Roasted Culveys in Kuwait - Feb 2011

So scarily it was a few days before Christmas when I last updated you all on life in the hot place! So I’d better get straight into it…..

As we mentioned in the last update, Christmas was in Kuwait, luckily a few friends had also made the decision to stay put so we had a ready made group to celebrate together. Party number one was on Christmas Eve, hosted by the Culveys and turned out to be quite a big night (surely not I hear you all say...)! My many trips away had brought home a fair bit of holy water home, plus we are now a dab hand at the home brew wine kits so the bar corner of the room was particularly popular! The old favourite of Kuwait is date rum, which flowed particularly well on Christmas Eve! Everybody enjoyed Padema’s feast of festive curry, and we had a real treat as a whole ham was donated, cooked and promptly scoffed by all!!

Considering it was the night before Christmas it went on well into the night, kids and adults alike partied until very late, it was a great start to the festivities!

Christmas morning started quietly, thankfully, with even the kids sleeping in, in fact Ly and I were awake before them waiting for them to stir, very odd! India was first awake, and we were treated to a full range of hoots and screams of delight as she discovered what Santa had left her! Eventually Kaibo sauntered out of bed, completely oblivious to what day it was! When we asked him if Santa had left him anything, he said he didn’t know as he hadn’t been downstairs yet! “So you didn’t see that huge sack on your bed then?” we asked!! Of course once discovered his delight was a picture!

Christmas lunch was around our good friends and close neighbors the McCulloch’s! It was a nice little stroll in the sun around to lunch in a balmy 25C! Things were very laid back (just as well considering the night before, but they cooked us up a truly magnificent Christmas feast, we wanted for nothing considering our location, it was simply wonderful, even had time for an afternoon nap on the sofa, while the Queen gave her speech!! As the evening set in it was time for a few games in true Christmas day fashion, even played Guesstures, a great day all round.

As if two days of eating, drinking, and general merriment weren’t enough, Boxing day was set for the party pro’s Claire & Phil!! More great food, lots of Claire and Phil’s famed Rose wine set us up for a late night of chat and dancing…and late it was, I think we finally collapsed around 3am!

Following this a couple of days of chilling were badly needed which we just about managed before jetting off to Dubai for the New Year.

In our usual relaxed way it was straight from the airport to meet a lady called Mahnaz who taught me Transcendental Meditation (you remember, Lyra raved about it last year), well I did a 4 session course with Mahnaz and it’s amazing, grabbing those 20 mins each morning and evening to truly relax your mind is a great gift to have. I recommend it to everyone.

In Dubai we stayed with Pauline and Nick, hung out, went shopping, watched the fountains, had a few beers, etc, etc!! We must also give a big respect to Nick who volunteered to spend 4 hours in Kidzania with the kids as Kai was about 2cm’s too short to go in on his own! Ly and I enjoyed a quiet meal, and a stroll around the Dubai Mall. For those who don’t know, Kidzania is a ‘world for kids’ where they can pretend to have jobs, earn kidzania money etc, it’s a huge place that can house up to 2,000 kids!! We owe you Nick!

Another highlight especially for the kids was lunch at the rainforest café, just behind the incredible aquarium, at Dubai Mall, we were treated to guerillas, lions, snakes, all coming alive in the rafters of the restaurant, fab!

New Years Eve started with me graduating from meditation school, then off to Ski Dubai for some snowball fighting and tobogganing with Wills and Jack! The evening was a reunion with India’s dream boy Liam and family at their great pad in the Ranches. Far from the madness in the city centre we had a very chilled night both in atmosphere and temperature (for Dubai it was very cold!). The Mooney’s treated us to a great BBQ and midnight brought some fantastic fireworks and Champagne! And before we knew it, it was 2011!! After a loooooong taxi ride back to Pauline and Nicks (we had to get around 1 million people that watched the fireworks at the Burj Khalifa!) everyone was well rested so we had one or two more celebratory drinks and before we knew it, it was morning! 

You’d think our new year’s resolution would be to take it easy..but no, we celebrated Jan 1 with a pleasant but late evening with a few of Pauline and Nicks friends. Now it was time to return to our dry state, but not before we stocked up on pork for our New year detox!!

As the kids headed excitedly back to school, we all tried to get back into the routine of life. The kids sorted out their ECA’s, Indi chose Swimming, Yoga, and Cooking and got all 3, Kai chose swimming and Yoga, but sadly missed out on the swimming, and we couldn’t convince him to go to karate! The yoga has been a particular hit, and they come home each week to show off their new moves! Kai also took part in the debut performance at the new theatre at school. It was a production of The Three Billy Goats Gruff, Kai played a Donkey, and was great, really confident and said his lines very clearly. Indi may have a partner to hit the stage with!

January was also the month of the Zietsmans as it was to be their last in Kuwait! Sadly the school would not allow Kaitlin to stay at school, but Lyra organized a lovely goodbye party for Kaitlin where they all contributed to a memory book, and Indi read a wonderful poem written by Lyra. Shopping was also high on the agenda for Ly & Michelle, you may have read about the retail economic recovery in Kuwait during Jan, well that was largely down to these two! Werner and I carried the bags! We also made sure that each weekend involved an impromptu party with the Zeitsies, from ‘private Christmas’ do’s to full family sleepovers!! Far too much date rum was consumed, and all built up to the last weekend before they left and the big Goodbye!

The day really began with the girls popping off to be made up at a local beautician / hairdressers….some 5 hours later these very Arabic looking ladies returned that were apparently our wives! They had the hair and make up, now all they needed was the Abaya and they would have been fully Kuwaiti! Anyway, about 60 of us enjoyed a great dinner in Salmiya where Michelle thanked every single person in the room individually with a wonderful and emotionally charged stories of her experiences with each one of us, it was a truly remarkable and memorable performance!

How do you follow that?? Well you head to the Culvey’s place and hit the date rum until the sun comes up!! It was fitting goodbye to a family that had such a positive impact on our lives in Kuwait, I am happy to say we will remember it forever, and don’t worry Wern, we won’t share all of the photo’s, our secret is safe!!

After crawling into bed with the sun already up, it was only a couple of hours before the Zeitsmans woke us sat on our bed looking all bright eyed and bushy tailed! They needed to finish of the last bits of clearing out their house before they headed to the airport that evening!! Thankfully we got to look after Kaitlin for a few more hours and get a little more sleep!!

Now over the last few weeks of the Zeitsmans in Kuwait, the life of Expats did it’s usual thing and brought new friends to us too, Kai had a new class mate, a lad called Fletcher, and as class rep, Ly got in touch with his Mum Kerry to say welcome only to find that her husband Tyrone was working in Alshaya (where I work!). Very quickly we realized we had new friends. 

We did our part and helped out with introductions to the fun of Kuwait, and even went with them to look at houses! Which made us very jealous as they chose one of the best places we had seen in Kuwait!

As this friendship blossomed, it was put under an early test, as we went around to see Kerry following the Zeitsmans farewell party armed with Organic fish and chips for a happy moving in visit…. Sadly the night before was being particularly cruel to me and I failed to enjoy my fish and chips and gave their new facilities a full workout (if you know what I mean)!!

We managed to stay awake long enough to head over to the Holiday Inn for some very emotional goodbyes, in 10 years travelling I think it was the toughest goodbye to date, we miss them terribly, but are so happy that they have achieved their dream of a life in Australia, we will be over to see you one day guys, but we will keep up the skypes and calls, especially when parties are in full swing!!

My travelling for work hasn’t let up, with the Dubai trips every few weeks, also had a few days in Riyadh, Saudi, which wins head and shoulders above anywhere else I’ve been for the dullest place on earth!

Now one of the risks of being away, is that things happen back home while I’m away, and it happened again, apparently, this cute little white kitten, just turned up at our doorstep and insisted that we either let him in or he would just lay there until Izzy ate him!! So as I returned from a busy week away, I was introduced to our latest waif and stray to join the household, Merlin! He’s quite the personality, and bears an uncanny resemblance in attitude to our old friend Podgoss, who died a few years back! He is the last one though…..isn’t he Lyra!!!!

February of course is the start of our birthday season… and Indi kicks things off. This year our little princess became a big 7! Now many will recall the incredible party she had the previous year when 26 kids descended on our house! Well Indi really wanted to do that again, and we really didn’t! Well, it was a long negotiation, but Lyra did eventually come out victorious by agreeing to delay the party by a few weeks so it could warm up and then Indi could have a pool party, great move by Ly. So Indi’s actual birthday weekend was a nice quiet affair watching horsey movies and eating Domino’s pizza!

Her theme for gifts this year was Littlest petshop and horsey stuff, along with a few clothes and books. Big thanks to everyone for her lovely gifts, she was very pleased with her haul! As Indi is growing up she is becoming more and more like her Mum, and her birthday was a good example, she seemed to spend half the day switching from Skype, to the landline, to the mobile, thanking everyone for their birthday wishes!! It’s a concerning trend, I have to say!!

It was also time for the school sports days to kick off, Reception was first, but sadly I was travelling so missed the fun,  it was a cool day, perfect for Kai to show off his athletic ability. It seems our Kai is for now following his Sisters prowess on the athletics field, where his enthusiasm is not quite being matched with speed or that killer competitiveness! Still he enjoyed himself and so did the Mum’s of reception M as they won the Tug of War!!

Hot on their heels came Year 2nd Indi’s sports day, you guessed it, I missed it again, but Indi had a great day. She went for it, and although there was no medals for her, she really should of won one for sportsmanship and her enthusiasm for the team! The following week was another big one for Indi, as it was her last meeting with Rainbows, as she was moving on up to Brownies! They gave her a lovely goodbye, and it was wonderful to see how well she had connected with them all.

Excitement at home remained at a high though as there was something very rare occurring, we were getting visitors!! Yes, the visitor drought had come to an end after a year of waiting, Nanny & Grumpy arrived! Of course, this was Nanny’s 2nd visit, but this time she brought the old man along too! They arrived a day before i got back from Moscow, but thankfully we had a whole bunch of public holidays coming so I managed to be off for almost their whole trip.

The main event of their visit was our trip to Jordan, which started early as our flight was at 08:00. All was going well, suitcases in the car, when we noticed the gate was open and Izzy was missing!! Nightmare, we had no time, we had to get the airport but she was nowhere to be seen, we drove around for a while but no luck, we had to decide, stay and find her (and miss the flight) or go and hope she comes back! Thankfully, Padema and Nihan came to the rescue, we called them and got them out of bed! They promised to find her a get her back in the house, so we headed for the airport, all a bit worried.

Thankfully, shortly after we arrived at the airport we got the good news that Izzy was back, we could relax and enjoy the trip! The flight was great and we were met by one of my team Jordan, Rami, he had kindly arranged for a mini bus and driver to take around for the next 5 days. Yousef, was our driver, he was the most Texan Jordanian I had ever met, and as it turned out, a fantastic guide!

First we headed to Mount Nebo so we could look out across to Jericho and Jerusalem, this is where Moses is said to have been given the ten commandments. Incredible place, just looking out across the valley and the Dead Sea, imagining all of that history, taking place in front of us, for so many thousands of years, was quite humbling.

Next we visited a mosaic factory, then on to see one Jordan’s most famous mosaic’s in a church where a map of Jordan covers the floor in mosaic, amazing. Then it was time to hit the King’s Highway and head for Karak Castle. The kids enjoyed climbing through all of the ruins, we even had an impromptu guide, although we didn’t part as friends as he was less pleased with the tip I offered!

Now it was time to get some kilometres under our belt as we needed to get to Petra before night, so we hit the road. The scenery was spectacular, even crossing Jordan’s own Grand Canyon! We even passed through an Arab Spring Protest, in a tiny village miles from anywhere, it seems the desire for change is being sought all across the Middle East. As the sun went down, we finally made it into Petra, Yousef had done a great job to get us there and had kept us informed and entertained the whole way! We dived into the Movenpick, and had a nice chilled out evening, in readiness for our day of discovery in Petra tomorrow!

We woke the next day to beautiful February day, just perfect for the long walk into to see one of the 7 wonders of the world (I think, but if it’s not, then it truly should be!). Only one problem arose, and that was kai had a huge blister on his ankle! Thankfully, Nanny’s first aid kit came to the rescue with special blister plasters, Kai was as good as new and ready for the off!

Now it’s a long walk through a narrow canyon to the Petra site, but amazingly the kids walked the entire way! Well, the y did have a little help from a friendly horse for a short while, but other than that they did brilliantly. In fact Indi must of done double what the rest of walked as she was cantering most of the day, back and forth!!

The long walk was well worth it, it is one of those truly gob smacking sights, as amazing as everyone tells you, we were in awe of the sheer magnificence of it all. As we strolled through Grumpy & Indi met a local family that actually lived in a cave on the site, and he had actually been born in the same cave, they enjoyed a nice cup of tea together whilst, Ly and I climbed higher, and Nanny & Kai chilled out on a rock.

Now the walk back out of Petra is even tougher, as it’s up hill all the way, so we thought it was only right to let India have her way and send them with the Oldies back up to the entrance by horse and cart! Mum was less than enthusiastic, but we managed to get her in and they were off! All arrived safely, and  that left Lyra and I to stroll back up on our own.

That evening we had a wonderful traditional Jordanian meal with Yousef and had a well deserved beer or two to celebrate conquering Petra!

It was simply a magical day.

Still, next day, the adventure continued, and started with a quick detour to ‘Little Petra’ a small, less known trading point but with similar, if smaller rock carvings. Kai’s blister issue continued and he took to walking around with just one shoe on! Fair play to him though, he still had a good walk around!

Following on from little Petra, we had a few hours on the bus as we continued South to Wadi Rum, a large reserve of desert and spectacular rock formations. The sun was out but the wind had picked up so the sand was flying in true Laurence of Arabia style.

We arrived just after lunch and clambered into a great old Land Cruiser for a tour of the National Park. I decided it was time to go native so I bought a keffiyeh (red and white headscarf) from one of the Bedouin’s in the park! We stopped at a few different spots where the scenery was particularly great, the most memorable was the Bedouin tent where we had some Arabic sweet tea and sheltered from the wind, and then the red sandbank which India and I climbed. We returned to the base spotting camel families strolling across the plain, feeling windswept but happy having been able to experience such natural  wonders. 

Our plan was to now head for the Dead Sea, but the wind was too strong and the desert road was closed so we had to take a detour! This meant continuing south all the way to the Red Sea town of Aqaba where we stopped for some lovely fresh fish for dinner before hitting the road again, North this time, all the way to the top of the Dead Sea, ti took about 2 and half hours and we were all very pleased to finally reach the Movenpick Dead Sea resort! Of course credit must go to Yousef as he was the poor soul that had to drive the whole way! Still he had a days rest ahead as we were staying at the Dead sea for a couple of nights!

After all that travelling it was pretty much night night for us all!!

We woke to a beautiful sunny day, although it felt a bit chilly! Still we had a nice chilled out breakfast and went for a stroll around, what was a huge resort. Eventually we made it down to the pools just above the Dead Sea shoreline, and by this time it was feeling warmer, so much so that we all stretched out on the loungers! As everyone slipped into to a seriously relaxed state, Lyra and I went back up to the rooms to get swimming stuff for everyone as we couldn’t resist the pool any longer. Now we must remember that it was still winter and the pool did feel a bit icy, but then we spotted a ‘winter pool’ heated to 32C! Lovely, the kids and i were in, closely followed by Grumpy and Ly. It wasn’t long before I felt brave and jumped into the normal pool, well I could of leapt right back out as it was blooming freezing!! But soon enough it felt, well bearable! At the far end of the pool it flattened out to a sand beach, which the kids loved, and even after a while ventured into the cold water too.

By early afternoon we decided it was time to get down to the Sea and have a float! I was particularly excited as it was something i had longed to do for many years. So we all climbed down the many, many steps to the shoreline, only to be presented with a bunch of red flags flying and a life guard telling us it was too rough to swim. Well, I was not coming all this way only to be thwarted by a few 6 inch waves! So i challenged the Lifeguard to understand whether he was going to actually stop me going in? I got the answer i wanted, he had no desire to get in my way, so it was game on! First cane the mud, known for it’s excellent skin softening properties (and lets be honest, i’m not getting any younger!!), Dad and I covered each other from head to toe and then headed down the jetty into the super salty water... 

Unbelievable!! No other words will do, the sensation of floating so high in the water was simply amazing. The other incredible experience was the intense pain when you get salt in your eye!! Everyone told me to wear goggles but in my excitement I had forgotten, wow that bloody stung!! Watching Dad and I bobbing around was too much for Lyra so she headed in too. At this point India started to get really miffed, as the lifeguard did not want kids going in. Well, it needed another chat with the lifeguard but I promised to be careful and he relented, so Indi joined us and absolutely loved the experience, and she had goggles on, clever little madam!

As the sun went down, we headed back up to the hotel, had a great Italian meal, Kai collapsed half way through as he was exhausted, after a few beers, we were all on our way too, so headed back to the rooms, Indi decided that she wanted to sleep with Nanny and Grumpy, so it was a nice and peaceful evening!

Well, Yousef was with us first thing in the morning as it was time to head back to Kuwait, it was only a short journey to the airport, and by lunch time we were back in the land of sand.

Luckily in Kuwait it was a long weekend holiday to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Kuwaits Liberation from Iraq, plus the 50th year of Independence, and the 5th year of the Amir’s reign. We weren’t planning at joining the ‘fun’ in the city as it was going to be a traffic nightmare (although the fireworks on You tube are pretty impressive). But we did introduce Mum and Dad to our Expat life with a great dinner party at Kerry & Ty’s, where the main event was admiring their rather voluptuous fridge / freezer, and a party with the McCullochs to celebrate the homecoming of Craig McCulloch! All good fun, but Lyra was suffering with a throat infection and Mum soon followed so we took it easy.

Dad really wanted to try and see some of the wildlife so we made an attempt to get out of the city to head towards the Iraqi border, where we had read about a great farm with a lot of birdlife. Sadly all roads out of the city seemed to be blocked as it was the route many dignitaries were taking to go to the celebrations. Never mind, we still managed to get out on to the Jahra Penninsula and saw Flamingo’s, crabs, plus some very odd air breathing guppy type fish!!

All to soon though it was time to go back to work, Ly took Mum and Dad to the Kuwait towers and the Souk’s but then it was time for them to head home too.  A memorable trip it certainly was, one that will stay with us for a long time!

So as we took a few days out to recover from what was a busy month, I will give the keyboard a rest and sign off.

Hope you enjoyed our adventure, we certainly did. Log in again soon for another , long, but full update from The Roasted Culvey’s!!

Love, 

Dan, Ly, Indi, & Kai

xxxx