Yes that is a fish on the finger!

I read about this on another blog and now Joe blogs it: bookofjoe: World’s smallest fish discovered in Indonesia

Above you can almost see the small lemon trees in the top and on the right are lots of oregano plants.

Both pictures are taken from the roof. I want to make the roof into a sort of patio for the warm evenings under the stars, maybe with a barbeque also. That will come, it isn’t warm enough yet.

We went to the Wholesale Center which is also owned by the Sultan Center. I see the Wholesale Centre as like the Superstore of Kuwait.

Huge range of vegetables. A bit chaotic but this is the busiest day. We had some fatayers from the back, meat and cheese.

Marja thinks she may not want to see that chaos again. But they have way more selection, particularly vegetables than the other Sultan Centers. They have really nice lettuce locally, hydroponically grown.

Now it is time to go the pool again…

In answer to this question:

It was cold, we’ve added heaters. It seems we are at the end of the cold season and it is warming up.

The house is large and everyone is happy that way. Surya got a room with a small balcony that I didn’t know we have.

Let’s see.

Shopping can be lots of work. Navigation is a challenge as the map doesn’t show all the streets. It took some driving around until we found the mattress shops we were looking for.

We were looking for 90 x 200 cm spring mattresses for kids. That is the Ikea size — the standard is 100 x 200 cm. Then we found the American Mattress shop where the clerk spoke no english only to see that they were too expensive about 120 KD each. But a couple of shops down they had good ones that were Kuwait made for 42 KD each so we bought three for delivery on Sunday. We also checked out a couple of rug shops. Anything reasonable is synthetic, from Turkey, China, Iran and Belgium!

Then we continued the journey to near the sixth ring road and the 60 to look at furniture and rugs. The rugs are about 70 KD for 2 x 3 size. I wasn’t ready to buy though. Then we popped into Sears nearby. It looked not very posh and we didn’t buy anything. There is a lot of clothes. They have some Craftsman tools though.

Now I joined up everyone at the Hilton Club and I took the kids swimming. The weather wasn’t too nice but the pool was warm. The wind was howling with big waves on the beach. We had the pool to ourselves. Marja did the first workout at the gym.

I went in the morning to the airport to clear the shipment through customs. Six crates worth! I met the agent with Gulf Agency Company (GAC) there. The customs inspector looked randomly into the boxes and saw the desktop computer, a box of VHS casettes and box of CDs. I guess they figured the shipment was too large to be all personal goods so it needed, I think an extra stamp. I followed the GAC people around and that got done. Then the were able to ship it to our place.

All in all, the GAC people were very helpful and they then unpacked the crates and carried everything into the villa.

So now we have a room full of stuff that will be distributed to the different spots in the house.

We all squeezed into the car and went towards Ikea and also some car dealers. I always get confused on the directions as it is hard to navigate with the added responsiblity of passengers and also drive in the roads here.

And also I had forgotten to fill up the car with company provided gas on the way out of the office so by the time we got near Ikea with a car full we were running on fumes. I certainly didn’t want to run out. And so they had their lesson in finding out things. I pulled into a car wash and I told the kids well I first need to find someone who speaks English. Well kind of but they didn’t have a clue where the gas stations are. They are generally on the main freeways but I”ve never needed them so don’t know where they all are.

So we ended up at the big Al Ghanam and went in to look at furniture. And there we got our first purchase, a leather couch on for a good price of $399 KDs cash. Well cash was the issue as I’m backlogged with expenses that the company owes me, but fortunately the Bank of Montreal debit card worked. So the couch will be delivered shortly. Marja was impressed with the price, a three seater, two seater and single chair in full grain leather well built from Malaysia for equivalent of $1600 CAD. And it was the last day of spin to win. If you purchase over 250 KD you can spin the wheel for prizes. So we let lucky Sumati spin and won a 50 KD gift certificate valid only in the Al Ghanim furniture and acessories store. Then we went to the ubiquitous Starbucks for a small break to discuss plans and in that time discovered that they don’t do Tazo Chai here! So Marja had a tea with steamed milk.

Then we went into the adjacent Al Ghanim electronics section and looked at TVs etc. and finally bought a toaster. So now we’ve accumulated some heaters and a grill and a toaster.

Tomorrow we’ll go for the microwave and try to look at cars and a cell phone for Marja. We’re thinking used Suburban on credit.

And then on the way out I found an Oula service station very close by and put 2 KDs ($8 CAD) and got nearly half a tankfull or about 30 litres. That was even premium.

Well, the shipment is here and for customs they need a copy of my Civil ID. Well in fact, you need to give a copy of it for almost anything here!

So I signed a declaration saying that the shipment does not contain:

• Pornographic literature, videos, films and pictures (incl. Simple nudity of all kinds)
• Alcoholic beverages (incl. Fine wines)
• All narcotics and drugs. Importation of any narcotics (incl. Seemingly innocent dried poppy flower arrangements) can lead to very severe legal action and even long prison terms.
• Firearms, ammunitions. Explosives and any weapon (incl. decorative items such as swords and draggers).
• Products of Israeli origin / manufacture, or any items on Israeli blacklist.
• Any items made out of ivory.

I phoned the shipping agent and asked what about the Israeli black list as I don’t know what is on the list. He said as long as no contraband. I don’t want to sign saying nothing on the blacklist if I’ve never seen it. One other list we saw said even things like regular music CDs are on the blacklist.

With CDs etc. he said that the Ministry of Communications examines them up to the discretion of the customs officer.

So, Thursday 8:30 a.m. I need to go to the airport cargo terminal and be there while customs inspects the shipment.

I’ll publish my experience of the inspection.

There is no doubt at all that Cleo and Boo are relaxed with each other. Here’s proof: