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Gavin Baldwin            

Ramadan Kareem

9/4/2009

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I’ve lived in various countries around the Middle East (on and off) for the last 10 years or so. Although now based in the frozen wastes of Aberdeen I still make occasional trips back to the old haunts of Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Cairo and Dubai. It’s a part of the world I feel a great affection for, not least because I’m still cashing in the air-miles, and it’s an area in which I still have many friends.

As I write this, I’m coming to the end of a 4 day trip to Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. It’s the Holiest Month in the Muslim calendar – Ramadan – and for many visitors to a Muslim country, it can be a source of curiosity, frustration and bewilderment. In many countries, like Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, Muslims observe Ramadan by abstaining from eating, drinking, smoking or love making during the daylight hours. As you can imagine, some of these are perhaps a little more inconvenient than others. Muslims then break their fast at sunset and often feast and pray long into the night. It’s a time for contemplation, celebration and family get-togethers. To help cope with the strain that this lifestyle change puts upon its observers, Muslims are permitted to work reduced hours during the month. Many will sleep in the afternoon, making up the hours they’ve lost the night before and waking only for prayer. I guess it’s a little bit like working a month of night shifts where every day is Christmas.

Of course for non-Muslims, the abstinence applies purely to public areas. No picnics on the beach, beer gardens at lunchtime are out of the question and that post-coital cigarette in the park is an absolute no-no. With such restrictions in place it can be a frustrating time for non-Muslims going about their normal working day. In some countries, like Egypt for example, shops and restaurants remain open. Muslims observe Ramadan in exactly the same way however there is precious little in the way of enforcement for other religions. For me, this slightly more tolerant approach is perhaps more understandable but no more or less correct. I’m happy to observe local traditions and festivals when visiting a foreign country, and find much of the culture quite fascinating. Having said that however, I do find enforcing practices on people who are not merely visiting, but in fact working for the betterment of that country, a little dictatorial.

Of course, as with all things, there are work-arounds, compromises and occasionally benefits. In most offices, non-Muslim staff will head to the ‘room of sin’ for a cheeky coffee and biscuit if their throats are dry; safely out of sight of the less tolerant or weaker willed. It makes for quite a nice little social gathering, especially if you happen to work alone in an office. It’s also a fact that with a large portion of the population working reduced hours, there’s a natural slowing down of the wheels of industry. Expats can’t help but fall into a slightly more relaxed, holiday mode. Roads are quieter, queues are shorter and pressure is less. But perhaps the biggest benefit of this somewhat curious month comes at the end. Having spent thirty days enjoying the wonders of midnight feasts, family gatherings, and reduced office hours..... we all get a holiday. Just as it should be!
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My First Website

8/25/2009

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Building a website is a funny old game. I’ve wanted one for quite some time now, but I must admit that paying someone to do it for me seemed like an awful lot of trouble. I had visions of long and protracted phone conversations with some faceless bloke in Wolverhampton, followed by endless emails, passing photos and bits of personal information back and forth for months on end, trying to get it all setup the way I wanted it. Of course two months down the line everything would be out of date and I’d need to go through the whole sorry process again. So I fast came to the conclusion that it’s something you really need to do yourself. Having said that, I just don’t have the time, patience, inclination or aptitude to spend weeks learning how to build one from scratch. I never really got to grips with French at school, so I figure the chances of learning any other language (especially a programming one) are pretty much zero.

Luckily for me however, there are now a whole bunch of free website builders out there in intra-web land. They mostly follow the chunky button, Fisher-Price, My First Website, approach which is absolutely perfect for me, making it no longer necessary to pay someone a small fortune to build and maintain one for you. And of course with all of the cost and technical mumbo jumbo taken care of, the whole process becomes really rather fun. Once the realm of the privileged few, now every Tom, Dick or Gavin can have a professional looking website for little more than an hour or two’s investment at lunchtime.

Obviously one of the first things you need for any website is a theme. The list of sites currently available on the net is mind-boggling large and growing daily. Perhaps the only thing more amazing than the number of sites available being the diversity, with just about every service, need, requirement, hobby and fetish is catered for. If you want to standout in any way from this rather eclectic crowd, it’s going to be a pretty tall order. For some of course, standing out, is not such an issue. For them it’s enough to merely have a presence out there in cyberspace. They feel it’s sufficient to register a domain name and then sit on it until either the subscription runs out or some mega-corporation buys it off them. For some it’s all about expression of a lifelong passion or the inner workings of their troubled and, in some cases, twisted mind, while for others it’s purely a business decision and an aide to making a few more quid. One thing is for sure, having a website is now about as common as having a cell phone or a business card and, in many situations, just as necessary.

Despite all this however, I wasn’t quite prepared for the thrill and excitement of setting up my own site. As websites go it’s nothing really startling; it’s purely about me. It’s built around the premise that I am an ‘Artiste’ (in more than one sense of the word) with stuff to offer, and by visiting my site, Joe Public may just decide that I’m exactly what they need for some highly visible and extremely lucrative, upcoming project. I’ve resisted the urge to swamp the pages with information about my hobbies and interests – my Ford Capri doesn’t even get a mention – and mercifully there are no pictures of pets or children’s birthday parties. There are no holiday snaps or out of focus pictures of my last night out. There’s none of those hideous little rotating gif images, beloved of certain sites or nauseating background music that has you pouncing for the mute button in the office. I’ve even opted for a straightforward, black and white colour scheme so hopefully shouldn’t offend the purists too much.

Now I know what you’re thinking; “That all sounds pretty bloody boring”. But before you dismiss the site completely, I can tell you that I’ve done some research and come up with what I think is a sure fire way to help my website stand out from the crowd. There’s absolutely no porn.
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Drug of Choice

8/6/2009

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Everyone has their drug of choice. Now I’m not for a minute suggesting illegal activities here, although I realise many will almost certainly dabble in that area. Most of us however, will be drawn to something far less controversial, though often no less addictive. Take adrenalin for example. Adrenalin junkies must surely outnumber many other dependants out there; the overwhelming need for that daily rush of endorphins. I can get it cycling to work if I take the hilly route but the office doesn’t have a shower, so for the sake of my co-workers I tend to keep on the flat. For some however only the gym will do, while for one or two more extreme souls it requires throwing themselves out of airplanes or off bridges – hopefully after making some kind of provision for the landing.
 
Then of course there’s the big two; booze and fags – alcohol and nicotine – drink and cigarettes. Many end up going for both; I’m told they work quite well together. Personally, given the choice of liver disease or lung cancer, I’ll take the former any day of the week. I don’t mind a game of cards every now and then but doing both just seems like too big a gamble to me. When I think of just how much of a hold those two have over so many people around the globe, it’s incredible. I could no more give up alcohol than I could driving. Of course if a doctor came up to me and said "pack in the booze today sonny", it would be a different matter, but to simply give up? No chance, I don’t have the will power.
 
Of course no discussion on recreational drug use would be complete without doffing the proverbial cap (or cup) to caffeine? Coffee, as we know it, was introduced nearly 500 years ago and is the staple pick-me-up for millions around the globe. Most office workers, like me, seem to be on a near constant drip feed of instant or long over-brewed coffee. And of course caffeine has also now found its way into the fizzy drinks market. Only last week, feeling a little sluggish, I foolishly drank two cans of Red Bull. The sluggishness certainly disappeared but I felt utterly terrible for the rest of the afternoon.
 
Finally, hand’s up all those who are addicted to Phenylethylamine? It’s a pretty addictive substance. In fact your brain produces Phenylethylamine, or PEA, during times of intense feelings of love. I’m sure we all know one or two people who prefer the feelings associated with courtship and conquest over perhaps a more long term relationship. This “in love” drug, as I’m sure many of you ‘think you know’ is also found in chocolate. I say ‘think’ because similarities between being in love and eating chocolate unfortunately end there. There’s actually 25 times more PEA in a wedge of cheddar cheese than there is in chocolate. Not surprisingly however, the broken hearted don’t often turn to a plate of Cathedral City for post relationship comfort.
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    Some thoughts on Blogging...

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    Goodness me, there are literally hundreds of outlets for the creative mind these days. Whether it's such a good thing, putting all this verbiage out there for general consumption, remains to be seen.

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