2011: International year of forests? Sadly not in Jordan?

The United Nation has declared 2011 the International year of forests.

North of Amman is Ajloun Forest, home to more than 100 plant species, animals and birds. A deforestation program has just started in a part of the forest in order to built a military academy. I wonder how much clear land there is in Jordan? What is the need to actually destroy the forest so that we can get some more clear land? Well apparently there is 1% of forested land in Jordan.

In one of the most water deprived countries of the world, I think it is nothing less than a scandal.

A petition is currently being circulated on the net, to be presented tomorrow to parliament - you can show your support and sign it here. This is also a link to much more information about this case.

Another friday afternoon in Amman

Today the weather was a bit dull - a bit cold, some rain, some wind... All in all not fab. So after a very lazy morning with decided to try out a chinese restaurant and we headed to the New Shanghai Restaurant located somewhere in between Abdoun and Sweifiyeh. "New", because apparently there is an "Old" one as well, located in Jabal Amman.

This is the building; the restaurant in located on the first floor.

The entrance to the restaurant...

So to the review... it was ok. Just ok. We had wantan soup - which was actually nice. The broth had a good taste, the wantan were small but tasty. The other good thing was the fried noodles. The rest under average. The service was Jordanian - not very effective, certainly not Chinese! We paid 24JD, so not fantastically cheap either.

Fried noodles - ok not the most appetizing, but actually ok

There is another Chinese restaurant that we really want to try, located behind the first circle, just didn't fancy trying to find something without success!

As we came home I decided to open a Twitter account. I have been thinking about it for some time. So if you are on Twitter, please come and join me: http://twitter.com/BabsinAmman - ok I admit I don't have clue what all these Twitts and stuff are about but I thought I would give it a try.

But you see, it's not just "another friday afternoon". Certainly not. There are some very proud parents in Amman tonight. Today, Bibs decided that she wanted to start to crawl - she did her first very unsteady moves on the floor today, towards Daddy (of course!). Well shhhhhhh don't tell him - she did a small trial a bit earlier. But a tiny trial, so I'll say that yes, the first crawl was indeed for Daddy...

Ahhh Daddy's girl!