Day 84 - Wednesday 30 November
We had our ukulele group this morning, along wth coffee and scones. Caroline, Naomi and I worked through songs we're planning to do on Saturday at the first Kuwait Ukulele Orchestra rehearsal.
Then up to the city centre, through dreadful mad traffic, to the Emirates Tower to buy tickets for Zoila to come here next week, and for Lenny and myself to go to Singapore for 5 days and then onto Brisbane and Byron for 2 weeks.
Day 85 - Thursday 1 December
More furniture was delivered this morning, mainly for Zoila's room, which I am readying for her imminent arrival.
In the afternoon, Lenny and I were picked up by Emam and her kids, as well as her brother Ahmed. We went to 360 Mall, one of the huge malls in Kuwait, and headed for Infunity, a play area for kids. Lenny and Maneer get on so well, and they ran off together to play for hours. Emam and I went shopping for a dress for me to wear to the TES ball on Friday night at the British Embassy. Emam, was great to shop with, despite my rather pathetic budget, and we found some wonderful things. I ended buying a beautiful emerald green dress from Mango, and Emam found me some lovely earrings. I will be going shopping with her again, she knows what she's doing!
Here are the kids, looking pretty cool, drinking juice from Boostjuice.
Day 86 - Friday 2 December
First thing in the morning I went to visit a new friend from Bosnia, Stela. She and her husband work for the United Nations here in Kuwait, and she has lived in some amazing places. They've lived here for 4 or 5 years. She's great fun, I really enjoy her company - certainly a woman who speaks her mind.
Then Michael, Lenny and I drove to the airport to check whether we could organise a Hala (welcome) service for Zoila when she arrives. This Hala service is a great idea, and I wish I'd known about it when I first came here. We will be organising it when my parents come to visit - basically it means that someone meets you off the plane, takes you through immigration, fills our all the necessary forms and pays for the visas, takes you to the luggage pickup and all the way out to the exit. For an extra fee you can even organise flowers! It's nice, and takes the stress and fear out of the arrival process.
Unfortunately, this service is not available for domestic workers. It is times like this that I realise once again the power that we (Western) expats particularly, wield in the world, and very often take completely for granted. We were directed to a counter downstairs, manned by a rather grim looking woman with massive tattoed eyebrows, who spoke no english. There, next to her, were several rows of women, obviously just in from various parts of the world to work as domestic workers probably - most likely brought in by agencies. I believe they are taken to a hotel where they are processed, and we tried to explain to the woman that we wanted to bring Zoila straight home with us. I really dont think she understood us at all. Anyway, the women upstairs at the Hala service told us to bring a copy of Zoila's visa before the plane arrives and take it to this counter. Somebody will meet Zoila and I assume she will be brought to this place once she has gone through immigration. Needless to say, I am rather nervous about it all, and I am actualy writing this blog knowing that Zoila won't see it before she leaves Singapore, because she is on her way to the airport as I write (Sunday night). I am just hoping and praying that it all goes smoothly for her. And ofcourse she is bringing our cat, as excess baggage, which is an extra stress. She arrives tomorrow at 8.30am. I will let you know how it all goes!
Then at night we went to the TES ball at the Brit Embassy. It was an outside dinner, and it was ab-so-lu-tely freezing. I had on my lovely dress, and nice strappy high heeled shoes which sank into the ground, and I was terribly cold. And it was dark, so noone could see my nice clothes anyway! But it was beautiful - the tables were done up beautifully, the food was great, and we were able to have a couple of glasses of champagne which was such a treat.
Day 87 - Saturday 3 December
Today was our first Kuwait Ukulele Orchestra rehearsal. 5 people turned up - Mike, Elie, Caroline, Lionel and me - and it was great fun! Elie has an amazing singing voice - obviously a born performer and a lovely ukulele player. He is very confident and musical. But everyone sang - and we messed about with strumming patterns to make the songs a bit more interesting. We are all keen, and there are still another 2 or 3 people interested, so I think it's a pretty good start.
Here is a little bit that I recorded - it's Lionel singing and whistling a most gorgeous song called Chupee.
Cocoon - Chupee Ukulele Song - KUO
And here we are!!
Day 88 - Sunday 4 December
Waiting for Zoila, nervously. I rang Karen the cat woman here in Kuwait, who organised the import permit for Ramona, just to check that we'd done everything necessary. Ramona is travelling with Zoila as excess baggage, and Karen asked me whether she had checked that it was going to be OK with the airlines - otherwise poor old Ramona would be travelling as cargo which means a 36 hour wait in Dubai. So I rang Zoila to check, and ofcourse she's been brilliant - checked in, paid for the cat - another $240 or so - and just waiting now for the flight to board. SHe said Ramona looks fine - we havent seen her for 3 months. ZOila sounded good - confident and ready to embark on this adventure. Let's hope it all goes smoothly once she arrives......
I am just off to a classical music concert - piano, violin and soprano - conveniently just over the road at the Radisson Hotel. I hope the music will calm me down so I can sleep and not lie awake worrying about Zoila and Ramona the cat!
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