Round Door

Loved that door! Cesare Paciotti luxury brand for shoes, bags, belts, eyewear, jewels.

Just a street

This is the pic of a street in a place called Abu Halifa. Abu means "Dad", so I guess that means Father of Halifa.

The Number Game

New design car plates have been introduced in Kuwait and these old ones were lying outside the Hawally Office (where we go to transfer our cars to a new owner or renew the car papers yearly after it has been passed by the inspectors.)

Peeping Toms??

Unfortunately, I was not in Kuwait and so couldn't add pics. Thank you all for your comments and best wishes.

These are the window cleaners outside my 9th floor office window. Not a job for you if you have Vertigo.

... And not related to the window cleaners, here's my poppet, all of 5 months old!


She's as cute as her Maama! Really! ;-)

The reason for my absence.

Welcome to this world Baby Olivia Dulcett, born on Jan 10th. I hope to get back to blogging, in serious, some time in April. Miss you all!

New Building

This is the building you can see from the other side of the Plane Bridge that I had posted on Jan 9th. Kerri thought it's the air traffic controller building :-). It's just a building with shops on the ground floor and offices above.

Port Building

The Shuwaikh Sea Port building. Although it was just 4:30 p.m., it was getting dark pretty fast. Had to cut short our walk as it started raining too. The rainy season in Kuwait is December, January and February.

Goodbye old building

Many buildings in the city are being demolished to make way for new, fancy sky scrapers. This is one building I chanced upon. Can still see clothes drying in a couple of flats which means the entire building is not empty yet.

Plane Bridge

On my way to work, there's this footbridge that looks like the body of an airplane. (Stretched airplane) :-) Looks that way to me atleast. What do you think?

Sale

I didn't see a single customer in the shop!!

Kd.20

Kuwait's money is the Kuwaiti Dinar. (KD). The small change is called, "Fils". (Pronounced, "Fills".) Notes come in denominations of Quarter Kd., Half Kd., One Kd., Five Kd., 10 Kd. and 20 Kd.

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Kd.1 = US$3.66 / GBP 1.86 / Indian Rs. 144

Kuwait is one of the few major capital-exporting countries. i.e. The State has more income at its disposal than it spends, and this surplus money is invested overseas or lent to the international banking sector. (Source : National Economics Encyclopedia)

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My Kuwaiti friend tells me that there is no restriction to the amount of money you bring into Kuwait or take out (even if it's filled in suitcases!!!) Before you try it, please check with official authorities!

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Yes! Yes! We do get our money's worth in Kuwait!!!

Dinner anyone?

It surprised me that a fancy restaurant would advertise with such a basic lamp post ad.

No barbacue

A sign at the beach which states, "No barbacueing". Doesn't stop people from doing it though!

Bread Talk

Bread talk has different types of flavoured bread ... cinnamon, sesame, mango etc. It also sells pastries, cakes, donuts etc. The building houses mostly Westerners and there's 24 hour strict security for this building.

So close

A close-up of one of the spheres of the Kuwait Tower.

Wishing you all a Very Happy & Blessed New Year.

Kuwait Scene

Here's another painting done on a box like room. I had posted one before in October. My Kuwaiti friend tells me, these indeed house Electricity Metres. Like the water dispensers of Kuwait, these paintings too are a standard feature in Kuwait.

Ship at sea

This is the place we go to for our evening walk. It's near the Shuwaikh Port. Chanced upon a cargo ship passing by and clicked a pic with my cousins cell phone.

Learn English

Arabic is the national language and most Arabs don't speak English very well. The Government too works in Arabic. Many offer English learning classes to Arabs and people of all communities who want to learn English.

At the Petrol Pump

Stopped to fill Petrol/Gas. Rarely will you find pumps that are too crowded. Petrol is 0.60 fils per litre. That comes to US$. 0.219 / UK GBP 0.109 / Indian Rs.8.70. Yup! It's pretty cheap in the land of black gold!

Chicken Shop

This is the outside of the Chicken Shop that I had posted yesterday.

Chicken & Duck

The Chicken seller was delighted when I requested he pose for the pic. I also saw a lonely duck among the chickens.

Happy B'day, Baby Jesus

This is the crib of the Holy Family Cathedral, Kuwait.
Happy Christmas to you and your loved ones.

Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday, dear Baby Jesus,
Happy Birthday to you.

Happy Christmas ~ 2007

HAPPY CHRISTMAS, ALL MY ONLINE FRIENDS


Baby Nikita, enjoying her first Christmas Eve

Happy Eid Al-Adhaa

We have 6 days holidays for Eid Al-Adhaa. In India, we call this Eid the, "Bakri Eid", literally meaning, "Goat Eid".

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Celebrated yesterday in Kuwait, this Eid is for the memory of prophet Ibrahim (Abraham to the Christians) who, for the love of God, was willing to sacrifice his son when a voice from heaven stopped him and permitted him to sacrifice a ram instead.

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The feast re-enacts Ibrahim's obedience by sacrificing, usually sheep, but also camels, cows, and goats. The family eats about a third of the meal and donates the rest to the poor.

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Needless to say, Mutton costs a BOMB this week!

Fruit Sellers

This is a summer photograph. Fruit sellers selling mangoes from India in the city. If they see cops coming, they pack up in record time and disappear. This photograph wasn't clicked by me. It was clicked by a visiting consultant in the office. (I've forgotten his name!) If you, Mr. Kuwait-Visitor-who's-name-I-have-forgotten sees this, please email me and I'll credit you for the pic.

All that glitters

Visited the gold souk (market) in the city to buy a small gift for a friend. This huge gold set with a very Indian design caught my eye. It must be costing a bomb. Most probably, a bride to be would buy it.

Mosque

A mosque near the Minstry of Chambers (I had posted yesterday). There are many, many... many,...... many Mosques in Kuwait. Infact every 800 meters you will find a Mosque. Some are really beautiful.

5 times a day the Mosques call the faithful for prayers. When you are new to Kuwait it's very disturbing (especially at 4 am!) but you get used to it evenually.

Al-Tijari is the Commercial Bank of Kuwait. This board tells us if we go left we'll get to a branch of the Commercial Bank.

Ministry of Chambers

The Ministry of Chambers and many private offices are in this building. I don't know what that orange thing sticking out from the top is.

Junior!

Here's another water dispenser that looks like the Water Tanks, a picture of which I had posted on Friday.

Liberation Tower

The Liberation Tower is the tallest structure in Kuwait and the 10th tallest tower in the world.

Construction of the tower commenced before the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and construction resumed after Saddam's forces were expelled. Upon completion in 1993, the tower was renamed the Liberation Tower, symbolizing Kuwait's liberation from Iraq.

The tower contains a revolving restaurant and observation platform (in the first disc-shaped pod; now closed to the public for security reasons), and also houses radio and other telecommunications offices. The structure stands at 1,221 ft at its pinnacle.

Kuwait City

This is Kuwait City.

X'mas fun for kids

Little children (6 to 8 year olds) presented a cultural program on the occassion of Christmas in the Catholic Church, Kuwait. That's Mother Mary in blue and St. Joseph in brown. Cute, aren't they?


His Lordship, Bishop Camillo Ballin, MCCJ, the Bishop of Kuwait, wishing 8 year olds at the Christmas Cultural Program held for them.

Water tanks

Water tanks in Kuwait. Clicked on a mobile phone. Driving at 100 kmph, a little difficult to juggle the steering wheel and the mobile phone! At night, blue lights light them up. There are many like this all over Kuwait.

Kitty, kitty coming

Master of all I survey! Kuwait is filled with cats. You will rarely, if never, see a dog, but you will always see a few stray cats checking you out.

Tiny black dots

Look! Look! Those tiny black dots are actually sheep.

Microsoft Error

This is a government building with a big electronic board on it that used to show us the temperature. It now shows us the total electric & water consumption of Kuwait, updated constantly. But, look! Microsoft did it's thing here too! Heh! Heh! They did solve it in 5 minutes, but I was lucky I chanced upon it to click it.

3 horses

There were 3 horses in the Chalet. We couldn't ride them and were too afraid to pet them. The white one, the caretaker told us, is quite crazy. Yet, he looked saner than my ex-boss. (That's another blog post in itself!)


When I aimed to click this pic, he stomped his feet, swished his tail at a frantic pace, and flared his nostrils (in this instance, the horse, not the ex-boss. The similarities, though, were astounding!). Quite rude of him to show me his behind. Obviously I'm not his type! Methinks he needs a training course on how to treat a dishy lady (if I say so myself!) with a camera!

To eat or not!

On the way to the Chalet, we came across these boards. My Kuwaiti friend explained that the green area is allowed for the camels to graze and it is not allowed in the red area. I guess they may have put green and red boards or flags around. I'm not sure. We see a lot of cows on Indian roads but it's really fascinating to see camels, with that proud and mighty smirk on their faces, grazing like the world belonged to them!

Well, do you know why camels have that proud look? My brother once told me, that it is said, Allah has 100 names but man knows only 99. The camel, it seems knows the 100th name. That's why that superior, know-it-all look!

Portico

This is the portico of the Chalet (I had posted yesterday). It was pleasant sitting there in the morning with a hot cup of coffee. The air was pretty nippy. This portico is an extension of the living room.


This is the path to the right of the portico leading to the beach. The guy is the caretaker of the Chalet. He had 4 or 5 cats constantly following him.