Time flys but thoughts don't change

So I came back to my blog after ages with the intention of deleting my blog. I figured there was no need to leave a trace of my personal thoughts for the world to see. Coming back made me read through my old posts and the awesome comments people had written. It was refreshing to see what I had written at the start. Some may seem cryptic to the reader( posts on compromise and career) but to me in reminded me of the conundrums I was dealing with at the time. Other posts like the one on marriage reminded what I have always thought but chosen to suppress more recently. It's interesting in how some ways I have hardly changed still struggling with the whole sharing lots with people. I should then go on to say but in others I have changed a lot, but from the bits of me I had posted about I don't think I have changed too much. The one I think hit me the most was my post on marriage , looks like I have met all the criteria younger me set about being financially and mature enough to deal with marriage, not sure my parents are quite ready though. I realised that I have for some reason put marriage off/lower on the agenda. The more I think about it the more that I want the couplyness which comes with marriage. I think this is something I have tried to suppress by throwing myself into work, and letting work and volunteering on the weekends take up all my time. Next steps ? I'm not quite sure but know that if want coupleyness of marriage I need to start making it happen, not waiting for it to happen to me, Still as random and confuse!!! Mushowish

A few photos from Dutchland

So thought would be a good idea to post some photos from my recent trip to Amsterdam. Break my rather crap track record on the the posting front. I could try and blame work for keeping me busy, but that would just be an excuse (not that work hasn't been keeping me crazily busy most of the time).

Had a nice long weekend in Amsterdam a few weekends back, which was pretty sweet. Really enjoyed how relaxed amsterdam was, so much more chillaxed then London. Worlds apart, and a chance for me to mess around with taking pics for the first time in a while.

It was so nice just wandering along the canals and going into cafes (not coffeeshops!!!).

I found this random bagel shop which had the most awesome bagels with flavoured creams cheese, which was just awesome. Never been much of a cream cheese fan before, but this stuff was just soooo good, puts philidelphia to shame!!!

Another little find i enjoyed was this kick ass choclate shop, they had cool flours like vanila poppyseed in white chocolate. The downside was the chocs cost about €2 each, but they were def worth it, and they were nice and big chocs. Would def recommend it, for anyone interested -

http://www.puccinibomboni.com

The other cool thing i did was go see a Jazz band play live, was in this kinda concert hally thing, but was really cool, so awesome to see them play live, was an interesting mixed band of an american, 2 canadians, a dutch dude and a pianist from england.

Visited Anne's franks house, which i guess is compulsury for most tourists. Was good to visit, for me the thing i took away was just how much we take freedom for granted. To imagine , barely being able to move or speak during the day for years on end for the fear of being discovered is pretty crazy. Shows how lucky we really are.

After visting anne's franks house going back to the theme of food. (me a lover of food and coffee never!) , went to this cool pancake house. Had a cool appley struddley pancake, with lots of cream and vanilla icecream, pretty much a meal in itself.

Hmm think it's time for me to plan another long weekend somewhere, where too next thats the question? any suggestions ?

Where in the world

Where in the world?

Thanks to liya for idea. See rules e.t.c.

Time for people to start guessing!!!

An Unclear Path

So I've previously posted rather vague career related posts. The first was regarding a possible experience abroad with a private equity firm, which i was unsettled on for moral reasons, and the second was saying how it never happened. Although i wonder how clear the posts were in hindsight? As I alluded to in the updated post, i did get a graduate job in something completely unrelated.

So firstly I need to thank Allah(swt) for giving me a job. Especially in these tough times. It would be to easy to not be thankful for his Mercy and blessings.

I must say for a graduate job I'm very lucky, have had a variety of tasks to do, some responsibility, and now my first trip abroad. I'm being worked hard, which doesn't bother me too much (all though i don't think i could keep it up for too long). But it's the thought that i could spend my life working hard and not being able to show any real achievement at the end of that which scares me. Money comes and goes, so to measure success of a career by that is a false economy. I would like to think that I would measure success my knowing i have made a difference, to someone, in some shape or form. Idealistic maybe? who knows?

I've always feared getting sucked into the corporate vacuum. I've stayed away from finance which i was morally uneasy about. My aim to myself has been to enter the corporate world to get the right training, develop myself professionally, before trying to apply it in another field. Be it via an NGO or a socially responsible business. But 4 months in, I'm less clear then ever about how i can or should achieve my eventual aim. This is one of the many reason's I'm confused.

As i said at the start, i am thankful for having a good job, and compared to many and been blessed with many things. I think i need to appreciate that more, but i do not want to forget my end goal either. Hopefully with time the path will become clearer.

Mushowish

A flleting encounter with Marrakesh

Inspired by the travel post's of 'liya and geekisiddiqui i decided to finally get round to doing a travelling post. 'liya's recent post was on Marrakesh, i thought i would share a few of my photo's and experiences from my trip there.

I was out in Marrakesh at the start of the year for a few short days. But it was lots and lots of fun, despite all the 'fun' we had with Ryanair (will gloss over that!). Marrakesh is a cool city to be in, albeit overly touristy. Despite this it was lots and lots of fun. Being the student I was at the time, I stayed with my friend at a hostel. Despite being a hostel it was pretty swanky, with a beautiful chill out area in the reception area (much bigger then the pic above shows), and cool rooftop terrace.

Which by night looked pretty sweet, and you could even see the minaret from Masjidul Khoutobia (ok not in this pic). I went and prayed in Masjid Khoutobia, and when i went to take wudu, there was this little old man who would give you hot water for a few dirham's in a little pot (hey i'm easily impressed).



The mosque was pretty cool, although you could see the effect of time was not on it's side, the carpets looked a bit worn close up. It was surprisingly empty inside the mosque (at zuhr time), while the other newer mosques, near the souks and such were much more packed during prayer times.

(KKK style moroccan hoody thing (i went for a red one)

The souks were kinda cool, bargaining with the stall holders was interesting to say the least, you could bargain them down to half the price they started at and still get ripped off. But then the bargaining can be fun (or annoying), depends on the type of person you are. I think if you take it in a light hearted manner, and are prepared to walk away it can be fun. I attempted to chuck in the odd arabic word ,not sure if it worked. My favourite was chucking in 'Ya Allah', if i thought the price was still too high, or Ya Akhi (My brother). But my arabic skills were exhausted pretty quickly, after how are you, i'm fine, i'm from England, and how much is this.


The souks were a crazy place, which i think the photo with the bike captures quite well. It was quite amusing how they would always say, ' come i can give you a good price', with various reasons, the most amusing being 'a good allied price', as there were brits and americans in our group. So some how, one of the dudes we met at the hostel, who had been in Marakesh for a while and became our impromtu tour guide, pretended to be a stall holder, pointing stick and all and offered us 'a good allied price', we were all in hysterics, and can't believe we didn't get chased away by the stall holder.



more random pics from around the souks

For me one of the coolest things about morocco was the food!!! We got shown this cool local place (by the same dude that pretended to be a stallholder), to have rabbit tagine, definately not filled with tourists



It was amazing how soft the meat was, so tender and juicy!!! Ok now it's making me hungry.

The main square in the old city(djemma el fnaa), really came alive at night, full of foodsellers. We ate out there a couple of times, on the recommendation of our impromtu tour guide.

I found it highly musing how the food sellers attempted to get peoples attention. They figured me and my friend was British and then started quoting shops (Marks & Spencers, Asda, Tesco), their taglines (“That’s Asda price”). And most amusing of all random lines from British comedies – “i’m the only gay in the village” (little britain), and ‘Am I bovvered?’ and ‘Does my face look bovvered?’ – including actions, from the catherine tate show. (Of course there was the usual are you Indian first).

Marrakesh is a cool city, and i'm glad i've done it, even though it was a fleeting visit. I think my next trip to morocco would be to some of the other cities and hopefully the atlas mountains.



These pics above show what a surreal view of them we had, palm trees and snow capped mountains. When i was in Granada it was another surreal moment with the snowcapped Sierra Nevada mountains behind the Al Hambra. My trip to Granada is a whole post in itself, which I hopefully will get round to writing sometime soon.

Tranquility

The Water stairway, Al-Hambra, Granada

A truly tranquil place, walking down the stairs in the shade of the trees, with the sound of water flowing down the handrails. Very surreal, but cool. Guess it would be rather romantic, if not for the number of tourists :)

Would definitely recommend visiting the Al Hambra. I def want to go back again!

Mushowish

New Office

A random little musing, nothing profound at all.

The new (ish) MS office is cool, great little inbuilt referencing manager and cool little feature like making table of contents automatically from Heading styles.

End of geekyness... and back to work :(