The Times Of Hamza

Versailles, France and now the US

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 20:10:00 +0000

We went to Versailles on Wednesday, 21st Jul. We had breakfast of kabab sandwiches at a nearby Turkish restaurant, then left at around noon. It was way later than than we wanted to, so we could visit just one of the two Chateaus' minus most of the gardens. We left via train, it took around 45 min to get there from Parir. We toured the bigger Chateau though, couldnt go to the Queen's smaller one nor the gardens in between. Tickets were free for all kids below 18. Instead of providing groups of people with guides, they had handed out every single person small audio devices around the size of a large cellphone with on-demand commentary on it. Out of 7/8 languages we could select whatever language we wanted. Codes were written at different places, enter the code into the device, and the commentary would start. The Chateau was adorned with numerous paintings all over the walls and the roofs were entirely painted with a single continuous painting. There were a lot of stculptures too, but most of them were along the corridors and in the atria. Taking photographs was kinda difficult there, the rooms were too crowded with tourists pushing around and almost all windows were open, so the sunlight was falling right on top of the paintings. The paintings were very well detailed, and so was the whole palace, attention was paid to the most intricate of details. The gardens (as much we saw at least) were really grand with statues on both sides of the path. All this also makes us think "no wonder the people were so pissed at these royals back then!". The closing time was around 6:30 pm, we left around 6, since we getting to the other Chateau would have been useless then. We took the train back to Paris, then had dinner at the Ind-Pak (tasted more Pak than Indo) restaurant as the last time. After getting back to the hotel, i discovered that the electricity sockets in our rooms were not working and nor was the TV, dont care about the TV, but the laptop required charging. I uploaded the pics on facebook, but while i was fixing them (rotating/captioning) the battery died, so couldnt blog that day either.

The next day we had to leave for the US. We had already ordered a large 7 seater taxi. The taxi was on time, 8 am, we werent. Left around 8:20, got to the airport before 9, and then waited in the really really long queue. It was an American Airlines flight, a Boeing 777. The flight departed at 11:45 am. It was supposed to be a 10-hour long fligh really comfortable though. The shawls and cushions were already on the seats, the tvs had a selection of movies. I couldnt sleep much, around 2 hours only, wasnt feeling sleepy at all. Watched three movies, Edge of Darkness, The Bounty Hunter and Clash Of The Titans. The lunch was good, included some pasta. Drinks were provided around many times, snacks maybe two times, some crackers, a chocolate and some biscuits. The next meal was sort of horrible though (we had taken vegetarian, since non-veg wouldnt be halal). Couldnt eat much in that one. We landed at Dallas-Fort Worth airport at around 2:45 pm, local time. Its the first time I have traveled 10 hours in just 3. The queue for immigration was long, but not too long at the airport, could've been coz we had hurried after we landed though. Didnt encounter any sort of problems there. The baggage claim was over soon, it seemed that we were among the last ones to pick up, the conveyor belt had stopped and our luggage was waiting for us. My cousin, Zubair and a relative received us. Currently we're staying at a relative's place. Its in Richardson, a little far of from Dallas, or I think a part of it. The geography here is really weird. Zubair was with us the whole day then, he had a day off. Then yesterday too, after the Juma prayer he spent the day with us. We got a Toyota Camry on rent for two weeks via Enterpise. We tried Hertz and Budget first, but Hertz was out of cars, even for the next few days, Budget could provide one but the next day, and it had a really high cost for insurance too. So we finally got one from Enterpise, we went in 5 min before their closing time, but had the car within around 15 min. Then we went over to Fry's Electronics and got a GPS device, a Garmin Nuvi 1300. Then after midnight, I went out with Zubair, first we went around to a Walmart Superstore. I had Dr. Pepper for the first time, kinda liked it too. Then we went to his university. It was around 2 am, most of it was closed, but he showed me most of the campus. Gotta say, its wonderful. By the time I returned, almost everyone was asleep. I too slept soon after, but unfortunately, woke up around 8 am. Donno why, but I couldnt sleep.

The weather here is hot. Apparently it stays aaround 35°C, sometimes around 40°C too. Plus there's a lot of humidity. Getting awesome internet speed here, around 30 mbps ^_^

Havent taken many pics (or even any I think).

Day 3 in Paris

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 00:39:00 +0000

Today we left the hotel for the tour at around 12 noon. Then went to the Notre Dame via metro, from where we had to take two other routes for the remaining part of the open bus tour. None of my siblings came along, sister was feeling sick, the other two dont like travelling much anyway, so it was a peaceful day. On the tour we saw the Colonne de Juillet (July Column), the Opéra Bastille, the Gare De Lyon train station, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy, the Maine-Montparnasse Tower and a few other places, a few places were also repeated from yesterday's routes. Both the routes were over in around 3 hours, we got back to the hotel, mom and dad rested for a while. Then for lunch we went to a small Turkish restaurant nearby and had the kabab sandwiches.

Notre Dame Cathedral again

Rear of the Notre Dame Cathedral

Place de la Bastille

July Column

Opera Bastille

Gare de Lyon train station

Bibliothèque nationale de France

Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy

some kid cycling thru that hemisphere

Our Hotel

View from my window this evening

Today wasn't as taxing as the last two days. Tomorrow we are planning to visit Versailles.

Days 1 & 2 in Paris

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 01:23:00 +0000

I arrived in Paris from Poitiers yesterday via a two hour long train. From the train station we took a couple of taxis and got to our hotel. We were expecting the hotel rooms to be a bit bigger along since a bit away from the main city, but the rooms are kinda small. But we also thought: why care? we're just gonna spend the night sleeping here, we'll be out throughout the day. Best part is that its got free wifi, even if its just around 1 mbps. And we were expecting it to be a wasted day but thanks to our dad's old friend living here, we went to the Eiffel Tower and then had a great ferry ride through part of the River Seine here. The queue for the elevators (as well as the stairs) at the Eiffel Tower was really really long, but apparently, it could have been way longer. The line for the tickets could be skipped though if only we had booked the tickets to it in advance. The ferry covered most of the bridges and a few tourist stops like the Cathedral of Notre Dame. Unfortunately, the camera's battery died just before the ferry reached Notre Dame, the last stop, but perhaps the MOST amazing. I had to switch to my cell's uber-sucking cam. We could have availed huge discounts at a lot of places (including the ferry i think) if only we had booked it all at least 15-20 days in advance, but we hadnt even gotten our visa until around 10-15 days ago, so plans in France were kinda uncertain. However we had a great time. Paris seems to be pretty much open even at night, at least the part in vicinity if the Eiffel Tower. We returned back home, after dinner at the friend's place around 1 or 2 am. Paris seems to be pretty much open even at night, at least the part in vicinity if the Eiffel Tower. I slept after uploading and captioning most of the pics taken that day on facebook at around 4 am.

Eiffel Tower during Daytime

River Seine from top of the Eiffel Tower

The courtyard of the Eiffel Tower from the top of it

Me with the Eiffel Tower

Eiffel Tower at Night

Then today, the friend's son came along with us to guide us through the city. First we went to some Indian restaurant and had something like a brunch, then took an open bus tour. We bought a two day pass coz we werent sure whether we'd be able to cover the city in a single day (plus, the difference between a 1-day and a 2-day pass was of just 4€). We could just complete one of the routes (there are 3/4 in total), so we're planning to go to 2 other routes tomorrow. The main stops we covered on this route were the Louvre Museum, Arc du Carrousel, the Cathedral of Notre Dame, the Place de la Concorde and some other places whose names I dont remember/know. The Open Tour buses stop around 6-7 pm, so we had to return. Then again we had dinner at dad's friend's place. Feels good to have some proper food after a tiring day. (:

The Museum Louvre

Arc du Carrousel

Notre Dame

Luxor Obelisk

An Apple Store in the Eiffel Tower's Vicinity

The Eiffel Tower again

Paris is a really complicated city (at least for tourists). Most of the roads look kinda the same, I guess thats the way it is since the Haussmannization of the city in the 19th century (we studied it in 9th/10th std) and metros are usually used to roam around the city. Cars are highly discouraged in France, and most of the streets in Paris are single lane with lots of traffic signals in between, its kinda like making the car drivers frustrated enough to make them give up driving cars. So, we too have been using the metro to get around the city. As for the buses, they're lot slower, thanks to the signals again. Paris seems to be warmer than Poitiers or maybe the weather around the whole country changed, but whatever it is, I didnt have to wear my jacket here. The weather is pretty pleasant, not too hot, nor too cold, just right and a little bit windy at night.

Arrr...........its almost 3:30 am again, gotta catch some sleep.

Day 2 in Poitiers, France

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 22:22:00 +0000

After sleeping at around 2 am yesterday (was online updating blog and uploading pics, the uploading took really long as i kept on losing my selection of pics to upload even after reseleccting many times, and the Picasa plugin wasnt working) I woke up around 9 am today, had a bath, got dressed by 9:30 then went to great some confectionary for the morning breakfast along with my brother-in-law. After that we had to wait around an hour till both my sisters woke up, got ready and had some breakfast, and then we left for the market with our cousin sister, where we were supposed to meet-up with my parents too. After a long walk (long at least for a lazy slob who barely walks) we got there. Apparently a bazaar is held near one of the churches every Saturday and there's where we went to.

The Saturday Market near a Church

Some plant, looked good, no idea what its called

Snails

Snail stuff: Snail paste in the small jars, snail paste with bread, and other snail stuff in the refrigerator

The Flea Market part

Shrimps

Some of the activities in the park on Saturday

Little brother putting the skittles up again during a game of Molkky

Dinner

My mom was gonna show and cook Indian-ish lunch and dinner. So, at the bazaar we bought a lot of different vegetables, some spices, fresh shrimps and fish etc etc. After getting back home both of them started in the kitchen. I think dad cleaned the shrimps out though. Lunch was then served, which included those shrimps, of course, along with some of yesterday's leftover ratatouille, and some other regular stuff. I had shrimps after a long time, we dont have them too regularly coz they arent good for my dad's health. These shrimps were really good! Better than i've had before. The Shrimps we had in Saudi Arabia used to shrink and curl up while cooking but these stayed pretty much the same size. After a great lunch we played Molkky for some time, then I lied around for a longer time, sometime then, donno exactly when, the preparations for dinner had begun. We were gonna have fish, the kind we have at home. Apparently the marination and all went well, but after placing the fish pieces in the frying pan, the masala (spices) began falling off the piece and the fish started breaking up too. The end product was pretty relishing though.

We decided to cancel the plan for visitng the chateau since we'd probably be visiting one when we go to Paris and take up some tour. And yeah, we'll going to Paris tomorrow afternoon, by train. Not sure if I'll be update the blog or even upload the pics on facebook then, the wifi in the hotel will be paid and might be slow whereas we had awesome wifi here with a speed of around 7 mbps.

Day 1 in Poitiers, France

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 22:18:00 +0000

We arrived in France yesterday at the Charles de Gaulle Airport then took an almost 2-2.5 hour train to Poitiers completing more than 24 hours of travel starting in Makkah. Our uncle lives here, and has lived here for I think around 30 years. Me and my two sisters stayed at our cousin's place while my mom, dad and brother stayed at the uncle's. After arriving at around 9:30 pm, I went to sleep around 10:30 but finally slept at around 12 midnight (couldnt fall asleep, donno why, even though i was damn tired). Then I think I woke up around 8 am, got up from the bed at around 8:30. Then had a break of freshly baked and delicious chocolate filled croissant, some orange juice, raspberries and apricots. Then we (me, my sis' and cousin's daughter) went for a long walk through a park, fed ducks and took some awesome pics. Played a game called Mölkky along with our brother-in-law who taught us how to play it. It was fun. Then we had lunch consisting of home baked awesome Pizza, boiled potatoes, homemade mayonnaise, cherry tomatoes, olives, some type of lettuce salad. Later on we made a dessert of strawberry cake (it ultimately had all the characteristics of a cake although it was made in a really different way), I helped too :D. Played a card game called Jungle Speed. Then my parents and little brother arrived and we went for a tour of the area nearby. We went to a couple of old churches, a marketplace, a small mall, had some awesome chocolate ice-cream and then came back home. Played a game of Quarto, later on another silly but fun game called Coyote. And then we had dinner on the lawn outside. Sausages were barbecued, Ratatouille was prepared and the dessert was taken out (which by the way, was really really AWESOME).

Ducks coming towards us as we starting throwing in breadcrumbs

Path thru the garden

A view of the river

An alley

St Radegonde's Church

Barbecuing the sausages

The Dinner Table

Summer is going on here but its cooler than even the winter back home in Makkah. The day is really long, starting with dawn at around 6 and ends with the dusk at around 11. But its cool, winds going on the whole time. Apparently the temperature drops down to 10° C at night and was around 25° during the day. There was a light drizzle for a few seconds too.

Overall had a really good and fun day! (:

Will be visiting some château tomorrow.

The Transformers ARE among us

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 17:57:00 +0000

Proof that the Transformers do exist and they're among us, a Decepticon chappal:

DECEPTICON

[Photo taken at Hollywood Shoes/Sandals/Chappal ki dukan]

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 18:17:00 +0000

A single Harry Potter bearing the weight of the whole Twilight saga

Studying Math......................

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 17:17:00 +0000

studying math...........................I-)

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 20:31:00 +0000

"Mathematics consists in proving the most obvious thing in the least obvious way." — George Polya

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 22:03:00 +0000

Sumaiya (my sis): Do you know anyone who is almost/totally perfect?
Me: Yeah, I think I know a guy or two
Sumaiya: Dont you JUST HATE THAT KINDA PEOPLE?????
Me: :))

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 17:17:00 +0000

Boulevard Of Broken Dreams by Green Day.

This one’s an all time classic, totally love this song

End of Academic Year 2009-'10

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 13:05:00 +0000

My grade 11th finally ended a few days back when i received the results for the finals. 75.8%. Thats the result. A drop of around 10% from the last year. The year was an academic disaster for me. But was awesome in many other ways. The summer vacation as a whole was really memorable. First was a month in India. Had a really great time, thanks a lot especially to my dear cousins. Then there was a Riyadh-Dammam-Jubail trip. Went all the from the west here to the east of Saudi Arabia there. Had a great time. Made good friends.

People say that living virtually a lot, on Facebook and all, breaks away real life friendships, or at least ruins them, and similar crap, but currently all my friendships have started from facebook. My best buddy right now is the guy I irritated perhaps the most on facebook, and all other good friends became good friends someway or the other via Facebook.

I have started listening to a lot of new music these days. Earlier it was more or less just Linkin Park, but now there's a lot of Simple Plan, 30 Seconds To Mars and some Green Day too, in addition to loads of single tracks from various bands. And I have started using a new, free, legal music service called Grooveshark. Love their radio feature which pulls similar new tracks off the cloud.

Dad bought a new Dell laptop this year, Dell Inspiron 1545. Its got great features, 4GB DDRII RAM, an Intel Core 2 Duo T6600 2.2GHz processor, 64-Bit Windows 7, and so, I use it way more than my dad. Basically I love its speed, our home PC, is a 6 year old Dell Optiplex GX260 with 32-Bit Windows XP 1.25GB DDR RAM and 2.6 Pentium IV processor. It used to be awesome once upon a time ago, but now it kinda sucks. I cant even play any new games on it, so, I just use this laptop instead.

We bought a 37-inch FullHD Panasonic Viera too. Its used as a monitor with the PC because a PC can support more codecs than any player ever may, and, since something's wrong with our satellite dish, we were watching all the shows, news and movies on the PC anyways. Only problem is that the PC has an old graphics card, no HDMI, so we can just use it via the VGA port, which I dont think gives the full experience. But its great anyway.

We had applied and got the US Visa too. Planning on a summer vacation there this year since this is my last year here and then our schedules may not sync. That also means not going to India this year.

Nowadays, Im spending time mostly facebooking, playing around in Photoshop, Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars. This type of schedule will linger till the new academic year starts, i.e. till Monday.

First Cellphone, Speaking Up and a Titan

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 20:42:00 +0000

In the past week a lot has happened for me. On last Friday night, between midnight and 1 am, I got a new cellphone. My parents gifted it to me for getting the marks I got in the 10th CBSE Exams. Its Nokia 5800 XpressMusic. It was my choice. My parents told me I could have anything. I would at first interested have been interested in the iPhone. I loved the fact that it had a touchscreen so did the 5800. But there were a few thing I didn't like about the iPhone, like it been SIM-Card locked which means I could only use it with the SIM I had bought it with and unlocking it would remove the gurantee/warranty, a 2 megapixel camera with no flash and inability to take video, the weight and the cost. I liked the 5800 because, first of all it negated all the points I have written above and also because it's from Nokia. It even has GPS, which I may never use, but still IT HAS IT! Its got a 3.2 megapixel camera, full QWERTY keyboard (on-screen touch) but there are other modes too, like a mini QWERTY keyboard, regular phone keypad and also handwriting recognition, resposiveness seems fast enough. I have installed a few apps there. I will give full list of features and apps I am using at my tech blog soon, Inshallah.

Here is/are a few pic/pics of my cell model I got from the net:
This week, in class we had to talk (just self) about a topic. Its part of some Listening & Speaking skills, for which are (hopefully) awarded 10 marks in the term exam. 5 marks listening and 5 marks speaking. It was supposed to be on tuesday only, but owing to the number of students in class (now 50), it continued on Wednesday. But only 4-5 boys had to do it. The remaing from Saturday onwards. I spoke on the topic, 'Are We Addicted To The Internet?'. I made my point that we are not addicted to it, unless you call yourself being addicted to electricity too. Its just that useful that you seem addicted to it. This is the third time since I came to this school that I spoke in front of the whole class. First time was in 8th standard, we had to explain the basics of a drama given in the course book. Second was in the beginning of this term, had to give a factual description of the place we are from. And now any topic. Alhamdulillah it went well. At first I was a bit nervous, voice was not coming out right, hands were shaking too much. Bu thanks to Allah and the supportive nature of my class, I did it well. Something I said made the whole class laught and then, all nervousness fell out.

Then on Wednesday, one of our family friends (originally my mother's) came here. They actually had come to do something call Gulpashi or Gulpushi, or something like that, again for the 10th marks. It is some type of drama done in India. They got dinner of chicken as well as mutton kababs, biryani, two types of sweets. They also gifted me a watch. A Titan watch. I liked it a lot. The only problem is tat I won't get to wear it much as, its very formal.

Here are are a few pics of it too

So thats it for this week.

First Round Tests From Tomorrow

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 16 May 2009 10:00:00 +0000

Its been exactly a month since my last post [I don't know why I always tell the last time I posted]. Its been getting busier by the day. I didn’t hope this would happen so fast. Bu the only reason I haven’t posted so far is because I am not easily self-motivated.

Chemistry has been by far the toughest. The first chapter was full of formulae but most of the second one went over my head. The second chapter’s name is Structure of Atom. We were introduced to the quantum structure of atom, which I don't know how the person who modeled it understood. There are many theorems on how it is formed, many principles and much more crap. In math the first two chapters we were taught, Sets and Complex Numbers were very easy. They were like the fun part of math. Now we are in Trigonometric Functions. I prefer the trigonometry which has values [because I can do it], not the innumerable question in which I have to prove that crap and trash are equal, mathematically,

Crap = Trash

Physics isn’t much of a hassle. The problem is just with the derivations. I hate deriving an equation that's already given. The good part is it will be only for this year as in the CBSE Board Exams (X and XII) we don't have these. But the bad part is that the whole of this year is remaining.

The easy subjects are English and Computer Science. Alhamdulillah I have never had a problem with English, because, well its English, what can be the problem there? As for Computer Science, it’s computer science. That’s the subject I can do best at (and Inshallah will).

So about the tests now. My first test is tomorrow, Sunday 17 May. Its Physics and Computer Science. Second on Tuesday, Chemistry. And the last ones of Thursday, Math and English. The Thursday will be the first one I will be going this academic year. Alhamdulillah the timetable is well designed (for the students) if you consider the number of days its pushed into. Until VIIIth standard, there is about 1 test a week. That totally rocks!! Too bad it doesn't totally rock for me.

I have written this post using Windows Live Writer. I wanted to try it because it seemed one of the things Microsoft made nicely. I am saying that because I read about other bloggers using it, others like, I think Lifehacker, Life Rocks 2.0, Rarst, Killer Tech tips, How-to-Geek, AskVG etc. So far its not been bad. I will publish a review soon. So until then.

Goodbye

The Week in 11th So Far

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 12:59:00 +0000

My new academic year started this week. I am in 11th now. I got the science stream, which means my core subjects are English, Physics and Chemistry with the two optionals as Maths and Computer Science. The options work like this: the first option is a choice between Maths and Bilogy and the second option needs to be chosen from Language, Computer Science, Physical Education and Bilogy (i.e., if its not already choesn in the first option. The other streams are Commerce and Humanities. My optionals are Maths and Computer Science. There are about 90 students in the Science Stream divided into two classrooms, around 45 each in the Commerce and Humanities with their own classes. I am in the section XI-B-1. The other science section is B-2, B-3 for commerce and B-4 for Humanities. I am sitting on the first seat, just in front of the teacher, because my friend, Fahd is sitting there. One of my friends, Haroon is now in the commerce stream, one, Saif is going to India for good, and my other two good friends, those were the only 100% non-crazy friends of mine, Arbaz and Ayaz are too in other classes. This time I got all good teachers. This wasn't so since the last two years.

Now about the syllabus. I have two thick enough texbooks for both Physics and Chemistry, three small ones for English, one fat (like always) for Maths and a pretty fat one for Computer Science. Most of everything seems tough so far (far here stands for just a week). English, Maths and Computer Science seem easy. English always has been. The Complex Numbers stuff seems funny to me, because our teacher told us that these numbers don't actually exist but are imaginary. And I don't understand why we have to study something that isn't even Real. Computer Science have been updated a lot. I can say so because

1. No more exclamation marks after writing that a CD had hold upto 650 MB of data. But they haven't changed it to 700 yet.

2. No more articles on Zip Drives or Trackballs.

3. They know what a Blu-Ray Disc is.

We also start with C++ programming this year which seems interesting. But the only Operating Sytem (OS) they have is Windows. I was expecting atleast LINUX or maybe UNIX. And the Linux part isn't much too. I ave been donloading some Live-CDs of some Linux based OSes. I now have Ubuntu 8.10, 8.04, BackTrack 3 and CrunchBang 8.10.02. I haven't tried any of them but maybe I will today.

I had school today too but as usual I didn't go. I am anti-more-than-five-days-school and pro-two-day-weekend. My sister went but found out that it sucks.

The End of 10th Standard

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 18:56:00 +0000

Its been more than a week since my exams were over. Since then I have unsuccess fully wasted a lot of my time, which means I didnt waste it properly. The Arabic and English exams were extremely easy. Alhamdulillah English has never been much of a difficult for me. I expected Arabic to be tougher than it was. But Alhamdulillah I didn't meet my expectations. It was an extremely easy paper. I must have got an average of two marks for every line I wrote. It was a hundred marks paper. I pity those who took the other languages. They had to write a few lines to get a mark. The science paper was a bit difficult but it went well too, so did the Science Practical Skills Paper, which basically is a Multiple Choice Questions' paper with questions relating to the practicals we did during the year.

After that I haven't been doing much except watching JUST one movie a day. I wanted to watch at least three. I also had to get my registration for next year, 11th standard done. Alhamdulillah it was easily done. I went to school yesterday with my father for completing the formalities, which included paying some money for it at the Fee Couunter. This is the task that took the longest. I was given the token number 145 when 100 was going on. After an hour it was at 120. Some friend/relative of my father works in the school's computer department. He went into the fee room and had the task done quickly. After that I had to submit the registration papers to a teacher who was at the upper floor. That took about 3 minutes at the most. While I was doing all this my father went in to buy our new textbooks. This was a slow procedure too. But it was done. After that I went to my aunt's home in Jeddah. I had fun there too. So much for this week, my school will be starting on Saturday.

2 Down 3.5 To Go

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 08:21:00 +0000

Last time I posted was about a week before my first exam. Now two of them are over. First was Social Sciences on 4th March. I had completed studting it jus a day before the exam, which is not usual for me. I usually get it over a few days before. My bus came at 5:55 am that day. I reached school by 7. I didn't revise much in the bus. Just some important points. Its because if I revise in the morning I become tense, take a lot of stress remembering things I may have forgotten. We had to enter the examnination room (just a classroom, but specific seats for students and a seating plan) at 7:30. There were about 18-22 students in the room. For 15 minutes we did nothing but fillin in our deatils on the answer sheets and just sat there. At 7:45 we were given the question papers, but only to read. I ticked the questions whose answers I thought I knew with a pencil. Then at 8 am, we started answering. I tried to do it as fast as I could. I wrote for about two hours without pausing, even to check the time. Then at 10 I checked the time. Looking at the time scares me as it gives an impression that it won't be enough. And time is never enough. But Alhamdulillah most of the answers were over, only a few of the big ones were remaining. I completed the paper by 10:30. Overall it wasn't very difficult. Alhamdulillah I never had much of a problem with Social Sciences, partly becuase its like a collection of short stories, partly because most of what we are studying in it is what we have been studying for years and partly becuase if I have a basic answer I can easily expand it to a large good looking one without loss in quality. The only problem was a question in which a an image was given, we had to recognise the crop in the image and had to answer a few questions about it. I image was the worst I had ever seen. But I just wrote it as tea, for no apparent reason and it was correct. I know that becuase the same image (but recognisable) was in the geography textbook. That was the Social exam.

Next was Mathematics, the best thing about it was it was on the 14th. A 10-day gap. There were 15 chapters in total. I had completed 5 or 6 earlier. 9 or 10 were remaining. I did about 1 to 1+ chapter a day. But this time too I had to study till almost the last moment. I have a problem with geometry. I don't like it much because its.........................weird. Algebra is much more entertaining. In geometry figure look different if seen from different angles, different sides, different directions. I did the longest and toughest chapter on the 13th, Tuesday: Triangles. The name of the chapter is much easier than the chapter. There were mostly theorems or proofs in it(only those, I think). I hate the proofs. If you know something is true, why the hell prove it? Its true anyway. Well, there are 5 or 6 large exercises in the chapter. I didn't do any. I only practiced the theorems properly. Alhamdulillah that was all that was needed. Like before my bus came at the same time. This time I looked at all the formulae as well as at the theorems. It took longer than usual. I reached school at the same time. Everything was the same. I didn't take much tension. Tension makes me feel like something is banging in my head, usually on the right side and makes me hear my heartbeat. I hate both of those. I felt the maths paper to be way easier than the social. There were four types of question; 1, 2, 3 and 6 marks' questions. A few of the 3-marks' questions seemed confusing and tough. I didn't see much team work on this exam. There was a bit during the social exam, but didn't seem at this time. My paper was over by 10:45.

So these were the first two exams, which Alhamdulillah went well. Three and a half exams are remaining. 3.5 because I have english, arabic, science and the a 20-marks science's multiple choice paper. Inshallah they will go well too.

Delhi-6 [Movie Review]

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 19:13:00 +0000

Today I decided to do something different, and so am giving a review of a movie I watched yesterday. I watched Delhi-6 yesterday night from 12-2 am. An unearthly time yes, but who cares!!!

So about the movie. I thought the Movie would be good because it was from the makers of Rang De Basanti. I totally loved RDB. But as I kept watching Delhi-6, I kept getting bored. The story has been dragged a lot. Its extremely slow. Most of the time I was bored out. Most of the songs aren't good either. There isn't any good comedy. But the ultimate moral/message of the movie is good. But it isn't wasting two hours on the movie.

So over all I would give it a rating of 3/10

A Week For The Boards

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 18:41:00 +0000

I have been studying a bit more than usual since the past few days. But I am also doing some other useless, tim wasting activities. For example, I watched SAW last night from 11pm-1am. Before that I watched the OSCARS on the 24 (Tuesday). I wanted to watch it live on Manday, but it was at 1 am. I still had wanted to. But as it happened, I mistook the date and time. I mean on the TV adverts were showing that the OSCARS would be live on 23rd Feb at 1 AM. I still planned to watch it. But instead of sitting at the right time, I thought it would be day next but technically, 23 starts from 12 AM, not when at the psychological time. But luckily there was a repeat telecast at 9 pm on the 24. There's anothe tomorrow at 11 pm. This was the first time I had watched it. It wasn't much fun. But I specifically liked the opening perfomance by Hugh Jackman and also the one by Steve Martin and Tina Fey. Ben Stiller's as good too, but wasn't long enough. Hugh Jackman's is below. But I unfortunately couldn't get the other two.

As for the boards, the first one is on the 4th of this month, its social sciences. Easy enough. I haven't started much of it yet. I have completed chemistry and biology from science, which is the last exam, and am doing Maths right now. I will InshAllah complete everything in time.

Prefinals Over, Boards Started, Almost

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 09:31:00 +0000

Its been ages since my last post. I haven't written as I couldn't get myself around to it. So let me summarise what happened since my last post. A week after my last post, we went to Madinah for the weekend. My prefinals started later went by. I thought all of them went well. But the results thought otherwise. I got just 78%. Then my practical exam, the final practical exams sarted. I had science last week. I had a bit of trouble in chemistry, but physics and biology seemed to have gone well.In chemistry I had to do an experiment of Ethanoic acid tested with litmus paper, solid sodium carbonate and calcium hydroxide. In phgysics I got the experiment of tracing the path of a light ray passing through a glass slab. And in biology, I had to prepare a temporary mount of leaf ceels to show the stomata nad to test the presesnce of starch in leave using iodine solution. I also had my math practical yesterday. It also went great. I did the linear equations one, I just had to sow the condition for consistency in linear equations geometrically/graphically. Besides that nothing much has happened. The weather is no longer cold. Although the mornings are still dark till about 7 a.m., it isn't cold.

Expectations, Studies and Internet woes

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 14:22:00 +0000

I got my half yearly exams’ results last week. I had hoped to get better results than in the quarterly exams. Bu it wasn't so. It was the worst result of my life, at least until now and hopefully it will always be. I got 80%. I had got 81% in the first term, and it was also the worst till this term. Now I am spending most of my time studying. I have been doing only maths because at present it requires the most time. I have 15 chapters in total. I think I have done about 4-5 so far. I am doing the tough ones first.

Until now I am working more than I have ever worked. I usually started studying for exams about a week before they started and got around 90%, usually above it. But this time I started studying about a month before. The entire syllabus has been completed in advance. The only days I have to go to school now are Tuesdays and Wednesdays, as I have my practicals on those days. This week I went on Saturday too, just to check it out. I may have to go on the coming Saturday. I have geography only on Saturdays and Mondays, as its one of the two subjects in which the portion has not been completed. The other is history. Our history teacher will be back by Saturday. He was in India, I think.

Nowadays I am sitting on the PC only on weekends. During weekdays, I am watching an hour of television each day. Just a series call Kyle XY on FOX Series from 11 to 12 at night. All other time I am studying. I have never ever studied so much and it feels extremely strange doing it.

The internet connection is not too well these days. Sometimes there's no connectivity at all. It’s been happening since Friday. On Friday, I had come to the PC for the first time in a week. And the internet was down. Completely down. 0 kbps. I was feeling extremely frustrated. First of all I cleaned off the temporary internet files, all of them using CCleaner . It’s the best cleaner I have found so far. Still the connection was down. Then I turned off other unnecessary apps like Google Desktop , OpenVPN , Yahoo Messenger , HP Printer Alerts etc. Nothing worked. Finally I restarted my PC after almost about 2-3 days of uptime. Still there was no connectivity. I now checked the router for problems. But there weren’t any problems I could see. I gave up. I checked it again in the evening. I was able to connect but there wasn't much speed. Just about 3-4 kBps instead of the usual 28-30 kBps. On Sunday a newspaper report came, saying that some cables have been cut in some sea possibly due to some seismic activity in that area. I really hate it when the internet is not working. I t makes me feel............disconnected and highly irritated. Although I am browsing the net at regular speed now, it’s not always possible. Just a few hours ago the internet was completely down, then it came back. I don't know how long it will last now.

The weather is also changing a lot. Nowadays when I set out of my home at 6:30 in the morning there is bearly any sunlight.Sometimes its also cold, but not usually. Jeddah is a bit hotter tham Makkah though.

Our Hajj

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 19:51:00 +0000

I know it’s been a long time since my last post. The reason I have not been able to write is that .............none of them are actual reasons, I waste time thinking about it, plan to write later and then forget to do so. So let me tell what has happened since my last post. First of all, the temperatures increased again, there was no more rain or hail, but it left a thin layer of cool green grass in most of the visible desert. Alhamdulillah my exams also went well. The result isn't declared yet, another week remaining.

And now the Hajj. I performed the Hajj this time. Me, my parents and my sister. We went directly to the plain of Arafah on Sunday (7th Dec). We went from home at 11 in the morning. We had planned to go by 10. We first went to an area near Arafah called Azizyah, parked our car there and soon got a taxi to Arafah. We reached there by around 12:30. We spent the day there. It was sunny, with clear skies. But the weather wasn't unbearable. We had to exit Arafah at Maghreb (sunset). This time we had a bit of difficulty in getting a taxi. Many people were walking too. The destination was Muzdalifah, around 1-3 km. I don't know the exact distance. It took us an hour to get there. The main reason was due to high traffic, vehicular as well as pedestrian, and also because the roads were being blocked from time to time to control and guide the flow of traffic. After we reached Muzdalifah, we put up a mat at a clean spot we found fairly easily. We ate some food, picked up pebbles, 49 for each of us which would be 196. And prepared to sleep. I slept at around midnight. Maybe around 1. The temperature was dropping. I woke up at 5 in the morning. The sun had not risen yet. Not even dawn. I went to the toilet to relieve myself. There was a line, at each toilet. There must have been 10-14 toilets there, but each had a queue of at least 3-5 people. By the time I was over, it was time for (or had been) Fajr (dawn). I soon prayed the Salah. Then we started walking. Walking to the Jamarah, to stone the Shaitaan (devil). This was the day to stone just the largest one. This is a ritual in which we have to stone a wall (previously a pillar, made a wall to increase the surface area enabling more people to do it in a shorter time). This ritual is repeated following what the Messenger Muhammad (SAW) did. We walked a lot. Maybe more than a kilometer or two. Each of us had to stone it with 7 pebbles which we had collected in Muzdalifah. There were 4 four floors in total, one ground plus three. We took the topmost, as it would probably have the least number of people and would perhaps be least tiring or troubling. Alhamdulillah we did it very comfortably. We could stand in the first row and do it. After we had finished it, we went back to Azizyah; we took our car and headed back home. We still had to shave our heads, but that was to be done after sacrificing the sheep/goats. We didn't do it personally. Previously we had bought a coupon thru which the sacrificing and distribution is done by the government. We were told that it would be done in the morning when we took the coupon. But we didn't want to take chance. So after coming home, at about 9:30 am, we had some food and slept. I slept till about 2:30. Then me and my father went to the barber shop to have our heads shaved. There were many people already waiting there. By the time my head was shave it was past 3:30. My father went after me. I am bald now. I returned home and took a bath. Wore new clothes. And again ate something. I also had a Panadol (basically paracetamol, a pain killer) to make sure I don't have the pains in my legs. I wasted the remaining day lying around.

Views of the Jamarah Complex (none of them are whole)

The Shaitaan (devil), [The Grey Wall]

Me Stoning the Shaitaan

The next day we again had to go to jamarah in order to stone the devils. This time we had to stone all the three, with seven pebbles each. I woke up at around 1:30 pm. Had some breakfast. We did the same thing, parked our car in Azizyah and took a taxi. We had a walk a lot this day. A third of the distance in Azizyah itself (as the taxi couldn't get us very far due to road blocks), some in Mina and a lot in Jamarah itself. This time we went through the third floor instead of the first as this time we had come through a different way and didn't know where we had made the choice. It wasn't difficult this time too. Alhamdulillah we completed the ritual fairly easily, through the first row again. By the time we were over it was past Maghrib (sunset) around 5:40 pm. We took the same way (or should I say method) backhome. Today we also went to Haram to do our Tawaaf (circumambulation of the Kaabah) and Saee (walking between the two hills, Safa and Marwa, the hills were no longer big enough to be called hills, they had been cut again and again during construction). We could also have done this throughout the whole (lunar/Hijrah) month, but chose today as there would be probably least rush. Only the residents of Makkah are given the time of whole month. All others have to do it in the one of three days of Jamarah. But we did it this day, as the non-resident (of Makkah) Hajis (pilgrims) need to spend the night in Mina, which means that there would be less of those people and the pilgrims also start their Vidaai (exiting, from Makkah) Tawaaf after the third day. We went to Haram between 11-12 at night. But unexpectedly, there still was a lot of rush.We did the Tawaaf and did the Saee from the second floor. There are three in total.

A View of the Kaabah from The Second Floor

Almost Half of The Saee Area (The Closest Bald Head is Mine)

The third day we were supposed to go early. By early I mean after Zuhr (noon) which means after 12. Thats my early. I woke up at 1 pm. All of us had very light breakfast. By 2 we set out. There was a lot of traffic today. The main reason was because the stoning had to done by Maghrib (sunset). Which means about 3 million pilgrims in 5 and a half hours. If we was completed after sunset, it had to repeated the next day. So after being stuck in traffic for some time, finding a taxi in some more, we still had a walk a lot more than before because although the roads were not blocked by the officials, they were blocked due to the large number of buses and pilgrims walking. We walked half of Azizyah. Then we finally reached Jamarah by 5. By jamarah I mean just its beginning. There was a lot of walking left. We tried to hurry. We again went through the same third floor because of the same reason as before, we didn't know where we had to make the choice. This time there was a bit more rush than earlier times. But Alhamdulillah we completed it fairly easily. We did this 10 minutes before sunset. So we were saved from the trouble of repeating this the oher day by 10 minutes. All of us very hungry by now. Some hotel outlets are located at the end of Jamrah. One of them is the very popular Al Baik. Although no broasted chicken was available, the broasted nuggets were available. WE bought two boxes. The nuggets they were selling here were smaller in size but 12 in number. In other places larger were sold but 10 in number. In volume the 10 would propbably be more than these 12. All of us ate. My sister ate two, she was feeling sick, my mother ate four; and the remaining 18 were eaten by my father and me. I think I had eaten more than my father. On the way out we bought come caps, Islamic caps. Although there isn't much Islamic about them, they are worn mostly by Muslims. These are very similar to the skull caps, just bigger.We returned home.

Our Hajj was over. This was my Fard (obligatory) Hajj. After this I may do it only if I want to. It is no longer required. But I hope to do it again some day.

Physics, Rain, Hailstorm, Rain, Math

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 19:26:00 +0000

I had my physics practical examination yesterday. There were four practicals in total. I got one in which we had to trace the path of a ray of lights passing through a glass slab. The experiment just fine but I don't know much about the viva-voice. The examiner was expressionless, silent and didn't ask me my roll number (could also be because my viva was taken last) or seemed to put to tick while he was hiding the marks sheet. But I know I gave the right answer. I was asked what was refraction. The remaining day went on as usual.

At night, around 11:30 it started to rain and it got rough. Soon there was a hailstorm. There was a lot of noise due to it because it was falling on the ACs. Some even came into our home through the small spaces between the ACs and the walls they were attached. My mother picked up some of the ice (hail) and gave it to my little brother and sister. After taking it into their hands they started laughing loudly and jumping. I turned to look at what my other sister was doing only to see that she was also jumping around and laughing but slowly. It lasted for around an hour. Then the rain slowed down for some time only to start again. There was also a lot of thunder. When I slept at around 1:30 it was still raining. I don't know what happened after that.

I woke up at 6:30 in the morning. I had to go to school as I had my math test today. It didn't seem to rain now. I got all ready for school, packed my bag and was ready to get out. Suddenly I could hear rain. A lot of it. I went back into my room and searched for a jacket. I soon found mine and put it on. I wore my spots shoes today as I didn't want to ruin my other formal ones. I got out of my home and headed to my stop. It was raining but not as fast as a few minutes earlier. As I was heading towards my stop I saw that a tree (or two maybe) had fallen. The whole road was wet and had a lot of water especially near the pavement where there was almost difficult to walk. My bus came a bit late today but it didn't matter. It was even raining more than halfway into the highway. I saw four accidents. In two of them the cars were badly destroyed.

Near Jeddah there was not much rain just a lot of sunlight. I reached school about 15 minutes late than usual today. There was still a lot of sunlight. In some time my math test started. It wasn't the best test I have given. There wasn't even enough time. I forgot some formulae in between but did as much as I could. There were even two six-mark questions in the test.I thought it was absurd as to put two six-mark questions in a test whose total was 25. Thats like almost half the marks. I hope I get good marks in this test also. And I will have to study a lot for the fast approaching exams.

Rain In The School & My Math Practical

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 19:33:00 +0000

The weather was cool today as well. While I was in the school it started to rain around 11 o'clock and must have rained for more than an hour. But it didn't rain too harsh or too much just the right pleasant speed though there were newspaper reports that it rained much yesterday and today in other regions. We had a free period during some of the time it rained. During that many students from my class went out into the ground to get wet along with many others from other classes. The whole ground was full. Some of the students (the senior ones also) were playing in the dirty, muddy water after the rain had finished. For some reason the water was stagnant in the ground possibly because of an absence of a proper drainage system.

After the free period I had my Mathemeatics practical. It went very well Alhamdulillah. I got the first set of question papers (there were two in all). There was a chice between two questions; either solve a system of linear equations graphically or verify the Pythagoras theorem experimentally. I solved the given pair of linear equations. And Alhamdulillah I got the right answer. My viva-voice also went well. I was just asked the formulae for volumes of a cylinder, a cone and a frustum of a cone. I got'em all right.Alhamdulillah.

Tomorrow is my physics practical examination. Inshallah it will also go well. I am only scared about the viva-voice part as the teacher taking it takes it tough.

The Cool Blue Sky

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 19:59:00 +0000

Today while I was going to my bus stop at around 6:30 a.m. it was a very cool weather. There was no proper sunlight to seen. Its been similar to this since the past few days but the sunlight could always be seen. It was different today. I liked it. Since the past few years Makkah has been cooling a lot. Mostly in the last 2-3 years. Earlier there used to be no winter or rainy season; just a summer with the last and forst few months being a bit more pleasant or less hot than others. But now there is cold. Cold in which we have to wear some insulation instead of the one we could just enjoy and live just with a fan swithced on in the room. Even int he school it was pretty cool. At time and time again the sunlight was completely covered and it seemed as if it was evening school. When I was returning home it was still very clody and cool instead of the sweating heat although I had to walk just about a minute or two. I am sure it will be getting colder by day. Just about a week ago (or less than that) it was still hot with night time temperature around 36 degrees celsius but now it is around 24.