The Demise of Tanureen
As we were sitting outside, having one of our very best days in Kuwait, eating lunch at Tanureen, we got some very sad news. Our kind old Egyptian waiter told us there is a strong possibility Tanureen will close in May, the land may be used (sigh) for another mall. (Here’s the first review of Tanureen.)
What a great pity. We have enjoyed so many happy hours at Tanureen, so many good meals. It’s one of the treasures of Kuwait, only in Fehaheel.
Here is what we were eating, out in the breezy warm sunlight. Sorry that it is already half eaten by the time I got around to taking photos:
Hummos
Muttabel
My favorite, baba ghanoosh, especially with pomegranate seeds
Pan-sauteed Hammour
Grilled Shrimp
One of our funniest memories of going to Tanureen was taking Little Diamond, who asked the waiter how the Tanureen salad differed from the Garden Salad. “They are same-same” he replied. Little Diamond’s little eyebrows came together in a frown. “But one is priced at KD 1.500 and the other at KD 1.750?” she continued. “Same-Same!” said the waiter, this time with a little impatience. She ordered one, and we have always wondered what the difference REALLY is, if any.
The weather is perfect for dining out. Go quickly, before the heat sets in, before the Tanureen is no more.
Pecking Order
There is so much labor here in Kuwait, and often, they do so little. I cannot imagine what it would be like to have a job, for example, sweeping the parking lot at the Avenues Mall, but I think, being who I am, I would push hard to get all the garbage and trash picked up, and the lot swept. It’s a job. It’s what I am paid to do. I would find hanging around, pretending to push a broom just too boring.
I can only guess that so many do so little because they are paid so little. It’s a kind of passive-aggressive way of getting back at your employer, who may have you bunking with 10 other men in one room, sharing one bathroom, trying to cook food on one hot plate. Men end up killing each other in these situations, as you might imagine.
What astounds me most, in Kuwait, is how some sort of pecking order develops, and you will have one person supervising one person. Or, as in this case, two people supervising one person.
One person fixing the bricks, one person watching him do it. That does not seem like a smart use of human resources to me.
Flat Owners to be Prohibited from Sponsorship of Maids
Flat owners to be banned from sponsoring maids
From today’s Al Watan
Staff Writer
KUWAIT: As the number of maids employed in the country has alarmingly reached 560,000 the authorities have issued new instructions to regulate the presence of domestic laborers in the country.
According to sources at the Ministry of Interior, the ministry will not grant visas or residency permits to any nonـKuwaitis or expatriates seeking to hire domestic laborers as long as they live in apartments.
The only exception for expatriates seeking to hire maids, according to the sources, will be for those who have a compound surrounding their houses and in that case they will be required to provide a document authenticating that claim.
It has been gathered that the authorities have taken these measures in order to stem the visa trafficking trade in the country which usually results in the laborers ending up on the streets. The sources further disclosed that a special committee has been set up within the ministry to discuss issues pertaining to the issuance of visas and passports as well as issues concerning expatriate workers. They explained that the committee seeks to eliminate bureaucracy, centralization and to ensure justice and equality among companies and individuals.
Meanwhile, MPs Ahmed AlـSaadoun, Marzouq AlـHubaini, Ali AlـDeqbasi, Musallam AlـBarrak and Hassan AlـJohar submitted additional amendments to the Labor Law, calling for licensing a certain number of recruitment firms that specialize in hiring professional workers from abroad to join the local private sector. In the proposed amendments, the five MPs suggested that such recruitment firms would not be permitted to levy any recruitment charges on business owners or collect any fees from the recruited employees.
The proposal also forbids business owners from employing nonـKuwaitis without obtaining prior permission from the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor.
Last updated on Monday 9/2/2009
Transition Sunrise
I was shocked when I looked at the five day forecast and saw that the high temperature for tomorrow is 80°F / 27°C. Holy smokes. Winter is over. 80° is about as hot as I can handle without A/C – around 80° in Florida, fleas eggs start hatching, and it is time to flea-proof the house. We don’t have the same problem with fleas here, probably due to the air conditioning, on most months of the year.
This morning’s sunrise is barely less murky than yesterday’s. The weather reporter says “light haze” but sometimes it says that in the middle of a heavy dust storm, so I don’t put a lot of credibility in what it says.
The days are getting perceptibly longer. In our neighborhood, when the meuzzin “chants” for the dawn prayers, it is not so hard to get up. We are blessed to have a tenor muezzin, who loves the morning call to prayer, and does it with great melodiousness and passion. It is a wonderful way to wake up.
Have a great day, Kuwait.
Murky Morning
It is one of those transitional weather days, not raining, not clear, somewhere in between and it could go either way:
I was sleeping soundly and happily this morning when I heard a very very loud “AAACCCCKKKKKKK” and I jumped out of bed, adrenaline pumping, thinking “Is someone strange in the house?” I listened, didn’t hear anything else, so went to the living room where the Qatteri Cat was lying on the floor. Maybe a blade of grass tickled his throat (I make bowls of grass for him to help digestion; long haired cats get clogs sometimes) or maybe he sneezed, or jumped down from his high perch by the window, I don’t know. I patted him and he followed me back to bed where we both snoozed a little until time to get up.
Grins for the Day – for you AdventureMan!
I was always taught that puns were the lowest form of humor – and then I married AdventureMan. He is BAD. You will love these, AdventureMan!
“CREATIVE PUNS FOR “EDUCATED MINDS”
1. The roundest knight at King Arthur’s round table was Sir Cumference. He acquired his size from too much pi.
2. I thought I saw an eye doctor on an Alaskan island, but it turned out to be an “optical Aleutian”.
3. She was only a whiskey maker, but he loved her still.
4. A rubber band pistol was confiscated from algebra class because it was a weapon of “math disruption”.
5. The butcher backed into the meat grinder and got a little behind in his work.
6. No matter how much you push the envelope, it’ll still be stationery.
7. A dog gave birth to puppies near the road and was cited for littering.
8. A grenade thrown into a kitchen in France would result in Linoleum Blownapart.
9. Two silk worms had a race. They ended up in a tie.
10. Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.
11. A hole has been found in the nudist camp wall. The police are looking into it.
12. Atheism is a “non-prophet” organization.
13. Two hats were hanging on a hat rack in the hallway. One hat said to the other, ‘You stay here; I’ll go on a head.’
14. I wondered why the baseball kept getting bigger. “Then it hit me”.
15. A sign on the lawn at a drug rehab center said: ‘Keep off the Grass.’
16. A small boy swallowed some coins and was taken to a hospital. When his grandmother telephoned to ask how he was, a nurse said, ‘No change yet.’
17. A chicken crossing the road is poultry in motion.
19. The short fortune-teller who escaped from prison was a small medium at large.
20. The man who survived mustard gas and pepper spray is now a ”seasoned veteran”.
21. A backward poet writes inverse.
22. In democracy it’s your vote that counts In feudalism it’s your count that votes.
23. When cannibals ate a missionary, they got “a taste of religion”.
24. Don’t join dangerous cults: Practice “safe sects”!
Cartoon from Kuwait Times
I am embarrassed to tell you, I don’t understand this cartoon. I can identify Obama. I can identify some terrorist. Who is represented by the guy in front of the terrorist?
Welcome Rain in Kuwait
AdventureMan is snuggling up against me, shivering in the cold, Qatteri Cat is snuggled up close on the other side, and I can hear the wind howling at our bedroom window. It sounds like an Arctic blizzard; the wind is relentless. It feels so good to be in bed, to be able to go back to sleep, so warm and cozy, and then AdventureMan whispers “It’s raining outside.”
Three minutes later, I am up and out of bed, going to the closet for old towels.
Kuwait isn’t built for rain. Our beautiful big windows were sealed . . . once. I think the heat has destroyed the seals. When we get a serious rain, I get some serious leakage. It dribbles onto the windowsills and then slithers across the floor. I have to get the towels in place immediately, or I have a real mess.
And, (sigh) once I am up, I am up. I brew the coffee, run some water to wash up some dishes and watch the day lighten incrementally – no sunrise today, but I love the sound of the raindrops falling, falling, falling.
We need more. The rain is an occasion for joy, here, not like in Seattle, where we get so much rain that we take it for granted.
Rain on the Gulf:
Rain on the windows:
When AdventureMan Retires
“When we retire,” AdventureMan begins as we are driving down the street, “I want a tree like that in our front yard.”
This isn’t the first time he has said such a thing.
You know, where you live there are rules, and sometimes those rules aren’t written down. If you violate the rules, people say mean things like “they must not be from around here.”
Like in my neighborhood, most of the houses have some grey in their color. It’s the Pacific Northwest. The sky is grey. Sometimes the sea is grey. People get used to grey, and they paint their houses grey, like blue-grey or brown-grey or green-grey, but always some kind of grey in the color. It’s just the way things are done.
Here, sometimes a house is painted very brightly, like egg yolk yellow, not a hint of grey. Bright bright orange, not a hint of grey. At first, it is shocking to the eye, but in six months, the color mellows with the bright sunlight, and fades to a soothing sand-yellow, or sand-orange.
This is what AdventureMan thinks would look great in our front yard:
Or maybe he is just yanking on my chain? 😉
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