The Local Florist

Posted on August 30, 2020 by ayesha997

There is a lot to keep in mind when thinking about creating a video story, especially with the current situation, as a lot of places do not allow entering their premises. And that was not even the hardest part about making this video.

I had initially thought about making a video about a pastry shop, but the owner of the shop told me that I was not allowed to enter and take a video there, as I did not have a permit.

After a lot more thinking, I finally settled on choosing a flower shop, which was not that far away from my home. The florist was very kind and understanding that the reason for being interviewed was for my college project. He immediately agreed to be interviewed and was quite happy to talk about all the things he does there.

Taking the video itself was not as hard as I had anticipated and was in fact quite the opposite. I was easily able to capture all the necessary shots for the video. However, a few of the scenes were hard to take in one position, as they required me to move along with him to record the video. There was also the sound of the fan that affected the quality of the sound during the interview.

Overall, the experience was a little nerve wracking as I am not used to talking to strangers, while videoing them during an interview. However, once I edited the video, I was happy with the end result, which you can see below. In the end, I also purchased some nice flowers for my Mom.

An insight into a local florist’s life

The inspiring prodigy

Posted on August 23, 2020 by ayesha997

The following video is an inspiring story of a brilliant teen, who in spite of his apparent disability, is not short of doing anything that a normal person can do.

David Aguilar from Andorra is an 18-year-old student who was born with an arm that was not fully developed. He has been obsessed with LEGO his whole life, and he managed to build for himself a prosthetic arm from LEGO.

The videography is excellent such that it captures the entire story in under three minutes, which ensures that the viewer doesn’t get bored, rather stays interested and captivated by the story. There are natural sounds included in the video (sound of LEGO bricks). The voice-over is also clear. Furthermore, to facilitate understanding what is being said, there are sub-titles in the video. The interview itself was very clear as there were no distractions.

In addition to that, they used the 5 shot/ 10 seconds method throughout the video, such as extreme close up (0:43), close up (0:41), medium shot (1:12), over the shoulder (0:00), and anything you want (2:06).
The video is very well put together from beginning to end.

There is a lot that can be learned from this story. There are people who waste their whole lifetime not doing anything worthwhile, while there are others such as David who are an inspiration as they overcome their challenges without complaining. There are many ‘normal’ people that like to complain about trivial things in the world, whereas people like David tend to make the most out of the situation that they are in. These people are an inspiration not only to those who are ‘normal’, but also others like them.

These prodigies are a boon to the society whereas the whiners are a burden on the society.

Photo story

Posted on August 14, 2020 by ayesha997

Do you know what is one of the most popular and most consumed breakfast items in the world?

Many of you might say eggs, and you are right. Eggs are an easy source of getting just the right amount of essential amino acids needed by humans to build tissues, and they are a filling breakfast on a budget. So, I thought about sharing with you my breakfast from the source to the table.

My aunt has been raising three breeds of hens and roosters for over 10 years; the Fayoumi, the Fighter and the Turkin. She uses the incubator to hatch the chicks. They are free-range and she has always been giving them chicken feed which is mostly made up of grains such as corn and barley, in addition to leftover food. Thus, this ensures that all the eggs and the hens themselves are 100% natural and organic. Therefore, they are more nutritious than the commercially raised ones.

Taking care of hens is no easy task, and requires a lot of knowledge, expertise, and patience. But the reward is great, which makes the job worthwhile. The chickens are also slaughtered from time to time for eating.

Despite the color difference between eggs, there is in fact no difference to either of them being healthier than the other. Rather, the color difference is solely caused by the color of the chickens themselves or their diet.

The hens usually lay an egg every day… that’s a lot of eggs!

My mom’s first time opening the door to the coup to let the hens out. She sacrificed her time for the sake of my blog.
Mom feeding the hens early in the morning.
Even the hens are enjoying a nice breakfast!
Looking for the freshly laid eggs hidden in the hay. It’s important to be careful when taking the eggs as not to frighten the hens.
Some of the eggs she collected this morning for a delicious breakfast.
The breakfast being made.
The result, a hearty breakfast called Shakshuka (شكشوكة), which is a dish of eggs laying on top of a bed of tomato sauce.

Realizations during lock-down

Posted on August 12, 2020 by ayesha997

I would like to share with you all today a very important message. Even though the world is going through a tough time, there are still many positive aspects to this calamity. Just like everything else in this world, some people choose to use this opportunity and do something beneficial in it, while others just ignore, whine and waste this opportunity.

The first few weeks of quarantine were kind of hard and boring with no one knowing what to do or how long the quarantine would even last. However, soon enough I found lots of things lying around the house for years that I never had the time to do, and with so much spare time on my hands, what better to do than to complete a 1000 piece puzzle, am I right? I thought it would take ages to complete nevertheless it was completed in only 3 days, which I think is quite impressive.

After that, I completed a 500 piece puzzle in only 2 days. I quickly ran out of puzzles to complete so I began painting, something that I haven’t done in many years. I along with my siblings painted over 10 pictures before I finally ran out of paints and papers.

Acrylic painting of a tulip field in Holland

The final project I decided to do was baking several things including muffins and homemade bread as the whole world was in on this new trend. Surprisingly, both turned out great on the first attempt, hooray!!

This quarantine also gave me an opportunity to spend quality time with my family, where I got to play lots of games. Finally, I am extremely grateful for the fact that I did not have to go to college in the scorching heat of summer (50+ degrees C).

Places I visited before lock-down part 2

Posted on August 10, 2020 by ayesha997

Picture this: turquoise crystal-clear waters, the sound of waves crashing the shore, laying in a hammock hung between two palm trees, while sipping on a chilled piña colada…

Now snap out of it, there isn’t such a picturesque beach like this that I have ever been to, however I love the beaches that we do have here. I usually try to go before dawn so I can enjoy seeing the sunrise.

On this particular morning, I spotted a starfish slowly making its way further into the sea. I took the opportunity to take some amazing photos, of which I am sharing one in this post.

Another moment that made this trip memorable was when I was walking on the bridge and saw the sun peeking through the railing. I also saw a cat sitting calmly on the bridge and was not scared or bothered at all with my presence, as it was engrossed in chowing down a fish.

Soon I had to return home as it was getting too hot. On the way to the car I noticed these aligned trees, which looked really nice. I also took a picture of the Kuwait towers with its reflection in the water.

Places I visited before lock-down part 1

Posted on August 9, 2020 by ayesha997

In today’s post I will be sharing with you all, a serene and peaceful place I had visited before the world turned into ‘you know what’! I will try my best not to use the very word everyone is more than tired of hearing about.
Before I begin, I hope and pray everyone is doing fine.

The very first place I would like to share with you all is the Aquamarine Exotic Farm Company, located in Al-Rai area. This place was fun to visit as it contains many exotic, beautiful and mesmerizing saltwater and freshwater fish, in addition to the colorful corals.

The place is huge, and I was really impressed with how well the store was laid out. I had not seen so many varieties of fish since I had visited the aquarium at the Scientific Center.

I enjoyed watching the koi fish since their movement is fascinating. Another thing that I liked was the blue tang fish (aka Dory) and the clown fish (aka Nemo), which reminded me of the cartoon, Finding Nemo.

Another fish that caught my attention was this very peculiar looking fish with its translucent body and a highlighter/neon colored back. I have no idea what it is called and searched all over the internet for its name, so if you know what it is called, please share it with me in the comments.

For anyone out there who takes pleasure in admiring nature and all of its beauty with the numerous weird or cute looking fish, I highly recommend visiting this place, and who knows you might even end up buying a fish or two on your way out!

Spring

Posted on March 6, 2020 by ayesha997

Greetings one and all! I know you have been looking forward to seeing more posts from me – so here is a fresh post just for you 😊.
There has been a lot of negative news going around regarding the Corona virus (or Covid-19), so I thought I would write about something much brighter: Spring!

We are now past the winter season, and that means the flowers are blooming, the grass is becoming greener, and the sky is clearer.
I like this period in Kuwait, especially since the climate is much better now and it is rather pleasant outside. In a few months, the weather will become quite hot, so this is the ideal time to spend outdoors – so I went out and took some really nice photos, which you can see below. Enjoy!

A beautiful peach colored flower in full bloom

An orange and black butterfly enjoying the Spring sunshine

Internship at Kuwait Airways

Posted on February 29, 2020 by ayesha997

Alhamdulillah!! At last, after going to 11 companies in only three days, I landed a place for internship at Kuwait Airways as a public relations student, and the experience so far has been great.

Some of the things I have done so far are:
– Editing images from different online newspapers related to Kuwait Airways, and uploading them to the Kuwait Airways website.
– Archiving photos of events in their central database.
– Supporting with translating documents from Arabic to English.

I expect that I will be doing more work in the next few weeks and get a better understanding of a real work environment in public relations.

Audio Story

Posted on February 20, 2020 by ayesha997

A few days ago, I had the opportunity to interview a British national, Mr. Abdul Aziz, who was in Kuwait during the Iraqi invasion. He hardly came back to Kuwait from the UK after finishing his first year of studies when a week later, the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait had taken place.
Listen to his story about how he was caught up in the war, and how he managed to escape from the country.

Interview with Mr. Abdul Aziz

Collectors Exhibition

Posted on February 19, 2020 by ayesha997

The following pictures were taken from an exhibition held at Kuwait University – College of Arts, on the 17th and 18th of February 2020. It showcased people’s personal collections that have been gathered over the years. They were happy to share these with the students to show a little part of history, particularly as it is close to the National Holidays.

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