Meeting my grandfather

 Well, it's been almost two weeks since I met my real grandfather. We arranged to meet in a Tesco cafe, as that was the nearest place to him, and we discovered he doesn't have a car. It was almost two weeks ago now, on the 2nd of April that me, my mum and dad went to meet him. He also brought his sister with him, who is my great auntie. She said to my mum that she could tell my grandfather was her dad, she said she saw the similarity instantly! It's been something I haven't noticed myself, but when I have showed other people his photo on my mobile, they do see a resemblance between them!

A few days before meeting up, I actually called him, to introduce myself, and tell him how I found him, which started with purchasing his birth certificate last summer, and eventually ended with putting an advert on the Missing You. Several people on that website contacted me with information, and pretty much all of them proved right. Two of them sent me his address, which turned out to be the correct address in Stockton, only a few miles from Middlesbrough.

I didn't know what to expect from the meeting itself, I remember we were walking towards the cafe, and a man with grey hair and glasses stood up, with him a woman with short brown hair (his sister), he recognised us instantly because my mum told him she was a Muslim, and would be covered up. We all had a nice long chat, for over an hour, and a cup of tea. Next we are hoping to set something up so he can meet the rest of his grandchildren. I wonder if he will be surprised to hear that one of them is married already? Probably a good thing my brother hasn't had his wedding party yet, that will be a good occasion for my grandfather to attend!

Unbearable pain!

 I currently have an ear infection, for about a week now. Well it started in my right ear, but over the weekend it spread to my left ear. I have antibiotics to take orally, antibiotic drops that go right into my ears, paracetamol and codeine. I am always in pain though, once the painkillers wear off, but I'm only allowed four doses every 24 hours, so sometimes I have to sit and suffer, since night-time is worse so I always keep my last dose for then. Codeine has been really good though, it works pretty fast, I take one codeine with two paracetamol. Plus now both my ears are swollen, so I can't really hear very well. I won't be able to do my volunteer work this week, which is annoying. I was driving over the weekend, but I couldn't do it today. Even then I couldn't hear the engine properly and had to change gears by looking at the speedometer. Well at least I got out for a little bit!

I must also say about my weirdly vivid dreams during this time. One of the side-effects you can get from codeine is hallucinations. Only mine haven't happened during the day when I take them, it's only at night! So I'll wake up crying out in pain, but there's something weird too. Last night there seemed to be loads of plastic around me, and I remember waving my arms around, trying to push it away, and crying at the same time because of the pain of my ear. It was very strange indeed! The other day was bits of fabric or something, and I didn't want them near me, I can barely remember that one though. Luckily I never woke anyone up in our house, despite the fact that I felt like I was being really loud!

Oh, and I met my grandfather for the first time the other day. Maybe I'll do a full post about it once I feel better. I'm just really sleepy at the moment, as my ear pain doesn't let me sleep for long, so I'm always tired!

Do not trust Musa Kusa!

 How convenient that he defects after supporting Gaddafi for all those years? I didn't see him complaining about innocent Libyans being tortured for no good reason, or the people who mysteriously disappeared. Why the heck didn't he speak up then? Easy, he's still in with them, in some way. He is said to be the mastermind of the Lockerbie attack, which I previously didn't believe Libya had anything to do with, but it turns out Gaddafi did in fact order that attack.

 I'm currently listening to the live press conference in Tripoli. That idiot spokesman, Musa Ibrahim, says that Musa Kusa is experiencing sickness, so is officially on sick leave. Apparently it's normal in Libya to go to Tunisia when you are feeling this way. Either that or he's had a mental breakdown, which is a favorite excuse of the Libyan government.

  Musa Ibrahim has now said two female journalists will get to meet Iman Al-Obeidi on Saturday (2nd April), the woman who was gang-raped and tried to tell her story to journalists in a Tripoli hotel. Instead she was silenced by Gaddafi's cronies and driven away to have God knows what happen to her. She's either dead or going to be sedated in this interview, I can see it happening!! They accused her of being drunk and a prostitute, but later took back their comments. Really? Iman did not look drunk to me, nor did she look like a prostitute! How disgusting that they slander her name like that, yet she tries to tell that she was raped, and is accused of slandering 'important' people? Absolutely vile behaviour.

 Look at this picture of Iman al-Obeidi, this is what happens if you try to tell the truth. No wonder so many Libyans just suffered in silence for years, now they are fed up of it, and are speaking up, only this time the whole world is looking in. Your lies won't work here Gaddafi.

I found my grandfather!

 Success at last! I used the website Missing You to find my grandfather, within hours of posting about him, I got several responses from people who searched the electoral roll on 192.com and it turned out to be really my grandfather, and his real address. We posted a note through his letterbox, but heard nothing back. Then on Thursday I posted him a letter through the post, and today (Sunday 27th March 2011) he called on my mum's mobile. My mum asked him some questions to make sure he was the real deal, and he was, so they got onto talking about things.


He confirmed that he was married to my grandmother, and that they had a daughter together, but he could not remember when my mum was born. My mum told him she is his daughter, and he said something along the lines of, "well, you could knock me down with a feather!". They are going to plan to meet in a neutral location, perhaps a cafe in town. I for one cannot wait to meet him, and I can't believe my grandfather was living only a few miles away all this time! I shall update in due course.


 I am now going to make a donation to Missing You, half goes to them, and half goes to Shelter, the homeless charity. They more than deserve it for all the wonderful people on there who helped me so much.

Dumb EDL 'Protestor'

 I was laughing for ages when I saw this one! Press TV spoke to a 'protestor' aka chav, on an EDL march, and basically he just said the dumbest things ever spoken by a human! Is he even human? Who knows? (lol!) Anyway, enjoy!!

 Funny EDL Interview - Incoherent Anger, Muslamic Infidels

  Yes, he actually says 'Muslamic', and talks about something called interracial law, and apparently Iraqi law is coming to London! I can't even be offended by this, it's so incredibly stupid that it's hilarious.

Now check out the remix! Somebody put some music and auto-tuned this guy, it's even more funny if that's possible!

 Muslamic Ray Guns - The EDL Anthem

  I can't get it out of my head now! Better to laugh at these people than be angry, which is what they want. You will find a lot of racist people are racist because of their stupidity, they don't understand other cultures or anything.

 By the way, anyone who reads this blog, I see I get some visitors on my stats, why not leave some comments? Make it look as if people actually come here, instead of tumbleweed! As a writer I need to know which posts are popular. Come on, be brave if you dare. You can even be anonymous and leave a comment. If I get more people coming, I might get an Ugg boot competition put up.

Junior Doctors: Your Life in Their Hands (BBC3)

 BBC Three are currently showing this great programme every Tuesday at 9pm, about junior doctors in their first and second year of practising medicine. I don't know why, but I just really like it! The best doctors on there are Dr Suzi Batchelor and Dr Adam Beaini. Suzi is really nice, smiley and friendly, and Adam has a great sense of humour (plus I actually found out he is Lebanese, and not mixed-race as I originally thought haha! big up fellow Arab!)

 Check it out here: BBC3 Junior Doctors, you can see all the profiles for the junior doctors, and watch previous episodes you might have missed.

Libya No-Fly zone is a good thing

 I am getting a bit fed up of hearing some people saying they don't think the no-fly zone is a good idea, but not offering up any alternatives! The thing is, this is reality, the no-fly zone had to happen because of what Gaddafi is doing to his people. People can go on TV and say all kinds of things, but it doesn't mean the UN is going to listen to that. Another reason they had to take such drastic action was because of the amount of time they waited before doing anything. But I still reckon the no-fly zone was always going to be the best option.

The Arab League said what is happening in Libya is not a no-fly zone, but my understanding was that a no-fly zone involves taking out Libyan military targets, military that is loyal to Gaddafi. So in order to do that, you have to bomb certain targets. I think that because the Arab League is made up of a lot of countries with dictators, they perhaps don't want to now be seen giving the thumbs-up to the jets and the bombing. As I remember it though, the Arab League actually asked the UN to implement a no-fly zone, so why are they now backing off?

I think what has happened in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya has scared many Arab countries and their leaders. They don't want their people rebelling, but the truth is they have every right to do so, as most, if not all, Arab leaders, are dictators. They like telling their people exactly what to do and what to think, and to add insult to injury, they just stay in power until they die, and then probably one of their sons will take over. Gaddafi has been a lot more stubborn than Mubarak and Ben-Ali, he didn't even leave Libya, which I hope will mean that he does die there, just like he wanted!

My dad spoke to one of my uncles in Tripoli today, he just said he wished it didn't end up this way, meaning the bombing. He can't say too much, as phone lines could possibly be bugged (which has always been a fear of many Libyan people, which is why they never badmouth Gaddafi over the phone). I agree with my uncle, but in the end, it had to be done. My only hope is that my family keep themselves safe until all this is over. Then inshallah Libya can start again, without Gaddafi and his cronies. Then I would like to visit Libya again, it's been five years since I went, it's about time I went again inshallah.