Hijamah in Salalah

I've always believed in scientific evidence and thus scientifically proven medicine.Alternative medicine is perhaps one of the things that I somehow doubt. Acupuncture (among other alternative practices) is one of the things that I highly doubt. May be because of its chinese origin. However recemtly I started thinking of trying Hijamah. This wikipedia article is perhaps good for those who don't know this practice. 

I heard there is a place where it can be performed here in Salalah at Amer Al Maashani building that is opposite Alzawiyah mosque. I'm not sure if there is another place where I can do it, or how effective this practice is. All I know is that i'm fed up of my frequent headaches...

Blogging ..again

The other day I was checking out some blogs online. It is always nice to read blogs to catch up with news and get to read other people's opinions regardless if you agree with them or not. That day I was reading Dhofari Gucci's blog and I thought to myself I have to start blogging again...

To be honest I kind of regret stopping blogging, it was fun to interact with fellow bloggers and it was nice to write my own thoughts.So I decided to make a come back so that I will write about things that interests me once again. I may not have any followers but at least I can have this blog as an outlet for my thoughts....

Thoughts

Sometimes  a stream of thoughts and ideas floods my brain. Usually they're about random things like daily activities or things that I forget  to do, ideas about changes in my life, marriage, babies , life and death and money. I'm absolutely sane and I think any sane person should think about life and how  things work in this life. I want to share some thoughts:

1) Recently a relative of mine  got engaged to a girl he met in DU (Dhofar University), some relatives weren't so happy about his choice. I'm supporting him and I think those people should really get a life.

2)Why does many people in Salalah and the rest of Oman don't get a life and mind thier own bussiness. I'm amazed of how many people just think and act in a narrow minded way.

3)What happend to the public smoking ban in Salalah?!!

4)Will I ever see in my life time a decent Library and a decent bookshop openning in Salalah?!!!

4.5)Would you eat a jam made of roses? Al isteqrar hypermarket sells those.

5)I hope that the governenmt will buy the +100 years old houses in downtwon Mirbat and restore them in a Manner similar to Nizwa before those houses fall apart. I wish the same happens to the old houses in Haffa and Salalah.

Hibernation

 Not only animals and Microsoft windows hibernate, humans also do. People can be in a state similar to hibernation but without obsessive eating/sleeping. I was in such a state for the past  4 months when  I stopped writing/reading blogs .I really regret not following up my faviourate blogs and I'm sorry to all who read my blog for staying away for so long. Thanks to all of you who asked me to come back. Now I have to start catching up.

Rainy weather, brings back memories

The news of the rain in different parts of Oman made headlines.That actually reminded me of my blog. It is like I had partial amnesia or something, because I've just realised the really long time away from blogging and following my fellow bloggers' blogs.

Singing in The Rain

It hasn't rained for a while in Salalah. Our dry winters may have few days when it rains such as today. It has been cloudy for two days now and this morning it rained. Rain makes us happy because of the change. Since the end of our rainy season (21june-21sept) we had only sunny days.

Work Rumble

-I've always thought that Muscat winters are much better than Salalah's winters. Apparently this is true because I've been feeling sick since we started having the windy dusty weather. At times the weather is nice but not always.

-Work has increased significantly to the point that I want to go on leave, or quit and live on a secluded Island. No wonder the Caribbean is popular with the Americans.

-Today is the second night in the Al-Murooj Theater cultural nights. There will be a concert of a Band singing Fairouz's Song. So for those of you who love this arabic diva and are in Salalah should go to Al-Mourooj theater tonight the 13/01/2010. The show will commence at 8:30pm.

AC noise Addiction

Since last week I stopped using the AC in my room. Actually the temperature during night was fine without the AC but I kept using it because of the noises it made. Many people in Salalah and probably the rest of Oman  have an addiction of  the AC noises, that is they can't sleep well without hearing the sounds made by the AC especially the window AC. But it was for the chilly nights that we are having these days (since this is winter after all) that I decided to quit this addiction. It was simple to increase the temp or just adjust the settings to make it much warmer in the room and in the same time hear the beautiful sounds of a window AC however I thought that was a waste of electricity to just make it work  for the sake of its ugly addictive noise. So I had to be strong and decided that enough is enough, what if I moved to a place where there is no window AC, or that we decided to change the window ACs to split units that are famous for being so quite. Since then I have been thinking why do many of us get all sorts of addictions  like smoking, eating ..etc!

Why many sorts of behavioral addictions get unnoticed by the addicts!!

I try to be healthy and avoid most of the common sources of addiction like smoking.

Anyways I thank Panadol for its variety of medicine such as Panadol night ;) ..

Dhofari Women and shopping

I know most women around the globe are into shopping but in Salalah I feel some things are abit hard to understand :

• Since I was very young, I noticed the insatiable love that the female relatives around me had towards all sort of fabrics especially cotton in ordor to go to the tailor and make themselves new Thoubs, which is the traditional Dhofari dress of females. The women in Salalah just don't seem to have enough of Thoubs. Trying to pass by  the cluster of fabric stores in A'sslam Street at night means getting  yourself stuck in a trafic jam.
• Sale at Centerpoint means that the department store will be 95% women even in the mens sections. I even got a "what the heck is this guy doing here"   last week when I was searching for a sweater in the Men's section from a group of female shoppers who apperantly found men shirts interesting!!
• I like to have a meal from time to time in KFC and at times I find the family section empty while some girls and women prefer to sit in the public section leaving me in a dilemmah.
• Women in Salalah spend so much on beauty products, perfumes, incense, shoes, purses..etc
• The worset gift a guy from Salalah to give any of his female relative is anything related to fasion even if that product is very new because it may be not following the current trend in Salalah so it will never be used or even worse, to be given secretly to the house maid!!
  

Je suis malade

For some reason one of my friends downloaded Dalida's songs and for some mysterious reason he infected another friend and I with a virus ( Obsession with Dalida virus) so suddenly we started listening to many Dalida songs, reading her biography, searching for her pics and movies ..etc

"Je suis malade" is a song that belongs to  Serge Lama but Dalida perfomed when she was alive and is very beautiful song.
The lyrics in french and then translated into Arabic:

"je suis malade"

Je ne rêve plus
Je ne fume plus
Je n'ai même plus d'histoire
Je suis seul sans toi
Je suis laid sans toi
Je suis comme un orphelin
Dans un dortoir.
Je n'ai plus envie
De vivre ma vie
Ma vie cesse quand tu pars
Je n'ai plus de vie
Et même mon lit
Se transforme en quai de gare
Quand tu t'en vas.

Je suis malade, complètement malade
Comme quand ma mère sortait le soir
Et qu'elle me laissait seul avec mon désespoir
Je suis malade, parfaitement malade
T'arrives, on ne sait jamais quand
Tu r'pars, on ne sait jamais où
Et ça va faire bientôt deux ans que tu t'en fous.

Comme à un rocher
Comme à un péché
Je suis accroché à toi
Je suis fatigué
Je suis épuisé
De faire semblant d'être heureux
Quand ils sont là.
Je bois toutes les nuits
Mais tous les whiskys
Pour moi ont le même goût
Et tous les bateaux
Portent ton drapeau
Je ne sais plus où aller
Tu es partout.

Je suis malade, complètement malade
Je verse mon sang dans ton corps
Et je suis comme un oiseau mort quand toi tu dors
Je suis malade, parfaitement malade
Tu m'as privé de tous mes chants
Tu m'as vidé de tous mes mots
Pourtant moi, j'avais du talent avant ta peau.

Cet amour me tue
Si ça continue
Je crèverai seul avec moi
Près de ma radio
Comme un gosse idiot
Ecoutant ma propre voix
Qui chantera

Je suis malade, complètement malade
Comme quand ma mère sortait le soir
Et qu'elle me laissait seul avec mon désespoir
Je suis malade, c'est ça, je suis malade
Tu m'as privé de tous mes chants
Tu m'as vidé de tous mes mots
Et j'ai le coeur complètement malade
Cerné de barricades
T'entends
Je suis malade

هشام بن الشاوي

مشاهدة ملفه الشخصي

إرسال رسالة خاصة إلى هشام بن الشاوي

البحث عن المشاركات التي كتبها هشام بن الشاوي

"أنــــــــا مــــريـــــض"

لـــــم أعـــــد أحـــلـــم
لـــــم أعـــــد أدخــــــن
لـم أعـد أمـلـك حـتـى الحكـايـات
أنــــا وحــيـــد بــدونـــك
أنـــــا بــشـــع بــدونـــك
أشـبــه يتـيـمـا بعـنـبـر نـــوم
لـــم تـعــد لــــي رغــبــة
فــــي أن أعــيــش حـيـاتــي
تنتـهـي حيـاتـي عنـدمـا ترحلـيـن
لـــم تــعــد لــــي حــيــاة
وحـــتــــى فــــراشــــي
يتـحـول إلــى رصـيـف مـحـطـة
عــنــدمـــا تــرحــلــيــن
***
أنــا مـريـض، مـريـض بالكـامـل
مثلمـا كانـت أمــي تـخـرج مـسـاء
وتتركـنـي وحــدي مــع يـأســي
أنــا مريـضـن مـريـض تـمـامـا
تـأتـيــن، لاأعــــرف مــتــى
ترحـلـيـن، لا أعــــرف أيــــن
وسينتـهـي العـامـان دون أن تهتـمـي
***
مــثــل تـشـبـثـي بـصـخــرة
مــثــل تـشـبـثـي بخـطـيـئـة
أتــشـــبـــث بـــــــــك
أنــــــــا مـــتـــعـــب
أنــــــــا مــــرهـــــق
لـتـصـنــعــي الــســعـــادة
عــنــدمـــا يــتــواجـــدون
أســكـــر كـــــل لـيــلــة
لــكــن الـخـمــور كـلــهــا
لـهـا نـفــس الـطـعـم عـنــدي
وكــــــــل الــســـفـــن
تــحـــمـــل رايــــتــــك
لــم أعــد أعــرف أيــن أتـجـه
فـأنــت فـــي كـــل مــكــان
***
أنــا مـريـض، مـريـض بالكـامـل
أسـكـب دمـــي فـــي جـســدك
وأنا كطيـر ميـت عندمـا تناميـن أنـت
أنــا مـريـض، مـريـض تـمـامـا
حرمتـنـي مــن كـــل شـــدوي
أفرغتـنـي مــن كـــل كلـمـاتـي
رغم أني امتلكت الموهبة قبل امتلاك جسدك
***
سيهـلـكـنـي هــــذا الــحــب
اذا مــــا اسـتـمــر الــحــال
سأهـلـك وحــدي مـــع ذاتـــي
قـــــــرب مــذيـــاعـــي
كــطـــفـــل ســــــــاذج
أنـــصــــت لــصــوتـــي
مــــــنــــــشـــــــدا:
***
أنــا مـريـض، مـريـض بالكـامـل
مثلمـا كانـت أمــي تـخـرج مـسـاء
وتتركـنـي وحــدي مــع يـأســي
أنــا مـريـض، أجـــل مـريــض
أفرغتـنـي مــن كـــل كلـمـاتـي
والـقـلـب مـريــض بـالـكـامـل
مــحــاصــر بـالــحــواجــز
أتـــســـمـــعـــيــــن...؟
أنــــــــا مــــريـــــض

Flamenco at Al Morooj Theater in Salalah

Yesterday night , I was at Al Morooj theater in Salalah. It was my first time in there for watching and listening to the Flamenco dances and music.  The event was orgnised by the ministry of tourism and is the first of a series of monthly cultural-music nights runing from this month untill March. I have to say that I enjoyed it Flamenco night and so did my my friend.Moreover, I'm quite thrilled that we are starting to see more cultural events in Salalah in times other than Khareef.   

It has been a long time

Eid Mubarak and happy new year (Lunar+Solar). I stopped blogging for a while because of the coninuous ADSL /phone line issue then for being abroad. I thank all of my fellow bloggers for the good feelings and I'm sorry that I kept you waiting.

Living without Internet!!

I'm having some issues with my internet connection. I started to feel somewhat lost because I can't access the internet as I used to be. I hope in two days everything will be sorted out. I'm now in coffee shop using my laptop. It is really great to have coffee shops with free wireless internet. I hope more will open inSalalah, may be a Costa Coffee or a Second Cup in the new mall "Salalah World".

Anime Culture in Oman

Yesterday night, I copied around 10 GBs of Data from my brother's pc to a friend's portable hard disk drive. The data I copied was japanese animation or "Anime" as it is called by its fans. Although all of the three guys involved (my friend, my brother and myself) are in our twenties, we still enjoy watching anime. Virtually all of the good animation series that we watched while growing up were japanese anime but dubbed into arabic and sometimes arabised by using arabic names for the characters instead of the original ones . An example is Capatin Tsubasa which we all know in Oman by the name Captain Majid. However some great series like the Golden Dreams or (US title:The Mysterious Cities of Gold , original Japanese: Esteban, a Boy from the Sun 太陽の子エステバン, Taiyō no Ko Esuteban) retained all the original names.

Many people may think that the anime is for kids but they are very wrong. The Japanese anime and manga (comic books and magazines) is already a multi-billion industry. There are anime and manga geners for every age group and sex. There is even pornographic anime.
Thanks to Boadband Internet, around five years ago, the revival of interest in anime began. Many young Omanis strated downloading anime series that were usually subtitled in English. Moreover, many Omanis started watching episodes of new series subtitled by fans just a day after being aired in Japan. Nowadays, there are even websites where you can download anime with arabic subs such as Anime Island and Mexat.
I'm not of aware of the number of people who watches anime in Oman. However, in Salalah I know of no less than 15 persons who like to watch anime and the number is increasing. In some cases the interest in anime cuased another interst of the Japanese culture and Japan and I'm an examples.
Finally, this is a list of some of the recent anime series that I watched or still watch:
-Full Metal ALchemist
-Code Geass
-Claymore
-Death Note
-Naruto
-Bleach
-One Piece

Blog Make Over

Like humans, blogs need a make over from time to time. So I decided to change the way my blog looks abit. I have even added a face pic too lol.
I hope I will get encouraging comments about the result of my first ever blog make over XD.

Wednesday Night home

10:35 pm Wednesday night and my whereabouts are my room. Guys in Oman don't spend such a precious night home. It is the equivalent of Friday night in the US but with no clubbing for us. My friends and I usually have dinner and then rent a movie. It is the relaxed atmosphere (many don't have to go to work next Morning)that makes this night so special. Tonight I felt the urge to blog and to keep in touch with my facebook friends. I think I caught the blogging virus. The symptoms are:
-Severe urge to blog.
-Your eyes feel ichi and became red
-Getting very nervous when the browser hangs.
-Spelling mistakes and Grammer mistakes suddenly became more important than when writing your dissertation.
-Compulsive reading of other blogs even the ones written in spanish which you don't speak.
I think I will go rent a movie and get myslef a pizza lol

Wild life in Salalah's Suberbs

The other day I woke up around 3:30 am not because of the occasional teenager burning his dad's car tires on the road nor by the late night loud music enthusiasts but by the sounds of donkeys. Now don't get me wrong I don't hate donkeys, they were so useful for the Man Kind for most of the human history and still are in some places .  I even have a  T-shirt that has a zebra ( the donkey's closest cute cousin ). However, the fact that wild animals are invading Salalah's suburbs is very disturbing because of:

1-Threat of car accidents.

2-Noise pollution after midnight.

3-Uncivilized.

4-I'm not superstitious but donkey's sounds are kind of creepy at night. 

5-Hello we are in the city!

I have seen even wild white foxes in new suburban areas running around and of course we have stray cats and sometimes stray dogs.

This also brings up the topic of "domesticated" wild animals. I know many accidents that happened because of such animals especially camels. It is always dangerous to drive above 100 Km/h in the ring road especially at night time. 

I think the government should have a national plan to protect wild animals, live stock  and their owners , city residents and maintain safe roads for everyone to use. If we don't know how  to do it then may be we  can benefit from other countries' experiences, surely we aren't the only country with animals!

Part2 Shisha Cafe scene in Salalah

I Wanted to post yesterday but I had tough time trying to make my wireless adsl modem work unfortunately it didn't work so I had to buy a new one for 44 OR, I wonder why things doesn't seem to get cheaper. I guess the world wide financial crises is in a different parallel universe where Oman doesn't exist.
----------
Back to the topic
Shisha cafes in Salalah have already become part of Salalah's night life for many guys. We have even shisha cafes that is working 24 hours a day.
It is a fact that many men in Oman and in Dhofar in particular who will tend to spend the time after 7 or 8pm outside with friends. The locations in Salalah could be literally anywhere from the pavements of Rabat Street to Ittine but somewhere around 50% of them will spend that time in shisha cafes. I also noticed that many of those who go strictly to Shisha cafes will tend to think that everyone must be doing the same otherwise must be socially awkward.
Personally I hate shisha and any sort addictions and in this case of smoking weather it is smoking cigarettes, cigars or whatever sh.. out there.
Female waitresses, shisha and Omani women hatred of shisha cafes
It has to be noted that not all shisha cafes have female waitresses of any nationality and despite that are still quite popular. Moreover, not everyone who goes to shisha cafes cares about the waitresses. Some are very confident men who know who they are and appreciate what they have even many single guys such as my self.
I have to say that the lack of decent non-smoking cafes has forced many guys to be regulars at shisha cafes. That is said, I noticed the amount of hatred many omani women have towards shisha cafes may be because they feel threatened by the "outsiders" or because they have a personal experience with a "playful" husband. I think they have the right to do so but not to generlise not all cafes has women and not all of those women will try take advantage of the local lads. In fact, I think many local guys are to be blamed for their behavior. Not only the men but the society as a whole. There are no decent places where teenagers , guys and girls can spend quality time. No good standard coffee shops , No good sport activities and facilities , no playgrounds in most neighborhoods, no decent gyms, no public libraries, no cultural activities, no cinemas, , no book clubs, no civil service organizations. No wonder we are so behind the rest of the world.

Part1 (Shisha Cafe /resturant) scene in Salalah

It has been almost a week or so since I started this blog, I may be abit slow but I guess I should get used to the routine of blogging soon.
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This post's topic is in responseto the request of my fellow blogger Dhofari Guucci to write about what happens in shisha cafes.

I think the shisha cafes are a retively a recent phenomenon. I don't remember 10 yeara ago that there were as much or popular as they are now. In a way shisha cafes play somewhat the role that is played by pubs in the UK.
Similarites between a pub and a shisha cafe:
-Both serves an addictive substance.
-Both are places to socialise.
-Both are places where you can watch football.
-Both are places where you can meet members of the oppisite sex (to a much different degree).
In general I don't smoke shisha so I don't really enjoy going to shisha cafes but sometimes I do go.
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I have to go now , I will post again ASAP (that is probably tomorrow)

First day of the week

Today is the first day of the week, I took the liberty to blog while I'm at work because I felt like it and I know I will be having a long  working day after these fifteen minutes. Last week felt like ever and I got frustrated this weekend because of the number of weddings that I had to attend  while all I wanted to do was just to relax home, with friends or  to go somewhere like Mirbat because of the full moon occurring.  

I believe full moon nights in some cultures bring up stories of werewolves and count Dracula but I can't help it but to wonder how come the people who invented those myths chose such beautiful nights instead of the dark nights..