Aisha

'I will only do the things I like' is a statement I like to live by. I wonder if it makes me spoilt, or maybe more spoilt than I already am! I especially like to follow my advice when I excercise, so this summer I found myself drawn away from the strict weight lifting routine that I'd been following for the past two years & without shame going to classes I'd previously desmissed as frivolous & meaningless. I was soon to discover that there are some pretty tough routine & I felt pretty small when I couldn't show off in the body pump class ... me the queen of weights & endurance! Goes to show how little we know especially when we think we know a lot!A little more adventuring led me to an oriental dance class ... & I was hooked! I mean I've always adored dancing but to be able to do it as excercise ... well now that's just perfect! I did a couple of classes in Amman with a seemingly timid, but quite sensual in class instructor & then inevitable looked for a place to take oriental dance classes back home in Egypt. And this led me to Aisha.I walked into the class room feeling like an outsider as all newcomer feel the first time at the gym. I was surrounded by women of all shapes & sizes dressed in a range of clothes from sweats to ful belly dancer's outfit! And then in walks Aisha, a tall chocolate skinned giant all arms & legs dresses in a beautiful belly dancer's number making me feel like the ugly duckling, that is untill she opened her mouth & talked with the silliest of lisps, sounding like a 3 year old! Aisha danced & we mimicked her moves, with a degree of grace & she encouraged & coached us & she smiled all the time, thoroughly enjoying herself, & so did we.The strange thing though is that like the previous dance instructors she's left handed & begins all her steps with her left leg, & being right handed seems like a hndicap to me. I have come to the realization too that maybe, just maybe I will never be an oriental dance instructor like Aisha!

Coffee at the gym

Nothing can be more perfect to sooth me out of my rotten mood &, well, to get me feeling rotten about losing my temper, but remorse is much better for the soul!It all started with a hanging beam. Hayam our interior decorator/designer/foreman declared that she absolutely has to introduce false ceiling to hide the hidiouseness of the hanging beam, while Hubby & looked @ each other wondering what she was seeing that we weren't! But she is the one with the artistic eye & we just let her. A good thing that we did too since she did an absolutely amzing job, worth every penny. And in a remarkably short period of time!Back to the false gypsum board. Well it turns out that you cannot use normal screws to hang curtain rods; the heavy fabrics pulls them out. Every time.and off I go, into Cairo, to the convenience store, praying that my loony driver will know how to get me there. We get there in good time ; I make my choice ; I'm ready to pay only to have my hope shattered; out of stock. I persevere & try again. To no avail. I start to get upset. A trip to another store, after many directions to aforementioned dumb driver finds me before a display of curtain rods, which you would assume are avaialable. But we all know about assumptions; they're very bad @ the best of times. After much debating & checking the stock room I make a choice & 'he'll just prepare the bill'. In retrospect I think that clerck must've been really meen to his wife this morning because I snapped at him like a dry twig on a hot dusty Amman day, when he returned to inform me the rings that the curtain will hang from were out of stock. I ranted & raved like my two year old when he doesn't get his way. I eventually calmed down & grudgingly paid for my purchases minus the rings of course, which hubby will somehow get from somewhere else, and left.Another wrong turn by the stupid driver put me in the darkest of moods untill I sat down, @ the gym, had a coffee & shared my story, while waiting to get to class. A perfect ending to an otherwise bad morning!