Tagged!

I was tagged by Faith and G-chan

*BIG Deja Vu moment*

ok so here are 7 facts about me:

1- I was the super quite student till 8th grade, when I became somehow a troublemaker, and reached my peak on the 11th grade.

2- I never believed in Blackberry devices till I got one (I got it for work purposes)

3- I was very close to get a new 135i a year ago but backed off in the last minute.

4- I love stationary. Like REALLY love stationary.

5- Sometimes (well, most of the time) I become like the character "Monk" from the TV series. I like to see things very well-organized. (sometimes I see a pen opened on my friend's desk and can't stop myself from putting the cover back on).

6- I have a SERIOUS forgetting problem.

7- I switched between 3 jobs in 18 months.

now I tag (Damn everyone is tagged already):
- Amjad
- Muggle
- Lil me
- Toxic


End of blog entry ...

I'm 26

Happy 26 !!! (Warning: post is long and can get boring)

10/03/2010

I have completed 26 years of my life. I am officially closer to 30 than I am to 20 ! (oh wait, that happened last year).

Anyway I thought my last birthday was so special. It was my silver jubilee, I got nice presents, a party at my office, etc ...

to be honest, I didn't make plans for this birthday, I even remembered only 1 week earlier only because my cousin reminded me. However, this birthday was the most special birthday I ever had. That's why I felt it deserves a nice story-like post in my blog.

===================================
11.15 pm: 45 minutes before my birthday, I was tired and was on my bed BBM-ing. like every tiring day, I sleep without noticing.


11.35 pm: I was awaken by My BB classic ringing tone. "Taz. Mustang GT" was displayed on the phone. (I tend to write nicknames for family/friends and in the "company" field, I would insert their car name). and here is how the call went:
me: "Aloooooo" (my typical phone answer for close people)Taz: "assalamu alaikum. Esh inta nayem?!!!!" with a surprising, loud tone he asked. me: "laaaaa wallah ma nayem"
Taz: "Inzain qoom oo inzel ta7t, ana qiddam el bait"
me: "really? ma sama3t 9ot sayyartak"
VROOOOM VROOOOOM *08 Mustang with Bassani Mufflers sound*
Taz: "Sama3t taw???"
me: "yaaaaa ya, taw gai"

I went down in my jalabiyya, shook Taz's hand, he congratulated me and gave me my birthday card/present.

"inside the card are the names of everyone who participated in this, even 7udhaifa did! I'm just the messenger"

"Thanks. it looks really nice. I like the color" looking at the Timberland watch they got me.
I went back to my bed, took a photo of the watch and shared it in the family's BB group. I thanked everyone who participated.

11.45 pm: a call from my colleague.
colleague:"kil 3am wenta b5aaaaaaaaaaair!!! a3raf you only expect calls after midnight bas ta3ban oo feeni noom"
me: "haha la 3adi 7atta ma lazem phone call. wenta b5air oo 3uqbalak"

I was getting REALLY tired and honestly felt like sleeping and keeping my phone on silent. thank god my bros/sister were chatting with me about Blackberries/cars so that took the sleep away.

12.00 am: My brother hands me a bag that has 3 presents: Porsche design cologne, Diesel Watch and a nice Arabic oud. I knew that was my sister's idea since girls are the ones making a big deal out of birthdays. I thanked them all and quickly put my phone on silent.

==============================
5.15 am: I wake up for 9alat al Fajr. After the prayers, I check both my phones and find several BBMs, SMS, emails all between 12.10 am and 12.30 am congratulating me on my birthday. Seems like people think that if you are more than half an hour late, then it's better to send in the morning :P

I went to work wearing the watch my cousins got me. it was a normal day except couple of calls congratulating me.

12.00 pm My ex-colleague calls:
him: "7ayyaaaaaaaaaaak Amarant. kil 3am wenta b5aaair!"
me: "wenta b5aaaaaaair oo 3uqbalak! oops sorry forgot you are 32 already xD"
him: "hewa ya5i shayyabna. Inzain aqool, tara ana ma gebtlak hadiyya, bas since you have a new office, I will take you to pick stationary!"
as funny as it sounded, it was a nice idea.
we went to Al Fikr and started picking stuff. both of us completely forgot it's my birthday and just tried to pick the useful, not fancy, stuff. post-it notes, paper clips, tape, pins, pens stand and a blueberry sanitizer (that was from sultan center though).

1.00 pm: went with couple of friends to RBG grill for lunch. I ordered the lamb shack and my friends ordered burgers. The food there was good!














After lunch my friends gave me the presents: Porsche Design cologne (ANOTHER one! :P), swiss knife, Lens cover, candy and one of my friends got me a certificate saying "Employee of the year" xD I liked how random the presents were ;)

2.00 pm: My friend calls me asking where I am. I told her that I am in RBG and she said she'll be there in 2 minutes. She shows up in a 2010 E90 323i. Don't get excited because that wasn't my present. She got me a test drive for the whole day! =D
This is a perfect example of a gift that is not expensive but very thoughtful. that was probably the best gift I got! I loved the 323i driving. (I didn't even know they bring 323i here in Oman)





5.00 pm: My aunt sends an SMS to all the family inviting us for a BBQ dinner. It's not my birthday dinner but it was nice to have it on the same day.

8.00 pm: After enjoying the 323i driving, I returned it to the dealer and went to my aunt's house. Everyone there congratulated me and almost 90% of the family were asking "ha kaif? mata el zawag?? you are 26 now!" -__-

Nothing special happened after that. The next day I got 2 cakes from Baskin Robin's and the whole family tried them after lunch ;)

Thanks to all who participated in my birthday. It was different and special in many ways. Definitely my best Birthday so far *thumbs up*





End of Blog Entry. . .

and I was called "David"

another post related to my recent work change.

There was this somehow-old couple who were inspecting their new house before moving in. They have spent nearly 19 years Oman and the guy could even speak Omani (yup, not just arabic, but the Omani accent of it).

They were very pleased with the amount of work done in the last month, and being the only guy with construction group wearing a Dishdasha , the two were very friendly and the guy spoke with me in Arabic.

I was wondering around with my camera taking several photos here and there, and they asked me politely to take couple of photos of the house and the view in general.

a month later, the wife came with a friend to inspect another house, and the 1st thing she said when she arrived was: "Oh I can see you still have your camera with you"
"Always", I replied being Formal and friendly at the same time.

During the 1st couple of minutes of inspection, she referred to me as "Camera guy".
"What do you think, camera guy?"
"beautiful view isnt it, camera guy?"

she never asked for my name, and for some reason, I never gave my name either.

I think after a while, she felt like she doesnt want to call me "camera guy" anymore, but she never asked for my name. She decided to call me "David", like the famous photographer. ;)

in the rest hour or so of the inspection, she would refer to me as "David". She asked me if I mind that and I told her I don't.

The inspection was done, and we got an "Ok, Thank you Carl, Thank you Marry, and thank you David for your time, hope to see you all soon".

"Who's David??" asked Carl, the troubleshooter with a REALLY BIG question mark over his cowboy hat that he wears 24/7. (which was soooo typical of him, he gets so busy with his work he looses touch with the surroundings. That's why he never noticed that the lady was calling me David this past hour.)

"Oh I called him David, like the famous photographer"

now every now and then Carl would call me "David", along with "Buddy", "difficult", "MTV omani" and couple of other names he has for me :P

The funny thing is, I had couple of conversations, emails, SMS's with the lady's husband regarding financing/payments issues, but I don't think he and her know that I am "David" xD

So that's how I was called David.


End of Blog Entry ...

People are so different

Throughout my job, and being around one of my friends, I got to meet many homeowners from different backgrounds, different personalities, different perspectives, etc.

It’s really interesting in so many ways. I met people who had lousy jobs but inherited lots of money. Some started from scratch and now have become millionaires and some started normally, found a connection, and then built their empire based on that connection.

People are also different in how they treat each other. We met some people who seem to be born with stand-up comedians' character, and some that are just too cold you would yawn in the middle of the day just talking to them.


I'm not being biased here, but honestly, amongst the many homeowners that i have met, the Arabs were the best (generally). I'm not saying all the non-Arabs were bad and the Arabs were great, but that's in general. Most of them were very understanding, talk politely and they were open and easy going.


I will post some good and bad examples.

Special features in the house
- Good: one guy was really upset that he ordered some extra stuff for his house but they weren’t there. He just asked the construction manager politely to check if those stuff can be added or not. A second after that he was throwing jokes about his assistant having an iPhone which is "a joke" to him.
- Bad: one guy found out that he does not have a big back-yard (even though its size is standard in that complex) and kept bitching about it for the whole hour of inspection! :S

Material used in toilets:
- Good: one guy was complaining that the material used in toilets were bad in quality, but when he was told that the same material used in all the houses, he accepted it.
- Bad: one guy replied saying: "well I don't care if all the other owners were dumb enough to accept these materials, I'm not paying till you change them all"

Treating the workers:
- Good: one guy shock hands with all the construction workers and at the end apologized to them if he have taken some of their time during the inspection.
- Bad: one guy told one of the workers: hey, stop what you are doing and leave the house, and he asked the construction manager to take all the workers to wait outside (in the sun) during his inspection (which lasted a little bit over an hour).

I can go on and on but these are just few examples of how people can be so different.

It makes me wonder, those owners must be dealing with many companies and have several properties, so how do they view us (or view me). Sometimes it's easy when you get a pat in the shoulder and a "great job" said to you, or maybe get an email that says that. However, most of the time, people don't show that.

I think giving a little bit of time and thought while doing your work (which is not a very hard thing to do), gives you some comfort that at least other people appreciate you and know that your better than most of the other people they have dealt with.


Let us all make that small extra effort to be better than "most" people ;)

(or you can follow what this poster says) xD

I Really don’t understand Mexicans.

Tuesday, May 5th, 2009: Officially the worst day I ever had at work (yet).

A day before, the CEO asked me for some numbers to be submitted, and I did my analysis, calculations, got him the numbers, and I also gave him the formula on how to get the numbers next time.
This was his reply: Great job Amarant! More than what I expected, and the numbers now explain the analysis ;)

His words lifted me up a little.


The next day (May 5th):
CEO calls me to his office, and gave me the longest, rudest lecture I have ever got during my working life!

It seems he was upset for some reason, because whatever he was saying, was not making sense at all (he does that when he’s upset).

- He mentioned the days that I didn’t stay late in the office (which are few), and forgot how many weekends/extra hours I have spent in the office.

- He used one example of me not doing my work, and forgot, that SINGLE analysis was not done because they forgot to bring me the data I had to work on (even though I told him it was not my mistake, laken la 7ayat lee man tunadi) he was not listening.

- He read an email I sent him 4 times asking me to find my mistake, and in that 3 pages email, my ONLY mistake is that I wrote “we should” instead of “should we”! WTH?? (Even though I got positive responses from the directors in Dubai).


I can’t really write all what he said, but here are 2 quotes from his lecture:

“If any employee gets laid off from this company, I want YOU to feel guilty, because you should!”

“Please, never again tell me that you were sick, because here’s something you should know, I DON’T CARE! I want work done whenever I want to!”


I don’t know if he did what he did to motivate me, but it was wrong, rude, inappropriate, and defiantly had the opposite effect. I couldn’t work for the next couple of hours as I was completely in a shock, felt so demotivated and not in a mood to work at all. The rest of my day was crappy because I was still affected by what happened and couldn’t take my mind off it.

Anyway, don’t want to bore you all with the details of that horrible day, but Alhamdulilah things were better later on.


End of Blog Entry.

THE new office

Finally!

we've been hearing about this office for god knows how long.

Here are the Advantages and disadvantages of the new office:

ADVANTAGES:
- I GOT MY OWN OFFICE! with a nice desk, cupboard, and my OWN A/C.
- Better Location.
- Better view.
- It has the office feel (not working in a villa anymore)
- Moooooore cars parking.
- 1 floor less than the old office =P

DISADVANTAGES:
- Less Rooms and less toilets (aham shay el toilets).
- The parking is not shaded.
- Smaller kitchen (no more birthday parties).
- It has the office feel (yes this is an advantage and a disadvantage).
- Still no wireless internet connection.
- No "afternoon-nap" room.


I will start bringing my camera to take pictures of cars crossing the red light xD