Precedence in Rebus

If they can put one of these . . .



in every one of my . . .


Is it that hard to put one here?

That may just have to be a question for the eternities . . . .

YouTube Tuesday: Show-show time

Ah, the show-show. (phonetically it's pronounced: shao-shao) Eliza dubbed it the 'show-show' at about 18 months of age & that's pretty much our family's pet name for taking a shower. I re-found this commercial recently; ah, I would stop my DVR'd shows just to watch this one & laugh.



My favorite part? When he turns the temperature up to 106F and SINGS!!!!! This next vid is one that you will just have to take it for what it is. I'm not writing another dirty little secret post . . . I find it *tee-hee* funny, but also not that surprising. I mean, it makes sense. But then again, when I was in Spain, a billboard of a smiling baby's head between two buxom (naked) breasts advertising the benefits of breastfeeding made sense to them, too. I'm for saving water (and breastfeeding); but I don't know if I need a commercial on T.V. reminding me that it's important.



Remember, Xixi no banho!! Hahaha, I am sooo immature.

Right or Left?

There's nothing like the feeling of accomplishment. I found Manazel all by myself today. (Manazel is a department home store. You can find anything you want there. An. y. thing.) When a city has streets that wrap around each other like spaghetti and are all one way, you usually have to learn how to get to a store twice. #1) How to get there #2) How to get home.

The first time I went, a friend of mine drove & I tried to pay close attention. But we got there right before sunset & came home in the dark, so really, I had a very loose idea of how to return. I had been toying with the idea for the last two weeks and finally decided yesterday was THE day. I was very confident of which exit I had to take, but after that . . .

*dialogue in my head*

Isa Park Exit . . . then right . . . ooookay, which way at the light? . . . the right lane feels right . . . haha, right . . . . (two more round-abouts) . . . have I gone too far? yeah, I think so. (there are a bunch of industrial factories looming at the next intersection) . . . flip a u-turn before that cement truck barrels into my lane . . turn, turn, turn! . . . *whew* let's try this street, it looks populated . . . (coming to a T-intersection) right or left? Hmmm, I think I'll turn around . . . Hey! I see the sign over there!

So after tooling around for about 40 minutes, I found my destination, Manazel!! I went in and basked in accessible bliss. I found one isle that will be my downfall. It has containers in every shape; ones for drawers, the fridge, bathroom, cupboards. And for every function: soup cans, sugar packets, toothbrushes, make-up vanities. *insert Arnold voice* I'll be back.

As I was browsing the kitchen gadget section (btw, there were these cute little measuring spoons labeled 'dash', 'tad', 'pinch' etc.) I had a sudden feeling of dread wash over me. How do I get home?

*in my head again while maintaining a composed exterior*

How do I get home? How in the #@#* am I going to get home? . . . breath in . . . breathe out . . . You can't get lost forever, Lydia . . . this whole city is only about, what, 10 miles by 6 miles? . . . all else fails, the sun still sets in the west here, right? . . . Of course, Lydia . . .

That little reality check was quite the buzz kill, so I gathered my purchases & hightailed it out to the car. After 15 minutes of wrong turns, I found my way back to the overpass to get on the freeway. *whew* Then I realized, hmmm, what do i do once I get on the freeway? See, the freeway works like a normal freeway; one side for eastbound, the other for westbound. Except once you get off, there usually isn't a convenient way to re-enter the freeway. Except for the Isa Park exit, which I'm on. Well, let's just see where it takes me.

Getting back on is a breeze, I'm sailing along and then a big sign over the freeway informs me that I must choose "Manama West" or "Saudi Arabia". I know that I don't want to go to Manama West, but Saudi Arabia won't take me home either. I keep on the Saudi route, just looking for more clues on how to get home. I mean, it's pretty hard (for us) to get a visa to Saudi, they wouldn't let me plow right on through to Riyadh. Right? A familiar exit, Janabiya, appears and I snag it. I had been here before!! Yay!!

Long story short, I did take the correct exit to get home, but did not do anything right after that. What should have taken me just 15 minutes stretched into an hour and a half odyssey. But I saw new places and am more familiar with my new country.

Sitting in Traffic

Let me just preface the word 'traffic' by saying it is nothing compared to Cairo.

While I was coming home from grocery shopping, I thought I'd try out the camera on my phone. That tall pointy building? It's the Bahrain World Trade Center. And actually, it's two buildings connected by some supports & wind turbines.

This is further up the road when I was sitting at a light. A little more area context.

This was at another stoplight. It says it's a mall, I haven't been there yet. But both towers look alike; the sloping side & rounded top. All I can say is that they have unique building styles here. The next thing I want to get a picture of is the waterpark in the mall. Well, it's half in/half out & it looks freakin' awesome! Meaning, I'll probably try it out before the kids do!

First day of preschool

There just aren't words for this picture. The title says it all. *sniff* Those are bittersweet tears. My baby is growing up & going to school 5 half days a week. But also, my mornings are free 5 days a week. Wa-hoo!

Vision

I thought I had a lot more "vision" when I started this. My Bookmarks tab has been filling up & I was sure I had so many ideas that I would burst if I didn't see it all together. Turns out, I need to create.

~ I want to make buntings. Badly. One for every holiday & turn of the season. And one made entirely of the pictured fabric. Cloud 9 fabric: Beyond the Sea.

~ I need to decorate. I want all my wall decor so I can create what has been bouncing around in my head for far too long.

~ I have all the fabric & supplies for this advent calendar. In a crate. Far, far away from me.

~ I need to paint. I have a bajillion ideas for every room. All over color, murals, mosaics. Ooh, mosaic murals! I'm thinking a cherry tree in Mairyn's room, Cloud 9 inspired everything in Eliza's room and abstract shapes in Grant & Jacqui's room. The list goes on & on. This desire is obtainable because they have paint shops with cans of paint just waiting to hop into my car & spread themselves on my walls!

~ Terrariums. I want to fill my windowsill with terrariums. Or find an iron corner shelf and have a little collection of various sized little worlds encased in glass. This desire may be possible. I hunted down a place called "The Garden Nursery", adjacent to the Barbar Temple excavation, that looks promising. Though I haven't looked at the prices yet. I'm not paying 10BD ($26.60) for a little bougainvillea start. Or some other hardy native plant that won't die on me. I haven't ever been that good at keeping plants alive. I've either forgotten to water, over-watered, or they've been pulled out by the roots due to unsupervised rugrats.

~ The biggest desire of all? The one that I surely cannot create here. The Wonder Wall. To build an exposed wall & studs slathered in wonderful white paint. The easiest to decorate because pictures can just be propped up in their cubby, then switched around due to holidays or whim. If I didn't have concrete walls.

There. Now that I've vented I will get back to my real life. The Supermarket Shuffle is the dance I do today. Geant for all things produce, dairy, pasta & staples. NEX for any luxury items; like Raisin Bran Crunch, good sliced turkey from the deli, Doritos or microwave popcorn.

*Post Edit*
Question:
Does anyone actually use the hotlinks I include? Sometimes I'm not sure if something needs more explaining. And explaining it would lead to a tangent, then I forget where I was going with that or how I found myself on that wiki page for '10 Most Useful Poisons in the early 19th century'.

Another question:
If you've been shy about leaving comments, don't be. I would love to hear feedback & start conversations. I'm just here by my lonesome, starting a new life in the sandbox. Give me some love!

(I guess that wasn't a question. Oh well. I have to go shopping.)

A Tale of Two Milks

"What's in a name? That which we call milk, by any other name would . . . still not be milk."

~ William Shakespeare (if he shopped at Al Osra)

A few weeks ago, when we were still in the fog of jet lag, we needed milk. Al Osra supermarket is just around the corner. Literally. The fridge was empty, it was 10 pm and we all wanted cereal. So, with new found freedom, we ventured out on our first grocery run. I have been amazed by the shopping here. You can find anything. Though usually it comes with a hefty price tag. A block of 16 oz. cheese is $8. Milk is $6 a gallon. We were not quite ready to dive back into the UHT milk pool, so we ponied up for some real cow's milk.



The containers pictured above were our cheapest options. We wanted the 'low fat' milk; (full fat milk here is serious fat. The best to have with an Oreo!) but there was only one container. And, quick Arabic language lesson here, in (egyptian) arabic, milk is laban. We read both labels. I could tell they were different, but I didn't know why. They both had 'milk' on them. Though why would they be spelling 'laban' in english, too? We were tired and hungry; so we got both and figured we'd mix the two together to make a sort of 1% milk.

Well, mixing the two never happened and two days later, we had blown through the first container of 'full fat'. At breakfast we cracked open the 'Laban' and poured it on Mairyn's bowl of cereal. One half bite later, Mairyn proclaimed, "This milk tastes like yogurt." I tasted it. Yep, it was plain yogurt.

*sidenote* They sell plain yogurt that is liquid-y for drinking, digestion, etc.

Spencer went back and examined both jugs. In the bright, clearheaded-ness of morning, it was obvious (to him). He said, "Oh yeah. They call yogurt 'laban' in the Gulf." Once he said that, the labels became obvious to me. In Egypt, yogurt always had a green label. Duh. Ok, good to know. Laban is now yogurt, not milk. Got it. We still used the yogurt. I just added some jam to a cup, stir well, voila, strawberry yogurt drink. The kids have actually requested that we buy this now, too. At least something good came out of our mistake!

Little Legs

One advantage in Bahrain? There is always enough hot water. At least in the summertime. I was just entranced by Jacqui's little feet & legs sticking out from under the shower curtain. In my head, a picture of her feet facing me would have been perfect.
Turns out, I like the back view of her legs even more.

Back to School Feast

First Annual Penrod Back to School Feast


Theme: To Learn with Joy
Jacob 4:3 ". . . our children will receive them with thankful hearts, and look upon them that they may learn with joy and not with sorrow,"

No, this isn't my own original idea. But hey, what really is? I really wanted to do this because we now have 3 of the 4 in school (5th, 3rd & 1st grade). They are in a new school. And all had trepidations about everything; homework being too hard, tests, new stuff, etc. I wanted to start the year off with a "celebration" to celebrate education and learning. Hopefully, this can help kick-start their confidence & banish worries. We are all in this together!


Each child got their own unique crown to wear for the feast. They also got to pick their own menu. Meaning they each had something different for dinner; hence, the feast. Eliza & Jacqueline chose spaghetti & meat sauce. Mairyn chose chicken alfredo. Grant wanted pizza. And they all sampled each others food, too. They also each got a little treasure box with the theme written on a piece of paper inside. They are to put their special boxes in a safe place & look for secret messages from time to time. They can also leave each other messages of encouragement. Hopefully. Grant has been collecting seashells on the playground and putting them in his box.

This is what I get when I ask Jacqui to look at me. And I have only been able to snag the two youngest for their "crown pictures".

I have mixed emotions about this one of Jacqui. I like it, but she looks too grown up. *sigh* Also, I love love love these "picture walls" at my house. Grant is in the foyer & Jacqui out along the front porch wall. Perfect time of day, too.

Dra-gon

"Hey! Dragon. *Dra-gon* Not lizard, I don't do that tongue thing."
~ Mushu

Truthfully, that was the first thing that popped into my head when I saw these in the produce section at Geant.

It's a dragonfruit; or pitaya. I've discovered that they carry a lot of Asian fruits & products because of the high population of Southeast Asians. Here's what they look like on the inside.


Cool, huh? Though they look pretty, they are not that tasty. Maybe ours wasn't ripe enough (I wouldn't know how to tell) or just not a good fruit. I did notice that there were other varieties of dragonfruit listed on the wikipedia page.


Peeling & slicing the fruit was easy, the skin just came right off in one piece. It was semi-firm; I like the texture. I don't like to eat mushy fruit. Mealy apples? *blech* When you bite it, the little seeds popped kind of like poppy seeds in a muffin. But it tasted like dirt. We tried putting some sugar on it to see if it would improve the taste. It just tasted like sugar on dirt. But it's a pretty fruit & we had to try it once!

We cut up a more familiar piece of produce, pomegranates. Jacqui is the most fond of these little seeds. They make a great garnish for salads & I am so glad they get to be a staple in our meals again!!

YouTube Tuesday: Mumtaz!

The return of YouTube Tuesday! Through a chain of friends, this video fell into my lap. I am so impressed. Something so polished & professional AND it came out of Cairo! It makes me miss my friends & the memories we made in that dusty city. I don't know when I will have the desire to return to Cairo, but I do long for a return of floating on a felucca down the Nile, dear friends and the memories we made. Cairo will always be my 'Era of Babies'. When we fell off the airplane in 2005, we had a 5 yo, 3 yo, & 14 month old. Jacqueline decided to join the fun a year later; and then continued our odyssey through raising babies and growing in expat experience. Wow, I did not expect this post to turn into some mushy reminiscence, but hey, you get what you get. Enjoy.

Let's do laundry

Come on! Let's do some laundry together! Have you got your dirty hamper?

Out the back door . . .

And down the steps . . . though be careful, if your sunglasses have fogged up, you could miss a step.

Continue that way, toward the garage. See the water tank on the wall? Yeah, past there. I sure am glad I've got a wagon coming in my household goods!

*Whew* Take a look at how far we've come! (*smirk*) Let's get this chore done.

Oh, sorry, only room for one at a time. Washer's in the corner, dryer is beside it.

And last, but not least, the switch that does nothing. Sure, it says air conditioning, but there isn't one in this room. Don't worry, I've got a gecko to keep the ants and mosquitoes away. Not that he can keep me cooler . . . but I have a pet gecko, that makes me cool enough.

Pictures at sunset

Yesterday, I happened to look out the window and saw some perfect light! I grabbed my camera and ran outside to capture some pics of my garden. Though I forgot that here, in Manama, I have to wait at least 5 minutes to give my camera time to de-fog. Here's what it looks like, through my camera lens, as soon as I step outside. (It does the same thing to my sunglasses)


I fortunately have a special lens cloth to wipe it clean of the condensation while it's "warming up". Here's that same bush beside my steps after things have cleared up.


I am *loving* the front of my house. I love love love arches. And most of the doorways in my house are arched or oval-ish.


And here's a couple okay-ish garden pictures. But I'm not bothered, I have plenty of time to take many, many more pictures!