Flammin' Good Times

Happy Sunday everyone! I know I have mentioned it before, but I really do enjoy Sundays! I love not having to set my alarm clock. I love that I can sleep in and get a full 8 hours of sleep! I love that I can get caught up on reading everyone’s blog. I love lazy mornings. I love that I can read or spend time doing something that I want to do! I also love going to church and am so grateful there is a group that meets here. Sundays are simply fabulous days! So, as I was reading everyone’s blog I noticed how cute they all are and realized how dull my blog is. So, I changed it up a bit. Still not sure I’m loving it, so if you find a background that you think I would like…please let me know the name of it! I hit a milestone in my career this week- I received my warrant! That means it will be my name signed on the dotted line now- no pressure! Work is busy since it is end of year and all. I guess that is to be expected in this career field. Last year I was completely removed from the craziness which was nice, but it is also nice to be able to say we got through it (hopefully successfully)! Lately though I have felt like I have had the opposite of the “Midas touch”. See Midas was able to turn everything into gold… within one week 4 projects I have been working were cancelled! Nothing like all that work and effort just to throw it out the window- kind of frustrating! So Tuesday morning, 25 August, I was heading to work and I noticed a lot of black smoke coming from ahead. I didn’t give it much thought thinking it was simply the oil refinery flame that normally gives off black smoke. Well, as I got closer I realized that it was not coming from the oil refinery, but from something on the road. So my next thought was – huh, I wonder what side of the street it is on. Yep, sure enough it was on my side of the street. So the next thought was – wonder which lane I should be in, so I played it safe and stayed in the middle. The smoke was coming from a car parked on the left shoulder (3 lane highway), but there was more than just smoke at this point, there were flames spewing forth. YIKES! There were a lot of cars parked on the right side of the street and a sea of men in their white gistashas were watching the scene. Since there were cars parked on the right side, that forced the cars wanting to get through to the middle and consequently closer to the car with flames billowing… Nice! Oh, and the cars ahead of me were creeping along and acting like they were going to stop which would have put me 10 feet from the flames, not to mention that there was a fuel truck right in front of me. I’ll be honest I was a bit panicked from this predicament and all I could think was “Please don’t stop, Please don’t stop, Please don’t stop!” It is hot here anyway, but the heat as I drove by was intense- I think it caused the paint on the driver’s side door of my car to warp. See, who says there is nothing exciting that happens at 5:00 in the morning? The good news is I didn’t see another vehicle involved, so I think it was the tires that caught fire on that one car. Oh, and just so you know the fire truck had not even arrived when I passed the inferno. I really wanted a picture, but didn’t have time to bust out my camera- sorry. So, there is no picture this week. Well, that is all I have for you. Have a great week everyone!

Adventures

Ramadan Karim is the appropriate greeting I do believe! Yes, it is the holy month of Ramadan. This is the month that begins when a sliver of the moon is first seen after the new moon around this time of year (or something like that), so the actual day it starts varies every year. Ramadan is an entire month of fasting, in other words, people fast every day for a month from 1 hour before sunrise until after the sun sets that day. That means no eating, drinking (even water), smoking, or chewing (gum is even out), oh, and if you get caught it is punishable by law. It really will not affect me other then the fact I will not be able to have my water bottle with my in the car as I drive to and from work. I’m told that traffic and crazy drivers seem to increase at this time as well, so that may affect me. People have a large feast every day after sunset, so everyone is on the road about the time I am heading home from work. The good news is I don’t live close to downtown, so I should not see the really crazy traffic! Oh, and let’s hope I don’t ever have need to use the services of a hospital, but especially during Ramadan, because hospitals are only open for a set few hours each day during this holy month- nice huh? This week has been extremely humid. A couple weeks ago it was 125+ Degrees Fahrenheit, but it was a dry heat. Now it is only about 110 Degrees Fahrenheit but it is 100% humidity so it feels like it is 130 degrees! I’ve never understood how it could be 100% humidity and not be raining- until now. When you walk outside you are instantly wet, your sunglasses fog up the second you step outside, and the car has water spots on the windshield, yet it is not raining. Kind of crazy! The other morning I bought a breakfast sandwich and when the lady went to rip my receipt from the machine it completely tore at the wrong spot simply because the paper was wet from the humidity. I’ve never lived in a place with so much humidity-Fun! Fun!

Canary's is the restarurant at the bottom right of the picture

So, this week a group of co-workers enjoyed a dinner out. We went to a restaurant called Canary that is extremely cheap. You can get a full meal for less than 1 KD or less than $3.50. Nice! They decided to order it family style so everyone could try a little bit of everything. The grilled hallume (cheese) is yummy and when you put it on a piece on pita bread- delicious! I tried a lot of other food that night, and the cheese and bread is pretty much the only thing I liked!

They have been doing construction on the road that I use to get to the on-ramp to the freeway. Every morning it is a game of which lane will be open and how will I be able to get to work today… it seriously changes daily. Some mornings the lane narrows, yet the freeway entrance is still available. Other mornings the freeway entrance is blocked so I have to go up the road a little ways to catch the other freeway (since both freeways run parallel I knew I could get to work from either). Another morning the freeway entrance for the freeway further up the road was blocked from a left turn entrance- nice! So, I had to go even farther down the road to find the next available place to do a U-turn so I could make the right turn to enter the freeway. Okay, so one particular morning there was a long line of traffic that wasn’t moving. I decided I was not going to wait in line was just going to go around them to head to the other freeway… seemed like a good plan to me. Well, when I got out of that lane I was automatically placed in a lane that was an onramp to the freeway , but I was heading in the wrong direction. Oops! So, here lies my dilemma… do I stay in the far left lane and hope a spot to do a U-turn comes up? Or do I stay in the right lane and chance taking an exit? You see some exits here do not allow you to go left- so it would do me no good in my quest to get heading the right direction again if I simply take any exit. Well, about 7 minutes up the road I finally came across an exit which had an overpass so I was able to eventually get heading the right way. Minor setback! Good times!

Here is an interesting thought… when I go to Subway (which I do frequent for lunch) and get my usual turkey and ham sandwich, I am really getting double turkey because it is turkey and turkey ham here! When I finally realized that a few months back I started to ask for only a turkey sandwich!

Well, best of luck to all who have started school recently or who are going to start school this week! Here is also a shout-out to all who have to go back to work- sorry your summer break is over!

Nothing Out of the Ordinary

Happy Sunday to everyone! This morning was nice, a friend and I enjoyed the cooler (just over 100 degrees Fahrenheit) weather and we went walking along the beach. What a beautiful morning!

Well, other than a foiled plot where six men were arrested, it has been a pretty mild week. If you have no idea what I am talking about, google it and then you will know as much information as I do. Seriously, my week was pretty much the same every day and it went something like this:

Roll out of bed anywhere from 3:40am-4:20am. I get to work anywhere from 5:45am-6:35am. Put in a full day’s work. Get home and sit in front of the computer some more to talk to people, play on facebook, apply to jobs, play scrabble, and research stocks. Then I go to bed around 10pm and do it all again the next day. Pretty exciting life I live, huh? and I am okay with that…since sometimes exciting doesn’t always mean a good thing.

Anyway, I brainstormed some other tid-bits that I hope you enjoy. If I’ve already mentioned these, then I am sorry, you get to hear it twice!

- Shopping carts can go up the ramp (escalator) because it is magnetized.

- The wheels on shopping carts all turn in every direction… makes pushing the cart interesting.

- If on the freeway and someone flashes their lights at you it means, “Get Out of My Way Now!

- There is an apartment numbered zero which is the first floor apartment.

- They have a soccer blow-up arena where they play in about 4 inches of water. I guess that is the only way you can play soccer outside when it is 120 degrees outside! It looked pretty fun, but mighty dangerous as everyone is constantly slipping since it is wet!

- The other day I saw someone walking an ice-cream bike against traffic on a busy street- nice!

- The roads are not engineered at a smooth curve where you can keep a consistent speed. No, it pretty much curves at an 80 degree angle with no warning signs stating a curve is ahead along with a recommended reduced speed limit.

Peanuts Anyone?

Well another week has gone by so I guess that means it is time to blog again. It has not been a very exciting week - I just worked, played racquetball one evening, but mostly I worked and then focused my efforts on job applications in the evening. Good times! The picture above is of Mara and I at Mara’s Farewell dinner. It is always sad when a friend leaves. Anyway, we went to Johnny Carinno’s which is an Italian restaurant. They have yummy food! Anyway, here is the story of the week….My friend Judy and I went out last Saturday and enjoyed some ice-cream (very similar to Coldstone) while we sat and looked out across the Gulf and just visited. Well, on our way home (she was driving) we were stopped at a red light. We were talking so she was looking at me. All of a sudden she turned and was completely startled to see a young boy standing at the driver’s side window. Apparently he was selling peanuts or something while everyone was stopped at the light. It was quite freaky at the time, but now we just laugh about it! Peanuts anyone at 10:00pm while stopped at a red light? Weird! Well, it was 125 degrees fahrenheit here yesterday. Hope everyone has a fabulous and much cooler week then that!

4th of July Weekend Outing

We actually got a 3 day weekend since the 4th of July fell on a Saturday- that is almost unheard of! It was nice to have Friday off, not have to come in on Saturday, and we always get Sunday off, so one of those days I used to play. On Friday, July 3rd, my friend (a co-worker) came and picked me up around 10:30am. We went to Fahaheel (a shopping area) first where I found a few items to go on my new antique furniture I just purchased. Then we met up with some more co-workers and endured the hot, hot sun as we scoured for treasures at Friday’s Market.

Judy and I with Friday Market in the background

When we first arrived at Friday Market we found a restroom. Now, the restrooms here are few and far between so you take advantage of the times you find one. Also, public restrooms very rarely have toilet paper, so I’ve gotten in the habit of always being prepared. Well, this particular restroom was very different than any other I’ve ever seen…

Friday’s Market is a huge swap meet which is more like a gigantic yard sale. There is a lot of junk there, but to make it sound a little more high class, we referred to the stuff as treasures!

The "treasures" that were available for purchase cracked me up! Used shoes anyone?

If you ever need a remote, I've know just the place to get it!

Friday’s market stretched on for blocks, yet there never was any better stuff… believe me we looked! Then there was this live animal block. I felt so bad for those animals caged up in that heat and in the direct sun. I’ve never seen a cat pant so hard- it was kind of freaky actually. Anyway, I thought the florescent colored chicks (yes they are real) were interesting.

Once we left Friday’s Market we went into a McDonald’s for a few minutes to sit and recover from walking around in the hot sun. Then it was off to do more shopping. We went to what is called the Old Souks (or old shops). Again there are blocks and blocks of little shops that pretty much all sell the same thing. Sorry, I didn't get a picture looking down a row of shops, you'll just have to imagine. This store at the old souk made me laugh... it is probably hard to see, but the red sign in the bottom right side of the picture says "Dipolomatic Man Salon". Nice!

It was extremely dusty and windy that day. Typically the wind makes it a little cooler, but not here- it was about 45 degrees Celsius (115 degrees F), but with the wind it must have been 120+ degrees. You just feel extremely dirty… the dirt and sand sticks to you better when you are sweaty!

At the Old Souk we were looking for a carpet vendor and after some time finally tracked him down. I had no intention of buying a carpet when we set out, but after looking at all the cool rugs I couldn’t pass up the opportunity. The gentleman who sold me the rug said he gave be a great deal… 100KD ($350) discount because I am young. He said the others I was with, he would not give them that good of a deal, because they are older and could afford it. Hey, I’ll take it!

In our travels we passed by the Grand Masque, so I got a picture!

Once we were done buying our carpet we were all pretty much worn out from shopping and all the walking so we decided to find a nice restaurant to end the evening. We came across one that looked nice enough, so we tried it. It was a really nice Indian restaurant and if you like that kind of food you would have enjoyed this place. Me, I pretty much tried a bite of everything and stuck with the delicious bread they kept bringing out!

Here are the pictures of my Persian rug and my antique furniture from India. Pretty fun, huh?

The marble camel and marble clock I purchased in Fahaheel. The Prayer beads I got from the Old Souk, the antique bell was thrown in for free with my furniture purchase, and the plane made from shotgun shells was purchased at Friday Market.

So, that was my Fourth of July. No fireworks, no patriotic program, no bar-b-que. It was fun to spend the day seeing more of this country and spending time with co-workers outside of work, but I did miss the fan fare associated with the holiday. No matter where I am though I still feel very blessed to be a citizen of the country I call home!