Here There and Everywhere

Expat wanderer

Sunrise Mother’s Day, May 11, 2008

The Qatteri Cat is not celebrating Mother’s Day. He was awake, on and off, all night, miowing miowing and making a total pest of himself.

What I think is that he couldn’t find his baby. He made the sounds me makes when he is looking for his baby. I got up and looked, couldn’t find the baby.

I found it this morning; it was on our bed. We might have thrown the covers back over it, I don’t know.

May 11, 2008 Posted by | ExPat Life, Family Issues, Kuwait, Living Conditions, sunrise series | 6 Comments

Fireboat Practice

Who knew? Who knew the Kuwait Coast Guard – or the Kuwait Fire Department – now has fire boats? These look pretty new, and we are guessing they are having a practice, out in the Gulf on this beautiful Friday:

Fire boats are fairly specialized pieces of equipment. Once you buy them, you have to learn how to operate them. You don’t want them learning when YOUR boat is on fire, you want them to have had some exercises learning how to use their equipment efficiently. Bravo, Kuwait fire department.

May 10, 2008 Posted by | Adventure, Bureaucracy, Community, ExPat Life, Kuwait, Leadership, Living Conditions, Social Issues, Technical Issue | | 5 Comments

Abandoned Baby

This is for my friend, Mrm, or Mirim the Mirim, a blogger friend with a fiendish eye for the sublime and the ridiculous. She hasn’t blogged for a while and I am concerned about her absence. I am hoping this photo, dedicated to her, will lure her back into the blogging world.

Actually, AdventureMan spotted the baby sitting on a garbage bin, but it was I who whipped the camera out and shot a photo.

Who would abandon this beautiful baby?

May 9, 2008 Posted by | Blogging, Cross Cultural, Entertainment, ExPat Life, Humor, Interconnected, Kuwait, Living Conditions, Photos | 17 Comments

Quiet Morning Sunrise May 8, 2008

It wasn’t the Qatteri Cat ready for some fun and excitement. It wasn’t AdventureMan “purring.” I woke with a start, thinking “I have to remember to get an appointment for a teeth cleaning!” and once that adrenaline was running through my veins, I knew I wasn’t going to be able to get back to sleep. It was early, but not WAY early. The sun was just up, and it was a beautiful and quiet time of the day.

Who knows why we are wired the way we are wired? I love the holiness of the earliest hours of the day. AdventureMan and QC are still sleeping, I have my coffee, the sun is rising. Alhamd’allah, life is serene and sweet.

It is only 79°F / 26°C, but it is also only 5:45 ayem.

May 8, 2008 Posted by | ExPat Life, Family Issues, Kuwait, Living Conditions, Spiritual, sunrise series, Weather | 6 Comments

LOL Cat for Today

This one had me howling – it even looks like the Qatteri Cat, who thinks he wants to be outside . . . probably for the same reason. Poor QC vaguely remembers a time when he lived outside. He doesn’t remember the bad parts. 😦

Kuwait isn’t a good place for a cat who lives outside.

cats
more cat pictures

May 7, 2008 Posted by | Community, ExPat Life, Family Issues, Humor, Kuwait, Living Conditions, Pets | 8 Comments

Indistinct Sunrise

The sunrise this morning is so pale that while you can see colors, they are all pale and impressionistic, hazy an indistinct:

May 7, 2008 Posted by | ExPat Life, Kuwait, Living Conditions, sunrise series, Uncategorized, Weather | 6 Comments

From the Animal Friends League Newsletter

These people do such amazing work with limited resources and limitless hearts. If you can help them out in any way, please give them a call.

ANIMAL FRIENDS LEAGUE OF KUWAIT
SHELTER NEWSLETTER
5 May, 2008
+965-700-1622 (Tel) info@animalfriendskuwait.org +965-244-3859(Fax)
http://www.animalfriendskuwait.org

SHELTER UPDATE
Well it is that time of year. People are leaving for
the summer and animals are getting dumped left,
right and center. Our intake is very high right now
with 15 dogs and 17 cats in just over the last two
days. With the holidays under way, it also means
our adoptions have come to a grinding halt. We will
be holding a few adoption fairs over the next
couple months in town to make it a little easier for
people to access us and our animals.

The good news is, things are still under control.
Although we are bursting at the seams, with the
hard work of our precious kennel staff and the
help of our volunteers and the coordination of our
shelter manager, Stephanie Wriede, every animal
continues to get the highest quality care both
physically and mentally.

If you have time over the summer and want to
volunteer, please contact us as we do lose a lot of
our volunteers over the summer.

GOLF COURSE DOG PARK
We were recently contacted by a gentleman that is
managing the construction of a golf course on the way to
Wafra. The desert camp-grounds dismantled and many
people left their dogs behind.

Now a large number of dogs have moved onto the golf course seeking out the
cool grass and refreshing lakes. We visited the site and
counted over thirty dogs in broad daylight. The Harris
says it rises to well over fifty at night and of course
there are puppies galore! Although the manager loves
dogs, the invasion has caused a lot of problems with the
construction and they need to be moved out. Due to the
fact that there is no animal control in Kuwait, we have
to take on yet another massive project that is well
above and beyond our means.

We have started the work and moved the first five dogs on Friday. We will continue
to move the dogs in small groups until we gain control of
the situation. If you would be willing to help us with this
effort please let us know as it is a big one!

May 6, 2008 Posted by | Customer Service, ExPat Life, Kuwait, Leadership, Living Conditions | Leave a comment

Kuwait Blue Sky

On our way downtown the other day, I glumly told my friends I miss the true-blue skies we see in Kuwait in the winter time. All we get these days is this white haze, or at best, a light blue haze. I shot a few photos – and to my surprise, when I uploaded them, we had a genuine blue sky in the background!

Here is one of the renovated minarets – have you noticed a lot of the historical locations are getting a facelift?

For my friends who think we live in tents and drive our camels to work, a nice shot of downtown Kuwait:

Graceful shoppers exiting the Manshar Mall in Fehaheel:

The Grand Mosque in downtown Kuwait:

A saucer-topped building (and the sky is indeed blue):

Last, but not least, a boat on the gulf – and no horizon, no delineation between sea and sky:

May 6, 2008 Posted by | Building, Community, ExPat Life, Kuwait, Living Conditions, Photos | 4 Comments

Jewaira Sunrise

When I saw the sunrise this morning, I thought of Jewaira, another blogger who in her own way and in her own head is also here, there and everywhere. She loves silvery sunrises, and oh man, this is one shimmering, silvery sunrise:

It must be the haze that exaggerates the size of the sun so – and makes it appear to throb, even in the photo.

It is 79°F / 26°C at 0630 with dust expected today according to Q8weather.com.

May 6, 2008 Posted by | Blogroll, ExPat Life, Kuwait, Living Conditions, sunrise series, Uncategorized, Weather | 4 Comments

Kuwait Book Store

After all the months my reading and blogging friends have been recommending the Kuwait Book Store, I finally got there.

I thought I was in heaven.

Another friend, with us, said she is planning a date night with her husband at the Kuwait Book Store – you can spend hours there, and you can top off the evening with an ice cream cone right outside the door.

This is the only place in Kuwait I have seen Jehan Rejab’s book about the Invasion of Kuwait. I found several other books by her, and by her husband. I found four books on Kuwait by Claudia Al-Rashoud, another of my favorite authors and Kuwait photographers. They have a great selection of books on Kuwait – the best I have seen. They have another couple books which feature or include the unique architectural elements in Kuwait, but not The History of Architecture in Old Kuwait City, the book I reviewed earlier. Some of these other books may be even better! 🙂

There were all kinds of books. Acres of books. Books, and a good selection of greeting cards, and pens, and children’s books. The Kuwait Book Store is huge.

The Kuwait Book Store is just inside the main entrance to the Al Muthanna Mall and Residence, across from the JW Marriott in downtown Kuwait. You go down the escalator, and you are there. I like this mall; it has upper end quality kind of goods; some really good shoe stores, many other great resources. I’m not a big fan of malls, but this mall is a very useful mall.

I only regret it took me so long to get there! What a find! I think a date night at the Kuwait Book Store will be in my future, too. I didn’t get to hit all the shops, just had a brief glance. Do you have any favorites or recommendations at Al Muthanna?

May 5, 2008 Posted by | Books, Community, ExPat Life, Fiction, Kuwait, Living Conditions, Shopping | 39 Comments