Today is World Thinking Day.  If you have a Girl Guide or Scout in your house you probably already know all about it.  Started back in 1926 February 22nd is spent each year by millions of girls around the world reflecting on their associations with each other and how they through Guiding/Scouting can have a positive impact on the world we live in.  Pretty hefty stuff if you ask me.  For more specifics you can check out the WIKI on the subject.

The Kuwait district of the BGIFC is celebrating today by encouraging all Guides, Brownies, and Rainbows to wear their uniforms to school and talk about what Guiding means to them and how they’ve been able to impact the world around them because of Guiding.  Sydney of course jumped at the chance and swapped out her TES uniform for her Brownie uniform today.

Sydney in her uniform - it was cold so she had to wear her school coat over it...

She even made a card for WTD...

To Brownies everywhere...

Of course she had to sign it!

World Thinking Day

So last week my friend Gary had to get a tux made for an upcoming event.  He’d never been to the souk before and had roped Jennifer into helping him pick out fabric too – she’s good but I think she’s charging for her consulting services now so no more freebies!  I tagged along as I needed to get some suspender buttons on my pants and wanted to show him the folks I had used last time.  It was fun as always – Gary came out with a tux in process, I’ve got buttons on my pants, and Jennifer & Anita both picked up some stuff.

Jennifer posing with the bolts-o-fabric

Gary & Zoeb choosing suit fabric...

Al-Tareef Textiles - Jennifer was very pleased with their prices and quality - check them out...

Back to the fabric souk…

In case you don’t know I’m a former militantly anti-smoker person.  When Florida banned smoking outside your home I was the guy who would tell you all about it on the beach.  I would flush friends cigarettes if they were unlucky enough to leave the out around me.  And God help you if you tried to light up in my car!  Then I moved to Kuwait.  Before coming here a million years ago we couldn’t find anything online about Kuwait and what we did find was patently wrong – especially the bit about tobacco being ‘haram” and hence no smoking.  The local smoke like they’re on the set of Mad Men.  Without absolutely ZERO embellishment the moment I got off the plane and was on the jetway some dishdasha in front of me lit up – TWO AT ONCE!  Its not like at home where you’ll run into an occasional person trying to kill you with second hand smoke – here it’s everywhere.  Here it seems like the cigars in the maternity wards aren’t for the lucky dad’s friends -they’re to get the kids started early!  If that’s not your thing you could go to nearly ANY restaurant in town and order up some sickly apple flavored lung disease in the form of a water pipe – of course those come with Hep B too as you have to share mouth pieces – YUCK!  Of course any time you have to go into any government/ministry office you might as well bring a gas mask – they all smoke radioactive Russian cigarettes there!  So obviously smoking isn’t much of an issue and even if it is I’m sure there’s some sort of iron clad rationalization.

You can imagine my surprise when a couple of days ago one of the local papers ran a tiny little story on the front page about Kuwait banning smoking in public.  Now I have ZERO expectation that this law will be enforced any more than any other law in Kuwait but I still think it’s miraculous that they would contemplate it at all.  Here’s to your health Kuwait – I hope the smoking ban stays in place!

Can it be? No smoking in Kuwait?

Oh dear God, it’s a miracle!

Sydney’s still home getting over her cold so we didn’t go all out this Valentine’s Day.  She left two valentines on the fridge for Anita & I and we had a few presents to open from back home.  Sydney got some books, a hair clip, personalized necklace, and a giganto ring from us and some new PJs from Granny.  Mimi & Pop sent a box but the mail has been a bit slow recently so we’ll have to have round two a bit later. Anita & I got a big bag of Crystal Light (kool-aid for adults apparently) and Atkins snack bars.  Of course our favorite was the canned ham!  Mmmmmm… ham…

Sydney's Valentine's Day haul...

Awesome flower shaped hair clip!

Anita's friend Neyad makes jewelry and this is one of her necklaces. There's a "S" pendant and under that is "Sydney" in arabic.

Aunt Sissy will be jealous!

Mmmmm... Ham and assorted goodies!

Sydney's Fridge Valentines for Mom & Dad...

Valentine’s Day at the G’s…

So all last week Sydney was a bit sniffly.  It happens and for whatever reason its been unseasonably cold here so between that, swimming, the other million things the girls does all week she just got a little run down.  That cascaded into a full blown cold and a few days at home to recover.  One thing that drives me absolutely nuts are the bio-hazard parents out there who send their germ spewing kids to school to infect the rest of our kids.  I’m not talking about your every day runny nose but like real contagions.  As such I tend to gripe about Sydney missing school for being sick but when she is sick I’d rather her stay home and get completely over it.  So she is, and we’re probably going to keep her home tomorrow too just to make sure.  She’s been napping almost all day today but did take a moment to get her valentines started – just in case she’s well enough to head back tomorrow.  Between Mimi & Granny we usually have tons-o-valentines so she’s well covered there.  This year we also got a big shipment of valentine candy so it looks like goody-bags for the whole class!

Syd getting her Valentines started...

Valentine candy galore!

Valentines & Runny Noses…

So last night was the big night – the first annual Friends of Guiding Father Daughter Valentine Formal.  It was a HUGE hit!  The girls came in their finest party dresses, dad’s in tuxes, there were prom pictures, a lavish buffet (full of spaghetti and chicken tenders so even the youngest had something to enjoy), the FOG Sweetheart Princess was crowned, and of course – lots of dancing.  Anita & Jennifer did an amazing job and everyone commented on what a beautiful job they did on setting things up and what a great time was had by all.  I’ll quit jabbering at this point and let the pictures do the talking – there are tons.  Enjoy!

The girls from our table - sans Rebecca - I think she and her dad were having their picture taken

Paul, Ava, Amy, and Colin

O'Kane... Colin O'Kane...

The ballroom

from across the dance floor...

Our table

Formal photo backdrop - should have those in a few days...

Raffle prizes...

Mr. & Miss Van Campenhoudt

Table setting...

another shot of the table

dinner buffet

Sweet treats...

Ava won the teddy bear during the raffle...

Rebecca was crowned the FOG Sweetheart Princess

Amanda, the BGIFC District Commissioner had a few words

Jennifer also had a few things to say...

Congo line!

Girls on the dance floor

Amy & Sydney dancing...

More dancing...

Even more dancing...

Some of the older girls posing...

Shakin' their groove thing...

Gerry giving me the eye!

Joe on the dance floor...

More of the girls dancing...

The DJ wasn't happy about the girls on the stage...

Zoe & Amy

Ellie

Zoe dancing the Macarena!

Zoe & Sydney dancing...

Group shot at the end of the ball...

First Annual FOG Father Daughter Valentine Formal

So yesterday was the 1st Annual FOG Father Daughter Valentine Formal.  It was lots-o-fun but more on that later.  Anita and Jennifer had to go early to get things set up and that meant the girls had to go as well.  Fortunately they worked a room into their deal with the Crowne Plaza so they had a place to get ready.  Paula also came thru like a champ and stayed with the girls while Anita & Jennifer got things organized.  I was running around finalizing printing and picking up flowers but the girls all got to hang out and have room service before the ball started – looks like they had fun.

Ordering up some grub...

Two of three moms - photo by Sydney...

Not to be left out - Anita - also shot by Sydney...

Not sure what the shock and awe face is all about...

Getting ready before the formal

Budweiser Eternal Optimism Ad - if you find a full copy of the song somewhere send it to me!

My buddy Scott had a little Super Bowl party in the middle of the night last night.  He subscribes to the NFL channel which did an all around awesome job of rebroadcasting the game and all of the national commercial spots.  Not being a Giants fan nor a Pats fan (Go Cowboys!) I was a little ambivalent going into the game but ended up pulling for the Pats from the beginning as that seemed to be the house’s team.  Several good commercials this year – loved the Budweiser shelter dog bit, of course the VW Stars Wars ad,  even the Mathew Broderick’s Day Off was well done.  One my favs was the Budweiser bit with the Cult/Flo Rida mash-up - been looking for that song all morning – if you know where I can download it let me know.  I was also absolutely thrilled to see Clint Eastwood being paid to shill for Chrysler (aka Government Motors Light) – your tax dollars (at least the $1.2B that they kept) at work.  I did manage to keep my communist rants to a minimum tho.  As much as I hate to congratulate anything that has to do with NY the Giants did play a good game when it mattered – so good game guys.

Good game, good commercials, good friends = good times

Ha ha ha... MAIL escorts you pervs!

Alright, I know my readership is pretty limited but there are some folks out there who stop by from time to time so I thought I would throw this out there and see if there are any nibbles.  A good friend of mine who works at KGL Transportation needs Americans to fill some open positions.  KGL is responsible for the US Mail in Kuwait and as such they need Americans to escort the mail between the various military installations in Kuwait.  Anyone interested will HAVE to have a valid US passport.  This job would be strictly escort detail – no driving, no handling of the mail – just being driven around with it.  You’ll also be responsible for tracking paperwork that has to be documented every time you enter or leave a military installation with the mail.  Other than that you can pretty much do what you want.  The job is 6 days a week, 12 hours a day.  The entire compensation package is $5,000.00 per month.  There’s no car allowance, no apartment, no school tuition for your kids, no tickets home or paid R&R.  There’s $5,000.00 a month to sit in a truck with the mail.  The guy running this show is one of the most decent, all around good guys I know over here but he’s looking for people who NEED a job – not people who want to know why their visa wasn’t done yesterday like so-and-so said it would be, or people who need ergonomic pillows for their truck, or whatever – just people who NEED a job.  If you know any Americans who are in Kuwait and fit the bill above shoot me an email to job@godwinsq8.com and I’ll get you in touch with the right folks at KGL.

Job Opportunity

So if you’ve lived here in Kuwait for more than 15 minutes you’ve probably run across someone who will tell you how easy (“cheap”) it is to have custom tailored clothes made here.  For the most part that’s not an entirely inaccurate statement.  That doesn’t mean that you can just wander around town and stumble upon honest and talented tailors just waiting for you to darken their doors.  It does take a bit or time to find fabric shops that won’t give you ‘oh you’re obviously not from here’ price or try to pass off crappy chinese poly blends as 100% cotton Italian wool.  Then you’ve got to find a tailor that one understands you, two will actually do what you tell him to, and three doesn’t have too much of a local bent or a pimp-tastick bent to his clientele.  Once you’ve done all that you can usually have some really nice things made and compared to full retail they’re pennies on the dollar.

So I’ve got a client meeting coming up and need a new suit and then there’s the Father Daughter Formal next month and the Fog Blue & White Ball in March that are both black tie so its time for a new tux.  In the past I’ve always chosen affordability over quality in the selection of fabric that I’ve used to have my suits made and I’ve paid for that choice over the seemingly short lives of my suits.  Yest – despite all evidence to the contrary  not only do I own pants I also own a few suits.  This time however I want a suite that will stick around a while and if I’m going to have a tux made I’d like it to be pretty decent.  So I’ve enlisted Jennifer as my resident expert on fabric to come with me down to the souk and guide my fabric purchases.  I have to say that her friends and family consulting rates are VERY generous!

She and Anita had to go down that way for one of the balls they’re working on so I drove us all and got to pick out my fabric too.  Now if you’ve never been down there the fabric souk is in an absolutely lovely part of town – the buildings are dilapidated, the parking lots are pitted and over crowded, there is trash everywhere – it’s a pit.  But that’s where it is so that’s where we go.  First stop was to the tailor to figure out how much fabric I need to buy.  I’ve used Fitwell Tailor in the past and he’s done a good job of making decent suits out of cheap fabric so that’s where I went.  Got the totals and then its into the bowels of the souk.  My first stop was the King of Wools where Jennifer found several suit fabrics that she liked.  I picked out two – one for the suit and another for the tux.  Found fabric for the lapel on the tux and a vest.  Their shirt fabric wasn’t up to par so it was back outside.  After wandering around we found another guy with decent shirt fabric and then hit the Indian Heritage Souk for some silk for the bow ties.

After pulling everything together it was back to Fitwell for measurements and to drop off the fabric.  Unfortunately I was under a bit of a time crunch on the suit and needed it in one week.  The tux they had a few extra days on.  I was assured that it would done in time and given a date to come back for my first fitting on.  We were out of there before lunch so all in all a successful morning if you ask me.  Some pix of the area are below.

This is the downtown area. Highway 30 is in blue, 1st Ring Rd is in red, and the fabric souk is marked with the yellow star

Closeup of the block. You can see the round Chamber of Commerce building in the bottom right corner. The fabric is long building running diagonally across the image.

This is one of the nicest shots I could find of the outside of the building and it's cropped to really show off it's 'best side'. In general its a pretty run down looking place.

The inside is a series of hallways like this with shops lining the ground floor and tailors on the floors above.

Stores with their cloth out for sale

This is the tailor I use - they're pretty good and generally responsive

This is one of the two brothers who run the shop - I can never really tell them apart - they're not twins but close...

This is a light day at Fitwell - their walls are lined with probably thousands of suits at any given time

For silk and shiny stuff you have to go the Indian Heritage are of the souk

This was the guy who helped us find silk for a bow tie - it took half a meter of fabric for a bow tie - seems excessive to me.

Braving the fabric souk