About Afghan, but not about Afghan...

The conference was about the reconstruction and stabilization of Afghanistan, but I wasn't really interested in the topic... Oh, as a person, I am interested. I really hope that the international community collaborate their strength, without any indecent political tactics...

I used so much money to see whether we could witness a historical engagement between the two archrivals...

It didn't happen... at least in a way that would make it historical...

Sending just one report, my job was finished... it's of course impossible to get any more broadcasting time... it really was just a vacation, but sadly I couldn't really have a nice time!

Pics...

at the venue... it was the right place to see "something"... but...

conference about the war torn country... but...

glass of the most famous beer here! some relief... finally...

Setting foot on European soil!

It was a very long day... Leaving our office at about 1:30AM, the flight leaving Imam Khomeini Airport at around 4:30AM took us to Schipol Airport of Amsterdam, The Netherlands before 11AM.

Taking...

the Turkish Airline flight!

We stopped by Istanbul, Turkey... only for a short while...

Atatürk Airport...


oh they have Burger King! I'm too full to have a Whopper...


saying good-bye to Turkey!
I completely forgot we were going to take the flight that just had an accident... Istanbul-Amsterdam flight had a "overrun" accident when I was at Bushehr last month! I'm sure they won't make the same mistake!

After reaching Schipol, we rushed to The Hague, our destination...


Amsterdam Airport... lots of KLMs!


the words of Schipol...


to Den Haag please!


lots of "historical" buildings!
the smell of Europe!!

We spent some time at the venue of the conference taking place tomorrow...


the venue...


upshot...


a nice conference hall!


let's see what the two countries in the center will do...

Sadly we found out that it was not the foreign minister than was attending from Iran... This made our trip so downgraded it was like coming to a nice vacation to an European town. Well, there's no choice but to enjoy our stay here and hope for something miraculous to happen tomorrow!

PS
It was the first time in years, perhaps since when I was a first grader, to set foot on European ground (except Charles De Gaulle Airport a while ago!). I didn't realize how exciting that would be as I was all fed up with the crazy trip through the night...

The next plane after 24 hours!

We arrived in Tehran at around 4AM... Getting back to our office at 5:30AM, I finally went to bed at around 6:30AM...

I was very sleepy and I wanted to sleep all day, but I couldn't... It was all because I took a vacation, so it was even inappropriate to, as it was just a regular weekday... It was also inappropriate that I only had today to get ready for a business trip to Europe and I had to make the major decisions for us to get us on the plane without any problems!

The day passed by so quickly and I only had time to sleep less than an hour and a half... I first thought of sleeping on the sofa, but I decided to take a nap on my bed...

PS
There were lots of people at the Imam Khomeini International Airport, presumably filled with people returning back home from Nowruz vacations!

PS
Just before leaving Dubai...


yes! you know what I'm going to have!

Heaven to hell...

It was a cloudy day...

the Burj Dubai behind the fog...

But I was so happy... being able to eat sushi for the first time in such a long time... and also being able to go see my favorite horse so far away from home...

the sushi lunch I had... grrrrreat!

But it was really tough for my wife to accompany me especially with the sun gleaming on us in the beginning, and then rain falling on us... Since we had portable umbrellas, it was better that it wasn't too hot anymore, but as the nighttime came, it was getting cold...

We went to the race course at around 2:30PM, but the first race was to start at 5PM. We had tickets that enabled us to get into the "party" section, but not the seats at the grandstand. Many people were picnicking in the area, and though it rained slightly from time to time, we had lunch sitting on the lawn.


many people dressed up!

enjoying the beer on the lawn...

handing in our Pick 7!

After the races started we watched at the front near the 400 meter sign.

watching near the 400 meter sign...

not bad when the race is on the dirt course!

There were quite some time between the races, which all were Grade I races after the third one!

people were concentrating on partying rather than watching the race!

we had a modest dinner... sandwiches and nachos!

the fireworks opening the event started after the fourth race!

At 7:55PM, it was finally the time to watch the one I wanted!
Vodka was running at the second spot, and there was only one horse to run past... but she never did... and finished 7th... What a disaster...

Vodka! come on!


The other two Japanese horses did not do well either... it was exciting for me to see them, but sadly it was not the outcome I anticipated...

We rushed to the airport. We had luckily asked the taxi driver who took us to the racecourse to come back at 10PM, and it was the right thing to do as you had to get a cab to get out of the course, which would have been hours of lining up... all right... we were lucky!

To the south we go!

Waking up as usual, we got ready to go to a very short vacation less than 48 hours! We took the around noon flight from Tehran to Dubai.


enjoying the Emirates entertainment system on the way...
watching the latest James Bond film... finished minutes before we landed!

We wasted 30 minutes at the passport control of Dubai International as the computer being used suddenly had some malfunctions, and we also wasted perhaps another riding a taxi driven by a lady that could not find the way to our destination...

Finally arriving at the hotel, my request was to...

get a burger!

We also walked around the city and did some window shopping at malls... It's always nice just to see goods written in English!


walking through the clock square...

to the mall...

Just as we were walking for half an hour back to our hotel, it started to rain and while we were having a pleasant dinner, it was like hell outside with rain storming the people without umbrellas.

We had dinner at a gorgeous seafood restaurant!

choosing the recipes on your own!

fresh seafood!

of course with BEER!

oysters!

and lobsters!


heavy rain outside...

I ate too much and I had to gulp down some medicine to calm down my bursting stomach! It was a nice day though we had some small troubles... It's always nice to get away from home a while!


the view outside... can barely see the Burj Dubai...

Taking the risk!

As it was the last weekday of the a two day working week, we rushed to get ready for a trip to Europe in the end of the month. We still were not sure if my staff would get the necessary visas, but that's another Inshallah, so I just took the risk and bought the tickets for all of us... It's quite expensive and I don't know what could happen on our coverage trip, but yes... I'm going to take the risk!
Today, my wife successfully got her visa and permission to stay in this country, so I decided to take her to a trip to Dubai from tomorrow... I know it's risky to go on a trip just before an important business trip coming up, but if I don't take the risk, we'll never be able to go together on a trip... who knows when the next chance will come... so I'm going to take the risk!

PS
It was also risky...

as the papers printed in Dubai are saying that it's very stormy there now and it would be rainy for another four days... still... I'm going to take the risk!

Back to work!

How sad I was I had to go to my office in the morning, rather than stay in my bed... My staff was coming and there was no choice but to get up and go to my office!
It was still a slow moving day in Iran as many people would take today and tomorrow off to make it a 9 day holiday. Some would take the next four days off and make it a 16 day holiday adding the three days off from April 1st to 3rd!
That is just a dream too far for me unless I quit this job, so I went back to work starting with the accounting papers... A very dull and painful task I have to do anyways... There were hope that my wife could get her exit and multi-visa tomorrow so we can go to Dubai together from Friday... Anyways there was a load of work to do and although everybody else in the Iranian world were in their slow activities, the day went past very quickly for me!


back to hamburgers for lunch!

Last day of a six day holiday!

It was my mistake to sleep until 11AM! The day went by so quickly as it was around 3PM when I finally finished writing about 50 more cards!
Trying to finish the holidays in a nice way, I asked my wife to accompany me out for a walk in the park... I'm sure she was the one who would have loved to, but I knew she was worried if I'd finish writing the greeting cards on time!
The stroll in the park was pleasant. It was warm and many families were picnicking running around with soccer balls!

Pics in the park... so peaceful...

nice day to take a walk!

many people were enjoying the day in their own ways!

and the favorite family sport is soccer! we spotted a lot of girls kicking the ball wearing the skarf on their heads!

so many beautiful flowers!

sakura!? cherry blossoms!?

In the nighttime, we decided to setup the game console that my wife bought in Tokyo. So many of her colleagues and friends gave us softwares and peripherals for the console as a "marriage gift" for both of us and as a "retiring gift" for my wife!


it works fine!
we had a tough time to be used to the remote controllers!

PS
In the morning, reports of Japan winning the WBC was already out... It seemed to have been a very exciting championship game and I was quite sad I couldn't share the excitement together with my friends in Japan and the US... Oh well, someday I'll get to go to see a game in the future! Inshallah!

Nowruz greeting cards!

Starting from yesterday, I used most of my time today to fill out the Nowruz greeting cards... I tried to "squeeze" down the number to under 200, but still it took me all day to write about 120 cards...
I wrote the address on the envelope and then wrote some comments inside the card, but without my wife's help putting the cards into the envelope and writing "AIR MAIL" it would have taken more time!
I'll finish the rest tomorrow...


the cards...


it's still quite visible with sun at 6:30PM...
It didn't get dark until well after 7PM!

No disturbance!

It was such a nice day... no, not the weather... because there was no disturbance from Tokyo! Well, maybe I should be ashamed of myself hoping I don't have to do my job as a foreign correspondent, but who cares!
Spending time at my home, I almost forgot that there was an one hour difference on the clock! On 12 o'clock midnight today, the clock jumped to 1AM having the Daylight Savings Time in effect from today.

adjusting the clock!

After setting the clocks, we left for a walk to the north, heading to a hotel to have a nice lunch.


there were quite a lot of people out in the streets!

We decided to have a Thai meal!

some spring rolls...

and green curry and beef with mushroom sauce!

finished with coffee!

and the Haft Sin on the table!

The weather seemed to turn to the bad, but thank God while we were having lunch, it became sunny again!

this is how it looked while we were having lunch...

but it seemed fine later on when we started back towards home!

We stopped by a supermarket on the way back...
You can find some Japanese imported food here...

curry package...

and soy sause... ones on the right are made in China...

but also Snapples!