ferrousland.com - bahrain news
all about my experiences living in bahrain from mid november 2005.
only the fifteen most recent entries in this category are shown below. to see other entries in this category use the navigation to the right.
October 08, 2006
definitely last - 11:25 PM
i've decided to pack up my computer tonight after all. i'm lying in bed wide awake, wondering if i'll end up rushing too much in the morning, so i may as well do it now & not have that worry.
so goodnight, all, & i'll talk to you from thailand during the next week, or from australia after that. *waves goodbye!* 
possibly last post from bahrain - 10:49 PM
well, tonight's the night. the last night, that is. one more sleep, & tomorrow morning at about 9:30 (in bahraini time that would be about 10:30 .. heh) all our boxes will be picked up, then in the afternoon we leave for thailand for our short family holiday.
after our boxes are collected & while we wait until it's time to leave for the airport, we'll try desperately to find a way to amuse smiley which doesn't involve our computers or his toys, which will be merrily on their way to australia. i might just leave out one or two of his favourite dvds if worse comes to worst. we could always walk down to the british club for a swim, too. that's always a winner.
i'm still trying to decide if i'll pack my computer tonight or in the morning. i'm so tired right now that i'm thinking morning will be a better option, even if i will have to rush a little. if i do it tonight (when i'm so tired that i can barely type) i might drop something or get lazy & not pack it as well as i might if i've had a half decent sleep.
besides, if i pack it tonight, the pick up will undoubtedly be delayed for hours & i'll be wishing i'd left it out so that i could at least check email or perhaps so that smiley could play peppa pig.
so in case i don't get to say anything in the morning, bye all & i'll see you back in oz! i might be able to check email while i'm in thailand, so feel free to say hello & if i don't get a chance, then i'll have lots of nice email for when i'm back & settled in australia. seeya soon, everyone!
almost there - 11:32 AM
i have one last box that's not quite full & is still open so that i can put in a few last minute things. the very last box, though, will be smiley's big silver toy chest. most of the toys & books that were in there i've packed into other boxes, so whatever is left, i'll throw in there & then wrap the whole thing up in bubble wrap & corrugated cardboard. then that'll be everything!
about twenty-four hours to go until our boxes are picked up (don't know what time yet, shroom will let me know when he knows) & about thirty hours until we go to the airport to head to thailand for five days.
very exciting, indeed.
October 06, 2006
one box left - 05:22 PM
well, now i really have finished packing everything except for the things which have to be done on the last day. eleven boxes, plus at least one more for my computer & it's various accoutrements & the big silver toy chest which will hold the last of smiley's toys, books & dvds which i've left out for him to play with until we go.
not long now. we leave for thailand on monday afternoon. i'm quite excited.
October 05, 2006
the almost-last box - 06:50 PM
as i've been wandering around the house today doing what i usually do (which is mostly keeping tabs on smiley), i've been thinking of what remains to be packed aside from the things which i can't pack until the last day (such as computer, towels, pillow, cleaning stuff, etc).
.. & i've come to the conclusion that it might be time for the box full of totally unrelated items & other things which i've forgotten about or accidentally left out of the box of similar things. most boxes have things in them which can be summed up in a few words, like "toys & vaccuum cleaner" or "framed pictures & blankets" (the blankets to help cushion the frames, of course).
this almost-last box, however, will have things like a pair of cross trainers, a few books, the carpet sweeper & my cow mug. those are only a few things i can recall off the top of my head.
as i've been packing, i've been keeping a fairly comprehensive list of the items in each box to assist with locating said items at a later stage when i desperately need just one thing from a box but would be forced to open every single box & rummage through the contents if i hadn't made a very good list .. but with this box i'll be making sure i list every single thing. at least when a box contains only one or two types of items, or perhaps items from one room in the house, you can vaguely guess as to which box you'll need to look into, but with a haphazard collection of items such as what will be in this almost-last box, it's going to be a big mish-mash of things from everywhere & anywhere.
coke celebrates ramadan - 01:22 PM
it's currently ramadan in bahrain. ramadan is defined here as "A Muslim period of daytime fasting and contemplation which lasts for a lunar month of about 28 days. It commemorates the transmission of the Qur'an by the archangel Gabriel to Muhammad."
even coke gets into the act:
considering ramadan is all about fasting, it doesn't seem right to me that coke is saying, "happy ramadan" .. also considering that they're an evil, money-grubbing, addiction-feeding, diabetes-causing, multi-national conglomerate that has nothing at all to do with spiritual goodness & religion.
does it make you respect me more or less when i tell you that when my dad & i both went to bible college many years ago, when they installed a coke vending machine at the church, in front of the other bible college students, we got down on our knees & prostrated ourselves to it?
we were the trouble-makers of the class. lol!! 
ten - 12:14 PM
that's ten boxes. maybe there really are only two more to go now? there'll definitely be one or two boxes for my computer. i'll leave that until the last day, of course .. or if they're coming really early on the day we leave, perhaps the night before.
October 04, 2006
little spiders - 08:58 AM
one thing i've enjoyed about bahrain is the lack of insect life. of course, the bad side of that is it brings with it a lack of almost any other type of wildlife. however, i have not missed seeing spiders as big as my hand.
here's evidence of the tiny spiders which live around here. this is the only spider web i've seen since i've been in bahrain. you can click on the image to see it larger.
October 03, 2006
cleaning in dusty bahain - 03:59 PM
between packing boxes, i've been doing some cleaning. mostly i've been tackling the tiled floors .. which is every floor in this house since the whole place is tiled. it's nice to have tiled floors since you can clean them properly, especially considering the amount of dust & dirt that kalyani sweeps up every day. i can't imagine living on all that grot if we had carpets & it was all being ground into the carpet pile. ergh.
kalyani sweeps &/or mops almost every day, but it wasn't until i started to look closely & cleaned one or two of the tiles by hand that i realised how much dirt is being ground into the texture of the tiles & into the grouting between them.
i took some pics of the upstairs tiles & the downstairs tiles (which are far worse since they're the first things walked on when anyone comes through the front door through the garage). you can click on the pics to see a larger image of each.
i sort of wish i hadn't started, since i can't stop now that the difference is so obvious. i might have to get kalyani to help me to finish it .. although the most help is when she takes smiley away to play somewhere else so that he doesn't try to 'help' me. lol!!
packing going well - 03:48 PM
still packing. i've been doing about two boxes a day, on average. i'm up to eight boxes so far of all my own stuff. shroom's going to pack his stuff this weekend, he reckons. i hope he's not leaving it too late. mind you, he won't have smiley hassling him every three minutes to play with him or for boobie or cuddles or the toilet or such things.
i think that maybe i've only got two or three more boxes to fill. then again, i thought that three boxes ago. lol!!
there's always more stuff than you think, even when you got rid of 95% of your belongings to come to the place you're now leaving.
September 29, 2006
packing - 12:29 PM
it's begun.
September 24, 2006
not trying to adjust - 05:02 AM
i haven't really been trying hard to adjust our body clocks back to GMT+3 rather than our GMT+10 of the last three months. shroom's sleeping habits are kind of all over the place, too (& have been for a long time), so even if smiley & i have been going to sleep at 4pm & then waking at around 2am, smiley's still getting plenty of time with his daddy.
i imagine that by the time we leave after two & a half weeks, our body clocks may have adjusted a bit more, but really, i'm not planning to go to much effort since we're only going to have to adjust back again. we're awake for most of the daylight hours anyway, so we can still go visiting people if we want to. it's not like smiley & i are going to work or school every day & have to be awake for certain hours of the day.
we both seem to have got over the tiredness caused by the travel, so we're feeling better in that regard.
September 22, 2006
jet lag = groggy - 05:32 PM
woah. i feel like i've been scraped up off a road somewhere, like i've been out on a heavy night of partying or something. went to sleep with smiley at about midday here/7pm brisbane time & only just woke up now, four & a half hours later. smiley's still asleep.
i suppose that having a huge swim out in the bahrain heat this morning helped to tire us both out. i don't feel all that rested, though. well, they reckon it takes three days for jet lag to go away & it's been one & a half already, so "come on down!!" feeling normal again.
far out. i can hardly even type!
September 21, 2006
jet lag - 07:47 PM
jet lag has hit. i had a two hour nap before at 4pm local bahrain time & would have continued sleeping but woke when smiley kept coming in. he's wide awake even though our body clocks say it's 1:45am. he had a sleep with me this morning after we arrived & slept quite well on the plane, so i guess that's why he's awake.
at least staying up now might mean my body clock will adjust a bit quicker. i still hope that smiley conks out soon, though.
arrived safely in bahrain - 11:11 AM
smiley & i arrived safely in bahrain about an hour ago.
no major delays, all pretty uneventful except when smiley had a major meltdown before we about to take off from sydney. the only thing i could do was to leave him lying on the floor under the seat for about ten minutes until he calmed down. i'll write more about it later.
the rest of the trip was good. he was very well behaved, ate & slept well, & i even got a few hours sleep.
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