing-to-do-ness buble.

 

E-How has a whole article about this with instructions and all plus it lists the things you need to reach your goal: Computer, Paper, Books and whatever you have. Another one form wiki-how suggested that I think, meditate or give my mind something to do!! The worst one was Ezine's Article Please read point 6 it completely depressed me and now I'm wondering, Why am I where I am? The internet is supposed to help us with things but sometimes it's just annoying how much information I can find that I should never be introduced to, for example a few weeks ago I told my dentist that on the internet it says that a dry socket could take several weeks to heal and I was wondering if that was true and he smiled, probably thinking who the hell lead  this annoying creature to my clinic! During my search for boredom cure I stumbled across this rather interisting article : 17 ways to beat boredom cheaply which was quite interisting and I have decided to go home, read a book, wait for Ali and when he comes back from Baghdad I'll  try to convince him to take me out for a walk and we'll see...

Before you go you have to read this one its hilarious "How to never be bored again"  !

Have a good one.

Blame It On Disney

Ever since I can remember Cinderella has been the IT girl when it comes to being completely clueless and landing the prince at the very end and you know the no big deal kingdom and all! We’ve heard this story being told and watched the many versions of the movie and the moral of the story is being good always pays off. I beg to differ; the moral of this story is “it’s all about wearing right shoes”. Think about it, if she wasn’t wearing those beautiful crystal pair of heels and be, again, clueless enough to trip, fall and drop them he never would have been able to find her.

Cindy's Crystal Slippers <3

Now growing up a bit there was that movie with the ballerina and the beautiful laced up ballet red shoes. I wanted to be a ballerina for weeks after watching this movie. I actually took one of my sister’s cassette tape, pulled out the tape thingy and ties it on a stick and was dancing ballet-figure skating in the garden and I did that for a very long time. Again it was all because of the beautiful red shoes. At this point I have to thank God for not having the chance to be introduced to the Wizard of Oz until I was a teenager, but when I did, I fell in love with those Ruby glittery gorgeous slippers, but let’s face it who hasn’t?

The Wizard Of Oz

I still remember my first pair of heals. I was 14 and it was Al-Fitr Eid and Mom decided to reward me for finally deciding to start wearing hijab with a shopping spree, I got a beautiful and really adult like pants suit and a 4 inch, glittery black stilettos and it was rather expensive at the time. I kept this pair for a very long time, I’m sure I still have it somewhere at my parents’ old house. This was properly was one of the most memorable nights of my teenage years, I still remember the shop, the price and if I go there I can tell you where exactly it was placed when I spotted it. That was the beginning of my rather modest collection of footwear that I’m proud to have today.

The thing about shoes is that no matter how big or petite, long or short, beautiful or ugly you are, you can always buy all types and all colors and you will never look at the mirror and think those shoes make me fat! They are the ultimate accessory and studies (real fashion people studies!) have shown that a pair of heals can instantly alter a woman’s mood and make her feel good about herself almost immediately. I’d like to think that it has something to do with the elevation, I was not as fortunate as my sisters and my growth decided to stop at 158cm, so whenever I put on my heals and breath the fresh air that you 6 feeters are blessed with, the Oxygen does the trick and I’m happy.

 Another reason for my obsession is SATC 1, you know how Carrie Bradshaw ended up with Big and they all lived happily ever after! It was all because of the Manolo Blanhikt Something Blue Satin Pump.

 There she is ....Envyyyyyy

 

What is more romantic than being proposed to with a Pump? Nothing right? The list of movies about shoes goes on and on and considering the fact that I spent the majority of my teenage summers at home, watching TV, I’m destined to become a shoeholic so now every time I pass by a shoe store and Ali asks if I really need more shoes my answer would be “Yes, I do” and the reason why I do is:

Honey, It’s not my fault you have to blame that on Disney!

Have a nice day.

Marking the Beginning of Eternal Happiness

There are those you meet, like, become friends with just because we are humans and it’s our nature that we need to have company and this kind of relationship might last but more often doesn't and man did I have that, but there are those that you meet and you either immediately like or strongly dislike and after a while you become best buds, they witness the ups and downs of your life, the good and the bad and no matter how far you are, is some way they are always there for you. I have done my research and found out that a normal person maintains around 30 friendships at a time and have 10 people that have always been around and I consider really close friends so doing the math this makes me either above normal for having too many besties or well a sociopath!!

I hate to be one of those Iraqi whiners who complain about how all that took place over the last eight years forced us all to relocate and how much they miss good old home and the wonderful blue sky, they warm sun, Tigris and maybe even Euphrates, masgoof and the Iraqi bread and the date, you know that kind of people, right? Every time I read something like this I laugh, obviously you have never lived in Baghdad because if you did you would have noticed that for the last ten years we probably haven't had a clear sky day either duty dust storms or the incredible pollution, the sun during summer at noon! Seriously? Who misses that?, the food part is just nonsense they probably never had masgoof in their life, to be honest with you I can’t discuss this since I don't eat fish, Tigris have been so low to even like ever since I can remember, enough said? I think so, but truth is sometimes I don’t feel distanced from the ones I love, family and friends and I look back at my childhood and I remember everyone being at everyone’s wedding and now a days it’s different, you look at a newlywed’s Facebook page and the majority of the comments are “sorry I couldn’t be there, you know how things are” and that’s really sad for example out of the seventy something people I invited to my bridal shower only thirty something showed up! I did feel bad for a little bit, but then I remembered all the weddings and the party that I couldn’t go to and I felt for all those people and well to be honest with you what matters at the end is that I married THE ONE J .

I’m telling you this because a week ago a very close person to my heart, one of the most passionate and loving people I’ve ever known and my very best friend got married, we live far apart and we haven’t sat in the same room for five years, but every time we talk it’s like we have been together all day long yesterday and she never seizes to amaze me with her support in everything I do. F is the most creative person I’ve ever met and I’ve know her for eleven years and we’ve had our crazy ideas when we were in high school, for a while we decided to become architects after a little bit we shifted to interior décor and then it was the she would do decors and would do the planning and catering and we will, offcourse, have our own wedding planning business! we shared the same car pool, studied together, had the same tutors, we were pretty much in each other’s face all the time, but I have always loved F and we both knew that no matter what we will always be there for each others, but she got married and I couldn’t make it to the wedding! I stayed up all night long that night feeling sad for missing my besty’s wedding and the fact that I had my tooth pulled out and the place was infected wasn't exactly helping, let me tell you people BIG MISTAKE, the pain was unbearable! Now back to my story, despite the fact of how far apart I am from my siblings and friends I always feel their presence and I was hoping the F felt how happy I was for her that day and how proud I am of the woman she became .

 I love you and S better knows how lucky he is to have you as his wife and offcourse I can't end this without the ultimate wedding song, dedicated from moi to toi :)

Have a wonderful life .