My efforts to do something interesting tonight with friends hadn’t turned out as planned. My highly successful illustrator friend who I met while interning at a multinational ad agency, was as usual overloaded with work and had to stay late at the office to complete a number of story boards that were assigned to her. I was hoping to go to the movies with her or maybe have dinner. I wasn’t surprised though when I called her only to hear her tired voice on the other end of the line, explaining to me the amount of work that she had to finish. Another plan to explore the top of the burj Khalifa was also doomed when my friend had bought one ticket online for himself and informed me later that all the tickets were sold out till the end of the week! Hence, his prompt action in purchasing a ticket online since he is in town for a week only.
But that’s OK, plans are subject to failure sometimes. So in practicing my neighbor’s (and book that she gave me) advise in getting out of my comfort zone, I have decided to go for a walk in my area and have dinner somewhere and maybe read some pages from my book. Another reason I had to get out from my place was to take a break from the noisy neighbors (I can explain this further in another post).
As the weather has cooled down a bit these days, especially in the evenings, you could see the walk way get lively again with people exercising. It seemed as if they were hiding in their apartments throughout the summer and are so excited to finally be able to go out for walks even with a mild heat in the air. You might be wondering how I know that they were hiding in the summer…well, I did find myself the only person walking those pavements on a few nights in the middle of the summer and Ramadan. You can say that I am immune to the heat and humidity as I grew up in the region and am therefore used to the scorching heat.
What I am not used to however is seeing couples spending quality time together and doing all sorts of activities together. Where I come from, the norm is to see groups of ladies or men together, or families….seeing couples would be a rare exception.
When I was in London, I was exposed to PDA’s of all kind…and it wasn’t unusual because it was Europe and that’s how things always were in that part of the world. But I didn’t expect to see as many PDA’s when I moved to Dubai. Simply because it’s the Middle East and we have strict rules regarding that subject.
Tonight,as I took a brisk walk in my area, I saw couples walking, jogging, cycling, sitting on benches, maybe sharing a meal and conversing.
I felt as if I’m the only person walking alone in that setting of happy people in love, spending quality time together, while staying healthy and fit both physically and mentally.
I started to pay more attention to my surroundings, in the hopes of fining a solo walker like me. From a distance, I could see a man doing stretches over the lake rails….I thought to myself: “Here’s a guy exercising alone, so I’m not the only one after all.” Then, as I got closer to where he was, I saw him walk towards the grass where a lady was sitting on the ground doing stretches as well! He went up to her and that confirmed to me that they were together.
Now you would think that the drama ends here, but it does not! I went to try an area cafe that’s been open for ages, but I never thought of going in because I would always pass by it at the end of my workout and would be heading to eat my healthy sandwich or something. But tonight, I wanted to have a warm drink and a piece of cake to uplift my mood that has just been downsized by a bunch of happy, upbeat, and fit couples.
It was as if the theme for tonight read: Couples only. Even my order of carrot cake came in two pieces! The pieces were arranged so close to one another in the plate with a swirl of caramel sauce that spelled out the letter for the cafe.
I ate one piece and took the other one home….why? the page I was reading from my book clearly stated the following:
“To change this cycle, you must focus instead on thinking, talking, and writing about the reality you want to create. You must flood your unconscious with thoughts and images of this new reality.”
You can’t expect me to meet anyone special soon by eating both pieces of that cake, do you? I had to act as if there was someone sharing that cake with me and having the second piece.
Yeah right! I was just too full and will definitely have the other piece tomorrow when I’m craving something sweet to eat….
To all the people in or out of love, I hope you will enjoy this track as much as I do:
Good night and sweet dreams!