Back to normalities!

I was happy that the fasting was over and now I can openly drink and eat in front of my staff!

having coffee on my desk in the morning! back to normal!


having lunch at my office! I was too full with a double cheeseburger and fries! belch!
back to normal!

And more important... I also wanted to celebrate my staff's birthday which came right in the middle of Ramazan and we couldn't buy a nice cake for him...

celebrating with a nice birthday cake weeks later from his birthday!

Ramazan was very stressful even though I'm not a Muslim as I always tried to be careful not to cross over the line to frustrate the fasters, including my staff. Anyone who is fasting would surely not like someone drinking fresh water right in front of you as non-smokers hate to have someone smoke right into their faces. Well, the anxiety is over and I can enjoy eating and drinking more than ever!

PS
Summertime is over and we had to rewind the clock one hour back! I have to wake up at five tomorrow and this one hour would really help!


one hour back at 24 o'clock tonight!

Eid Mobarek-e!

I had to wake up early to watch the Leader's Eid ul-Fitr sermon.


on TV... everybody's there!

It was not a surprising sermon and I was able to return home at around 10:30AM to go back to sleep. I finally woke up again nearly four hours later. I was full of energy and decided to go out for dinner!
It was another rainy day and it was the right choice to take our folding umbrellas with us!

having a steak for dinner...

nobody at the restaurant! all reserved just for the two of us!?

It was raining on our way back and my jeans and socks were wet... When will this rain stop!?

Last day of Ramazan!?

It was raining crazily with thunder roaring in the city. Actually it was also raining heavily before dawn as I was awakened by the sound several times. In the morning the thunderstorm continued on in the morning and everybody was predicting Ramazan will continue on till tomorrow as the lunar-watchers were supposed to see the moon to pronounce its ending.
Surprisingly, at around 10:30PM, I received a call from my staff that they did announce Ramadan will be over! How did they see the moon!?

From the morning...

hmm... a bad sign...

With the stormy weather outside...

the TV via satellite was dying...

Today's menu...

hot udon noodles for lunch...

and Yoshinoya style beef bowl for dinner!

Another hectic day...

We headed to the central area of the city to cover the fervor of the people participating in a anti-Israeli protest supported by perhaps hundreds of thousands all over the world. As it was announced, it was not just being attended by conservatives and fundamentalists, but the opposition and I saw thousands of people against the Government marching. As they chanted anti-regime slogans, the supporters of the regime were swearing against them and everything was getting hectic in the streets. Once again I was able to witness the deep and grievous rift among the people and it seemed hopeless that this country will see the bright sun coming out sooner or perhaps never.


familiar slogans...

Early closing...

Thursdays' regular hours are over earlier than usual and I encouraged my staff to leave as early as possible as we had plenty of work tomorrow, saying goodbye to another day off.
I even took a short nap in the evening before dinner and tried to improve my physical condition.
But that just made the day pass by like lightning...

PS
It started raining...

hmm... the weather is quite unstable recently...

PS: Food menu of today...

a Korean style meal my wife fixed...

not bad!


pudding... made in Iran!

not bad!

Cat pics 2nd series...

hey what are you doing up there!

I'm gonna get you!

hmm... how do I go there...

climbing up!

I'm almost there!

Issue closed

Any possible trip to New York was officially a closed issue today as I received an e-mail rejecting the proposed trip. One of my fellow correspondents working in Tehran for another organization is going and of course I feel let down, but being employed by a media corps, I have no choice but to back down.
There's one thing I can do and that is to believe this outcome was a preface to a much better route for success that I would be glad I didn't go. I might find out a year later when I decide to go for the next one where there could be a historical event which seems very unlikely this year!

PS
This year all the spotlight will be on this person... at least in Japan...

he's on the headlines of Iranian media too!

Cat pics 1st series...

oh hello...

ready to go!

I can stay for a while...

someone calling me?

ah, forget it...

don't want me to go?

meow... what do you want?

I give up...

hey...

you...

meow... where are you?

gotcha!

phew... time to relax...

Serious headache...

I had a headache and though I'm sure it wasn't because I had contracted swine flu, I really didn't like how it was seriously aching. I tried to finish my work as quickly as possible, and fortunately(?) there wasn't anything I had to write today. I finished work and returned to my home to take it easy and relax. It was getting better at night and I really hope it won't return tomorrow!

PS
Happy Birthday to my MOM!
I hope she'll stay healthy!
And I hope I can return to Japan to see her and Dad!

PPS
Hey...

oh you found the best place to take a nap!

and the garden's all yours!

The first time limit...

Today it was announced that the nuclear talks will be held on the first day of October. As it's almost certain that I won't be able to go to New York to cover the United Nations General Assembly, I was quickly able to shift my short time goal to this new time limit. I was hoping they have the talks somewhere near, hopefully Turkey, as the Turkish FM had said yesterday that they were happy to mediate the talks. Finally there's something to work for!

Nothing was announced at the foreign ministry in the morning... hmm...

at the foreign ministry's press conference room...

PS
I was very happy to hear my favorite team won!

sadly, I can only watch some of the plays through the web...

PPS
Another nice dish prepared by my wife!

grilled beef...

eating it Korean style...

with another type of Iranian cola...
hmm... Zam Zam Cola is better...

Still no enthusiasm...

The lingering languidness continued on throughout the day and it was probably the same for all my staff as they all finished work at regular hours and I was alone at 5PM. My wife went out to enjoy tennis and I was left alone at the office. I had no enthusiasm for work and just waited for my wife to return... The day went past quickly and I thought it was a waste... Well, too bad... how can I motivate myself when there isn't anything I really want to do here!

PS
At least my wife tried to motivate me by fixing a meal that waters my mouth...

curry rice... my favorite!

One more day please...

Working day from today... but to be honest, I really didn't have any energy to motivate myself to do any work... Maybe it's because I did some work yesterday and it's getting harder each day I stay here to go on without any day off...
I asked God please give me one more day to take it easy. Fortunately no one bugged me from Tokyo and in the evening, as we had agreed, my wife and I went out to have a burger!


cheeseburger and fries and salad!
it's a humble gift just to have some time together munching on burgers!

About me... after eight years...

It's already eight years from the day that changed the world. On that day, I was covering the typhoon that hit Japan at the press club of the Meteorological Agency in Tokyo and was shocked to see live on our news channel, the pictures of the twin towers being hit by passenger planes. The world changed drastically, and though I was able to cover the news going to New York shortly after the breaking news, but I was rather satisfied with the course of my career I had chosen to continue on domestically. There were so many things to learn to be a pertinent reporter, looking for news that I wanted to report on.
After eight years, I'm not satisfied at all with my position and writing about dark and sad news about things that have no vision of happiness is so discouraging. After the news that changed the world eight years ago, I think many pieces of news are discouraging, and only a firm sense of mission or ambitions of being on the center of attention could make the correspondents continue their tasks of covering such discouraging news. I lack both characteristics and my mission still is to cover pieces of news which would not get any attention if I had not bothered to do so. That's what I think we should try to put our efforts into and being a correspondent here, I feel I'm going further away from my mission...

PS
It was a Friday today and as the Leader of this nation had a sermon before the worshipers, I had to work and watch his sermon. I really didn't want to write about it and though I was not confident, I decided to skip! After spending my time with my wife at home, we went outside to have dinner. Sadly the burger shop we targeted first was closed and the other was full, so we went to the familiar Thai restaurant farther away. I was satisfied, but the day went by so fast! It's already a new week! I hope my depression will ease a bit, but I really doubt it!


the burger shop was full!

to the Thai restaurant... cool enough to enjoy the meal outside!

and the usual "Islamic" beer...

and Thai food!

Wanting to finish...

It was a Thursday, and I wanted to finish as soon as possible... I just didn't want to work! There's no way I can do sabotage and I didn't want any wicked phone calls from Tokyo, so I decided to stay in my office till at least 7PM... much later than my staff who all left by 3PM. It's still paradise for me to finish by 7PM and return home. With things getting tighter with the international issues and still having dark clouds covering the domestic issues, it's so stressful to be watching the news channel and reading articles written by agencies. Staying away from them is the best way to soothe my withered body after a week at work. From next week, it's going to get worse. I'm already looking forward to leave this city as soon as possible, but I don't know when that would be... not soon I guess...

PS
Trying another type of Iranian cola...

Pepsi!?

nope... it's Parsi!

PPS
For dessert...

we had ice cream!