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!

A birthday to celebrate!

It was my wife's birthday today... It was the start of another week and my staff were here to celebrate! We had pizzas together for lunch...


four different kinds!

And in the evening before the end of the working hours, while we had a power cut, she was congratualted with a cake!

her favorite cheese cake!


And how old she is... ??


a surprise!


and very tasty!

In the nighttime we went out to have dinner at a Mexican food restaurant. All of the visitors were smoking shisha (or ghalyun غلیون in Persian), and it was too smoky for my wife, but the food was good. I hope she had a really fine time in her first birthday in a crazy environment!


too dark to take a picture...


having ice cream bars for dessert!

Generous tip?

As I was turned down my plan to offer my staff a reward for all the pains they have gone through these two months, all I could do is use my private money as the bureau chief to show my appreciation for their services...

Going to a restaurant serving "Caspian" food!

starters...

mahi (fish) my wife had!

and the kyabab I had!

dessert!

This is always my way of showing appreciation to them, but maybe it would only be a small tip for them... I'm trying to make it generous as possible... natural as possible... humble as possible... and hope they would understand I'm happy for their performances... though my bosses in Tokyo wouldn't care at all...

Quiet...

It was very quiet today. Nothing to do but to be alert nothing will happen! It's really hard to do nothing but I want to do nothing!

Of course my wife did not say she wanted to do nothing, but I offered to take out some kyababs for dinner. Not bad to do so once in a while!


kybab we had for dinner!


PS
Today my colleague's sincere gift reached Tehran safely!

my wife's really happy to get her Kewpie mayonnaise and dressing!

The cakes we had today...

a bit too sweet...

PS
Food photos!

snacks my wife bought in Dubai for my staff!


we opened up a Japanese gift my colleague gave us...
kastera!
I waited till my wife's back from her trip so we can enjoy it together!


our dessert at night! tasty black cherries!

PS
I had to buy something that would cheer up my staff... and of course, me!

a nice fruit cake!

PPS
Hey!

how are you out there!

PPPS
Recently, with the protests taking place in the evening, the food delivery services are not available, so my wife is making dinner for all of the staff working at night...

she made us some yakiudon and onigiri tonight!

Happy birthday to me in turmoil...

Running out of time for the preperation process, I also fell I'm running out of time in my life to enjoy, as torture had been the past year's best way of describing my work life. Maybe it was a balanced year, because it was a happy one getting together with someone I decided to live my future together. So public and private, I think it turned out to be a 50-50 year. I hope my 37th year will be very rewarding, but I realize already it's not going to start in a pleasant way... well, at least the cake I had together with my staff, my colleagues, and my wife was not bad... I didn't have time to cry, but I'd surely like to when I realize how many people care about me. Happy birthday to me and thank you very much!



And my wife gave me a gift...


with a cute messenger!

Research and broadcast...

We were still doing research to get the necessary elements for the election reports and I also had to get ready for tomorrow's broadcast. I made a mistake of sleeping till 8 in the morning today and I was nearly in panic to write the scripts for my report and live coverage tomorrow. The day went past so quickly and I only had to hope that the research about the election coverage was going well.

Photos of the day (and yesterday)
FOOD SERIES!

last night's curry...

using the curry, my wife made a nice dish!

along with chicken!

a cake I had in the day time!

Decisions...

I must be careful what to decide from now on as one single mistake can cost a lot! It's also important to make the right decisions when time is so limited and precious from now on. I went to an event first thing in the morning, but I found out right away it was a waste of time!
Back in my office, I had to fight through some tough decisions about where to go from tomorrow and I was leaning to decide going to Isfahan until Wednesday rather than going there on Saturday.
Trying to ease the pressure, I asked my staff to get me a nice cake to make me smile.


the nice one with fruits on top!

This might be one of the last days to smile together with my staff... from tomorrow I have to clench my teeth to get through the adversity that is waiting for me!

Starting the process...

I started working on the process of getting ready for the elections... There's two other big missions waiting, one being the trouble of talking to my staff about their salary and the other being another trip for a special coverage I have to do before the Election reaches its active stage. I'm really not a productive person and I don't have the ability to do many important things at once, so I'm starting to panic... It's really sad to see the sky all gray and again raining... It makes me very depressing which this dreadful weather... boo...

To cheer myself...

asking to get some cakes!

and some sunshine after the rain!

Last working day of the year!

Today was the last working day of the year 1387. Since this year is the leap year for Iran, there will be 30 days in the last month rather than the regular 29 days, and there is still two more days in this month including the 30th of Esfand which will coincide with Nowruz. Finishing off many work I had to by today, including the requests for necessary permissions, the day went by so quickly!

I was happy that my wife went out shopping with Japanese friends she has already made!
She bought home some sweets for my staff...


nice!

After the working hours, I also went out to get some Nowruz cards I would like to send to my friends and business related colleagues in Japan and other parts of the world. We went near the Haft-e Tir Square and got the cards that pictured the Haft Sin that is particular only to Nowruz. I already wrote 50 cards together with my staff to send to my collagues in Tokyo and the world, but this is more for my private use to send my message to those who had sent me New Year Greeting cards, Nengajos.


looking for cards... there's so many! which one seems fine!?

On the way back, we saw...

the "messengers of Nowruz" asking for money...
They were supposed to give money to the people, but now they're rather asking for money by performing with drums in the streets...

At nighttime, I asked my staff to join me for dinner at a restaurant in a hotel. Saying thanks and also asking them to spend time with my wife, I hoped they would be some reward to them working hard for me these 8 months. I've also handed out the year end bonus to them including a small amount of Eidi.

Dinnertime!

caviar!


steak!

And the Haft Sin on the table!

Ready for Nowruz!

Sadly I had a strong headache from the morning and being soaked with medicine, I tried to finish my recording of a radio report around 10:45PM, but made one mistake... I realize that health is the most important keeping the quality that is required, and from tomorrow, as we head into a 6 day holiday, I hope I can take care of myself a little more and be refreshed when we start our work in the Iranian New Year!

No troubles...

Since I had hired two helping hands today, I should have prayed for something to happen to make good use of them, but I really didn't want any trouble... Fortunately, there wasn't anything developing today and we called it a day at 4PM, an hour and a half later than usual.

Before saying good-bye, I had my regular staff get a nice cake to enjoy together!


a nice one with strawberries and mango!

I hope they enjoyed their temporary stay here, because I'd need their help from now on too!


oh you too! well, next time you can help too!

PS
In the nighttime, I tried to find a satellite channel that broadcasted the race in Dubai where my favorite horse was competing...
Sadly I couldn't find any and I had to give up watching the race simultaneously, but could manage to enjoy it after about 30 minutes of its real race time.


at the site of the Dubai Racing Club...


sadly my favorite did not win...


Vodka finished fifth... but she still has a chance to win the real take!

Change of phase...

It was the end of February, a really tight month in the beginning, but nothing particular here in Iran at the end. The world seems to be in lag and the economic downturn all over the world is making it worse. We had some visitors in the evening and it was crowded just for a while in the office... but soon I was alone again...
I'm still not able to enjoy my stay here as work is always looming behind me 24 hours a day, but my worries that I'm a stranger seems to have past away. Maybe it's a time of change in the phase where the chemistry has undergone a shift in my emotion staying here in Iran. The sad part is that my enthusiasm and expectations have also disappeared and it will be my honest intention to just to try finishing my job without any troubles, because I've learned these 7 months that even reaching the target without a problems is a very ambitious goal!


some cakes from our guest! yummy!

PS

last night I had a nice bite!

And...

I had to fight with mosquitos!!

Reaching the peak...

Yes, tomorrow is the peak. Today, I did manage to send a report, but it was just a reedited version of the report I did on Sunday and it wasn't that much of a labor.
Tomorrow will not be uncomparable to what I had to do this last 6 months and I really have to pray everything will fit into place... I really do...
At night time everybody was shouting Allah Akbar and I heard the sounds of fireworks. It will be a day off for everyone tomorrow, but for us... it's one of the busiest days ever!

PS
We celebrated as yesterday's trouble was solved today in the morning...

with another cake! how many cakes have we had so far!

Reaching the doorway...

We've finally reached the entrance to the great maze with many obstacles and booby traps... It would be a great challenge to reach the goal without stepping on the mines or fallling into a pitfall...
Some of the major appointments we still had to get were not finalized and without having these weapons I have to go through the maze unarmed. I'm sure I will receive heavy fire falling into an ambush or even a frontal attack by a much stronger force.
Oh, I'm always worried, as I do not have my weapon... being able to convince anyone with my own words and my expression of sincerity... yes, I'm empty-handed...

PS
Today we celebrated our colleague's birthday...

he told us it was yesterday, but we celebrated with a cake today!


snow again... not serious I hope...

I received an EMS mail from my dad...

of course... as expected... they open it! nicely taped back... not even hesitating to hide their evil doings! one day they're going to get the retribution for these doings... one day!