ferrousland.com - daily news archives
Thursday, December 22, 2005
tractor boy - 07:26 PM
(filed under 'smiley')
in the picture i linked to on the previous entry (here's the link again), smiley is wearing one of the really sweet little shirts which his nanna & poppy (rudi & audrey, my parents-in-law) had printed & sent to him. they gave him four shirts, each with different things printed on them. there are cockatoos eating at the feeder off their balcony, some lorikeets (maybe) doing the same, one of smiley & daddy (this one, one of my favourite pictures of all time) & the one he's wearing which is poppy & smiley on the 'tractor', which is actually rudi's ride-on mower.
shawarma - 07:16 PM
(filed under 'bahrain')
there's a picture up of smiley eating a shawarma. they're normally wrapped a little better than the one in the picture, but smiley decided to wave his around a bit while he was eating it, so it came apart slightly.
to put it in simple terms, shawarma is kind of like a miniature kebab. it contains meat cooked on one of those upright rotating sticks, mixed with chopped tomato, put into a small piece of lebanese bread (sometimes called pocket bread in australia), then a pickle of some description is added, some red sauce (don't know exactly what it is), salady stuff (lettuce, possibly with some onion mixed in with it) & some yoghurty sauce. at least that's how the shawarma man down the road makes them.
they're much smaller than a kebab, so for a proper meal you'd need maybe two if you're a small eater or four or five or more if you're a big eater.
they're delicious. i know of an american who comes to bahrain quite frequently who loves them so much that he once shipped a whole load of frozen shawarma to where he lives in the united states.
learning arabic - 06:51 PM
(filed under 'bahrain')
my friend, ameena, has been teaching me arabic as i teach her some english (actually, her english isn't too bad, except that she took classes about twenty years ago & has forgotten a lot of it). ameena bought me a couple of children's books with which to start.
i've been learning some of the arabic alphabet first & then learning some words to go along with it. i've also been practising writing a couple of those words. the two words so far are horse & sheep.
it's been so much fun doing this with ameena. certain arabic sounds are like thing else we use in english, so my efforts at trying to replicate them with my english speaking throat & mouth have been quite amusing. ameena & i have found ourselves laughing quite a bit. we also get a bit of a laugh when some of the words in arabic sound like other words in english & are almost appropriate, such as "dick" for "husband". i'm not absolutely certain that's exactly the meaning, but it definitely meant something close to that or at least related to the male. we both found that one was quite amusing. 
ameena says my arabic writing is very good & that it would normally take a couple of months to get to that standard. i'm quite pleased. as well as being mentally stimulating learning arabic & helping ameena to refine her english, it's nice to be able to talk & learn about other things & have some good company.
drawings - 03:51 PM
(filed under 'smiley')
they're up mainly for my own records, but i'm sure some others might enjoy them, too. smiley's getting quite good at drawing. here's a picture of daddy which he drew totally on his own & one of a cat for which he was responsible for the whiskers & bellybutton(s).
children's christmas party - 02:55 PM
(filed under 'smiley')
a couple of weeks ago, shroom's work held a christmas party for the kids. only those with children are invited & attend. i meant to blog about it when it happened, but i didn't get a chance at the time & then forgot until now.
it was full on. it was held at a little island (with a long causeway, so it's accessible by automobile) at the ritz-carlton which was hired out for the night. it was definitely aimed at the children, but the parents were well catered for. there was a food table set out just for the children, a jumping castle, fairy floss & popcorn on tap, as well as a games area.
santa was there & had excellent gifts for each child in attendance & there was a live dj (a real one, krazy kevin, a famous resident expat dj) who played songs for the kids & ran some games. some of the dhl ladies were dressed as mrs claus & elves & did an amazing job with the kids not only during the games & with giving out prizes, but all through the night, dancing with them & keeping them happy.
smiley's gift was a really great set of coloured wooden blocks which he has loved ever since he opened it. earlier on, before santa arrived, he wasn't so happy though. as each kid arrived at the island, they were given a helium balloon with a long ribbon attached & a piece of card on which was written their name & their christmas wish to santa. the idea was that they'd all let go of their ballooons at the same time to send all their wishes to santa. i tried to explain to smiley that he'd be letting his balloon go & watching it fly off with all the others, but both shroom & i knew that when it came to doing it, he wasn't going to be happy.
as predicted, when his balloon went sailing off with all the others, he was crying his eyes out, calling out very unhappily, "booon! booon!!" & reaching out for it. poor little thing. i felt so bad for him. one of the 'elves' went & found him another balloon when i asked if there were any more, but for quite a few minutes, only the one which went flying off into the sunset was the one that would suffice.
eventually he was happy with his new balloon & was even recovered enough to not actually care when he accidentally tore a big hole in it with a spiky branch from the hedges decorated with some fascinating christmas lights.
smiley & i joined in some of the games & danced together. shroom did some dancing with him as well. it was a great party, extremely well organised & totally aimed at making the children happy. i think i might see if i can get a thank you card to send to dhl to say thanks for such a nice party. from what i've heard, of all the parties that they put on throughout the year, it's the best one. it's really nice to know they look after the kids so well. i guess they understand that keeping the ones at the bottom of the chain happy, keeps everyone further up the chain happy, too. i was very impressed.
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