Domino

From nik ahanng-Kosar

The Forgotten empire of Persia

As today Walter wanted to participate in 42.2 km Cross Country Walk Marathon in Blackwater(I learned later he won the first place). I decided to spend the day in the British Museum which has currently an Exhibition about ancient Persia: " The forgotten Empire"

The exhibition was a selection of precious objects from the National Museum of Iran, the Persepolis Museum and the Louvre, and British Museum itself.
It was funny because the only objects I was not familiar with were the objects from the Iranian Museum.
The exhibition was really busy, what I liked mostly was the reason why the exhibition was made: I read somewhere that this conflict between West and East has existed since 2500 years and because the Greek have written the history there was always a misjudgement about Iran. This exhibition should help give the West another image of Persia(Iran) than as an evil axis!
The Persian empire which lasted from the middle of the 500s BC until the defeat of Darius III by Alexander the Great in 331 BC, the Persian empire ruled a vast portion of the then-known world from the Nile to the Indus. It connected the Mediterranean with modern Afghanistan. Rich beyond dreams, powerful beyond dispute, the great kings ruled from their mighty palaces at Susa and Persepolis, tolerating the religions and cultures of subject peoples and harvesting the creativity of near eastern civilisation that had already, before they came along, invented writing and urban life.
Looking to the casts of Persepolis found it funny to have still the genes of wavy hair after 2500 years! Guess they didn't have a hairiron like me!!!

Photo Prize

Martyn Colbeck, from the UK, took this stunning and evocative image of elephants on his birthday. Mount Kilimanjaro is more than 25 miles away. This moment of magic wins Martyn the Nature In Black And White category.
Look at other winners´photo at: BBC news

George Bush: 'God told me to end the tyranny in Iraq'

This was the title of the article in today's Guardian UK newspaper:
George Bush has claimed he was on a mission from God when he launched the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, according to a senior Palestinian politician in an interview to be broadcast by the BBC later this month.
Mr Bush revealed the extent of his religious fervour when he met a Palestinian delegation during the Israeli-Palestinian summit at the Egpytian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, four months after the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
One of the delegates, Nabil Shaath, who was Palestinian foreign minister at the time, said: "President Bush said to all of us: 'I am driven with a mission from God'. God would tell me, 'George go and fight these terrorists in Afghanistan'. And I did. And then God would tell me 'George, go and end the tyranny in Iraq'. And I did."
Mr Bush went on: "And now, again, I feel God's words coming to me, 'Go get the Palestinians their state and get the Israelis their security, and get peace in the Middle East'. And, by God, I'm gonna do it."!!!!!!!

Paeez

It's a long time since my last post in August, in middle of September I travelled for a week to Austria, my sister Nasim wanted to move from Graz to Vienna, so there were lots of work to do, and I helped her a little with packing, meanwhile I made a short trip to Leoben and visited Tina and Gregor (who are expecting to have a baby very soon!)in their new spacious flat with a nice view to the River "Mur" and there I had a nice chat and tasty dinner( which I forgot to ask about salmon's recipe!) with them for a couple of hours.
At the weekend Walter joined me and after helping Nasim & Richard by moving and visiting "Rafaela" the new Baby of my sister in law Sigrid, we used to opportunity being in Austria and spend the rest of the time being in spa and relaxing , coming back to London we took Nasim with us and Richard came few days later , on Saturday I met my friend Aude who is a real art fan and came to London from Paris only because of the exhibition of Frida Kahlo in Tate Modern.So we met at exhibition and I was really surprised after 3 months of exhibition , It was a long queue for buying ticket.
Everybody was touched by looking to the paintings and works of Frida, there were a lots of pain which were pictured with colour and canvas and you could feel it by looking to it!
At the end Aude gave me a souvenir from exhibition a Frida Kahlo mug for my mug collection!
And then we had a coffee with some sympathic friend of Aude.
The next day we took Nasim and Richard to visit Oxford which they liked it very much, by our way we visited the big hobby craft shop and Nasim bought lots of thing for preparing their wedding in June, meanwhile Walter visited the PC world shop next to the hobby shop , and we ended buying a new computer without planning it, however the old one was really old and somehow broken!

Tin Tin in Tehran

from Zartosht Soltani

Early man goes shopping

Banksy is known as a Graffiti artist who hangs his art in famous museum and galleries in London and New York.
Fake prehistoric rock art of a caveman with a shopping trolley has been hung on the walls of the British Museum for three days without being noticed!
His Work on gaza wall were also very impressive, Banksy who has been criticised as an as an irresponsible prankster, risked the bullets of the Israeli security services to stencil nine paintings on to the Palestinian side of Israel's separation wall. They included pictures of children digging a hole, breaking through the wall, and another of a ladder apparently going up the wall and over to the other side. Look Uk Guardian for the pictures and more details!

Norway And Denmark

One month before we got married, Walter, Nasim and me went to Sweden, we loved it so much that we decided to discover Scandinavia further, a year later we went to Helsinki in Finland, and this year we made it to Norway and Denmark.
We flew with Ryanair to Haugesund, and discovered the beautiful nature of Haugeland with its magical landscape - lakes covered with water lilies and hills covered with fragrant wild flowers and snow roses. However, after being shocked by seeing a poisonous rare adder ("Kreuzotter") next to my foot I thought that too much nature is obviously also not so nice!:)
After that we made our way with a bus to a small neat port (Skudeshaven). There we took a ferry and made our way to Stavanger, a small nice city, where we visited the Petroleum Museum. The building was built as a platform, and it was really interesting inside!
From Stavanger we flew with a Norwegian airline in about one hour to Oslo. Walter arranged before that we could stay at Grand Hotel which was a very luxury hotel and situated just in the centre! In this hotel also the nobel prize winners usually stay when they come to Oslo to receive their prices.
I liked Oslo very much, you could see everywhere modern art especially many modern statues.
Another thing that we noticed: There were more small children in Norway and especially in Oslo than in any other capital city I have visted before.
After two days we went further with a big Ferry to Hirtshals in Denmark. The ferry was more and less like a cruiseliner because of it's facilities like big restaurants and bars, swimming pool and night shows!
In Hirtshals we stayed for two nights, the beach was so fantastic and beautiful, I never saw before such a fine white sand, but the weather was a little cool to swim however Walter swam a bit, we walked around and visited the biggest aquarium in Europe there with some cute seals!:)
From Hirtshals we took a train to Aarhus, the second larges town of Denmark where we went to an open air Vikings museum and after that we had a meal in a Vikings restaurant (Walhalla) with a nordic buffet (really good and tasty). We flew back from Aarhus to London and we liked Denmark so much that maybe next year we will go there again!

Good bye Mr. President

Photo from Iran newspaper
As Today is the last day of your 8 years presidency, wanted to tell how I as many other Iranian were Proud that you were our president, however many people think you did not achieved what they expected and criticize you, but in my point of view what is changed during these 8 years is enormous specially by culture and art aspect, with your smile and peaceful attitude, your bright thoughts and your intelligent diplomacy you achieved a lot at International stage.
It is really sad that your time is finished and the thought of your replacer makes it even more difficult!
Thank you for every thing which you have done!

QUEUE

Photo from Jim Rider

DESPRATION AFTER ELECTION

There is a general depressive silence in the space after election, you can feel it even at web, many of weblogs are not updated since then.
I thought as many others there is competition between reformism Dr.Moein and fundamentalist Rafsanjani, any way it won't be so bad.
Neither of us thought the conservative could stand at the peak of power again, those grey years after revolution could repeat again, where happiness and laughing were forbidden, where bright colours as red yellow orange, pink were defined as slutty and were forbidden, where dance and music was forbidden.
where young girls were obligated to wear the darkest and ugliest uniform in the world.
Where speaking about love, being in love and making love was extremely forbidden.
Our young generation , our woman, our writers and journalist fought for along time to get back partially of what which was taken from them.
what happened that we went back again, they speak of cheating in result, however it is happened I believe it, I am so tired and fed up with all dirty bloody politic, what should we do now? Take one Look at traffic system and streets in Tehran to know how liable is this new Mr president ex major, however Tehran had once a very good major who made the city look beautiful, he begun from south part of Tehran ( where is the poor part ) made many parks, culture centres, planted every where beautiful flowers and painted all ugly old buildings after all these work where he ended was not the chair of president but he was put in jail!
I do not think that judging by appearance is right but looking at Iranian president and looking to US president I am afraid that our planet will be soon turned to the planet of apes!!

Paris

For nearly a week we were in Paris mainly because of Air Show which our company had also a stand there,but as our Hotel was situated in centre of town near Notre Dome , we (or mostly I) managed to do easily a lot of sight seeing, we climbed the Eiffel Tower, were at Jardine du Luxemburg and dined with my dear friend Aude,
I shopped at champs-Elysees ,went to Louvre and because of time deficiency looked mostly the Iranian Partthere, remembering what my history teacher at high school said " The most important precious part of Perspolis is not in Iran but in Louvre!" And she was right!
I visited also the Pompidou centre the museum of modern art, I was impressed by the extra ordinary shape of building but honestly I found the most artwork there only hideous and ugly , only a few works looked impressive, but generally the parisians are very tasteful and artistic and that is what you can see in every aspect of general every day life!
The Air Show was also interesting but maybe in my point of view was not very good organized.
At our way back to England , there was a traffic jam(mainly in Air Show area and Paris) that we could not reach our ferry and waited almost 2 hours there for the next one, we were at at 2:30 am at home!

Sean Penn in Tehran

Hollywood actor Sean Penn, adopting the role of a journalist, scribbled in his notebook .(from Reuters)

Iran followed Japan into the 2006 World Cup after a solitary goal

(Photo from BBC)
Thank you guys that you made us happy and proud!
But most of the all compliments to that group of Iranian girls and women who bravely succeed to break the antiwoman law and enter to the football stadium(In Iran women are not permitted into football areas as the government considers stadiums could be an UNHEALTHY environment for them.)

Azadi square in Tehran and freedom chain by fans of Dr.moin the president candidate!

To vote or not to vote?

As the the Iraninan president election gets closer, there is a big concern for Iranians to get involve in election or not, the group who doesn't want to get involve in election argue mostly that in the system of government of Iran the president has not enough power to perform the desired reforms towards democracy, in the past 8 years of presidency of Khatami most of the young generation who elected him with great expectation where disappointed, however the sweet smile of khatami changed a little the image of Iran in world as the International press described him as mullah with friendly face, but he didn't have enough power to make structural Changes toward democracy, there are stills many political prisoner's in Iran and still many writers and journalist and even webloggers are sent to the prison because of statement of their belief,economically in spite of Iran's big oil reservoir and fortune ,there are still many problems with inflation and unemployment.
But in spite of every thing and against all great odds in my point of view when we don't participate in fate of our country we will not be able to change anything, we should accept the changes would be graduate and needs its time, it is easy and fast to destroy but constructing and making progress is more difficult and slowly.
and as far as I am concerned it is important not to let the conservatives take the power again and win.
On the otherhand the situation did get better in compare to the past and the Iran today is not the same which I left in 1996 , at that time I was a young girl whose basic right and freedom was taken away, and I am not sure if I have had lived in today's Iran I would have immigrated to Europe!

Life is beating of earth in our hearts*

I am looking to find you and tell you something interesting that I just read about, and like the most of the time find you standing near the kitchen's window , looking to the our small garden,
waiting for another thin but powerful sprouts to come out from dark & hard earth,
waiting for another bud to forget modesty & shyness and open as a beautiful flower,
waiting for a little playful bird to eat the grain and seed which you prepared,
and waiting for Fefeli the baby squirrel to come and eat the fruit which you put there.
You love all these moments and I love the purity and tenderness of your soul!

Khordad

There is always a hot damp in the weather at the end of the May, ,it is no difference where I am , Tehran, Leoben, Athen or even in London.
And it is a kind of pleasant bringing all sweet memories from the past with it, the smell of Roses in our garden, a bright and sunny classroom with unclear glasses,and the voice of the laughs of school girls who try in spite of long,dark and ugly scarves to make themselves beautiful and disobey school rules with a hidden pink lipstick.
There is an image of dark green big leaves of an old tree which looks through the window inside the classroom and a black board which on it's surface is written by a piece of chalk: " where is the home of friend?"

Alanya/Turkey

As my sister suggested to join her and Rich for a holiday in Turkey , with a price of 250 euro in a 4 star hotel all inclusive +flight, the decision took not longer than 10 minutes and so Walter and me flew on Friday 6/05 to Graz , at the evening we manged to meet our friends Gregor and Tina in Murinsel cafe which had extremly bad loud music so we moved to another cafe!

On Saturday 7/05 we flew to Anatolia with Pegasus a Turkish airways,beside the cheap Price of Ryan air the other advantage is if you fly often with it every other airline feels luxurious!
It took about 2/30 hours to come to Anatolia and there was a bus who picked us up, and brought to our hotel in Alanya,the hotel was neat had a nice swimming pool and was on the beach, for every meal a buffet mostly vegetables and salad was available.
the temperature was about 25 centigrade which was perfect and we swam a lot in the the clear water, one day Walter made us to have a 4/5 hours walk tour to a village near by, the people were very friendly the children gave us flowers and fruit, a mother who was baking bread with her four daughter made us delicious cheese and tomatoes sandwiches with freshly hot baked bread and at our way a woman brought us freshly cut cucumbers and disappeared immediately!
However at the tourist area the people looked a bit greedy and wanted to sell their items even more expensive than in UK in Euro!
At nights there were dancing and music and different kinds of shows at the hotel and we got know some new people and a very friendly homo pair among them.
The seven days passed so quickly and that was time to say goodbye Also the the sun, it is cool and cloudy as usual in London and I still long for a hot summer !

The Breeze of Spring

The Breeze of Spring
It is a long time that I did not write in my blog, the reason was that I was too busy but fortunately in a good way.
to have a push and get a motivation for finishing the refurbishment of our flat and , we decided to throw a birthday party for me which in other hand would distract me from getting older!
So we worked hard again and although the job was not completely finished but nearly! It was nice to have a small party with Nasim, Rich, Gregor,Tina , Erik, who came all from Austria !Thank you again for coming!and some colleges of us! We spend the next day in London and in bad weather we managed to see in one afternoon: Piccadilly circus, Bigben ,Trafalgar square, Tower and Towerbridge..
After 8 years in 21st of March Nasim, my parent and me could begin the new years together again in Graz, we were so happy that made us all tearful!
And it was not all on 25 of March my little sister got married with little brother of Walter:)it was a nice celebration however they will make a bigger one next year !

Nasim and Richard our best wishes for a happy marriage again !
But every body should come at last home, so was I after 3weeks stay in Austria, it was so difficult to say goodbye, by seeing your beloved one there is always the happiness which fills your heart but feels so light and than by saying goodbye there is sadness which makes a deep hole in heart and feels so heavy! so I tried the whole of my back flight not let to my tears to flow with concentrating on seeing Walter again.
now I am again in London busy with work and interior design projects, and as it is spring we try to do a lot especially on weekend which we spend by discovering the beautiful nature and using our membership in National Trust which is for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty in England, Wales and Northern Ireland