Mangaf Mansion
Every time I see this house, I grin. I love it that someone has the money and the imagination to build exactly the house he wanted, and that he did it knowing he would probably get criticism. He built it anyway. Good on him.
Doha Souk Transport
As a young military wife, it was hugely shocking to me when people felt sorry for me that I had to move all the time. Yes, it is painful being far away from family. And yes, it is painful leaving good friends. But in expat world, we all leave sooner or later, this contract ends, this posting leads to another – and some of us are just wired to need the stimulation.
My husband walks into each new posting with credentials – people know what he has done and accomplished, he has “gravitas.” I get to seek out the drycleaner who won’t ruin my clothes, the man who sells the best tomatoes, and to try to get the heating fixed when no one wants to talk to a woman, and to try to find the roads that will get us where we need to go. In short, I am staff.
And, in spite of all my griping, I got the life I was meant to have. I love the variety, I love the shock of finding others think differently, perceive differently, and my own assumptions are challenged. And I love taking photos.
Here is one of my favorites – these wizened old men are always available to carry your excess and heavy packages, and this man was hired to carry the two adorable boys and “nanny” them as mom went from shop to shop. I asked permission before shooting the photo, from a man I assumed to be the father, but the mom came swooping out, asking what I was doing. Fortunately for me, the man calmed her down and all was well.
Better Faster Smarter Solution
My husband jokes that when I have a sore throat, it is the beginning of a common cold, but when he has a sore throat, it is a rare tropical disease and he should be babied and coddled and have tea and soup brought to him, and warm washcloths, and we should speak in sweet soft voices in case he is breathing his last.
Last night I had a tickle. My husband, God bless him, knows that what makes me all better is miso soup, so I had miso soup for dinner last night.
Today, I think I have the rare tropical disease kind of sore throat. It was just a tickle yesterday, but by night I was in the grips of a no-kidding, no sleeping sore throat and stuffed nose, coughing, and feeling rotten. I feel like something the Qatteri Cat dragged in.
I rarely get sick. I don’t have time to get sick now. Please, dear readers, share your top “get rid of a cold” solutions, and do it NOW! I need your help!
Mystery Back Again
Several months ago I posted a photo of a . . . something . . . out in the Gulf. I can’t figure out what this is, what it is doing. It is a large sturdy raft with mechanical equipment. It is visited several times a day by a couple different serious looking modern fishing boats – maybe coast guard boats. I can’t really tell.
It may be a dredge, as it is in shallow water and has all those tubes connected to floats. Or it may have to do with fishing. I don’t see any sand coming up, nor do I see fish. This is a great mystery to me. (Idly musing . . . )
I keep hoping one of you will recognize it and tell me what it is. Otherwise, the comment section is open for idle speculation.
Breakfast at Paul’s
It’s a great thing, being a grown-up. A lot of the things that were hard and fast rules as you are raising children get thrown out the window once it is just you and your husband once again.
When I was little, I remember Saturday nights. We would have hamburgers with all the trimmings, and watch a favorite TV show while we ate. It was the only night of the week we could eat in front of the TV.
There was a price to be paid, though. My mother would never allow a bottle on the table. There were special small bowls for the mustard, ketchup, relish, sliced onions, tomatoes, lettuce, etc. Putting condiments IN the bowls was no big deal, but I hated spooning the ketchup back into the narrow necked ketchup jar.
I will never forget my horror visiting my parents home with my son, and seeing a ketchup bottle on the table. I couldn’t believe it! I said “we were never allowed to put a ketchup bottle on the table when we were growing up!” and my Mom just laughed and said “now that we have raised you correctly we can do as we please!”
I totally get it. Now that it is just my husband and me, we also break the rules. We go out to eat more often. Sometimes we stay up late, even on a work night. Sometimes we leave a mess in our project room. I heard my husband tell the cat “Mom is going on a trip and we won’t even have to make the bed!” We’re easier on ourselves and we are easier on one another.
But best of all, when my husband wants a strawberry tart, even for breakfast, he can have a strawberry tart. He loves the ones from Paul’s. We don’t have breakfast there often, but we always enjoy it when we do.
Mobissimo
Have you heard about Mobissimo? It is one of the best sites for comparing airfares from one place to another. I owe this to a good friend, now working in Afghanistan. He makes his reservations through Mobissimo and shared the information with me.
You can include multiple destinations, something many of the travel sites don’t handle well, and you can see where you would be connecting and how long that connection will be.
I don’t always book through Mobissimo, but it is usually my first stop to get a glimpse of price comparisons and connections.
Alison’s Clam Chowder
This is one of the first recipes in my collection. My very best friend from college taught me how to make it and gave me the recipe. You can get all the ingredients in Kuwait, and can buy Kuwaiti clams in the fish markets and at the Sultan Center.
Alison’s Clam Chowder
This is still one of our very favorite soups – especially on a cold winter’s day. Serve with a baguette (French bread, not a diamond!) and a green salad. It’s all you need.
2 strips bacon (beef or turkey bacon in Kuwait)
1 large onion, chopped
2 cans clams and juice (drain the juice, but save it)
2 cups water
4 cups milk
1 large potato
Sautee bacon slowly, so it releases lots of grease. Take out bacon, chop it up, and reserve it.
Sautee onion in bacon grease until soft. Cool, add water and clam juice, and chopped potato. Cook until potato is no longer hard, but not too soft.
Add milk and warm to serving temperature, add canned clams and reserved bacon pieces. Sooooooooo EASY!
Report: Humans ‘very likely’ cause global warming
This morning, CNN reports that humans are very likely the cause of global warming. No kidding.
This week, an unexpected storm killed 19 in Central Florida. Global warming is said to be creating stronger, more dangerous hurricanes in the Atlantic. This has had a personal impact on us – we bought a house in Florida this year, only to receive word shortly after buying it that hurricane insurance would be almost impossible to get in the future.
We are planning to make the house as hurricane-survivable as we can, but very little can survive the direct impact of a max force hurricane. It is a terrifying event, and makes a believer out of the non-spiritually oriented.
We really have no idea how far along the process of global warming is, or if it will accellerate beyond our ability to undo the damage we may have done. Or . . . is this just another in a long series of cycles of weather change?
Story Highlights
• Scientists release a 21-page report strongly linking humans to climate change
• Report scientist: Evidence of warming on the planet is unequivocal
• Scientists predict global temperature increases of 3.2-7.1 degrees F by 2100
• Sea levels could rise between 7 and 23 inches by the end of the century
(CNN) — Global warming is here and humans are “very likely” the blame, an international group of scientists meeting in Paris, France, announced Friday.
“The evidence for warming having happened on the planet is unequivocal,” said U.S. government scientist Susan Solomon, who also is a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
“We can see that in rising air temperatures, we can see it in changes in snow cover in the Northern Hemisphere. We can see it in global sea rise. It’s unequivocal,” she said. (Watch scientist Susan Solomon deliver the grim news on global warming )
In a 21-page report for policymakers, the group of climate experts unanimously linked — with “90 percent” certainty — the increase of average global temperatures since the mid-20th century to the increase of manmade greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
Fossil fuels like methane and carbon dioxide trap heat near the surface, a process known as the greenhouse effect. The greenhouse effect is a natural phenomenon, but human activities, like the burning of fossil fuels, can pour enormous volumes of these gases into the atmosphere, raising the planet’s temperature and destabilizing the climate. (Watch what happens to our planet when manmade emissions get trapped in the atmosphere )
The report found it was “likely” — “more likely than not” in some cases — that manmade greenhouse gases have contributed to hotter days and nights, and more of them, more killer heat waves than before, heavier rainfall more often, major droughts in more regions, stronger and more frequent cyclones and “increased incidence” of extremely high sea levels.
The report noted that 11 of the last 12 years have ranked among the 12 warmest years on record with the oceans absorbing more than 80 percent of the heat added to the climate system. Add in the melt-off of glaciers and sea ice and sea levels are rising.
The IPCC predicted global temperature increases of 1.8 to 4 degrees Celsius (3.2 to 7.1 degrees Fahrenheit) by 2100 and sea levels to rise between 7 and 23 inches (18 and 58 centimeters) by the end of the century. (Watch how rising sea levels could affect San Francisco )
“An additional 3.9-7.8 inches (10-20 centimeters) are possible if recent, surprising melting of polar ice sheets continues,” the report stated.
The group will meet again in April to discuss the socioeconomic impact of climate change.
Defining ‘likely’
The IPCC was established in 1988 to study climate change information. The group doesn’t do independent research but instead reviews scientific literature from around the world.
The United Nations-sanctioned group was formed by the World Meteorological Organization and U.N. Environment Program.
The group’s goal is to produce “a balanced reporting of existing viewpoints” on the causes of global warming, according to its Web site.
The panel’s reports are influential references for policymakers, scientists and other climate change experts.
Friday’s release is the beginning of the panel’s first major report since 2001. The rest of the report is due out later this year.
The 2001 report found that the 1990s were “very likely” the warmest decade on record. It also said that most of the observed warming over the last 50 years was “likely due to increases in greenhouse gas concentrations due to human activities.”
The authors defined “likely” as between 66 percent to 90 percent probable, and “very likely” as a 90 to 99 percent.
Renewed concern in U.S.
Friday’s report comes amid renewed debate in the United States. (Full story)
In his State of the Union address, President Bush called for the use of more environmentally friendly technologies to “confront the serious challenge of global climate change.”
It was the first time he has discussed the issue in a State of the Union address.
The White House has said Bush’s proposals would stop the growth of carbon dioxide emissions from cars, light trucks and sport utility vehicles within 10 years.
Leaders in the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives and Senate held hearings on climate change this week. (Full story)
CNN’s Peggy Mihelich and David E. Williams contributed to this report.
Japanese Breakfast
This is for my husband. I know he reads my blog now and then, and I wonder how long it will be before he sees this?
The other night, we were out for our favorite “fast” food, which is Japanese food. Not just sushi, we love miso soup. When I am sick, miso soup makes my throat feel better. I feel like I am eating good health, with all those little tofu squares and that seaweed, I feel like the miso soup will make me better. I also love salmon teriyaki, and chawan moushi, and a variety of lesser known Japanese foods.
And my husband said “isn’t miso soup what Japanese people have for breakfast?” and I didn’t know. He though miso soup and rice, so today I looked it up on Google, “Japanese breakfast”, and here is what I found:
Japanese breakfast consists of steamed rice, miso (soy bean paste) soup, and side dishes. Common side dishes are grilled fish, rolled omelet, pickles, dried seaweed, natto, salad, and more. Actually, you can make any dishes to go with rice and miso soup in Japanese breakfast. As you see in the photo, it’s an etiquette to place a bowl of rice on your left and to place a bowl of miso soup on your right side at the table.
It was on Japanese Breakfast About.com, along with ads for Japanese condoms (they are different from others?), a sushi making robot, a Samurai hotel and recipes for steamed rice, miso soup, natto (fermented soy beans), Nori (dried seaweed), Tamagoyaki (rolled omelet), grilled fish and pickles.
It seems to me that Japanese food is going through an internationalization process – sushi used to be all about rice and fish, and main dishes were simple, often stir fried, but all in all, very healthy. Now, I am seeing sushis with fried stuff in them, mayonnaise (?????), and we were offered a green tea ice-cream for dessert . . . that just doesn’t strike me as Japanese. Is it?
But this is for my husband – in case you really read all the way down – YOU WERE RIGHT. (I am obligated by family law to say that.)
Mermaid of Mangaf Update
It looks to me like the Mermaid of Mangaf is getting ready for occupation. One night a couple months ago, we drove by and saw workmen’s laundry hanging from the inner balcony areas as they were putting in electrical conduits and air conditioning.
Recently, a grand entry cover was added. It looks to me like they are getting ready to put in landscaping around the building.
You can see the dual levels, with the balconies on one level and probably the sleeping level upstairs. The top floor, where the “waves” of glass are the most prominent, appears to be a spacious and elegant fitness center, with a full 180 degree view of the Gulf while exercising.
All in all, very cool.
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Early Voting in Florida
