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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.

Finally today we found the Kuwait Finance House, where in fact we had been previously on our own. We had trouble finding it this time because I didn’t remember tha the name of the place we were at was Kuwait Finance House and also our directions were not to the right street.

Anyhow we are getting a Chevrolet Trailblazer on a two year lease. It is a two wheel drive seven passenger with a V6, silver colour. They had a bit nicer looking twin vehicle, the Envoy in extended but this model of the Envoy is not available on a lease. So we were treated well there by the Egyptian sales person and should have the vehicle within a week. Then we all fit comfortably and safely with no squished complaints.

It isn’t what I originally was looking at. It is the KOC standard four wheel drive. I did try to get one as the company vehicle instead of the Caprice but can’t as I don’t have a clear job need for it.

We were finishing off at the gym today after a workout and a family swim and I overheard someone signing in spelling his name, BUTTERWORTH.

That’s right! Another person named Butterworth. He’s originally from Yorkshire like our Butterworth roots.

The name Butterworth comes from districts in Lancashire (now part of Milnrow) and Yorkshire and it is derived from the Old English meaning butter + enclosure or butter farm. The earliest traceable Butterworth in our family is Matthew, married in 1701 who lived in Nabbs (or Knabbs) Hall, Silkstone, Yorkshire.
This is from the family tree work done by my fathers cousin. That is his father’s brother’s son. Who is also named Ian.

The person I met today said he doesn’t know his family tree but he’s only met in his live about four other Butterworths. So who knows, maybe we’re related. He said the original Butterworths came over in the 11th century from France where the name was something else.

That led to a family discussion on this and me looking up the origin of the word butter.

butter O.E. butere, from a W.Gmc. source (cf. Ger. Butter, Du. boter), an early loan-word from L. butyrum “butter,” from Gk. boutyron, perhaps lit. “cow-cheese,” from bous “ox, cow” + tyros “cheese;” but this may be a folk-etymology of a Scythian word. The product was used from an early date in India, Iran and northern Europe, but not in ancient Greece and Rome. Herodotus described it (along with cannabis) among the oddities of the Scythians. The verb meaning “to flatter lavishly” is from 1816. Butter-fingered is attested from 1615. Deceptively named buttermilk is from 1528; it is what remains after the butter has been churned out.

From: Online Etymological Dictionary

And the Etymology Dictionary also concurs:

worth as final element in place names, is from O.E. wor? “enclosed place, homestead.”

So much more to discover.

And I’m allergic to milk.

This is two days of vacation here. The weather today was just about perfect. About 24 degrees C maximum and not a cloud in the sky with a little breeze to keep it comfortable. Here is an almost 360 degree panorama.

Click here for a larger version of the panorama. The blending is not great between the frames, but I don’t have the time now to fix it manually or with some additional software. Maybe later I’ll update it but no promises.
We went to the beach in the city and had avery nice picnic with friends here. The kids played in the sandy beach and also in the water and got very wet. So we had some spare blankets in the trunk to keep the seat reasonably clean and dry. Apparently on these two days you can go up Liberation Tower but we neither had the energy or the clean and dry kids to check it out.

Stay tuned for photos.

For now an interesting story.

Background

On these two days, National Day and Independence Day, celebration is done. People drive slowly up and down Gulf Road hanging out of their cars waving flags and people on the side have spray cans of white snow. We got lightly sprayed. The trick is to say in the center lane so you don’t get sprayed so much. Police cars were at every intersection even on both corners.

So while stopped at the red light, diagonally across some kids were thickly spraying a car and it had the wipers on full to clear a thick film on the windshield.

Then a four wheel drive stopped at the light and got sprayed. Then the driver jumped out to chastise the kids and waves down a police car driving by. The police car stops and the sprayed driver gives him a hand shake then walks with him over to the kids and shortly later the driver gets back in his vehicle and drives off, with the police car that was near us following. What do you think they said? I think the cop probably told the guy to relax and not be so uptight and I think the other police car followed him to see that he didn’t get road rage if sprayed again.

I sure wish I had the video camera out for this!

Who would have guessed?

CNN.com – Tiger poo, the new black gold – Feb 17, 2006

Click here.