New Mansions in Mangaf (3)
Last – the Grand Finale:
How many people live in a house like this? Is it divided into apartments? When we were looking for a villa, we were shown many houses like this, houses so BIG for two people and a cat that I was afraid we would rattle around in them like marbles. Some houses had four or five living rooms. More than one had a swimming pool on the main floor as you walked into the house. Most had kitchens outside the house, connected by a walkway, and only a tiny microwave/small fridge/coffee maker kind of kitchen inside the house. I am guessing these houses are similar.
This has to be an apartment, or several branches of the same family will all have separate suites, with some rooms in common. It’s beautiful, isn’t it?
New Mansions in Mangaf (2)
Continued!
This house has a fortunate location, not so close to all the others. Watch in the next few photos – the houses are lovely, but only feet from one another along the sides. It means there will be some very dark rooms on the inside, unless they have a center courtyard, and few of these houses do:
Nice proportions, but looks dark inside:
A little bit close:
These are close, but there is no one right across the street looking in your windows:
Many have “For Rent” signs on them!
Purgatorian Packing
Back in November, we talked about what we pack in our suitcases.
Flying out of Kuwait, however, hits me in my weakest spot. While I find life often unpredictable, and I have learned to roll with it and even to like it and to miss it when it is TOO predictable, I like predictability when I am flying.
Once again, I have gone online to discover that the reservation I thought I had has become a totally different reservation.
I am guessing the airline thought they were doing a frequent flyer a big favor, but here is what has happened. From an elegantly efficient flight with two comfortable connections, I now have a flight that has four very tight connections.
I have two problems – one is that I suspect my bags will not make it. I am guessing the change happened right about when I looked at the dress I wore to Doha (see Travel Karma Failure) and ended up wearing for four days in a row and thought “that held up pretty well, think I will wear that on my long flight back” and I am guessing it was at that very moment my reservations got changed.
I’m not superstitious, but I am wondering if that is a bad luck dress?
Second, I have an inter-Europe flight, and I am wondering if my carry-on will make it on that flight; I know that shorter flights often restrict what you can take on with you. And in my carry-on, I need to do the Purgatorian thing and have extra clothing for while I am waiting for my bags to arrive, as well as my computer, my camera, and other small things like keys, three cell phones (don’t even ask) that work for me. So inside my carry-on I need to have an even smaller bag that I can grab out if they take my carry-on away, so that I am not carrying a naked computer around.
Arrrrrrrrrrggggghhhhhhhhhh!
The title relates to the very organized habits of my fellow blogger, Purgatory, who just celebrated his three year Blogaversary, and who is coming up on another birthday. His rules for packing have logic and organization, and in a purgatorian kind of situation, you need to be able to think in a Purgatorian kind of way, taking account of all the hellish variations. And I am guessing that if there is a purgatory, (althought the Catholic church said this year that there is not), that it is a lot like an airport, waiting for a departure, thinking of eternity.
Katherine Phillips In Her Own Words
Here is the International Schools Review page where Katherine Phillips tells of her being notified by SMS that the travel ban was lifted and how she left immediately, not knowing how long the lifted ban would last:
Skunk also says it was front page on the Arab Times today.
Qatteri Cat Loves His Dad
We start our day together as a family – Adventure Man, me, Qatteri Cat – and all of Qatteri Cat’s babies, who end up on the bed by morning . . .He brought two babies in last night while I was still reading, and the other two appeared sometime as we were sleeping.
As we gathered in the living room to watch the sun over the Gulf, to see if we could spot any dolphins, Adventure Man sat with Qatteri Cat and began to play with him. Adventure Man almost lost a finger!
We got the Qatteri Cat when he was still a very young cat. He was found, sick and with an eye infection, on the Corniche in Doha, too young to be away from his mother, but with no mother in sight. A family adopted him, but the females in the family didn’t like him, and he spent much of his time alone, on a too hot or too cold balcony.
When we adopted him, he LOVED Adventure Man at first sight, but he was very wary of me. His back would arch if my hand raised. He watched my feet like a hawk. If my voice raised, his ears went back. And he was terrified of plastic bags, totally freaked out.
After a month or so, he would sit next to me, but not for long. He usually ended up biting me or scratching me in a panic to get away. It took months to calm him down, to calm his terrors, to gain his trust.
He is a very odd cat. He doesn’t eat meat, won’t touch it. He loves shrimp and sardines, and we special order salmon flavored cat food for him. He never begs for food. If I forget to feed him, he will nip at my feet – that’s his only signal, and he has to be very hungry to even do that. He never begs for food. He drinks very little water, so little that we have to encourage him to drink often.
Most of all, he wants to go out. He wants to roam free, he wants to be the CAT that God created him to be. But now, we have trained him too well – he is too trusting, and has no understanding about cars at all. He wouldn’t last long on the mean streets of Kuwait.
We also have to be careful, because underneath this contented cat, not too far from the surface, is that street-born cat. Most mornings I have a tough time typing, because he is snuggled up between my left arm and the computer. Occasionally, all of a sudden, in his imagination, my left hand becomes something else as it types along, and he attacks. His attacks, with teeth and claws, come as a surprise. It is a great trick NOT to try to remove my hand immediately, which only makes him bite and claw harder, but to stay totally still and say his name in reproving tones. It reminds him who he is and who I am, and he will let go. It happens less and less often, but we never forget there is still a wild cat not far below the thin veneer of civilization.
Most of all, he loves Adventure Man. He cries when he leaves, and he starts getting restless when it is time for him to come home. He waits by the door. When Adventure Man travels, he gets depressed, and Adventure Man talks to him on the phone when he calls. Sometimes I will ask “can you say hello to Qatteri Cat?” and he’ll say “not now, there are people around!” and he will leave the office and call back to talk with Qatteri Cat where no-one can hear him. Adventure Man gets most of his exercise these days chasing Qatteri Cat from room to room, throwing his ball, playing hide and seek.
OK, Skunk, this one was for you. 🙂
Jimmie Rodgers: Power of Prayer
Thank you, commenter Linda Sue who gave us a link to Both Sides Now Stereo Chat Board.
This is the update from that website:
Miracles do happen and one happened this morning.
The surgery began this morning with a group prayer with the Dr’s and family.
About four minutes after beginning, the Dr’s pulled back the scalp to reveal the plate. When they did that the plate literally jumped up away from his head. The Dr’s, five in all a Neuro Surgeon, Two Plastic Surgeons, Two Stem Cell Specialists and the rest of the team began to clean the plate and lift it away from the head. It released itself and came away clean. On the video we could hear the Neuro Surgeon say Oh my God look at that. How did that get there?
Under the plate was revealed a complete and intact skull bone where three months ago there was none. The entire hole in the bone which was an eight inch by six inch oval had grown completely closed with a new skull bone which was smooth and shaped to match the existing skull. It was perfect in every way and was the same thickness as the other bone.
The Dr’s said that in 35 years of surgery they had never seen anything like it. They did not need to recreate a new skull bone at all. Dad was completely healed and made whole again after 40 years. The stem cell Dr’s sprayed a stem paste made from Dads blood over the skull bone and onto the skin flap and the Plastic Surgeons closed him up. The stem paste will keep him from swelling and will encourage skin growth onto the bone.
The entire procedure took about 28 minutes and after one hour in recovery Dad walked out of the room on his own. He is coming home tomorrow. It was an amazing day. Prayer is so powerful.
Much Love to you all,
Michael
Glitz, Bling, Flamboyance and Glam
Today when Adventure Man called at lunch, I was telling him I bought some bling for fun gifts. He said he didn’t think my family did “bling” and I said we didn’t, but this was just a little glitz, just for fun.
“What’s the difference between ‘glitz’ and ‘bling?’ he asked.
I said ‘glitz’ is like a little decoration, a little frosting, but ‘bling’ is ostentatious.
“I consider myself ‘flamboyant.’ he said.
“Oh no!” I protested. “Flamboyant is over the top, it’s that color that is just a little too bright, the gesture that is a little too large, the voice or laughter just a little to high, a little too loud.”
Then it nagged at me until I had to go look it up. As it turns out, bling MIGHT be expensive, but it has the origination of new riches that the owner is afraid he might lose, so he turns it into jewelry that he can keep close to his person, as well as showy and ostentatious. So, I was wrong.
As it turns out, all the following words have a connotation of excessiveness, ostentation and a little over the top.
glitz (glts) Informal n.
Ostentatious showiness; flashiness: “a garish barrage of show-biz glitz” Peter G. Davis.
tr.v. glitz·ed, glitz·ing, glitz·es
To invest with an ostentatiously showy quality: “have started to glitz up their shows with filmed backdrops” Bill Barol.
[Back-formation from glitzy, flashy, showy, probably from German glitzern, to glitter, from Middle High German glitzen, to shine, from Old High German glzan; see ghel-2 in Indo-European roots.]
glitzi·ness n.
glitzy adj.
From The Free Dictionary.
Bling
“Bling-bling” (usually shortened to simply “bling”) is a hip hop slang term which refers to expensive jewelry and other accoutrements, and also to an entire lifestyle built around excess spending and ostentation. In its essence, the term refers to the exterior manifestation of one’s interior state of character, normally displayed through various forms of visual stimuli.
The first apparent use of the term ‘bling bling’ in mainstream culture was in reference to the L-3 badge (real gold) and also a hip hop track of the same title, by rapper B.G., along with Baby Birdman, Juvenile et al [1], celebrating their wealth (as many of their tracks do). “Bling Bling,” released in 1998, led later in the 2000’s to the term proliferating through mainstream hip hop and eventually spilling over into popular culture as a sarcastic term used to mock the perceived vacuousness of hip hop culture. Comedians such as Ali G in the UK, exploited this for humour.
Bling can also be plastic, or fake, jewelry. Many people who cannot afford, or do not wish to buy, real diamonds, gold, etc, opt for fake glass or plastic jewelry. This makes them look big, and bling-bling.
In 2005, the rapper B.G. remarked that he ‘wished he’d patented the term’ so that he would have profited from its extensive use. In interviews, he has stated that the term refers to the imaginary sound that light makes when it hits a diamond. However, the term was in use for several years prior as a reference to getting rich quickly inspired by the sound made when collecting gold coins in popular Nintendo video games such as Donkey Kong and Mario Brothers and when collecting gold rings in Sega’s Sonic Hedgehog.
The culture of ostentatious display of wealth was ingrained in street culture long before the 90’s, however: it is thought that wearing expensive jewelry was the one way in which young previously impoverished men, who had acquired riches through crime, could be sure of holding on to their wealth by keeping it about their person. This marks out the wearer of such jewelry as a person with ghetto roots, as it shows that the source of their wealth or their personal prejudices prevent them from investing in more stable assets such as cash in the bank or property. Hence ‘bling bling’, while widely regarded as a faddish slang phrase, has been seen by some as manifestation of a deeper socioeconomic problem in the US, trivialised by mainstream media and hip hop. For comparison, see chav.
Related meaning
In the Middle East, counterfeit brand-name goods (such as Rolex watches) may be known as bling bling specials.
From The Free Dictionary.
flam·boy·ant (flm-boint)
adj.
1. Highly elaborate; ornate.
2. Richly colored; resplendent.
3. Architecture Of, relating to, or having wavy lines and flamelike forms characteristic of 15th- and 16th-century French Gothic architecture.
4. Given to ostentatious or audacious display. See Synonyms at showy.
n.
See royal poinciana.
[French, from Old French, present participle of flamboyer, to blaze, from flambe, flame; see flame.]
flam·boyance, flam·boyan·cy n.
flam·boyant·ly adv.
From The Free Dictionary.
Aren’t these great words?
And last but not least:
Definition:
Glam
Glamorous; wearing fashionable clothes and make-up, particularly when done to excess.
Example:
1) She’s so glam that people think she’s a model.
2) I love David Bowie and all of those glam rockers.
Etymology:
‘Glam’ is short for ‘glamorous’. Glam and glamorous refer to the magical attraction and excitement produced by celebrities.
From English Daily – Slang
Al-Enezi praises MOE’s Decision
This is from today’s Kuwait Times.
Does this decision by the Ministry of Education, applicable to all the private schools in Kuwait, mean that no expatriates can be hired for any administrative or assistant teacher positions in any of the private schools, only Kuwaitis? Is this a part of the Kuwaitization program?
By A Saleh
KUWAIT: The manager of the national labor ratio at the Manpower and Government Restructuring Program (MGRP) Fares Al Enezi announced the preparations for a training course to qualify national laborers to work in administrative jobs and as assistant teachers in private schools.
Speaking at a press conference, Al Enezi praised the Ministry of Education’s decision on banning the hiring of expatriates in private schools as this move would help find hundreds of job opportunities for citizens.
Al Enezi stressed that the MGRP was ready to provide enough qualified national substitutes and he highlited that only 410 citizens currently worked in private schoools as compared to 1617 expatriates of various nationalities. Moreover, he noted that only 140 teachers worked ther versus 10,793 expatriates who worked there as well.
Desertification
UN issues desertification warning
By Matt McGrath
BBC environment reporter
Tens of millions of people could be driven from their homes by encroaching deserts, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa and Central Asia, a report says.
The study by the United Nations University suggests climate change is making desertification “the greatest environmental challenge of our times”.
If action is not taken, the report warns that some 50 million people could be displaced within the next 10 years.
The study was produced by more than 200 experts from 25 countries.
Scarce resources
This report does not pull any punches – desertification is an environmental crisis of global proportions, it says, and one third of the Earth’s population are potential victims of its creeping effect.
This is just an excerpt from an article you can read in full at BBN News.
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