2010

Another mountain in a chain of  rugged peaks to ascend and cross. Looking back, there are more peaks than my eyes can assimilate into one glance. Looking forward, the mist blankets the view with an airy gauze, somewhat alluring, and often a cause of apprehension.

Better to look down at my path for the moment and savour the moments. No time like the present regardless of the level of happiness or the depths of despair.

If joy could be bottled, then I would purchase a few and ask you to hold up your flutes to be filled to the brim. I would sprinkle them along the colorful tulips in your garden. I have visions of you dancing amongst wildflowers, capturing laughter with butterfuly nets. Heady scents.

I make no sense with my head buried in fantasies, do I?

I am happy to write to the sound of rumbling thunder on the last day of 2009. In this arid land, rain is cause for celebration, and an auspicious begining to a new year, and fresh beginnings.

Fill my cup to the brim.

Love, happiness and joy are free and fully exchangeable between fellow earthlings, so share and share alike.

Happy New Year

Fear & Disdain

“Don’t look into her eyes!”

You screech in a voice that is a mixture of terror and disgust, warning the children to stay away from the hungry feral cat that is slinking up the steps of the wide verandah.

“It is not a black cat, ” I intervene. “It is not the Devil,” I mock. The cat is almost totally black with some patches of white.

You get up and stamp the concrete flooring with your size 37 feet, daring the feline creature to pause and retreat for a moment.

But hunger emboldens the timid and the cat creeps up the steps again.

There is a good sized piece of chicken discarded on a plate someone has finished. I pick it up and offer it to the cat. She latches on to the chunk of meat and rushes off to eat.

“Inshallah she chokes on it!”  you mutter.

I quietly mull over the reason for your vehemence.

The muezzin calls for Maghreb prayers.

Ah!

Ah

I say

If you

don’t

like

it,

lump

it!

Morning encounters with wicked sprites

These days luxury comes in the form of sleeping in, lolling about in bed, waking up, and falling back into a deeply somnolent state. I don’t question my body’s needs. I go with the flow.

But with this hibernation comes a price. In day dreams, there is more chance of coming upon the unkind, uncouth, and unfriendly sprites that lurk within the mind and one wakes up with a feeling of relief and a sense of urgency (most probably a dire need to rush to the loo).

This morning  I was disturbed more than once and during the final phase of the big sleep, I found I had encounters with evil young bitches in my dreams who always seemed to beat me into the toilet.

One slip of a girl, tall, gangly, and almost Gothic, pushed her way into the sole cubicle and whipped out some lipstick while I stood there in my ulta-polite patient presence waiting for her to get the hell out so that I could relieve myself. You can understand if you have ever been in a similar situation. But the girl would not budge. And despite the overwhelming desire to push her, in the dream I was virtually powerless.

Why then did I find myself in an intimate embrace with her, licking her arms, her face and her lips in an attempt to non-verbally disgust her? Was I a dog in the dream? I could not find my tongue to speak a word.

The plan was not a success. She enjoyed the licking, and the attempted sucking of her lips; me full of contempt; she,  flaunting  the bull-headed, narcissistic prerogative of youth. My brazenly sensual and physical approach did not offend her and I found myself waiting again in a queue that was non-existent.

I finally made it to the toilet and yet I found no relief.
Thank goodness.

I woke up thinking of my restrained somnolent state and the amazing control that the ever watchful mind has over body.

When you wake up and your mind is full of subliminal messages

I woke up

one morning

my mind

singing

boisterously

I used to be LoveDrunk

but now it’s all over

and come to think of it

waking up to music

makes me smile.

asylum

Even flies

seek sanctuary

on

my

white walls

Perfect Ending

With so much news that brings us down, it is always heartwarming to hear good news and to read stuff that uplifts us.

I enjoyed this story tonight:

This Love Story Had a Perfect Ending by Deb Gruver

Protected: I saw SoSo kissing Santa Claus [2]

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Protected: Oh, Oh, Oh! It’s Magic![1]

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Kissing

Kissing is an art but sometimes we just get carried away. What is your favourite kissing method and do you have to make a loud noise when you do?

Check out these crazy kissing sounds and choose the smooch of your choice:

respite

respite

.

.

from the overwhelming sluice of emotions;

severing the cord;

undoing the intricate web;

releasing her hold

.

.

on me.

Protected: Intimate blends

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In appreciation of cherry tomatoes & fresh mint leaves from my garden

Now if I had a cow

or a goat for that matter

I could have made homemade

cheese spreads

to accompany the tangy

cherry tomatoes

I grow in my garden

sun ripened on the vine

====

And if I were as industrious as

the Little Red Hen

I could have grown my own wheat

and milled it into flour

rolled it into dough

thrusting it into the warmed oven

and invited you for fresh

homemade sandwiches

along with the strong brewed chai

that steams into the dewy morning air

=====

And if you drop by

please join me

at breakfast

in my garden

surrounded by ruby-red

geraniums

cherubic kitty cats

and bees busy

appreciating the

colorful seasonal array ,

nudging the nascent buds

into blooms.

Obama Dreaming

Funny how my dreams fade as the  day wears on.

In my dreams this morning I was graced with the presence of a very exhausted looking President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle who were on a visit to Kuwait.

Why they were mingling with the plebeian masses and ordinary members of the populus I have no idea. But they looked quite real and ordinary as they sat back on a comfy sofa and looked normal.

When you wake up and think about men

I’m sure that most woman have wished they were men at some point in their lives even for the briefest of moments. Being female is a lot of hard work.  We have to work on our attractive points, enhancing them, sculpting them, and presenting them in the most pleasing (as we see it) manner.

But there are women who have it all seemingly effortlessly, you may say. Yes, those women fall into two categories. The first type are born naturally gorgeous and this type attracts envy, hate, and bad vibes from those jeaolous people surrounding them. Those types also end up with overprotective partners who turn them into depressed, insecure women.  The second type may not be born naturally gorgeous but are surrounded by a team of make up artists, fashion consultants, and life coaches. Those fall into the media and famous people category. Have you ever seen a famous woman who has not had a makeover? Of course not. Even new celebrities like Susan Boyle were not allowed to keep their charming natural look. After her first success on the talent show, she was whisked off for a “new look”, her trademark eyebrows mowed into shape.

No.  Most women really have to work at it and sometimes we wake up feeling like a truck ran over us during the night.

Do men have bad hair days? Of course not. Even if they complain their hair is unmanageable, the public looks upon the dishevelled, mussy look as sexy out-of-bed-style. If a woman left the house with her hair a wild tangled mess, she would garner comments like “Um Kishah” (how do we translate Kishah into English?) and her curls would be fit more for a bird’s nest than admiration. (Now one can understand the multitudinal benefits of wearing sexy hijab hair scarves).

Do men wake up with puffy eyes? No, of course not. They wake up, shower, and do practically nothing to their faces, and they look dashing. And a sprinkle of cologne is about all they do to add that last touch.

Do men look unattractive with extra facial hair? Of course not. Even if a man wakes up with a five o’clock shadow, it will be seen as a sexy, masculine look. Even if we don’t see it as attractive, the sight of an unkempt male brings out our maternal side and we sympathise with him (hardworking man, no one to look after him, etc…) But if you see a woman with extra facial hair (a stray hair growing stubbornly out of her cheek, or the hint of a fine mustache) or eyebrows growing wild from weeks of neglect, we blame her for not caring enough about the way she looks. Will men look at us in a paternal way and want to scoop us up and look after us? Of course not.

Do men suffer from the ravages of hormonal imbalance? Do they even understand what that means? No. At the slightest moodiness erupting from their female partners, they scurry off to their male buddies (or into the arms of a more accomodating, non-hormonally-disrupted female).

Now, how about a piping hot cup of fresh coffee? Sit in the garden with me, and bask in the morning sunshine, watching the birds, bees, and cats.

Making Love, Not War

Whoever said that passion and lust have been affected by all the estrogen in the chicken we eat? Or all the artificial food additives and chemicals in our food?

Wherever I turn, the media is chock full of  gory, salacious accounts of infidelity, passion, and lascivious encounters between members of the oppposite sex ( and now, of same sex encounters). And that’s only part of the whole of what is going on I imagine.

I don’t recall any local people being caught in public sex, unless you count all those “car encounters” we hear about. Still, nothing as outrageous as the couple who had sex in the clock tower in Australia.

======================================

And now a wonderful selection from the esteemed Arab Times crime pages:

Journalists caught committing immoral acts in Managers cabin

KUWAIT CITY, Dec 2: Police have arrested two journalists — a man and a woman — for committing immoral acts inside the office of the manager of the press, reports Al-Dar daily.
According to security sources a Kuwaiti man suspected the behavior of his wife and reportedly caught her red-handed with her lover in a compromising position.
The husband then called the police and handed over the ‘couple’ to the authorities.
It has also been reported the suspect offered to pay the man KD 10,000 to drop the complaint but the offer was rejected.

(What about this couple going at in in a bank filmed by teenagers ?)

Gays caught in car

KUWAIT CITY, Dec 2: Police have arrested a 20-year-old Kuwaiti and a Lebanese gay for committing immoral acts inside a car. They were caught in the parking lot of a commercial complex, reports Alam Alyawm daily.
The ‘lovers’ were arrested at a late evening hour by police patrol from Hawalli.

Sri Lankan maid and her Indian lover caught conducting immoral activities

KUWAIT CITY, Nov 30: A Sri Lankan maid and her Indian lover were arrested for conducting immoral activities in her sponsor’s house in Firdous on Sunday.
The maid’s sponsor — a Kuwaiti citizen in his forties – discovered the two in a compromising position after he entered the house and heard sounds from her room. He immediately called up Operation Room, who sent security officials to the scene. They apprehended the guilty persons and referred them to the authorities. A case was registered.

Sponsor catches Arab expat with his maid ‘in the act’

KUWAIT CITY, Nov 11: Securitymen rushed to the home of a Kuwaiti citizen in Rabiya area, after the Operations Room of the Interior Ministry received a report from the citizen that he noticed an Arab expatriate was with his housemaid inside her room at his house. The culprits were arrested in a compromising situation and referred to the concerned authority.  A case was registered against them.
Meanwhile, securitymen arrested two Bedouns in their 20s, wanted by law for various criminal cases, on Kabad Road Monday evening. Sources said the patrolmen became suspicious of the driver of the vehicle and his companion, and ordered them to stop. A check on their civil IDs uncovered the driver, and his friend, was wanted by law. They were directly referred to the concerned authority.

Wife ‘catches’ husband with maid in bathroom

KUWAIT CITY, Dec 12 : Police officials rushed to a home in Abu Halifa after receiving a call from a woman informing them about her husband involved in indecent activities with their Indonesian housemaid in the bathroom, reports Al-Rai daily.
The wife reportedly returned home unexpectedly to find her husband, an Egyptian who works as a computer engineer, engaged in immoral acts with the maid. The man and the maid were arrested and referred to the authorities for further action.

Egyptian man and Filipino maid caught for immoral acts in car

KUWAIT CITY, Dec 12 : An Egyptian man and a Filipino housemaid were arrested for engaging in immoral acts in a car parked on an open ground in Hawally, reports Al-Anba daily.
The Egyptian tried to flee from the scene with the car upon spotting security officials approaching the vehicle, but failed. The couple was referred to the authorities and a case was registered.

Selfish

Having a baby is one of the most rewarding experiences in life. But what if a woman can’t conceive for whatever reason and still wants a baby? Does the end justify the means?

It seems selfish and a dangerous precedent. From Arab Times

Egyptian, Filipina arrested for selling baby to sterile woman

KUWAIT CITY, Dec 12: An Egyptian man and a Filipina woman were arrested for selling their baby to a sterile Kuwaiti woman for KD 1,500, reports Al-Watan Arabic daily.
According to a police source, this case is the first of its kind in Kuwait. He did not, however, deny the occurrence of human trade in the country. The source said police officials received information about the Kuwaiti who bought the baby and kept her in her home in Salwa.
Upon being questioned, the woman revealed the details of the incident and led the officials to the Egyptian, who admitted that the baby belonged to him and was conceived as a result of illegal sexual relations with the Filipino woman. He also guided the police to the biological mother’s house in Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh. The officials arrested the woman and also found a girl aged five years in the house.
During interrogation, it was revealed that the older child was a result of sexual relations with another man in Farwaniya. It was also discovered that the delivery was done by an Asian midwife, known for delivering children for Kuwaiti and expatriate women. She was arrested and referred to the authorities.
The source added that the Egyptian man and the midwife were found to be wanted by law on previous charges, while the Filipino woman had been reported as absconding.
While the three arrested persons await legal action, the baby has been transferred to a social care home and a case has been registered.

In moderation, please

I got a bit nauseaous after looking at this page for longer than necessary:

Warning

Are you a Mahmoud?

From Urban Dictionary: A definition of Hot Arab Men

Hot Arab Men

Extremely attractive Middle Eastern men that are tall, dark and handsome. Likely named Mahmoud.

Sexy men with a lot of appeal.

Men that are very easy to fall in love with.

“Did you meet that Mahmoud down the street? Wow! That was one of those hot Arab men. I am so in love with him.”

Red Label

I drove past a carton that was lying on the side of the street.
The words Red Label flashed before me as I made the turn onto the main road.

I paused momentarily, wondering if I should go back and check…check the label again…check to see if the carton contained anything, anything to satisfy my curiousity.
But I drove on.
This morning I woke up and realized how one can easily misinterpret what one sees briefly and develop a whole scenario around it.

What I thought was Red Label whiskey may well have been Red Label tea.