Delayed

Hanging out in the Gulf Air lounge, Dublin flight's been delayed twice already.. it was supposed to take-off at 1am, but I'm told that 3am is the new official timing. Let's just see how this works out, because I have a feeling that I might be waiting here for a hell of a lot longer. I hope I'm mistaken, of course.

*10 minutes later*

Okay, now its been delayed until 4am and declared as "provisional". Wow, I wonder what that means?

My two and a half weeks in Bahrain flew by, as expected. The first five days were normal, but as soon as the World Cup kicked off I fell into a routine of watching three matches per day. Had a nice little set up downstairs, big screen and a dreambox (up yours ART, you soulless thieving sons of bitches) and the guys came over on a daily basis. We had our dinner hour between the second and third game, and we went somewhere different every day, battling the clock to get back in time for kick off. Some serious speed eating there (take that, Kobayashi!). Other than that, it took a while to get into the rhythm of things and, sure enough, I had to leave as soon as I started relaxing.

Something fundamentally changed in my constitution as a human being during my exam period. I didn't notice it at the time, but when I was done I fell into quite a funk. It felt strange, I felt angry and confused. My graduation was great, but it all flew by too fast. The realization that I won't be seeing a lot of my friends for a while is just starting to hit me now (was looking at the hockey scores and considering a discussion with one of my Canadian friends over Edmonton's almost comeback.. but then I realized he's not going to be there when I get back). I guess I'm excited about work, but I've been too busy to even have time to contemplate being nervous. Life's been moving at 200 mph for the past 2 months and I'm just starting to process all that has happened. I'm also starting to get back to the way I used to be, which is quite nice.

All I want to do is get back to Dublin. I've said my goodbyes here and I've had my closure, now I want to get back so I can start the next chapter in my life. I'll be back in Bahrain soon enough, I'm planning to come down for a bit of Ramadan and Eid. That's for later though, I have a sufficient amount on plate as it is without thinking about planning future vacations.

Hope I get to travel today, I have a long day of unpacking ahead of me tommorow. Moving into my new apartment so I need to take my life out of the boxes its stored in and re-arrange it somewhere new. A friend of mine and I moved into the apartment two of my really good friends lived in for four years. We used to hang out there a lot, have barbeques and all that. They're both gone now.. how fucking weird is that going to be, huh?

Oops..

My blog turned 2 years old almost a month ago and I completely forgot to wish it happy birthday..

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Dear blog,

Been busy with life and all that. You know how it is. Sorry about not celebrating the fact that you've turned two. Its been a wild ride, let's see how far we can take this.

Happy Birthday.

-Mo

Ground Control to Dr. Mo

Took my protein pills and put my helmet on.

Feels like I'm floating around at the moment.. my mind's trapped somewhere between yesterday and today, its neither here nor there. Soaking up the moment is really hard to do when you're struggling to orientate yourself.

Got back to Bahrain last night, my aunts were very sweet showing up at the airport en masse to welcome me back. They even brought flowers and came over for dinner at our house. I then drove out to meet a few friends at a coffee shop (gahwa), and it felt like I had just walked through a time warp. Time really does stand still in this little country of ours.

The last 6 months have been one hell of a ride. Over the last two nights I bid farewell to my friends of six years. A bunch of them were going back home, and only God knows when we're going to meet up again. It felt very surreal, packing up their lives.. I had to move apartments as well, and it really made me realize that a person can accumulate quite a lot junk over the course of so many years. Two of them were like brothers to me, we grew up together and went through a lot of shit over the years. Saying goodbye to them was the hardest part of the past week, a week filled with joy, sadness and fear of the unknown.

For the next two and a half weeks I'm going to do absolute jack shit. Golf, the World Cup from 4 to 11 daily, Winning Eleven on PS2 and complete absolution from all sense of responsibility. I've been forced to grow up faster than I would've liked, but I suppose that has its benefits. Time to kick back for one last time before having to go back and face the real world on July 3rd, 2006.

Today I'm going to go frame my degrees. Once I hang them up on the wall in our house as a testament to the hard work of the past six years, my inner child will come bouncing back and we'll have the best 2 weeks EVER together.

One person is missing from all of this, but I'm thankful that my stay here won't be too prolonged. Even though we'd still be in seperate countries, being that much closer geographically still makes things a bit more bearable. You kick ass on those exams, sweetheart.