blogger friends Archives - Undefined Declarations

Turning 35: A Birthday Iftar Celebration and Some Reflections

This year, my friends and I chose a Peruvian restaurant for our Birthday Iftar celebration. My friend’s husband’s birthday is on the 16th of July. My birthday falls on the 15th of the same month. So we’ve been doing a one day celebration with our groups of friends for the past two years.

Tesoro is a fine dining Peruvian concept located at the new Taj Hotel Dubai. The place has a very eclectic and modern feel to it. It’s also very spacious with a huge terrace overlooking the Burj Khalifah.

Thankfully, everyone had a great time and loved the tasty creations by the Chefs at Tesoro.

So, another year has passed. I’m 35, single and still looking for a suitable job or paid internship in Dubai.

I’m grateful for the good friends that I have in this magical city, and those who shared my special day with me.

I’m also blessed for being able to constantly learn new things and new ways to develop and grow – both professionally and personally.

I’m thankful for the experiences that I had and that I continue to have. Like doing random activities, meeting people from different backgrounds and cultures, and discovering something new along the way.

What’s my plan for future days?

Honestly, I think it’s time for me to be more self-involved and self-centered. Nothing can be more disappointing to a diva than investing time and energy into projects or people and not getting similar vibes in return.

Some people like to put their self-interests first, set their own rules, and then expect others to entertain them. Well, I can publicly declare that I’m not Mother Teresa and that I never will be!

When I give someone my time, it’s because I genuinely want to. But I also have realistic expectations to be treated in the same way!

Basically, it’s now time for me to focus more on my career and personal life. I need to eventually land a full-time role that I enjoy doing. I also need to find a loving and supportive partner.

As for this blog – a project that has been so exciting to work on, and very close to my heart. It was an honest representation of my life, my struggles, my dreams and aspirations.

The time for this website to end is getting near. But I have plans to start another blog with a different niche. You can stay updated with my news and new blog news by following me on social media:

Facebook Page

Twitter

Instagram: nadaalghowainim

Update: New Blog is now Live!

Here’s the link for my new blog:

Saudi Diva Blog

I’m very active on Twitter and Instagram these days. So make sure to follow me to stay in touch with my news.

Being 35 and single means that I have the strength and independence to make significant life decisions.

It also makes for a good time to reflect on those life decisions and possibly rethink my priorities.

Love,

The Rebellious Saudi Diva XXX

A dual Birthday Celebration with genuine Dubai people

Bonus Track to listen to while working or reading this post!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6B8btpBWNo

Undefined Declarations’ List: Top 10 Things I like about being a Blogger

Blogging from Cafes becomes a lifestyle for most bloggers

My previous Top 10 List was about being raised by parents from the Gulf region. I come from a moderately conservative family. We are not liberal, but we’re also not extremely conservative or religious. Here’s a link for that post if you missed it.

Today’s list includes the top 10 things that I like about being a blogger. I started this blog in September 2012 to showcase my writing to potential employers. Now, it’s more of a hobby and sometimes feels like a full-time role!

I present to you the top reasons that keep me hooked to writing blog posts:

I can work from almost any location that I feel like working from. Writing blog posts can be done from the comfort of my bed, a cafe across the road, or even from the beach if I had the time and luxury of carrying around a laptop, and a beach bag full of beach essentials.
Jumeirah Mosque view at this Starbucks Middle East location
I can write posts at any time of the day. On most days, I have a couple of things to get done. So, blogging is something that might not come at the top of my priority list. That’s when I can write in the evenings – when most people are watching TV, reading, socializing, or out having dinner or drinks. This point can be a disadvantage to blogging too. But that will be discussed in another post 🙂
I get to do creative work, that I choose myself, without any supervision or editing from another party. Unlike working for a publishing house and adhering to certain rules and regulations, blogging gives the writer the freedom of expression and writing within their personal set of rules and limitations.
I get invited to review restaurant meals, spa treatments and other cool stuff. When I first started the blog, I was reviewing these things anyway, because I enjoyed it. After some time of hard work, the blog gained more followers and I started to get invites to review meals, and other stuff. The only issue these days is that, with my University course work, I don’t have the same free time I used to have when I first started the blog. That’s why, I don’t write as many reviews as I used to in the past.
Being a blogger means that I’m considered as a media person. This grants me access to events as press. It also allows me to network with other media professionals, and others from the media industry.
One thing that I really like about blogging is meeting other bloggers. Whether they are based in the same city, or on another continent, it’s always great to meet like-minded people. Most bloggers share many traits in common; they are interesting, determined and curious individuals. We love to learn new things, and we are pretty good in taking action.
What I just Love the Blog and I catching up over lunch
Blogging allows me to share my thoughts, experiences, views and ideas with my readers. It makes me so ecstatic to hear that a reader found my post insightful, or that they learned so many things from it. It equally brightens my day when someone tells me that what I wrote resonates with their own experience very strongly.
I love that blogging has helped me practice – and hopefully – improve my writing skills. I think most of all, it gave me the confidence that I needed to keep writing. It helped me stay focused on my goal of becoming a better writer and journalist.
It helped me build on my social and networking skills. I started to attend all kinds of events when I started this blog. This was mainly to meet new people and to generate blog content. It was very exciting to meet people from different backgrounds and industries. At that time, I was mixing with people from the fashion, arts, food or media industries. That fitted well with the blog concept, as I was writing a lifestyle blog that covered all these topics. Nowadays, I still enjoy attending random events. But due to my time constraints, I have to be more selective with the events that I choose to attend. Of course once I’m done with my course, I should be able to attend more events and network with people from various communities.
Being a blogger who doesn’t outsource anything to another party means that you need a set of multiple skills. I truly enjoy being the following:

The editor who comes up with the idea for the post.
The photographer who takes the pictures for the post.
The writer and editor who writes and then edits the words and images.
The marketing and PR person who promotes the blog.
The social media person who promotes the blog and the posts on social media.
The communications person who attends events and tells people about the blog.
The entrepreneurial spirit who constantly goes through ups and downs, but never gives up.

As you can see, blogging is a very fun and engaging way to communicate with others and express your feelings and thoughts through words. I love hearing positive feedback as much as I love hearing critical remarks. So feel free to leave a comment or not 🙂

The next post will be a list of the things that I don’t like about being a blogger. So stay tuned for that!

Till then, Have a wonderful weekend ahead. No matter how you choose to spend it!

XXX

Coffee breaks are more fun when blogging is involved :) — Coffee breaks are more fun when blogging is involved 🙂

UD Style Shoot: Vintage Vibes

Nada from Undefined Declarations in a Warehouse dress

If you’re not following my blog’s Facebook Page, then you might have missed our first fashion photo shoot. You can still browse the photos of my collaboration with Le Monde Des Petites from the album posted on my Facebook Page. While you are there, you might want to hit the “like” button to stay updated with the latest posts from this spontaneous and crazy lifestyle blog 🙂

Let’s have a look at the photos from our second style photo shoot, with details of the fashion brands worn by the model – the writer of this blog 🙂

My dad was in town, and for a belated birthday gift, I asked him to get me some charms for my brand new Pandora bracelet – which I recently got as a birthday gift too! Since I love a bit of a vintage style in almost everything, I chose a retro theme for my charms and made my selection from their uber cool oxidized charms collection.

The angel-wings ring is from O’ De Rose and it matches almost anything that I wear. It’s a very playful and everyday accessory that you can wear with almost any outfit – even with a casual T-shirt and jeans.

Earrings are from O' De Rose — Earrings are from O’ De Rose

Pendant Necklace is from O' De Rose — Pendant Necklace is from O’ De Rose

The metallic-studded sandals I am wearing are from a recent collection at River Island…

This exotic and multi-print day dress is from Warehouse. It’s a great summer essentials timeless piece to wear for a day at the beach club or a day out with the girls for lunch or coffee. So simple, elegant, and extremely comfy and light for the hot summer months.

This fabulous and original sequined clutch bag is a piece that I got a while back from the renowned Zara. It’s so versatile that you can wear it to a night out with friends, a day out on the beach, or even to accessorize a basic outfit at a media networking event! Now how’s that for multiple ways to wear a pastel-sequined Zara clutch bag? 🙂

Sadly, my friend Julie from the blog Le Monde Des Petites is leaving Dubai for good soon. So this photo shoot was only our second style shoot together, and also the farewell meeting for us. That’s the thing with this city, it’s so transient that you constantly find yourself meeting new interesting and genuine people, connecting with them on various levels, and then saying your good-byes when it’s time for them to move to another expat destination or back to their home towns! But, because we must always look at the bright side of every situation, the good thing about this is that I get to have friends at different cities across the globe, who I can visit when I travel 🙂

Thank you Julie for the lovely times we shared, despite them not being too many…I wish you all the best in everything and I look forward to seeing you again – hopefully soon! XXX

The lady on the left is Araceli from What I just Love, the one in the middle is Julie from Le Monde Des Petites. And I’m on the right 🙂

For more cool photos, random posts and updates from this blog, follow my blog’s fan page XXX

A bonus “behind the scenes” look into our vintage-themed photo shoot 😉

Undefined Declarations Hosts The Carnival of Weekend Wanderings!

I’m delighted to be hosting the Carnival of Weekend Wanderings on July 4. It’s a very interesting and fun concept that brings together bloggers of all genres and allows a way for us to get introduced to other bloggers and their pages. I have personally found it a great opportunity to make new friends from the blogging community through the Carnival Blog. You never know who you will meet next; it could be someone who lives in your neighborhood or city.

Of course the blog carnival also helps to promote other blogs and drive more traffic into them. It’s also a great way to find out about what others have been up to in their weekend, and possibly get inspired by their story 🙂

“The Carnival of Weekend Wanderings” is a publication of posts once every two weeks about your weekend answering the simple questions:

Where did you go? What did you do?

To participate in the next blog carnival, all you need to do is to submit the link for your weekend blog post on the following submission form:

http://blogcarnival.com/bc/submit_16781.html

If the above website is down, you can send your article links directly to my e-mail: undefineddeclarations at gmail dot com

To know more about the Carnival of Weekend Wanderings, check out Grace from Sandier Pastures‘s post about it here.

If you have any questions, please feel free to comment on this post or drop me an e-mail. I look forward to hearing your weekend stories 🙂

Taking a Short Break.

Dear blog readers and followers,

As you may have noticed, I haven’t written any new posts for a while. It’s not that I haven’t done anything interesting in the past week or so, or am suffering from writer’s mind blockage or apathy or anything like that. Mainly, I haven’t been feeling too well for the past few weeks. That was due to the weather change and to me doing too many things and not getting enough rest. That’s why I decided to take a short break from blogging and the whole rat race (as people call it). Mind you, I still managed to check out a newly opened cafe in my area (to maybe write a review about it), and I had to keep checking and responding to my e-mails, and of course my Facebook page. I also continued to post stuff on that page in an effort to keep things going. Even when I wasn’t feeling too good myself.

But I believe that something good comes out from everything that happens to us in our lives…Taking a short break helped me reflect on my priorities in life and maybe add some balance into other areas of my life. For the past couple of years, due to personal circumstances, I have been focusing mostly on my career. And since that hasn’t been going too well for me, I think it’s time to re-arrange my priorities in life. I’m not saying that I will write less blog posts or put in less effort into my career path (because I’m not even sure I can do that after all this time and effort that I’ve invested in that area), I just plan to put in more effort into other places that I might have neglected all those years in my search for financial and personal freedom and independence.

What are those other areas you might ask? well, I will leave that for you to figure out. I think it’s easy to know what they are once you read my about page and find out some simple facts about me and my personal life.

One main positive thing that came out from this short break and the connection with other blogger friends was to realize that we should not loose ourselves in our chase for material or success-related goals. We should always be reminded that life is a game and we should have fun while playing it. We should stay grounded and stay true to our selves. We should keep our sense of self-integrity and keep our standards high no matter how bad the going gets tough.

Most importantly, we should try to always help others along the way when we can.

Finally, I would like to mention that a few things need to be revised in my blog. Mostly concerning the topics that I write about. I have driven myself into extreme stress and exhaustion by trying to cover as many interesting topics as I could. And the time has come for that to end.

That’s why I need your thoughts and ideas on what you would like to read more about in this blog?

Here are some options to get you thinking, but any other ideas or views are welcome too.

About me and my perspective on life and things from a Saudi woman’s point of view (note: I live in Dubai, UAE)
A review of various events taking place in Dubai (you can specify the types of events you like to know about most)
A review of restaurants or cafes that I go to
Topics/events related to my job search and trying to make it in Dubai (mainly publishing/blogging/journalism)
Would you like to learn more about Saudi/Middle Eastern culture (as that’s where I’m from and where I grew up and lived most of my life)
Daily life stories and rants
Simple stories or deep thoughts and ideas

Or would you like me to keep the blog as it is and keep doing what I was doing earlier, which was basically a combination of all the above points?

Do let me know by commenting on this post what you would find most entertaining to read about in this blog. I will keep this discussion open, so please feel free to comment any time you read this. There is no deadline for your thoughts and ideas.

Thanks a lot for passing by and following my blog, and I hope that I will continue to offer interesting and helpful posts to my readers and followers. If you think otherwise, do let me know as well!

Love,

Nada (The Rebellious Saudi Diva)