Night Flight
Arriving at the next airport, we find our flight is delayed, while a seat is found for every single passenger. As I look around, I feel dismay – this flight is like 3/4 college students. We thought with Eid having ended, the plane would be half empty – NOT so! The lounge is packed with twenty-somethings headed home to Kuwait on Christmas break from their universities in the USA.
I used to be one of those. My parents lived in Germany; my sister and I would travel home. One difference, we were flying military planes, so they would wait until a whole planeload of college students had gathered and then send us all off to Frankfurt on one plane. It was party party party, card games, laughing, talking, catching up with friends from all over Europe, some flying on to bases in north Africa and Greece . . . I don’t think we had any bases in the Middle East at that time (It was a LONG time ago!)
But payback is hell. Now I am about to board a flight full of young people like I used to be. I can kiss a good night’s sleep goodbye! Every single seat on the plane is taken, and it is a BIG plane. I prepare for the worst. I remember those days . . .
Here is what really happened: this was the nicest, most polite group of college age students I have ever met. When they gathered at the food places, they talked quietly. Most of them slept or quietly watched movies the entire flight. The flight was one of the quietest I have ever been on. The bathrooms stayed relatively clean. I was so totally impressed.
If there are Kuwaiti parents reading this blog whose college students are flying home around now, you can pat yourselves on the back. You raised young people with excellent manners. 🙂
Airport Art – SeaTac Airport
Way way down at the end of B concourse, someone has painted the windows. It looks Christmas-y to me, or at the very least, wintery, but I can’t imagine they painted this beautiful painting just for a temporary display, so it must be permanent, or semi-permanent. Having pieces like this on display for people – public art – thrills my heart. It caught the eye, even of people rushing from the plane to their next gate. Even if it were only a second or two, it’s worth it, isn’t it, to have art in unexpected places?
I don’t understand exactly how this all fits together. There are three pieces, the forest and eagle, the night sky with constellations, and the people dreaming in their cottage bed. I tried to get an overview, and then broke it down into sections so you could see it better.
Even posting the photos, I see new details. It is as if the artist is playing a game with us, challenging us to spot the countless little details s/he included to catch our eye and delight us unexpectedly. Look at the little owls in the trees to the right of the cabin! Look at the way the artist disguised/included the doors on the left as part of the mural! Look at the stars, drifting down toward earth – or are they becoming snowflakes? Look at the comfortable couple, wrapped up warmly on a cold winter’s night. Look at the sun and the moon in their carriage, the moon pouring out the milky way stars . . . so many details! Draco the dragon! Ursa Major! I love the scope of this mural!
Black Friday
Black Friday – the Friday after Thanksgiving – bargain hunters in the USA head to the stores. Some stores opened as early as midnight to attract bargain hunters. Many more open around 5 or 6 in the morning. Most have loss leaders – i.e. specially priced items, maybe even below cost – hoping people will come in looking for the bargains and buy something else.
Not me.
Not in a million years.
I did it one year; we had just come back to the US after living for years on Germany. I needed 110v Christmas lights, so I went to a store at 0530 and stood in line until it opened at 6 and got many packages . . . but not enough. Later in the day I went back to see if there were any of the bargain priced lights left, and there were stacks and stacks of them. I learned my lesson.
We also learned that many things go on sale a couple days before in some stores, or are still on sale and in good supply the following Monday.
I hate lines. I hate competitive shopping. I have seen women grab things out of one another’s hands, I have seen them race down the aisles . . . and I just ask myself “What is this all about?” I have that primitive instinct too, hunting down that elusive bargain, bagging it and getting it home – but at what cost?
Anomaly – while gas prices have dropped back to reasonable rates here, fewer Americans are traveling this year. Normally, Thanksgiving is the holiday with the highest accident rate of all the holidays because of the road traffic, but because Americans are holding tight to their purses this year, fewer are on the road or in the air.
We are packing up today and moving on to the next stop. We will stop and see good friends en route to our destination, have a meal and a good visit with them . . .
yes, yes, thank you, we had a truly wonderful and memorable Thanksgiving, a truly Southern Thanksgiving, with family, with friends, and I will share it with you as soon as I get a card-reader so I can upload to the computer. 🙂 There were three kinds of turkey – a deep fried turkey, a smoked turkey, and turkey breast pieces pan-fried in batter, like chicken nuggets only fresher, and tasty. My favorite was a big bucket of venison stew, one of the hunters had bagged a big buck up in Kentucky.
I don’t believe there was a steamed vegetable or un-sauced vegetable in sight! Lots of gelatins made with sour cream or cream cheese, macaroni and cheese, three or four different kinds of stuffings and sweet on sweet sweet potatoes . . . and then came dessert, oh my. The tables – separate stations for meats, stuffings, vegetables and salads – were groaning, but then again, there were many many people to feed. My Southern husband was in heaven, eating all the foods I don’t know how to make and never dreamed of making.
The very best part of Thankgiving was the visiting. It was like one great big diwaniyya, with people in the kitchen and living room, people way out back shucking oysters and peeling shrimp, loads of ice tea all made up, sweet, unsweet, Splenda, lemondade . . . young people playing football or running around. . . it was a very sweet family day, beautiful weather, you couldn’t order a nicer Thanksgiving, and we were so delighted to be included.
Doha Museum of Islamic Arts Opens
My friends in Doha tell me that the long-awaited Museum of Islamic Arts, designed by I.M. Pei (who showed up for the opening, along with Robert de Niro) opened this weekend. I can hardly wait to see it for myself.
By Lawrence Pollard
BBC News, Doha
A few years ago, prices in London auction houses went through the roof – not for the classic modern or contemporary art, but for works from the Islamic world.
Fabulous jewels, manuscripts and ceramics were fetching 10 times their estimate and more, and it soon emerged this was thanks to the al-Thani family, rulers of Qatar, the tiny gas-rich Gulf state.
They had tempted the veteran architect I M Pei – the man behind the glass pyramid at the Louvre – to design one last statement building, a spectacular museum on a purpose-built island in Doha, which would house only the best Islamic art.
Then they went shopping for their collection.
And this weekend the museum opens, a dramatic pile of white limestone shapes inspired by Islamic architecture and full of 800 of the finest examples of Islamic art.
Not long ago, the idea of culture being a reason to visit the Gulf would have made other Arabs laugh. No longer.
The Syrian cultural historian Rana Kabbani sees a political element to the museum, putting Doha on the cultural map.
“I think all the rulers in the Gulf see what they really lack is culture on a grand scale, as a kind of imperial identity. It’s a political-cultural lack. They have the means, and they’re going for it.”
The hope is that – like hosting a Grand Prix or buying a football club – a fabulous collection of art will bring prestige, attract tourists and create a brand.
That’s why along the coast, two museums are planned for Abu Dhabi – branches of the Louvre and Guggenheim.
New conversation
But what exactly is the Islamic art in the collection? What can ceramics from southern Spain have in common with metalwork from the Silk Route city of Samarkand?
One thing which links them is the misconceptions about Islamic art held by both east and west.
Designer and writer Navid Akhtar explains: “The conversation tends to go: ‘How come you don’t paint people? Because its forbidden.’
“There’s little understanding of the scriptures or commentaries, or the concept of art, so we’re left with a limited conversation.
“There’s a lot of figurative Islamic art. And the geometric patterns aren’t just pattern.”
The Koran has no comment on the visual arts.
The prophet was firmly against idols, but then so were Jews, orthodox Christians and puritan Anglicans at various times.
Many religions mistrust images but their cultures still end up using them – Islam however has had less use for them.
“The Koran is not a narrative like the old or new testament, it doesn’t tell a story, a narration you can illustrate,” says professor Doris Abouseif, author of Beauty in Arabic Culture.
“The Koran is precepts, it guides but doesn’t narrate.”
Any museum will show Persian and Indian miniatures, or Arab pottery with figures of animals or people.
They won’t be from a mosque, but the figure isn’t banned from wider Islamic culture.
‘Whole language’
One element Islamic objects have in common is intricate geometric patterns.
Some scholars think this is a craft habit, pure and simple, but to many younger Muslim artists the geometry holds something else.
“Pattern is a whole language of colour, form and shape,” says Reem al-Faisal, a Saudi artist-photographer.
“Each colour symbolises a state of the soul or being. It’s poetry translated into material elements.”
Mr Akhtar agrees: “Many of these things, as well as being objects of beauty, have functional usage, but then hidden beyond that is the sense of transcendence that they create.”
The chief curator of the new museum, Oliver Watson, is British, as are many of the staff.
The museum houses 800 artistic and historical works from three continents
The study of Islamic art is a western creation, which Ms al-Faisal says is not a problem so long as more Muslims now take up the study.
“I don’t care if it’s Muslims or Westerners – the problem is that there’s not enough research and that’s a mistake of the Muslims.
“They should have studied their own civilisation far more, they’ve been in hibernation for 500 years. There has to be a reawakening – they have to start studying their own history.”
Qatar’s museum will be just a glittering collection of greatest hits unless it manages to become, as promised, a centre of education and research into the history of this beautiful art.
Namibia, A Bleak Kind of Beauty
This is an excerpt from the New York Times Travel Section on Namibia, a country AdventureMan and I visited a few years ago.
We landed in Windhoek, and our first night, we ate dinner at Joe’s Beerhouse, a little disorienting, as we had flown in from Germany, and found ourselves in a very German restaurant. The Germans colonized Namibia for a very few years over 100 years ago, but their influence lingers on in names, on streets, statues and cuisine.
Our trip through Namibia was unforgettable. It was unlike any other African country we have ever visited. It has a very long coastline with cold Atlantic currents called The Skeleton Coast. It has the world’s highest sand dunes, unbelievably beautiful. When I think of Namibia, I think of dryness – it is the thirstiest country I have ever seen, outside Kuwait.
Much of our time in Namibia, in Etosha and in Demaraland, we were camping, with CCAfrica (Conservation Corps Africa), but at the end, we stayed in one of the most spectacular private lodges in the world: Sossusvlei Mountain Lodge. It was a total WOW. We rode ATV’s to the top of the dunes for sunset. They had an astronomical observatory, because at night there is NO ambient light and you can see the sky so clearly. The food was fabulous and creative.
Namibia, a country of stark beauty and riveting contradictions, should be at the top of any serious traveler’s want-to-visit list.
The landscape is otherworldly, from the ocean of blood red crests along Dune Alley at Sossusvlei (pronounced SOSS-oo-vlay) to the gravity-defying rock formations and petrified forest of Damaraland, in the country’s center. Even beside the main highway, there are enough elephants, giraffes and springbok to satisfy those who can’t imagine a southern African trip without big game.
And the mind-boggling juxtaposition of women draped in skins that covered animals a week earlier against shopping malls offering a full selection of Ray-Bans, or of face powder ground in a mortar and pestle cheek by jowl with shiny Hummers, leads you into the heart of a modern Africa tangled by time, defined by the collision of centuries and traditions.
Namibia isn’t easy, especially for travelers whose notion of a vacation is dashing from one sight to another, or for urbanites who need regular fixes of bright lights and noisy streets. Except for those with pockets deep enough to arrange chartered flights between the dunes and the Damara homesteads, it demands patience with corrugated gravel roads and mile after mile of what poets are fond of calling terrible beauty.
You can read the entire article HERE.
Superlative Day: Gone Fishing
I’ve had some great and memorable days in my life, and this is one of them. My good friend said “Hey, you want to go fishing Friday?” and I said “Yes!” I had to go get a one-day fishing license, and I could add crab for a mere 50 cents, so I did.
We met up at 6:30 a.m. and were on the water by 7 a.m. on one of the hottest day’s in Seattle’s summer. As we left the marina, we passed an Eagle. (We thought of you, AdventureMan!)
AdventureMan must have heard us talking about him, because as the sun rises, he calls from Kuwait, eating Felafel sandwiches and ice cream as we watch the sun rise:
And set the crab traps – this is what an empty crab trap looks like. We put turkey legs and old fish heads in the bait box to attract the crabs:
It is a gorgeous morning. As my friends dig out the fishing polls, I admire the mountains and the sparkles on the waters of Puget Sound:
My friend has baited my hook and hands the rod to me. I lower the weight to the bottom, pull it up just a little and – an immediate nibble:
He’s a good size and he’s a keeper. My friend grabs my camera to take my photo with my first fish of the day, I hold the fish up – and just as she is snapping the shot, the fish does a little flip right off the hook and back into the water!
It doesn’t matter – the fish are biting and we are hauling them in. Some are too small; we take them off the hooks and throw them back, telling them to have a good life, grow big and we will see them again, we hope!
After about an hour of superlative fishing, we go back to check the crab pots. They are HEAVY with crab!
You can’t keep any female crab, or any male under a certain size, so any crab you think you might want to keep, you have to measure. You get a HUGE fine if you are caught with undersize crab. As we bring in the crab and the fish, my friend notes them down on our licence records, which have to be sent in to the state at the end of the season, listing fish we have caught, crab we have caught, and how many we threw back.
We catch a couple rock crab – those you don’t have to measure, and you can keep. Most of what we catch is the sweet and delectable Dungeness Crab – my very favorite after Alaska King Crab.
We had just decided to quit for the day – it was getting really, really HOT for Seattle, like 90°F/33°C (and there is an advisory for hot weather, and air stagnation) and we have nearly our limit for crab, and a respectable amount of fish, and we are happy, happy fisherpeople! Just as I am about to raise my line, I get a big bite, and catch the last fish!
Here is our bucket, full of fish. The cooler is full of crab. What a great day to be alive.
Riverside BBQ in Seaside, OR
AdventureMan and I love eating out in Kuwait, and the only thing we really yearn for are: genuine Mexican food, Vietnamese food, and southern (USA) Barbecue. When we come to the US we make sure to sample those three main food groups. And we laugh at ourselves, because when we are in the US, we are always looking for a good Middle Eastern restaurant. 🙂
We all had a yearning for barbecue today, so we stopped by a little pink restaurant by the side of Highway 101 in Seaside that had two smokers outside. The smell was divine.
They had an extensive menu – beef, chicken and pork, and loads of sides – cornbread, baked beans, macaroni and cheese, potato salad, cole slaw – just to name a few. Here were some of the platters:
This was the smoked chicken salad
The Meat Lover's Platter
The Rib dinner
The Rib platter for two with a side of potato salad
The counter where you order
The food was delicious. We ordered way too much – we had no idea how much food would come with each order. We boxed up the rest and brought it home to warm up later when we get hungry again, if ever.
Your Last Breath
You never know. These people are just like us, renting a vacation house up the road a village or two, right on the ocean. And while they are sleeping, a plane crashes into their vacation house. You never know when you might be taking your last breath.
4 Die After Plane Crashes Into Home
GEARHART, Ore. (Aug. 4) – A small plane crashed into a seaside house in heavy fog early Monday, killing two people aboard and two children in the vacation home it struck, authorities said.
A small plane flying through heavy fog clipped a tree and then slammed into a house in Gearhart, Ore., Monday. Authorities said two people aboard the plane and two children in the seaside vacation home were killed. Here, a deputy fire marshal stands outside what is left of the home.
A third child was unaccounted for after the crash, which apparently occurred soon after the plane took off from nearby Seaside in northwest Oregon.
The single-engine plane clipped a tree and then plowed into the house, followed by explosions. A second, vacant home nearby was heavily damaged.
The pilot and his only passenger were also killed. Their identities were not immediately released.
The four-seat Cessna was owned by Aviation Aventures in Seaside. The company had rented it to the pilot, city officials said.
The impact shook homes a half-mile away in this resort town.
You can read the entire article on AOL News.
Ecola Beach
You take a winding road, up hill and down, with steep drops on the ocean side, to get to Indian Beach – but it is worth the effort. There is a great view, restrooms, and you can visit the tidal pools. I loved all the wet suits lined up to dry on the fence here. Families were brewing coffee, making sandwiches, surfers were out waiting for a good wave to come along, and it was a fabulous location:
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