Nash Blog

My Dear Friends,

Just to let you know am now back.

I have so many people to thank during the time I was blogging. I apologise to have just disappeared, but I am now back, and I am here to stay.

There comes a time in a person's life that one has to make a long term decision.


This time has come for me, having lived in this country for some time now, I have decided its time to take a detuor.


I made the decision a few weeks back. I have decided to leave UK and head back to Oman.

I do not have a job lined up yet. I thought I will relax and take it easy for a few months before deciding what my next step will be.


I have enjoyed living in this country, travelled extensively and met a lot of exciting people from all over the world. I made friends with a lot of people from Oman whon I would naver have met or even and got close to. I also benefited from working here while noting a big cultural difference that exists between us.


There are a lot of things I am going to miss here but then again I am sure I can make them up with alternate things in Oman.


Lifestyle between the two countries is totally different. Some of my friends tell me I can maintain the same lifestyle when I go back, but I would prefer to live the Omani lifestyle. I am a highly social person and this is one of the things I miss here, that I need to make up in Oman.

I have a lot of relatives many of whom I havent seen in ages, and this is one thing I need to do, is catch up with them.

I would like to thank all my regular readers for having patience and loyalty on my irregular posts.

I am working towards becoming a better blogger for 2007, and this can only be achieved with your constant support.


I will go away on holiday to be back in Oman in time for Eid.

So to everyone here, Merry Christmas, Eid Mubarak and Happy New Year oxoxox

What would you think of me if I told you I enjoy dental visits, if I said that I actually look forward to see my dentist. You probably might rank me high among the sadists.

The truth is, I have always hated going to dentists. The idea of me getting strapped to that chair, having needles shot inside my mouth, having dentists talk to me while my mouth is full of dental instruments and I cant talk back. What about those dentists who talk to their assistants while working away on your mouth as if you dont exists. These people just get on my nerve. I dont really have problem with drills, or a piercing pain once every few seconds, I can deal with that. The way I see it, better endure pain in the hands of a professional (yea right) than ending up living day in day out with toothaches.

The other thing I have noticed is, dentists love extraction, any discomfort they get working on your teeth, the first suggestion is: Hmmm, no matter what I do, this will give you trouble in a few months. As for me, if I go to a dentist with a particular problem, the first thing I say is, do whatever you want, but do not extract my tooth. Some dentists are not happy with this approach and spend a lifetime trying to explain why this tooth should go.

Some of the people I know would stick to the same dentist in their lifetime. I have learned not to trust these cash vampires, so I usually switch between dentists all the time. If I am not happy with one dentist, I just move on to a different one. Anyone who lives in UK will tell you how difficult this is. But I take my chances.

Well, my recent visit to the dentist has changed all this. The dentist was a professional and a charming young lady. She was talking continuously while working on me. After taking my x-ray she spent almost an hour going over it, which I learned a lot in the process. After that, she took a piece of cotton and massaged my gum, she then stuck a needle which I did not at all feel the pain. All the time she did her work there was no pain at all. She kept asking me a number of questions and she knew I cannot answer. Then she told me not to worry, just remember all these questions and answer them during the break. If I showed a slight sign of discomfort, both herself and her assistant would genuinely aplologise an avoid doing that again.

To top it all, once finished, she gave me her mobile number and email address, and she told me if I felt any pain at all I should contact her.

I admire this lady for so many reasons, one: professionalism, despite of accentricity, she is a professional, and very thorough in her job, she uses the latest technology in her work, which includes digital x-ray and all other stuff.

two: She looks after the patient's interest. Even though she is there to make money, but she explains the problem thoroughly and suggests if it was too costly I could do it elsewhere.

three: she is kind. She makes sure that you endure no pain at all during the process, she will go out of her way not to cause pain.

Having said all that, she is very very expensive. I would prefer to do my dental work in my homeland.

On this day of Eid, wishing all my wonderful readers happiness and the heartiest thoughts today and throughout the year.

As we all know, this is the time where we exchange greetings with our loved ones and the ones we care for.

Long ago, people used to send greetings cards (I am sure some do, even today). Now, I just love greeting cards, for many reasons, for one, once I receive the card, I imagine what that person has gone through for the card to reach me. Lets walk through the steps: 1. He must have gone to a stationary shop, selected a card especially for me. 2. Gone home, sat down and thought what to write, so I know those words are meant for me. 3. Gone to the post office and mail the card. And 4, my fav, the card was written in a person's own handwriting, now thats what makes it special, nothing tops that. The thing is, a lot of people stopped sending cards, they found you have to write so many cards, takes up a lot of time, plus the cards were getting costly, and yes, the postal charges are quite high, so cards became things of the past.

Then came emails, you just select your contacts, write a message once, press send, its gone in seconds. It later turned out, some people stopped using their emails, bec of too many forwards and junk mails. Also, during holidays people dont check their emails, so you get greetings after holiday, too bad eh?

What now? Well, its the little beast called SMS. With SMS, you wait until the first person sends you a msg, then forward it to everyone on your list except the first person. Then wait a few mins for someone else to send, and forward to the first victim. Now whats so bad about that. Nothing bad at all. Did anyone ever wonder where the first person got his sms from? I always do.

The thing is, all we do is forward some well written piece to the contacts list. OK, it makes me happy to receive the well written note, but where is the personal touch, for me, I am a very sentimental person. I love to see personal touch in there, but I guess those days are gone.

I wonder what is next...

A man went to a shrink to complain that he was not happy, always feeeling depressed, not a happy moment in his life,

he was on the brink of suicide. After a long session with lots of convincing and lots of give and take, the shrink

finally said, as a first suggestion, why dont you go out a lot, for example, why dont you go to fifth ave, there is a

clown who performs there, the guy is so funny, there is always large crowds, and this will help ease your worry. So

the patient goes: But doctor, you dont understant, I am that clown.

Most of us are not able to define what happiness is. Just because someone smiles, it doesn't mean they are actually

happy. What about happiness on a child's face when receiving her new toy, or a kiss from her mom, now thats

priceless.

So what actually makes us happy? Is it the money? Then why do we see rich people get into depression? Is it the fame?

Well, I am sure you have heard of the number of holywood icons with all these manic depressions. Is it the success?

Japan, the most successul nations, has one of the highest suicide rate. How about being in love, ask any lover and

they will tell you how love has tortured them. Marriage, well, if marriage makes us happy there wont be divorces.

Most of us work so hard to find happiness without realising what we are going through can only make us miserables. In

the west, it is quite the norm for a person to have his/her own fitness trainer, doctor, lawyer, and yes, a personal

shrink. In order to afford one, you have to be working yourself day in, day out.

"I love to walk in the rain, that way nobody can see my teardrops", Charlie Chaplin, who made millions laugh with his

silent movies was the most depressed person of his time.

The way I look at it, we can be happy by learning to appreciate little things in life. By being satisfied on what we

do, by competing with ourselves and cooperating with others. Life is like crossing the ocean, at times you get strong

winds, so you fight hard to survive, at other times its smooth sailing, time to enjoy.

My definition of happiness is about managing expectation. So we feel happy when expectation meets reality. When these two do not match, thats where problems start to occur. So a wife who expects so much from her husband, and in reality gets less, starts losing confidence in marriage, because that is not the marriage vows she got into the first place. So, we always feel contented when our expectations are met. We will feel more contented if we know how to manage our expectation, and not make them high, for example.

OK, I know its already the fifth of Ramadhan, but I guess its not too late to wish all my readers happy and healthy Ramadhan...

Since I started the new job, about eight months ago, I have noticed myself spending a lot of time indoors. The working hours are 9 to 5, but sometimes I end up leaving the office at 6 or 6:30.

Once I get home, there is nothing to do except watching television and going to sleep. Well, we do arrange outings, dinners and movies once in a while. Weekends are usually hectic, but nothing which require physical effort.

As a result, I have noticed a few kgs creeping up, so I guess its a wakeup call to act. Well, last week I decided to go to the gym, actually am not a gym person, I have never been to a gym in Oman, but since its my only option here, I decided to give it a try.

I called a friend who told me he has a spare promotional ticket, so off we went.

I have nothing to compain about the gym, state of the art equipment, no waiting or any machines, excellent service. I then head to the changing room. One thing I can never get used to living in this country is seeing people fully dressed in their birthday suits, yes there they were, guys in birthday suits without a care in the world. Oh well, I had to proceed trying to keep my eyes at head level.

Since I started exercise, I have been obsessed with wait loss. I am in it for getting fit, but I started going for the scales. I found it quite interesting the way our bodies behave, for example, my ideal weight is 75 kgs. I have gone as low as 68 or 69, and I wasnt happy with my weight, it took me a long time to increase it. I have now gone to 78/79, so I have to work hard and get it down.

I started taking my weight every morning, or whenever I can, its interesting how the weight varies throught the day.

Anyway, my goal is to get to 72, lets see how long that will take, wish me luck :)