Lab or Kitchen

Check out this website and tell me what you think the website is for by first glance!
Hmm..It must be an educational website, maybe relates to a publisher or something...or maybe it's a university's website..No it's closer to be a website of a publisher or a writer with those list of publications..

But you know what, it's a restaurant's website. Do you believe this??!!
The restaurant is called ElBulli. Just look at its long list of prizes including four times "best resturant of the world" recognition. It is located in spain and had one of the most famouse chef of the world: Ferran Adrià.

Now just let me list some of the amazing facts about the resturant (from wikipedia):
"The restaurant has a limited season from April to September; bookings are taken on a single day the previous October" did you get that on a single day!!!!

"It accommodates only 8,000 diners a season, and gets more than two million requests"

It has been described as "the most imaginative generator of haute cuisine on the planet" and does a great deal of work on molecular gastronomy." Molecular gastronomy is the application of science to culinary practices and cooking phenomena

Ferran Adrià is a controversial figure among other chefs. He is a scientist if you ask me. He actually invents the recipes by trying more than 3000 formula to end up to 300 acceptable recipes with great and new taste.

"he closes El Bulli for six months every year in order to travel abroad, in search of new inspiration and ideas with which to astonish his diners. Adrià, who has been called “the Salvador Dali of the kitchen,” has won global acclaim as one of the most creative and inventive culinary geniuses in the world."
Going to his restaurant could be once in a life time experience.

What is your blood type??

I always thought my blood group is O+ till yesterday that I understood it is B-. God I could have killed myself with that wrong piece of information. Make sure you know what your blood type is! I think I should inform my Japanese friends first :))

Conceptual Naked Ape

These days my mind is occupied with global warming; humans’ impact on earth, etc. how we end up here? So dominant in comparison with the rest of creatures!!

I think the start point has something to do with agriculture. When we learned to do farming we start settling down at one place instead of going from one to the other searching for food. Farming made us different from the animals. We stayed put, somewhere close to rivers, and made houses nearby which was another impact. Humans wiped out the jungles to have more land for farming and also to have wood for keeping their houses warm or building their houses.

Can you see the trend? First we learn how to do farming, which had two main consequences:

1- Building houses near the river and farms

2- Stripping the jungles (to expand our farm land, to use the wood for houses..)

Gradually humans’ society formed and the population increased. Our villages became cities and grow larger. New needs came to picture and intelligent human being found the solution one after another. We learned how to make dams on river. The oldest dam still in use was build almost 1800 years ago (Grand Anaicut).

We are in 21st century, we have large cities like, New York, Tokyo, etc. we have large factories producing every king of product one can imagine per second all over the world. We landed on moon; we are planning to land on Mars we have 18000 satellites orbiting around the earth. God!! we are so intelligent.

But you know what, while we were busy with industrial revolution, making atomic bombs, learning how to fly, making super submarine, we didn’t care much about the impact we imposed on earth.

The all idea of Be Green, Go Green is new. I can’t see the future but I like to be optimistic and believe that thousand years from now the future humans are going to be highly intelligent, emotionally.

I hope our intelligent leads us to better understanding of other creatures. To learn, with our “power comes responsibility”. I hope our intelligence help us to understand torturing and killing a lone, frightened, and wounded bull is no fun. Watching two dogs fighting to death is not joyful.

Many of us eat meat, we need to do that. There are not enough vegetables to feed this large population we need meat to survive but we can stop killing animals to have fancy food. We can stop killing whales in the name of research. We can survive without having Foie gras and stop force feeding poor goose and ducks. We can stop eating fish while the poor creature is still alive.

I think future humans will be in more harmony than us. They will learn the language of animals. They will hear the mourning of a mother gorilla for her dead baby. I hope I’m not too optimistic!!!

Celebrate Your Love

Valentine is coming, shops filled with roses, teddy bears and chocolates. Nima and I are going to make a pizza for tonight and I am in charge of finding a delicious Pizza recipe. I am trying to find a Pizza recipe close to Milan pizza we had in a restaurant back in Chicago. I love the smell of basil and Origan in pizza sauce.

Anyway, It's good to find any excuses to show our love to our family, spouse and friends, do something a little out of ordinary to come out of our everyday routine. Happy Valentine day everybody. :)

Picture is from here.

Diversity of our World

Few days ago I watched a TV program about indigenous tribes in Brazil. The show was about several tribes living in Brazil and the Brazilian government try to protect them by isolating these tribes from the civilized world.

Honestly I was shocked. Watching these men and woman living deep in the forest and don’t have any clues about us. No technology, no education no dress, nothing. They were totally naked and more than that they were so comfortable with that.

These people in jungles are living; giving birth and dieing without knowing anything about our wars, our histories, our religions. There are places in our civilized world that woman are totally covered under the veils, there are woman who felt guilty if mistakenly someone see their hair and at the same time there are these woman running, working, laughing with each other totally naked without noticing.

I always believed most of these “Must” and “Must not”, “good” and “bad”, “values” and “disvalues” are local. In one place at that time “doing this/that” is “good/bad” and exactly the same act could have totally different meaning if we were born somewhere else at different time. I always telling to my self to keep my eyes and mind open. I am trying to avoid being so fool to believe what I learn as good or bad is rigidly (100%) the same anywhere at any time.

I always thought there are few fundamental rules that are beyond the times and places. If you catch them you are good to go. Forget about all unnecessary “must” and “must not”. Through away the long list of “values” and “disvalues” society fill your mind with. Don’t let anything or anyone make you feel guilt for enjoying your beautiful life.

My list is short and simple:

Honesty, Love, kindness

Restless Mind

I don't know what is wrong with me. My mind is like a restless bird, flying from place to place. I can't properly concentrate. Only if I could leash this wild bird for a while..
Picture from here.

Snow Valley

It's 7:15 in the morning, we are waiting for couple of friends to pick us up. We are heading to Snow Valley. The resort has the best place for snow tubing in Ontario. The weather is about -22, and we are wraped ourselves in two sucks, warm underwear, ski pants, jacket good enough for this weather. The only problem is that if our friends do not show up as soon as possible I am going to pass out from the heat. :)
The picture is from here.

Start Your Virtual Life

The person that I am today is the result of several choices that I made in my life consciously or unconsciously. If you ask my friends, what kind of person Hiva is? there will be very likely common characteristics for me that they assumed.
Is she a load person? I don't think anyone would say yes
Is she rude? Is she reliable? Is she this or that?
Did you ever try to act differently? Try to make a choice totally different from what you always do?
For example, you are conservative person, always plan what to do next but once you decide not to plan, lets go and see what would happen; lets be spontaneous.
As we grow up we pick different habits, some of them we like some of them we don't. And as we grow older it's become harder to drop those we don't like.
Did you ever like to see what would happen if you where different to some extent. I mean imagine there was another world that you could make different choices and see what would happen.
I found this website, called "Second Life". The idea of the website is interesting. It's a virtual world and people sign up for it from different part of the globe. There, you can start your virtual life, make virtual friends do virtual shops...start your own business.

"Second Life^® is a 3-D virtual world created by its Residents. Since opening to the public in 2003, it has grown explosively and today is inhabited by millions of Residents from around the globe. ...Once you've explored a bit, perhaps you'll find a perfect parcel of land to build your house or business...you can buy, sell and trade with other Residents..."

People can make real money out of vitual life. :)

When God Surprises You

Imagine one day, someone knocked on your door; you open it and God is standing right out there!!! (take it easy just imagine)

What would be your first reaction?
-Oh My God... or
- Are you for real? or
- So you do exist, I knew it!
-I'm not dead, am I?

What would be the very first thing that you would say to him?
- Do you wanna come in? Have tea or something.. or
- Can I help you? (really stupid)

What would be your short conversation?
- Cold weather ha
- What's up? is everything ok up there?
- How's guys, Gabriel, Michael..? Are they doing well?
-It's a little messed up in here, oh I mean you know, here on earth, Global Warming, wars,..of course you know, you are God...
-Sugar in your tea?

If you could make a wish , what would that be?
- Can we talk for a while?

Here Are Two of My Favorite Songs...

Chris De Burgh was always one of my favorite singer. Here is two songs that I like a lot.

1- A Spaceman Came Traveling: the la la la la.. part of the song used to be my lucky song. at the time of trouble I whispered it to myself and bomb! The trouble was gone.. it was fun :))))
You can read the lyrics from here.



2- Round and Around: Good memories.. I can't find the song anywhere on Youtube but the lyrics is here

Stay Warm

We are going to a concert tonight, downtown, Toronto. The weather is -10 feels like -18. out of curiosity I checked the weather in my hometown back in Iran. It's a sunny day, +15 feels like +18. Oh My God... I wonder how I ever felt cold during winter when I was going to school.

There is this job opening at the island of the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, called "Best Job in The World". Basically they need someone to stay in the island, work 12 ours a week for 6 month and blog. someone to write about the island, the creatures around...They call it best job in the world, for sure it is. more than 200,000 people applied for the job and I won't be surprise to see half of them are from Canada. ;) . A Canadian reporter on radio was making a joke that how about we do the same things and nominate Baffine island. Just to give you an idea:

"Baffin Island offers visitors such unique experiences as viewing polar bear, the Northern Lights, and kayaking between ice flows. Whether you are looking for an out-of-the-way adventure or simply looking to see Northern Canada, Baffin Island has it all. "

Stay Warm :)))

The Yawning Man

Do you have sleeping problem? Try this one ;)

Happy Birthday Roja

Tomorrow is my lovely sister's birthday, Roja. Roja is two years older than me, we grow up together. Since we were kids, we have our own differences, I was relatively quiet , dreamy little girl, in love with nature and animals. Roja was daring , brave and load. I was more like finding a peaceful, quiet way to reach to my goals she was more like fight to reach. Despite all our differences we were bounded; kept our little secretes safe and backed up each other.
I remember once , when we were kids, my mom sent both of us to our room as a punishment (we were messed up the sitting room all over) . My mom sent us there and said we had to stay there until we apologized for what we did. I didn't wait till her sentence finished and started apologizing, while Roja was frowning upon at me and looked at me as I was so easy. Well my mom let me out but Roja was too stubborn to say sorry. After ten minutes my mother called me and said:
ok Hiva go to her and say that you apologized for her and she can come out now.
I did what my mom said. You know what Roja said! "Mom told you to do this doesn't she!" :))
When it comes to choose a major Roja went with her instinct , ART. She always liked theater, movies, photography and she chose literature of theater as her Major.
when we were students at university we were roommates. we were roommates for seven years. God knows how many memories are just storming back to my mind right now. I missed her so much.
Happy birthday my lovely, pretty sister. From the bottom of my heart I wish , all your dreams come true very soon. Before it gets too late that you don't enjoy them anymore. I wish you health and happiness. I wish you hope and strength and I am sending you a big kiss and a very warm and tight hug.

The missing piece - True story :)

Today is our anniversary. It has been two years that Nima and I got married. I am simply happy. I love my life, I love my husband. Thank you God if you are out there and listening. Thank you...
Nima came to my life almost three and half years ago and easily fitted in. It was just like a missing piece of my life. We easily connected without any attempt , without pushing anythings. We met, we started dating and after one year and half we got married.
When Nima asked me out , I was about to come to St. John's (in Newfoundland) and Nima was in Vancouver. I was very concerned, it sounded impossible to manage such long distance relationship. I shared my concern with him and what he replied convinced me to go on and I did. Nima told me: "if I know, there is a chance that I finally find my right person, but that girl is living on moon, I would never forgive myself if I don't even try; if I don't give myself a chance to see how can I reach her"
We started our relationship while I was studying in St. John's and he was in Vancouver, seems impossible?? but it wasn't. We video chatted almost every night and used any opportunity to visit each other. In less than a year Nima found a job in Toronto which increased the frequency of our visits and finally I moved to Toronto and continue my study from long distance (I became kind of expert in that kind of situation ;) )
Now that I look back, despite all these difficulities of being away from each other, we manage to find a way to be with each other. It was easy I mean it...
I am really happy that I didn't say no just because of distances.
My father in-law is always saying:
"If you want to do something which sounds difficult, don't bring excuses why you can't do it , find a way to do it."

Atlas of Human History

For a while I was thinking , to better understand the glob, it's good to have a software that could show us what was going on, all around the earth at different era. A software that let us rotate the globe just like Google Earth and stop at desired spot, then select a certain era and see what was going on.
When the skulls of men, women, and children were piled in pyramids by the Mongols in the beautiful city of Neishabour, what king John was doing in Britain that cause the legend of Robin Hood. When ancient Egyptian was so civilized and know that much about medical care and civil engineering that makes some of us believe Great Pyramid of Khufu, are made by aliens; what was going on in today's Europe, or in today's Persia; just selecet the right era, then rotate and click.
I know it's not easy to collect all our knowledge about humans history and make a 3D visualize atlas but it can be a very useful software. Makes it much easier to understand humans trace, to understand the balances and interactions between nations and human societies. How rising of one nation cause the fall of the other.
Well, national geographic team made something kind of similar . It is not as explicit that I had in my mind but very similar concept. here is the link. you can rotate the globe and click on different spot and learn about humans history. I was not able to change the date range, apparently it's not the full version.

Happy New Year

Christmas spirit are everywhere, in shops,in streets, on TV. Beautiful lights in different color are hanged from people's house make the city like a wonder land.
Well to be honest Christmas and new year does not feel the same way to me, as Nouroz does. For me the beginning of the new year is the first day of spring. when tress blossom and weather starts warming up. and fresh green sprout covers the bare lands.
Here, the new year is watching snow covering the beautiful pines; new year is decorating the trees with colorful bulbs, lights and stars. The new year is piling up gifts under the tree, the new year is the smell of ginger cookies spreading all over the house.
The new year is watching Scrooge and listening to all Christmas carols...

Happy New Year Everyone, wish you the best

The Picture is from here.

Another Yalda night

Last night was "Yalda night", the longest night of the year, the last night of the Autumn. The night we Iranian celebrate by getting together and having dinner. There are some delicious rules, there should be watermelon, some nuts, and gorgeous pomegranates on a table to complete the celebration.
Back in my parents house, like always everyone get together and celebrated the Yalda night. My father read Divane Hafez (Hafez is one of the most famous Iranian poet and Divane Hafez is the collection of his poems) for everyone even for Nima and I that were absent from their gathering.

It's always like this: Someone making a wish and then my father opens the Hafez book randomly and that poem is his/her fortune (well the interpretation of that poem actually).

My father called us this morning and read our poem for us. God, how much I love this.
Nima and I went to one of our friends house last night, there I was responsible to open Divane Hafez randomly and read every one's fortune poem. The interesting part was that exactly the same poem showed up for both Nima and me... :)

Hafez you are coooooooooooooooollllllll

Tasting a little of classical Favourite

Nima and I with couple of friends went to the Nutcracker Ballet here in Mississauga. It was my first time watching a live ballet. I really liked the show. of course the music was fantastic, and also the dancers did a nice job. I wonder how these people manage to stand on the very tip of their toes. How light you should be? the dance was really smooth and in harmoney with the music.

One good thing about Toronto is that there are always something going on in here. several concerts, operas, theaters, etc. Last November there was a concert conducted by Toronto Symphoney Orchestra, called "Classical Favourites". They conducted selections of The Four Seasons, Scheherazade (Part 4), and Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. It was the first time for me listening to Scheherazade. God, The music was unblivebaley beautiful. The conducter explained for us how different instruments, act as something. for example how violines used at the time that sherhrezad talked, or at the time that the weather is raining.
I just loved it...

World would be quite boring place without artists.

Little Girls with Big Ideas

Did you ever have a teacher back in school that had a positive influence on you; motivated you or gave you inspiration to do something or to be someone?
There were some teachers at different stages of my life, back in elementary school, high school or even university, who kind of motivated me in my life story.
One of these teachers was my lab teacher. He was a kind knowledgeable man, who always tried to inspire us to think about bigger things. Things out of our ordinary school book. Well I remember, I was 12 years old, and one day he came to class and said:

“Ok girls I believe you are special and you have special talents, you can do anything you want if you think right. I want you to form a group of two or three students and come up with the new idea for your term project. The idea could be anything there is no boundary, no limitation.”

All the class was so excited; talking about different ideas that came to their mind right away. I remember I was cheerfully explaining my idea to a friend that I wanted to make a robotic leg that could walk :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) the good thing about him was that he never laughed at us, he never said well, guys before making a robot you need to know a little more. He was 100% positive that we can do anything…
Well what happened at the end of the term was that, gradually I understood I had no idea what I was talking about and then we decided to make something easier. Well we made machine that could move. How? Do not laugh…

We got 4 wheels out of a toy truck and connected them to a light orange plastic plane. And we attached one magnet to the plane. To make it move we had another magnet in hand so by using the power of magnetic field we made the truck to go forward or back ward. We approach the attached magnet and depends on that we approached with the same pole or different pole, two magnets attracted or repelled each other and that was how the wheels moved.
Very sophisticated comparing with “LEGS THAT CAN WALK” :) :) :)

How engineers learn from evolution

This is just amazing, that how much we can learn from the nature. Click and watch :)

Wisdom of the day

The distance between “everything is just perfect” and “oh I’m really doomed” is nothings. Life is a box of surprises...

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