One Last Time at The Majliss
Lucky me, AdventureMan shares my love of this fine restaurant. We meet up with a set of long-time friends and enjoy an evening of hilarity and good food. We had the mezze, yes, including the Majliss’s fabulous muhammara, made with ground walnuts and sweet red peppers and pomegranate juice, and then – the grilled shrimp and hammour. I don’t think anyone does it better:
The moment of hilarity? AdventureMan stands up and says he needs to go wash his hands. His friend stands up and says “I’ll go with you!” The joke? AdventureMan usually pays the bill while he is ‘washing his hands’ but we have been friends long enough for this man to have caught on to his trick.
The Most Wonderful Baby
One hour old 🙂
Ouch – Underwear Bomb Photos
If all those lives had not been at risk, this would almost be pathetic.
When Two Big Holidays Collide
Thanksgiving is one of the BIG food holidays for Americans (and Canadians, but they celebrate it in a different month, on a different day) and the Eid is one of the big food holidays for Muslims, and can you see where I am going with this? We have houseguests coming tomorrow and I was out of what are called here “digestive biscuits” (horrible name!) and what we call graham crackers, which make for a very quick and easy pie crust.
As the jello mix was cooling before I could add the walnuts and pineapple and celery, I thought I would zip to the grocery. It’s still early in the morning, after nine but before ten, I can get in and out before the crowds hit.
Wrong. Oh so very wrong. If it were a normal day, yes, in and out in a flash, but when two big holidays are about to collide, no, there are other early birds like me, all jockying for spaces, for carts, to get their veggies and fruits weighed, to get their purchases rung up . . .
Fortunately for me, the first wave, the real eager beavers, was slipping out with their packages, and I got a parking place. No worrying about getting a space near the entry – any space will do. Besides, the weather has cooled and walking a little extra is nice this time of year.
I also lucked out on the produce lines – while everyone lined up near the citrus fruits, no one seemed to notice there was another weigh station near the Indian veggies. Lucky me! (For my stateside friends, when you pick out your produce here, you have to have it weighed and labled with the price before you get to the check-out stand.)
All in all – it wasn’t to bad. Not in and out in a flash, but in and out not too bad. The cars were streaming in as I departed, and I vow not to return until the Eid is over!
Cooling Down in Qatar
I quilt. I quilt for hours. In my quilting room, I stream National Public Radio from KUOW in Seattle, and when they say the temperature is 49°F and there are high winds expected, I almost feel cold.
So when I say it is cooling down in Qatar, it is a little tongue-in-cheek. I’m the Alaska girl, remember? We went sleeveless if it got up to 65°F; 70°+ was a heatwave.
Now that it is “cooling down”, the temperatures at night are just under 70°F.
I’m still running the A/C; looking forward to the days when I can turn it off. But, compared to the searing heat of summer, this is heaven. 🙂
Chicken Avocado Enchiladas
These were a lot of fun. I always try to work with healthy foods. In Kuwait, I had one friend, and every week, when we all brought food to a gathering, hers always went in a heartbeat. Her secret – bottled cheese sauce, and lots of it.
I know, I know, it’s processed. There probably isn’t any real cheese in the sauce at all. But it tastes SO GOOD!
You can put anything in an enchilada. For these, I had chicken breasts, which I cut into 3/4″ chunks and marinated for two days in a big carton of yoghurt, (I would guess four cups yoghurt), about 1/4 cup lemon juice, 2 Tablespoons chili powder, 1 Tablespoon garlic powder and 1 teaspoon cumin powder. The yoghurt makes the chicken really tender and juicy.
I drained about half the yoghurt – not all.
Chop and fry two onions in olive oil to the almost crisp stage, with one chopped red pepper and one chopped yellow pepper. When cooked, add in the chicken, and cook until just cooked, but still juicy.
Meanwhile, mash two cans of pinto beans.
Chop an avocado – chunks about 3/4 inch. Add in the cooked chicken, onions, peppers, and mix.
Spoon into center of burrito wrapper. Roll up and place in pan.
The secret ingredient – two jars of Chili Con Queso, cover enchiladas and bake 30 minutes at 350°F/180°C.
The Fingerprint Factory
Drama Drama Drama. It used to be the last dreaded event before getting your residence. You had to have fingerprints taken and it was in this big mob-scene, huge mobs of people and hot hot hot, no air, and the ink was HORRIBLE, and even if you brought your own soap and washed right away, you still had ink under your fingernails for days. It was a hellish experience.
Today was the day. It started with drama – when I got to where I was supposed to be at 10:10, the receptionist told me I was supposed to be there at 9:30, I had missed my appointment. I was really sure my husband had told me my appointment was at 10:30, so I waited while she called, and it was one of those experiences where she was NOT happy being wrong, and I got to sit out in the not-air-conditioned hall to wait for my group to go.
When my group got to the fingerprint place, there was no mob. There WAS more drama. There was only a very nice be-thobed gentleman who said that the fingerprint computer was broken. It was broken yesterday, and they got it working again this morning until 9 o’clock, but now it is broken. I asked “how long until it is fixed?” but it was one of those insh’allah things, no one knows how long it will take to get the system up again. We would have to come back tomorrow.
And then, just as we were walking out the gate back to the van, he called to us “Come back! Come back!” The fingerprint machine was working again.
Inside, it was orderly and air conditioned. Take a number, take a seat. Wait your turn. Very cool, watching people’s fingerprints, handprints, etc show up in huge prints. If there was any blur, the machine showed red – like a red thumb – and it had to be done over again.
For some reason, I had to have several done over again. I don’t know if it was me, or if the machine was just finicky. All I know is that the system was up long enough for me to get my fingerprints taken, and there was NO mess. None. Wooo HOOOO.
I still have my old Qateri driving licence. I am praying – please keep me in your prayers – that they will just renew it and I won’t have to take a road test on the roads of Qatar. Although – after driving in Kuwait – I can drive anywhere. 😀
I See White People
This guy has a great sense of humor. WARNING – there is a lot of bathroom humor and vulgarity in the film, but I love what he did with a current event:
Coming Up: 12:34:56 7/8/9
From Anu Garg at A-Word-A-Day:
A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg
I’ve been alerted to an event that will take place later this week, something that happens once and only once over the course of history. Shortly after noon on July 8, comes the moment that can be called 12:34:56 7/8/9. To mark this momentous event, this week we’ll feature words that have three consecutive letters in order, something that doesn’t happen very often either (there are hundreds of everyday words, but we are talking here about unusual and interesting words).
It’s not exactly true that this sequence of time/date happens only once. If you follow the day/month/year convention, you can observe the same sequence next month, on August 7. And even though it appears to be a rare occurrence, such interesting patterns aren’t that unusual. Consider these from the past:
01:23:45 6/7/89
12:34.56 7/8/90
01:02:03 04/05/06
In a couple of years we’ll have 11:11:11 11/11/11. What other unusual patterns can you think of that are in the near future?
Day of Miracles
When I woke up yesterday, I didn’t even want to get out of bed. I was overwhelmed. There was so much to do, so many things I didn’t know how to do, where to start. But AdventureMan is up and out the door and I need to get started. I didn’t even unpack suitcases the night before – after we got Pete settled, AdventureMan took me grocery shopping.
Big mistake. What was the date? Yep, June FIRST. Also known as pay-day. The grocery store was mobbed, the parking lot was pure anarchy. I got out and started shopping, AdventureMan found a parking spot and then found me. About one third of the way through my list I just looked at him and said “I can’t do this. I am exhausted.”
By the grace of God, as we approached the check out lanes – there are about 30 – I saw one lane that was kind of invisible, no customers there, and we were checked out in a flash. AdventureMan had picked up a roasted chicken and some flat bread, so we went home, put away the cold stuff and I left all the rest for the next day. We were in bed by 9 and I think we were asleep 30 seconds later.
So here is what I faced – unpacking five suitcases, checking what was in the kitchen, figuring out where I wanted things to be, putting away last night’s groceries and re-arranging the furniture the way we liked it.
If you could see me work, you would laugh. I don’t work in a straight line. I would unpack a little, hang up some clothes, carry some things downstairs, check out a cupboard or two, rearrange, check the expiration dates on food left behind and throw out what was left behind.
I have lived in this very villa before, I know it well. The curtains are all screwed up, so as I go from room to room, I fix them the way they are supposed to be. It may sound irrelevant to you, but it matters to me!
Every now and then, overwhelmed, I would take a break and try to hook up the internet, or lie down for a few minutes with Pete, who still needed some cuddle-time to get him over his travel traumas. No luck with the internet.
Around two in the afternoon, I had all the suitcases unpacked and put away, the kitchen re-arranged, I had a great visit with my dear friend and neighbor – who is packing out, just as I move back in – and I was ready to collapse. I fixed myself a sandwich, and sat down.
The doorbell rang.
It is Ranjanthan, the maintenance man, and he has a fistfull of work orders placed by the company. Thank GOD I had been all over the house. “Yes” “Yes” “No” “Yes” “No” “No” (Yes, this needed fixing, no, the curtains are actually working, no, I don’t want this, yes, please fix this . . . )
One thing was to fix a dressing table, affix the mirror, but the dressing table had the wide-screen tv on it, and it was in the bedroom (horrors), and I wanted the TV in the upstairs family living room, etc. He did everything! He called in an assistant, and they moved all my furniture around to where I wanted it, they changed the TV, they hauled away an unsightly piece of furniture left behind, and a barbecue we didn’t want. He said he would send a man who could connect the additional cable box, maybe two – three days.
AdventureMan walked in just as the maintenance team were leaving, and his eyes popped out. When he had left me that morning, I had been straggling out of bed and I was afraid I might have an infection and need to go to the clinic. Poor AdventureMan, starting his new job, the house phone isn’t working, my cell phone isn’t working, and what if I am sick? He walks in, and our house is just the way we wanted it to be, all the projects are complete, and, in addition, I am not sick, I am just fine.
In another hour, the air conditioning men arrive and clean out all the filters and make sure everything is working. We were just about to leave for dinner, when the door bell rings, and it is the guy who is going to handle transferring the additional cable to the new TV location. He can’t do it until Friday, because it will be complicated, but . . . meanwhile, he gets our phone working, our internet working AND the VOIP phone – all working.
My friends, God is good. These workers – they are angels. How often do you get all these house-things settled in less than 24 hours on the ground? We were just totally blown away, our hearts so full of gratitude. Even our delayed arrival was a blessing in disguise, a protection for Pete.
After that, AdventureMan takes me to Biella’s. When we first got to Kuwait, I knew everything was going to be all right because there was a Biella’s at the Marina Mall. What a pity, it didn’t have enough inside space for the long hot months, and went away. Thank God, there is still a Biella’s in Doha, and we had a great meal, our first real relaxation.
Money in Qatar is just the opposite of money in Kuwait. In Kuwait, the Dinar is worth about 3.65 dollars, so you eat modest meal and your bill comes to like 8 – 11 KD, which sounds small, because we think in dollars, but it is $29 – $40. In Qatar, a dollar buys around 3.6 Qatari riyals, so when the bill arrives, it is 184 QR, which can be a sort of stunning number if you are thinking in dollars, but it is $51. (we had the fancy fruit cocktail drinks, starters, and panini. We don’t normally have the cocktails, so our bill was higher than normal, but the prices are actually pretty close between Kuwait and Qatar.) Sorry, no photos this time, just too tired! We had a nice, relaxing dinner, drove home and then – exhausted – were in bed before ten, sound asleep!
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