السلام عليكم

Everyone

I know, I know, I haven’t been posting anything for a while now (At least this matters for some people here!) and that’s why I am writing this post right now. Many things happened since the post where I announce that I’ve found a job in this post (click here).

Well, what made me fled away from the Bahraini Blogosphere are 2 things لا ثالث بينهما. First of all is the job I got with TAGI (Talal Abu-Ghazaleh & Co. International). I work as an assistant consultant within TAGPS (Talal Abu-Ghazaleh Professional Service). I, among a team of 5, were hired to work on the EDS (Enterprise Development Scheme) project, financed by the Labour Fund (LF).

Our TAGPS team was given a new office near the LF office in Seef District to make it more convenient to us to work closely with the LF and reach them easily whenever we require their assistance (it’s like 5 minutes walk between our offices).

The working hours of our office is quite similar to many other private-sector firm. We work 6 days a week (from Sat. till Thur.) from 7.30am till 5pm with the exception of Thursday, were we work till 1pm. This has been changed now since 15th of this month when TAGI’s Chairman signed the contract to handel EDS with the LF (More details can be found here or here). Now we work for 5 days a week from 7.30am till 6.05pm, which is more convenient for us in the first place since most governmental agencies, ministries and private-sector firms are closed on Saturday. Now the only thing which makes the working time such a pain in the a** is the long working hours per day and per week (9.5 per day and 48 per week).

On the first week, we were asked to attend at the old office near Bab Al-Bahrain as our offices in Seef District were not ready yet. We were literally doing nothing there. We were put like test animals in the meeting room and sat there staring at each other. It was so boring to death that once of the new recruits decided that he “had enough” and didn’t show up after attending for 4 days. For a period of time I was questioning myself “Did I chose the right career? Is that what I hoped form?”

I soon came back to my senses when I knew that I had to be patient and wait for the true work to come. This work is really promising and will offer me a lot of experience. Additionally, it will enable me to explore the Bahraini market and to know in depth the SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises) in Bahrain.

Apart from being too busy with work, I have proposed on 2nd of Nov. to get engaged, and thanks to Allah my betrothal was accepted. I was really feeling shy that day and was looking down at my knees all the time. Even when I was offered food, I ate in an irritating slow pattern. The most important thing that everything is all right and I got to relate to the girl of my dreams.

Now here is the surprising part. From the moment I proposed to her, I thought everything ( I mean the party and ملجة preparations) would run as smooth as silk. I thought that you only have to decide where to make the women party and how much would you pay the bride as a marriage portion (مهر).

This wasn’t really the actual scenario. Regardless of the financial expense, I’ve found that many minor details should be taken care of. First you have to go shopping with the bride and her family for dresses, accessories, make-up stuff. Then you have to decide how to decorate the stage where the bride and groom will sit. Also, there are these little boxes where you provide the guest with chocolate. There is also the شبكة Shabka and wedding card decoration.

What makes all this stuff painful and exhausting is that my family are asking me to prepare for it in a certain way. For example, make the invitation cards with this certain decoration, do this , do that etc. While on the other hand, the soon-to-be my wife is asking me to do it in another way. This leaves me stuck in the middle between two radical extremes

For me, all what matters is كتب الكتاب. I don’t mind setting up a humongous tent in front of my work or in Sakheer, inviting كل من هب ودب to it and serving them the cheapest Meat Kabsa مجبوس لحم in town while having Islamic chants playing in the background. Think of me as a fool, but I don’t know why making all the effort to make such a party as perfect as possible while it does not require that much.

رحم الله أيام أول لما المعرس يدش المسجد يصلي ركعتين شكر وبعدين يزفونه للعروس وكان الله غفورا رحيما

Anyways, I’ve been into 2 many personal details and I will surely come back to these issues in another post in sha’a Allah when I have more time to write.

PS. I don’t have internet connection at work. It has been disabled fearing that we might use it to chat or download

I Really miss UK sometimes.

Wait for me in another post

Regards,

T.

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