From the land where I come from, every house would have at least one individual living/earning in the "Gulf". Predominately if asked, "where do you work?" the answer is "Gulf". No one cares which company or the nature of the job. This was a decade ago scenario which I am sure still prevails in most part of the gods own country.

Solution to any issues pertaining the growing up teenage would be to send him off to Gulf - which will fix his life. If you find anyone jobless guy, doing small time errands, and you ask out of concern, "what is your plan?" invariably the response would be, "I am waiting for so-and-so to send me a visa." I have grown up seeing this and never had a liking to this whole gulf thingy.

Every marriage proposal would be from some part of the gulf and no matter how much you avoid, the majority of them are in the Gulf. I detested the long-distance relationship which most of my family girls are still in. There are lucky people who get to take their family along, but I could never imagine a life where I had to be alone after marriage.

When I got to know that the man I am getting married to is also from the Gulf - and that too from KSA - I was a wee bit upset. But I was glad we both were on the same page, i.e NO LONG DISTANCE relationship. I began my research on this country but my hubby wasn't very keen in getting me to Yanbu stating that I wouldn't like this place as I would not be able to cope with the restrictions and the dress codes. Love is blind in this case, I told him I want to live with him even if it was a hell.


I was very clear in my head as to what I need and was very clear of what I am gonna lose in this process. Everything I heard about life in KSA was negative. Having lived independently, in a country with freedom everywhere, this was hard to digest. He planned that we be together for our first anniversary. I was mentally prepared, I shopped a couple of abayas (dress code for woman in KSA), quit my job and was prepared to be the "Home Maker". Here I come Yanbu! It took us a year before we could be together.

Life here is very simple. I think myself as a queen. He has to accompany me everywhere, drive me around, wait until I finish shopping, or yet shop together groceries. And any urgent requirement, he has to step out to get them. Pampered! This was how I had to think of my dependency on him and I deliberately think positive in  every negative thing that I face here. There are moments I get that "why can't I do it myself",  I close my eyes and thank Allah for we are together now.

Note: I have not used the taxi service here. I have heard there are taxi service in other major cities which woman use to move about the city to shop, etc.

A quote my friend sent me this morning.


It is highly recommended to be POSITIVE and be GRATEFUL whenever you feel this place is NOT me. 

This whole setting up the blog before you start posting has been overwhelming. The numerous templates, layouts, links, settings, etc. I have no idea what will be the outcome if I choose to uncheck the "are you a robot?" - When I had to personally verify to access certain content on the internet, I used to get annoyed for the repeated verification with those disfigured alphabets and numbers. wait a minute - it is uppercase or lowercase? or is that 1 or I? :-P Nevertheless, its meant for safety so the settings I enabled are out of the safety reasons. Now with so much of restrictions, I wonder why am I even here?

Well, I am eligible for a rookie mistake and I am not gonna give up. This activity has given me a new medium to be engaged. It is like moving into a new home, it takes time to get settled and know the exact place where you can find the tool box after a month or so. Likewise, I am new here and before I can get to smarter blogging, I will stumble upon challenges and I am looking forward to it.

Past few days have been interesting with thoughts and ideas taking the shape and still ambiguous. I am so thankful to all the helping instructions and videos that helps me create this space. I take time to read others blogs and watch their layout. I am sure everyone like me who are technically-disabled would have done that - watch the masters and learn from them.

I came to KSA six months ago and its now that I began to feel that I have to start engaging in activities that will keep me focused and learn skills. Until now, all I had to do was clean the home and cook dinner. With plenty of time, comes idleness. Both of us being sweet toothed, I got into this marathon of making sweet dishes every single day for the dessert. Internet was the go-to person. All those food porns only made me crave for more and sad thing is I had to make them too.

Gradually, I began to enjoy cooking and meanwhile we both gained a few pounds (not that we were thin earlier). So should I stop making mousse and parathas floated in ghee? Nay, we continue to do so with minimizing the frequency. That lands me with more time! Uff! those days when I wished I had a few more hours in the day to complete certain task and here I am figuring out how to spend the time!