Where's Aysar? - If you're reading this my lovely Yasser Arafat lookalike - get in touch with me!

Now apart from that several things are going on in this world.

Yesterday terrorists attacked and destroyed an important Shia Mosque in Samarra, North of Baghdad.

Beautiful, absolutely beautiful.

Barcelona win 1-2 away to Chelsea in the second round of the Champions League (last 16)

Let me just explain the significance of this game my children.

I might not be a scholar on this issue on indeed know very much but 40% of UK Muslims wanting Sharia law to be applied to certain communities? Hell no! From what I know about this ghastly set of rules is that subjugation and sexism are widespread, not to mention what seems to me as medieval punishments too.

Of course, as ever, i'm open to be convinced otherwise, so do use that comment section to tell me what i'm missing!

In the mean time, I leave you with an interesting article...


Sharia law? Don't even think about it

Marcel Berlins
Monday February 20, 2006
The Guardian

Forty percent of British Muslims are in favour of applyinhttp://www.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/Column/0,,1713628,00.htmlg sharia law in "predominantly Muslim" areas of the country, according to an ICM poll in yesterday's Sunday Telegraph. If taken at face value, this is a worrying figure. I do not believe that it should be taken too seriously at this stage, but it is a warning that should not be ignored.

This government has shown itself to be somewhat over-receptive to calls from ethnic and religious minorities to take their customs, traditions and sensitivities into account over a range of activities....... (continued)

Flights from London Heathrow to Damascus (return) inc taxes are now only 190 sterling! If you fly before the 28th February... otherwise it's usually cheap at about 280 return.

Following yesterdays destruction of the Danish, Norwegian and Chilean embassies in Damascus rioters in Lebanon hit the Danish Embassy in the capital Beirut.

Subsequently, today we've witnessed the resignation of the Lebanese Interior Minister.

DEFENDER OF THE SUPERMART PART 3

http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/supermart3

Ok, so today the Danish and Norwegian embassies were burnt down in succession in central Damascus by an angry Islamic mob around midday today.

That haircut…

SO I decide to go and get a haircut from my local friendly Indian haircutter in downtown Muscat.

Here's one for those human rights trainspotters out there...

Human Rights Watch

Found while linking to a book in my previous post:

In Praise of Older Women

with some classics that I think you'll love, to include:

'An older woman always carries a purse full of emergency supplies.

Day 2:

Went to a Nizwa village about 2 hours outside the capital Muscat.

{PHOTO: Burj Al-Arab Hotel in Dubai, UAE}

On my way back to Syria my flight included a stay-over in the Emirates, so I thought why not extend the stay and get to see Oman for a few days?

I'm not keen about the Arabian Peninsula at all.

Sorry to all my millions of fans but this blog, as you'd have guessed, is on hold until I can get my hands on a Laptop (Xmas time folks)... waaay too erratic

http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1586883,00.html

One of the delegates, Nabil Shaath, who was Palestinian foreign minister at the time, said: "President Bush said to all of us: 'I am driven with a mission from God'.

Blog has been seriously neglected over the past few weeks because:

- I recently started university and it's seriously tiring my brain out... blogging is hard with tired brain...
- Siestas are dominating my life at the moment
- I've just realised that in my courtyard there is the stupidest sofa...

My friend Paul, over in his blog (see earlier link), was pondering the great hole in the floor debate. (Sorry matey, I haven’t yet had a proper chance to read it so I’m refraining from comment).

Sometimes I wish I could teleport a lot of the people I know to Syria. Before departure I was offered advice of all sorts, ranging from pure terror (“you’ll get blown up”) to extreme over-cautiousness (“colour code your letters so that we know if you’re in trouble”).

Now, lookey here guys.

A week ago today I moved to the 'Christian Quarter' in the Old City in the eastern part of Damascus.

Those of you who know my love of all things random and share that love will enjoy this exceptionally random sequel to Defender of the Supermart...

I stumbled across this while looking for episode 1 for my swiss friend here in Damascus.

registered at the University of Damascus today.. :D

Lessons start on September 12th...

Got a level assessment in 6 days time - gotta fix up

Ok - so let me give you a little backgrounder to this story.

There is a significant gap between spoken Arabic (3aamiyya) and Classical Arabic (Fus7a).

Georgia, my dear friends, is my one friend that probably keeps an archive of every slip up i've during year 1 @ Leeds uni - and believe me those were plentiful.

In fact i'm convinced she probably has a satellite system just waiting to catch me and I can just picture her wringing her hands with glee every time I say woman instead of women (or is it the other way round G?)...