Doing Good & Feelin' Fine

Well...I survived Ramadan.  LOL.  Actually, it wasn't that bad.  I only had 2 instances in which I lost my head.  One of those occurred when I was trying to make common sense out of why I couldn't get an espresso, but I could go a few feet away and pick up a coke (BTW:  I don't drink sodas, I'm using this as an example)?  So...I got a little grumpy in my look at the poor clerk.  Oh well...  It's like sometimes things are going so well...it's almost like I lost my head and forgot where I was at. Hehehehehehe

But, mostly I'm doing good.  Today my house helper is here...so that typically gets me in the mood to do domestic stuff.  I'm not to the point where I trust him to leave him in the house alone for any extended period of time.  Therefore, I use that time to catch up on stuff; like writing in my blog.  I will leave him today for about an hour to meet up with a friend at her house in a little bit.  Hoping to give her some helpful information that will put her on the road to healthier eating and better health.  I have some excellent books and recipes I'm gonna share.   I know what it's like to have annoying and sometimes painful ailments.  And, medicine in these cases, almost always makes it worst,  since it is only treating the symptoms and not getting to the why of it.  I mean really; you can turn up the music in your car to stop you from hearing the knock in your engine, but the knock is still there, and in some cases it has made matters worse by not getting to the root of the problem.  I discovered his after doctors put me on medication in which I gained 40 effing pounds; 40 pounds!!!!  And, it was causing aches in my muscles.   What kinda sh*t is that?!!   But, as soon as I got off the medications, starting eating a strict diet of organic, and vegan; started eliminating stress (and NOT via prozac, zoloft, or any of that crap)...my symptoms slowing went away.  And, now I'm back to normal, my weight is good and I'm free from what was ailing me.  Whew...anyway...i've digressed.  LOL.

Anyway....

I'm working on a new travel article for my Black Chick On Tour blog.  It's on Amsterdam.  Have I ever mentioned that  "eyessssss luuuuuves me sum Amsterdam"?  LOL.  Then my day is complete, Roland will be home, and we'll commence with our evening together.

So...all n all. I'm doin' good and feelin' fine.  =)

Kind Words - Soooo Appreciated

I received this message on my FB Wall, from a new friend who has read some of my blog.  And, I'd like to share this.  I love people who motivate.  Very few people motivate people to that person's dreams, whatever they are...they judge and a lot of them just hate that you're trying to do something, anything.  So...Thanks Girl!!!  I will keep on...keeping on!!

 It takes courage to write honestly. -- true writers (honest ones) payed dearly..throughout history..I love your Black Chic In Saudi Blog..Its an Authentic True Voice.. It gives me Great Pride GREAT PRIDE! to support you and your writing!! I WANT to read what you write. and I Protect You. I know you'll never give up being true to yourself...and like the 'radio' song 'you liked me till you heard my shit on the radio' and 'you still curse the day I decided to Stay True to MY Self!" instead of just lovin.. :D We Own Ourselves We Are Power :D & WE USE IT! YAYAYAY!

My 100th Post!!

Even though I've had a not so great week.  And, I had a total relapse over the last few days (meaning I was hating the very sight and smell of this place).  I wanted to make my 100th post a positive one.  So, as I was going to update my FB status with how great it was to have help around the house, I decided to make a post on what I view as positive for me about living in SA.  I will NEVER think it's better than living in the US or Europe, but, hey..there are some positives, and they are as follows:

1)  Really cheap household help.  I'm on my 2nd house helper, and as the saying goes, "good help is hard to find", but they're so cheap, and they're a dime a dozen.  So, if you don't like the one you have, dump him, because you can have another one in no time at all.  

2)  Really cheap gardeners.  Now...I lucked out with my gardener.  He's awesome.  Not one word of complaint about this guy.

3)  Not getting up at 5:00AM to a blaring alarm clock. 

4)  Having time to do what ever in the hell I want (based on what's available to do, which is somewhat limited)

5)  Having the time off to travel, travel, and more travel.  Can't do that on the 3 weeks vacation a year that I got in the states.  

6)  I always lose weight when I get back into SA, after being gone.  And, that's just wonderful.

7)  Gas is cheap, cheap, cheap.  $5.00 to fill up!!

My Get Over Has Gone Kaput!

My MacBook Pro has gone Kaput.  Well not entirely.  It's been determined that either my hard drive or my OS is corrupted.  I won't know it until I get back to the states and can take it to the Apple store for diagnostics.  At least I'm still under warranty.  The good news is that I have a desktop Mac I can access the internet with and work on.  The bad news is every single file that I need to complete projects I am working on; are on the notebook.   These are projects that were going to sustain me until my next trip back to the states.  As I've stated before...I go in 10 week cycles.  LOL... I'm here 10 weeks, then I go somewhere for 2 - 4 weeks.  In between going somewhere...I work on projects, and this is what gets me through my time in SA.

I was working on a Raw Food cookbook (Working Title: Cooking In The Raw) for the past 2 months (I even worked on this project while I was on vacation in August!!); cooking and experimenting with recipes  All of this may be lost.  ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!  I was having this professionally printed, with hard cover, and they were going to be Christmas gifts.  The timing would have been perfect with my trip back to the states in November; I planned on bringing them back with me.  The video projects I'm working on are for my new travel blog (Black Chick on Tour ); the video footage, the text for the narrative, the whole nine is on this computer.  Video from my May 09 vacation; 9 European destinations.  Gawd!!  I hope it's recoverable.  The deal is this...if it's the OS then they will be able to access my files, put them on a disc, before they reload the OS.  If it's the hard drive...I'm pretty much screwed, unless I want to shove out close to $1000 to have the data/files forensically removed.  

These projects were going to get me over until my next trip back to the states in early November.  Now...I'm bored, and there is nothing I want to work on.  It could be that I'm just wallowing in self pity, because all of this just went down this past week, and I still haven't gotten over it yet.  

In other news.  We finally got a bed.  Gawd!!  Who knew it would be so hard?!!  The 1st place we purchased a bed...they tried to screw us out of an extra 1000 Riyal.  Even when they called back and stated that they would honor the price they gave us...we said no!  But, guess what...they charged our card anyway.  It took almost 4 weeks to get that money back!!!   We went to another store, and our new bed was delivered tonight.  WhooHoo!! No more sofa sleeper.

Ramadan is still in full effect.  I'm not feeling impacted too much...with the exception that I can't go and get my espresso in the AM.  But, other than that...nothing.  Even more shops than usual are closed in the daytime, and no restaurants are open.  But, I don't eat out in SA, so...I'm not really impacted there.  I do want to go to Bahrain next week...and I will feel it then, as I can not have lunch at my fav Italian restaurant; I have to wait until dinner.  But, hell...I can make that work...so...yea...not a big deal, for me.  Cause I'm eating as I always have.  LOL

Anyway...until next time.

Peace!

And, put out a good vibe that my baby (notebook) will be okay.