NicoleB's blog/

5 a.m. in the morning. An empty public beach in Kuwait. I'm walking along with my dogs, looking for a place to throw some plastic bottles for them. They love to swim and to retrieve.

I see a Kuwaiti family arrive and decide to move up the beach a bit further. When I turn around again, the family is out of the car and I see one of the women shoeing me away with her hand. I look again and she still does it. No mistaking.

That was a bit too much for me at 5 a.m. with only one coffee. Usually I try to stay calm, but this time I yelled at her and asked, what her problem is. I was already on the move! "No problem, no problem, all off a sudden very nice, quiet and friendly.

To tell you the truth this attitude here starts getting on my nerves. It seems that whatever the Original country is people come from, most turn into greedy, unfriendly people here. They try to cheat you and rip you off. And yes, as a woman it's even worse, because most man think you are an easy prey and they are prince sugar Daddy.

Wake up Kuwait and get civilized!

(Sorry to all the nice people I met here. They are here and you are the ones that hold up my spirits here! Just had to get it out, now I feel better And no, it was not this family)

Just to clarify: When I go to a foreign country, I try to understand and respect the way the people live there. I don't have to like it, but I try to be polite about it.

At least until the moment people treat me like shit for no apparent reason. I don't like that. Nowhere.

And it just seems to be so common here. People just starta hacking order. You are not Kuwaiti, you are worth less, you are not at least a housemaid, you are less, you only pick up trash, you are at the bottom hole.

Correct me, if I'm wrong. No problem with that.....

Habe ich doch insgesamt 600 photos in Korea mit geotag versehen,....Hoppla .....

Ich bin mal wieder dabei, alte Anekdoten von meinen alten blogs zu sammeln und bei meinem Heiss geliebten wordpress blog einzustellen (damit ich die alten irgendwann mal loeschen kann).

Dabei bin ich ueber eine nette Korea Anekdote gestolpert:

Du musst, Nov. 2004

Du musst Kinder haben, um gluecklich zu sein! Muss ich? Nein, muss ich nicht. Meinte jedoch der nette Mann hinter dem Tresen in der Buecherei in der Kaserne. Nun schon zum zweiten Mal. “Haben Sie Kinder?” “Nein” “Warum nicht” “Moechte ich nicht” “Muessen Sie aber, machen gluecklich!” Muss ich dem Mann unser Zigeunerleben erklaeren? Nein, muss ich nicht. Muss ich ihm erklaeren, dass ich wirklich kein Beduerfnis nach Kinder bekommen habe? Nein, muss ich auch nicht. Habe ihm gesagt, dass ich zwei Kinder habe, sitzen angeleint am Baum. Grins Das war uebrigens derselbe, der meinen blauen Nagellack vor ein paar Monaten so scheusslich fand. Sagt der mir das doch glatt ins Gesicht. Da kennen die ja nix hier

Schoen, oder? ;)

End of this months we have to go to Bahrain (or somewhere else). At least I have to. Just out of the country, so I get a new Visa for the next three months when I reentry Kuwait.

Usually not a big thing, I just have to find a place for the dogs, somehow get them there and back, get the tickets and a room. That's it. Plain and easy? Yes, usually.

I've started on Sunday. Weekend here is (at least for now) still Thursday and Friday. So Saturday and Sunday are "normal" workdays. Normal in this case means from 10 a.m. (in some cases even already from 9) - 1 p.m. and from 4 p.m. to I don't know. Trying to reach someone at any other time is wasting time.

So I managed to book our flights on Sunday and already pay them, Hotel was on hold, but I got the confirmation yesterday and wanted to pay today. After already not being very successfull to arrange Kennel and Visa thing, I expected the worst in the travel aganecy.

And boy, was I right. Not only did the two people ahead of me at "my" counter take 45 minutes, no, when I decided to go to the bank in between and came back "my" guy just left for "5" minutes. Well, 5 Kuwaiti minutes, which means 15 minutes.

At the other desk was a Kuwaiti couple, she all vailed and he in his "suit" (that's when they wear that white dress with the head thing, that's comparable to suit and tie). Good looking couple, even though I could only see her eyes.

I was wearing a T-Shirt and pants that only covered my knees (everything else was either too hot for today or in the laundry. Man, did I get a look from that Lady. Barely as old as I am, but a look that could tell a whole long story. I kept looking around and smile like I didn't see it and that made her look again and you could tell that she didn't like that I ignored her. She wanted me to see it and get mad. Didn't work, girl :)

Well, after some time "my" guy came back and I could finally pay and get the heck out of there. I don't know what that couple booked, but it took them over an hour. They do Credits there too, maybe they ran out of money ;)

At least the taxi drivers didn't give me no hell today, that was a fine thing for once.

OK, I'm trying to stay nice, calm and quiet now.

I told you this morning, that we are getting ready to go to Bahrain at the end of the month, so I get a fresh Visa when we get back.
Right.
I got the travel arrangements out of the way. That was the least pain it seems.

Now, I'm trying since yesterday to reach a company that speeds up the Visa paperwork after landing. If you order their service, they have all the paperwork done for you, when you arrive. Last time I waited (without the service) almost two hours.

We have a nice Flyer from that company. With a phone number and web address.
I tried to call them yesterday evening. No answer.
This morning, a nice Lady told me, that I need to apply for it on the web.
Ok. Sure? Can't I do it on the phone? No. Web. There's an application form.
Fine.
After 20 minutes of research, I finally found something that looked like a contact sheet and had Visa request written in it as well.
I filled it out with my request and my flight details and hey, I got a quick answer back.

Lucky me, I'm now included in their data base and will be updated via their e-Marketer.

More spam and no answer.

That's what I needed today!

Kann mir jemand erklaeren, warum a) Leute im Moment nach Jemen in Urlaub fahren und b) seit Jahren im Asiatischen Bereich Reisewerbung fuer Jemen, den Iran und aehnliche Laender laeuft?

Kurz nach dem Bombenanschlag in Bali kam auf CNN immernoch Werbung fuer Reisen nach Bali.
Bin ich jetzt bloed, oder kapier ich was nicht?

Ich meine ok, richtig gefaehrlich sind sie ja nicht, die Laender. Meine Mutter ist auch kurz nach Bali dorthin zum urlauben, weil's billiger war. Ich meine, mit dem Auto fahren ist ja genauso gefaehrlich. Jeder muss es selber wissen.

Aber Werbung dafuer schalten finde ich wirklich etwas daneben.

---------

Die Tage haben wir auch die erste Bierwerbung im Kuwaitischen Fernsehen gesehen. Antialk. Aber immerhin Bierwebung. Toll....! (*Vorsicht - Ironie!*)

Maybe just another one of my crazy ideas.

You know, wordpress makes some great blogs in my opinion. You can even share one with a bunch of people. So. Here we are. All, or almost all, at different places of the world. With different experiences. Besides that, most of us travel.

Why not share all these experiences like a little wiki for travellers. Open up pages for the continents, sub pages for the countries, etc. for pictures of the country and information. And share stories and funnies in the blog function - with the same categories.

No idea what I'm talking about, but you are interested?

Take a look over here:

worldtravellers.wordpress.com

and drop a line when you care to join :)

To get any idea of what the pages will look like, you can check my Kuwait page:

rainmountain.wordpress.com/kuwait-english-version/

Today is the start of the Kuwaiti weekend.
I usually go down to the beach after hubby leaves to work. That's around 5 a.m. Sometimes people are at the beach. Mainly people fishing or enjoying the sunrise. Some aslo pray.
I usually don't go at the weekends. Too many young boys playing King and trying to impress me, who could be their Mom (never thought, I would ever say that...). Also many families with their kids and like mentioned before, most are afraid of dogs.
This morning I brought my camera, I first forgot  that it's weekend. I hesitated in going to the beach, but then I thought, heck, I'm living here too, so why should I not go to the beach? I planned on leaving the dogs on the leash and just check it out. And nice enough not many people where there. Just one family which greeted me with a smile, they were busy fishing. So I went to the place where there are some rocks and where it's usually empty, took some sunrise beach shots. Snuck some pictures from the family ;) and I even could let the dogs in the water. No plastic bottles to throw though. The beach is still dirty, but a whole lot cleaner than during the days I came here. It seems that collecting the trash has done some sort of good.
On my way back to the house, I passed the family and got some nice smiles. It was a pleasant and nice experience.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Heute ist der Wochenendbeginn in Kuwait.
Normalerweise gehe ich, nachdem Menne auf die Arbeit entschwunden ist, zum Strand. Das ist so um 5. Manchmal sind Leute am Strand. Meisstens sind sie am fischen, den Sonnenaufgang am geniessen oder am beten. Normalerweise gehe ich nicht an den Wochenenden. Zuviele Jugendliche, die den grossen Mann markieren und vesruchen mich zu beeindrucken, ich koennte deren Mutter sein (haette auch nie gedacht, dass ich das mal sagen wuerde). Es sind auch viele Familien mit Kindern dort und die meissten haben Angst vor Hunden.
Heute Morgen habe ich die Kamera mitgenommen und zuerst vergessen, dass Wochenende ist. Ich habe etwas gezoegert, bin dann aber doch zum Strand gegangen, ich lebe ja schliesslich jetzt hier, warum soll ich also nicht zum Strand gehen? Ich habe vorgehabt, die Hunde an der Leine zu lassen, je nachdem wie voll es ist. Und wunderbarerweise waren nur wenige Leute da. Eine Familie, die mit fischen beschaeftigt war und von der ich mit einem Laecheln begruesst wurde. Sie waren alle Mann mit fischen beschaeftigt. Es gibt am Strand ein Plaetzchen mit einigen kleinen Felsen, wo meisstens niemand ist. Dort habe ich einige Sonnenaufgangsbilder geknipst und auch einige von der Familie ;) Ich konnte sogar die Hunde ins Wasser lassen. Allerdings keine Plastikflaschen zum werfen. Der Strand ist um Laengen suaberer, als noch vor zwei Monaten. Er ist zwar noch immer schmutzig, aber irgendwas hat meine Muellsammelei wohl doch bewirkt.
Auf meinem Weg nach Hause bin ich nahe an der Familie vorbeigekommen und habe ein herzliches Laecheln von allen bekommen. Das war einmal eine schoene, nette und zufriedenstellende Erfahrung.

I've been a bit busy over there this morning and I've added some small things in Germany:

worldtravellers.wordpress.com/europe/western-europe/germany/

Just to give you an idea about what my plan is.

You can also write in any other language, I'm sure, we will find someone to translate for us :)

Like the German stuff, some of it is in German right now and will be translated later.

Oh well, drop a note when you want to be part of the project.

With pictures only, with some text, with text only, whatever

Finally I got a new phone - yeah.

My own fault. Hubby told me to get one weeks ago, but I refused. I said that until the old stops working I don't need one.

Well, the old one still works, but sometimes the Loudspeakers are on, without me doing anything, when calls come it, it keeps vibrating (yes, I know what you wanna say...)

Now I got me a nifty little Nokia (6131) with a camera and whatsoever. Now I only have to figure out, how it works and what it can do.

I hate reading manuals.....

And once again I will probably miss a bunch of your comments because of this one page "only" thing

Hope they'll fix that one soon

Meine Mama hat mich gestern zu einem neuen Suchtobjekt verfuehrt.

Einige von Euch kennen die Seite wahrscheinlich schon, ich brauche fuer so etwas immer etwas laenger .

www.wer-kennt-wen.org/index.php

Man soll es nicht fuer moeglich halten, aber auf der Seite kann man tatsaechlich zig verschollene Leute wiederfinden, Nachrichten schicken, chatten, etc. (um Laengen besser, als stay friends z.B.)

Solltet ihr es noch nicht kennen, aber ausprobieren wollen, schickt mir mail addy und Namen fuer eine Einladung. Ohne die gehts nicht.

So, weitersuchen...........

Today I gotta write a resume. Great. Haven't done one in ages. And never really had a clue anyway.....

Heute muss ich meinen Lebenslauf tippen. Habe ich schon seit Jahren nicht mehr gemacht. Und hatte ohnehin nie einen Plan davon.....

Come show us some bug porn pictures ~ Lasst uns Euren Kaeferporno sehen ;)

....since a few days I get that message with almost every page I try to load.

They have switched and changed something in our Internet connection and usually I have to restart my computer every time I hook up the Internet line after a break. That starts to annoy me.

Ipernity works this morning, so does gmail without a restart. But any other page is not loading.

Going to the Internet guy will not do me any good either. All he will do is come up here, act like he's doing something and it will stay the same anyway.

Welcome to Kuwait, sigh.....

Today I found the second stray dog in Kuwait. (More Info on the picture)

 

There's a bunch more, cats, dogs, all kinds of animals out there. It's hard to help them, some want to come with you, some don't. The ones that don't, I just let be.

Then again, I don't have a car. Which makes it hard for me, like today to get the dog (or other animal) to the Vet and from there to the shelter. Most people that work as Volunteers in the shelter have a normal day job, so they can't just come and pick the animal up and care for it.

Luckily this one's a female. A male is close to impossible for me to take with me, unless I put one of them (King or the stray) in the dog kennel in the hallway.

What I'm trying to say? I don't know. I just don't know why it seems so hard to do something good. That's probably why many people don't even try to do something. Many people probably are afraid of diseases the animal might carry. Oh well, we live in a nasty environment here anyway, what's the difference. My dogs have all the shots they need to be protected and even if, there's nothing that that animal could have that they couldn't catch up on the road. Correct me, if I'm wrong.

Here's the other poochie that I picked up and that PAWS hopefully took care of (Her story is beneath the picture):

 

The three Baby kittens that went to PAWS (story on the picture site):

 

One cat that I didn't take a picture of.....

And some pictures of the AFL facility where dogs and cats get a second chance:

 

To their homepage: Animal friends league

One cat that lives happily at the beach:

OK, dumb question from someone who doesn't have a clue.

I guess, most of you out there have their own website by now. Many have their own domain.

Any good suggestions?

I love wordpress and I would like to keep that blog. Now I found out that there's for example bluehost.com that offers wordpress auto install and has some other good things, plus isn't overly expensive.

Experience with that one anyone?

I would love to do a blog, photolog (sort of like a portfolio) and maybe get over that travel site I just started.

Well, you can tell, I have no real idea what I want and what it should look like when finished ;)

(I know, Olivia, you offered me the help, but I know that you are busy right now - I don't want to be your excuse of not getting on with your project )

I've just started one at Joolo

Just to test it. OK, so far so good - it doesn't seem to support wordpress though, or I haven't found it yet.

Anyhow, I would just love to figure out, how I can add more pages, but I need to start doing my houswife chores - no way around it

Yeah, instead of doing the housework, I have figured out how the index, etc. works.

Man, that is one complex thing, puh....

I managed to get a rough page together so far.

No idea of how I can get a template, but I still have to check out all the links, I got yesterday ;)

I started on the gallery / portfolio thing and managed two pages, but still have to upload the thumbs, etc. but at least it goes the way I want it to go.

Ipmporting my blog seems not possible. Or at least for now it seems like it, because I'm too stupid .

I have managed to get wordpress installed, but ended up having a new blog there now, which I can't integrate in the site for whatever reasons. Heck, it's the first time I played with MySQL

It is not what I expected, let's put it that way. To get that, I might as well have only linked my blog there and be happy with it .

OK, off to go and hang some Flyers for my Postcard sales and get some pictures printed ..... there's work to be done .

Does anyone know that nice game?

One starts with a picture - the following picture has to have some similar aspects like in the previous one (like if there's a bench on the first picture, you can repeat that or if there a daisies you can post a daisy,....)

Got it?

Who's in?

I start with this one:

Have fun :)