After realizing I'd been having shawarmas for dinner the whole week, I decided to . . . (drumroll) . . . no, not cook . . . (drumroll again)... but try something else on the menu. Jabal Ohoud is a small cafeteria in Satwa, and their menu is always conveniently lying around the house, for hungry tired me to grab. Chicken fillet looked ok, good enough to convince Steve to have it too. (By the way Steve is our new housemate: 57, has a Filipina wife now in Zambales where they have ricefields and probably cute sons). Also ordered mango shake.

The food came and being the freeloader that I was, I let Steve pay for mine even before he finished saying "It's on me". Devoured everything in minutes. Chewed ans sipped and listened to Colin, Steve and Andrew about something (please tell me it's not rugby again), and had a nice evening chat with Reiziel.

Then began my evening ritual: channel surfing. It starts with CNN, and ends with Sky News, if I'm lucky. I don't know why I like watching the news. Deaths in Lebanon, poverty worldwide, corruption somewhere else. But that's jsut me. I'm usually fascinated with how events can develop so fast, and no one can predict what happens next. And everyone was just shocked to find Shiyah blasting last night. Sad sad sad.

So Colin the happy housemate came to the rescue, and after finishing his laundry offered a glass of Bailey's, which I believe I really really needed. So ok, he gave me the liberty to channel surf, so I did, but got stuck on CNN again. I watched for a good 5 minutes, until Colin said he couldn't take it, could we please watch something lighter, please please please Zeena, so I went on with my surfing. Then we found something realy interesting, a British teen flick. The humor was very different from other chick flicks. Sarcasm, dryness, slapstick all put together to create chaos in SUZIE GOLD's life. Plus, they're a Jewish family, so that's something new (for five months I've been observing Muslim laws and customs). But what I really liked about it is the theme song --- GOLD by Spandau Ballet, sang by maybe Suzie Gold herself or some teen Brit. It's probably a B movie or some independent film (I don't know, I haven't researched yet, sorry), but it made me feel a hundred times better. And I thank God Colin was an optimist, so he can somehow lighten my burden by suggesting thigns like "let's change the channel".

For more about SUZIE GOLD, please Google it. And try to watch it. Nothing special in terms of storyline and special effects, but it DID have a special effect on me. I cheered up and slept peacefully.

"You are GOLD! Always believe in your soul... You've got the power to know, you're indestructible...Always believe it....GOLD! Glad that you;re bound to return, something I should've learned...you're indestructible ....."