By Popular Demand
. . . your sunrise this morning at 0545. It looks like it will be a gloriously spectacular day, hot, but not killer hot, maybe in the low 100’s (F) (around 38 C). Not a cloud in the sky. Even the haze on the horizon is light, not that icky dark band you sometimes see. The Gulf is flat and glassy, not the tiniest wave. Freighters are tootling by, bringing all good things to Kuwait.
Tonight is date night, and the beginning of the weekend in Kuwait. I wish you all the happiest of weekends.
Dreaming of The “Not-So-Big House”
I’ve been dreaming lately of the house I want in my future. I’ve visited a couple houses in Kuwait lately, houses I liked a lot, with beautiful spaces, intimate dining rooms, a variety of ceiling heights, cozy seating areas that invited conversation and large, light bedrooms that also had seating areas, grown up retreats with Jacuzzi style bathtubs and places to curl up and read, along with a whole lot of closet space.
I told you a while back about a book we were told about, Sarah Susanka’s The Not So Big House Book. The book is about making every part of your house work the way your lifestyle needs it to – cutting out space wasted on impressing other people and maximizing areas of the house where people actually hang out.
As she introduces the book, she talks about how you throw a party and everybody ends up hanging out in the kitchen, that the living rooms we create are not welcoming, and she has good ideas how to make all the spaces in your house more welcoming.
She emphasizes also the use of high quality materials and workmanship.
I know that a little bit of heaven for me is getting up every day and looking out on the Gulf. I know that when I am working, I work facing the same view. It gives me such joy. I might get some of the same satisfaction overlooking a forest with wild animals (I know AdventureMan would love to have that not-so-big house be in Africa! Imagine! You’re sorting through your books and an elephant sticks his trunk in!) or the Puget Sound with the Olympics in the background. I know I am addicted to big windows and watching the weather change.
I need privacy. I don’t want other people looking in my windows.
My best friend has a round dining room table, and my sister, and my Chinese friend tells me those are the best for family “energy.” I want a big round family dining table, in wood, like my sister and like my friend.
I love glass brick, and would love to have it in bathrooms and entries and have walls of it letting light stream into and through my home.
I love glass tile, especially the watery shades of aqua blue and aqua green.
(photo courtesy Bedrock Industries)
I love light wood floors, honey oak, birch, even knotty pine planks I had in an old German house where I once lived. I love the feeling of wood underfoot; it is gentle and forgiving, and so classically good looking.
(Photo courtesy Pennington Hardwoods)
I love second floor loft libraries, overlooking the lower living areas of a house.
Dream along with me.
Think about YOUR house. Now, close your eyes and think about what goes into making a house your very own special hideaway. What makes it special for you? What would you do with your living space if time and energy and money were of no importance?
Traditional Clothing Exposition
Last night I was invited for a very special occasion, the Tarek Rajab family had a private showing of their unparalleled Arab Dress collection for the Kuwait Textile Arts Association. We enjoy their two museums so much – we take our friends and visitors there, sometimes we just visit the calligraphy museum to watch the film on calligraphy one more time! We learn something new with every visit. If you have never visited either of these museums, you are missing one of the rare treats in Kuwait.
On top of their value on traditional items, their foresight in beginning the collection decades ago, their two museums are open to the public, entirely free. Free of charge. Free admission. I never can get over it; the entire country of Kuwait is an honored guest in these museums. Imagine.
Denise Rajab, the museum curator, was on hand to answer questions about the costumes, which were displayed hanging against backgrounds showing photos of the countries and surroundings where these items of dress would be worn. White gloves were available to all present, and people were encouraged to (gently) handle the garb, so that you could see front and back.
There was so much loving attention to detail, so much handwork in these items of clothing!
I encourage you, my friends in Kuwait, to do two things. First, visit the two Tarek Rajab museums (located in Jabriya, near the New English School.) Here is their website: Tarek Rajab Museums
Second, if you want a window on a whole new world, join this group, Kuwait Textile Arts Association. Take their trips (this year the group just got back from South Africa, and are whooping with delight!) and attend their monthly meeting, meet some of the most interesting people in Kuwait, interesting because they have wide-ranging interests – like yours!
Here are some photos from a truly remarkable evening:
I hope I’m in town next year for all the meetings, and . . . I’ll see you there!
Come Back!
Law n’ Order Man! EnviroGirl! Come back! Come to Kuwait! We’ll make it worth your while!
Actually, in Kuwait, “coming soon” does not actually mean coming soon. There was a restaurant “coming soon” at The Palms, and we waited. And waited. The sign was up for months, and the restaurant never came!
We’ve heard there is also a Borders Books coming to The Avenues Mall – but we aren’t holding our breaths!
Clear Skies
Look at the sky! It’s clear! It looks like it is going to be a gorgeous day today. AdventureMan and I were out for dinner last night and chose a restaurant so that we could eat outside, figuring there won’t be many more evenings where it will be cool enough. Even though it was comfortable, the fly level was high enough to tell us we won’t be eating out much more this “spring.”
It is 68°F / 20°C at 0600 this morning, looking at a forecast high of 98°F / 37°C. Even though it is clear, I am sneezing, so something seems to be in the air.
Rolls Royce and Lamborghini Dumped
From today’s Arab Times:
Rolls Royce and a Lamborghini dumped in a desert
Kuwait : Police found two luxurious cars — a Rolls Royce and a Lamborghini — worth KD 200,000 dumped in a desert area, reports Al-Anba daily. Reportedly, the cars were stolen from a rental office about 20 days ago. Personnel from the Criminal Evidences Department lifted fingerprints to identify the culprits.
Does anyone else find this funny? I mean funny, hahahaha, not funny strange, or weird. I mean it IS weird, it is so weird, but it makes me laugh.
In a little village in Washington State, there was a huge snowstorm a few years ago, and the roofs in the yacht club collapsed from the weight of the snow, collapsed on all those big fine yachts, and the citizens of the little village gathered and laughed. Boat moorage in their own little village had gotten so expensive, they couldn’t afford it, so these were all other people’s boats. And they just laughed.
200,000 KD worth of car in two cars. Just dumped in the desert. Seems kinda wasteful, doesn’t it?
Here Comes the Sun
What’s that pale, tiny little orb hanging over the horizon? The dust is back, it never really went away:
at 0500 this morning, it was already 75°F / 24°C, with “haze”.
And to lighten the day a little, an oldie but goodie of the same name:
Prices and Variety
My friends and family enjoyed my last Sultan Center post so much, I am going to add a couple photos here.
The price of eggs is breathtaking:
(Remember, for KD to $, you can figure about $4/KD)
Down below these packages of 6 (top shelf) and 12 second shelf) were flats of 30 for only KD 1.000. They are smaller eggs, and need washing, but that’s what I bought.
The Sultan Center serves a wide variety of people – local and expat – so I always love to see the things they put next to each other. This is a section I call “food helpers;” they are not food, but you add them to something – meat, rice, something that really IS food:
There is no lack of condiments. There is only the lack of the one particular condiment you need on the day that you need it!
“Except Through Me. . .”
Today’s Gospel reading includes a phrase that causes a lot of concern and discussion among Christians. The entire reading is this:
GOSPEL: John 14: 1 – 14 (RCL)
John 14: 1 – 12 (Roman Catholic)
John 14:1 (NRSV) “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. 2 In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. 4 And you know the way to the place where I am going.” 5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”
8 Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” 9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, “Show us the Father’? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. 11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves. 12 Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.
The phrase that causes problems is this: No one comes to the Father except through me.
Today’s Forward Day by Day (thoughts on the readings for the day) is very comforting. It says this:
Today’s gospel text is another hard one. The absoluteness of Christianity is affirmed over and over in John’s Gospel and never more disturbingly (to our pluralistic ears) than in this passage. Jesus declares himself to be “the way, the truth, and the life” that leads to the Father; no one comes to the Father except through him.
This grates on us. What about Jews? Muslims? Buddhists? Agnostics? C. S. Lewis, addressing this concern in Mere Christianity, reminds us that “God has not told us what his arrangements about other people are.” We know that no man can be saved except for Christ, but we do not know that only those who know him can be saved through him, Lewis adds. The heart of the matter, then, is not measured by the extent of our awareness. Grace is a mystery, not a formula-and not subject to our prior approval.
The Spirit blows where it will.
The epistle to the Hebrews reminds us that the word of God spoken in Christ is “living and active.” In hidden ways we cannot see, control, or imagine-even in other religions-Christ is bringing the whole world home to the Father, one beloved person at a time.
I have a sweet Moslem family who loves me. When they come back from Hajj, they always bring me prayer beads, and they always pray for me at the most important time and place. It delights my heart; it delights me that they love me and want me to be in paradise with them, and I will accept prayers for me from anyone, any day of the week!
One of the most meaningful things they ever said to me was that, in spite of everything, they believe I will be in the afterlife with them. They are devout. I know their beliefs exclude me, and somehow they have found a way to think I might be included.
I like this devotion for the same reason. I want to believe that God/Allah is so big that we can’t begin to comprehend how much he loves us, his creation, and how his mercy and forgiveness and powers of inclusion will work. We don’t believe the same things, not exactly the same, and yet I believe there is a way we can all be saved.
Sunrise, April 20, 2008
As you can see, the day is more clear, but not exactly clear:
At 0600, it is 66°F / 19°C and the high today is expected to be 100°F / 38° C.
It is still very . . . ummm. . . .Hazy(?) Cloudy(?) Dusty (?) on the horizon. Visibility down close to the ground is limited. There is definitely less dust than in the last two days, thanks be to God.
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