Take me away...

... from the coming up of school? Yeah.

Neh, actually, I'm not that fussed right now. I think my holidays have been mostly satisfactory, and... well, that's it :/

Oh, so I soooooo regret not volunteering for the AlKauther conference thing this year. It looked so fun! But, well, I was already going to, but I was sick on Friday anyway. But I went yesterday, and it was fun enough. I reckon last year was better, the lectures hit home more, the food was yummier and the stalls were homier. But still, nice venue and stuff this year.

And there was this lecture, right, I forgot the guy's name, but he was talking about... something... and he's like:

"You know someone came to me one day and said; 'You have heard what Darwin's theory says, about evolution, and you say you come from Adam, how does that work? Which one is right?'

And I said to him; 'Both are right.'

And he said; 'But how?'

And I said; 'He is talking about his family, and I am talking about mine. Last time I checked, my ancestors were not monkeys. Maybe his are.'"

I mean, LAUGH OUT LOUD. I cracked up big time.

xD

And... oh, they're so funny. Sheikh Alaa (donno how you spell it...?) is my favorite ^^
The dude was talking about connecting with the youth and all that, and he was saying something like; 'And I had to learn about this Bieber guy...'
Mix of an American/Turkish? accent. Funneh.


:)


They had this community panel too, more on that connecting with the youth of today and how we're all screwed up. And there's this guy (OMG HE WAS ON THE AMAZING RACE!) who's saying we're not all screwed, and the... hmm, host? Yeah, the host is like; 'Aren't you being too positive? I mean, I work in the prison and the majority are Muslim teens.'


And I'm like:

O_O

You serious??!?! How come I've never heard of this?!?!

But I agree with the amazing race dude, ok? We're not all screwed. Have faith in us. And S, she did well up there, even though she came to us practically having a nervous breakdown. No, I kid you not, she's like: "I was shaking... did you see me shaking? Was I ok? Oh my God, are you sure you didn't see me shaking? I was freaking out!"


Oh, she was cute. She was more into the whole; 'If you want to be heard, SPEAK UP. Talk. Express yourselves! If they don't listen, make them. You have to make oppotunities for yourself, you can't just sit back and hope it'll all be ok..."


All that stuff. And the other chick was just too into promoting her little group. It was all 'at our group, blah blah blah... and our group does blah blah blah..." No, she said some good stuff, and her group sounds good, but it was like she couldn't shut up on her group.


The Amazing Race guy was awesome. And the other one, father of 10, cracked me up. He was saying how we don't seem to have any rights over our kids in this society, there's no room to discipline them. And the host is like; 'So what do you think? We should be able to slap them across the face?'

And the guy was like; 'No, break their legs.'

HAHAHA.
[He was joking.]


But I agree, we should be able to spank them, obviously to an extent. He shared this little story, whereby in Sydney, a bunch of Muslim teens had some fights and riots and all that. The police wanted to break down some barriers and so they had this BBQ (and I quote: Lots of people came, the invited and the not-invited... :P ) and one of the policeman goes up to this father and he's like; 'So how's Mohammed?'
And this dad is like; 'Who's Mohammed?'
And the policeman says; 'Isn't your son Mohammed? Remember I came to your house and blah blah blah...?'
And the dad is like; 'Yeah, I know, but that's not my son, he's yours. I try to discipline him, you threaten to arrest me. So he's your son.'


And it's true. I may sound like a psycho, but I completely agree with this guy. We have no restrictions on the youth of my generation (and further, obviously). Our parents can't discipline us, that's child abuse. Teachers can't discipline us, we're not their kids. Police can't discipline us, we're under the age limit to be arrested. We can, in fact, do whatever we want. And as great as it sounds, it really takes away the respect and balance society once had.


Well, I could go on for ages. I want to try pavlova. HERE, you get to see my Chocolate Ganache with Lavendar Cream and Strawberries photos!
x)


Feast your eyes:

In the words of Star:

Bon appetite. Mentally.

ATM:

Reading: From My Sister's Lips. Na'ima B. Robert. Actually, I have been reading alot. I finished Pride&Prejudice, 9th Judgement and Covet. This is one my mother got... wonder what it's about.

Writing: The Faux Princess. Did write heaps, but I still haven't got to the point! It's hard... I want to make this one connection, but the only method I can think up is one I've already used... and I have a new story idea that needs some thing :)

Listening to: Pocketful of Sunshine. Hence title. It actually sort of gave me the story idea. IT'S SO NICE!

Feeling: Lazy. Bah, my butt hurts. Gotta move, man..

So take my present joy...

There's this place that I go

Where nobody knows

Where the rivers flow

And I call it home

And there's no more lies

And the darkness is light

And nobody cries

There's only butterflies

Take me away

A secret place

A sweet escape

Take me away

Take me away

To better days

Take me away

A hiding place

Peace in,

Laila

It's A Beautiful Dayyy

A beautiful weekend, really. Can you hear me smile? Or should I say stupidsmile?

Wow. Suhnap. That just... ok, I'll tell you later on. Let me selfishly tell you about my amazing weekend.


Saturday we baked. Like I said. Chocolate ganache with lavender cream and strawberries. Admittedly, we improvised, because there was no adult supervision and we didn't understand everything. But it was beautiful and yummo and unhealthy and fabulous! And we took photos, too, but Star has them and she has to send them when her laptop is working again. And I'll put them up. They were LOVELY!


We also watched Anastasia, which, y'know, was just as good as the gazillion and one times I watched it before.


And, yeah, it got a bit awkward with her brother's around. I hate guys! They're so... AWKWARD MAKING!! Her brothers... I know so much about them, and yet I've only ever said 'hi' to them, and, let's just say the male species tend to have the same effect of oral presentations at school.

i.e. clam up, blush, stammer and stupidsmile.

NO, I do not CRUSH ON THEM. Puhlease. This is my general reaction to most boys. That are near my age and above.


We didn't get to make cupcakes, it was too last minute to get all the ingredients and the chocolate ganache with lavender cream and strawberries took ages.
^^


Today [Sunday]


Well, it started bad. My family just can't get ready on time. I mean, I already know this, but I thought that today they might just try, you know? And then, stupid me, I started crying. Why? I got there half an hour late. Seriously! And they were telling me to shut up and quit being a drama queen. Never again do I want to invite my family to this sort of thing.


But screw that negativity, the park we went to was amazing! Well, it had to be, right in front it clearly said wedding receptions could be done there. Guess where I'm doing mine, insha'allah?

;)

Anyway, cold, windy morning, high up on a mountain, with a million dollar view of forever - it was thrilling. Certain taekwondo buddies disappointed me mildly for their lack of enthusiasm, but hey, not everyone has the stupid weird energy of me. I was running around, happy to take my shoes off and OHMYGOD THERE WERE RABBITS!

Oh!

They were so cute :)

And we played soccer. Said taekwondo buddies - the way they talked, they sounded like they were really good! No, they didn't brag, it's just that... it's hard to explain. It's like, you know someone talking about something they like doing? And you assume, the way they talk about it, they're really good, because their... hm, in-depth speech about it just suggests that? Well, both buddies decided today was the day to be MIA, and I was on a hyper, and I setup two goals! Well, two scored goals. I setup a couple of others, but those ones didn't get scored. Not anyone's fault... actually, sort of mine. I could have gone up ahead, but keep in the fact Laila is a Wimp, so I just loitered around the midfield and defence areas. Pssht. We still won, by the 'last goal wins' rule and 'most scored'. So suck it up.


And then we went back to down the mountain for lunch. Apparently Coach's wife coooked it all, and it was delicious. I've never tasted anything like it! Yummo! Afghan food to add to my favorite foods of Turkish and Pakistani!


And there was this baby, Fatima's cousin! Oh my flipping squeal! She was so cute! Like, almost four months old and so adorable! Her name was 'Mahia', I think that's how you spell it.... I literally carried her all of that lunch break, and after. I would've sat with Sofie and Yusra, but... uh, they were getting a little up close and personal with some of the boys and you already know how I feel about that.


Then we went back up and worked on patterns, took photos, hung around, walked. Fatima told me all these stories and stuff. And it was just a happy, peaceful breezy day.


And then we went to Mohammad's house, and we tried to convince the kid to do taekwondo. My mother is such a crack up.

Came home and watched this documentary; 'The War You Don't See'.

Isn't the title enough to say why I like it so much? Basically a tribute to all the dead journalists who tried to honestly cover the wars in the world, it uses stuff they never got round to use, and more, and brought this bittersweet, honest and heartrending image of the real war in Iraq and Afghanistan - no, wait, basically George Bush and them others against the world. Also touches on the power of media and stuff.


Amazing. I went through a journalist phase. This almost reignited my interest, but it totally sparked my sister's.


There were so many lines I wanted to rewrite here, just to make someone cry. I almost cried. It's so hard... children! Children! What did they ever do to suffer?


Ok, I won't go on. Let's see, uh, yeah, ATM:


Writing: The Faux Princess. Wrote a bit, but busy weekend, ok?!?!
Reading: 9th Judgement. James Patterson. Well, still haven't started...
Listening to: Without You. Sami Yusuf. Well, before I was, until I started watching the doc...
Feeling: Tired. Like... really really tired.


Cannot be bothered offering up songwords or something. Grow a spine and deal with it!


Peace in,
Laila