Happy Thanksgiving and Saint Andrew's Ball

Well we didn't have our turkey until Friday but we had a somewhat traditional turkey dinner for Thanksgiving. As this american holiday is not celebrated here we went to the Saint Andrew's ball instead and had a great time. Andrew was feeling better and we actually stayed until after midnight. Probably doesn't sound like much but considering most nights I am asleep by 8:30ish it's a big deal for me! It starts getting dark here around 4:30 so by the time we eat dinner and tidy up afterwards it feels like it should be bedtime.

Saint Andrew's day is a holiday celebrated mostly in Scotland as he is their patron saint. The flag of Scotland that is blue with the white "X" on it is called a St. Andrew's cross.

http://picasaweb.google.com/dani65652003/SaintAndrewSBall

Anyway, we got dressed up and went out for a big night. There was a pipe band of course, and then they also flew in a scottish folk band that played and taught people folk dances. We didn't dance between Andrew's compressed nerve and me not feeling so confident in dancing in a long gown but we had a great time watching everyone else and listening to the music. I think this is the last ball of the season as most of the westerners will start leaving soon for the holidays.

I hope you all had a good thanksgiving and enjoyed lots of great food and company.

While we are here for a time it is fun to experience some local nightlife.

We are becoming more domesticated

That's right Andrew is enjoying our big new kitchen even more than me. He has spent a lot of time in there baking and sharing with the neighbors. The mediterrean fruit ring and pavlova were a big hit. Even though I am not a big egg white fan I have to admit the pavlova was pretty tasty.

I have been cooking our meals but nothing new yet. Our BLS group went to a thai restuarant at the Hilton for cooking classes so I am hoping to make that meal again at home soon. There is a wonderful american woman that lives across the street from us named Teresa who does cooking classes every week. I have been attending and learning some great southern cooking recipes. She is from Texarkana so she knows lots of good ones. Unfortunately their contract is up this month and they will be leaving on the 29th. There is a another lady who lives around the corner from us who is from Louisiana and we are hoping she will take up the rein on the cooking classes in the new year.

I have also been pretty inspired by our visits to the fabric souk and have decided that I would like to take up sewing. There is a wonderful group called the Kuwait Textile & Arts Association that meets a couple of times a month to educate you on all different sorts of textiles and crafts. I have been told that there are lots of sub groups off this organization so you can be as involved as you would like to be with just about anything. I thought this year I would tackle sewing and quilting. If we end up staying longer out here I may take on weaving. There is a group of bedouin weavers here that will teach you their weaving skills if you are up for the challenge. Sounds like a lot fun but more importantly a lot of work!

Now for a bit of bad news, Andrew has a compressed nerve in his neck that is radiating down his right shoulder and arm and giving him a great deal of pain. He has been suffering with it for about 15 days now and we have been to the hospital three times already. They have him on everything from anti-inflammatories and muscle relaxants to pain killers and B12 shots. He also has to wear a neck collar and hopefully will be starting physical therapy soon. The orthopedic doctor said they usually like to follow this therapy for 3-6 months but because of the amount of pain that Andrew is having that if they don't get some relief in another 15 days they feel that surgery will be his only option. Apparently, they will go in and remove the disc in his neck between the C5 and C6 vertebrae to relieve the pressure off his spinal cord. The doctor seems to think this will cure all his pain and everything will be restored to normal. In the meantime, Andrew spends his afternoon in the kitchen because it seems to help him keep his mind of the pain. He has even volunteered to bake a few items for the bible class here that is holding a bake sale next week to raise money for the Operation Hope charity here in Kuwait.

We have had lots of great experiences since our return to Kuwait this time. I will try to post more regularly now that things have settled down some with the house. The hardest part is just never knowing when the phone will go and we will be off again.

Five Weeks of Work and Some Fun

Well it's been a while I know but what a crazy five weeks we have had traveling. We were both looking forward to getting back to Kuwait and starting the settling-in process in our new home.

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I have to say it was worth the 17+ hours of flying just to see the look on Mother's face on her birthday when she walked in the room and saw us there. It was really great to see everyone and get an unexpected visit so soon back to the States. Of course it was nice to know we had a house to come back to in Kuwait and made it a lot easier to shop for household things that we could ship. Our shipment has arrived in Kuwait and hopefully it will be delivered to the house soon so we can see what actually made it through this time. Andrew said that three weeks was too long for him workwise but for this special occasion it was okay.

We had a great time in France on vacation. We started out in the Midi-Pyrenees region in the south central part of France. We flew from London straight into Toulose and rented a car. The first night we spent in a small city called Auch. It was the quarter finals of the rugby world cup so Andrew stayed up and went to a local pub to watch the French team play New Zealand. Luckily France won that night. He did manage to start up a conversation with a french couple that spoke good english. He told them that we were there looking for property and their response was "don't move here - we don't like outsiders"! Actually on further investigation it appears that this village has been split into two smaller areas because of the english moving in and not trying to speak the language or adopt any of the french ways. Which we totally understand their attitude - how frustrating to have lived a certain way for years and then have a bunch of people you have never seen just move into your neighborhood and not even try to get along. Luckily we are both trying to learn the language again and embrace the french way of life with both arms.

We moved on to Oloron-Saint-Michelle further south on the road to Spain. The more we progressed down the road the more we fell in love with the area. The terrain was amazing with all kinds of hills and vallies. I don't think we saw much land that was flat and the colours were absolutely beautiful lots of green but trees that were turning all sorts of brights oranges and gold with the fall weather moving in to the area. We only spent two days here but knew that it was an area that we would consider living in for retirement. The people were very welcoming and the area was full of places to explore.

After our short stay in the pyrenees we went east to the provence region of France. I had a contact in the states through our petanque association that owns a b&b propety in Saint-Remy-du-Provence. The area was virtually empty of tourist with the odd european family scattered about from time-to-time. We spent the next five days doing day trips and taking time to play petanque. There is a lot of roman history in this part of France and lots of things to ponder. We saw the aquaduct that the romans built to supply water to other regions and a collesuim and pantheon look-alike in the town of Nimes. Which by the way for all the Americans reading this, the wonderful fabric that you all love to wear on a daily basis "denim" is atually french for de Nimes - "from Nimes" is the translation. The fabric originated in this town where they used the water of the Nimes river to dye it. Not very American, eh?!

From Provence we took the high speed train out of Avignon up to Brugge, Belgium and spent the night. This was wonderful for me because my friends Cathy and Mario came to visit us for the afternoon as well as our friend Joeri. We didn't get too carried away as we all had work to do on Monday. Andrew and I went to Oostende the next morning to go through our storage and get things ready to ship to Kuwait. We had originally thought to ship the entire lot but decided it would be better to scale down and wait until we buy our property in France and just truck it down to put in our own house.

Now I am putting a link to our pictures we took in France but I thought I would give a little something to look at as you finish reading my blog first! :) I had never seen grape vines that turned red before but here they are and the trees full of orange berries were beautiful.

http://picasaweb.google.com/dani65652003/France

We had to fly to London and spend a couple of days before we travelled on to Kuwait. We have now been home for one week and are both completely exhausted. Literally we landed at 6:30 AM and started trying to supply the things we need to set-up house here. Everyday we have a to do list that we think looks reasonable and it all goes out the window when our sponsor company sends workmen out to do one thing or another at the house. Most homes have a staff so the owners don't have to worry about being present but as we are it for now we have no choice but to sit and wait and wait some more. Andrew will have to start working soon which should make it all the more interesting as well. For the most part our furniture is everything we had hoped it would be when we returned. The bedroom looks like something you would find in a castle. It was hand-made in Pakistan and has a lot of detailed carvings on it. They had originally put it in the sitting area and the sitting room furniture where we wanted the bed. We thought there is no way they will ever be able to move this bed but out came six men and they commenced to picking it up and moving around. Now the room looks even bigger - no help. We thought that the furniture we had picked out would be good for this villa but it doesn't begin to fill the space. We will have to spend some time at the markets over the next few months looking for more pieces to add to flesh out the rooms. Of course this sounds like great fun to me but Andrew hates shopping and even more hates haggling. I will let you know how we progress!

I am desparately trying to find a maid at this point. There is no way I can possibly keep this place up by myself.

Another new villa and fish tales

Well, I know I have been remiss in posting lately but we have been extremely busy. The house that we had our heart set on and spent so much time preparing for is not not available to us. After taking the time to pick out the paint, lights and furniture and signing the lease it appears the landlord is not legally able to lease the villa to us. Not just us, anyone. Apparently, there is a law here that says if you have a mortgage on your home you can't lease it out. To say the least we were broken hearted about the whole thing. Six weeks of living in a hotel is just crazy no matter how nice the place is - it's still a hotel.
We now have found another villa that we love and have signed the lease on it. The good thing is that the landlord has signed as well so it really is going to be our house. This one is bigger than the last although we weren't really looking for anything bigger. It has five bedrooms and four living areas. The kitchen is about the same size as the last house so no complaints there. Andrew is ecstatic because this one has an indoor heated pool in the basement. We are both happy with the location as it is a much more upscale neighborhood just a couple of streets away from the American embassy.
It's a good thing his company needed a place for him to work from as who knows how long we will be before we are off to the next destination.
The crazy thing is this beautiful villa's last tenants had a thing for color in the house. Literally, there is a pink room, purple room, blue room, green room and some room that has an indescribable color. Because we didn't want to take chances of losing this one we only asked the landlord to paint two of the rooms and decided we would work with the colors or change them ourselves later. We also decided to stick with the original furniture we had picked for the previous villa which will leave a few rooms empty in this house but I have a plan. It should be a lot of fun going to the Friday open market and getting unique pieces of furniture and growing into the the house as we live there.

Now for something on the fun side. For those of you who have kept up with our blog know, when we first moved into the Hilton they gave us a goldfish for our room. I promptly named him Gil and began to get attached to him. Unfortunately, after two days Gil died and they didn't give us another fish. I was a little disheartened but figured it was for the best. Now after being in hotel for a month they have given us another fish and I named this one Finius "Fin". He is a crazy fish that is very active and apparently already has me trained. Anytime he sees me he does this crazy little fish dance in hopes that I will feed him. Well about a week later I was walking through the corridor of the hotel and noticed another fish sitting on the floor outside a room with some old room service dishes. We decided to adopt it as well. After doing some research we have discovered that this one is a female. Andrew has named this fish Wanda. You know after the movie "A Fish Called Wanda". They have been kept in their separate bowls side-by-side but Fin has already taught her the crazy fish dance after only a couple of days. I am trying not to get attached but they really are a lot of fun and a nice distraction. We have bought them a bigger house and put them together now. I am only hoping that they don't reproduce before we can move them into a bigger aquarium in the villa. The problem is Fin is always chasing Wanda and bumping her which we know means his is trying to spawn.

Never Run Out of Fuel in the Desert!

Or if you do make sure to have some of these really strong guys close by to tow you to the next station! Actually they had the Kuwait Strongest Man competition here at the Hilton this weekend. Can't believe these guys were lifting weights, flipping huge tires end over end and pulling an Audi SUV in the sand but they were doing this in 55C heat! That's about 140F for the rest of you guys. We were struggling just standing on the sidelines watching them. They were pretty amazing. The competition started around 1 and went until 5 in the evening. All of it was outside on the beach. We had a great time and surprisingly did not get sunburnt. For lunch they set-up a wonderful buffet in a this huge tent at the edge of the beach. Don't worry it was air-conditioned. I think a good time was had by all.

We have been passing the days waiting for them to finish our villa. The last couple of days have been picking out paint, lights and furniture for the house. The landlord says the property should be finished completely in ten days. I hope he is right because the walls are closing in here at the Hilton after five weeks.

Andrew is hopefully going to have a temporary base pass this next week so he can start going into work if he wants. But until their equipment shows up out here there really isn't much for him to do there yet. I know he is looking forward to having something to do so his brain doesn't turn into mush from sitting around all day.

Once we get in the house I'm sure I will be busy trying to get everything sorted and of course interviewing people for our maid's position. We still can't decide if we want someone to live in our house or just to come and clean and live in their own place. We both prefer to have a visiting maid but the property is so big I think she would be there around five days a week anyway. By the time we pay her and for the transportation it would be cheaper to have her live with us. The house does have a maid's and driver's rooms. I am thinking if we do have a live-in maid then we will let her live in the driver's room which is actually outside the main house but still attached to it. That way she can have her privacy and so can we when she is not working. Decisions, decisions!

You don't realize how much work it is to start a home from scratch. Of course it becomes more of a challenge with the language barrier. Bare walls, bare floors and not one stick of furniture! The paint and lights weren't too hard to pick but the furniture is quite an ordeal. We have been out shopping for two days looking for the right stuff. The coolest thing so far is that we are having our living room furniture custom made. You just walk in the shop and pick the design you want and the material and they make it for you and have it ready in 1-2 weeks. I can't wait to see what it looks like in the house with the curtains we will have made. I haven't been to the fabric souk here but I hear it's a fabric paradise. Fabric from all over the world and each vendor has their own tailor so you can have them make whatever you want just for you. I am hoping to have some nice curtains made for the house.

Once we have everything in place we will take lots of pictures to share with everyone. Until then we will have to endure a couple of more weeks in the Hilton.

Tea, treatments and total relaxation

Well for those of you who read the previous post you know that I went to my first BLS tea on Monday. I was a little nervous about going to someone's home that I had never met and being in a group of british women that had already forged friendship being the new person. But it was all for no reason. Every Monday the British Ladies Society meets for what they call coffee mornings. Really it's just a time to get together and catch up with other ex-pats living out here. I had a wonderful time once I got over the akwardness of not knowing anyone. The group is a little small right now with most of the people away on vacation for the summer but I would say we still had 30+ ladies there. I met a lot of great women from all over the world not just the UK. There were several Americans, even one from Austin. I also met some ladies from Australia, New Zealand and Holland. It was great to talk to different women and find out how long they have been here and the different knowledge of the area that they all have. There are stitching groups, and library groups and just all sorts of activities that branch off of the BLS. I think you could be busy everyday of the week if you wanted to be with activities. There is also an American Women's Association but they are on break for the summer. I am hoping to go to a couple of their meetings and see what that is all about too. What a lifesaver these groups will be for me!



Now, I feel compelled to share some of my spa experiences with you because they have been pretty wonderful all-in-all. The first day we arrived I went to the spa to have my roots done. But they immediately looked at me and asked when I was going to have some waxing also! They were most fascinated with the hair on my forearms even though it is blonde! The women here have all their body hair removed. I have had my legs and eyebrows waxed before but never my arms. So I went back a few days later and had my arms waxed and then eventually my legs. It is a totally different experience here because they do arabic waxing and it is pretty much pain free. In the states the waxing I have had done previously involved warm wax being rolled on and then the strips of material and ripping out the hair. Here they use a very soft wax and apply it by hand in lines and then they gently lift and the hair is removed before you know it. After they wax you they apply parrafin to the area and the result is the smoothest skin you have ever felt. Now as far as the eyebrows are concerned. They believe that wax is way to harsh for the face and instead do threading. It's an ancient art that I think originated either in India or the middle east. I actually had it done once in Austin before we left absolutely loved it. It goes very fast and my eyebrows looked the best they ever have and afterwards you are not even the least bit pink. So I was totally onboard with the threading for my eyebrows here.



I have had one massage since I have been here and it was amazing as well. It was a two hour massage, which I have had as well in other places, but not to this extent. Of course here you will only have a woman massage and woman and a man massage a man for discretion which is totally okay with me but Andrew says he will pass! Anyway, she did a great massage with essential oils but before she worked the area she applied warm damp towels or hot water bottles to the muscles. That was interesting but also good because it helped the muscle relax before she started working on it. Just about the time I thought the massage was over she put this gel on my legs and arms and wrapped them individually in warm towels for about 15 minutes. The gel must have had some peppermint or some similar oils in it because it wasn't long before I could start to feel the skin tingling and then it was the coolest sensation of blood flowing in those areas. She said it was to improve circulation and I believe it did. She ended it with a fantastic indian scalp massage and I was just a big lump of jello after that. I know I won't be going every week for these massages but I sure am glad that I did this once.



Now for an update on the housing situation. We had signed the pre-contract with our sponsor for the apartment. But when it came down to signing the final contract the landlord had changed his mind and decided he wanted more money to have a seaview apartment. He proposed putting us in an end unit which would have us looking over a sand lot and other buildings. Even though the inside is amazing we decided we really didn't want that as our view for the next year. So we asked our sponsors to start looking for some smaller villas with swimming pools in a good area. The downside to this is we will be stuck in a hotel for at least another month or more. I supposed the upside is we are accumulating points. But we both believe that good housing is the key to being happy here. We are hoping to find a home in the area that most of the ex-pats live in because it will make it easier for me to get to the meetings and get togethers with the other ladies. We will have to be patient and see what they find.

Another Fun Day in the Sand.

Well it's hard to believe it but we are starting our third week here in Kuwait. Even though we spend most of the day in the hotel we have progressively been exploring the different areas around us. We went to the open market last week and that was quite an experience! There are vendors for everything you can imagine. It happens every weekend and literally you can buy anything from fresh produce to furniture. I can't wait until we are actually in our home so that I can buy instead of just looking. There are all kinds of booths for persian rugs at amazingly low prices. We didn't actually buy anything this time but I got lots of ideas for our new home.

Our sponsor thought we should look at some other villas before we signed our lease to be sure we were happy. So we went to see what they had in mind. The first villa was crazy big and not even a consideration. It had 12 bedrooms plus separate quarters out back with two apartments for the maid and driver. We told them we weren't interested of course. The next day they took us to see a villa that belongs to an ambassador here. It is in a very nice area and a quiet neighborhood. This one had only seven bedrooms and was much newer. It was really nice with an outdoor pool. But it is still way too big for our purposes. We decided we would just get lost in a house that big so we are back to the apartment. But we did find out that we will be the first tenants in the building so we will have the whole place to ourselves. I think we will be much happier and if after the first year we decide we need more room we can look at villas again then.

In the meantime, we have discovered that the sponsor company is not one that meets the right requirements so he has to start the process over again. Not really that big of a deal but it does mean that he will have to do his medical again and he is not looking forward to having more blood taken. The biggest downside to it all is that it will be at least five more weeks before he gets his work permit and then he can apply for his base pass. If it all goes well he should be going to work around the end of October. So we may have to work in some vacation time between now and then. We are going back and forth on either France/Italy or Thailand. We have around 10 days to use before the end of the year so we have a few options.

We haven't really been doing too much other than stitching and hanging out in the spa. I am going to my first coffee morning with the British Ladies Society on Monday. Hopefully I will make some nice contacts and get lots of tips on living here. It's very quiet here right now because most of the residents are on vacation. They should start coming back at the beginning of September and then it will turn into a much busier place with people and lots of cars on the road.

Put Your Mind at Ease

Hi there family and friends



I thought I would take a few moments to hopefully put some minds at ease. I have spent in total 6 years in the Middle East during my career, with 3 recent trips here in Kuwait. Over this time I have gained not just experience in the region, but an actual sense of what's safe and what requires that 'extra' bit of attention.



When the opportunity first presented its self to us to move to Kuwait , I was not concerned at all as I knew how safe Kuwait can be. What concerned me most was how Danielle would react to the cultural shock wave that was about to wash over her like a tsunami!



As those of you who have kept up with our travels over the years will know, I have subjected Danielle to one cultural shock after another each of which she has taken totally in her stride. I am happy to report that so far she has really taken to Kuwait. I have come to recognize the signs when new sights, history and cultures grab her attention and this is one of those places (there is even talk of language school!)



The one thing that always helps Danielle is regular contact with her family and friends. I have no real way of expressing how much this means to her. I can always tell when I get home when a 'message from home' has made its way through, she has a smile ear to ear!! So, I'd like to say a big thank you to everyone for your input.



I hope this little addition to her page will help those of you who are concerned regarding our location. I have often been accused of being over protective of Danielle, I make no apologies for that and hope it helps put some minds at rest.

Week One in the Desert

Well it's hard to believe but we have already been here in Kuwait one week today. It has gone faster and also slower than expected. Strange I know, but in some regards time drags on because we are living in a hotel and trying to fill our long days. And of course in other ways it goes quickly because we are taking care of details such as registering with our individual embassies, etc. Nothing goes quickly here with regards to business.

So we arrived on Monday and made it easily enough through the airport. A bit of a blur for me really as it was shuffle from one spot to another to complete the visa process and collect your bags. But I have to say from the very moment you step off the plane you realize you are in a totally different world not just because of the way people are dressed and the heat but because you are immediately surrounded with people that want to do everything for you. They bring in people from all over the world to do the jobs that they prefer not to do themselves. Most of the workers come from India, Egypt and the Phillipines. Even simple tasks like getting your luggage off the conveyor belt is done by someone else. We never touched anything from leaving the plane until we were put into the Hilton's Mercedes by our driver.

We are staying in a seaside chalet which I know sounds very nice but I have to admit after living in hotels for the last six weeks it really just feels like a big room with a nice view! They delivered all sorts of nice things to us on our first day like flowers, fruit, chocolates and oh, yes, a gold fish. We named him Gil and thought what a cool thing. Unfortunately, when we woke up the next morning Gil was on the bottom of the bowl and apparently fish don't sleep?! A bit sad for me because I was actually looking forward to having a pet for a little while.

We arrived very early Monday morning so when we got to the hotel and rested a little I decided I would venture to the hair salon in the hotel to have my roots done. It was rather nice as I also got a manicure and pedicure at the same time, literally. I had all three of them working on me so it was a little overwhelming not knowing which way to look. It took them two goes at my roots to get them to blonde but they think now they know how to do it for next time! So, when it came time to pay I thought that I would be able to charge it to my room but the salon was not actually included in the hotel. They called Andrew and asked him to bring cash down to clear my account. Unfortunately, Andrew didn't realize that the salon is one place that the women here who wear a burqa can relax and take it off. So when he walked through the door they all started getting upset because a man was seeing them uncovered. I'm sure if we could have understood arabic it would have been a very animated conversation. We considered it a very eventful first day.

The rest of the week has been filled with registering at the embassies, getting our vehicle and just little things day-to-day. We are both trying to get to the thalasso pool everyday for exercise and relaxation. It feels really weird to me not to have a stitching project to be working on but all of my supplies are in the shipment we sent from Texas. It is here and cleared but too big to have delivered to the hotel. But a bit of a switch for us, I now get to sit and watch Andrew stitch his needle point. We went to the shop in Burford, England and bought him a needle point pattern that is a beautiful hound and fox hunting scene. I think it will take him a while as it is 2 foot by 4 foot. We are hoping to be able to start the hunt for a place to live in the next week or two. As I said, nothing happens fast here.

Our week starts on Saturday and ends on Wednesday so we have already went through our first weekend. Not really too much different from a week day. It is the summer vacation time here for the kids so most of the people have left the country to go on their holidays. Everyone keeps saying how quiet it is here and how empty the roads are right now. I think I am lucky to come at this time as it might have been very overwhelming to arrive when things are much busier. The roads for the most part I think just like our highways in architecture. The difference is that everyone drives how they want to instead of what we would be used to. It appears that rules are more of a suggestion than a strict rule!

Oh yeah, if you're curious to know about the heat. It has reached 140 but it really doesn't feel any hotter than Texas to me as the humidity is only about 5-10%. I told Andrew it really reminds me of Arizona. A lot of sand and palm trees and of course sun.

Look What I Did!

Can't believe it but I finally finished my fairies for Cathy's birthday. I started them at the end of February finished them the morning that we were to meet her! It was a little scary washing and ironing the pattern after I had spent so much time on it and not knowing how it would turn out. Andrew kept saying, "Don't do it! It's going to make the colors run." But Decah had given instructions on exactly what to do and it worked! Andrew did the hard part of trimming and framing it which I was very thankful for as I can't cut a straight line to save my life.

To say the least Cathy was very surprised and equally happy when she opened her present. I am sure that it already has a place of honor in her home. And now she can look forward and see her fairies from me and when she looks in a mirror she can her fairies on her back. For those of you who didn't know, the reason I picked this pattern for her is because she has the exact same pattern in a tattoo on her back!