Sunday March 8th:
I had Sunday Roast with Ji. It is a traditional English meal that people usually eat on ... Sundays - duh :P. I had agreed with her on Friday to have lunch together, so all weekend I knew I was gonna have Sunday lunch with her which was a weird feeling because it reminded me of the feeling I used to have during weekends at home because I would know that my family always has Sunday lunches together.
I then went shopping with Sheena, George, Becky, and Fleur - to ASDA of course *roll. I bought a new oven casserole because I had dropped the one I had before and it broke. I also bought a new dish because I broke two! OK, so I am clumsy ... :$ and this doesn't even count as news :P. The news is that I washed the new casserole and put it on the dish rack to dry. Then I was putting away the dishes and I took out two dishes and turned my back on the rack only to hear a crash and see George's puzzled looks. The new - washed and UNUSED - casserole had fell on the ground! Sometimes I feel so stupid because I am so clumsy :(. I later bought another one ... let us see how long this will survive :P
Monday March 9th:
Reena and I went to an event organized by BCS (British Computer Society) and WES (Women in Engineering and Sciences) for the occasion of International Women's Day. It was an OK evening. I was handed the task of giving raffle tickets to a free prize draw. The prize was a book published by BCS. I didn't win this time :P. The evening wasn't a big success because the organizers expected 50 people to show up and only about 15 came! There were two talks by two women; the first was a lady from WES who talked about the evolving role of women in science and technology over the past 100-and-so years. The second was a lady who described how they changed the IT structure and applications of the company that runs the airports and flight management. The second talk was really boring for me and I couldn't wait for it to finish. After the talk we had dinner and did a bit of 'networking'.
There is one thing I want to add. An English lady asked me where I was from and I said Lebanon. She then looked at me - in a strange way - and said: "I see you are keeping yourself warm; it must be really cold here compared to what you are used to". That frankly pissed me off. OK so I know that most people are ignorant about the weather and geography of Lebanon and think that it is some hot desert; and I sincerely don't expect people to even know what Lebanese is or where it is. But what pisses me off is when people make assumptions about things they don't know about then declare those assumptions in a not-so-friendly-way. But, I kept my cool and didn't say anything because Reena started talking about something related to the whether blablabla. Then I told the lady: "That reminded me of one winter when we were children and my grandmother came to take care of me and my brothers because my mom had to stay in the hospital with my youngest brother since he was sick and also my dad wasn't in Lebanon because he was travelling. Anyway, it was a very cold winter - we do get cold winters in Lebanon - but it was the first time my grandmother took care of us. So, she was afraid that we would get cold so she would dress up in a lot of heavy clothes. One day she dressed my brother in 7 blouses and sweaters! Can you imagine that! We still joke about it till now!" The lady was dumb-founded ... good thing I didn't tell her that my grandmother made my brother wear three trousers and three hats as well LOL
Tuesday March 10th:
I was intending on going to a talk about swarm robots organized by the IEEE chapter in ECS ... but I totally forgot D'oh! I don't know what is up with me these days - I am very forgetfull!
Thursday March 12th:
ECSWomen and Careers Services organized a Coffee and Cake event. I went along and enjoyed coffee, cake, chatting with people, and a tour in the careers services building. They are moving out of their current small building to new offices next year and they needed to hear people's opinions about how they can improve their services and what services people need from them.
Saturday March 14th:
I went to the zoo :P. Fleur, her uncle Mac, her grandpa Opa, and I went to Marwell Zoo. We spent the day there and then had lunch in Winchester. It was a really lovely day with nice weather and a great company. Fleur's grandpa is so nice and cute ... but hey, I think all grandpa's are cute :P. I miss my grandpa :( We took a lot of pictures of all the animals. I found the nicest were the leopard, flamingos, arabian cats, and lemurs - no wonder I don't get all excited about regular cats and dogs ... it is the leopards and other animals that are interesting to me LOL
Mother's day is in a couple of days and as previously mentioned I was the one who came up with all the ideas for gifts. We have settled on the presents; let us hope the two men in Lebanon (dad and Yahya) are capable of following gift-purchasing instructions :P LOL
Showing posts with label Reena. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Reena. Show all posts
Tuesday, 17 March 2009
Monday, 16 February 2009
Lebanese Valentine's Dinner
After our Lebanese meal during the Christmas vacation, Sheena and I agreed to go for another Lebanese meal on Valentine's. As Valentine's came closer, we started getting more and more excited; mostly because the food is really good and partly because Sheena couldn't stop talking about it (don't get me wrong; I love the fact that Sheena has totally fell in love with Lebanese food :P She also once said: "Once you go Lebanese, you don't go back" lol). Fleur was also excited because she knew that Lebanese food would be great - based on the stuffed zucchini experience :P. I told Bassam and my Korean friend Ji (the other ECSWomen secretary) to come along as well and they were also excited. Bassam later opted out and I didn't ask him why. Also, when I met Noura for coffee I invited her along because I knew she would appreciate it a lot. She told me that she might have to go to London to visit her sister; but if she didn't then she will come along. Sheena invited Becky to come along also :)
Meanwhile, while I was inviting fans of Lebanese food to come along for our Velentine's meal in another city, Sheena was receiving attention from a secret admirer ;) On Sunday Feb 7th, someone blue-tacked a card on our flat door addressed to Sheena asking if she had plans for Valentine's. Sheena thought it was George playing with her. Then, on Thursday Feb 12th, the cleaners came in with a letter from Hardy, the secret admirer, asking Sheena out for Valentine's. They told her that the guy was outside waiting for her answer. She recognized him from break dancing class. She didn't know what to answer so she told the cleaners to tell the guy that she will think about it. Sue, the chargehand, told her jokingly "Do it like the British women, go out with the guy for a free meal. Then when he asks you out another time just tell him that you have a headache" lol. When the cleaners left she told me that she doesn't want to miss our Lebanese meal. She then asked me if it was OK with me to bring Hardy along and I was of course OK with that. He had to be warned though that there will be four girls accompanying them two lol (Fleur, Ji, Becky, and myself duh :P) On Friday night, Noura confirmed that she was coming and she was bringing Reena along. Poor Hardy was now going out with Sheena and SIX other girls LOL. He wasn't scared away though and told Sheena that he was coming along, brave guy!
On Saturday I was planning our trip with Fleur. The reservation was made for 7:00 P.M. We had to walk to the interchange, take a bus to central station, take a train to Bournemouth and then either take a bus or a cab to the restaurant. We left our flat at 4:45 and it all worked out like a charm and we actually walked in the restaurant at 7:00. Reena and Ji, however, didn't come along. I don't remember why Reena changed her mind. Ji had to stay in Southampton because her brother was visiting her. Also, Hardy brought Sheena a very big and pretty red rose.
Noura and I handled the ordering of course. We ordered everything like last time: hommous, tabbouleh, cheese sambousek , spinach fatayer, kebbe. They didn't have vine leaves :( so we ordered batata 7arra. We also ordered grills. And of course we took loads of pictures (there is always time for the silly and the weird :P). Finally we ordered baklawa which were also very nice. The restaurant was very busy though and it took them half an hour to get our check and take their money! We then made our way back home to Southampton very pleased with the evening.
After we got home, Becky, Sheena, Fleur, and I played cards in the kitchen. Darko also came along so we all started chatting (and nagging about ECS :P) till 1 a.m. We then decided to go to sleep because by then we were very tired.
I tidied up a bit, uploaded the pictures on facebook, commented on Sheena's pictures, and finally decided to go to sleep at 2:00 a.m.
I was just about to sleep when ... at 2:45 a.m. ... the FIRE ALARM WENT OFF ... more about that in a later post ;)
Meanwhile, while I was inviting fans of Lebanese food to come along for our Velentine's meal in another city, Sheena was receiving attention from a secret admirer ;) On Sunday Feb 7th, someone blue-tacked a card on our flat door addressed to Sheena asking if she had plans for Valentine's. Sheena thought it was George playing with her. Then, on Thursday Feb 12th, the cleaners came in with a letter from Hardy, the secret admirer, asking Sheena out for Valentine's. They told her that the guy was outside waiting for her answer. She recognized him from break dancing class. She didn't know what to answer so she told the cleaners to tell the guy that she will think about it. Sue, the chargehand, told her jokingly "Do it like the British women, go out with the guy for a free meal. Then when he asks you out another time just tell him that you have a headache" lol. When the cleaners left she told me that she doesn't want to miss our Lebanese meal. She then asked me if it was OK with me to bring Hardy along and I was of course OK with that. He had to be warned though that there will be four girls accompanying them two lol (Fleur, Ji, Becky, and myself duh :P) On Friday night, Noura confirmed that she was coming and she was bringing Reena along. Poor Hardy was now going out with Sheena and SIX other girls LOL. He wasn't scared away though and told Sheena that he was coming along, brave guy!
On Saturday I was planning our trip with Fleur. The reservation was made for 7:00 P.M. We had to walk to the interchange, take a bus to central station, take a train to Bournemouth and then either take a bus or a cab to the restaurant. We left our flat at 4:45 and it all worked out like a charm and we actually walked in the restaurant at 7:00. Reena and Ji, however, didn't come along. I don't remember why Reena changed her mind. Ji had to stay in Southampton because her brother was visiting her. Also, Hardy brought Sheena a very big and pretty red rose.
Noura and I handled the ordering of course. We ordered everything like last time: hommous, tabbouleh, cheese sambousek , spinach fatayer, kebbe. They didn't have vine leaves :( so we ordered batata 7arra. We also ordered grills. And of course we took loads of pictures (there is always time for the silly and the weird :P). Finally we ordered baklawa which were also very nice. The restaurant was very busy though and it took them half an hour to get our check and take their money! We then made our way back home to Southampton very pleased with the evening.
After we got home, Becky, Sheena, Fleur, and I played cards in the kitchen. Darko also came along so we all started chatting (and nagging about ECS :P) till 1 a.m. We then decided to go to sleep because by then we were very tired.
I tidied up a bit, uploaded the pictures on facebook, commented on Sheena's pictures, and finally decided to go to sleep at 2:00 a.m.
I was just about to sleep when ... at 2:45 a.m. ... the FIRE ALARM WENT OFF ... more about that in a later post ;)
Saturday, 7 February 2009
Organizing an ECSWomen Event
Prof Dame Wendy Hall is a going to give a talk and I am co-organizing the event
Prof Wendy Hall was head of the school of Electronics and Computer Science from 2002 to 2007. She also chaired the British Computer Society in 2003/2004.
She was recently elected President of the Association of Computing Machinery for the 2008-2010 term.
And because of her achievements and contributions to science and technology, she was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire.
So, after all that intro about Wendy; now comes the reason for my blog post. She is going to give a talk about Web Science Research (and possibly about Semantic Web) on Monday and I am co-organizing the talk. The talk is from 12 - 2 P.M. Too bad I can't attend it all as I have a class from 12 - 1 *doh.
Organizing a talk is not at all challenging - once you have a speaker lol. Reena, the past chair of ECSWomen, asked Wendy to give a talk that would be organized by ECSWomen. Wendy is/was Reena's PhD supervisor so all Reena had to do was nag Wendy a bit and we had our speaker ;)
Because Reena and Kate had been organizing most of the ECSWomen events, they wanted other people on the committee to volunteer and organize this event. Pinky and I volunteered. Pinky is a first-year Computer Science student from Romania. Her real name is obviously not Pinky; it is Raluca. But she loves pink, has to have something pink on her, has pink hair highlights, and loves being called Pinky; so we all call her Pinky. She reminds me of myself - a much nicer, sweeter, pinkier self though lol.
Pinky and I met a few times and took care of everything. We produced a poster for the event:
We also took care of organizing most the advertising stuff, like creating a facebook event and emailing everyone about the event. And we also took care of SHOPPING! We went shopping today and discovered that the budget we had was a bit tight, ONLY £20 lol. We bought crips (a.k.a chips for anyone who doesn't live in the UK), muffins, shortbread cakes, juice, and plastic cups and plates. Tomorrow we will meet before the talk to hang up posters that Joyce, the Marketing Manager in ECS, had prepared for another event that ECS organized to celebrate Wendy's "Damehood". Joyce offered that we hang the lovely posters because it would make Wendy happy.
Everything is all set and ready so all is needed now is a good turnout of attendees and we can call it a successful event.
Prof Wendy Hall was head of the school of Electronics and Computer Science from 2002 to 2007. She also chaired the British Computer Society in 2003/2004.
She was recently elected President of the Association of Computing Machinery for the 2008-2010 term.
And because of her achievements and contributions to science and technology, she was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire.
So, after all that intro about Wendy; now comes the reason for my blog post. She is going to give a talk about Web Science Research (and possibly about Semantic Web) on Monday and I am co-organizing the talk. The talk is from 12 - 2 P.M. Too bad I can't attend it all as I have a class from 12 - 1 *doh.
Organizing a talk is not at all challenging - once you have a speaker lol. Reena, the past chair of ECSWomen, asked Wendy to give a talk that would be organized by ECSWomen. Wendy is/was Reena's PhD supervisor so all Reena had to do was nag Wendy a bit and we had our speaker ;)
Because Reena and Kate had been organizing most of the ECSWomen events, they wanted other people on the committee to volunteer and organize this event. Pinky and I volunteered. Pinky is a first-year Computer Science student from Romania. Her real name is obviously not Pinky; it is Raluca. But she loves pink, has to have something pink on her, has pink hair highlights, and loves being called Pinky; so we all call her Pinky. She reminds me of myself - a much nicer, sweeter, pinkier self though lol.
Pinky and I met a few times and took care of everything. We produced a poster for the event:
We also took care of organizing most the advertising stuff, like creating a facebook event and emailing everyone about the event. And we also took care of SHOPPING! We went shopping today and discovered that the budget we had was a bit tight, ONLY £20 lol. We bought crips (a.k.a chips for anyone who doesn't live in the UK), muffins, shortbread cakes, juice, and plastic cups and plates. Tomorrow we will meet before the talk to hang up posters that Joyce, the Marketing Manager in ECS, had prepared for another event that ECS organized to celebrate Wendy's "Damehood". Joyce offered that we hang the lovely posters because it would make Wendy happy.
Everything is all set and ready so all is needed now is a good turnout of attendees and we can call it a successful event.
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