Wind of Change

Listening to the chants of tens of thousands of protestors in Tahrir Square.

It’s happening now.

Naked Chef

A naked  Gino D’Acampo cooked a saucy and creamy gammon dish with peas on This Morning (UK ITV channel)  in fulfillment of a promise he made to cook in the nude if the show won in the National Television awards.

Imagine one of our local TV chef celebrities doing the same!

 

 

 

A Biologist’s Mother’s Day Song

Dedicated to mom and Thursday lunches

 

Give your mom a hug today

 

Inquilab Zindabad

Inquilab Zindabad is a borrowed Hindi phrase meaning “Long live revolution!”

Political unrest and turmoil have characterized this period and it makes me wonder if events happen in cycles or if there is a point at which people can no longer accept life the way it is and begin to see the benefit of working together as a group. There is power in groups. There is power in people working together towards a set of goals or purposes.

I love the weather today. The wind blew mercilessly, making the trees in my garden bend over, not in submission but in a gesture that says: “Wherever the wind blows..”

Garden Cat is curled up on the new furry bed I bought it as a treat. Everyone, even animals and plants love treats. And the more you give, willingly, the more you get. Sounds trite, but hopefully it is true. And truly there is more than enough to go around.

One one of those days that are not too bright, where one asks for Grace and guidance, I was twice approached by men, asking me to help. The first incident happened as I pulled out of my drive way. An aged man seemed to appear out of nowhere and came up to my window. He asked for help, listing his ailments, and his life problems. I apologized. I had no cash on me. I asked if he would wait until I returned. He agreed. Then he asked me if he could sit inside my garden and wait. Taken aback, my trust could only go so far, I refused his request and drove off.

Meanwhile, I was doing my weekly shopping, my basket practically overflowing with household needs. Along the rice aisle, an uniformed worker approached me to read the price on the packet of rice in his hands. On telling him, he asked me if there was a packet for 500 fils, as that is all he could afford. I scoured the rice aisle and found none for that price.  And then without further thought, I pulled out some money and told him to buy what he needed.

When I arrived back home, I was mildly surprised that the aged man was still waiting for me after so long. He had squatted close to the drive way and rose in anticipation as I approached. I smiled and commented on his long wait and tucked some money into his hand, wishing him well.

The outpour of  sincere prayers and blessings by this aged man were like much-needed raindrops. I felt my heart physically open up, like a flowering bud. In the moment, and alone after he turned to leave, in the privacy of my own car, I give thanks for all the blessings in our lives and for guidance in times when vision is hazy and hope is all but dissipated.

I’ve not written in a while and sometimes I wish that I were more like George Sand, who wrote prolifically, taking care of house, children and doing all the normal things that people need to do, and who loved well (her famous quote: “There is only one happiness in life, to love and be loved.”). Unfortunately, when there is a lot going on in my life, my thoughts are jammed and get stuck and I long to be able to build something from the fragments that are lying around, waiting to be woven into some story.

Slackistan

Slackistan certainly presents a different picture of Pakistan than the one perpetuated in the media:

According to the Pakistani media, this film will not be released in Pakistan due to conflicting views on censorship. The film was rated 18+ by the Central Board of Film Censors (CBFC) in Pakistan even with the required cuts so Slackistan director Hammad Khan has opted against the release.

I wonder if we will get to see it in Kuwait?

How I love you

singular moments

of intense pleasure

of waking up in the morning

and feeling simply

- happy -

- at peace -

and momentarily

forgetting

all the piles of laundry;

stretching my arms upwards

in the bath

and remembering

with an easy smile

how our union

over space

creates vibrations

that resound

way past

sunrise.

Do the Locomotion

I think the reaction of the onlookers is more amusing than the public sex.Listen to the Locomotion song since it is sex on a train.

sex on train, posted with vodpod

 

Auction!

What do these four men have in common?

Gautam Gambhir

Yusuf Pathan

Robin Uthappa

Rohit Sharma

Glam Mum & Hot Dad

Do you dress up for the school run? (For non-parents – the majority of my blog readers I believe -that means taking and picking up your kids from school)

I found this article quite amusing never having really put much thought into the details it suggests:

School gate rivalry of the Unfeasibly Glamorous Mums: Which parent stereotype do you fit into?

The article starts off with this paragraph:

“Playgrounds are hotbeds of competitiveness, cliques and petty jealousies – and that’s just among the mothers.” 

Does this happen in Kuwait I wonder?
I wish I had some photos of the local playground scene.

I wonder how many parents who do the school run actually brush their teeth and dress up reasonably and which parent category would you cast yourself into?

Image link

Amusing Mumsnet discussion on this topic.

Do as the Doukhobors do

Do as the Doukhobors do

There’s a new tactic to use, my dear,
If you have a protest no one wants to hear,
Just attend a rally where the big shots meet
Strip to your hide and walk down the street.
Way up in Canada, Doukhobor lads
Were sent to public schools disapproved of by their dads,
So the Doukhobor mamas said “That’s enough”
And they went to the meeting in the buff.

Chorus:
Do as the Doukhobors do, honey,
Do as the Doukhobors do.
If public policy gets on your nerves
And no one pays attention to you
Throw away your dresses and your lingerie too,
And do as the Doukhobors do.

Our women hold meetings to stop atom tests,
They’re not afraid of billy clubs, cops and arrests,
They sign those petitions ’til they’re sad in the face
And still they seem to be getting no place.
They little boat EVERYMAN couldn’t leave port,
Bomb tests continue of every sort
We’ve got to do something that’s wild and new,
And do as the Doukhobors do.

(Chorus)

Of course, down in Cannes on the coast of France,
You’d get no attention minus bras and pants,
If you’d hit the beach in a grin or less,
They’d think you had on last year’s bathing dress.
But up there in Canada at twenty below
People keep covered from head to toe.
Kennedy would send a cup of coffee or two
If we did as the Doukhobors do.

(Chorus)

[ Words and music by Malvina Reynolds; copyright 1962 by author as “The Doukhobor Do.” The Doukhobors are a social sect of Russian Christians who through various repressions have been exiled (or voluntarily moved) to other world locations, including western Canada. This song refers to an incident that took place during a campaign speech by Canada’s Prime Minister John Diefenbaker. Diefenbaker was speaking at Trail, British Columbia, on May 28, 1962, when several Doukhobor women disrobed in public to protest some of his policies that negatively affected the group. This unusual form of protest, though identified with certain elements of the Doukhobor community, is not accepted by most of it.

Fair or not?

A man who found that his wife was cheating on him with her second husband could face up to 5 years on a felony computer misuse charge:

[link]
“Leon Walker, 33, of Rochester Hills, Mich., is being charged with felony computer misuse, and faces up to five years in prison after logging into the email account of now ex-wife Clara Walker on a shared laptop using her password…Is it a fair charge?”

Time Bomb

Kuwaitis make up 35% of the country’s population.

Expatriates comprise a hefty 65% of Kuwait’s population and not all of them are skilled labour or people with rare and necessary fields of specialty.

It’s a ticking time bomb.

I’d like to see people get out in their orange scarves and protest that impending danger.

[Link to new study by Professor Ali A Watfah]

Funicular

running in circles

around nothing

but one funicular

will it take me to the top of the mountain?

or will it be an artificial ski slope

in a shopping mall?

2010 in review

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how Jewaira’s Boudoir did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.

Crunchy numbers

A helper monkey made this abstract painting, inspired by your stats.

The Louvre Museum has 8.5 million visitors per year. This blog was viewed about 78,000 times in 2010.

If it were an exhibit at The Louvre Museum, it would take 3 days for that many people to see it.

In 2010, there were 225 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 1574 posts.

There were 55 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 7mb. That’s about 1 pictures per week.

The busiest day of the year was January 10th with 485 views. The most popular post that day was Yabn El Halal.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were scarletlights.com, Google Reader, decadentwithdesire.blogspot.com, zdistrict.com, and blogger.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for jewaira’s boudoir, jewaira, laurence matheson, muslim sex web, and laurence matheson tombstone.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

1

Yabn El Halal January 2010
14 comments

2

New Kuwait private sector labor laws proposed January 2010
33 comments

3

Non-Kuwaiti: Will he marry me? June 2005
217 comments

4

Islamic Sex web-shops March 2010
13 comments

5

Happy Endings September 2008
25 comments

Keeping up with the Mahmouds

We were talking about older women marrying younger men and how it could really serve to revivify a woman.

Roqaya laughed and said: Have I told you about  the woman in her fifties who married a man in his late thirties?  She was a widow with grown children and it was the man’s first marriage.

Here Roqaya laughed and covered her mouth. “She couldn’t keep up with him! On the honeymoon, he wanted sex three of four times a day. She struggled to keep up. She ended up walking bowlegged but she thought it would all cool down after the honeymoon.  It was not to be though. When they came back and settled into their routine, she found he still wanted to make love every day and at the oddest times when she came back from work or early in the morning. In any case, she wasn’t always in the mood.”

Roqaya adjusted her hijab. “Finally, though, she told him. She said I’m older than you and I’m just not interested in sex so often.”

 

Farah & the New Year

“How are you?! Oh, and I thought you had gone to Lebanon for the holidays?” exclaimed Jamila with a big smile.

Farah rolled her eyes upwards and pouted: “No, it’s only Mahmoud. He’s gone with friends for the New Year.”

Her sister-in-law Jamila tried to console her with the usual “men are like that” and other commiserations but Farah’s eyes just welled up with tears she fought to restrain.

Later Jamila told Aisha the story of how Mahmoud went on his own to Lebanon for the  New Year’s holiday leaving poor Farah behind.

Aisha just laughed and said: “What’s Farah worried about? At his age, it would take him ages to get it up much less do anything with any other woman. Let him go for a change of scene and let her rest assured he won’t be able to physically get up to much mischief.”

I imagined Mahmoud in that pitiful state and chuckled . But then I warned the ladies: “Ah, but you never know the effect of another woman on him. He might become another person.”

Jamila agreed: “Mmm, I suppose if he took some pills he could…”

Aisha hushed us. “Don’t get Farah all worked up again.”