Oregon Beach Rental
The Oregon coast is a beach lover’s delight. My mother’s family had cabins on the beach that they rented out every summer, so my Mom grew up on the Oregon beaches, and consequently, we did, too. The cabins, which were always beachy and utilitarian, have become increasingly sophisticated.
We have rented both sides of a wonderful cottage. Our side of the cottage easily sleeps 14 people (we are four people) and the other side of the cottage easily sleeps 10 – 12. They have huge dining tables, cupboards full of glasses, dishes, serving platters, dishwashing AND dishwasher detergents – they are fully equipped with stoves, microwaves, coffee makers, washers and dryers, even hair dryers, even shampoos and conditioners, even beach towels and beach equipment and bike helmets. I am astonished at how equipped they are.
This is called the Little House, and if you want to rent it, you can find it here:
Little House on the Promenade
The cottage has two beautifully furnished living rooms (with additional sleeping on fold out couches if you have a very large family), chairs, TVs, fireplaces, games, books, magazines . . . and it is completely wired for wi-fi. Wooo Hoooo for me!
Although it can be two separate rentals, when it is one family renting both sides, there is a secret passage connecting the two rentals, so we are back and forth in one another’s kitchens all day. Oh, what fun.
5 Star Pho
My favorite little restaurant, 5 Star Pho, is totally packed at noon, every table but one is taken, and that one has a reserved sign on it. Fortunately for me, a booth opens up just moments after I arrive. The waitress brings me a hot cup of tea – a welcome treat for a woman who has just escaped the heat of Kuwait to shiver in Seattle – and a menu, but I already know what I want.
This is what I crave while I am living in Kuwait. My friend, Coeurcountry, has improved my life so much by making me a gift of the rice-paper wrappers, and a great recipe, so I CAN make them myself, but oh, 5 Star Pho does it so much better! Even though I am in and out of town, not a daily or even a weekly regular customer, they always remember me. I don’t even have to ask; they bring me extra peanut sauce!
I am sorry, I couldn’t wait. I had to take a bite even before I shot the photo!
Qatteri Cat Catches Up
Ha ha ha ha ha, Qatteri Cat! Take that! I’ll show you what it is like being awakened from a nice snooze! I’ll take your photo!
After racing around all night, rearranging the carpets and playing in places he should not have been playing, the Qatteri Cat is ready for a nap – and I am getting revenge for his nighttime capers! Actually, his fur is getting all matted, and while he is napping, I often take the scissors and cut out the badly matted hunks, and try to comb him so he won’t get so matted.
One of these days, I really want to give him a bath. He has come a long way in the four years he has lived with us. He is a gentle cat, a sweet cat, a snuggly cat. Underneath all that veneer of civilization, however, is still the WILD cat. All it takes is for him to be scared, tired, hungry or mistreated and all the wildness comes back to the surface. I know I can’t attempt to give him a bath on my own – I need to have AdventureMan with me to help handle him. In all these years, I have never given him a bath – I am a little afraid of him!
Mary Nell’s Secret
“I’m coming in tonight,” says AdventureMan, “but not on my original flight. My flight from Denver to Chicago was cancelled, so I missed that flight. I’ll be on the flight coming in at around 10.”
“Oh, I’m so glad you called; I would have been waiting at the airport!” I replied.
“There’s an e-mail waiting for you – I had (our son) send you an e-mail to let you know,” AdventureMan continues, “I was lucky to get a flight at all – they had re-booked me for tomorrow night! I used Mary Nell’s technique, and they found me a seat on another flight.”
I laughed in delight.
If we are very very lucky, we learn from our friends. I have several friends who are flowers of the South, but Mary Nell takes the crown as the Queen of the South. Mary Nell and I would be on the road to France in a heartbeat, any excuse would do. We had our favorite stores, we introduced one another to new favorites, new villages, new restaurants. Even better, our husbands liked each other, too, so now and then we would hit a very lovely restaurant, the four of us.
Mary Nell is polite and well-mannered. Always. Polite and well-mannered, and she always gets her way. When someone gives her information she doesn’t like, she pauses, gathers her forces, looks them directly in the eye and says the magic words: “That won’t do.” She shakes her head sadly as she delivers the words.
She follows up firmly, “No, that won’t do at all. We have a problem here. (Names what she wants, like the shoes she likes in a color not available in that shop) What are we going to do?” and she looks deeply into the other person’s eyes.
She uses the same techniques on the bullies she counsels in the guidance office, the out-of-control parents, the crazy teacher. They all back down in the face of Mary Nell’s relentlessly polite confrontation.
AdventureMan and I could only watch in absolute astonishment as Mary Nell worked her magic. After a while, we tried it, too. It took a few tries, but – it really does work!
Again, at the airport, as the ticketing guy explains that with the downsized plane, they have had to put my husband on a later flight. “No! That won’t do!” says Adventure Man. “People are counting on me! We have to fix this problem!”
The ticketing guy thought he had it fixed, but this technique forces him to search out new possibilities. Once again, Mary Nell’s technique prevails.
She never gets aggressive. She never raises her voice. And whoever is working with her knows, with utter conviction, that she is not going to go away until this problem is solved to her satisfaction. Woooo Hoooooo, Mary Nell.
Animal Welfare League Seeks Your Help
From a public service ad in today’s Kuwait Times:
Summer is upon us and with this time of year comes the seasonal abandonment of dogs and cats all over Kuwait. As we rush to bring these animals to safety, we need your help in doing so. In addition to having many wonderful dogs and cats up for adoption, we are always in need of shelter volunteers, foster homes, and donations from our wish list:
Wish list:
Clorox
Canned Dog and Cat food
Dog and Cat toys
Tide
String Cheese
Peanut Butter
Frozen Chicken
Large Capacity Garbage Bags
Extra Large capacity Washer / Dryer
Animal Friends League of Kuwait
“Saving One Animal at a Time”
TEL: 700-1622
Email: info@animalfriendskuwait.org
Website: http://www.animalfriendskuwait.org
Ministry Cracking Down on Porn Sites
A little over a year ago, May 18th, 2007, I remarked on an article in the Kuwait Times called MOC Bans Porno Film Sites. I had no idea that even over a year later, that blog entry would continue getting countless hits.
In this morning’s Kuwait Times, it’s like they say – deja vu all over again.
KUWAIT: Communications Minister Abdulhahman Al-Ghunaim has ordered the establishment of a committee to improve Internet services by finding ways to stop the spread of pornographic websites, which contradict local cultural and religious values.
The committee will reportedly be headed by Engineeer Ali Al-Zibin, the ministry’s Assistant Undersecretary of Information Technology, and will include representatives from the Interior, Awqaf, and Information Ministries, as well as Kuwait University.
A Communications Ministry official said that the committee will coordinate with and supervise the country’s Internet service providers in order to formulate a strategy to limit this phenomenon, by strengthening their supervisory role in this field.
It will also work continually updating the country’s systems to ensure that they are on a par with the latest technological developments to put an end to the spread of pornographic sites, in addition to establishing a map for joint coordination between all ministries.
You can live in a country a long time and barely scratch the surface. I honestly try to figure out what is going on, and even so, I get surprised often. I feel so encouraged when I see people tackling a problem, but then, so often, it turns out to be just meeting, just talking – no fixing.
As I have said before – I hate pornography. It isn’t part of my country’s values, either. It is certainly counter to my values. And yet, when I think of spending a country’s resources on trying to fight pornography, which we have had with us since probably the earliest times, I just feel tired. I don’t think you can win a fight against pornography. I think, to eliminate pornography, prostitution, alcohol and drug abuse – you have to change the way people think. Haven’t you noticed? You restrict something, it only makes it more attractive. Look at the countries that brutalize people arrested for possession of pornography – Saudi Arabia and Iran – have they been successful in eliminating access to pornography – on the net, or elsewhere? Where there is a demand, there will be suppliers, or that is how it seems to me. How do we eliminate the demand?
Who accesses and downloads porn the most, do you think? My bet would be on the 15 – 35 year old male, the most technologically savvy group in any population. How long do you think it will take them to break through any barriers you can place? And how many nanoseconds before they spread the “fix” all over the internet?
There is another article today, one on the air conditioning breakdown at Ibn Sina hospital, patients keeling over from the heat and humidity and then sewer-dwelling insects swarming into the children’s ward. How disgusting is that?
Attack the problems you can solve. Put people first. Fix the infrastructure – the roads, the hospitals, government services, licensing, visas. Make Kuwait state-of-the-art in communication accessibility. Kuwait is RICH, Kuwait can do anything. I hate pornography, but I don’t think any nation has the capacity to stop it.
Strange Practices
This is from the Kuwait Crime section of the Arab Times:
And in an unrelated development, Interior Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Khaled Al-Sabah should look into the alleged immoral practices on Kuwaiti islands, National Assembly Comptroller Dr Mohammed Al-Huwailah told Alam Al-Yawm. Urging the minister to take stringent measures to curb ‘immorality’ in these islands, Al-Huwailah wondered how could some people engage in strange practices under the supposedly watchful eyes of security authorities, particularly the Coast Guard. Asserting he will closely follow up the issue, Al-Huwailah warned the minister’s lenient attitude on the issue will lead to the destruction of Arab and Islamic values. He called for the strict implementation of the law to protect the Kuwaiti society.
I am guessing these strange practices are alien practices? What kind of practices are taking place on Kuwait’s islands?
Grin for Today
I’ve always loved this joke. It is making the rounds again; thank you dear friend for forwarding it to me. 🙂
“The Obedient Wife”
There was a man who had worked all his life, had saved all of his money, and was a real “miser” when it came to his money.
Just before he died, he said to his wife…”When I die, I want you to take all my money and put it in the casket with me. I want to take my money to the afterlife with me.”
And so he got his wife to promise him, with all of her heart, that when he died, she would put all of the money into the casket with him.
Well, he died. He was stretched out in the casket, his wife was sitting there – dressed in black, and her friend was sitting next to her. When they finished the ceremony, and just before the undertakers got ready to close the casket, the wife said,
“Wait just a moment!”
She had a small metal box with her; she came over with the box and put it in the casket. Then the undertakers locked the casket down and they rolled it away. So her friend said,
“Girl, I know you were not fool enough to put all that money in there with your husband.”
The loyal wife replied, “Listen, I’m a Christian; I cannot go back on my word. I promised him that I was going to put that money into the casket with him.”
You mean to tell me you put that money in the casket with him!?!?!?”
“I sure did,” said the wife. “I got it all together, put it into my account, and wrote him a check…. If he can cash it, then he can spend it.”
Today’s Kuwait Times: Monday, 21 July
First, to give credit where credit is due, the Kuwait Times has become better and better during my time here in Kuwait. The grammar is better, they have (most-of-the-time) stopped using “red handed” in every crime report, and the captions under the photos match the photos.
Until today. I think an editor must be on vacation.
Here is the photo:
And here is the caption under the photo: KUWAIT Director of Public Relation and Moral Guidance department COL Adel Al-Hashash receiving Deputy Chairman of Police Sports Association COL Mubarak Al-Mubarak and head of police Karate team to the Arab championship LTC Waleed Ghanem Al-Ghanem over the weekend.
Now down at the bottom of the page is the same caption, with this photo:
Also on page 2 is the following article – please read it closely and tell me if I am reading it correctly – that this will compel women, but not men, to go to the reconciliation committee before filing for divorce? I hate divorce. I am all in favor of family counseling. I am in favor of any law helping families, as long as it applies equally to men and to women:
Family Court will halve divorce rates in Kuwait
Published Date: July 21, 2008
KUWAIT: Judge Faisal Al-Mirshid has revealed that family court should be up and running in Kuwait within one year, predicting that its existence would halve the country’s divorce rates. The Appeal Court head, member of the Higher Judicial Council and chairman of the committee entrusted with establishing the family court said that the court’s establishment would reduce divorce cases by 50 percent because those asking for divorce will first have to go to the reconciliation committee, otherwise their cases will be automatically rejected in all courts.
Al-Mirshid said that a ministerial decision has been issued to establish the family court, and the committee has already begun working on the regulatory legal framework which will control its decision making process, reported Al Jarida.
He explained that the committee has already contacted the Awqaf Ministry’s Secretariat General regarding the allocation of a building to house the family court, which will include several departments and sections, including a shelter for women and children fleeing domestic violence.
He explained that it will also establish a fund to help Kuwaiti families and provide financial aid for divorced Kuwaiti women or those whose husbands are imprisoned.
Al-Mirshid said that there are some impediments to the success of the family courts, including a need to amend the current divorce legislation in order to compel women seeking a divorce to first resort to the reconciliation committee before filing for divorce.
He said the family court law will be applied to followers of the Jaafari Shia sect followers just like other personal affairs legislation, emphasizing that there is no contradiction with the idea of Jaafari courts which call for reconciliation before resorting to court for divorce.
He said that there will also be a fund established to provide expenses for families within the Jaafari rules.
Last, but not least, on the very same page 2 is this intriguing article. So you tell me – what are they saying DID happen?
MoI clarifies erroneous rescue operation
Kuwait: The Ministry of Interior clarified an erroneous report published in some local dailies recently. It referred to a report on the rscue operation of four persons whose boat sank off the Kubbar island.
It said the coast guard acted promptly the minute they received the call, while the delay in rescuing them was actually caused through wrong coordination.
That error resulted in the team having to scour the entire square area around the island in their search for the missing persons.
Help was sought from a helicopter from the US search rescue team to assist in the operations, it added.
Ministry officials also disclosed that the four persons of both sexes were not in any way related to the Al-Sabah family, and that the search operation succeeded in locating them and getting them safely ashore without any casualties.
They said contradictory reports of the rescue operations published in newspapers was due to the fact that the media did not source the correct information from the concerned authorities.
A statement released by the ministry said rescue teams from the fire service department as well as central operations (777) participated in the rescue.
Kuwait’s History – for Children
Thank you, Little Diamond, for your sharp eye spotting this story:
Children”s books about Kuwait”s history translated into English
Al Watan staff
KUWAIT: A new and rare series of stories about Kuwait”s history and
the nature of life in Kuwait in the past can now be found on sale in
Kuwait. The books, written by Dr. Yaqoob Yousef Al-Ghunaim and
translated into English by Dr. Shaban Afifi Abdulaziz, have been
printed by the Center for Study and Research in Kuwait and contain
illustration by artist Suhiala Hussein Al-Jundi.
The stories in the books are written in a simple manner that interests
children and that allows them to learn more about the history of
Kuwait and how Kuwaitis lived in the past. In the stories AlÜGhunaim
discusses traditional Kuwaiti society and the importance of fishing
and the rearing of animals.
The first story entitled Kuwait”s Wall is about a group of children
who ask Abu Abdullah questions about Kuwait”s wall and the reasons
behind its construction.
In the second story, AlÜGhunaim relates in a dramatic style the
stories of old Kuwaiti ships and underlines how society was based on
conservative religious values.
Al-Ghunaim also discusses life in the desert and how people were fond
of hunting gazelles and other wild animals which were commonly found
in the country.
A story about Burqan oil field was also added to the series to show
how the discovery of oil changed the Kuwaiti community.
http://www.alwatan.com.kw/Default.aspx?MgDid=652853&pageId=473
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