Investing in the name of love

I was so gutted last night when I was checking the flight far to fly back home. It used to be like £512 and last night, it was £720. I don’t know whether I had made the right decision to wait, obviously not now. It looks like I will have to go for an alternative now. I tried to pay for it earlier, but it was not successful. I was not sure why, my credit card was denied a few times. I am still gutted and I don’t know what else I can do now. I am dying to go back home, although it’s for mere two weeks.

+ Cerita pasal balik kampung ni, aku teringat pulak kueh kesukaan aku. Ini lah dia - Kuih Kochi (betul ke aku spell ni). Anyway, antara yg lain aku suka - karipap, badak berendam, 'takko' and a few more. Nak balik... Cepat la masa berlalu! :)

On top of that, I have promised to go back home TWICE a year. Well, I did not promise anyone. I promised myself really – to be back home twice a year. I tried to save all my holidays into one last year and I went back for Raya. It was fantastic time that was. But I was knackered by end of Sept 07 when I worked non-stop and when I was back in Malaysia, I was even more hectic to be meeting relatives and friends. It was not a good idea after all. Now, I will try to go home twice and I hope the lady luck is on my side and I’d get the ticket that I want.

+ This was my lunch today. Shawarma, again. It has been shawarma here, almost every single day. We did try something else like Pizza, and Chicken Broast (it's actually fried chicken). Well, not much choice over here.

I am rather bored now. I am tired of Khartoum really. I spoke to a Brit, Sam (an expatriate in Khartoum) today and he said to me, a friend of his said “I am sure this is not the end of the world, but it looks like we are heading there!” With all due respect, I like all these Sudanese, they are nice and all that, but this place will break me. With the work schedule which is beyond belief (leaving at 8.00pm everyday?), I guess I need something to divert my attention. I brought my squash racket and I asked Matthias to do the same, and he has been travelling in and out of Sudan. But I managed to be connected to a tennis coach (I can’t remember his name), but he doesn’t mind playing tennis with me. I won’t mind paying for the club and all, all I need, I want to play tennis, squash whatever, I need to do something.

+Today I mooted the idea that I need to be discovering more about Sudan and I need newspapers. Lepas tu tup tup Nagi belikn Khartoum Monitor. Quality is low and the the paper still used Hotmail as emil acct. I could not believe it. Dalam suratkhabar ada poems sebesar-besar alam. Lawak le. :)

Uh by the way, my driver Nagi is really nice to me. Sam said, Sudanese are really emotive, expressive, kind people and they can get connected to you easily. And they don’t like to be refused. I was stunned, simply because I had somewhat managed to say YES to Nagi’s suggestion to go to his house for lunch and tea/coffee. Uh my, I tasted Sudanese tea/coffee; they are too strong, too sweet. As for the food, I have yet to taste other foods but Syawarma. I don’t know. I think I will just go, to respect his invite. After all, Nagi has been nice. He has taken me to the masjid (he has promised me to take me to a masjid that delivers sermon in English, albeit I prefer to be with local Sudanese and not some expatriates), and he has taken me to Souq, where I bought my first pair of Jellabiyyah (Sudanese man dress).

That reminds me I must buy 2 pairs for Luke...