Yes, it has stupid boy humour but it’s also surprisingly mature too. I particularly am guilty of over-planning my life. This whole movie deals with how to cope with unplanned events. It’s not just logistical issues that’s difficult, it’s the lower approval rating of friends, family and colleagues that’s difficult as well. I found it pretty realistic, especially in the hospital when Allison is fighting with the doctor about procedures. How many movies show that? Anyways, it’s actually worth watching but it might be too sappy for those hoping for only stupid boy humour.

An Indian man starts and maintains his own handwritten newspaper for the past 21 years. He’s an untouchable and writes about his community’s struggles. He washes clothes for a living. That’s hard labour by the way. If he does it the same way that I saw it done in Bangladesh, he takes the clothes and basically soaps and beats them until they’re clean. His only reporter works in a grocery store.

Beautiful story, here’s the link: BBC News

There’s a lot to do and think about in the next coming days. I just came back from Whiteshell this weekend. Had a wonderful time at Muslim Youth Camp. I used to be super involved in it previous years but this year I just showed up for the weekend, helped with the program logistics prior to camp and did a short talk for the girls. I think the girls found my talk more entertaining than anything else. I also did some hiking, canoeing, kayaking (first time) and swam (waters were beyond beyond freezing however). I think Tipu is going up for a night or two of the boys’ camp. I hope he enjoys it. Camp’s a real big deal to me. Jann and I were asking ourselves if someday we would complete the camp circle… ie. go from campers, to organizers to auntie-cook mode. I think for sure if I have the opportunity. I think it would be hard cooking things plain enough for the kids so that there were no comments like “ew, i don’t like olives”. Perhaps I could take care of desserts.

So Ramadhan is coming up, somewhere around September 13th. It shall be interesting considering I’ll be in Edmonton September 14-18th inshallah. I won’t have to fast during that time because I’ll be traveling but I think I will anyways. I hate making up fasts. It’s so difficult when no one else is fasting with you at home. I still have to make up some fasts from last year… *sigh*. Every year I tell myself don’t leave it to the last minute, don’t leave it… and every year it’s a desperate crunch to fit it in. Some fools just take time to learn I guess. Last Ramadhan I went totally crazy and had guests every weekend at my place, sometimes multiple times like Friday and Sunday. Although it was a valuable learning experience I would rather not do that again. However there are so many blessings in feeding fasters… need to find a good balance. Last year there was no balance. So I’m thinking of things that I could prepare, cook and freeze now to make my life easier. I find fasting very difficult. I run very low on energy at the end of the day. When food finally hits my stomach I completely zonk out and find it very difficult to wake up to pray the night prayers and then zonk out again. It’s not the most productive month for me but I don’t mind… *need the points*.

Anyways, I’m thinking of freezing some good meat sauce… perhaps even lasagna. I could freeze patty filling as well. My mother-in-law taught me how to make these amazing fried crepe roll thingies that I would like to enjoy at one point. I think I’ll just bring that to someone else’s iftar as a contribution however. I wouldn’t want to do that in addition to everything else for an iftar at my place. I want to have lot of fruit smoothie like drinks this year to break fast (non-banana related of course) so I should probably start field testing that. I want to limit the fried stuff (piyaju, beygonee) this year to only weekends. That stuff is super yummy but hurts my stomach after a while. Hmmm… what else? I should make banana bread. I don’t know. Please leave constructive comments on what you or your families do to prepare for Ramadhan.

I absolutely hate Air Canada!!!!!!!!! I can’t stand them and company’s like them. First off, you should NEVER have a call center in India for booking errors. That’s the most retarded, junked up piece of shit strategy I’ve ever heard. I sure fire way to further piss of customers you’ve already pissed off. How many times has the Canadian government pulled Air Canada from the abyss of bankruptcy and now they have all of their complaints/bookings communications coming out of India? Splendid.

So I go to book my flight. I try and get Aeroplan points using Tipu’s card. That’s apparently impossible. No I cannot do that while using my credit card. The thing is that I’m going to a conference and have to use my credit information for reimbursement so it has to be under my name… ok whatever.

Then I go and book my flight. I realized I left “Mr” instead of “Ms” in front of my name so I call Air Canada service number… in India. The guy transfers me to reservations… also in India. The guy says he can’t change the title but will reimburse me my money so I can go and redo my booking. THE PROBLEM IS THE RETARDED CHIMPANZEE HELD MY FUCKING CREDIT!!!!!!!! How in God’s name, sorry, why in God’s name would you put a customer in such a financial process which is supposed to take moments and hold their credit such that the reimbursement goes through after up to SIX WEEKS!!!!!!!!!!!! Why didn’t he warn me about the credit? So then I called up my credit card and got my limit increased. However I’ll still get interest for Air Canada’s purchase because they hold on to it for so damn long.

I want to make a formal complaint but you can’t can you? Huge companies like Air Canada do not even leave an avenue for communication. I tried to complain to the Indians representing Air Canada but that doesn’t seem like quite the same.

look who’s blogging again…