Sunrise and Forecast
Good morning, Kuwait, it is another gorgeous day. It didn’t get quite so cold last night (couldn’t see my breath as I breathed out, could you?) and there is not a cloud in a sky. Put on your sweaters, go out and take a walk! This is perfect weather! And it will last this entire week!
The sunrise this morning is almost identical to yesterday’s sunrise. Oh Kuwait, go forth and take advantage of this great weather!
The Upside Down Day
Yesterday was a totally upside down day, where I never really knew what to expect. First, my husband was already up when I woke up, and when he heard me stirring, came into the bedroom with his great big smile and shining eyes and said “Let’s go to the Early Bird for breakfast!”
I laughed, and dropped my morning routine and plans to enjoy this delightful surprise. Quickly dressed, we were out the door well before seven, even well before sunrise. As we drove into Fehaheel, I managed to catch the sunrise, although I didn’t see it until this morning when I finally had time to sit down and organize myself. This is for you, Daggero, yesterday’s icy morning sunrise!
Believe me, that shot is a surprise – we were at a stoplight, briefly, and I shot it through the window, not the ideal way to shoot a sunrise. Lucky shot, beautiful day.
The Early Bird was closed! Closed through today! What to do!? AdventureMan remembered seeing a small place deep in the heart of Fehaheel, and we’re in Fehaheel, it is not yet seven ayem and the streets are empty. We drove to the “Arabic Early Bird” and miracle of miracle, on a street that teems with traffic day and night, at 0h-dark-thirty in the morning, it is open and there is a beautiful parking spot, a LEGAL spot, available. We take this as a sign that we are meant to have breakfast there.
Indeed, the cook is ready, and already has betinjan (eggplant) and felafel all fried up for us – YUM!
The waiter brings us all kinds of goodies, most of which are totally delicious. This is my first time eating tomato scrambled eggs, which Mishary wrote about in Some Contrast sorry I can’t find the original article, but he shows you how to cook them. I think he used 12 eggs! Some of the pickles are strange to our taste, but the food is hot and fresh and delicious, and washed down with hot tea.
More food that we could eat! When we got the bill, it was KD 1.750. What luxury! 🙂 What a great way to start the day, in every way not what we expected.
New Year Takes the Jackpot!
Oh my lucky stars! I don’t even remember writing the referenced e-mail! I never buy lottery tickets, or enter those contests. What a way to start the New Year, hmmm?
Right now I am so busy with all the details in my life that I don’t have the time to claim my prize. What a pity. 😉
Your Email Won The Prize
The Spanish Hotball Lotto
REFERENCE #:87/825/TRH
BATCH #: MEG-749-873-439
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528-127-196 drew lucky star numbers 25-78-54-36-49 which consequently won
in the 2nd category, you have therefore been approved for a lump sum pay
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MEG-749-873-439.
Due to mix up of some numbers and names, we ask that you keep your winning
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Cold, So Cold in Kuwait
Last night, in the middle of the night, even my normal blanket and the Qatteri Cat weren’t enough. I was COLD. It seeped right through the blankets and into my hips. I was too sleepy to get up, and shifted position, trying to find a warm place, but finally, I had to give up and go get another blanket.
“Do you need some more blanket?” I asked AdventureMan, but he said no, he was fine. I covered up the Qatteri Cat entirely, and in moments was warm and toasty and drifting back into sleep.
A couple hours later I feel a nudge and a cold leg drifting up next to me, and AdventureMan whispers “I’m cold!”
I tell him to snuggle up, but then he says he is still cold and I remind him there is another blanket on the end of the bed, and he, too, covers up and is quickly back to sleep.
When I got up this morning, it was cold, so cold I have to wear slippers on the cold marble tiles, and a shawl against the chill. Even hot coffee isn’t enough; soon I have to head for the shower, a nice HOT shower.
Weather Underground says it is -1°C in Kuwait. I believe it. I believe with the wind chill, it feels even colder.
And, Daggero, just for you, that icy-cold sunrise you asked about yesterday (although check later today, to my surprise, I do have a sunrise from yesterday!)
Not a cloud in sight. Only that pollution laying out there on the horizon. I can only imagine the chaos snow would dump on the Kuwait traffic. It would be utter bedlam.
Bundle up, Kuwait! It is COLD out there!
Kuwait Times on Morality Police
Wooo HOOOO on you, Jamie Etheridge; you bring grammar, tone and content to the Kuwait Times
Kuwait’s illegal morality police
Published Date: January 02, 2009
By Jamie Etheridge
Two female students were attacked by two youths this past week in Hawally, reportedly for not wearing the hijab. The girls were standing outside their school when two bearded young men jumped from an SUV, whacked them with a stick and then jumped back into their truck and took off. The incident sparked outrage and triggered discussions across Kuwait about the self-proclaimed morality police encouraged by a radical Islamist cleric Mubarak Al-Bathali.
In late December, Al-Bathali announced that he had established a voluntary committee for the “Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice” along the lines of the dreaded Saudi mutaween. The mutaween are a sort of religious police that patrol the streets in the villages and cities of Saudi Arabia, ensuring that women are covered from head to toe, that men go to the mosque to pray and that unmarried men and women do not mix in public. They also enforce other important moral strictures, like no mixed dancing or playing rock and roll music.
Al-Bathali said that his ‘vice’ squad will patrol the Sulaibikhat area first and then slowly spread out to other areas. It’s not clear who was behind the attacks in Hawally. Some have argued that it might have been just a couple of youths having fun and playing a trick on the girls by whacking them like the mutaween in Saudi do.
Let’s hope it was a bad joke by bored teens. God help us if random groups of men suddenly start forming ‘morality’ patrols and beating women on the streets of Kuwait. A Kuwaiti mutaween would create a host of problems.
First, the morality police would be trying to enforce a brand of radical Islam and ideology many in Kuwait – both citizens and expats – do not follow. Many Muslim women in this country do not wear hijab and there are no laws that require them to do so – despite the best efforts of the fundamentalists in parliament.
Second, Kuwaitis are highly protective of their female family members and few are likely to accept strange men whacking their mothers, sisters, daughters, wives and aunts in public areas. Following the 1990-1991 Iraqi invasion and occupation, some radical Islamists tried to establish a religious police and had begun even stationing ‘officers’ outside the Co-ops in Jabriya, Surra and elsewhere.
These mullahs carried short sticks and would strike women coming out of the Co-ops who they deemed to be dressed inappropriately. The women, of course, immediately called their male relatives who then rushed to the Co-ops and attacked the mullahs for attacking the women. The resulting chaos led to the banning of the self proclaimed morality cops.
Third, an ad hoc security force running loose around the country poses a real and present danger to the forces of the Interior Minister and by extension, the stability and security of Kuwait as a whole.
Nearly 20 years later, the radicals have reemerged and wider popularity – as evidenced by the fundamentalists victory in parliamentary polls – has encouraged them to reassert their plans for greater social control.
Success for the mullahs will mean failure for Kuwait’s experiment with democracy. Unlike the rest of the Gulf Arab states, Kuwait isn’t just beginning this experiment. For nearly half a century, this diminutive Muslim country has balanced tribal mores and religious identity with the Islamic and democratic ideals of freedom, dignity and self respect. Allowing roving bands of self appointed religious police to patrol the streets of Kuwait will undermine all of the country’s efforts toward balancing tradition
and modernity.
Some Forecasters See a Fast Economic Recovery
From today’s New York Times: Business:
Economics as the dismal science? Not in some quarters.
In the midst of the deepest recession in the experience of most Americans, many professional forecasters are optimistically heading into the new year declaring that the worst may soon be over.
For this rosy picture to play out, they are counting on the Obama administration and Congress to come through with a substantial stimulus package, at least $675 billion over two years.
They say that will get the economy moving again in the face of persistently weak spending by consumers and businesses, not to mention banks that are reluctant to extend credit.
If the dominoes fall the right way, the economy should bottom out and start growing again in small steps by July, according to the December survey of 50 professional forecasters by Blue Chip Economic Indicators. Investors seemed to be in a similarly optimistic mood on Friday, bidding up stocks by about 3 percent.
But in the absence of that government stimulus, the grim economic headlines of 2008 will probably continue for some time, these forecasters acknowledge.
Read the entire article HERE
What We’re Watching – Briefly
We could hardly wait to recover enough from jet lag to sit down and watch the final season of The Wire Season 5, generously loaned to us by our son. This season focused on newspaper coverage, how they choose what to run, how newspapers are changing and how they influence city management and police work.
It was a hoot.
McNulty, in the face of huge budget cuts, damaging Baltimore city police morale, creates a “serial killer” using bodies which actually died a natural death. From the beginning, you find yourself saying “No! McNulty, No!” it is just so blatantly self-destructive, so destined for exposure, but, as many con-jobs do, it succeeds brilliantly for a short while, with unexpected assistance from a journalist who builds his own coverage on a fictional phone call he claims to receive from the serial killer. Meanwhile, we follow the familiar faces on the streets, and think often of what our son has said – in law enforcement, the good guys aren’t always that good and the bad guys aren’t always that bad.
At the end of the last episode, they tie things together and show us a glimpse of where the characters we have grown to love end up with their lives. It is a brilliant series, one of the best we have ever watched. If you have never followed The Wire, we suggest you start with Season 1 and work your way to Season 5, so you get the fullest picture.
This weekend, we watched four movies:
Twilight
Burn After Reading
The Day the Earth Stood Still
Charlie Wilson’s War
I was really looking for Valkyrie and Australia, but the DVD guy says he hasn’t gotten good copies yet.
Twilight – based on a series of book very popular with readers about vampires, at first we thought the movie was pretty bad, but camp. We watched the whole thing. There were moments of good writing, but overall – if you have ever seen True Blood, which has the same Romeo & Juliet premise, breeching the moral barrier between human and vampire, how can two so unalike find true love, etc. . . True Blood is funnier, has better writing. Twilight is interesting, though, and ties in other interesting legends, American Indian, etc.
Burn After Reading – We really like many of the Coen brother’s films, especially Fargo, but we found this one had few of those golden moments and a lot of boring boring boring. Oh well.
The Day the Earth Stood Still – I have always loved science fiction, the way it takes the long view, so I was interested to see how this re-make would do. It was ok – good. We enjoyed the movie, which had some great moments, and makes it’s point – when pushed to the precipice, we CAN change. It had a lot of drama.
Charlie Wilson’s War – Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts, golden combination, in how the US got involved supporting mujeheddin against the Russians in Afghanistan. It was an interesting movie. Had many funny moments, so funny you know it probably had an element of real life, as the ridiculous pops up so often – or it does in my life (how about yours?) I was left wondering, though, if anyone ever really succeeds in Afghanistan, and if we haven’t overstayed our usefullness to the Afghanis.
Not a really great movie in the bunch. It’s a good thing we have good books to read. 🙂
Never-Ending Sunrise 2 Jan 09
Good morning!
We stayed up late last night watching movies. At my normal time this morning, I woke up and told myself I could go back to sleep, but . . . sleep didn’t come. I don’t know how it works for you – I am a morning person. Once I am awake, I am awake. And it was just about time for a sunrise, so I joined the Qatteri Cat in the living room, and took a photo of a very grey, very cold, day.
I thought yesterday was WARM. I had headed out, all bundled up for winter, with AdventureMan, and we were both warm almost as soon as we got in the car. I had to take off a layer as we ran our errands. Late last night, seeing our guests off, we were both shivering in the cold – the weather changed so quickly.
Here is what it looks like this morning:
Here is the dawning at 0630:
Just 15 minutes later, a whole new sky:
And another 15 minutes it looks like an artist took paintbrush to the sky, giving it highlights and depth and color:
My cholesterol actually came down this year – it wasn’t high, but it was rising. Eating the dreaded oatmeal and more vegetables, less meat seemed to help. When I just can’t stand the thought of another bowl of oatmeal, I fix myself a bowl of Kashi with blueberries, which, for my US viewers, costs around $11 – $12 a box – not a large box – here in Kuwait. I save it for special occasions. 😉
Uncle Jay Explains the News (US) from 2008
Tongue-in-cheek funny . . . This came out mid-December, or I am sure there would also be a shot at more recent events . . .
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