This year has been amazing on every front. Here is a short look back at the ending year:

• I will remember this year as the year I have lost contact with my daughter for so long, my mom had cancer, I met/rediscovered my most wonderful friends, I went through the most drastic change of my life - changed location, job, main language, lifestyle...
• Quite a bit of traveling (even a bit too much) in chronoligical order (I have probably missed a few):

While I was still based out of Casablanca, Morocco

• Cairo, Egypt (Middle East Developer Conference)
• Alexandria, Egypt (First Time)
• San Fransisco, California (VS-Live)
• Frankfurt, Germany
• Dusseldorf, Germany (First Time - Personal)
• Istanbul, Turkey (First Time)
• San Jose, California (First Time, SD-West)
• New Martinsville, West Virginia
• Orlando, Florida (VS-Cnnections)
• Istanbul, Turkey
• Ryiadh, Saudi Arabia (Gulf Developer Conference)
• Tunis, Tunisia (Business)
• Agiers, Algeria (North Africa Developer Conference)
• Istanbul, Turkey (Microsoft Summit, and moved to Istanbul for good)

• After I moved to Istanbul end of April (joined Microsoft May 2nd)

  • Datça, Turkey (First Time, holiday)
  • Lagos, Nigeria
  • Nairobi, Kenya
  • Dubai, United Arab Emirates
  • Karachi, Pakistan
  • Mauritius Island
  • Tunis, Tunisia
  • Casablanca, Morocco
  • Seattle, Washington
  • Portland, Oregon (Week end)
  • Tour of the Dardanels and the Egean Sea (Bandirma, çanakkale, Troy, Ayvacik, Essos, Balikesir) in Turkey (First Time)
  • New Martinsville, West Virginia
  • Chicago, Illinois
  • Bellevue, Washington
  • New Martinsville, West Virginia
  • Washington, DC (First Time)
  • Malta (First Time)
  • Numea, New Caledonia (First Time)
  • Papeete (Tahiti) and Moorea, French Polynesia (First Time)
  • Nairobi, Kenya
  • Mauritius Island
  • Paris, Fance
  • Douala, Cameroon (First Time)
  • Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo (First Time)
  • Dakar, Senegal (First Time)
  • Saint Giles, Reunion Island (First Time)
  • Mauritius Island
  • Casablanca, Morocco (next week)
  • Paris, France (I will end the year there)

  I also transited by many places without stepping out of the airport

  • Rome, Italy
  • Milan, Italy
  • Frankfurt, Germany (many times)
  • Tunis, Tunisia
  • Cairo, Egypt
  • Munich, Germany
  • Djeddah, Saudi Arabia
  • Dubai, United Arab Emirates (many times)
  • Paris, France (many times)
  • Charlotte, North Carolina
  • Osaka Japan (twice)
  • Nairobi, Kenya
  • Mauritius Island

• Crazy workload, crazy partying and a few private moments of fame and few moments of shame... Some of the things I will never forget - don't expect details (this is for insiders only) :
  • Late night chat at Intercontinental in Cairo
  • Crazy interview day in Istanbul
  • Spa in Orlando
  • Two first time divers in Datça
  • "The night" in Istanbul
  • An awkward declaration in a car by the bosphorus
  • A Cliff from the past in Ayvacik
  • A wedding party in Bellevue
  • Back to the office from Tahiti
  • WooHoo in Nairobi
  • Arriving late to Reunion
• This year has been full of surprises, including multiple new encounters, and multiple new friendships, some of which have become extremely important in my life, and some having very interesting promises.
• Some sad happenings:
  • My mom's disease
  • Lost contact with my daughter for a long time (Well, I will see her Tuesday. I am so thrilled!)
  • Close friends going through bad times (emotional and health)
  • A close friend loses her brother
  • my uncle's disease
  • The drone

    In short, I never thought one year could be so full... Neither have I ever thought I could handle such an intensity...

    I am so sorry if it has made me a little less availlable to so many people I care about...

    Merry Christmas, Happy new year, and Mabrouk El-Eid

12/24/2005 3:41:57 PM UTC     

I have not been flying too many economy long haul flights lately, and was awakened by some remarks from my Lufthansa "flight attendant". I asked about the choice I have for drinks, and was not happy with the brands they had. She said " this is economy, it's free ".

I remember talking with some friends at some point in the past about the service (actually the lack of service would be more acurate) in economy class, and I believe it was Clemens that dubbed it "Cattle Class"...

8/9/2005 1:19:48 AM UTC     

    Oh Boy, Oh Boy... during the month of June, I spent all my time in Hotels, planes, airport lounges ... etc. I only spent three nights sleeping on my bed.

   So, lots of traveling, no so much time for my friends - but I will make up for it  - and a great number of things to blog. I will rest a little bit today, and enjoy a an evening alone at home... Staring tomorrow, I will be blogging about Mauritius Island, Pakistan Developer Conference, Dubai, Lagos, Nairobi and Mombasa. I even have some fun stories like having been baptised with a new name : "Wambua" which litteraly means "Rain Man"... and that was only a side effect of having to have a tribe...

   I am really looking forward to a couple of days of "normality". before I go back to more travel and even more madness.

6/28/2005 9:28:42 AM UTC     

Check this out :

http://msdn.microsoft.com/elearning/

6/4/2005 3:23:41 PM UTC