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Sunday, November 20, 2005 - (see all news for this day)
housebound - 04:55 PM
(filed under 'bahrain')
i've been feeling a bit housebound since smiley & i arrived in bahrain. i think he is, too, because he's been naughtier than he usually is, which is not much at all. perhaps he needs some adjustment time as well, or perhaps he's got a touch of the same cold that i have. he has been coughing & sneezing a bit. maybe it's a combination of everything.
i guess there are a few reasons for me feeling housebound: no car, not getting out & about, not enough windows, no outdoors, no trees, possibly even no familiar tv. i'll cover each one in more detail if you care to read more.
we only have one car. i have my international drivers license, but it has to be stamped by the rental car company. shroom was taking care of that today. mind you, what with jet lag & then this cold, my head hasn't really been in the right state of mind to be driving in a strange country on the wrong side of the road with really aggressive drivers all around me. once i'm officially allowed to drive the car & i'm feeling better, then i'll simply drive shroom into work & then pick him up at the end of the day to allow me to have the car & go & do something.
we have been out & about once, to someones house for a bbq dinner, which was very nice in regard to the social aspect & the yummy food. one of shroom's workmates invited us to his place along with a few other people. they have a daughter around about my age who has recently moved to bahrain with her two year old little girl. she invited me to come around next weekend (the weekend here is on thursday & friday) to take smiley for a swim with her little girl, madeline. i hope i'm over my cold soon, because i'd love to do that. smiley would really enjoy it, too.
i've walked to the shops a few times, at least once every day, but i've not really been able to explore & have felt a bit nervous about doing anything which might be wrong, culturally speaking. i think the jet lag & then the cold have been making my head rather fuzzy though, so once that's all cleared up i guess maybe i'll be able to relax a bit more.
we also managed to get out to the bahrain museum the other day & that was quite enjoyable, except that we had to cut it short because smiley was getting really bored & rather disruptive.
i've never lived in an apartment before & never realised what effect a lack of 'outdoors' can have on a person. there are windows to the outside, but it's been rather overcast lately so there's not all that much natural light coming in, as well as the fact that we're in the middle of a really new area where there's construction going on all around & the windows are insanely dirty from the construction dust & sand, so even if it is bright outside, not much of that gets inside & it's actually quite difficult to see outside. there's no verandah, so i can't easily step outside into the fresh & open air. if i want to do that, i have to go down three floors in the lift & stand outside the building amongst the parked cars & construction. not exactly conducive to relaxing & enjoying the outdoors.
since it's all construction around here, there is almost no greenery. there's a house or building across the street which has a few potted trees in it, but they're behind a gate & a wall & aren't accessible to people on the street.
as sad as it sounds, & funnily enough since i'm not a big tv watcher, the lack of familiar tv is making me feel a little isolated. ads with unfamiliar products & people speaking arabic in them make me feel so far away from australia & my friends & family. there are no advertisements for crappy australian soap operas which i never watched anyway, like neighbours or home & away.
finding a place to live which is more suited to us will help a lot. the place in which shroom's workmate lives looked really nice. it had a really large pool area with lots of palm trees. it's in a more established area & the view of most of the apartments seems to be into the pool area so there'd be something more inspiring to look at than half finished buildings, bricks & empty, sandy, flat blocks of land. they also have quite a large verandah.
once this cold has cleared off, i'll call the phone number of a real estate agent which shroom gave me & arrange for him take smiley & i around to see some other places where we might live. i think that'll make a big difference.
What a big journey for you and your family, emotionally and phyically. Things will become more familiar each day, remember why you went there, and try to get out of the house each day, to combat your cabin-fever feelings. What an adventure!
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*hugs* i suspect you'll be fairly emotional at least for a week or two