Aqad Nikah

My first ever experience of a Muslim style Wedding! First impression: Awesome! Of course that migh just be the fact that I hung out wit my greatest friends...It felt right! This was where I completely fit in.
Anyways, Aqad Nikah is translated from arabic to english to mean Marriage Contract or Bonding Agreement. And it's the vocal agreement of the bride's dad and the groom on the marriage that basically takes place. And this wedding took place at one of my best friend's house. The reason wh is still a mystery to him.
First, we wait for the Qadi(Judge) to come and pray Maghrib with us. Then, he gives a ceramah(speech) of the wedding and Islam. Then he asks the groom something like: Do you agree with all the terms and responsibility of this marriage? He has to reply: I (name) agree with all the terms and responsibility of this marriage. And of course since there is no paperwork, the Qadi and the audience becomes witnesses of the event.
Afterwards:FOOD! There was like awesome loads of food including CHICKEN and rice and CHICKEN and oh yeah cake obviously. Ayam masak merah...sedap!
After we were bored and full, we(me and my friends) decided to play some basketball, and just in case anyone's wondering; we are all horrendously terribly at it excluding the house owner. But of course my team never lost once! *grin*
We spent most of the night playing basketball, but once we started getting hurt and tired, we went inside, and inside is where I met two more friends, one of them a friend I missed a lot. The rest of the night was spent laughing and joking around, just like the good ol' days. *grin*
P.S. I'm bald now!

Monday- First day of secondary sports
Today included: football, basketball, netball, wheelbarrow race, ball-and-spoon race, hula-hoop race and some sort of sports trivia.
As Topaz house captain, I was in-charge of nearly everything that had to do with Topaz as my vice-captain didn't even bother to show up. Everything was splited up into boys/girls and different years. So, basically, the year 8 girls played with year 8 girls, year 8 boys played with year 8 boys.
The football team wasn't too bad but we didn't win much and the same was for basketball. It was all a big mess for Topaz House and I accept the responsibility and blame. Netball, I'm not too sure about as I tend to distance myself from that sport. The other picnik activities were out of control as everyone was halfway-to-eternal-sleep and no one wanted to do any of the activities. Well, that was the year 10s at the very least. As for me...I had to stop at the wheelbarrow race: I burnt my hand going just a bit too fast. Now, I have a disturbing sight in the side of my palm. Hopefully I'll be able to heal by the end of the week.
Oh yeah, I also had a very interesting encounter: before the burnt hand, the principle came out. He was watching silently for a while then said out loud as soon as everyone was quiet: 1000 housepoints for Sapphire for being the first to quiet down! That just clicked something in me. I walked up to him, and told him: sir, isn't that against the rules?! You yourself said teachers are only allowed to give 20 housepoints maximum for one thing. He was calm towards all this but once I said: You can't do that, he said: go sit in my office.
First time in the principle's office. Kind of weird but not scary as I was confident that I had every right to stand up to him. Plus the other 5 kids that were in there who was in more serious trouble than I was boosted my spirits up a bit.
He made me wait in his office for almost 30 minutes, then called me out, then had a talk with me which went kind of like this: What was that thing you said to me? I can't do that right? Well, this badge of mine says I can. And I don't want you to tell me how to do my job. How should you have come up to me do you think?
Without even having to think hard, I answered: I guess I should have said: You shouldn't have done that sir. It's against the rules! He smiled at that. Guess I hit the answer spot on.
Then he said something like: well, if it wasn't for gatekeepers like yourself, I can get away with murder! The difference in those answers is that the Can't is harsh and more commanding while the Shouldn't is calmer and people would be more willing to listen to your argument. I CAN'T believe that he had thought me an ethical lesson on a sports day!
I don't know if I had earned his respect or he was just trying to take the mickey out of me, but he then said: another 1000 housepoints for sapphire for again being the silent house! Then he said: as a reward for such a great day, I'm giving Topaz, Emerald, and Ruby 2000 housepoints each!
For some weird reason, which I laughed at, people actually cheered. What they didn't notice was that he had just taken back his words of making Sapphire first! From now on, I have a lot of respect for that funny man in the black suit: Mr. Campbell.

Sporty Day...s.

Sunday: KG1-Grade 2
On this day, I had to be a help to the other teachers who were organizing the Early Primary Sports Day. Came to school in a non-outstanding fashion, just the same as usual, always dreary of course. Then one of my best friends, who had also accepted the task to help out, reminded me about the volunteer jobs that we took.
At 9 something, the games was about to start. Parents flooded in all at once. KG1 was up first. Red, Blue, Green, Yellow, all came neatly out of their classes, each representing their own Houses. It annoyed me to no end that the children all seemed unmotivated at all. I had to take matters in my own hands. Kind of regret it now... lost my voice for a while: I readied a hard voice, steadied my vocal cords, and screamed: What team's gonna win?!!!
HUGE effect on the kids!! No wonder I love kids! Instantly their passion to not lose woke up, igniting flames inside of them, answering my taunt by screaming: RUBY! RUBY! SAPPHIRE! SAPPHIRE! EMERALD! EMERALD! TOPAZ! TOPAZ!!
There was another reason I became tired after all that: Laughing my head off at their desperate attempts to stay in first place. Especially the Obstacle Course! There was this one kid who stuck out more than the rest: A Topazian, chubby and always searching for his parents. The obstacle course included jumping over stuff, climbing others and balancing on another. This kid fell like 3 times on the first obstacle, chubby feet stomping slightly on the climb and couldn't balance what-so-ever! And he did all this still waving at his parents!
I was in charge of motivating the kids and keeping the overall scores. The results of KG1: Topaz first, Sapphire second, Ruby third, Emerald last and lots of sore throats.
KG2 was also similar but with double the cheering. There were lots of shouts and encouragements from the other volunteers like me and I guess the sight of much older kids trying to motivate them just, well, motivated them. The scores were somewhat similar as well.
Then came the slightly older Grade1s and 2s. OH... this was definitely one of the funniest and exciting events. The rules were slightly different but the atmosphere was the same: The obstacle course had an upgrade and they added a sack race as well. Now, the obstacle course included a crawl through a tunnel like thingy which me and the other volunteer had to keep in place. There are no words loud enough to describe the intense cheering coming from the different teams which almost never died down. It was a much better air than the one in the football match before! The results were complete opposite but with sorer throats and 2 pairs of dead arms.

Sudden Adrenaline! Weeee...

For the last month, I've been complaining how suddenly the whole world started to get absurdly dull. Well, thanks to these past couple of days, I'm prepared to eat my words.

First off: sudden invitation. One day off from school and the school kicked into top gear! As soon as I came to school on Thursday, friends swamped me with questions on whether or not I was going to Dubai Festival City that evening. My answer: What? Apparently, after all that *cough* hard work *cough* in school, everyone needed a break, and what other place to celebrate than the place-to-be, DFC? So after much consideration which took a whole packet of crisps and 3 Oreos, I decided to tag along with them.

Party time! As per usual, I was first to arrive, and had to wait for everyone else. As not per usual, I met an old acquaintance! What is it with meeting people we used to know this year? Well, I actually saw the person from far so I wasn't one hundred percent sure it was that person so I waited a bit until i could see the person's face completely. Yep, it's a friend. When I decided to go say hi, precisely at that moment (what astoundingly perfect timing my friends have) 3 friends just happen to pop up! So we had this whole big reunion thing...nothing big, 10 minutes long maximum. The other 3 came over here riding a taxi: one from school, one from Sharjah, and one idiot from Ajman! For those who don't know their UAE Geography: That's a HELL of a long way to come! They were starving from sitting in a taxi, the ''idiot'' hadn't eaten for the whole day, so... I bought them all a Pepperoni Pizza! Of course there was a few slices which went into the buyer's stomach as well.

After they ate, came the girl with all the connections. She was the main host for this outing apparently. She had invited friends from school, outside of school and friends who don't know their friends yet. By the end of the day, there was like 13 of us. Quite a gathering. Well, the hostess had VIP coupons for the rides outside DFC. DING DING DING! Enter Main Event!

There were two main awesome rides: a corkscrew and a huge bouncy spinning bowl. Just from thinking about it now makes me noxious.

After much debating, we decided to get onto the Bowl first. Crap loads of fun! We were the 1st in the bowl so we were able to pick our places without any squeezing or pushing. Then...around and around and around it goes! I fell off my seat and remained on the spinning floor for the whole of the ride! Main reason for falling: Laughing.

After we had gained the ability to stand on two feet again, the Corkscrew was waiting to give us another ride of adrenaline. We should not have had that pepperoni pizza. At All. 

The thing started slowly...rocking side to side...then...SWISH! 90 degrees off the floor and into the sky! Screaming our heads off, feeling like our stomachs had flipped upside down, falling like a dumbbell in water: just a few descriptions of what came with the ride. All this...while going round, and round, and round, and round and round... I distinctly remember some girl screaming: WE'RE DEAD! WE'RE DEEAADD!!

After a while, the school friends all had to leave except the hostess and I was fortunate enough to have Uncle Fendi who was in DFC that day until 10+. So, now there were 10 of us left. I barely knew any of them except the hostess and a friend who came AFTER all the rides. We just decided to go walk around DFC dor a while, hang out. I also kept with my new year's resolution and had 8 new friends after that day. Of course, few names have been forgotten...

Oh, and on that same day, while I was getting the adrenaline rush of a decade, my cousins and their super-energetic daughter had already arrived here from Malaysia. They were knocked out cold by the time I had arrived home so it was a few more hours until I could enjoy their company.

Morning: Woke up and saw my cousins' faces. I'm not a morning person so you'll have to understand why I didn't do a sing-and-dance routine when I saw them. Their daughter(my half-niece) was already awake. Oh God, she's so cute. The whole day was spent with the whole family visiting Dubai's sights and listening to my endlessly talking 6 years old niece. 

Then, we went to the gathering at Auntie Yati's house. We prayed sincerely that her daughter is safe and that they'll be together again soon. I won't go into details. 

I also saw two of MY outside school friends. It's amazing how much pressure can be put off just by looking at old friends. I haven't seen them for a really long time. I can honestly and sincerely say: I miss you people...a lot.

I ate my words. The world's not gone boring...There was just nothing to make it exciting.

Birthday Spook

On Friday, I was invited to go to a friend's birthday party. He said that he plans to take us bowling and ice-skating at Al Nasr Leisureland, behind the old Nasr Cinema. However, my family and family friends had already made plans to go to the Dubai Cares Help for the Children of Gaza. Thankfully the party was postponed until 6pm that night. 

At the Dubai Cares, we arrived to a city of boxes; the volunteers who had already arrived were making boxes for the necessities to go in, and they had piled the small, white boxes on top of each other by the road. Since we were new arrivals, we decided to go help make the boxes as well. 

Logically, "making boxes" doesn't sound like much fun does it? Well, during our systematic production of boxes, I managed to have heaps of fun! There were hundreds and hundreds of boxes to be made! The making process was simple: take uncreated boxes, make it into a box, tape it and then pile it. I was in charge of taping it and making sure the tape was... well, basically neat. After we ran out of boxes, I went and searched inside the building for more unfinished boxes and buh-lieve me, it was like a whole other city in there! It was completely crowded! I made my way through the maze of people and stopped at a gallor of boxes! There were enough to fit more than enough rations of food to feed a whole country! (Obviously Dubai Cares had done their maths!)

After making uncountable boxes, it was finally time for the party!

I was dropped off at 5pm infront of the Leisureland. Of course there wasn't anyone there; my friends have a knack of coming to parties or anything of the sort late. Or maybe I was just dropped off too early. Either ways, I was fortunate: I was walking aimlessly through the building when I saw a sign saying: Ice rink and Bowling will be closed from 4th January. 

Guh-reat! I had to call up the birthday boy and tell him the news and trust me, he was astounded. The dude hadn't checked if his plans were full proof or not! *Sigh* So after careful consideration which involved me doing nothing, we decided to go to Wafi, where there is roller blading, Virtual Roller-Coaster and best of all, The Tomb! Basically, the Tomb is an ancient-egyptian-based maze. I've never been in there ever before but Saif had and he said it scared the crap out of him and his friends. Enough reasons to go right? C;

So I waited for B-Day Boy and the others to show up and what-do-you-know? An old friend of ours just coincidentally shows up! It was a huge reuninion! At first it was only me, her and her friend for the better part of 40 minutes and when I left to pray Maghrib, another friend shows up. The best part was that this Friend and the Old Friend had a hilarious history together. They didn't forget. By the time the others came, I was crying from laughter.

When we finally got to Wafi, (I rode with my best friends and one of theirs' singing Mom and Dad) we played Pool first. I think there were only 2 people who were actually playing Pool! The others(including me) were playing around like samurais with the sticks! 

After Pool, we went Roller Blading. My history of roller blading is just that: History. I haven't even touched a roller blade in half a decade! B-day Boy was worse: he's NEVER been in roller blades and even in shoes he falls over! We had splendid amounts of fun! I finished with a bruised buttock, a burnt ankle, and a headache from laughing.

Virtual Roller-Coaster! This is one of the best parts of the night. I don't think any of us got out of it with a non-sore throat! I went with the B-day boy and I attempted to make it more scary than it really was by screaming whenever the fun part comes around. He seemed happy so I'm satisfied.

Next: Food! Spaghetti Bolognaise. Just the sound of it..ahh... so delicious! 

Afterwards: The Tomb!! No doubt the main event of the night, it didn't dissapoint! 5 people were allowed in at the same time, and we were fortunate in that manner as one of our numbers had to go as he had another party to attend to. So all of us were allowed in at the same time.

The people took our mobiles, watches and anything else that might provide light or sound or anything really. Then we knocked. 

Bang! Something slammed itself on the door. I'm lucky I don't have very good reflexes because everyone else jumped back and fell over each other! Then this creepy hunchback opened the door. The guide.

No more details. If you want to enjoy it completely, you'll have to go in yourself. But I can gurantee you one thing: no matter how prepared you are, no matter how many times you go in there, you'll be coming out of there running.

Under Construction!

As planned beforehand, we went with Ala' and Nasa, Haziq and Yahya, and Muaz to a place far away to watch AC Milan play against Hamsburg. I was in a car with Saif, Haziq, Nasa and Yahya with Uncle Afzar while the others rode with another Uncle. The traffic Jam was looong! But only on the main roads. Uncle Afzar decided to use a backroad, which got us there faster than the others did. Lucky break for us! 

To tell you the truth, I wasn't interested in the football match. Rather, I was more interested in the yelling and screaming to the players more than what was goin on in the match. And unfortunately, it was really dissapointing: the match had a really slow tempo, which meant not that much yelling! We did get to shout at the referee a few times and we did get to scream the players' names as they played quite a dull game. We all expected Milan to dominate but it was the reverse: Hamsburg played a better game and they certainly didn't deserve to lose.

The score was 1-1 by 90 minutes and the game went into penalties. The penalties had the most yelling in it! There were boos and chantings of the shooters' and goalkeeper's name as they went into their respective places. It was 5-3 to Milan as Dida saved a penalty and another hit the crossbar. Then there were people dancing queerily, shiny things floating in the sky and my hoarse voice going along with the music and finally, the whole thing came to a stop. See? Boring match! But...that's my opinion. Me, the guy who doesn't even care abut football much. Ask the others for a more..."professional" opinion!

But the title says Under Construction...what does that have to do with football? The Stadium. The Stadium wasn't even complete! There weren't even WALLS! Or Chairs!! We had to sit on green floor! There were tunnels under these green things to let people walk through and these were lined with construction posts! A match which everyone was looking forward to in an uncomplete stadium. What a Rip-Off!! 

Hahaha. I have to say this: Who cares? At the very least there WAS a football match and people were there with family and friends! That's what I thought being in a huge gathering like that was about: to have serious amounts of fun! It would have been a lot more fun if it was in a real stadium, true, but (the corniest saying) life gives you lemon, you make lemonade! We might not have made lemonade, but we were still satisfied. 

P.S. this was all written in the middle of the night...when I just got home from the match...So it may not be the greatest post you'll read! 

2k9's First Day

It was one of the most exhausting day I've ever had, I'll tell you that! A series of events made me sleep late, even though I knew I had to wake up early. I know...stupid. Well, After I did wake up, we already misses most of the fun Family Day that was planned, so we went to eat breakfast at our second kitchen: Al Nasr Restaurant. Even the uncle who works day shifts and lamost never laughs, was in a really cheerful mood! Good omen for a good year. C=

Then we went to salvage whatever fun was left in the Family Day, and we hit gold. It was absurdly fun!  By the time we reached there, they had already done the Wheelbarrow and were just starting to play Tug-O-War. I lost. No need to put details into that.

Afterwards, we played football and rugby/american football (I still don't know which!). I really did miss hanging out with all my friends like that, but as a start to my new year's resolution, I have made a new friend(awesome or not I'm not yet sure), Ash. Hopefully I'll learn her real name soon. C=

We went to have a BBQ night at Unc FND's house. It was Auntie Sue's birthday! On the 1st of January! How incredulously lucky! All of her birthdays are holidays which everyone's celebrating! Anyways...Nasa and I were in charge of the fire-starting. I am proud to admit I am terrible at it! After lots of fanning, we managed to get the fire to start. Not to mention I couldn't use my right arm for the whole night afterwards!

I can't tell you how amazing yesterday was because I am at lost for words to describe it. I saw Ala', Nasa, Haziq, Anum, Amanie, and a pack of kids, all of whom I really missed. We played UNO, then there was something like a pillow fight which then turned into a wrestling match between me and the kids. I came home at 10pm with more brusies than a boxer does after a match. All in all...It really was a gold mine.