Roasted Culveys in Kuwait - Apr 2010

It’s late in the evening, Kuwait airport is packed with expats heading home for Christmas, and we are excitedly queueing up at the start of a long journey back home for Christmas, it’s long as we are going via Istanbul, and that involves a 7 hour lay over (joy!). Stress levels had been high thanks to the lovely cabin crews of BA threatening to strike, but thankfully it didn’t happen so we were on our way!

Following our long but relatively hassle free journey, we got straight into the spirit (well beer really) of things. It was our wedding anniversary (just 8 years) so we thought the most romantic way of spending it would be to meet up with old friends from Turkey! Mel, Mentes, Leah, and Kyan, and Sally, Mark, Penny, Rosie, Flo, Daisy, Sunflower, Skye, and I forget, they’ve got some many little ones now, descended on Northampton, for a pre Christmas dinner, and chat! Lots had happened since we had all been together last so it was truly fantastic to be able to sit around a table, have a few beers, watch the little one’s have a ball like they had never been apart, and share the stories of leaving Mother Tesco, changing countries and all that good stuff!

Once we’d worn them out we rolled on to Jane’s and spent the evening catching up with friends and generally making up for missed booze!

We awoke on Christmas Eve, with a little haziness, but nothing that would hold us back! The 24th in the Peck household of course is Tanya day, and it was down the Olde Sun for lunch with the  birthday girl and little cutie Kyra. A very pleasant afternoon was had by all.

We headed back to Jane’s for the evening as we had informed Father Christmas that was where we would be, and Indi and Kai were keen to ensure they were in the right place. Ly and I embarked on some last minute packing and soon all was prepared for the big day!

One thing I haven’t mentioned until now is the weather, so much for global warming, we certainly left that behind in Kuwait, England was bloody freezing, snow on the ground, temps never rising above zero, it was all a bit too Christmassy for me!

Still Christmas day was here, kids were up earlyish, not too bad, maybe 07:00, and the Christmas stockings were out in force. Our guys were beyond excited, Ben 10, dinosaurs, Puppy in my Pocket, and horses were the order of the day and we had two very happy little people indeed. Following a spot of breakfast champers, Colin was the first visitor of the day, to see Devon and Hamish, he was closely followed by the Pecks, Olive, Chris, Tanya, and Kyra. By this time the day had become somewhat chaotic (as usual), but within the chaos was a lot of fun, a lot of lovely food, and just the right amount of English ale, and foreign vino!! What a day! I think we ended the day with a big helping of Ice Age 3, fabulous...

Boxing day had no let up, over to Abi’s! Dee, TIm and Astrid were also in attendance, Kiera and Cam welcomed Indi and Kai, and set off to destroy the place as quick as possible. It was all too much for me, man flu had got me, so I sloped of to bed to leave the fun to the hardened party goers.

We needed a detox, and where better to chill out, and relax but in the comfort of the West Country with Mum and Dad C. Our ever faithful taxi driver, Mr Michael Peck got us down to Newbury, where Old Man Culvey was waiting to ferry us down to farmer land!

The other members of the Culvey clan made the pilgrimage and Mum cooked us up a lovely post Christmas dinner. Then of course it was present time again, the most memorable being Kai’s wearable Rory the racing car! I’m pretty sure everyone had it on at some point in the day! Well maybe not great Grannie, but you can imagine!

It still wasn’t over, next was AndrEa and Ben’s wedding over in Clifton. We arrived the night before the big day, and marvelled at the fully renovated abode... and enjoyed a very pleasant evening with the new extended family.

The big day was here, we all scrubbed up and put on our glad rags and headed to the local swimming baths for the service! Yes, the wedding was at the Baths, a little more glamorous than it sounds, they have been converted into a rather funky eatery, although you can still swim (and they were despite the temperature!). A small but intimate service was followed by drinks, and lunch, and laughter. Then just enough time for a kip back at Andy’s, handover the kids to the Baby sitter, pull on the Tuxedo and Ball gown, then back out to the very posh Clifton Club for the evening Do.

Sore heads or not, it was New Years Eve, we needed to be back in Northampton! Dad had already disappeared in the night for his adventure in Equador, our adventure was to begin at Bristol Temple Meads station and a train ride back to our temporary home. Considering we had to change twice and we had at least 3 big suitcases, we did pretty well, most of the time Indi and Kai played their part well, although it nearly unraveled at Euston as we raced for our train, Kaibo declared enough was enough, he was hungry and was not running... oh yes he was, as Lyra dragged him along, we just made it!

Feeling a little worn out from the last week or so, New Years Eve was a quiet affair round Abi’s, good company, and for most of us, just enough wine, maybe just a bit too much for some....

2010 was here!!

We said our goodbye’s over the next few days and it was soon time to head home to the relative warmth of Kuwait.

As we all got back into the swing of normal life, we had a lodger for a couple of weeks, our friend Pauline, moved back to Kuwait, and stayed with us while she looked for an apartment. The kids loved having her around, Indi could discuss handbags with her, and Kaibo could scare her with his dinosaurs!!

Lyra embraced the new year with her usual enthusiasm by hitting the gym and learning to become a Reiki master! She seems to have a talent for it, although she hasn’t tried any of the moves on me yet!

The first big event of the year was the ANZAK Big Night Out! And what a big night it was, must of been 500 people in the Hilton Ballroom, the doors were closed and out of everyone’s pockets, and handbags came the GIn, Vodka, and Wine!!! For those few hours you would never have believed you were in a dry state! We were a complete state! 

It doesn’t take long, before the parties start.. Little Beth was two and Kai went along to her party, but then it was Indi’s turn. Now we had many discussions about this party, we suggested Magic Planet, or Pizza Express, but oh no, Princess India wanted it at home, and wanted to invite her whole class!

Clearly we needed help! We roped in Pauline, and a few other friends, and of course, the guest of honour, our ONLY visitor to date.... Nanny Culverhouse!

Nanny arrived a couple of days before the party as a stop off on her way to Sydney, she timed it perfectly, not only for Indi’s party, but also the coldest weekend in Kuwait we have had since arriving! 

Anyway, back to the party.. so the theme was set, Fairies and Heroes, the invites sent, and cake ordered. We waited in fear for two o’clock to arrive... then they started coming, all 26 of them, it was complete madness, we realised quickly that our carefully drawn up plans were out the window and we focused on damage control! Dressing up 12 6 year old boys as super heroes was not the most well thought out plan, once the costumes were on, they assumed the characters and Darth vader, the Hulk, a bunch of power rangers took control! Indi was having a fab time so it was worth it, even Kai had a scream with all the big boys.

We managed to get them sat down and fed, which provided a brief rest from the madness, but they were soon fanning out across the house, I took charge of the trampoline, and crowd control, while Lyra and Nanny handed out goody bags. But then before we knew it the 3 hours were up and parents began to arrive to take their fairies and heroes home. A few stayed on in to the evening to help us wind down, it was a day to remember for certain, and best of all Indi had had the party she dreamt of. Along with a mountain of gifts!

As Nanny was here for another day before heading off again, we decided to show her a bit of Kuwait, Kai and I took her for a drive around the city and up the coast. Then we decided that we should head into the desert and go and watch some Camel racing! A great plan, we took Nannette with us, who had lived in Kuwait for many years so we could be sure to find it and headed in to the wilderness... the traffic thinned out, and soon it was just us, a dusty road, and a few camels strolling about... but not racing! We ended up at an air base used to run sorties into Iraq, at this point we decided probably best to turnaround! We never saw any racing, but Nanny did get a good view of the vastness of the desert, and nearly a bit of Iraq!

Nanny headed off down under, and we went back to the daily grind.

Just before half term, Indi’s drama class, the cool kittens put on a little show, it was Peter Pan, Indi was Wendy. It was really good, they focus on the people and don’t use big sets, it all built up to a fab rendition of Never Smile at a Crocodile! Half term also took us to Kai’s Nursery for an update on how he was doing, we were particularly interested to see how he was doing as he had really struggled with being separated from home at the beginning of the year. Thankfully it was all great, he has really come on leaps and bounds recently and his confidence is soaring, they all love having Kai in the class and say he plays a very active part now.  

Work for me was extremely busy in the first part of this year. We had a new mall opening up in Dubai, Alshaya opened 26 stores on the same day,  as well as introducing 3 completely new brands (American Eagle Outfitters, Pottery Barn, and Pottery Barn Kids), I was travelling back and forth to Dubai almost every other week as well as spending a week in Saudi Arabia looking for sites to build a new DC, plus a market tour of Bahrain. I needed a holiday!

We chose to combine one of my trips to Dubai with a bit of a break as it coincided with half term, and Nanny was going to be passing through on her way home again!

We rented a fab apartment in the Marina, and arrived late in the evening, only to find nobody there to meet us, 3 adults, 4 kids, about a million bags, and nowhere to stay! Many calls later we finally got hold of the owner (about 11:30 by this time!), turns out the guy was waiting for us was in the apartment! Sadly he had forgotten to mention that to security!!

Never mind, while I went off to work, Ly, Fiona, and the kids headed to the beach! We had a coupe of great days together before Fiona, Beth, and Amy had to go back to Kuwait, but no sooner had they gone, when a weary traveller arrived from New Zealand, Nanny was back!

We had 48hrs to show her Dubai, no time to waste! After the cold of Kuwait, Dubai had another Middle Eastern delight in store...dust storms! After a quiet night on the Boardwalk where Indi rode a horse and a camel! (Kai did too briefly, but didn’t like it!), we awoke to a yellowy haze, lovely. Still a bit of dust wasn’t going to spoil our fun so we jumped on the Big red Bus tour and headed off around Old Dubai. After jumping on and off the bus a couple of times, we grabbed some lunch and then took a ride up the Dubai creek on boat trip, we lounged on the comfy cushions and took in the sights. The creek is the heart of Dubai and real melting pot of old and new, with lots of merchant ships loaded up with cargo’s from Asia, and with the skyline of modern Dubai behind it really is a great sight.

We said goodbye to the tour and took a taxi to the Dubai mall, in the shadow of the 860m tallest building in the world the Burj Kalifa. We were having dinner next to the kids favourite attraction the dancing water, which of course is the biggest dancing fountain in the world! Everyone loved it, Nanny was suitably impressed, but it was time to head home. Just as we were waiting for a taxi, the clouds began to roll in, there was a storm coming... another memorable weather event for Nanny, the heavens opened and a huge storm erupted, thunder and lightening all around, the rain just kept coming. As you can imagine, Dubai doesn’t see a lot of rain, so drainage is not high on the agenda, within minutes the roads were like rivers, about a foot deep in places as our taxi crawled along back to our apartment!

Nanny headed back to England the following morning and we packed ready to head back to Kuwait the following day. That same day, I dropped everyone at home and headed straight back to Dubai, those shops don’t open on their own you know!

Under strict orders from Indi, I had to be back on the Thursday evening because it was her first school disco! The theme was Scooby Doo, so I didn’t need to dress up, as I am Shaggy anyway, Lyra pulled together a great Thelma look and we hit dance floor! It’s funny watching those little disco’s, brings back lots of memories from school. Indi spent most of her time, chasing her favourite boy Liam M, and Kai just took to the floor and showcased his break dancing. 

Another new experience for us all has been Sports Day! Indi had her first one recently so we all went along to see her perform. I can safely say that she ran with style, but not speed, she played very honestly, and was more concerned about looking good than winning! Having said that she seemed to be enjoying herself and was very supportive of her team (who came 2nd) and booed the winners!!

At the beginning of March, we had to adjust to life without out dear Padema, as she headed off for a month back home in Sri Lanka, we are all missing her terribly and can’t wait for her to come back to us soon!! The month has now turned into 2 months, so even more desperate for her to come back now!!

Almost up to date, just one final event before we’re done and that was my little birthday... 42 years young, and proved it at the Paddy’s Day Ball perfectly timed to be on my birthday, those doors at the Hilton were closed again and I remember very little! Although I clearly remember feeling considerably older the next day.

So i’ll sign off here, it’s Kaibo’s 4th birthday party going on right now as I write this. Sadly for me they are all in the UK, but we’ll do it all again when they get  back and tell you all about it next time......

Hope you made it to the end of my ramblings... maybe I should do them more often!!

All the best, love

Dan, Ly, Indi, and Kaibo!! xxx