master, over at fyonkat just wrote a post about her embarrassing encounter with a waiter in geneve, Read it here, and She inspired me to write about my own embarrassing encounter with a waiter. It happened in 1996. Here is how it went:
Me and my friend were sitting in a cafe near the lake. We ordered cokes and the waitress brought them over, she was very friendly and all smiles.
I tend to spill drinks at restaurants. Sometimes when I try to describe something my arms make drawings in the air and other uncontrollable motions. Lets just say I can’t sit at a cafe or a restaurant without making a scene and most of the time the spilled drink finds it’s way to my shirt, and this time it was no exception 😀 I spilled the coke all over the table with one swift motion. The waitress came running and said “C’est pas grave” (no problem) and brought a towel and started to clean the table.
Waitress: So…who is the pig! Me: *pointed at my friend* HIM! he’s the pig! He spilled it!
The waitress smiled.
Friend: Me. Me: *I was amazed at how he was ok with being called a pig* Waitress: what day you were born? Me: 1st of january. Waitress: wow! 1st of january! on new year! Friend: and I’m on 25th of december. Waiter: WOW! he’s on new years and you on christmas!
We all laughed and chatted for awhile and then she left. I then asked my friend about the “pig” thingy and then he said..
Friend: She did not say PIG! she asked who is BIGGER! OLDER! not who is the pig!
My father used to take us to this restaurant when I was a kid. Back then I didn’t care much for staying in the restaurant, I was more interested in the swings outside.
The place was run by a nice old lady, her and the cook were the only 2 people working there. Now the old lady has left and her daughter took her place. We went on friday and were greeted by the Chef, he showed us to our table, gave us the menus, brought the drinks, cooked the dishes, presented them and gave us the check!
The dishes are amazing in this little place. They’re very simple and not a whole lot of choices are there to choose from, but from my experience, you cannot go wrong with their limited variety, well.. if you’re going to order a goose liver or a monkey’s feet thats another issue.
This castle or château as they call em here in france is not so far away from our place, its less than 10 minutes away by car, and yet this was the first time we tried to take a closer look.
I like old buildings and the history behind them. I looked this castle up in google and it turned out to be older than what I thought. It was built in 1328 and owned by the Compey family of Geneva, it was passed to other owners later. In 1589 it was taken by force by the troops of Geneva who entered the Savoie region, till 1606. it is owned by a farm now.
I was supposed to be back today from my short trip to Oman, but since I finished work earlier than expected I decided to cut it short and be back a day earlier. I didn’t tell anyone that I’d be home earlier, and I did manage to surprise them all. When I came into the living room, my wife was there, and she was not expecting me at all. After the salams, She was started acting all weird and started shoving me toward out of the living room to another room, that was weird so I asked her “whats going on!” and she said “Nothing!” I didn’t know anything about it till I went to get a glass of water and saw gift boxes on the dining table, being wrapped, and the whole table was messy from all the gift wrapping paper and stuff.
When I saw the gift, I got excited, but still didn’t know it was for ME! and I asked her whom is the gift for? and she said “You, it was supposed to be ur birthday gift.” My birthday is in september.. so she said that I can have the gift now, but this is it!
Thanks Ahmad for Conspiring with your sister, again. You both got me an amazing gift. 🙂
Aix Les Bains is a beautiful and quiet place in france and it overlook one of the most picturistic lakes I’ve seen. The first time I ever been there was when Mom insisted we go see the place where the pasha (of an old egyptian movie) supposedly spent his summers. The pasha had a really good taste, I liked the place a lot. Read the rest of this entry »
When we were on the train on our way to Salzburg, we talked about the things we still remember from our last visit 20 years ago. I said that I still remember The Sound Of Music home, the old walking street with the cafes and shops, our hotel (which assumed I would be ok sleeping in a baby’s crib! I was 6 and did not find them funny at ALL) and I remember that we bought 2 toys from that old street, we bought a little orange warm attached to a transparent nylon thread and a puppet with strings, it was an ostrich with beads-like legs. The warm did not last long, but that little ostrich puppet lasted well into the early 90’s.
When we first entered the old town, memories started flowing back. less than 20 meters into this narrow walking street, we saw something VERY familiar. We saw that little ostrich puppet with its green hat and red feathers! it looked exactly like the one we bought 2 decades ago! Mom said that I SHOULD buy it. So I went up to the lady carrying the basket full of puppets and started talking to her. It was raining and I was trying to open my wallet and holding the umbrella at the same time, so she offered to carry the umbrella for me, she was so nice and speaks english fluently, so I thought I’d tell her about our old puppet..
Me: You know, 20 years ago I came to salzburg with my family and they bought me a puppet that looks exactly like the ones you’re selling me now. Puppet Lady: 20 years? Well, I’ve been selling these puppets for 23 years. Me: *stared at her* oh.. really? Puppet Lady: Yes, 23 years. No one sells them except me. *smiles* Me: You mean……? Puppet Lady: It’s probably me who sold your parents that first puppet. Me: *Shocked* Puppet Lady: *laughs* Yes it was me.
^This is the old town in Salzburg, a walking street with lots of shops and souvenirs shops can be found there, and all are in old buildings dating back to the 13 centuries. You can see above the mountain and overlooking the town there is an old castle, this castle was built over 600 years of constant work and remodeling. The tour guide said that every king (archbishop?) used to change things and remodel it and no one lived up to see it completed.
^20 years ago we sat at this restaurant/cafe. I remembered once I saw the path leading up to it!
They did it first.. and 20 years later, we copied them. What a shame. I really liked our Liberation tower, I thought it was original. Couldn’t they think of something else?!
Anyway. I’m back from my little away time in Salzburg. I had a great time (the pictures are coming up). I really wanted to post while I’m there but the hotel’s wifi went down as soon as I logged in. No internet in the rooms, just in the lobby. They told me they’re gonna fix it soon but nothing happened till I checked out. I bet it’s back up and working right now. garada.
It was a long LONG trip by train. It took us 8 hr and 45 minutes, 1 train change in Zurich and God only knows how many stops till we got to our destination. At first I did not feel like doing anything, I wanted to sleep, but the coffee I drank for breakfast did not help at first so i turned to the ipod. after the train change in Zurich, the train was much comfier so I did finally manage to sleep. I slept on and off for almost 3 hours. 3 hours in any other trip would’ve been really impressive, but not in this never ending trip. We ate lunch in the in-train restaurant, it wasn’t the best meal ever, but it managed to waste some time without us noticing, which is good.
We finally arrived, checked in, left our bags and headed out again. It was raining by that time. We went to the old town, which is breath taking to say the least. The place is very beautiful. I’ve been here once 20 years ago 😛 and I was shocked that I remembered a restaurant in the old town (I was 6 years old then) and when I tried to remind Mom, she remembered! Read the rest of this entry »
I’ll be taking a train at 7 am tomorrow to Salzburg, I’ll stay for a couple of days. I should be sleeping now coz I haven’t slept enough yesterday and I’m so tired I can barely see the keyboard. We have an 8 hours train ride ahead of us. I’m gonna try hard to sleep through it all, if that didn’t work out, I brought 2 books and an ipod just in case.
Anyway, Have you been to Salzburg? any good places to see? recommendations please?
Yes we grow Mango trees as well and now they are ready to be eaten! 😛 remember when i told you guys that we’ve got mango in our house? now they are (nethaaw). We have enough dates to fill 10 fridges, grapes and mangos, A couple more fruit trees and we won’t need to go to the fruits sections in supermarkets 😛
My brother once told me not to try any chinese restaurants outside of Kuwait. He said that the chinese restaurants in Kuwait are very careful when cooking the dishes, they don’t want to alienate their Kuwaiti customers by cooking real chinese food, coz sometimes its too much for them to handle. My Brother basically said that in Kuwait they cook Kuwaiti friendly chinese dishes.
My brother’s favorite chinese restaurant in the world is Peacock in SAS Hotel, since Peacock is highly overrated in my opinion, I tried to take his advice with a grain of salt. I wanted to prove and make a point to myself, that there are good chinese restaurants out there, somewhere.
Today, I was out by myself, and I like to try new places when there is no one around. The reason I don’t prefer eating at new places with people with me is coz I don’t like the disappointed look and the “its all your fault” stare when the food turns out to be inedible (which often is the case). Anyway, As I was saying, I was out by myself and wanted to try a chinese restaurant, to prove a point. I entered the first restaurant I saw. Its called Chez Leung. There was no one inside besides the 2 chinese guys eating at a table near the kitchen and talking with the waitress, they were her friends, I think.
I chose a table and sat. I inspected the place for awhile, thinking to myself “this looks like a nice authentic restaurant. Look at the plants, the frames, the little plastic kitty waving, the plants again, the music… err.. the music?!” the Eagles “Hotel california” was playing from the speakers. Not so authentic. I was expecting some whiny girls singing words I don’t know. The waitress came, very friendly, took my order then went to the kitchen, all the while smiling like she’s just seen a friend. I took out my laptop, no wifi signal, returned the laptop back only to find the waiter standing next to me with my starters. The dish came out fast, definitely not a good sign. My starter was chicken on toast with sesame. It tastes bland, I couldn’t really taste the chicken, it tasted like a dessert called Samsamiya, Which I hated since I was little. My brother was half right by that now. But there was still hope, a chance for me to be right for doubting my brother. Not so long after she took my first dish, she came back with the main course, Hot & Sour chicken. It did not look very appetizing, and the mood they’re trying to set with the music is not working out well. By now George Michael’s “Careless whisper” was playing, followed by “you take my breath away”, Savag Garden’s “I knew I loved You”, Bryan Adams’ “Everything I do”. At first I was blaming the radio for playing all those songs, but after hearing them all back to back it was clear now that it wasn’t the radio playing all those songs, it was a them.. the restaurant! coz no radio would risk its reputation by playing all these sappy songs consecutively! (unless its 99.7 RKFM).
I finished eating and asked for the check. I couldn’t have been more off with the restaurant choice. The food was horrible, The place was not as authentic as I hoped for (I saw a ketchup bottle) and the music selection was… no comment.
I paid and headed to the door, A song started playing as I was stepping out the door, I couldn’t really catch it, it went something like this “If… I.. Shoould stay.. I would only… be in..”
I was shocked to see that our chalet produced grapes! Me, Ali and some other friends found the grapes (pictured above) and Ali was the only one who tasted it. 🙂
I just read an interesting article on one of my favorite blogs, intlxpatr’s blog, the article is taken from BBC news and it says that a veiled Muslim woman was denied citizenship in france coz she, allegedly, practices “radical” islam.
Guys and Girls, Tell me, enlighten me please, Isn’t this story and countless other stories where we read that girls are not allowed to wear Hijabs to schools in certain european countries are prime examples of pure hatred and discrimination?
If I wear to say the N word I would’ve been called a racist, if I wear to say women belonged in the kitchen I would’ve been shunned by women and most men, if I were ever to say, God forbid, AC Milan suck and Qadsiya rules, I would’ve been assassinated by Milan fans. We’re always called out, without tolerance, always stopped mid sentence when something wrong is about to be said. Yet, we see the same self righteous people publicly displaying their hypocrisy without being called out often enough.
France, being the country that it is, which was responsible for so many constitution and has influence on most of the world’s constitutions as well, I think it the country I hate the most for being so hypocrite and racist. I googled and found that the french people are against the veil for 2 main reasons, the reasons are:
1-Wearing the veil symbolizes a woman’s submission to men.
2-women who wear the veil display their religious and community affiliation, which harms the unity.
My reply, respectively, to any person who believes in those 2 reasons:
1-Denying any woman education coz she wears a veil would make her even more submissive to men, coz she’ll end up with no education and no personal freedom to practice her faith, her choice of clothing and the school she wants to join.
2-So, by this reasoning, Unity will only be enforced by discriminating against minorities and their personal beliefs? is this some sort of an oxymoron? or just plain ignorance & stupidity?
This video say it best.
“Freedom of religion is guaranteed in France by the constitutional rights set forth in the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.
However, in recent years, some legislation and government actions were taken against some groups considered to be dangerous or criminal. Officials and associations fighting excesses of such groups, justified these measures by the need to have appropriate legal tools and the need to fight criminal organizations masquerading as legitimate religious groups. Critics contended that those actions unfairly targeted minority religions, jeopardized freedom of religion, and were motivated by prejudice.” – from wikipedia
Sure, yeah, now I understand their stance on the Hijab, I was so out of line with this post, coz you see.. France is a big nation that should put it’s national security and it’s people’s safety first, and those little school girls wearing the Hijab can be very dangerous! don’t be deceived by the cute faces, those girls are a threat to their national security! especially with their little scarfs on! they can smuggle weapons of mass destruction and nobody would be able to tell! You don’t want to happen, now do you!?
When we were on the train on our way to Salzburg, we talked about the things we still remember from our last visit 20 years ago. I said that I still remember The Sound Of Music home, the old walking street with the cafes and shops, our hotel (which assumed I would be ok sleeping in a baby’s crib! I was 6 and did not find them funny at ALL) and I remember that we bought 2 toys from that old street, we bought a little orange warm attached to a transparent nylon thread and a puppet with strings, it was an ostrich with beads-like legs. The warm did not last long, but that little ostrich puppet lasted well into the early 90’s.
