NicoleB's blog/

Getting up at 4 a.m. 6 days a week starts to kick ass.
I'm tired and I wanna sleep all day.
But I have work to do.
Upload pictures and visit all you folks out there, send emails, prepare pictures for Sale,...., ouh, almost forgot the housework and the doggies ;)

This morning's no difference. I already made breakfast for hubby.
We already have been at the beach and let me tell you, it is getting COLD in the mornings. Tomorrow I'll have to take my new light jacket. My back couldn't take this for long.
And I had my first encounter for the day with Expat women.
For some reason when I meet them on the street it is always utterly strange. They can barely manage to say "Hello", after I have greeted them first. Some don't at all.
Is it this country that makes them act that way or is it me?
I really start to wonder.... :(

Today I'll go to a  "Red Bull Flugtag" at the Marina Waves. People will fly with their selfmade planes across the Marina, that'll be fun to watch.

Well, I wish you all a very exiting day with good weather. Stay safe :) !

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Dieses Morgens um 4 aufstehen, 6 Tage die Woche, wird langsam reichlich anstrengend. Ich moechte nur noch schlafen, den ganzen Tag.
Aber ich hab ja Arbeit zu erledigen. Bilder hochladen, Euch da draussen besuchen und auf dem Laufenden halten, Bilder zum Verkauf vorbereiten,..., oups, fast haette ich vergessen, die Hausarbeit erledigen und achja, Hunde hab ich ja auch noch ;)

Heute Morgen ist da keine Ausnahme. Ich habe schon Fruehstueck fuer den Menne gemacht. Wir waren am Strand, und holla, es wird wirklich kalt! Morgen frueh gehe ich mit meiner neuen Windjacke, ohne geht's nicht mehr, da macht mein Ruecken nicht mit.
Und ich hatte meine erste Begegnung fuer heute mit Expat-Frauen.
Wieder einmal kam nur ein spaerliches "Hallo" nachdem ich gegruesst habe.
Was ist los mit denen? Egal, wann und wo ich welchen auf der Strasse begene, kommt entweder gar nichts oder nur ein knappes "Hallo".
Ist es dieses Land oder bin ich es?
Langsam fange ich echt an, mich zu wundern... :(

Heute gehe ich zum "Red Bull Flugtag" an den Marina Waves.
Da werden Leute mit selbstgemachten Fliegern versuchen moeglichst weit uebers Hafenbecken zu fliegen. Das wird bestimmt spassig!

Ich wuensche Euch allen einen wunderschoenen Tag mit gutem Wetter. Bleibt gesund!

Is pretty much what I do lately. Wonder how things work in this place. Wonder why not everything just falls apart ;) Things work quite different here than anywhere else. Must be with so many mixed cultures. There are 2 million Expatriates here and 1 million Kuwaitis. I mean, take for example all the lowly paid workers, I'm not talking about the guys that take your trash or drive the taxi, I mean the ones that clean the malls and keep the toilets tidy.

Thursday, we were having a coffee at Al Kout mall. Outside of the Sultan Center. There's trash laying around on the floor (a rare sight), one of those cleaners leaning against the wall, chitchatting with another guy. The he started , no not, getting the trash, he started, splashing water on the ground, little dips, and scrubbing it a bit with a broom. He did that for a few minutes, then went This is a short Video of it, but wordpress seems to have Issues now with my Videos hosted on Ipernity as well :(

Or yesterday, a cleaning lady in of the public mall toilets (I'm not going to say which one, because she's a nice and sweet lady), was laying on top of the hand wash basins, deep asleep.

And talking to one young guy in a Sports shop about people in general here and work, etc., he told me that he actually had a job in the Scientific Center to feed the animals and do stuff there, but his work Visa got transferred to this job, selling sports clothes and shoes.

And you wonder why you get a shitty service here? Having people work in jobs, they a) absolutely didn't want and b) where they have no freaking clue what the hell they are doing?! He didn't have a clue about running shoes.

The last experience really got me thinking. I mean, I know that most people are here, because the money is better than at home. No matter who you take. But Westerners at least can choose their job. Or work in what they have learned to do. Here it seems that they a) just get put in ANY job AND are paid quite shitty.

I am used to the country of no havy, which was Korea.

Going into a shop, looking for a certain product you often got the answer “No havy”.
Getting deeper into the subject you sometimes managed to get the employee check for you at another shop of that chain, if they have the product. But most times you just go with “No havy”.

Now I live in the country of “Tomorrow never comes”. The standard answer for an unavailable product is “tomorrow”.
But going there the next day just leaves you empty handed with another “tomorrow”.

Which never comes.

I was never really a handbag girl and I still don't care about them too much.

But being in Kuwait AND going to the Friday market will change almost every girls mind about handbags.

I think, for now I DO have enough handbags though, cough cough......

You really can get good deals there though. I got two real leather ones and finally big enough t get all my camera stuff in there. Nice. So I don't have to run around no more with my backpack, shudder.

Do I get stylish?

Oh my....!

I'm in Kuwait too long :P

Yesterdays news in the Arab Times leaves me with mixed emotions.

KOC (Kuwait Oil Company) organized a beach clean up at Abu Halifa Beach. The Kuwait Autism Center and a number of special needs schools participated in the exercise and it was supervised by KOC and the UAE diving society. The event was held simultaneously in the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman as well. It will be held once a year.

You have Litterbugs all over the world. But I rarely see a beach for example where people just leave all their fast food bags and other Leftovers only because there's a trash guy paid to pick trash up.

Btw. I have never seen a beach without trash cans or containers either. Mainly it gets collected in a big hole in the ground and either burned or picked up later. The small beaches like in Mangaf simply don't have trash cans.

Or I have not seen it that at a construction site all kinds of trash just piles up. And I mean PILE UP when I say that.

Don't get me wrong, I wholeheartedly support cleaning activities like the one from KOC, but there needs something to get rolling. The mind frame of people needs to be changed. It will not work with fines. We all know how that works here in Kuwait.

So, how will we be able to do this? Honestly I have no idea. I'll probably keep cleaning up "my" part of the beach once a week and try to live with the rest?

Any ideas welcome.

Today I've sent an email to team Ipernity.

For one about the Issue about my double comments and second about the Issue with Pixrat.com

Here's the email:

Hello there,

two things that are bugging me:

1. I have the issue that after posting a comment it sometimes shows up double. I have this now on and off since around two months.

No big deal, just to let you know.

2. I'm sure someone (or a bunch of people) might have contacted you already about a site called Pixrat?

pixrat.ibibo.com

They are "using" pictures from Ipernity users. They have two of mine, which are and have been "All rights reserved". The backlink is proper, it leads back to my page.

I just don't know if they do this with your guys permission.

Thanks, Nicole

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Does anyone know the deeper purpose of Pixrat???

Is it possible that this is just something similar to "dig it" ???

Update:

Team Ipernity is already looking into this!

I just did it. I got me an account with hostmonster (yes, I know, same owner as Bluehost, just cheaper ;)) and a lot more toys for your value.

I still don't know if I really "NEED" it, but it's nagging me since so long and one day I have to get my lazy butt going and DO IT, no? ;) Now, setting the domain name free will take up to two days and it will take me AT LEAST that long to get something going there and get anything up anyway.

Another way to spend my time.....

Fuer die Stunden, die ich reingesteckt habe, habe ich nocht nicht viel vorzuweisen, aber ich arbeite dran :)

Ich versuche alles selber zu machen, dann kapier ich wenigstens auch, was ich da mache, aber das DAUERT.....

Seid nicht zu hart zu mir ;)

www.nicoleb.org

Don't be to harsh to me, there's not much there yet, but I do everything from scratch so I know (maybe) one day what the heck I'm doing ;)

OK,ok, a "bit" late, but here is part 2 from our Bahrain tour in October (and yes, there will be at least one more part ;) )

This time when we arrived at the airport, we didn't forget to pick up our luggage, but when we got out of the airport there was Noone to pick us up either. A few Phone calls and 20 minutes later the guy from the Novotel Al-Dana Resort picked us up. Better late then never ;). We had a pleasant and quick ride to the Hotel, a quick Check-In and a beautiful room to rest in. (Not my Best pictures ever...oh well.... ;) )

Once again we had a great view to the little Hotel beach and the ocean (well, and the Fish restaurant at the other side, but that didn't bug me).

Beach with Bar (where I had an interesting conversation with a Hotel employee who was running around with a neat Nikon D40 I think. He was shooting for the Hotel brochure, but didn't really have a clue and asked ME for Tips, grin...... )

The Hotel areal is gorgeous. Entrance

A beautiful Pool area, lots of flowers, a big Fitness Center, good Restaurants & two Bars (one at the Beach and one at the Pool), friendly staff (a little understaffed though, especially during breakfast times, coughcough). We had a great time though :). Met a lot of interesting people as well. Saudis and Kuwaitis mainly. Interesting conversations as well.

This one's early morning Saturday at the Hotel beach

Views from the back of our Hotel

Golden bridge It was early morning and humid - the original shot was pretty grey, so I played a bit ;)