Iced Espresso, Trip to Syria, Misc. April '08

So back again to coffee.. don't you think coffee is a bit overrated? ;) i am sure this can piss someone off.. I like coffee.. smell and i like taking photos with coffee in it. But it's overrated still. Shot by Hamed.. This is Janaka, the executive floor supervisor at Ramada Plaza Hotel in Doha, Qatar. He's holding my passport in this shot, probably this was the last time I used my passport.. keep reading to know why. Dubai Airport Marathon.. I shot this on the way back from Doha, it was around midnight.. I arrived home, slept for a couple of hours and then woke up and packed to go to the airport again. I was planning a two week vacation to go visit hometown in Syria during Spring, for the first time, but plans canceled when my company asked if I could cancel or delay my vacation for some project work. I changed my mind after I first said no, and agreed on cancelling my vacation but the problem was in that my passport ran out of visa pages and part of my vacation plan was to renew it back there as it only takes a couple of days to do so back in Syria, whereas our lovely Syrian Embassy requires 13 friggin days to do so in Dubai. heh.. So my company decided to send me for a couple of days to renew my passport and come back.. ASAP. Shortly after my arrival to Damascus airport. Doha, Dubai and Damascus in less than 24hours.. crazy day. It's roughly a 3.5 hour ride from Damascus to Safita.. a ride not too bad, but I wasn't expecting traffic.. had enough in Doha and Dubai. This truck is a piece of art. You see this artwork quite often in Syria, a crappy truck with some poetry on it.. and the back window says: "Leave Me Alone!" Now this looks more like our part of Syria.. entering Safita.. I arrived around noon time, I actually arrived one day before my dad's flight back to the UAE so I spent a day with him.. This is dad on the roof of our place we're building still.. a family house sort of. neighborhood.. This is Ali, my uncle.. Renad's father. Now this is a very very special shot.. the file name is IMG_9999.jpg, after this shot the camera reset the counter to IMG_0001.jpg, I shot over 10,000 photos in less than two years.. damn. That's Hassan, who picked me up from the airport, heading to airport to drop my dad off. I was in the car with Danny, heading to Tartous, to renew my passport. Had some hard time renewing the passport, expected.. and wouldn't have been made without some under the table dodgy work.. will this ever change?

And then to fix Danny's car.. I've never been to this place before, and I've never met this mechanic before, but I have one kickass dad who can't keep much, like it's pointless to tell him something and ask him to keep it for himself =D So Danny was like: Bob, do you know Shady? And once Bob figured out that he knows my father he was like: "Oh! you're the one so and so.. bla bla"!! that was pretty freaky, the guys knows a lot about me!!! Super cool dad that I got. Some shots capture by Danny.. Danny's collection of keys.. Shot from the hip, not too bad for keeping the horizon.. horizontal. I wanted to take this shot of the young kid sitting in there, but he didn't seem very friendly =) Since my trip was for a couple of days only, it was mission impossible to please all friends and relatives specially that some take it seriously if you happened not to have dinner, lunch or spend and afternoon in their place. Maan! I spent over an hour calling people (who definitely knew I was coming, THANKS TO DAD!) and explaining to them the situation, why did I come and when I am leaving.. hoping to see them in the summer feeling (or pretending to feel) sorry that I won't be able to spend sometime with this in this short trip.. Dad left me a peice of paper with list of phone numbers of my beloved relatives.. ;) This is purely and truly my favorite cousin, Renad. I caught her before bedtime, she's growing but still got the wonderful young spirit. This was the last shot before I fly the next day back home.. I had two empty seats next to me, perfect trip. And then the rest of the weekend to slack.. Hanged out with Sham, my sister, and mom one early evening when the weather outdoors was still not too bad. Now, it's very bad.. and will be much worse in the coming days, months. Sham working on some of her wicked designs for school. Now i have to make a move and pack as I have to catch my flight back to Riyadh for one or two more weeks. Back to Riyadh because I just back late Wednesday night, almost a weekend.. But I am enjoying my Cabana which is 3 seconds away from the pool in the hotel, makes me feel like I am on vacation.. business vacation.. in Saudi. How pathetic.