Christmas ’11 in Kuwait

Nothing special, weather’s acting weird and is actually forcing upon us warmer air than few weeks ago. Not nice, if you ask me, as I really miss any kind of real winter.
But, oh well.


We went to amusement park(s) and Dori had great time riding many attractions, with Merry-Go-Rounds among the favourites and evergreens. We’ve also passed by three pet shops with animals in more than a sorry state, which is real torture for the hormones of pregnant woman and almost made me buy them all out; unfortunately this is not possible so we’ve ended up with a fish looking like a Kuwaiti woman prepared for wedding party (read: lots of make up) and a baby rabbit of uncertain breed which was stuffed in a dress for dolls – which I ripped off the moment we arrived home and the rabbit settled down a little. It was closed in a body size cage in the shop, without water or food, put at the window to be admired (and to suffer).


He’s fine now, I’m just dreading the possible size he can grow up to; and the fact everywhere’s written they should be neutered for their and owner’s well being.
Soon, soon… when I figure out how damn old he or she is.

Bulgarian Heaters

Indeed, and they seem to be favoured over the Chinese ones here. No blame, I have goose bombs whenever I read or hear Made in China unless it counts for more than few thousand years old; but Kuwaiti people seem to have this other obsession and that is “What is from Europe, is always best / most chic / most in / reliably working!”. Now, I can’t say it’s not, and in many cases it will still probably be better option over anything made in China in the recent years.
But when we were roaming the souks for an oil heater I was surprised by the “Bulgarian, Bulgarian, buy, buy!” attitude of some shop assistants, to be honest. When I was faced with the choice of Chinese heater vs. Bulgarian one, I was really surprised as both options seemed rather crazy to me – not to the others, though!
Well, we’ve got ourselves a small, portable (Bulgarian) heater now, which is used most of the day but mainly in our bedroom. So spoiled, we are now. The room temperature hits 20 degrees and we go all bonkers with pullovers, fluffy socks, hot teas and a heater turned on the higher level.



Over the day when hubby’s at work and kiddo at school I steal the small warmth provider for my room and tug in a blanket with green tea (or milk with coffee, formerly known as coffee with milk, but due to the small inhabitant prohibited as alcohol in Kuwait now, by my husband mainly) and a book. I’m getting much better with my speed of reading in English though, sadly.
Meaning I can read one book in a day – meaning I need a lot of books to keep myself busy and that’s a lot of trips to Virgin store and a lot of KDs spent on printed paper and all that hassle my beloved half hates so much. On the other hand I’m glad my English isn’t so rusty just yet, under the influence of arabized English of Kuwait and me being all but a good student.

Random evenings are now filled with either the classical heater-book-iPod-PC-TV laziness, or hussainiyah visits for religious lessons on the event of Ashura and eventually the whole month of Muharram. Dori loves it, not for the mourning, but for the fact that to keep her silent and busy she can borrow my old – and long time broken – Tamagotchi. Soon to be hers, as soon as my new toy comes!
Yes, I’m quite playful, sometimes. But the EMS from Japan is not cooperating with me, and with the sorry state of Kuwait postal service I’ll be glad to get it this year and uncut, ungutted and working, even. Hope never dies! Oh wait, was that love?
Nevermind, let’s hope my present to myself will arrive in tact and soon! Off to hussainiyah now.

I Can’t Believe it’s Winter Time

So here we are, in the first Advent week, outside are mere 15 degrees, still sunny and the occasional rain was probably just the last week’s news. As for now, it actually can still get pretty hot over the day.
I’ve finally (!) managed to fix my SD card reader, who would think that after a year of not working I would have this brilliant idea (which, as I found out later on on Google, is pretty non-brilliant and kind of *duuuh*), and I uninstalled all generic USB drivers on my PC and let it re-install with a restart. Bam, I’ve got myself a working SD card reader. I just wish I would figure that out a year ago, so I wouldn’t be doing this clunky card-to-notebook-to-hardrive-to-PC thing… Oh well, at least I know it now, let’s stay positive! And some pictures to prove it.



I’m getting pretty fat by now which I’d say should be positive, as far as it’s not only the fluff supplies growing but also everything under them, in the order as it should and it is required. My next doc appt. is in two weeks and I am already getting paranoid if everything’s ok.
But, inshallah, it is.



I am soo hormonal nowadays. Hubby recently bought a roll from Cinnabon as a good-husband-gesture and I almost cried. Not over the gesture, but because cinnamon rolls make my stomach go awry already for few weeks, so I was torn apart between eating it and running to the bathroom and not eating it and making my husband disappointed and sad – which is what brought me to tears. The imagination of a sad husband and his good will gesture going to waste. So I pinched a little on it and than stopped with an excuse on a really full stomach. It was true after all and no lie, as the sweets arrived right after a pretty big lunch. *Phew*. Actually, writing about it makes me wanna cry too.
I’m also all tears over being far from snow, winter, miserable weather, and all these Christmas lights and awful design ideas of trees and decorations, and the smell of gingerbread and long nights and the smell of Christmas days I remember from home – a pine, an orange, some gingerbread and lots of colourful lights instead of a night lamp. Good for eyes while reading!
I was thinking about making some carton decoration for our desert home here, so my kid has fun when doing it and it’s better than TV, and our housekeeper is a Christian – so to make her a little happy and feel more friendly in this land of sand a mosques.
Will see, it’s still a lot of time after all. I am, however, definitely going to try to bake some of the traditional Czech stuff.
Oh oh and not to forget with my baby brain – my dear husband gave me a birthday present in advance again and paid for my site hosting as well as Flickr Pro account, so I can continue writing about nonsense and upload pictures nobody wants to see. Yay me! Thank you, Abu.

Houses I Wouldn’t Mind to Live In

Since Kuwait is such a … disparate place when it comes to architecture, and my only hobby while being driven in a car is to look out of the window on the people’s housings, I’ve had this very unoriginal idea of putting together an entry featuring some things which caught my eye – for different reasons, some aesthetics-wise, some living-wise, some idea-wise. It’s a personal collection of caught-my-eye and I hope some people will enjoy looking at it as much as I do – or even dream for a bit, as much as I do.
I owe thanks to particular topic discussed on CyberSpace.cz for collecting so many great pictures from the depths of the internet, as well.








Last October ’11 Morning

From a very, very brief walk after a breakfast out. (After some blood sucking from my second hand, not sure what place I can offer them tomorrow for the third round of tests.)




Pics are taken on my BlackBerry, so a little on the lousy side when it comes to the actual quality. But hey, I seem not to have my cam with me whenever I need it. When I do have it, nothing remarkable happens, or I don’t even manage to get it out of my bag.
Kuwait’s a teeny bit unfriendly regarding these big black intimidating DSLRs and big gun lenses.