Tuesday, January 25, 2005

Arabic calligraphy

I am back from a short hiatus due to the Eid holidays. We get 6 off days in Bahrain.

Well, 6 days isn't really that short. However, I did not get to do and go around much in this so called respite moments. Most of the time were spent working on materials for the upcoming workshops. It seems to me, the abundance of details to cover this time is of another level altogether. Fortunately Tailou has been a great help in sharing a portion of the dreaded load. On top of all, clients were asking for a complete production line to be set up. As luck would have it, after an initial round of testing, it occurs to me many fixes here and there would need to be carried out for this to happen and personally I am not optimistic about the whole thing.

I did manage to visit one new place though. Of all places, my colleagues and I visited the Ahmed Al Fateh mosque. Yeah you did not read it wrongly. Tailou coaxed us to pay a visit there as there was an event or shall I meekly term it as an open house. As soon as we arrived and got the car nicely parked, we took some pictures and gosh, the mosque is darn huge. Those sand stones of the building blocks are humongous. Meanwhile, Tailou entertained himself by taking shots of islamic geometric motifs. As we enter the mosque itself, we were greeted by an American Muslim known as Quori and he was the guide for us around the mosque. As we enter the vast main prayer hall, the plush carpet and the lightings caught hold of my sight. The oversized incandescant chandelier residing in the main prayer halls weighs 2 freaking tons, I was told. It was a pretty captivating sight I must say. Dazzlingly alluring. The guide told us that the only Bahraini thing about the mosque is probably the construction of the dome and some wood carvings. All others were practically imported from foreign countries namely the Scottish mat across the main prayer hall, the Italian marbles all over the building so much so they are everywhere your sight can reach and the enchanting French chandelier provided that I remember correctly.



One of the itenary was free writing of your name in arabic calligraphy. And voila, this is how my name looks like in Arabic calligraphy.

After the departure of a lofty colleague back to Malaysia for good (no pun intended, tongue in cheek takes place though), the apartment now is very quiet. At some point I would almost term it as serene. The mood now is blithe and sometimes I wonder if I am in a reverie.

On another more happier note, my flight back to KL is on the 2nd of February. Yay!

I sometimes wonder whether or not being reticent conforms to the society norms.