Archive | March, 2006

Dives 26 and 27

By on March 18, 2006 in SCUBA

Yaay, more diving. The weather was great. Went out to Kubbar Island. Dry suit again. The visibility was great first dive. Saw a cool nudibranch (Sea Slug).
nudibranch
This one is from the Red Sea but very similar to the one here.
The first dive was like two as we went back to the boat for more weights as one of the guys didn’t have enough. With the dry suit you need tons of weight. In my 3 mm wetsuit I use 9 kg and in the dry suit I need about 15 kg. So he got the extra 2 kg weight and while I was trying to put it on him (in his BCD pocket) I dropped it. First thought hope nobody is underneath. No problem there wasn’t. So I went down and actually found it quickly but not him, he’d aborted because all the up and down had bothered his ears. The pressure changes when diving are the most in the first ten meters. That is because the pressure doubles at 10 meters and then at 20 meters it is only 1.5 times etc.
dive
So, the profile below is the rest of the first dive I did with the other person.
dive

Finally, it was getting late, two of us went on the second dive. Some didn’t. Visibility wasn’t as good but still, in the water is always nice. Even with the dry suit and one good layer of fleece underneath, we felt the cold.
dive

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Mufty day at BSK

By on March 18, 2006 in Family

Mufty costumes
Click here for a large photo.
Last week was Mufty day where the students dress as a know character in literature.

  • Surya was Arthur Dent from Hitchhikers Guide To the Galaxy
  • Savitri
    was Hermione from Harry Potter
  • Sumati was Piglet from you know what
  • Janaki was Junie B Jones from Junie B Jones books

Now this is interesting. I suppose you were also wondering what a Mufty Day is. According to a web search:

“Mufti” is quite common amongst older Brits – it came from the era of the colonies and was generally used by soldiers to mean “non-uniform dress”. “In mufti” is probably the commonest use, used particularly by ex-servicemen of my acquaintance. It doesn’t mean casual as such – because soldiers have at least 2 uniforms “dress” for ceremonial use and “battledress” for everyday use. I have never heard a serviceman call his battledress “mufti” and indeed a soldier would call non-dress uniform “khaki” (pron “car-key” NOT “cacky”!). I believe mufti is simply civilian dress and, frankly, is inappropriate to use as an alternative to “dress-down” – unless the power dressers think they are at war (saddos).

Yes. It comes from the days of the British Raj and was used by soldiers – mainly officers – to describe the non miltary clothes they wore when off duty.

But on Wikipedia

A Mufti is an Islamic scholar who is an interpreter or expounder of Islamic law (Sharia), capable of issuing fataawa (plural of “fatwa”).

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Feeling like on vacation

By on March 17, 2006 in Uncategorized

You know, I was walking around today on a very pleasand sunny day of the weekend and realized that whenever it is warm and sunny it feels like a vacation. It is because when I grew up, the summer vacation was the time when it was warm and sunny.

True, or speculation?

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bookofjoe: BehindTheMedspeak: The woman who has altered my thinking about hypoxic brain damage

By on March 13, 2006 in SCUBA

Did we evolve from whale? or apes? How long did pearl divers used to stay underwater?

bookofjoe: BehindTheMedspeak: The woman who has altered my thinking about hypoxic brain damage

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Cookies with Ringo

By on March 10, 2006 in Uncategorized

bear

Janaki made cookies today along with her weekend buddy, Ringo.

She got Ringo from Mr. Mike her guitar playing, singing teacher. Ringo is given to a student who worked hard for the week and they than have Ringo for the weekend to do everything with. Ringo comes with a book where all the children write a story of what they did with him and also put in photographs.

bear

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Dive Videos

By on March 10, 2006 in SCUBA

Here are the first SCUBA videos. Well, they are only from the top as I don’t have a waterproof housing, lights, etc. etc.

Click here for the file. You’ll need Windows Media player and make sure your speakers are on.

If you want to see some cool ones, look here. Particularly the Nanaimo one. They are Quicktime and take a while to load.

That is all I can do now, is watch the videos. It is too windy for diving this weekend :-(

And, I’m actually working the whole weekend anyhow to catch up on work.

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News from Canada

By on March 8, 2006 in Humour

Bob and Doug
Two guys from Toronto die and wake up in hell. The devil stops in to check on them and sees them dressed in parkas, mittens and toques warming themselves around the fire.

The devil asks them, “What are you doing? Isn’t it hot enough for you?”

The two guys reply, “Well, you know, we’re from Canada, the land of snow and ice and cold. We’re just happy for a chance to warm up a little bit, eh.”

The devil decides that these two aren’t miserable enough and turns up the heat. The next morning he stops in again and there they are, still dressed in parkas, toques and mittens. The devil asks them again, “It’s awfully hot down here, can’t you guys feel it?”

Again the two guys reply, “Well, like we told ya yesterday, we’re from Canada, the land of snow and ice and cold. We’re just happy for a chance to warm up a little bit, eh.”

This gets the devil a little steamed and he decides to fix these two guys. He cranks the heat up as high as it will go. People are wailing and screaming everywhere. He stops by the room with the two guys from Canada and finds them in light jackets and bucket hats, grilling sausages and drinking beer. The devil is astonished, “Everyone down here is in absolute misery, yet you two seem to be enjoying yourselves.”

The two Canadians reply, “Well, ya know, we don’t get too much warm weather up there in Toronto so we’ve just got to have a cook-out when the weather’s THIS nice.”

The devil is absolutely furious, he can hardly see straight.

Finally he comes up with the answer. The two guys love the heat because they have been cold all their lives. The devil decides to turn all the heat off in hell.

The next morning, the temperature is below zero, icicles are hanging everywhere; people are shivering so bad that they are unable to do anything but wail, moan and gnash their teeth. The devil smiles and heads for the room with the two Canadians. He gets there and finds them back in their parkas, toques, and mittens. Except now they are jumping up and down, cheering, yelling and screaming like mad men!!!

The devil is dumbfounded, “I don’t understand, when I turn up the heat you’re happy. Now it’s freezing cold and you’re still happy.

What is wrong with you two???”

The Torontonians look at the devil in surprise, “Well, don’t you know? If Hell’s frozen over, it must mean the Leafs have won the Stanley Cup.”

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FunkyCam

By on March 6, 2006 in Humour

This is a great camera. Though I wonder if a cell phone camera is much different? The article is amusing reading.

camera

FunkyCam

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Air Conditioning

By on March 5, 2006 in Uncategorized

Well, today we turned it on. During the day it isn’t really fully needed but more in the night so we can close the windows for quiet and have a bit of fresh air flowing. The daily highs are near 30 now, nights go down to the teens. :-)

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Blood Money

By on March 5, 2006 in Uncategorized

One of the janitors came by this morning into my office in shock with tears in his eyes. His expression of pure grief is something I will never forget.

My first thought was that he’d been fired but that didn’t really match his expression. But he said with his limited english that his son had been hit by a car.

The Bangladeshis that work here are paid very little. That is why at Eid we all gave a janitorial donation in the office and also why they do extra like cleaning the cars to make extra money.

So, he said his son was hit by a car and badly hurt in the legs. After speaking with someone else here for more details he needs the money for blood and I think also to pay for the public hostpital costs as he has no insurance at all. There are private hospitals that you pay for but from what I know even if you go to a Kuwai public hospital you pay, just much less. Unless you are a Kuwaiti, then you don’t pay at all.

I have a health card from KOC, in Arabic which says KOC insures me.

And apparently for bureaucratic and legal reasons here you admission from an accident in a crash is always first into the public hospital then if you need surgery or further treatment you have the option of going to a private facility.

In my case that would mean KOC’s Ahmadi hospital.

If I find out more I’ll post it.

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