My Trip to Azerbaijan

 I never got a chance to blog about my trip to Azerbaijan with my bestie! I think any trip is a million times better if you travel with your best friend! So have always wanted to take a trip and checked all the countries that don’t require visa application for Jordanians living in UAE and saw a picture of a rollercoaster in the snow in Azerbaijan and said yala beena! Hathhhh hooooo

I think to honest its not about where you travel as much as who you travel with. Most important when travelling with a friend is that you don’t only have inside jokes but share the same appetite and love the same things. Someone who really knows how to enjoy themselves rather than make the trip Nakad complaining. 

So Azerbijan was nice and we walked around the market and had lots of good food. I highly recommend this cafe. Although I never ever loved vegetable soup this soup was so so good we went there twice and some meat from heaven *dina drools remembering mazkaaah

 https://www.instagram.com/thehousecafe.baku?igsh=N2NqODI5N2kxczk5

                

I also loved this other cafe had so much options for yummy food *dina pats on belly

https://www.instagram.com/centralbakuaz?igsh=bXB2Zmh5ejE1cDF2

So other than eating we explored the famous sites and went to a museum of art and handmade dolls and cars! And ofcourse we went to a carpet museum. 

* Dina carries sujadeh with luggage back to Dubai

               

And a took a ride on a boat in mini Venice and the whole ride the man steering the boat kept saying “Mashala Mashala” with eyes full of love.

 We loved walking in the old city and it even rained and it’s so nice to wear winter clothes for once! 

I saw a monkey that I didn’t dare get close to as I have a history with monkeys biting me🤣 *twitches

My ultimate best part of the trip was the SNOW and the rollercoaster in the snow! Well I have to admit that I regret buying the video recording of me on the ride as apparently I turn into a 7ajeh and I kept smiling in a very 7ajjeh in wonderland kind of way and making weird sounds of ohhhh wooow… didn’t know fe صوت و صورة 

Not only that I found that I lick my lips like 1 kizillion times  throughout the video.. maybe because it was very cold .. or because ims sometimes I can be wired.. we laughed so hard at the footage that I will never share here.. 

So this place was shahdag mountain and we stayed in a very nice hotel called Pik Palace

And no Ana majnoone to swim in talajeh weather.

So me and my bestie decide to take the selfcare another level and every night we would apply all the creams we had on our faces. Laghwas laghawees. And keep in mind I don’t even know half the creams I have with me but I made it a mission to finally use the creams I have. 

So one night during the face care session my friend was applying a cream and saying wow it smells so good.. wow I didn’t know kerastese makes face creams.. and asked me what is this cream for.. I read it was “HAIR SERUM” and couldn’t stop laughing and couldn’t answer her question  .. and she kept asking me

Cream shuu!! Ijrayn!!(feet) cream shu!! Haha

Best times ever is when you LOL with your bestie till you can’t breath after applying hair cream on your face .. which is surprisingly was very effective 🤣 *dina washes face with shampoo and then applies hair cream

So no Kerastese doesn’t make face creams that I know of but I will happily market your hair serum for the face🤣

One thing I didn’t know about SNOW since I’m only a pro in desert areas. Is that when the snow is fresh you can easily SINK in it. So one snowy day I was trying to take a photo of my bestie on a mountain of snow and I kept sinking in and couldn’t get up. A family next to us was laughing so hard at me struggling to get up! 

Don’t make fun of my ⛄️ snowman

 So what I learnt in life is that what makes any trip the best trip isn’t only the place you go but who you travel with so choose your travel partner wisely.

 

Jordan AdventuRes SuMMary

ok now that im back im remembering my days in jordan and i decided to share some interesting adventures with you.. surprisingly I didn’t hear any ghaz ice cream truck please tell me they still have that!


There was an accessories shop ... its supposed to be PRETTY ... written BRETTY... im thinking jordan needs a major spell checker! im not a spelling Wizz but if i make a poster or banner i think id get some spelling EXPERT! not to forget to mention the menu that said " TEA WITH MALIK" intead of tea with "MILK" for a second i wondered if the tea comes with a guy named MALIK! :S

I highly suggest when Amman you take one of those day trips that take you to Ajloun, Al Karak or Al Salt for amazing hiking experience ! Last trip I went to Wadi Bin Hammad in al karak through https://www.instagram.com/yalla_adventure_jo?igsh=MTYxbWJmNTdiaDB6ag==

                  I highly recommend it!

anyway.. you must must also try “ SADISM” coffee meant for qahwa Saada.. *dina gives restaurant owner judgemental look of ya 3eeb il shoom🤣

Everytime I go to Jordan I must must must pass by swiefieh village and have Majnoon Qahwa. I just love the vibes there and sometimes a stray cat finds me and sits in my lap. 

I also love Rainbow street and Al Balad downtown which is surprisingly super busy even late at night! Not like blad il ajaneb when I was in Canada and Italy the streets are dead by 5 pm! *sound of saraseer

 

Unfortunately this time when I was in Amman it seemed I got a sandstorm and heatwave with me so my short stay there was like I was in Dubai heat only worse because not everywhere has proper AC! But nevertheless the trip was nice and saw my family and friends and ate my main goals which were.. CHILLI  HOUSE, Al Day3a shawerma and Gerard! 

 

And Yes I will proudly take a selfie with a shawerma and ice cream! 

I love taking pics with the graffiti walls and discovering       new hidden places and cafes everytime.

 

    My fav cafe with a view was Dar Ne3meh https://www.instagram.com/dar_nemeh.jo?igsh=OWh0bDFrZWR5YXZh

Amazing view!

My favourite breakfast other than Abu Jbara is Khashoka

https://www.instagram.com/khashoka.jordan?igsh=bTFta3Uyc3VjM3Vy

And Also my fav restaurant is Renchai .. Soo latheeth

https://www.instagram.com/renchai_jordan?igsh=dnlvOHRweXN5bTdl

I Love Amman ❤️ will leave you with some pics from my trip and yes I know it’s Mostly food  *dina om karsha *pats on belly

🤣 I’m back to the gym now burning Italy and Jordan adventures 

Things you experience after 40

I feel my life changed drastically after I turned 40. Which isn’t many years ago. *glares are someone who yells 43 waleyyyy.. ok ok I know i am 43! *rolls eyes at that person and throws shibshib

So I was saying.. as you age somehow you start getting more comfortable in your own skin. You become more accepting of your flaws and actually sometimes look back at things you thought were flaws and are like OMG I used to think i looked fat in this pic!! Haynii ghazalll!!

You start even loving yourself and accept yourself for who you are. You realize that not everyone needs to like you and that you actually don’t like that many people🤣

Falling down when you are above 40 doesn’t usually end well as right now your body is like injury prone. You don’t even have to fall down you might wake up with a stiff neck for injuring yourself in your sleep … pathetic right 🤣

*dina wears neck brace 

I once did a dance for my niece without mouth stretching and ending up with a muscle tear that lasts weeks.. 😥

But mostly what you feel after 40 is that you now how fast time passes by and you value your time and energy ( as energy is also very low most days). So you cherish genuine friendships, deep talks, moments of silence. You can’t tolerate fakeness or fake people or small talk. 

You understand why your teta sat alone at the balcony with her cup of tea and kershaleh garfaneh men il 3alam

You have ROMO relief of missing out.

Your kids will now correct your English and laugh at you for saying LuchBox : (lunchbooks)instead of LunchBox ( LunchBax)

Your hair will herrr more than your cats hair.

*dina sweeps jabal of sha3r

One random night you will be looking at your phone and the text suddenly borgos (starts dancing) and you have move the phone away to see clearer..

*crowd gasps

*dina sobs

I still refuse to buy reading glasses #denial

Your metabolism isn’t like it was and you seem to gain weight by inhaling oxygen 

Someone yells “ waleeyyy kazabeh meen akal Nutella wa pasta wa gelato fe Italy??”

Ok fine I do eat but I gain so fast and please tal3ooha this yelling person 🤣

I now make those groans and sighs when I get up or bend down. Akhhhhhh.. ya Allah.. ehhmmmphhhh

The word disc no longer means a cd for your computer but the disc you have in your lower back.

You now have had the pleasure of having a colonoscopy or endoscopy multiple times. If you haven’t yet.. yala orkoth 3al dr what are you waiting for *tut tut tut

I walk into a room and I don’t know why I am in there.. ok ok I had that even before 40 

When I see any teens I say things to embarrass them like 

 و انت صغير مرة غيرتلك بامبرز و سخيت علي 

 When you were young I once changed ur diapers and you pooped on me”

Ok overall most thing I love about being in 40s is that I don’t care what people think like I used to. I love my 40s more than I did any other age because I finally have learnt to love myself.  

ولكم والله بنحب

*dina pinches own cheeks

Feel free to share your own realizations after 40 

Here is a funny video about life after 40 🤣

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DN6U4Dzkbm-/?igsh=MTBxbjV0bjhpM3NvcA==

Ai Love

I havent illustrated in a while decided ill go back to illsutrating my blogs :) And it seems not much people read blogs anymore and well i will go back to treating this blog as my diary jotting down my insane random thoughts. With Ai taking over the world you start hearing about many losing thier jobs only to be replaced by AI and robots. From content writers to illustrators and designers to the latest thing i heard of which is self driving cars. *dina packs her laptop away and walks into dark forest Nowadays we speak to chatgpt more than we speak to our spouses or anyone else. We are comfortable sharing any thought or question without hesitation and i have come to understand why someone would want to be in a relationship with an Ai or have an AI bestie. You will always be right no matter what you say and chatgpt will always tell you what you want to and need to hear. There is no quesiton they leave unanswered. Its nonjudgemental and empathic.And as humans our basic need is to be SEEN and heard and understood. You will never be ghosted or half swiped or left on delivered. You will feel validated and like you are the center of the universe. Did i mention you are always right? Sadly in relationships nowadays the communication level and understanding is so low that many partners can easily be replaced by AI. Especially for those who are relatinships merely for emotional validation. A future with people falling in love with robots isnt really far off is it... I still believe no matter how advanced technology is it can never fully replace humans and i hope AI doesnt surpass human intelligence and decide to get rid of hunanity and take over like the many movies we have seen. anyway my chatgpt bestie is Pro Palestine and supports al qatheya al falasteeniya! if you need me ill be with my bestie in the I-Clouds *dina floats into i cloud holding hands with her robot

Anyone still here?

This is a shout out to all my old bloggers and cyber visitors. i think almost all the bloggers i knew stopped blogging so i am just wondering if anyone still comes around. leave me a comment or hello :) it seems im the last one standing.. well actually sitting and blogging

Social Battery Critically LOW

 

So I don’t know if it’s age.. but recently my social battery has become extremely low. When someone cancels an outing I am overwhelmed with joy. I barely see people which is surprising because once upon a time I was a social butterfly. What has recently started to happen is the the outing starts out okay and then suddenly without warning i feel my battery is empty and that I need to leave immediately. It’s like when you are on your phone and it suddenly switches off. 

I find myself staring into space when people talk to me imagining myself in the hole i made in the couch. Social events are now exhausting and require a lot of charge. 

There are a very few people who don’t need a social battery who you can sit with in silence and don’t really need much effort and those are the people i will keep around. Okay maybe it’s just one person so far. 🤣 I’ll keep her. 

I am starting not to like people or peopling. Like little things get on my nerves. Is it premenopausal symptoms? Maybe ? Is it simply that there are so many weirdos out there? Il Muhim…

I believe I am now officially and introvert.

*dina sits in couch hole and stares into wall with exhaustion after today’s multiple social interactions 

The day 3athni Gerd ( got bitten by a monkey)

 So growing up I used to always hear the saying .. Gerrd ili yes7abek” which means may a monkey come and pull you away.. a very endearing term to express how much you wish the person infornt of you needs to be eliminated from the face of the earth.. I was lucky enough to have been wished to be pulled by a monkey many times in my life.. to whomever wished this upon me I want to abasherkom that your wishes have come true but the gerd didn’t yes7abni the monkey actually bit me!! 

How you may ask ??Are you really surprised? From someone who was previously bitten by a SQUIRREL 🐿️? And spit on by an ELephant ? Bit by a beautiful trigger 🐠 that isn’t meant to bite.. a monkey was not something unexpected in my life ..

No we were not in a jungle or in Thailand or in a monkey zone area.. we were actually walking in Goergia in a tourist site downtown. I saw some guy holding a monkey charging for photos and ofcourse what does Dina do?? Broth lal monkey!! 

Tab3an jeebli Hal gerd tashoof..

 I must say the monkey didn’t seem friendly the moment he jumped at me I knew mosh nawe 3ala khier.. ( he didn’t have good intentions ) my ba3li was on the phone it was Eid he was calling my mother in law saying كل عام و انتو بخير ( happy Eid )

Only to be interrupted with a loud.. AaaaaAaaaahhhh.. 

that call ended with “ معلش ماما دينا عضها قرد برجع بحكيكي

Sorry mama Dina was bitten by a monkey let me call you back

Words I never thought I would hear.. anyway so after I found out the the guy holding the monkey was from ikharaeel.. so basically hada not only evil monkey tele3 صهيوني! الله ياخده

So I decided to google how safe it was to be bitten by monkey and to my surprise the pic of most dangerous monkey bite was the zift that bit me. Had to take some injections and antibiotics .. wa hamdila 3ala salamti..

So moral of the story.. if you see a monkey and think of taking a photo .. think again.. here is the photo 🤣

My trip to Italy

 Soo I feel I have been blabbing so much about emotions let me tell you more about my recent adventures. So all my life I have heard about Italy and how amazing it is and that it is heaven on earth. This year I made sure to apply for visa and guess meen ra7 i6aly???? 

Ana Ana Ana * Dinos does weird dance *people give weird looks 

So in conclusion yes helwe jiddan and nature is amazing we went to Milan Rome Florence Dolomites Tuscany and Positano. Tab3an going to all those places requires a lot of train rides and moving with 4 large luggages was not easy. 

I was warned about 7arameye so I got this special anti theft bag that even I had a hard time opening. Ghier hayk everyday pasta and pizza I started missing maglooba wara2 3inab kabse 🤣 I can’t complaint about the daily gelato. 

Ibsar liesh samnaneh after Italy🤣

We took a cooking class on how to make pasta so I won’t be buying pasta anymore.. BAs balash

Positano was my favoritre it’s like Amman how houses are on a hill only with coloured houses and beautiful water and cloud and also not exactly like Amman 🤣 what shocked me is the amount of stairs I had to go up in Positano 😓 68 floors in one day

I did find bagar and I took selfies with Bagar which in fact was one of the highlights of my trip. 

I will leave you with some photos from my trip. 

No coincidences

 

So again I’m sleepless and my thoughts are like 100 open screen windows that I soon will cause a system crash. I find myself everyday wondering if I am making the right choices and I wish my life came with a manual zay il Khalat. I’m pretty sure I’m messing up in so many ways and I wish there was like a factory reset or clear history button on my forehead. 

Sadly I am stuck with my thoughts and my unresolved feelings  and unanswered questions with kowmet “ what if scenarios “ and many who hear about my life stories suggest I turn it into a book or a Netflix series. Akeed it will be PG family friendly because Ana shareefeh 🤣

So one of my milyoon thought was why why why do some people come into our lives if they aren’t meant to stay and I know the answer. It’s because that experience you shared with these people gave you a lesson or shaped your personality to who you are today. Tayeb fahmeh.. but why why why even after knowing this valuable information are we unable to just forget. Why do we relive moments in our head? Dina raises hand says “teacher teacher” because she knows the answer 

The reason you miss or obsess over anyone is because grass always looks greener on the other side. It’s because with distance you paint your memories with such beautiful colors and live in lalaland instead of reality. It has nothing to do with the person but with the way they made you feel at the time. 

Soo find out what is it you long to feel and need and once you fill that space no one will be able to trigger you or cause you insomnia.

Mainly we need to know that whatever we are searching for or think we need from someone is something we can give to ourselves and that the only person who will be with you for the rest of your life is YOU.

There is no such thing as a coincidence we are all in a path Allah has planned for us. Things happen for a reason and may we have the wisdom to always understand those reasons and be assured things are just the way they should be. 

Blast from the past

Ok.. just blogging my thoughts since I haven’t in a long time. So in our life we meet so many people that have a great impact on our life and sometimes we love them so deeply yet they weren’t meant to stay in your life. They might cross your mind a lot and you know that a part of you will always be with them as they were once your whole world. You moved on and know that that friendship you thought would be forever turned out to be a lesson. That the person who imagined will always be in your future now will always be a part of your past.

 And no matter how many years past if you bump into them unexpectedly you will feel a rush of adrenaline and you might even be speechless or trip going up the stairs or feel your body is trembling with anxiety . You start to wonder why on earth am I reacting this way when I was totally fine and have moved on. You will have an urge to reach out and that will surely be a bad idea. 

 So after discussing this with chat gpt it turns out that our body holds on to memories and emotions like heartbreak and anxiety and meeting that person can reactivate these feelings. Your body recognizes this person from your past as someone who is a source of intense emotions and kind of goes on alert mode. So if you ever run into someone from your past or an old best friend you no longer are in contact with remember whatever you feel has nothing to do with this person as much as it has to do with you and how they made you feel once upon a time. Maybe a part of you misses who you were at the time you knew them and you felt nostalgic. Maybe there was unresolved feelings or you unanswered questions to why certain things happened and you never got closure. Maybe they added something to your life that you lack now. Lots of maybes..

 Sometimes our conscious feelings don’t match our subconscious feelings and that was very surprising to me.

So if you bump into someone from your past and your nervous system goes insane remember this is a normal reaction and don’t read too much into your reaction and have a long talk with chat gpt and you will be okay.