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.

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.

So Much Snow! And No Snowmen Around.

Snow is everywhere.
It’s a heavy white blanket covering all the area we are in, and it doesn’t take it easy on the human race. It’s cold and omnipresent and still falling from above. It makes the walking a small challange and driving a car a bigger risk.
It makes the children happy and all elderly horrified; it brings joy and broken bones.
It’s here and doesn’t go away!

Snow

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Jak jsme neukradly sáně

Newcastle … přežívá.
Sníh, překvapivší veškerou populaci na místě zhruba před 14ti dny, se stále velmi tvrdohlavě drží a odolává i občasnému dešti, když se oteplí na 5°C; ovšem ano, pravda, takové teplo vydrží jen moment a opětovně padne k nule či pod ni, a z ulic N’Castlu se stává jeden velký, nechutně lesklý zimní stadión. Problém je ovšem v tom, že tady na to nejsme zvyklí a sůl, štěrk ani rolby a podobné vynálezy mrazivému počasí vzdorující tu nemáme, tudíž celé několikasettisícové (v případě, že počítáme i předměstí pak několikamilionové) město prostě ustrnulo v pohybu. Kdyby nebyla zima, ale horko, lidu- a vozu-prázdnými ulicemi by poletovala klubka roští z pouště, jako v těch starých westerňácích. Horko není, poletuje pouze sníh a sem tam uklouznuvší chodec, jenž neuvyklý ledu nevybavil se bruslemi a na ulici lesklé jak sklo sebou nepřekvapivě neelegantně žuchnul. Bác.
Nebyl by to živý kapitalismus, aby se především indické obchody neadaptovaly a z Norska nezačaly dovážet sáně a boby, a místo parků teď jsou jen kopce užívané euforickými rodinami udupávajícími již beztak nebezpečnou cestu o něco víc (nu což, o pár zlomenin víc – bác), všichni vybaveni ještě plastem páchnoucími novotou zářícími – především královsky modrými – bobami. Kdo nemá peníze či nervy investovat do novoty, která nemá jistého trvání, používá rozložené krabice a dřevo, případně si nějaká ta pohybovadla sami vyrábí (vždyť dle taxikáře, který nás před dvěma lety vezl z letiště, v N’Castlu nesněžilo dobrých patnáct let, tedy, co se sněhu a trvanlivosti týče; většinou v zimě sněží tak tři dny, normálně, zbytek jen prší a prší a prší.)
Děcka jsou především nadšená, je zábava, to co znají z televize se stalo skutečností, a krom toho, občas se, tu a tam, zavře škola nebo nejede autobus, protože to prostě klouže a je všeobecně klemra.
Nadšení přejde, až všem přijde účet za topivo. Keep on reading…

Let It Snow!

It kept on snowing throughout the night and this is what we have woken up into. It actually managed to survive the whole day, and some a bit snow-crazy english people took slides and went to try to slide on the poor grass in the park; when it didn’t go well, they just moved on the actual path and nicely slided it till ice for all the normal people who wanted to walk and not on the grass… Newcastle seems to go quite mad whenever any snow appears as it is not much common in here (maximally few days during the winter), so when the snow actually lands, all the families and kids and youth flood out of the homes and head towards all possible parks, green and flat areas and try to slide down, no matter how short, bumpy and green the thing is. That’s some spirit! (But I hear the grass crying, though.)

Heaton under Snow, Newcastle Upon Tyne

Keep on reading…