Friday, April 24, 2009

Under the boardwalk

Love The Drifters. "There goes my baby", "Save the last dance for me", "Please stay", .....all classics but my all time favourite song is "Under the boardwalk" by Johnny Moore!

However, I prefer Bruce Willis's rendition of "Under the boardwalk"! Bruce looks so amazing and he sure can sing!! Love the way he moves his body....woaahhh!!!




Wednesday, April 15, 2009

I dreamed a dream

This evening as I opened my Home Page on the Facebook, a video which a friend had posted caught my eye along with the various comments on it.

- she's AWESOME !! :-))))))
- yep theres hope 4 us all.
- Fantastic voice!!
- GR8!!!! Too Gud...Three Gud....aah!! Simply Awesome!
- just goes to show great things can come in the most seemingly unlikely packages !! :-)
- outstanding!!! Marvelous!!!




Susan Boyle...She didn't look nor acted like a star on the reality tv show called "Britain's Got Talent" (11/04/2009). A very unlikely contestant. She was 47 years old, unmarried & lived with her cat called Pebbles. When she had walked on stage and said that her dream was to be a professional singer, many in the audience sniggered. Moments later, as Susan sang the opening lines of her song, expressions on the faces of the audience as well as the judges changed from scorn to that of amazement down to being tearful. She surprised everyone with her strong performance. The look on Simon's face was priceless. Simon Cowell, the creator of the show is known for his sarcastic remarks and reducing the contestants to tears with his comments. Surprising he was simply bowled by Susan's rendition!

I was moved by the song too and couldn't stop the tears rolling down my cheeks as I listened to Susan and watched her singing. Susan once made a promise to her mother to do something with her life and here she was at 47 years chasing her dream to be a professionl singer.

All these years, many of my dreams have been buried for various reasons. I am now going to look for them and dust the cobwebs off......

I dreamed a dream
(Les Miserables)

There was a time when men were kind
When their voices were soft
And their words inviting
There was a time when love was blind
And the world was a song
And the song was exciting
There was a time
Then it all went wrong

I dreamed a dream in time gone by
When hope was high
And life worth living
I dreamed that love would never die
I dreamed that God would be forgiving
Then I was young and unafraid
And dreams were made and used and wasted
There was no ransom to be paid
No song unsung, no wine untasted

But the tigers come at night
With their voices soft as thunder
As they tear your hope apart
And they turn your dream to shame

He slept a summer by my side
He filled my days with endless wonder
He took my childhood in his stride
But he was gone when autumn came

And still I dream he'll come to me
That we will live the years together
But there are dreams that cannot be
And there are storms we cannot weather

I had a dream my life would be
So different from this hell I'm living
So different now from what it seemed
Now life has killed the dream I dreamed.

Friday, April 10, 2009

Nonsensical emails from my Boss (NFD) - 2

From: Betty@forwarders.com
Sent: 07 April 2009 20:42
To: NFD
Subject: Re: Order Management Process Flow JFDI Umbrella meeting

Its is clear to me that you are not exerting enough control over forces within your organization to not assume things that are not theirs.

It is either that or perhaps your addiction to crunchy sugar dough is something that must seriously be considered.

So actually, our contribution or lack thereof to your addiction to this deadly baked substance could be both positive and negative.

Please consider this view when discussing with said umbrellas and hatstands. I'm sure they'll advise likewise.

Sent from Betty's Blackberry


----- Original Message -----
From: "NFD" [nfd@jfdi.com]
Sent: 04/07/2009 05:21 PM GMT
To: Betty
Subject: Re: Order Management Process Flow JFDI Umbrella meeting


My prescribed therapy is actually to work at JFDI and to seek serious help from sources outside. Thank you for contributing to my well being, but I am still suffering from biscuititous notenufficus. Main symptom is a belief that fellow staff are eating them and not me!

Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone from Qtel

-----Original Message-----
From:
Betty@forwarders.com
Date: Tue, 7 Apr 2009 17:26:19
To: NFD<
nfd@jfdi.com>
Subject: Re: Order Management Process Flow JFDI Umbrella meeting


U really need serious help

Sent from Betty's Blackberry


----- Original Message -----
From: NFD [nfd@jfdi.com]
Sent: 04/07/2009 07:14 PM ZE3
To: Betty
Subject: RE: Order Management Process Flow JFDI Umbrella meeting


Hi Betty,

Apologies but the JFDI Umbrella is not available, have had quite a fruitful discussion with the JFDI Hatstand instead.

Please advise if there are other inanimate objects you would like me to talk to on your behalf.

Worried regards
Dr.NFD

________________________________________
From: Betty@forwarders.com
Sent: 07 April 2009 12:52
To: SFH; MH; NFD
Subject: Order Management Process Flow

Team JFDI -

Attached is the flow that we agreed on today is the very basic flow of an order in the JFDI world.
(See attached file: JFDI ORDER FLOW.pdf)

What do we do now?

1st stage, 2nd stage, blah blah blah....

NFD - when you're ready to present this product/service to the JFDI umbrella, let me know. We'll be ready. We'll chat about a lunch day as well for the next 2 weeks.

Betty

Nonsensical emails from my Boss (NFD) - 1

From: Betty@forwarders.com
Sent: Sunday, April 05, 2009 10:05 PM
To: NFD
Subject: Unstuffing + warehousing last 20'

Oh hell - now I just read the rest!!! Oh hell oh hell I'm dying!!! This is the single most entertaining email of the year. I've now made an executive decision on ur behalf that for the price of ur overly overpriced luxury items at Mai shops, u should start doing a comedy routine as a value add service to ur clients. I'm sure u could knock out a few thousand extra from a sheikha or two. They won't understand a word of it but I'm confident with the accent they'll assume ur the Queens jester or something. Come onnnnnn - I'll run the biscuit tray. What do u think???


From: NFD@jfdi.com
Sent: 04/05/2009 08:37 PM
To: Betty
Subject: Unstuffing + warehousing last 20'

Could only find this part email
_____________________________________________________
From: g.thegoat@forwarders.com
Sent: 29 April 2010
To: NFD

Subject: RE: warehousing damages

Hello NFD,

We agree to pay for everything and your relocation to Bahamas and a salary for life plus beer on tap and all of those missing biscuits,and what ever else etc etc + 1st class air travel

Monday, April 6, 2009

Middle East

People always ask me about life here in the Middle East and how the locals were. To these queries I barely knew how best to answer as I hardly had any life apart from work and where locals were concerned I barely came across them. Then this article which came out last Sat, 4th of April caught my eye. It aptly sums up the place where I live!

Trying to lift the veil on Qatar

This week Qatar hosted the annual Arab Summit in its capital Doha. It was dubbed the reconciliation summit after months of serious rifts in the Arab World. The tiny country had put the noses of some of the big players out of joint by trying to adopt the role of regional mediator, traditionally played by heavyweights Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

Our Middle East correspondent Katya Adler reported on the summit and set out to find out more about Qatar, one of the region's richest nations.

This was my first visit to Qatar and I admit I failed in one of my main missions, to get under the skin of the country.

On Qatar Airways, I met Filipino cabin crew.

The airport ground staff were Pakistani, the hotel receptionist, Sri Lankan, the barista who made my cappuccino on the way to the Arab Summit, Nepali.

My hunt to meet Qataris in Qatar had begun.

Statistically, foreigners in Qatar outnumber Qataris by four to one.
more

Friday, April 3, 2009

Anniversary

The phone rings. Who could it be, I wonder? The watch shows 5.20am only and it's my weekend! It's my youngest brother asking me whether I had mailed back his article after editing. He wants it now...has to get to the press....on time for the State elections (back in my country) in another 2 weeks.

There's a lot of noise in the background. I am told Dad's organizing a feast today on the occasion of my grandmother's death anniversary, his mother. He's called his sisters and of course his elder brother who lives next door along with their families.

I speak to my Parents, first Dad and then Mom. Dad tells me about the feast. It's Dad & Mom's Wedding Anniversary too but he seems to have forgotten and I did not remind him. His mother's anniversary, he didn't forget. We speak for a while and then he passes the phone on to Mom.