Saturday, 26 July 2014

the shift..change and support...Madam E and the new club :) and the crazy egyptian :)

so i was shifted to the branch where I was scared because I heard that Madam E was scary as hell..

turns out, she wasn't so bad-as long as you were willing to learn from her, she was one of the best. I actually learned alot from her about myself more than anything else..

it was difficult to shift to the new place..but I had to adjust..it was over night..literally..pack your bags you're going to the other branch.

it was a different system altogether, and don't forget I was more scared of madam E then I was of Vic..but that's only because of everything I had heard. they made her sound like the vampire from Transylvania.

We had alot in common..especially when it came to family love-and if its the one person who came through for me in the branch when I needed it the most it was her. my dad's ill health took a turn for worse in may- I had only been in doha a few months but i had to go home..i was distraught and in despair..i didn't know what to do..the way she handled the situation and arranged for me to come back home the very night.

this is when i made another real friend Yousra :)  aaaahhh this crazy egyptian-she made my tears go at every instance that they came out. She was my support system away from the gym regarding so many things in my life. I only wish I had more time with her..night time beach drives, crazy futoor nights at the souq, trying to teach me arabic, telling me I was supposed to be born an arab..She taught me the secret to life :) the secret to survival in the arab world :)

Like i mentioned in the previous blog, there was the other one-basically what I felt was happening was being caused by the other one..when I came from home for 5 days, my head was filled with all the not right things and so , I was feeling hostile towards madam E. my dad was still not doing well, but all in all, it was all the politics caused in my head that caused me to erupt-not the best of things to happen..

there comes a point in time where people clash due to issues caused by other people for no apparent reason and unfortunately, this happened to  me..I was still quite naive to the world-like i said before, i usually just live in my own world, after this incident is when I realised I needed to open my ears, eyes and all five senses linked for me to survive in this man eats man world.

the outburst, was very stupid and not at all like me..but human is to error and this time I made a very big boo boo.

Madam E if you are reading this blog, till today I am very apologetic about that day. I know I apologised before and till today I will apologise :)

so anyway, it reached a point where I realised that Mrs t was causing alot of drama through the other one and madam E was very much in the clear because it became evident that Mrs T was playing 2 sides. she was good at causing chaos between 2 people and this is what she was doing all over. I wonder how people survive knowing that they are causing other people hurt and damage.

By this time, waseem and I weren't talking so I felt like I had lost a big chunk of my life. don't get me wrong, i always had marcie and till today i'm grateful to have her in my life :)

about myself, I learned how to focus on work, to better myself, to control my temper, to deal with issues, how to solve problems rather than talk about them. and all this i learned from madam E. she was a big turning point in my life. she was the point at which I realised that life happens and you gotta make the most and the best of the situation. Till today I don't know whether we really were friends, but I know at times she was there for me and I would have been there for her if she needed, I would have liked to get to know her more than just a manager but unfortunately that never happened.

back to mr bum..it's a few weeks after I moved to the new branch when push came to shove and i told the bum where to put his finger up :) :) i'm trying to be polite here...those of you that know me, know that when I am angry I look and sound like a tigress who's cubs are been attacked but instead of a nice brown I turn a lovely shade of red :) i think we can call it jazzy red :D :D maybe we should put in the color chart.i think i will talk to the paint people :D I was tired of the cheating and the lies and the drama..I was ready to change and all of a sudden he was ready to marry me...ofcourse I said no..what a twat :/

all this while I was still exercising, feeling the best I was coz Mrs T wasn't in this branch much..suddenly losing weight became alot more fun. the members were encouraging me...I felt that we were relating to each other..and then there was the rule that when they entered the gym they had to smile and laugh...

i mean why create time for yourself if you aren't gonna feel happy about being there or thinking about sad things..sooo madam E nicknamed me Jazeera and the huggs-this was because I was always hugging people...you do know that huggs transfer happy feeling?? .so when you hugg someone even if they feeling sad, they automatically become happy :) atleast that's my thinking and it worked most times :)

during this period I also went to the 3rd branch and there I met the 3rd manager. Oh my she was the most different of them all..so calm, collected and didn't react to anything. I was like how I wanna be like that..it obviously took time and i'm still yet to perfect this skill but i think and feel that it is a skill that every woman needs-because it helps when you need time to digest information and think with a logic mind :) I use this skill till today in my every day life.

then Madam E went on vacation...it was ramadhan, the best time to work in doha :) or was it.....






Qatar..the 1st 3 months...marcie, yavanna and the other one :p

oooofff what can i can say...the 1st week I was ready to cry...actually, scrap that i was crying...every single day...I felt like I made the biggest mistake of my life..

and it was all thanx to 2 major people...one was Mr Bum and the 2nd lets call her Mrs T.

so yeah i was over weight when I landed, I already told you Vic's reaction to me..actually, I would think all the trainer's except Marcie were like how can you be a trainer..you don't look like one...hmmmm..

Now, I was still reeling from shock as to how my lovely father agreed for me to go to another continent, when it was a total no no for a 45 min flight to Znz..he literally chased me outta the house when i said i got the job in doha..it was as if he was getting me married in a rush :p to some one who would handle me better than he ever would..boy did my old man know what he was doing...only at that time I didn't know it..

you see my dad worked in abu dhabi for a few years when he was a bachelor..so he knew exactly what I was getting myself into..but I guess he wanted me to learn for myself, since i'm the natural temperamental child who thinks she's daddy's apple of the eye and can get away with anything especially tantrums.well I have my good side too, but I like the spoilt version of me better *princess diaries* loooool...

soooo i move to doha about 9 days before my 27th birthday. and the first weekend out, we had a blast..it was 4 of us girls..juniors all of us..Marcie and Yavanna were older than I was at the job and the other one was well one day older than me..and we go to dinner to the souq. aaahhh the souq-my most favorite place ever and we go to a moroccan restaurant-they had the best bread ever...oh myyyy..the taste buds are missing that bread and watering at the thought of it...

then comes woof woof..at least that's what we called him-he was someone I had met over one of these sites coz i didn't know Waseem was in doha still.

He just pitched up and decided that he was gonna join us :/ have you ever had a random man sitting in on a bunch of girls just releasing out the frustrations of work??? that was the 1st time I experienced either of those feelings..at one point I felt bad for him, but then again, I didn't invite him-he just pitched to where we were...

and a lady never says no to a free meal-yes in his trying to impress me, he paid for our dinner without eating any of it-i'm not complaining and that was my 2nd welcome to the arab world-THE WOMAN IS SUPPOSED TO BE SPOILT and not spoil the man :p :p although I must say, I like to balance it - more on that when we get to 2014 :p :p :p

I was working in an all women's gym..awkward coz clearly i'm not used to having so much estrogen around me at one time..then comes Mrs T and her stories :p

When I had the interview with her over skype I envisioned a tall, robust, bubbly, straight forward woman who had a personality to match the apparent voice...boy was i wrong..Vic was the tall pretty one who showed me presence-Mrs T was a small scrawny midget who felt that her voice and fake accent would make up for her lack of personality..oh yeah and her moustache was like uuhhhmmm...and the oil in her hair :/

okay i'm not being racist, but really, she was about 23 i think-i was a whole 5 years older than her or something like that..and she was engaged to be married...if its one thing I know a woman should do is atleast take of the moustache from atleast the age of 16..especially if its the color of the hair on your head ie black..and she is of my race..so i'm allowed to comment :)

so the first thing she says to me was you need to lose 20kg..you're gonna be the next success story :/ i'm like okay..little did I know that this was only the beginning of a competition that I didn't even know existed till it was over.

clearly I live in my own world. so this gym has 3 branches. and I was in the oldest one :) Mrs T didn't let me train any one for almost 6 weeks-what did I care I was getting paid, but it reaches a point where, things just stop making sense and practicality needs to come into place. Hence Vic decided its time for her to take over coz Mrs T was clearly Cuckoo and I will tell you why this competition started-BECAUSE I CALLED HER BOSS AND TOLD THEM THAT I DIDN'T GET A CALL BACK AND SO SHE LOOKED BAD...lol.

Have you ever had a manager from hell?? this was her..when  she walked into the branch every one became tense and stopped talking to each other..clearly, there was an issue I just didn't know it till she saw me flourish at this club. So she shifted me to the branch that had the worst retention rate of staff :s with the great madam E as manager but this was after the 1st 3 months.

upto now, she was stressing me to lose weight majorly, i was stepping on the scale weekly..working out like crazy...but has any one ever heard of losing weight healhy?? clearly she hadn't..she wanted 4 KG DOWN A WEEK..now can you imagine, I have a medical background and i'm like that's not normal..she's like you have to..don't forget you're on probation..(Please send me home, i'm already fed up of you're fake Indian British accent)

So i'm starting to think, since when did it become a crime to be a little bit over weight?? Size 12 is not fat..it's an average size woman. actually its every other woman on the street...okay so I wasn't actually a size 12..maybe a 16 but still that's not a crime..I was buying clothes from the curvy section of the shop and not the stick section-that's not a bad thing.. the last time I heard, real men like a bit of meat on the meat on the bones ;)

so here I am struggling to lose the weight, in tears everyday and my birthday rolls in :)

I will never forget that birthday. Thank you waseem and marcie for that :) it was on a tuesday, we went out partying the whole night-we had work in the morning, dancing bhangra at 3 am in the car..hung over the next morning..but it was the awesomest birthday away from home i've had so far :)

Mr Bum on the other hand, didn't know what was happening to me.. Suddenly from an introvert I started telling him where to get off.he wanted me to cry on my birthday-I DON'T THINK SO..and that is when Jazeera started growing balls again :p :p I started believing in myself. I started knowing my worth even though my sufuria hair cut was still existant. i could have worn a toupee and been passed for a french hobo or something-wait do they have hobos in france??

then comes the one day that's apparently Valentines day...oh my that was quite funny-so all of a sudden mr bum decides that he is really missing me and well waseem and him were also friends from before-he tell's another woman's husband ie bum tell waseem to buy flowers :/ waseem and i had a laugh about that coz clearly, it wasn't happening.

and marcie's birthday-there was a woman in a red dress-i don't remember much from that night except I made a mistake ( I won't air it in public) that cost me a friend for a whole year and some..somethings are just meant to stay with a person you know :p :p :p i can't tell you everything now can I? ;)

then there was the zumba class that we all had to attend on a friday morning. Now you must know, friday morning in the arab world is like sunday morning everywhere else..but noooo we had to go for zumba..okay i'm not against zumba-infact I LOVE ZUMBA...but not on my only day off so early in the morning..heheheehe..we made up for it with burger king and 100 pieces of dunkin donuts  :p :p

and don't forget i'm supposed to be losing a supposed 4 kgs a week.

I got used to living the life of a workaholic, getting used to the members at the club, they started loving the way i coach and then BOOM..I got shifted...and all this because yavanna left, they needed more staff at the other branch and to make my life more difficult :( that was one of my first sad moments in doha :(




the 3rd Interview...my entry into Qatar

1ST January 2013-i get an email for the 3rd final interview...i'm still in the bush mind you and the interview was for that night..

need to rush and get back to nairobi in time for the interview..and the 1st thing that goes on in my head is WHY ARE THESE PEOPLE WORKING ON THE 1ST JANUARY...my first welcome into the whirlwind world of the Arabs :)

Clearly I got the job..remember Mr Bum-he had no idea :p :p I told him the day before I was leaving :D :D that's on the 24th of jan..no one else knew except people who were very close to me...it's like i did a magic trick :p maybe I should add that to my CV..YOU THINK IT WOULD WORK?? Jazeera the physiotherapist/magician...loooool

So Mr Bum and I are doing the whole long distance thing..and I'm off to Doha..my 1st welcome there was with a friend of mine :) Waseem-we had been friends for a long while since high school..it was nice to have some one i knew there-his reaction to me was WTF HAPPENED TO YOU?? you must know i was wearing baggy clothes and had a haircut as if I had put a sufuria on my head and just chopped my  hair any how no shape or style and I WAS FAT..then the PRO Emad-oh myyyy...no English..more like English shway shway (little little)...and that is when i learnt that my very good english would not work in doha...

The first real friend I made in Doha, Marica :) oh my she had my back no matter what from helping me lift my suitcase up those crazy stairs, to helping me get myself confidence back, to helping me lose the weight, to making me feel like I could achieve anything in this world. I was a physiotherapist, working in a gym learning new things and teaching what I knew :) we were like 2 bum cheeks that didn't want to be separated.

then the 1st morning-I met Vic...the horror was plain on her face as she looked me up and down, she was probably thinking how did this child land this job..till today I don't know what was running through her head..if only i had the power to read minds..hahahahahaa.. I was crazy scared of her, ..she became my mentor eventually and helped me through alot of stuff going on in that place..she also helped me get my confidence back...I love this woman to bits today :)

and that was just the beginning..stay tuned for more ;)


OMG IT HAS BEEN A WHILE :) the rest of 2012 and how i got to 2013

sooooo apparently the last time I blogged was august 2012...

ohhh my so much has happened since then :) things are abit hazy but lets see how well i can remember :)

2013 was clearly the year for me...

yours truly went to Qatar, Doha...

but before i go there...In November 2012, i had an epiphany :p it was that I was with a jerk of a boyfriend-yeah we all go through those phases init :P soooo he was a total arse..two kids (not mine) but i accepted it :) turns out he decided that his ex wife, ex gf, my best friend and any other person who had a vagina was on his to do list..didn't matter what they looked like...welllll let's just say my inspiration to go to Qatar was justified the day he decided to turn things on me..apparently he was only with me because I wanted him to be with me...wtttfff right...so I kept quiet and did what I had to do...I needed time for myself and I was gonna get it...

Clearly being around people I knew since I was a child, wasn't good enough for me..I started applying for jobs OUTSIDE OF KENYA.

November 28th..i had my 1st interview :D :D :D which i may add I TOTALLY BUGGERED UP...rotflmao...i told the lady on the other side of the skype call that one of my weaknesses was that I CAN BE ABIT LAZY.....who in this world can sabotage the one job they want???? MEEEEEEE

okay so she says she will contact me in 2 weeks to let me know whether i got the job or not...clearly I was like yeah right she is never gonna call me...but I had the number from the initial call..

btw i might add I was still with the boy..i don't understand us women really...why is it, we always go for the bums of the world huh??? it's like we have no other thing to do but get men who treat us like door mats then we cry about it...but i'm glad to say, i told him where to get off eventually..it took me a long while..that's a story for another day :p

2 weeks later I still hadn't heard from the lady..of course I wouldn't have, but well I decided to change my luck...I called them :p and they scheduled my 2nd interview...unfortunately for me, she skyped me when I was sitting on the pot (I say thank God for smart phones being invented) - buutt have you ever tried to fart on the low though a job interview...maaaan I would have to say, that was the HARDEST INTERVIEW I have ever had to sit through :p :p but it seems like I THINK BETTER ON THE POT coz a few weeks later i was called for a 3rd and final interview.

But before the 3rd and final interview was christmas break..I was supposed to go to zanzibar without my bf..actually I had got another job there..but my dad the great had said no...You do remember my indian dad from the previous blogs..the one who knows everything-my dad actually reminds me of russel peter's dad when Russel talks...SOMEBADY GONNA GET HURTTTT...hope my dad doesn't read this :p :p He wasn't happy about me going to Zanzibar soooo it was his way or the high way..clearly I was bummed...beach job *sigh*..oh well there it goes coz papa said no...

back to the fact that I was going without the bum..sooo he had made plans to go without me on holiday-i'm totally fine with that idea...what annoyed me was that IT WAS WITH ANOTHER GIRL :/ :/ anyway christmas break I went to the bush with my brother and his gf and one of their friends..it was good fun...at this point I was almost 80kg hating myself, my self confidence totally shattered. I needed out...desperately.

New years night-bum the great was with his ex wife instead of me :/ :/ he had in his head this idea that since I didn't go to Zanzibar, there is no way in hell my dad would let me go to Qatar. Honestly, I was also worried about this...would my father let me go to across the seas to a whole new world, a different continent.....hmmmm..would I pass the 3rd interview...when is the 3rd interview...