Here There and Everywhere

A Day When Kuwait Looks Really Good

This day started off really early, because Mom and Sparkle are leaving on a two day road trip to the BIG EVENT in Silicon Valley. Yep, I noticed my hotel is just down the street from the Apple Headquarters for the entire world. This is going to be fun!

I wanted to get the documentary shots and I also wanted to get some laundry done before I head for the same wedding, but I am flying, so I have an extra day here. Mom and Sparkle needed to drive, they have significant clothes, clothes for every event, important clothes, important shoes, important make up and accessories, and then more clothes for the road trip drifting along the Pacific Coast all the way back, so they needed to have a wagon to haul all their clothes.

Besides – a road trip . . . road trips are always fun! Sparkle loves to drive, and Mom always loves a trip, especially a trip with a wedding in it.

Bye, Mom! Bye, Sparkle!

I don’t have a lot of laundry, it takes me maybe a couple hours, and then I leave, deciding to fill the tank today as I will drive straight to the airport tomorrow. This Jeep uses more gas than my normal car, even though it seems to be about the same size. When I get to the tank, however, the pump keeps going and going and going and my eyes get bigger and bigger and bigger.

For those of you who do not live in Kuwait, an oil producing country with world class cars, we pay about 80 cents a gallon for our gas. My little SUV, which I fill every now and then, takes about ten gallons when I fill it. So I normally pay around $10.00 max to fill my car, and that is when I drift in on fumes.

This is what I paid today:

And you know how in movies when they open a bank vault, you can hear all kinds of whirrs and levers and things falling into place?

You would have heard that today, as my brain whirred and clicked and chunks of information fell into place:

° The big grin when the car rental guy said he was doing me a big favor and upgrading me to an SUV at no additional cost to me.

° The huge herd of SUV’s waiting in the auto rental pick-up place; not a normal rental car in sight.

° My mother and sister driving to San Jose, overnighting along the way, and God only knows how often they will have to fill the tank – although they ARE driving a hybrid, and that should help a little. Still, it makes my flight a real bargain, especially since I booked and paid back in January before the huge increases hit.

Buying gas in Kuwait is a THRILL! Buying gas in Seattle is heart-stopping!

The second thing I noticed that makes Kuwait look really really good is you know how we have been talking about the beautiful cool weather and the rain?

I took one outfit out of the dryer still very damp; I do it all the time in Kuwait, take them out, shake them, hang them up and they dry beautifully, and I don’t have to iron very much. In Kuwait, things dry really Really REALLY fast. Like a cotton dress, even fresh out of the washer, will be dry in one hour.

Hours later, this little cotton outfit taken from the dryer in Seattle, is still cold and damp around the seams. I’ve even ironed and the seams are still damp. Maybe if I hang the outfit overnight in the warm bathroom it will be dry enough to pack tomorrow. Maybe I should microwave it? Or maybe I can pack it damp and then pull it out of the suitcase as soon as I get to San Jose and hope it will dry before my flight back to Kuwait?

May 22, 2008 - Posted by intlxpatr | Adventure, ExPat Life, Family Issues, Financial Issues, Kuwait, Living Conditions, Seattle, Weather | gas prices, road trip