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.
What a Difference a “D” Makes
AdventureMan called me, laughing, and said “I just have to tell you what just happened to me.”
He was talking with a Kuwaiti woman who said “You speak Arabic amazingly well, except for one little thing – you say the ‘d’ when you should be saying the ‘Dh’.”
It was all he could do not to laugh. Not because of what she had said, but because it reminded him of a conversation we had, repeatedly.
When AdventureMan took Arabic, I took French. We were on our way to Tunis, I had a small baby, and I already spoke a little French. I made arrangements to study half days, and hoped it would be enough. Thanks be to God, together, we did just fine. In Tunis, most Tunisians spoke French and even those who spoke Arabic switched to French for the numbers. (Things are different now; this was many years ago.) The Tunisians called him “That Lebanese guy married to the French woman.” (He is not Lebanese. I am not French. Most Tunisians spoke a Berber dialect, which was not quite the same as Arabic.)
When I finally started formal Arabic classes, years later, I would say things I had learned from my husband and my dear Qatteri teacher would say “No, that is how those Lebanese people say it, not the way we say it.”
When my husband would correct my Arabic, now I could just cooly look at him and say “That is how you Lebanese say it, but we Qatteris say it this way.”
When he would lecture me on Arabic (I can only absorb about one minute of lecture at a time and them my head starts swimming) I would respond with ” ‘Dh’ AdventureMan, ‘Dh’ ” implying that his “Dh” wasn’t hard enough. It would make him laugh every time, totally crack him up. He can’t lecture me when he is laughing.
So here he is on the phone, laughing and laughing, because the Kuwaiti woman told him his Arabic was fine except that his “dh” wasn’t hard enough. God bless you, dear, whoever you are. 🙂
Home Prices Drop, Sales Rise in Seattle
The Seattle Real Estate market has been fairly bullet-proof, until lately, when following the trend across the United States, prices here have also dropped, reports this morning’s Seattle Times. (If you have ever dreamed of having a home in Seattle, even after all my rain photos, now is the time!)
By ALEX VEIGA
The Associated Press
A real-estate-agents trade group says sales of existing homes rose 3.1 percent in July as buyers snapped up deeply discounted properties.
Stephanie Kuhn — who moved in March from the Seattle area to Orlando, Fla., because of a family emergency — has yet to find a buyer for her Mountlake Terrace condo.
The two-bedroom, 1,100-square-foot condo has been on the market since March but is drawing little interest.
“I can’t buy another house until I sell my house up there,” said Kuhn, 47.
Seattle and Portland, Ore., were among the top 10 metro areas in the nation with the most pronounced drop in home sales last month compared with July 2007, according to The Associated Press-Re/Max Monthly Housing Report, which analyzed all home sales recorded by all local agents.
The AP-Re/Max home-sales report was one of two released Monday. The second was from the National Association of Realtors.
Sales of existing homes in the West edged higher overall in July, as many buyers took advantage of falling prices in foreclosure-ravaged areas in California, Nevada and elsewhere, both reports show.
About 1.1 million pre-owned houses and condominiums were sold last month in the 13-state region, up almost 1 percent from the same month last year, the Realtors group reported. But the median home price plunged more than 22 percent to $273,200, it said.
You can read the rest of the article HERE.
Science, Cows and Serendipity
This is from BBC but I first heard this story on National Public Radio.
Scientists at the University of Duisburg-Essen were studying naked mole rats and discovered that when they build a nest, the sleeping areas are always south. They wondered if humans also had an unconscious magnetic sensitivity and decided to use GoogleEarth to study how campers set up their tents around the world, but found that it was too difficult to see tents, but they could see cows really well. Since they could see cows, they decided to survey the cows and discovered that MOST of the time, cows face either north or south. Who knew?
Cattle shown to align north-south
By Elizabeth Mitchell
Science reporter, BBC News
Have you ever noticed that herds of grazing animals all face the same way?
Images from Google Earth have confirmed that cattle tend to align their bodies in a north-south direction.
Wild deer also display this behaviour – a phenomenon that has apparently gone unnoticed by herdsmen and hunters for thousands of years.
In the Proceedings for the National Academy of Sciences, scientists say the Earth’s magnetic fields may influence the behaviour of these animals.
The Earth can be viewed as a huge magnet, with magnetic north and south situated close to the geographical poles.
Many species – including birds and salmon – are known to use the Earth’s magnetic fields in migration, rather like a natural GPS.
A few studies have shown that some mammals – including bats – also use a “magnetic compass” to help their sense of direction.
Dr Sabine Begall, from the University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany, has mainly studied the magnetic sense of mole rats – African animals that live in underground tunnels.
“We were wondering if larger animals also have this magnetic sense,” she told BBC News.
I don’t know why, but random discoveries like this fascinate me. If you want to read more, you can do so here, at BBC News or here at National Public Radio.
Dont’cha just love these scientists? They figure out things just because they are curious!
Hope in a Bottle
Holy Smokes, I notice I am just about out of my trade-mark Smog eye shadow, totally unavailable even in the Sephoras in Kuwait and Qatar, but fortunately available in a nearby Sephora here in Seattle. Sparkle introduced me to Smog, and Maui Wowie, by Urban Decay. If you know me, you know how funny that is. The name is so Goth. I am so not.
As I am perusing what else I might need and not even know it until I see it, a very strange man comes into Sephora with a patter and a handful of red, white and pink balloons.
Honestly, I thought he was like a singing telegram, and maybe it was somebody’s birthday, but the gals working in Sephora were sort of brushing him off and his patter was, well, unattractive when not profane. One gal, working on a makeover, was kind but firm, and said good-bye to him and he seemed to take the hint and left. He comes by almost daily, she said.
As I was checking out, I asked the Sephora lady if she had any little samples of face cream, so that when I go back to Kuwait I can put them in my little plastic sack and use them so my face won’t get all dry, and she very graciously gave me several. It wasn’t until I got home that I took a good look and started laughing. In my family, we have always called all face creams “Hope in a Bottle.”
Switch to Rain
We’ve had several glorious sunny days. On Friday, Mom and I ran some errands, and spent about an hour sitting down by the beach. Saturday – another glorious day, hot and sunny. Sunday morning – oooohhhh, there’s a change. There’s a wind blowing. Around ten, it starts raining, and then – raining and blowing.
On my way to my Mom’s, I am in a parking lot and the place is JAMMED. In Seattle, if it’s raining, it’s shopping weather! All those empty stores, now full of shoppers. It’s a shock.
In front of Babies are Us, a totally disgusting, very non-Seattle sight:
Here is a very Seattle-style bumper sticker:
The Way I See It #21
Most mornings, even as a visitor here, I make my own coffee. On this Sunday morning, however, fresh from church, I allowed myself an early morning stop at a nearby Starbucks.
I don’t know if they are doing this in Kuwait, but here, I saw a quote on the side of my Grande, non-fat, no whip Mocha:
“People need to see that, far from being an obstacle, the world’s diversity of languages, religions and traditions is a great treasure, affording us precious oportunities to recognize ourselves in others.”
Youssou N’Dour
Musician
Dinner at Girardi’s Osteria in Edmonds
It was one of those magical not-to-be-predicted warm summer evenings in Seattle. We’ve had a funny week, alternating rain and bright, sunny days. This happened to be one of those bright sunny ones, and Sparkle and Mariner Man had invited Mom and me to dinner. They picked a place I had never been and had been interested in trying.
Oh! Wow!
I got there early, and thought I would take a quick look at the menu, posted outside. I’ve always loved it that in Europe, it is a requirement, so you can get a look to see what is offered before you go in and sit down and then discover that they don’t make what you have your heart set on. But I only had time for a quick glance before I heard Wooo Hooooos, and people calling my name; Sparkle and Mariner Man and my Mom had made it to the restaurant just minutes before I did.
They were waiting patiently, and what a great wait – Sparkle was sipping a pomegranate martini, and I had something red, dry and Italian – wine. We all started with crab cakes, which, I am sorry to say, were so good we just went right ahead and ate them and I didn’t even think to photograph. When the main courses arrived, Mariner Man pulled out his camera, thank God, or I might have just jumped right in and forgotten all about you!
I had the very delicious antipasti salad – with grilled shrimp. The shrimp had a delicious smokey flavor, and the salad was perfect for a warm summer night. They grate the fresh Parmesan over your salad – I was engrossed in conversation with Mariner Man over some camera technicalities before I noticed that my salad was getting LOADED with Parmesan and said “Whoa!”
Mom had the Veal Scallopine, very mild, very tender, very delicious:
She said that as a bonus, the carrots were parboiled, so that they were still crunchy, but not crisp, and were sweet and tender. She loved those carrots.
Sparkle started with the Tricolore Salad (Caprese: tomato slices with mozarella, basil and balsamic vinegar) That had an awesome basil pesto with it, then proceeded to the Pollo Putanesca – WOW. That is one of my favorite sauces, and when it is done well, it is awesome. This one was amazing – full of kalamata olives, anchovies, capers – and was intensely flavorful. She ate every bite (except the one she shared with me so I could taste 🙂 )
Mariner Man started with a Ceasar salad – again, WOW, the real thing, served with a whole anchovy and slices of parmesan cheese, and then his main course – Pollo Masala – which was better than good – it was amazing!
The dessert list was also amazing. Creme Caramel. Tiramisu. A whole list of sorbets. We all looked at it, and then looked at each other in dismay – we hadn’t saved any room! We were stuffed!
I would go to Girardi’s again in a heartbeat. The service was friendly without being intrusive, the atmosphere was comfortable and elegant, and the food was delicious. Thank you, Sparkle! Thank you, Mariner Man!
WordPress and Tabular Stats
One of my commenters once said “You are very random!” and I thought, “Yes! I am!”
It took me a long time to start blogging because I couldn’t limit myself to one sort of topic, like Life in Kuwait, or Religious Musings, or What Caught My Eye in the Newspaper Today, or Recent Studies Show . . . .
see what I mean?
I am such a geek. Today WordPress put out a bulletin: Tabular Stats.
The introduce it thus:
Tabular Stats
Today we present to our beloved stats addicts a new way to perceive numbers: stats tables! Tabular data is arranged in convenient grids so you can easily compare values along two dimensions: columns and rows. Headings along the top and left edges provide context and orientation. Alternating rows are faintly shaded to improve readability. Surely you have seen these things before.
Three new tables are available today: Months and Years, Average per Day, and Recent Weeks. They were modeled after tables Matt created for displaying top-secret WordPress.com metrics. Each one resembles a calendar in its own way. You probably won’t want to refresh these as often as some other stats pages—only a few of the table cells will be updated—but I won’t try to stop you. I know what it’s like.
When you WordPress users go to your stats page, go down to the bottom, where it shows things like your all time high day, and a small summary of your stats. There is a button there now – press it. It will take you to a nirvana for stat buffs, where you can see your average daily count for any given month, they have computed percentages – like the stock market – for when your stats are up or down – it is so much fun. Well, fun if you are a numbers and stat geek.
Dick Cheney and Darth Vadar
As I was leaving Barnes and Noble today (they are out of Orphan Pamluk’s My Name is Red) I heard this on National Public Radio:
(Actually I found the exact quote on The Huffington Post.)
Vice President Dick Cheney cracked a number of jokes Wednesday night at the Radio & Television Correspondents’ Dinner In Washington D.C. Cheney got some laughs when he told the audience that he had asked his wife, Lynne Cheney, whether the label Darth Vader applied to his personality. According to Cheney, his wife said it “humanizes you.”
Don’t you just love a woman with a great sense of humor?
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