The News In English

Please ignore the 1st two entry's for this post . There was a malfunction with my finger and the button !!! LOL !

I think I mentioned in a past post that my daughter in law and grandson were staying with us while my son is working in the dessert . That made my last week very busy and exciting with all sorts of activities . LOL !

My daughter in law , bless her heart , was so nice and helpful . She did many things I hadn't been able to do around the Condo , while Moe and I enjoyed having all of the time with Haroun we wanted ! He wore us out but he was also exhausted , lol ! By the time he went back to his own home on Saturday , he understood English when I spoke to him . I think if he had stayed here a little longer he might have even started to speak it . Maybe next visit . His mother announced at the end of her stay that she and my son are expecting another child in the up coming year . Amazing , this time last year I had only one grandchild , now I have two with two more on the way . Talk about making up for lost time , lol !

Moe has entered the techno age finally ! My son gave him a mobile phone which I was surprised to learn Moe already knew how to operate ! Just goes to show you age is no boundary for learning something new ! Now , we just have to get him a number to go with the phone so he can use it . I guess I am the very last hold out against having a mobile phone . I can't stand the things . As a matter of fact ... I just hate phones in general . They are a intrusion on ones privacy I think .

Update on the seranti thing ...... remember me telling you all about trying to get the roll down shutter in the living room fixed a while back and we still needed a part for it ? The other day AFTER my daughter in law washed the windows in the living room , I realized that it still wasn't fixed yet . I had just become used to seeing it half way down and since the windows were so dirty ( I never do windows ! Just a matter of principal !) I had stopped paying attention to it . So , today we called the guy , or rather Moe did since the guy is still sensitive to speaking to women ,and he said he would come next week to finish the job . So , please would someone out there remind me to make sure I follow up on that ? I would like to get that finished before Ramadan starts .

Speaking of Ramadan ... it is ONLY in six more weeks !!!! I am going to have to get in high gear this year and start to stock up on stuff from now for Ramadan . Hopefully that way I will have a minimal of shopping to do during Ramadan . I hate to shop for food during Ramadan because it is soooo crazy crowded in all the shops and the people( me included ! Some times ) are pushy !It is supposed to be a charitable time of the year ... yata yata yata .... but can get pretty nasty out there in the mean streets !

So anyway as far as I know , the first day of Ramadan seems to be on September 1st , which the anniversary of Qaddafi's Fatah Revolution . This is celebrated here in Libya much as the 4th of July is celebrated in the States . This year marks the thirty ninth year of the Revolution . Now since the 1st day of Ramadan and the 1st of September will both be on the same day this year , it will be a interesting day this year .

Wiggle Worm

My grandson is staying with us. He has started to walk all over the place , lol . It took my daughter in law , Moe, and I all most ten minutes to get Haroun to be semi still long enough to snap these pictures of him ! They aren't his best pictures but they show you how active he is now he can go where he wants to go , when he wants ! As a dotting grandmother I have to admit he is something else !


My son is in the dessert for a while and my daughter in law called and asked if she could come spend some time with us . We said of course . We have tried this several times in the past and it wasn't very successful before for either one of us , due mainly to cultural differences , but this time , knock on wood , it seems ok !My daughter in law is a big help to me and I really appreciate all she does for us . It is so nice to have Haroun around too !


It is strange to have someone else in the house with us after several years on our own with out kids . It has interesting for all of us . Like remembering to close the bathroom door or not running around in skimpy clothes , lol ! My daughter in law has had to make adjustments also since she is used to her own home . All in , things are going well !


Last week I was pretty busy . I went to Sheila's and had the "works" . I felt like a queen when she finished with me . Sheila does a mean pedicure with a message like nothing you have ever experienced before . I always feel so pampered after a day with her . I don't know what we will do here in Libya when Sheila decides to retire .


I was invited to a coffee for a friend that moved back to the States nine years ago and is here for her sons wedding .It was fantastic to see her once again , especially since I thought we would never get to see one another in this life time . We have stayed in touch through e mails but it's not the same as actually talking face to face . She looked marvelous !!!


One of my other friends here went" home " to visit her family this last month . She also took her married daughter with her husband and little girl , to introduce them to the American branch of the family . My friend was due back two days ago . I called the day after she came back to do some catching up on her trip,when her husband told me she was still stuck in Rome with her son in law. Supposedly when they were going through immigration in Rome on their way back here the Roman officials discovered that my friends new American passport hadn't been translated into Arabic on the back of her passport as the Libyan government requires in order to enter Libya . It didn't matter that she is married to a Libyan, has family here , or even lives here . So , she had to wait until the next day to go to the American embassy there in Rome to get the translation that the embassy here didn't do when they issued her a new passport . Thank goodness she wasn't traveling alone . And thank goodness she had her son in law along to help with money and morale support . Otherwise what would she have done ? This same thing happened to another friend of mine several months ago on her return trip from the States to Libya, also . She got stuck in Germany . Only as luck would have it she happened to run into a employee there in the German airport that was helpful and found her a official translator that worked in the airport to translate her passport for her ... for a hundred dollars . Good thing she happened to have one hundred left from her trip huh ?


Oh, the other thing that happened this past week was my daughter giving birth to my grand daughter . That was the most exciting thing so far !!! I got to talk to my daughter last night after she came home from the hospital and was so overwhelmed with emotion . We talked and talked . It was so good to hear personally from her that all was ok . And I guess that about sums up whats been going on in my life lately .


What about you ? How have you been doing these hot summer days ?Anyone spending time at the beach ? Anyone going on holiday ? If so where ? Is the gasoline prices affecting your summer time plans this year ?