Apple

i heard it myself few hrs back and jes have to write it here. the last time i was here i heard from the guys that u could earn upto $2000 per month jes by picking apples. and i was like WHOA! thats alot of money considering u have to work five days a week morning 9 till evening five to get that much. But after i came here again i spoke with the person whose actually done it and it seems i was wrong.

He said that he worked there during his holiday from work a few months back. like he says him being the lazy bum he is, he wakes up around 10 or so and then go over to pick apples. it seems there are like one ton baskets or sumthing.(havent seen myself, probably will go tomorrow). and they give u a basket or so and tell u which kinda apples u have to pick. usually its 70% reddish coloured ones. the not fully ripe ones. and once ur basket is full u have to go and empty it to the big one. and for each big one u get $30. different places having different rules.

so anyways he wakes up around 10 and goes there. he comes back home for lunch by which time his wife has cooked for dinner as well, they have lunch and he goes with his wife. and they pick apples till its evening time and then come back. i kid u not when i say this. he said that in 16days him and his wife got over $3000(over Rf36000) for it. seems they get like 300 each day they work. Whoa! i i was like "i should stop this and go start picking apples. lol". Too bad its a seasonal thing. but then again different fruits have different seasons ;) .Neways, it came as a surprise to me so thought of sharing. adios.

Impacts 3. Struggling to make ends meet(2/2)

So if ur determined to lead an honest life(that should be less than 40% of Maldivians. Definitely lesser), don’t waste your life. I look around and see bright kids who finish Chse and enter a job paying 3000 a month maybe less and being there for a year or so. Then keep on changing jobs every now and then from this to that and after five years or so of working they go and see their savings which rounds up to less than Rf10,000.

Plan for the future. And its not ‘cool’ or ‘gaddaa’ to go with those sayings “ill jes take every day as it comes. Cant be bothered to worry abt the future now. Ill think abt it when the time comes”. Ofcourse life wont go as u plan it to. There will always be changes and set backs. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have goals in your life. Dreams that you wanna fulfill. Those dreams wont come to you as you lay down doing nothing. When ur faced with obstacles, you overcome it or deal with it. Making minor adjustments doesn’t mean u have to lose sight of the main target.

And don’t expect that if ur good in the company you reside in they’ll send you abroad for further studies. It rarely happens. So DON’T depend on it. Start saving. Stop WASTING it on ur gfs/bfs with gifts, dinners etc etc. “Be a man! Do the right thing!”(Russel Peters). Make sure ur determined. Don’t make goals and targets to wimp out and quit when the going gets tough. Everything is harder than it looks and obstacles will come your way. You WILL be thrown back every now and then. When that happens jes get back on your feet, realize u aren’t dead yet and move forward. Those are the ppl that will make it through life. If u really think about it there’s no such thing as luck. Its irrelevant. Hard work and unwavering determination has been the backbone of those so called lucky people who are living luxurious lives.

OR u can always choose the other side of the road and Maldives is an ideal place to give you a helping hand to be pushed in that direction which would most definitely get you wealthy in the shortest period of time with the least effort considering you don’t get caught ;). Ur choice, ur gain and ur loss.

Jes spilled out everything as they came to mind but hope it makes a positive effect on whomever that’s interested in this post. Yea yea, its long. But I like writing long stuff. Hopefully the impact would be bigger on those who actually finish it through.

Impacts 3. Struggling to make ends meet(1/2)

This happened a few months back. I was meaning to write abt it in the blog but forgot completely. Jes remembered that I didn’t write it afterall. My friends and I were having one of those long discussions we used to have every now and then on the terrace about worldly matters. Lol.

I used to work in a construction company and was incharge of handling the quotation part. A client would come with the drawings of his house and I made a rough estimate of how much we were gonna charge for each floor for the foundation and the finishing based on factors referring to the drawings. And if u were to build lets say a house consisting of 8floors of an AVERAGE sized house, it would come up to a certain figure(don’t forget this point). So we took into estimation that an average individual gets lets say Rf6000 per month. But to make this interesting lets say that he actually SAVES Rf5000 each month after paying phone bills, net, food, electric, tuitions on kids, books, clothing, kasauti package, etc etc.

We found out that it would take him exactly 40YEARS to come up with Rf2,400,000 to complete the construction for his house………for ONLY the foundation. Meaning for the whole project it would take him around 80Years to collect that amount of money. Then lets look around Male’. How many houses do you see under construction to be made into 8floors and some even more? So the question now arises how do they do it? Where does all the money come from. And this is a community where hundreds and thousands of ppl are struggling to make ends meet.

Im not implying that all the owners of those houses are thieves etc etc. We DO have the option of doing it the Maldivian way of sharing the expense amongst the family members and uncles and aunts. And most ppl prefer taking loans to help them with the funds needed. But what about an average person who is making an HONEST living refusing to fall victim to fraud, theft, bribery and whose parents dont have the means of capital to start his own business or a family business?

So whats the whole point of this post? Quite frankly I didn’t think up of a point around which to build up this post on. But then again it might be that Maldivians are payed that little. We should not be struggling to make ends meet. There should be a minimum wage that would ensure each individual to live peacefully without having to take 2 or 3 jobs at once and cramping up the whole family into tiny suffocating rooms. A way for the youth to survive without being dependant on their parents. A survey needs to be carried out throughout Male’ and the islands distributing them into different regions to find how much an individual would require to make ends meet. Then a minimum wage should be allocated by the government or any other means they choose to do it to implement that. So that Maldivians can actually SAVE from their salaries without having to bleed for it.

We see tourists coming into our country all the time. Most of them aren’t big businessmen or merchants. Most of them are people who live normal average lives back at their countries. But still they manage to save more than enough to travel thousands of miles to resorts with their families for vacations. Us Average Maldivians on the other hand have some choices too. “where shall we go for our holidays honey? Ive taken some time off from the office”. “Oh! I know. Lets go to Villingili, or we can go to kuda bandos. Theres even hulhumale’ now. And if it’s a long holiday we can always go to an island of a relative same as we did last year and the year before that. Yayyyy!!!”.

The Wild Ass

I came across the following in a documentary i watched(Planet Earth). it was interesting. ill let you decide HOW it relates to the behaviour of humans. Its about an animal that looks like a donkey and is called 'Ass'.

* The Male Ass fight to win territories. Those that hold the best are more likely to attract a herd of females. Its a frisky business. But even the winners cant assume the females will actually turn up.

* Female Asses are mysterious creatures. They come and go as they please and much of their behaviour seems unfathomable to an outsider. They're the great nomads of the plateau and will often trek vast distances across the parched plains in search of oases. but when they do find paradise, they are liable to feed and drink for just a few hours and then head back to the dust for no apparent reason.

*u got it. right? ;)*

Puzzles

Jes have a go at the following Qs to see how well u do. this is a self test ofcourse to see how active and allert your brain is or watver. your supposed to take about 7 mins to answer the 10 Qs. So read the Qs and get the answers before you see the answers that are in the comments :p

1) After a visit to the doctor, you are given 3 tablets and told to take one every half hour. how long does it take to complete the medication?

2)If you had only one match and entered a dark and cold room where there is:
a)an oil lamp
b)a kerosene lamp
c)some kindling wood
which object would you light first?

3)some months have 30days, some have 31. How many have 28 days?

4)A farmer had 17 sheep. All but nine died. How many did he have left?

5)How many of each species did Moses take aboard the Ark?

6)if you were in a running race and you overan the one who was at 2nd place which place will you be in now?

7)Mary's mother, Mrs Jones, had exactly four children. The eldest, a boy, she named North. The next eldest, a girl, she named South. The third child, a boy, she named East. The youngest child was another girl. What was her name?

8)If you take two apples from three apples what do you have?

9)A cowboy rode into Dodge City on friday. He stayed two days, then rode out of town on Friday. How come?

10)What number does 96 become when it is turned upside down?

And this is also a test to see which one of you can actually resist the temptation of seeing the answers other have commented on jes so that u'll be able to look better by correcting the ones which you had done wrong.

Thats weird.

I know most of u are gonna get a field trip abt this one. especially u anee. hehe. thats mainly why im posting abt it.

so basically there i was ready to leave for aussie. at the airport my mom calls me over to tell me sumthing. i could hear my aunt telling her not to tell me then. but mom replied saying that she promised she would tell me abt it and so she shall. so she calls me over away from everyone and tells me

Theres this woman who comes to our house alot. a friend and neighbour of an aunt of mine. She's friends with my mom too. i remember her since i was a lil brat. She's got a daughter jes abt my age. Seems very recently this woman has told my mom that she wants to marry her daughter to me. yep! u heard it right. and she's asked my mom to talk to me abt it. SO that was supposed to be the talk.

Yea i know the girl personally and all. she's kind hearted, really nice and religious.......but marriage? WHOA!!! i dont even wanna think abt getting married anytime soon. As far as i can remember ive always thought marriage should come after a guy is 25 of age. that should be the earliest. yea yea, there was a time period when i was all up for marriage any day any time. but now that im past that looks like ive still got a few years left. :) And im once again back to the thinking "Marriage jes chains you down bringing about so many restrictions and making the load on oneself so much more heavier and alot of new headaches. all for what? legal sex and someone special to always confide in? there'll come a time to go thru with that. but why get on with it when u can let it wait for a couple more years during which time u can enjoy the freedom all u want. Plus ive got loads of stuff to do before then"

Aussie

Its good to be back here. i missed this weather. and just in time for winter too. It already drops below 8 degrees at night. Missed the cookings with all the various ingredients and veggies. not to mention the irresistable beef steaks. and missed sleeping under those comfy sheets.....simply heavenly. and weirdly enough miss the smoke that comes out of ur mouth when u exhale. only one prob. waking up early morning and getting out of bed. and that damn shower when its icy cold in the morning. having to adjust the cold and hot water taps JUST right while freezing and half asleep. thats plain torture.

Love the new house with the sliding doors, backyard, greenhouse, shed and the indoor fireplace. a lovely place to settle down with a family i must say. my 'house mate' whom i had lived with even the last time has now got a new baby boy as well who is just 8months old. so its always lively at the place. and it was so good to meet the rest of the maldivians whom i had hung out with 2yrs back. three of em now married, two of em has got babies, and two others are gonna get married this year. everyone seems to be moving to australia. we've even got a new group of another 4 maldivians living near the premises. so i guess we've got our own lil maldivian community going on here. lets see, 17Maldivians total including the wives and kids. and to think it was just 8 when i came here last.a lot of ppl say that its better to live in a foreign country in a plce that has fewest maldivians ever. i dunno if they are afraid what they do in foreign countries might leak back home or not, but i love this crowd and i enjoy ahnging out with maldivians even outside home.

Hopefully ill get a residentship from here by the end of this year. been thinking abt it since the last time i was here and the thought is moving closer and closer towards getting a P.R. My parents have approved of it as well. This place seems heavenly compared to the state Male' is now in. better salary, better services, better education, cheaper rent, cheaper electricity/water/internet, better security. Atleast four times higher paying salaries. plus its not suffocating with the heavy traffic and narrow square buildings with no room for backyards, swimming pools etc.
well, u guys know the rest of the difficulties. but most importantly i dont have to live with the thought that my wife or daughters could be harrassed, raped and videotaped any day for any reason. or my family members or son being butchered with a knife/ razor just for saying "theres room enough here for you to pass through".

well, lets see how long itll take me this time to REALLY start missing my friends and family back home.

Kids. Cracks u up everytime dont they?

Was in a huge discussion with shiu before going over to thaiwok when my kid bro came running into my room looking like that(the first pic). we DID see him running around with the balloon and trying to fasten it to his tummy before. but we never expected him to do that in the end. lol. hehehe. the bottom pic was this morning. apparently there's some event at the school. he refuses to acknowledge that he's wearing te superman costume. he calls it some other name. heheh. im gonna miss that lil bugger.

Gonna Miss You

Gonna miss u my dear friend. ull be leaving tonight and we probably wont see each other for atleast a year. it was so good to see you again after so long. we got to catch up on so much......not that we needed any catching up. hehe. hope last night's farewell get together was fun. so thanx again for coming all you guys. (i-kko, velvy, shifu, shiu, shau, ifu, phenol, aari, ayya, amdhan, shippalhey) and thanx to ayya for the guitar and thax velvy for the chocs. ;)

hope everything works out for you and hope you'll achieve everything in life u ever wanted. hope ull get to bang all those booties there in malaysia. ;) good luck my friend who can also be called my brother. Adios. you KNOW im gonna miss ya.......and u know what else im gonna miss ;)

photo by affey

Common courtesy

Gonna write about a post i never thought id write in here. but here goes. something that happened. theres this friend of mine. we are friends and nothing more. she's even got a bf(if that thought had crossed thru ur head :p)

her b'day was a few months back. i was there to wish her face to face at 12 that night. asked her vat she wanted and she couldnt come up with anything. i didnt wanna buy something that might turn out to be something she didnt fancy, so i gave her Rf300 so that she could buy whatever she wanted whenever she wanted(yes, she was a dear friend). always been there for her whenever she needed me. dont remember ever letting her down. yada yada yada.

then comes my bday and all i got was an sms saying happy birthday same as total strangers from facebook and blogging. she didnt come over to see me that day or even called once. i invited her to the party that night to which she didnt come. didnt even have the common courtesy to call me up or send an sms saying she cant come. not one even the following day or an apology and not even a mere 'sorry' or reason for not showing up. ive done so much for her as a friend ever since we got to know each other like over 2yrs back. come on. i have expectations from her as well. what ive stated above......thats vat i expected of her. ATLEAST one or two of them. but going to the point of not even having common courtesy?

and i even tried calling her over and over again to no avail. she didnt pick up the fone or even reply to any sms. but right afterwards i send an sms that shows that im pissed. she immediately replied

Her:"im not avoiding you. just really living a bit away from the
world. ive my reasons for that. i know its not fair n all but cant
help it"

Me:"yea, it definitely isnt fair at all.bt i 'totally' understand u
being out of the world enough:
*to not even giv me a cal on my bday
*nt myt me evn once in those 24hrs
*not come for even 15mins even wen invited for the party
*not even having the courtesy to call to say u cant come
*not even a bloody sms
*not a call or sms even on the next day
*nt reply to the sms i send
*and not even pik up the fone wen i call
*in short i guess i wasnt half the friend to u as u were to me to even
have common courtesy on my bday of all days.the day dat was supposed
to be MY day. but NOOOOO, u are too out of this world. tell u vat.
stay there :)

Her: thats exactly the txt i had in mind that u would send. i did text
u to wish u that day. u were too busy textin someone else but didnt reply to
mine. i told u i mite not be able to go. yea i know i shud have cald.n
dont go on sayin that half the friend thing....i knw ive been a
horrible one. n of all the ppl, i dont expect you to understand this
either. stay there? ummm fine

Me:I never said u didnt wish me. u DID send me an sms saying hapy bday
the same as the strangers from facebook. yea, i posibly cant
understand u. no one wud. jes u n maybe ur friend.
plus i didnt reply to anyone who wished me with just an sms.i figured
u werent like that.but turned out the whole world revolved just around
u and ur problems lately too.if ur goin thru somethin,must try hard to
show it and make others fyl bad abt it as wel.jes forget everything
theyve done for you n how special a day it mite be for ur 'friend'.
none of it matters if ur going thru something. never expected this from u guys.
leave the other two.but u? total disappointment!

so there u have it. i know i know. i need anger management. i dont
expect her to buy me a cake and wish me at 00:00 going to anyplace i
was and then giving me a wonderful present and dinner and the lot. but
i expect something more than just an sms with a 'happy bday' from a
friend to whom i have been there for her more than even her bfs. ive
always been there in her time of need and made a difference on her
bday. i was a really close friend of hers and she was mine. so those
points ive stated above. asking for atleast one of it from a close
friend......is that asking for too much? dont i have a right to be mad
at her? if it was just another person i wudnt have given a shit. but
this wasnt just anyone. and i believe its worse to
hold it all in and jes fake a smile and be the person who always go "i
totally understand. its all ok. i have no problem at all with any of
it. so lets smile and pretend nothing ever happened"

but i did feel a bit guilty abt it later and i did apologise to her. but i also did mention that i wont change what i had said cos that was exactly what was going thru my head that night and was something i believed in. so what do u think? ive already made up my mind abt it but wanna hear if there's a different opinion.