Last Friday Morning…

On Thursday night, my flatmates (1 guy and 2 gals) and I planned to go out on Friday morning just for breakfast, spend time by the sea and a little bit of road trip. I was skeptical about the plan because first, one of the girls is on graveyard shift, she’d definitely want to sleep once she comes home at around 6:30 AM. Next, the guy and the other girl would prefer to sleep on Friday morning rather than go out. And as for me, I don’t want to go to the sea. It’s definitely not my kind of thing.

Surprisingly, among us three at home that morning, I was the first to wake up. After half an hour or so, I’m still the only one awake and definitely ready to go out. Guess I was excited after all. 🙂

The gal who’s on a graveyard shift texted me and was asking if we’re ready because we have to pick her up at 6. So I tried calling the other two coz I don’t want to knock on their doors. So the guy woke up but the other gal decided not to go. And so the guy and I drove our way to the airport after some time to pick-up the other. And we got lost! Our home is very near the airport and we could have reached it in 5 minutes but instead arrived there more or less an hour late. But our roommate didn’t seem to mind because she even bought for us these delicious cinnamon rolls.

And so off we go for a place to eat.

We ended up here…

We had breakfast at Prime & Toast. It’s the only one we saw open at the time so we didn’t have a choice and our tummies are growling already.

Menu

Prime & Toast Breakfast

Afterwards, we went inside the Movenpick Hotel and had a view of the sea from there. I was thankful for the really hot weather at the time because my flatmates gave up on going to the seaside! 🙂

Afterwards, we drove for a few more minutes and went back home because it’s becoming scorchingly hot again. Temperatures here in Kuwait these days is still between 42°C – 48°C though it feels hotter than that.

Anyhow, it was a wonderful Friday morning with my flatmates. I don’t normally go out on Friday mornings because I prefer spending it in the comfort of my bed but it’s nice doing something else once in a while.

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Quote of the Week

Ships don’t sink because of the water around them; 

ships sink because of the water that get in them.

Don’t let what’s happening around you get inside you and weigh you down.

-Unknown

Photo of the Day

So true! 

Saw this in front of Prime & Toast in Al Bida’a. Small but nice place. 

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

Book #16.

This amazing book is the story of Ove, an old man with a Saab, who’s never afraid to tell people about what he thinks whether you want to hear it or not. Though Ove pretty much acts like a grumpy old man, he was never annoying to me. He’s not the kind of person you’d want to come across with in the beginning but the more pages you read, the more you will love him. Ove has a big heart and helps people in his own different way.  I don’t know how to say it but there’s something irresistible about him.

The plot goes to and fro the past and present to help us understand why Ove behaves the way he does. It talks about everyday events but will not make you bored in any way. It’s an easy read that will make you laugh out loud or pull your heartstrings every now and then.

To make a long story short, this book is something that will make you appreciate the people around you, and the animals, too, and that small things really matter a lot. At some point, my heart hurts but in a good way. And I don’t think I’d ever look at a quiet, reticent person the same way ever again.

Quotable Quotes :

“Loving someone is like moving into a house. At first you fall in love with all the new things, amazed every morning that all this belongs to you, as if fearing that someone would suddenly come rushing in through the door to explain that a terrible mistake had been made, you weren’t actually supposed to live in a wonderful place like this. Then over the years the walls become weathered, the wood splinters here and there, and you start to love that house not so much because of all its perfection, but rather its imperfections. You get to know all the nooks and crannies. How to avoid getting the key caught in the lock when it’s cold outside. Which of the floorboards flex slightly when one steps on them or exactly how to open the wardrobe doors without their creaking. These are the little secrets that make it your home.”

“Death is a strange thing. People live their whole lives as if it does not exist, and yet it’s often one of the great motivations for the living. Some of us, in time, become so conscious of it that we live harder, more obstinately, with more fury. Some need its constant presence to even be aware of its antithesis. Others become so preoccupied with it that they go into the waiting room long before it has announced its arrival. We fear it, yet most of us fear more than anything that it may take someone other than ourselves. For the greatest fear of death is always that it will pass us by. And leave us there alone.”

“We always think there’s enough time to do things with other people. Time to say things to them. And then something happens and then we stand there holding on to words like ‘if'”

“All roads lead to something you were predestined to do.”

“He was a man of black and white. And she was color. All the color he had.”

Rating : 5/5 stars

Quote of the Week

The measure of hell you’re able to endure is the measure of your love.

-Ayn Rand

Oh Life! How Unpredictable…

I’ve been through a lot of pain/heartache this past few weeks. What happened was something really unexpected. I think this is the moment in my life where it’s really sinking in — not everything you want in life goes the way you want and plan it to! It’s very different when I was younger, when I was still a little girl, when I was still a teenager. It was different when I got my first “real” job. It’s funny how we know how we want our lives to be like when we were kids. It’s like we know how our lives are going to turn out when we grow up. But it’s different then. It’s different now.

My life now is not even a fraction near to what I thought my life would be when I was 7. Oh not that it’s a bad thing, I’ve been happy with what happened to me, really. A lot of good and bad things happened to me along the way and it led me to where I am today. I get to experience things I never thought I could do. I get to feel emotions I never thought I’d feel. I became what I never thought I’d be.

Yes, life is really unpredictable and maybe the best thing we can do is to let it be. Let it happen and be prepared for its unpredictability. Accept the fact that life is unpredictable and we can’t always have it our way. It may be painful sometimes, heartbreaking even, but we should not forget that God has a purpose for everything. After all, as cliché as it may sound, life is a journey. You can’t always predict what happens. There may be “stopovers” once in a while but it’s always up to us how to resume with our lives from there.

Happy Tuesday, homo sapiens!

Quote of the Week

Letting go is the easy part. It’s the moving on that’s painful. So sometimes we fight it, trying to keep things the same. Things can’t stay the same though. At some point, you just have to let go, move on. Because no matter how painful it is, it’s the only way we grow.

-Meredith Grey

It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover

Naked truth? I love Colleen Hoover!

Book #15.

This is the very first book I’ve read in my entire life where I didn’t even bother reading the synopsis first. I saw the title then the author. Must read!

This book really came to me at just the right time. I loved it from the very first page and somehow I can relate with Lily. I loved how determined she was in making her decisions and it was just a week or so when I myself had to make one of the biggest and most important decision in my life. I say I can relate with Lily because I am also very determined with the decision I just made, I had to make hard choices for the right reasons.

“Just because we didn’t end up on the same wave, doesn’t mean we aren’t still a part of the same ocean.”

It Ends with Us is just my second CoHo read but I can definitely say that I am now a really big fan of hers. The book is so real to me. Very honest. Very personal. And yes, it made me cry.

Colleen Hoover, thank you. You were able to put into words what a lot had failed to. And for that, thank you. I’ll just keep swimming for now… until I reach the shore.

Quotable Quotes:

“Just because someone hurts you doesn’t mean you can simply stop loving them. It’s not a person’s actions that hurt the most. It’s the love. If there was no love attached to the action, the pain would be a little easier to bear.”

“Maybe love isn’t something that comes full circle. It just ebbs and flows, in and out, just like the people in our lives.”

“Sometimes even grown women need their mother’s comfort so we can just take a break from having to be strong all the time.”

“Cycles exist because they are excruciating to break. It takes an astronomical amount of pain and courage to disrupt a familiar pattern. Sometimes it seems easier to just keep running in the same familiar circles, rather than facing the fear of jumping and possibly not landing on your feet.”

“I’m sure there’s more substance in the love between two adults than there is between two teenagers. There’s probably more maturity, more respect, more responsibility. But no matter how different the substance of a love might be at different ages in a person’s life, I know that love still has to weigh the same. You feel that weight on your shoulders and in your stomach and on your heart no matter how old you are.”

Rating : 5/5 stars

Quote of the Week

There is no such thing as bad people.

We’re all just people who sometimes do bad things.

–Colleen Hoover, It Ends with Us

I’m Moving On…

Stardust by Neil Gaiman

Book #14. Another Neil Gaiman.

Stardust is about Tristran Thorn who promised Victoria Forester that he will retrieve a fallen star on the other side of the Wall. On this other side of the Wall, fallen stars are beautiful girls whose hearts are taken by witches. The book chronicles Tristran’s adventures from talking trees, unicorns, witches and a lot more.

The book wasn’t too fast-paced but not too slow as well. It makes you wonder just like his other books. It’s nice and entertaining to read. The last forty pages or so were the best parts for me. I also liked the characters the way I liked the characters in his other books. The bantering between Tristran and Yvaine were fun. I just enjoy bantering between characters in books. 🙂

I don’t know if other readers will agree but I think the ending was perfect. It’s bittersweet but I think it’s the best way to end the book. I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.

All in all, it’s another good read!

Quotable Quotes :

“She says nothing at all, but simply stares upward into the dark sky and watches, with sad eyes, the slow dance of the infinite stars.”

“He stared up at the stars: and it seemed to him then that they were dancers, stately and graceful, performing a dance almost infinite in its complexity. He imagined he could see the very faces of the stars; pale, they were, and smiling gently, as if they had spent so much time above the world, watching the scrambling and the joy and the pain of the people below them, that they could not help being amused every time another little human believed itself the center of its world, as each of us does.”

“He wondered how it could have taken him so long to realize he cared for her, and he told her so, and she called him an idiot, and he declared that it was the finest thing that ever a man had been called.”

“It’s not hard to own something. Or everything. You just have to know that it’s yours, and then be willing to let it go.”

“Are we human because we gaze at the stars, or do we gaze at the stars because we are human?”

Rating : 4/5 stars