Little Taste of Heaven

Feijoa, Did you ever heard of this name? Do you no what this is? If not, I'm telling you.. you are missing the taste of one of the most delicious fruits on earth. Just go and find it trust me!

Well as far as I remember, there were several Feijoa trees (different types) in our garden (My parents' actually). One of my uncle was an agriculture engineer, I guess he was the one who first introduced the tree to my parents. Every Autumn, gorgeous perfumed flowers cover allover the trees' body. Even the flowers are quite delicious. Feijoa is a stunning aromatic green fruit. You can eat it with skin or cut it in half and eat the inside, so juicy. I love it any way, with or without skin. My mom used to make jam out of it, even the jam is awesome. I am amazed how come such gorgeous delicious fruit is not as famous as it deserves.It seems the fruit originated from Brazil.

During years I got used to my friends' puzzled faces, when I ask them if they taste Feijoa!

"What ? Fuji? Fiji? is that a fruit? " back in school , in university here in Canada, no one heard the name of this fruit. I bet "star fruit" is more famous even so it dose not have even half of Feijoa's taste and smell.

In Canada I found Feijoa in Sobeye's gracory store. you should have been there to see my face.

"Feijoa, yes yes finally!!!"

I remember the look on cashier's face. A young boy looked at the Feijoas and said: what are these???!!!!!"

I guess it's Autumn and my desire for Feijoa showing up again, I need to find some :))))

The gorgeous pictures are from here and here.

Send your message to the Space

This is really cool. You can send your message to the space through this Kepler spacecraft. I attache our certificate ;)))
Here is the Link: http://namesinspace.seti.org/

BOOST YOUR BRAIN

I am receiving regular newsletter from the website called: Bottom Line's Daily Health News. Today I noticed very interesting piece of news about the brain.

It’s about 8 efficient ways to boost up your brain suggested by Cynthia R. Green. She mainly encourages people to use and challenge their brain in order to prevent disease such as Alzheimer and also to make the brain sharper and faster.

We can improve our brain by simple activities such as playing puzzle, listening/reading daily news. The sharper we want our brain to be the more challenging things we should do.
In part of the newsletter it advice to “DO DIFFICULT THINGS” such as learning new things: music, language, etc.
There are some top universities who offer free online courses:
Berkeley University of California: http://webcast.berkeley.edu/courses.php
Carnegie Mellon University : http://www.cmu.edu/oli/
Massachusetts Institute of Technology: http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/home/home/index.htm
Tufts University: http://ocw.tufts.edu/

More useful advice:
• Do crossword puzzles, Sudoku and jigsaws. For online puzzles go to www.cbsnews.com and click on "Puzzles & Toons." Go to www.jigzone.com for jigsaw and other puzzles.

• Memorize a new word and definition each day at www.wordsmith.org.

• Do math calculations. Visit www.sharpbrains.com for free math brain teasers. Or go to www.gamequarium.com/math.htm.

• Play strategic games such as Battleship and Scrabble (http://www.puzzlexpress.com/Java/Battle/Battle.htm and www.download-free-games.com).

• Try new recipes at easy healthy recipes or epicurious.com.

Bottom Line “Use it or Lose it” :)

Play Halloweenooooo :)

Zombie Burger

Slow Me Down

I saw Emmy Rossum, in The Phantom of the Opera first. She was just 16 years old and sang like an angle. I heard she is more intended toward pop music although she is great in opera.
A friend of mine sent me this link. The video is one of her pop songs called “Slow Me Down”. I do like the song, and her angle voice.
Read the lyrics from here

The Most Artistic Suitor

I read a book, named "Extreme Nature, The weirdest animals and plants on the planet". For those who have passions for animals, this book is quite interesting. It's about the strangest and out of ordinary behavior of animals and plants in the nature, we ever known. You can read about African termites which are the best architect in the wild, or golden dart frog which is the most poisonous animal than can kill a human by even touching its skin.

One of the most fascinating piece of information, in this book is about a bird called, brown gardener or Voglekop bowerbird.
The male brown gardener creates unique piece of art to attract females. The male uses available materials around him to make colorful bower. In fact the more impressive the size and colorfulness of his bower, the more females will allow him to mate with them.

The picture above shows an example of this bird's artistic taste. The male even use cans and plastic bag to make his piece of art more sophisticated. Isn't that pretty?

I like to know how a female Volgelkop evaluate a male works!

If a male gather more and more cololr will he be the winner? or how he decorates the objects and match this color with that, is important? I like to know how much that female bird is picky? :)

When Old Charm Let You Go

The most precious feeling that one can have is to feel you are creating somethings new, just like God.

I remember my conversation with a friend of mine. We were sat just next to each other waiting for the Engineering Math final term exam to be started. I had a feeling that she can understand what I am saying, and I was right. I don't know why at that moment we had this conversation.
I told her I want to be somebody, and by somebody I don't mean be famous at all. I want to live my life just like everyone else but with awareness. I don't want live my life blindly and just do the same things like others without knowing why. Go to school because everyone else does, got married because everyone else does, have kids because, Believe in this or that...

I want to know my options and know why I am choosing this or that. at the end maybe my life seems just like others but at least I know what I am doing, I don't just follow the society blindly. There is nothing wrong with following the society trend but I don't want my whole life in a package imposed on me.

It's like large companies get stronger and swallow small, individual shops; for example, Star bucks , Tim Horton ,etc get stronger and tiny cozy coffee houses disappear gradually. you come to yourself and everyone buy coffee from a single large company; But I love to see tiny cozy shops around that each has their own character and taste.

This is exactly what I don't want happen to us living in society growing larger and larger. I don't want a society swallow my individuality. Makes us more and more identical. Imagine in 2050 all people shop from the same store; go to the same place for vacation, have the same hobbies.

I always think there is something, called an "Old Charm" which surrounds us , keeps our foot on the ground makes us earthy. This charm makes us stop asking unanswered questions and instead helps us enjoy our everyday life : Go do some shopping; enjoy juicy gossip with a bunch of friends; be worry about your dress for tonight party, thinking about where to go for vacation, etc..

On some of us the charm works pretty well, it just never let us free even for a second. But for some of us this "old charm" gives us a break. That's a moment that you suddenly wake up from a deep sleep. All your unanswered questions come back! What I am doing here? is this what I always wanted to do? ... after asking all those unanswered questions again and again with no clue, your mind gets tired and that's when "Old Charm" come back and leashed you.

To be honest this charm has not worked very well on me lately, it keeps giving me a break and bunch of old unanswered questions storm back to my mind. There is one thing I keep telling to myself, no matter what the answer of those questions are, there is one thing for sure,

"you have a great life; enjoy every second of it, leashed or unleashed"

A little bit of everytings :)

These past few days in Calgary were quite an experience for me. I attended a conference there. The weather was just perfect , sunny and warm. Nima and I had a chance to visit Banf and lake Louise, which was fantastic. One of the "MUST HAVE SEEN" places in Canada.

in conference, I had a chance to meet new people working on the same issue as I do.
Before I present my paper I was a bit nervous that how would that be in front of all those experts, But when I started talking, I was really calm.

Anyway, here I am again, in my room behind my desk :)

**********************************

Tomorrow is Nima's birthday. All day I was waiting for a parcel, and finally before Nima came back home, I received that. It's under the bed now ;)

Nima was saying he will be 400 months old tomorrow , isn't it interesting to count your life span in month or day unit. Well I 'll be 10,000 days old this coming March. wow big number !!!

**********************************

Let's finish this post with something totally irrelevant, Today I found several small flies in a kitchen, I started killing them, I was thinking, if the flies were able to scream or if we were able to hear them , was that easy for me to still kill them without hesitation?

The world is just awesome

I love the mountains
I love the clear blue sky
I love the Bridges
I love when great whites fly

I love the whole world
And all its sights and sounds
Boom Dee Ahh Dah
Boom Dee Ahh Dah
Boom Dee Ahh Dah
Boom Dee Ahh Dah

I love the oceans
I love real dirty things
I love to go fast
I love egyptian kings

I love the whole world
And all its craziness
Boom Dee Ahh Dah
Boom Dee Ahh Dah
Boom Dee Ahh Dah
Boom Dee Ahh Dah

I love tornadoes
I love arachnids
I love hot magma
I love the giant squids

I love the whole world
It’s such a brilliant place
Boom Dee Ahh Dah
Boom Dee Ahh Dah
Boom Dee Ahh Dah
Boom Dee Ahh Dah

The lyrics from : Music Videos and Lyrics

Report From St. John's

I finished my meeting. Everything was fine up to now. There is one more meeting tomorrow and after that I am free.
It's really refreshing to come here in St. John's and visit my very good friends. I was lucky to find such nice friends here in St. john's. Most of the time when you come to new place and became a minority because you do not have that much choice you kind of stuck with people who are way different than you but circumstances make you hang out with them. But for me, honestly, that was not a case. I am not saying everyone was perfect but I made some friends that I love to have them in my book of life for good.

Anyway I'll be back soon to end my husband's bachelor days ;) I forgot to check if Nima water the plants regularly!!

St. John's, I am coming again

I am heading to St. John's tomorrow. My eyes are puffy. I was working all day long to wrap up my presentation for committee meeting. I can't hold my eyes open anymore... I hope everything goes well..
Nima is going to be alone for few days, we were joking that he can throw party every night :)
Anyway, I should really get to bed... no dream tonight , please Mrs brain let me have dreamless sleep...switch off for a while...

This is just Lovely

They don't bored me at all.James Blunt.

Emotional Memory

I am 7 or 8. My sister and I are sitting on the tin roof of dog's house. The sun is setting. The sky is full of yellow, red and orange colors. we are singing a song while moving our feet in the air.
" wake up, wake up little kid
look through the window
with your beautiful eyes
watch the outside views
look far!
a pigeon flying
maybe he is bringing a message from the rose to the nightingale "

I am enjoying the harmony we two have, singing and moving our feet...

when we really enjoys somethings, it does not matter how tiny it is, our memory will keep that for ever. I don't remember everyday of my life but there are special days I will never forget and all of those days have somethings in common. those days are all involved with feelings, joy, hate, fear, excitement, embarrassment, cheers.

I do remember the day that I accidentally broke my brothers head. I must have been 7, but I remember every things, how I found a flat stone, my brother's head came out of the river. we were bunch of kids exited to shoot him. I through the stone and there was his blood flew along the river. I panicked. I don't remember how my parents bring him to the hospital, if he told me off or not. but I remember how panicked I was. How I tried to explain to my parents it was just an accident...

I remember the sky's color, the harmony my sister and I had, the movement of our feet in the air, I remember the flat stone, etc but I barely remember what I had for lunch last Wednesday :)

The story of a big Fly

It was a dark night and I was walking in the sitting room that I saw it. There was a big fly, got stuck in the space between the sliding glass door and the net behind it. It was sit on the net and was looking outside, just like a prisoner watching the world through the small window.
I though it might be a long and painful die for the poor things, waiting in its prison, thirsty and hungry (very dramatic) to the end. Thus I cautiously open the sliding door and then slide the net back.
- Ok Go now Mr fly, you are free
The fly took off the net, flew around my head and then sit back on the glass door this time. It was sit there, watching through the glass door inside the house, seemed it really wanted to get in.

- Hey! look back! you are free to go, it's the all world out there just behind you

Being too busy watching inside, made the fly totally blind to see its freedom. That's it , it was time to take an action. With a quick move of my hand I made the fly to take off the door. It flew up and faded in the dark (At least I thought it faded).

Well the lesson here is:
Sometimes you need, somebody shake you to see what you have just under your nose !

Be "flawless" in Beijing

TV programs are all focus on Olympic these days. The funny part is neither Canada nor Iran, two countries that we support, has won any medals yet.

I didn’t know that most of the Olympic athletes are armature. I was reading about some of these athletes, each of them is quite a character for themselves; for example, Michael Phelps who won 11 Olympic gold medals and became one of the greatest Olympian. He is 23 years old (5 years younger than me, I don’t know what is the relation any way). I was watching an interview with him, he eats as much as a family of four (7000-8000 calories per day). He said he can not do anything except swimming during a day; basically he only eats, swims, and then slip (so focused). It must be wonderful to embrace such achievements after working so hard for something.

I want that feeling…

Chinese are rocking, they strongly dominate different areas, diving, gymnastic,… one things that I notice is you heard the word “motherland” from their champion in their interview a lot. “I am so happy to win this for my motherland”.

I read in the globe that Chinese government has obsession with showing everything including people “flawless” . In the opening ceremony, viewer heard the voice of 7-year old girl but because she was chubby and had uneven tooth, another little girl came to the stage and did lip-synching!!! What kind of decision is that? Who cares how she looks like; she is 7 years old and sings like an angle. Why should they replace her with prettier girl? It seems one person does not matter but the whole image is important. I totally disagree! One person means a lot, how she/he feels is obviously very important.

It was written in the globe that some of the Chinese are not allowed to come to the stadium because they are apparently are not handsome enough.. This is stupid.

I hope as China getting stronger, Chinese citizens find more comfort and happiness and also the rest of the world.

I hate to think new ultra powerful country are coming to picture to cause more troubles and wars than now...

To care or not to...

One things that really irritates me is to see people line up for airplane boarding before boarding starts. Passengers are supposed to be boarded based on their seat number but no one really care. I do care and that's why Nima and I are most of the time last people who get on the airplane. This is what exactly happened to us again on the way back to Toronto. After two hours delay the boarding started. People were already lined up. After boarding the executive class, disables, etc, they asked passengers with seat number 19 or higher. Our seat row was 12 so we did not stand in a line. Nima told me to join the line he said "be sure no one really care". Anyway we waited until they call for the rest of us. when we got in, almost everyone were sit and there was no space for our "carry on" on top shelve (since people from other row put their hand bags in our shelve) thus we kept our "carry on" under our feet. I really felt bad, since it was my fault to keep Nima behind. I don't know why I am keep doing this; why I can not convinced myself not to care about these things. Sometime I feel because of this behavior of mine, we fall behind. I don't know!!

We are Glad that you are here :)

We are in Chicago, the city of Al Capone, for few days. Nima is attending a conference here. The hotel we are staying at is very close to Michigan Avenue, which is one of city’s attractions. Part of the Michigan Avenue, called Magnificent Mile, is a location of several famous American stores such as : Bloomingdale's, Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom , luxury boutiques like Bulgari, Ralph Lauren, Gucci, etc. There are also several fine restaurants, hotels, and a number of the tallest buildings in the world here in Magnificent Mile.
I went to Neiman Marcus just for curiosity there was a white shoes with no specific design with a value of $500!!!!!!
It totally does not worth it (just don’t tell me it is special leather). I think some times these brands make money just because people wants to carry their name on their shoes, or dress which might make them feel they are distinguished. I don’t know!

Anyway, Chicago in comparison with her sister, Toronto ( in my opinion ) has a much better traffic management in downtown. The streets are mostly wider and I feel people are nice for such a big city. As cities get bigger people became less nicer, people are more in hurry and does not have time to look around or give a kind smile to total strangers.
Nima and I visited the John Hancock Center which is one the tallest skyscraper in U.S. we went up to the 95th floor, which was the building observatory site. From there all the city is beneath your feet. I stood by the tall window and imagine I am ready for bungee jumping, honestly even thinking about jumping from that height make me shiver a bit. :)
We are coming back tomorrow, I hope my plants are alright. :)

Dearest Planet

One of the most beautiful documentaries about the wild life and earth that I have ever seen is the series of documentaries made by BBC. It called Planet Earth and Blue Planet.

The seines are amazing; from North Pole to South Pole they recorded unique and fantastic seines; from intact places that only few humans have ever been there, from the animals that rarely have been seen in the wild. What really astonished me is how these people filmed these. For each section of the documentary there is a diary part which explains how the crew spent months or a year at different places to capture unique shots. For example it shows how two camera men spent one year at South Pole to record unbelievable endurance of male penguins during the bitter and cruel winter of the pole; to record how the mother polar bear raise her two babies , how a young and starving male polar bear fight for his life.

If you love nature these DVDs are MUST SEEN for you.

Family Union

This July is a family union for Nima and I. Nima’s parents and his younger sister came to Canada for the first time after Nima’s immigration. We gathered in Vancouver first (where Nima’s brother, Navid, lives) and now we are all here in Mississauga.

We are visiting different places and spending some quality time together. For my parents in law and sister in law every where are amazing. They love Vancouver. My father in law eagerly visited the office at UBC (where Nima graduated from and my brother in law is already study there) that Nima used to be in. He has the map of both Vancouver and Mississauga. Honestly he knows the city much better than me. When ever his sons changed their address, he used to find the place on a map. I remember once he said this way he feels, he is with them. When Nima moved from Vancouver to Mississauga for the first time, he bought the city’s map and started learning more about the city. He keeps saying “it’s like a dream”, “I still can not believe that we are all together”. I understand what he means.

We still have couple of weeks to be together and after that the family union will be over. But the good thing is, this is just the start.

Happy Mother Day

I was 8 or 9. It was around 7-8 PM. I saw my mom praying passionately, her cheecks were totally wet. I could not hear what was she saying. I ran toward her:
- "Mom why are you crying?"
- "Nothing honey, I am just praying!"
- "Mom if I become a good girl, keep my room clean and do my assignments on time, will you not cry anymore? "
- "That would be pleasant, sweetheart "
- " So how about Roja (my sister) and Mazi (my brother)"
- "You do your part, that would be enough!"
and I promised ...

I love you Mom, Happy your days Happy your nights

Grandpa Garden

Whenever I am thinking about my childhood the very first things that come to me is the memory of my grandfather garden. It was a big fruit garden, mainly Hesperidium such as tangerine, oranges, lemon, grapefruit and plus many other fruits like, peach, golden and green plums, grapes, berries, figs, pomegranates… The garden was my grand father’s passion he bought a piece of land when he was a young man and gradually planted different kind of trees there. He was a notary public who dedicated his spare time to gardening.

But as the garden got bigger and bigger he hired a gardener to take care of it. We used to call him uncle “Namdar”. I was always around him when he was digging beneath the trees and fertilizing the soil. He used to tell stories, sing a song or interpreting the political issues of those days (in Iran it is so common). I listened to him eagerly. I used to ask him about everything; for me he was a very wise man. :)
- “Uncle Namdar! If someone gives you a big fortune would you stop gardening?” I used to ask him passionately, ready for him to say of course not I love these trees.
- “Of course dear, why should I bother then to work so hard” made me feel totally disappointed. I was just a kid. :)

My all childhood is so enriched with the moments I spent in that beautiful big garden. I loved the garden; I knew every single inch of that place. I knew where the every single tree was located. I knew when the very first peach blossom prosper, where the sweetest tangerine can be found. I knew where the blood oranges are ready to be picked. My grand father used to ask me “Hiva, tell me now, are the tangerines sweet enough?”. God knew how proud I was thinking he reckons my knowledge. :) My uncle used to ask me every time we met how the birds, cockroaches, locust and crickets were while I was giggling.

Because of the garden there were always several guard dogs around. I loved them so much; there were kind of my best friends. They were not just dogs to me. I knew them; seriously! For me every of them had their own character: shy, rude, aggressive, and smart. Our house was located just nearby and there was a door from our yard to the garden. Everyday when I came back from the school the very first thing was to finished my homework as soon as possible and then call the dogs and patrolled the garden.

Spring time, the garden was fantastic. The sour orange trees, flourished. Their smell filled every where. I remember how my sister and I used to collect the blossom leafs and make perfumed necklace and bracelet. We collect a big plastic bag of there petals and my mother used to made delicious jam out of it.

There was a long and lonely cherry tree at one corner of the garden;. Spring time cherry’s blossom wraped the trees and after that, charming crimson cherries used to hanged from each branch; played hide and seek behind the green leaves. We knew the cherries should be picked as soon as possible before the crows finished them. Crows were the main rival. I remember every year we all gathered around the tree, my father climbed and picked the cherries and beneath my sisters and I were standing while our skirts was stretched to hunt the falling cherries. It was awesome..
Even now remembering those days carve a big smile on my face.

The Picture picked from here.

Follow Your Heart

No comment :)

Saturday evening:

1- I discover I should pay a certain amount of money at a certain bank and bring it to U.S consulate for my visa interview on Monday at 8:30.
2- I checked that bank opening hours. All of the branches are closed on Sunday and they closed on Saturday at 3 PM and they all open at 9:00 am on Monday.
3- I freaked out, this means I can not apply, Nima (my husband) is searching in internet and check other branches around Mississauga , Toronto, Burlington…
4- Nima finally found one branch, located 1 km away from the U.S embassy which opens at 8:00 in the morning
5- We plan my trip to U.S embassy

Monday morning:

1- Nima, Ali (our friend) and I wake up 6:00 am in the morning. I checked all documents one more time.
2- Ali kindly gave me a ride to the bank and from the bank to the embassy
3- I was in embassy at 8:30
4- So happy and proud with myself
5- A lady at the embassy looked at me in puzzled:
“is this emergency case mam?”
“No, why?” I answered.
“Oh you know what June 10th is tomorrow on Tuesday today is June 9th !!!
6- I am exhausted

Good Old Friends

One of Nima’s old friends, Ali, is our guest for a while. He is like a brother to Nima. They know each other from elementary school. It’s great to have close friends around. He is trying to find a job here at Mississauga and Nima helps him not to miss a single company to apply.
Sometimes when I am working in my room I can hear they are talking about old memories and laughing to a certain point; discussing this or that. Ali went to Waterloo to visit some other friends there and Nima was saying he is already got used to Ali living with us. You know what maybe we should adapt him as our son :):)

A letter for you

I wish you were a bit only a bit selfish. I wish you knew how to put your needs prior to ours sometimes. I wish you were not so dedicated to us. I wish you knew how to say no sometimes.
I want the best of best for you, I want you be healthy; feel happy; be cheerful and not to be so much worried about us. I wished all these and blew the candles. May my wishes come true…

With lots of Love
Your daughter

There We Are

Once I was searching for the photo of the earth from the space or from the moon that I found this photo in the posts by Gavin Alexander.

http://blogs.warwick.ac.uk/gavinalexander/entry/untitled_entry/
http://blogs.warwick.ac.uk/gavinalexander/entry/the_pale_blue/

In the photo you can see a pale dot indicated by the arrow. This is earth!!
What do feel by looking at this tiny tiny dot which is the all world to us?

Carl Sagan in his book, The pale blue dot, expressed his feeling toward this photo. I don’t think it could be said any better.

The Youtube video is the part of his book by his own voice. Here is the part of the text. It’s amazing…

"Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there - on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

"The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors, so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.

"Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

"The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand."

My Favorite Things

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens,
bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens,
brown paper packages tied up with strings,
these are a few of my favorite things.

Cream colored ponies and crisp apple strudels,
door bells and sleigh bells and schnitzel with noodles.
Wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings.
these are a few of my favorite things.

Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes,
snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes,
silver white winters that melt into springs,
these are a few of my favorite things.

When the dog bites, when the bee stings,
when I'm feeling sad,
I simply remember my favorite things,
and then I don't feel so bad.

This is me right now!!!

Pettit Gardening

The weather warms up and spring is literally here. Everywhere you can see people start gardening and plant gorgeous flowers. One of our friends gave us some pretty perennials. We have a small back yard but I am still excited about gardening.
I am also thinking about planting some tomatoes and other vegetables in a pot good enough for two.

Remember Me?

I recently finished the story named “Remember Me?” by Sophie Kinsella that I received as my birthday gift. The story is nice and fun. The main idea of the story is quite fascinating.
Imagine you wake up in the morning and you lost past three years of your memory. You think it is April 15th 2005. What would you feel if someone tells about your past three years? Will you be surprised?
For me if I loose my past three years, the very first strange thing will be my husband. He will be totally stranger to me. We haven’t even met yet back in April 2005.
I expect to wake up in the morning and go to work everyday. I will have no idea that I am living in Canada and Behi is in Libya far far away.
Back in April 2005 I am working in a company and at the same time applying for some of the Canadian universities. I knew that my current supervisor is going to give me an admission so if some one told me you are a graduate student at memorial university and this is your 3rd year I won’t be that surprised. But being married for more than a year will definitely surprise me. Three years ago no one was in my life and I met Nima for the first time in July 2005.
I will have no clue about several friends that I made here in Canada. Who is this Eily by the way, sent me this book “The other Boleyn girl” as a gift? :) :)
Seriously imagine you have no clue about the past three years and someone tells you about yourself, what you did? And who you are? Will you say “I can see myself doing these? Or will you be totally surprised about yourself?

My Achilles' heel

Every person has his/her own capacity to tolerate anything that can get on one’s nerve. I always imagine everyone has circle around. The larger the radius of the circle the more tolerant the person is. Some people have a very small circle and things can easily get them to their borders and make them to show reaction, yield or what ever. Some people has a very wide circle around that barely anything can touch them, get on their nerve or make them to show any reactions. These people have a wide capacity of patience.
For me, I always wanted to expand my circle. I always try to increase the radius of the circle. There are many things that never make me angry and I can easily ignore but I have my own limitations. I have my own Achilles’ heel that if anyone put finger on it I will show reaction. I won’t yield that’s not me but I will get away from the person who sends arrow to my Achilles’ heel.
As I am growing up I learn more about myself. I discover my weak points. I don’t know if I always had that limitation and just because of the circumference it never showed up or I take it as I grow up.
I know one more things that about specific behavior that getting on my nerve I used to be more tolerant. But it’s like facing undesirable behavior for a long time can fill your bowl of tolerance for that specific behavior. Maybe for some people facing undesirable behavior makes them stronger to ignore it but for me it was not like that.

If I could just find Styx river...

A Little Mixed Up

When I was in st. john's I rented a basemnet of the house belong to a very kind old couple, Joyce and Gordon. They are around 83 years old and we are still in touch.
I found this poet on Joyce's fridge that her sister sent to her.

Just a line to say I'm living
That I'm not among the dead
Though I'm getting more forgetful
And more mixed up in my head

For sometimes I can't remember
when I stand at the foot of the strairs
if I must go up for something
Or I've just come down from there

And before the fridge so often
my poor mind is filled with doubt
Have I just put food away?
Or have I came to take it out

And there are times when it is dark out
with my hairnet on my head
I don't know if I'm retiring
or just getting out of bed

So, if it is my turn to write to you
And there's no need in getting sore
I may think that I have written
And don't want to be a bore

So, remember I do love you
And I wish that you were here
And now it is nearly mail time
so I must say "Good-bye, dear"

There I stood beside the mailbox
with face so very red
instead of mailing your letter
I had opened it instead

What color is your day?

I always feel everyday of the week has a color. For me Monday is blue or green, Tuesday is yellow, Wednesday has the same color as the red win, Thursday is red. I am not sure about Friday the color is white or transparent like a pure water. Saturday is like light orange or yellowish orange and Sunday is like ivory to me. It sounds funny but I guess other people have the same feeling toward the day of a week. This could be the combination of our general feeling toward each day, if you are busy or have fun.. I don't know

EARTH HOUR

Tonight 29th of March 2008 from 8pm to 9 pm is called EARTH HOUR. This is an international gesture that every body around the world will turn off all their lights and unnecessary electrical appliance to help the environment.
This movement started by the Australian green lobby last year and extended to the rest of the world this year.
We have guests tonight and I am thinking to light up the candles all over the house for one hour. Nima doesn’t agree with me, he said we can’t push our guest to participate.
I can turn on only one light and mix it with several candles, it is just one hour, I guess everyone will understand.

The Kings

I heard about King Henry VIII of England when one my friends was telling me about his visit from Royal British Wax Museum. There were statues of the king and his 6 wives.
At first it seems great to be a first lady but these poor wives was not that fortunate, at least five of them.

Catherine of Aragon was the first one who gave birth to Bloody Mary.
After twenty years of marriage, that she could not deliver a boy and she passed the age of birth, Henry VIII declared their marriage annulled. It is said that she died of a broken heart, four years later. The second wife was not that lucky!!

The king married to Anne Boleyn immediately after annulling his first marriage. Anne gave birth to Queen Elizabeth I but no son. King charged Anne with betrayal, after making up false evidence against her. She was finally executed at the Tower of London, where she was beheaded with a sword. At the same time Henry had affair whit Marry Boleyn, Anne older sister. I don’t know how come 4 other women dare to marry him.

Jane Seymour became the third wife of Henry only 11 days after Anne execution. She gave birth to King Edward VI and sadly passed away 12 days after that.

Anne of Cleves was the fourth queen. It is very interesting story that how King Henry agreed to marry her. It seems that the king sent a painter to make a portrait of her to make sure that she is pretty enough for the king (she was in Germany). Apparently the painter was quite generous and made a pretty portrait that persuaded the king to marry her. But when poor Anne arrived, king Henry insulted her that she looked like a horse (actually I think horses are quite pretty). They divorced immediately. At leas she didn’t executed.

The fifth queen was Catherine Howard which was Anne Boleyn cousin. I don’t know what she was thinking marry to the man who executed her cousin. By the time they got married, Henry was 50 and Catherine was 19. She found the same destiny as her cousin. She was accused of having many lovers (I am not surprised but that age difference) and be headed with her lovers at the Tower of London (6 years after her cousin).

The last and the lucky one was Catherine Parr who was mostly a nurse for the old king. Henry died in 1547 four years after his last marriage and let the last queen outlive him.
It is said that king Henry (like many other kings) has several mistress.

You can see the pictures of his wives here:
http://www.larmouth.demon.co.uk/sarah-jayne/wives/wives.html

At the same time that King Henry VIII was in England (1491-1547), back in Iran, 15 years old boy called Ismail I (who was also a poet), became the founder of SAFAVI dynasty in 1502. He was the one who reunited the Iran in 1510.

In one of his war against the Selim I, the Sunni king, Ismail favorite wife was taken hostage. Selim king demanded huge concessions for her release. But Ismail refused to cede to his demands. It is said that Ismail had died of a broken heart in 1524 at the early age of thirty-six, never having seen his beloved spouse again.

Happy Norooz

یک گلدانِ سفید با جوانه های کوچکِ گندم که هنوز خوابالوده ی برناییند

یک گلدان، سنبل بنفش،پر از غنچه های بسته، بیتاب شکوفایی

دو ماهی قرمز کوچک، که تنگ بیقرارشان می کند

چند سیبِ سرخ که وسوسه ی آدم و حوا را به جانت می اندازد

اندکی سنجد و کاسه ی کوچکِ سمنو

چند حبه سیر

سکه های طلایی برکت

هفت سین ما بر پاست
دلتان زنده سرتان افراشته سلامت و شاداب باشید

سال نو مبارک

P.S. The photo is "haftsin" table that my older sister arranged last year back home in my parents place. I just love her taste...the bride and groom are Nima and I..

Yes!

It's 10:30 at night. I finally finished the draft of my paper. It took me a long time to write this. I am exhausted but I also feel great. I know tomorrow my supervisors will send me back tones of comments but it doesn't matter for now. I should go to bed. nothing is better than a deep sleep for tired mind. Good night everybody :)

My Lovely season Spring

Spring is coming. the very first day of the spring, 21st of March, is my birthday. It is also the begining of the new Iranian year, "Norouz". Back home it's time to "shake home" clean it allover, buying new clothes and preparing "Haft sin" table.

I am thinking about two gorgeous Magnolia trees in our garden. The white one should start to prosper and the pink one will catch up later.

I miss walking in streets, seeing shops full of Red fishes and purple hyacinth, sabze,...

I always loved the few last days of the year before Spring come. It's like something going to be happen, it's like really everything are going to be new and revive, the earth and all the creatures.

I love the few last seconds tic tac tic tac .... BOMB .... the traditional music ... Happy Norouz

like always I have the same wishes to pray for:

to be a better person,

to have better vision of the life,

to have bigger ears to hear :)

to be sharper to learn

to have better eyes to see

to learn from my mistakes (I barley do)

to break less hearts and not let other break ours

not to be fooled with our fake ego

not to be limited with our narrow mind

not to judge others in a first glance

can be trusted for our words

to be knowledgeable and quite generous with that

to be surrounded with those who are better than us

to be a doe but to be a Lion

to be an eagle but to be a lamb
to be powerful but never use that against the weak

quite a long list!

The story of dining table :)

I am waiting for delivery guys to bring us our dining table finally. Because of the petite size of our dining hall it took us a long time to find a proper table. I hope this time they bring us the right one.
Two weeks ago Nima and I found a small furniture shop. we found a petite size dining table in their catalog that we liked and we bought. One week later they bring us a table with the same size and colour but different style. Nima called them and the manager told him, the manufacturer didn't produce that kind of table any more. he told us the table he sent us was very similar to the one we liked why we didn't keep it.
we checked the recite, he had written the name of the table we liked but the number of the table he sent. He probably knew at first place that the table wasn't produced anymore. he though maybe we didn't recognize the difference or maybe we liked the other one two. I don't what he though but I got a bit angry. I was nagging to Nima about how that man dare to make a decision for us etc
We back to his shop again and look at several other catalog and finally found the other one with good size and look.
Today I am waiting for them to come and bring back the wrong one and deliver the right one.
I hope everything be fine this time..

Some People are Like Me

Some people make progress because they are jealous of other people and they keep competing with those who are better than them. I never really jealous of any one, I did envy sometimes or admire most of the time but jealousy no way. I can not tolerate this type of people. Even if they see some good things about you they barely say it to you. Even if you inspired them to do more effort and make progress to take over you, they never give you any credits.

Some people make progress because they are eager for being well known; they are eager for power. They do anything to be famous in their field. Anyone like to have more power and make progress but being thirsty for power and do anything for that is different. These people are bothering me a lot. They keep trying to show off about their knowledge or bluff about their position and that how much important they are. I am not a competitor at all. I don’t know if it is a positive or negative thing about me. I like to make progress and be better than myself during the time.

Some people make progress because they enjoy what they are doing. They don’t care how many people know them. Even if they are famous it wasn’t their motivation for their work. They are naturally humble not like those who try to show they are humble and they enjoy hearing other saying this about them.

Some people are like me. At the middle of nowhere trying to find themselves. I hope it doesn’t take my all life… :)

For You

It's Valentine's day. Honey I didn't buy you anything, no Roses, no Chocolate and no lovely teddy bear. But I want to write this post for you; not sure when you will read this.

You know how much I love ice cream mixed with cantaloup juice , you know how much I love Faloode with lemon juice, You know how much I love Lamb kebab with Safran rice and Somagh... I love you more than these all even more than green almonds with loads of salt :) :)

You know how much I dislike tough and violent movies but I will watch "There Will Be Blood" two more times if you want :)

I know how you feel about sad movies, I will watch "The Kite Runner" alone. :)

I will use the toothpaste the way you like (press it from the end) just for you :)

I will do my best to write down what we need to buy before we run out of it :)

..

...

.....

I am ending the list of my sacrifices ! :)

You have no idea how I took these two photos last night when you were dreaming about seven kings. :) :)

With Love........................Hiva

Luck

I love this story very much, simple and wise.
‘There once lived a farmer. He had a son and a horse. One day the farmer’s horse ran away, and all his neighbors came to console him, saying: “what bad luck that your horse has run away!” and the old man replied: “who knows if it’s good luck or bad luck.”
“Of course it’s bad luck!” said the neighbors.
Within a week, the farmer’s neighbors came to celebrate, saying: “what good luck that you have your horse back – plus another twenty!”
And the old man replied:” who knows if it’s good luck or bad luck!”
The next day the farer’s son was riding amongst the wild horses, and fell and broke his leg. The neighbors came to console him, saying: “what bad luck!”
And the farmer said: “who know if it’s good or bad luck!”
And some neighbors were angry, and said: “of course it’s bad luck, you silly old fool!”
Another week went by, and an army came through town, enlisting all the fit young men to fight in distance lands. The farmer’s son, with his broken leg, was left behind. All the neighbors came to celebrate, saying “what good luck that your son was left behind!”
And the farmer said: “who knows?” ’ [From Follow your heart by Andrew Matthews]

I am thinking if the neighbors had anythings else to do except monitoring the old man? :)

I want it off for good

did you ever feel so angry about something but at the same time you can not do anything except being paitient. it's really hard to be patient sometimes...
It's like you see something but other don't which make you think "is it me who missing something?"
I don't know, I just know I am angry now and I want it off for good.
If I don't learn how to take over my anger, it will find another excuse to come back to be... I want it off for good.

More More Photos

The FIRST TWO ARE TAKEN FROM MY GRANPA'S GARDEN AND THE THIRD ONE FROM NEZAMI JUNGLE. ENJOY

More Photos from our Trip to Iran

The seconed and the third one is taken from Nezami jungle

Trip to Iran-Part III

It was the third week of our stay in Iran that a cold front took over the country. I remember Nima and I were up to coming back from Shahi to Tehran that the snow begins and all of the major highways in the country closed.
Some cities had a snow up to 1.5m and some had around 20 centimeters. No one was ready for this storm. The highways were closed and several people got stuck in their cars. I heard in the news that several military cars sent to save peoples. Over 50 avalanches happened in two days over one of the most dangerous roads to Tehran (called Haraz road). I heard a number of people died and buried under the heavy snow but this is what I heard from the road drivers not the National news.
But worse that everything was at the middle of all this, several provinces didn’t have gas including ours. There were rumors about Turkmenistan stopped sending gas to the northern province of Iran (where my parents live) Mazandaran. But national TV said because of the sudden increase in gas consumption the pipeline networks can not afford carrying enough gas to allover the country. I don’t know what I should believe. I just knew people didn’t have gas with no previous warning about that.
They couldn’t use shower, they couldn’t cook, bake. Several bakeries were closed and only those who switched to gasoline could still provide bread (and obviously the breads were sold much more expensive). We were lucky since Mazandaran (the province that my parents live in) has almost mild winter comparing with several other provinces with -25 degree during the winter. We were worried about poor people in those areas without gas. It was like we back to the war time. The electric started being cut off periodically. The factories, school and universities were all closed. Even the entrance exam of universities for master degree was postponed to one month later. All international and national flights were cancelled for more than a week. Honestly the country was shut down.
What I learned was that in Iran people should be prepared for any unpredictable events and they should have no expectations from the government for help. When the storm happened everyone tried to save his own family. People tried to find substitute fuel such as oil, gasoline, or wood. There is no plan for emergency cases to help people. It’s just like you are really on your own save your life.
I am serious this is exactly what I learned When the gas went off and didn’t come back until three weeks later. Can you believe that people didn’t have gas for three weeks at the middle of winter? They found a solution themselves to cook to take a shower to warm up their houses without any major help from the government. I was thinking if one day the Tehran earthquake that everyone talks about, the one that should have come 150 years ago but still delayed. If that happen what would happen to Iranian with this government not ready for heavy snow.
Let’s look at the bright side as well. After the storm, snow covered every where when the sun came out many people went to jungles and parks for barbeque. Nima and I went to beautiful Nezami Jungle very close to Shahi city to enjoy the beauty of the snow. The weather was so fresh and every where was so gorgeous with snow. Enjoy the photos. I took these photos in my parents and my granny's garden.

Be Good Again

Do you want to write a message on a beautiful kite and send it to someone you like to receive it? well you can do it here:

http://www.kiterunnermovie.com/begoodagain/begoodagain.php

I found this on the official website of the Kite Runner movie. I read the book and I cried every night. not just because the story is sad but because I knew its sadly true. . .

Trip to Iran – Part II

At the end of the first week, Nima joined me in Shahi. There were two concurrent celebrations this year in Iran. Ghorban ceremony which is one of the Islamic celebrations common in most Islamic countries and Yalda Night which is one of the loveliest Iranian celebrations.
The main idea of Ghorban celebration is to donate food to the poor. The ceremony is a commemoration of Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son (Isaac), as commanded by god. Some people buy a sheep and donate its meat to the poor, some people buy chicken, some people just donate money and some just do nothing.:)
My grand father was very serious about these celebrations; I never forget how he used to precisely buy the best male sheep and divide its meat between some of the people he knew were poor and keep the rest of the meat for ours. I remember all of us, my aunts, and uncles used to gather in his place and celebrate the all day by eating delicious kebab. When he died (almost 12 years ago) my father continued this tradition in grandpa’s way. I was telling all this to Nima. We gather in my grandma’s place and ate kebab.
And at night we gathered again to celebrate Yalda night which is the first night of winter and the longest one during a year. Almost most of the Iranians are buying watermelons, nuts and pistachio for this night. Reading Divan of Hafez is also very common.Hafez is one of the most beloved poets of Persian culture. It is true that you can find two books in every Iranian house the Qur'an and the Divan of Hafez.
In our house my father always reads Hafez for us at this night. It’s kind of fun; every one of those who are presented in Yalda party make a wish and then my father open Divan of Hafez randomly and read the poet for that person and we all try to interpret Hafez’s poet in response to that person wish.
After the revolution the government tried to put less and less emphasis on Iranian celebrations and put more on Islamic ones. I don’t understand how they could do this to our culture. Iranians have several lovely festivals. It’s all about showing gratitude toward life, nature, and motherland. These traditions are so old and rich. We should really keep these precious heritages and share them with others.
Fortunately many people stick to their national and Iranian celebrations and keep it alive. I know many Iranian who migrated to other countries but still keep their national celebrations such as Yalda’s night and Norouz. I am defiantly one of those.

P.S. The first photo is my husband enjoying lamb kebab.You can also see a photo of our dinner table for Yalda night. That’s right the other photo is stuffed turkey. YAMMY