I am the teapot short and stout...

Today I got a teapot and matching mugs to go with it. There should be nothing significant about this, however, it felt as a milestone towards being "old"! The idea of having "a proper cup of tea" with a nice teapot and matching napkins, a milk jug and some scones. I think the time of poring hot water direct from the kettle has gone and now I have to sit down and have my cup of tea at certain time with some cream cakes. I told my friends that with this new addition to the kitchen, there should also be no "pot noddles" and no out of the cans fruits! So, tomorrow I will enjoy my outdoor run followed by a nice cup of tea from my new teapot. I may be reading too much into this but I feel a bit older already with that new teapot.

Happy Easter

Old letter...same reality

Few days ago, I was going through some of my old cards and letters. I found this old letter from 2 of my friends which they sent me in the first term of going to university. We were in the same school, studied together and they went to university to study medicine and I went off to do dentistry. The letter was 6 A4 sheets (front and back) and it was all written in a poem style apart form the first part which included names and info about different people, teachers, lecturer, etc that were going to be mentioned later in the letter. It was hilarious to read then and when I sat and read it again it still is. All through the letter they explained about their frustration about the system and the different attitude in university life in comparison to being in school. How that success was not anymore dependant on your studying and more on how on board you were with students life and connections. Difficult tutors and problematic lecturers. That was a long time ago now but the experiences is still the same for many students I deal with on a daily basis. My friends now got their PhD and I did too, and it seems that we were not put off by the first change that we all encountered in the first few months of university life. We now miss being students and think back of these days and remember all the good times and the fun we all had. After reading the letter I thought I must get in touch with my friends again before our kids make the same learning choices and end up writing to us with similar letters!

It is Bond, Jasmine Bond

Last night as my daughter was getting ready for bed she wanted me to make up a story instead of reading a book together. I tried to resist of course (making up stories need rather hard work and concentration) however, she insisted and I started a story under clear instruction avoiding any nasty kings, bad knights or mean witches. So I went about a story that did not have any of the above trying to maintain some kind of excitements at the same time. So I started and said: "Long long ago, lived this nice king with his 4 daughters. One day in his big palace, there was lots of work as everyone was getting ready for the big day, one of the king's princesses was getting married..." before i went on my daughter stopped me and said:"mum, can i ask you something?" I said: "sure, go ahead", then my daughter said: "can you make one of the kings daughters be a spy agent?"

At that point i could not contain my laughter, it was so hilarious and so i asked my daughter if SHE would like to tell me the story, as she has all the ideas, what to include and what not to include, and what kind of daughters the king should have. Now what name could i give this rather nice spy agent? I thought Jasmine would be nice and so we can call the movie (there must be a movie later) "live nicely another day" or something like that!

Robot Mum

Here is the poem that my daughter and her class presented to all the mums for mother's day. Wonderful.

It never gets cross if you're messy
It picks up your rubbish and toys
If it sees a sad film on the telly
It won't make a snuffling noise

It's got a device to make pancakes
And another to polish your shoes
It will sweep up your crumbs from the carpet
Without never blowing a fuse

It shampoos the dog in a jiffy
It does all your homework as well
And never lets on to the teacher
You program it so it won't tell

It makes you whole cities from Lego
Sorts out your socks into pairs
It will cook you a bowl of spaghetti
The same time as cleaning the stairs

But its kisses are cold and metallic
It can't give you hugs if you're glum
It never says how much it loves you
I think I prefer my real mum.

(author anonymous)

Found out red handed

Last weekend I went to a girls night in with some friends from church, it is nice to get together and chat and catch up. The evening was nice and we decided to get some takeaway food, so I suggested my favourite takeaway and we chatted as we waited for the food. The door bell rang and my friend opened the door and as she was looking for the right change I offered to help and suddenly the delivery guy said: “you do not live here, you live at ....(and he told us my full address), you are the quite one who always asks not to ring the bell) :) Now, I was in a real dilemma, shall I congratulate him on his very good memory and excellent observation or shall I die in shame. Not only does he recognised me, he also remember where I lived and that I always ask them not to ring the bell (who wants to wake up the kids). All I can think about was how it is a small world and my friends were impresed although it doesn't reflect well on my cooking that I am so well known to my local takeaway !

Childern In Need? more like Parent In Need

For so many years now, Children In Need been going on as a charity and lots of funds been raised to help lots of people and today it is a big night for comic relief with more fund raising. As I listened to one comedian talking about children in need saying: "when did you ever see a child who is not in need? they are always in need of the latest toy, fashion item, etc". That made me think of starting my own charity: Parents In Need :) This is just about simple needs like
*A good night sleep.
*An uninterrupted bath.
*A small hand bag that actually has YOUR things and not your kids stuff (only mothers know that the size of your hand bag relate to how old are your kids and how many kids you have. The younger the child is the bigger your hand bag size).
*A trip to the shops without buying GOGOs figures or Pokemon cards.
*A night out without having to look for the push chair and then remember that you do not actually have one with you as the kids are already asleep at home.
*Not having to eat the rest of the kids meal (and pretend that you -in fact-love the chicken nuggets cold.
*A time to brush your hair in the morning before you get called to help one of the children in the bathroom.
And so many small requests that will make a difference to tired parents allover the country. Being a parent is a great blessing, so let us give a helping hand to parents and give them a chance to do the wonderful job that God trusted them with. Hooray for Parents In Need.

Boring is good

Today, I had a routine eye test. As I sat waiting for my turn, I was told about the new test to take a picture for the base of the eye showing arteries and veins supplying the eye (similar to the picture here). I had the test and went through all the various letters detection, test of eye pressure, glaucoma test, etc. It was all OK and the ophthalmologist told me, "you do not need any glasses..boring is good" he said to me as he handed me the test results. It means that good results are boring (to him I am sure) and he did not mention that good results means also No Money for buying frames, lenses etc. So let us celebrate "boring" if boring means "No Treatment Needed".

A History Lesson

History lessons used to be sitting down half asleep in a full class room listening to a middle aged teacher going on about something happened trillion years ago (in the eyes of the students anyway), but not any more. In the last few weeks my daughter's school been working with the kids to learn about the second world war and the climax today was to go to school and relive an evacuation day. The build up to the day has been great with lots of attempt to find suitable cloths that the kids could were to look as kids did back then. There was also another small matter of making a gas mask box with labels, etc. Today, arriving to school we felt as part of history and seeing the kids lining up with their name labels hanging from their outfits looked very strange, they looked like suite cases more than kids. As my daughter protested about her outfit 2 days ago branding it "not cool", I thought that is just the point of this exercise. The day was great and with special WW2 lunch and old time toys, the kids had a wonderful time reliving this part of history. I do not want to think of what they are going to do when they are studying Egyptian mummification techniques!

Pain pain go away come again another day..

OK, you know i am trying to keep to my fitness program to get ready for the London run later in July. So, yesterday i was at the gym and i felt great, I ran 3.5K and did 13K on the bike. Now, it was all well and good while i was still at the gym and after i came back. However, today the aches and pains are very evident and it seems that they are here to stay. So, let us hope that i can get over that and move on as time is running out.

Faster..faster..

Another Monday and another work journey. But as i ran to catch my train this morning, my mussels were hurting less and my heart was not beating as fast as it used too. So i am glad to report that my workout is working now for me and i started to see benefits already. One side effect is my personal trainer -who is a very nice lady- but all she keep saying to me is FASTER FASTER! so whenever i am running or cycling and swimming, i can hear her saying to me FASTER FASTER..i hope to be faster next time i am working out. i know that if i am faster, i will get on my train with time to spare :)

As the count down continuo for my 10K run, I am trying to keep fit and go to the gym as regular as I can. So today after an hour of working out I felt great, the only problem with my gym is that it is next door to MacDonald J so the temptation is always there for a little treat after a workout. The funny thing is that after working out for 30 min I can see how much calories I have burnt (it is like 68 or so) and I know that if I eat doughnut I will need to workout for about 3 days to burn the calories in it. So, not only do I have to keep strong and train, but keep strong and say no to fast food. So far so good and I am doing my best. Let us hope I carry on with that.

World’s Strangest Inventions

I came across this site today and here are some interesting and very strange inventions:

This is for the crowded train journey


this one i love very much and could actually be very useful for us

This one is great to prevent anyone from using your mug at work, just unplug it before your go :)

for more of these check http://villageofjoy.com/30-worlds-strangest-inventions/

Pancake day...

Pancake is not only for pancake day but for all year round. This is why we carry on celebrating, any excuse really :) Big Fun
Here are the ingredients for the perfect plain pancakes:
150g self-raising flour, 1 egg, 1 cup (250ml) milk, 1 tablespoon butter, Caster sugar, Lemon. Have fun.

Just relax and think of.........Needles!

Today I was working on some notes for lectures for students and wanted to put some cartoon pictures that summarise students attitude to dental patients (sometimes and not all the time i hope). This is true especially when students are new to dealing with patients and their worry is more than their patients (and their tutors as well). So here are some cartoons that I like very much, enjoy.

As the snow continued to fall this morning, my cat picked the best place to watch the snow and keep warm. My cat watched the snow fall in great amazement and i am sure with some relief that he was not outside in the freezing cold.Perrrfect.

Let it snow..let is snow..let it snow

WOW..So nice to get up in the morning and look out of the window and see this view and this lovely snow. The schools are closed, we are building our fifth snow man this week and it is wonderful to play outside. Of course, being 122 years old (see previous blog) I feel the cold more while the kids are having the time of their life. How we are going to go back to school i am not sure but we are loving it for now and if it is going to be freezing cold, it is better to have the snow with it as well.

Happy Birthday..you are 122 years old!

Happy birthday
Had a wonderful party for my birthday organised by my daughter (with just some help from me). It was her idea to have a party for me. However, i soon discovered that there was another motive behind the idea as my daughter wanted to invite her friends too :) It was so much fun. It was not a significant birthday but still was really good to see my friends and to see my daughter happy organising things for me. After the party, we talked to some of our friends who could not make it to the party and my daughter told them "I had an idea to have a party for mama's birthday as she turned 122 years old" WOW...even though, it was fun...and thank you to all my friends and family for giving me a lovely day.

Better safe than sorry

Better late than never

Happy new year
I know I know, it is too early to say happy new year for 2010! But as I welcomed 2009 with proper flu, caught etc, I missed saying happy new year to many people.
So, new year, new beginnings, and new steps to take. Started a new research project involving diabetes and teeth, testing teeth structure and whether it is affected by diabetes or not. Also this week I have signed up to the London 10K run in July and it will be fun to start training again and aim to finish in a good time.
Some of the sad news that 2009 brought was about my boss and my PhD supervisor who is currently in hospital. He has now officially resigned and it felt so strange to go to the office and found it empty ready for its new occupant. My supervisor and his wife been more than work colleges to me and throughout my work with both of them they have been great help and support. To see my boss in hospital was heart breaking and my prayers go for both of them for strength at this time.
Some good news came from my church back in Egypt where those who had sever injuries are now recovering well after various operations and medical procedures. We know that the road to complete recovery will still be long, but it is a step in the right direction and we praise God for his mercy.
Here is one nice quote I heard in the first few days of this new year “what people think about you in none of your business”.
So better late than never….happy new year everyone.