The 'Pugeater'

Got to watch my son does his thing in the Hockey matches played at the Al Nasr Ice rink. Wearing the number One Jersey of "The Mighty Camels" Naz plays the Goal keeper as he has always played eversince he played for the University of San Jose in Carlifornia. Nope, the guy wearing the Bahari Jersey is not my son but a friend and fellow team member, Alex, another cool Emerate Pilot who just needed a jersey then. So I got Baharis running around the ice rink and getting whooped by the guest team made up of a group of young 'Camel Riders' from Abu Bhabi.

I cannot say that I was totally into the watching the game as the cold of the place got me so much so that my body was screaming with aches and pains and i kept slipping out of the building every so often to get some heat back in me. But to watch my son doing what he loves doing was enough for me even if he got his butt kicked by the younger more coordinated and more agressive team. All in all i must admit that he did a good job at stopping the shots which could have been worse had the goal keeper were not as good. I am not saying this because he is my son but also the fact that he played with the NHL team members on their visit to Dubai and stopped a one on one shot made by Jarri Kurri a player from Finland(?) and got a pat on the back for it. Naz said that it was his proudest moment playing ice hockey as a goalie.

The games were sponsored by Emerates Air and needless to say alot of effort and money is being put into these tournaments. Jack Guererro, another pilot and Naz's friend designed this advertisement stand located in the lobby of the Al Nasr Sports Arena and it has both Jack's and Naz's faces included among the faces of the goalies. This is yet another very far sighted look of whoever is planning for the future of Dubai creating an environment where nothing is left out even as far as sports that is normally played in countries that has snow or winter and definately not a desert country. Not unlike Las Vegas in the US where pyramids are built to import scenes and lures from other cultures for those who love and can afford to travel. Enjoy a hockey game and know that it is warm as ghell outside!

Ice Hockey is a good game for naz as he has in him the Bahari 'Fury' or as some of my relatives had accused me of in Malay Panas Baran sometthing like a rage within ever waiting to explode. I am not proud in admitting this weakness in my nature or as i can feel it in my son either, however frailty of human nature inherent in my gene has seen me through one too many dangerous or threatening situations in my life and travels in the past. My meditational practices was partly learned and developed in addressing this flaw in my character. How bad was it? I used to have to visit a shrink when I was working in San Francisco at my boss's expense to the tune of 75 USD an hour! (with special discount as my former boss was also a client) I told my boss then that I would be alot less angry if he had paid me 75 bucks an hour instead! But I guese that was not how things work inlife even in America.

The practice of Zen Meditation techniques and the Islamic ZikruAllah (chanting God's name) has till now got me to mellow out somewhat with an added bonusses which only this blog and time can tell as i progress in age. I am forever indebted to Bodhidharma's teachings of Dhyana or Zazen or Sitting Meditaton as it was through this practice that i was ably to free my mind from the anger that I had carried with me since childhood some of which is too shamefull or painful to even share with my closest kin and kith.