| Michael and Jen...'s profileextra bucksmithPhotosBlogLists |  Tools  Help |
|
November 29 being dadin a lighter moment in class the other day, i asked how many of them slept with underpants on their head. eight hands shot up and i immediately wondered if i'd asked them a question relating to desiring ice cream instead. judging by their comments i know they heard me properly. "i always do," said one, and "i don't, but i will tonight".
had i gone too far with my daft question? what turns normal people into ones that will joke about underpants. at the start of the year the class took a lot of settling. weeks in they were "still consolidating class routines", or however i worded it in some of their reports. but now they are sweet, or else!
then, i realised. maybe i'm having an effect.
and in two weeks our baby is due. friends (who shall remain anonymous) have already surrendered their patents on names such as cathy, john and hannah. a parent at school offered us khalifa yesterday. we then shared the joke as he thought it would be funny for us to give tot an arabic name. it would be, wouldn't it?
todays photos are from masafi. we went there today with the year group to see them packing water and tissues.
"it was too nice, mr."
November 23 rattle and rollfor a few months i have been privately tutoring two sheikhs, grandsons of HH sheikh saqr al qassimi. i hope i provide as much help for them as they do laughs for me. everyday i go up to their house and drag them through their homework while eating and drinking all that is politely laid before me. except for the time when maryam, the maid, brought me the remote control for the air conditioning. i didn't eat (or drink ) that. once their homework has been completed i usually give them some writing or reading practise. saqr quite enjoys playscripts. he does all the male parts and i am all the ladies, which left me singing a whole page of narration the other day because thats how it said to say it. saqr enjoyed it. kayed has a fantastic sense of humour. sadly (although luckily for me) he enjoys puns. i indulge him.
the community here is wonderful. last night twenty of jennys girl friends met at sara hardies for a baby shower for out little one. jenny has not been well recently but she made it down and spent a few hours enjoying their company. we received many thoughtful gifts to give our baby. somehow i found myself enjoying the elmo bib the most. we were also given a mat for the floor with rattley animals dangling down, clothes, pampers, toys and (very thoughtfully, i thought) some lotions and creams for the amazing mother to be. jenny was also given a book with advice, thoughts and prayers wriiten by her friends and family. thank you to you who contributed.
do i have a handle coming out of the side of my head? can you see a bunnykins print on my face? do i look like a mug? our car has a small problem. in the form of a hole. it's funny how nothing can cause such a problem. i assume thats all a hole is. nothing, in the wroing place. its alright now but will need to be fixed soon. i think we should just replace the blasted thing. the a/c squeeks too. i have had two quotes to have these small jobs done. the first quote was at least three times more than i wanted to pay. the second was only double. put it this way. i could fly a mechanic out from wellington, put him up in our spare room, feed him and buy his beer before driving him to dubai airport to fly home, for the same price of quote number one.
still, i love rak. i was told by the head at school today that i could have the five days off i asked for when baby is born. couple that with the holiday from after school tutoring i have coming up in december and a three week school (eid al hadr) holiday from 28.12. now add visits from parents in december and january, we have a relaxing family oriented month or two ahead.
no doubt i will keep you posted. November 18 birthi have tried repeatedly to convince my children that my name is not mr bucksmith but miss starbucksmith. they see the joke. i mention this because as it was jennys birthday today a group of us met at starbucks for a drink and muffin. it was really pleasant. they are great people here. i know this because i only sent out a mass text yesterday afternoon and pretty much everyone came at short notice. those who couldn't sent greetings anyway. some brought cards and small gifts too.
there was a man i knew who i disagreed with on most things. or he disagreed with me. but i remember one thing he said that i have often appreciated. he loved birthdays because they celebrated life. happy birthday means 'im so glad youre with me and in my life and have been for another year'. thats how i feel about jenny today. this thought is even more poignant (nearly typed pugnant by mistake!) as we expect our first baby. i've tried to imaginethe joy that must have filled sue and graham smith on the 17th november 1974, the day before jenny was born. i think its how we feel today looking at jennys tummy, with wonder and hope. life is a mystery and a miracle. so many people experience such different versions of it than i do. i love the one god gives me each day and hope i can help give life to others. not just existence, but life.
happy birthday. as promisedit was great having matthew here. not only did it give us all a chance to catch up with each other, it gave me the chance to explore parts of this country jenny and i haven't seen yet. rak is a fascinating city and in literally five minute you can drive from live goat markets to desert to starbucks (we never made it there with matthew, incidently). driving around with matthew on the first day we drove through nakheel, old rak, khuzam and in between. this place has the bustle of any third world city but also the facilities many western cities would like to introduce sometime in future. we spent the first night up at the rak hotel sipping moroccan tea and talking about how good life is out here. the next morning i whisked matthew off to the dam. yes, a dam in the desert. there weren't any rivers flowing on the day we were there (or for months if not years previously) but it was a quiet place to look at mountains, see a snake and a handful of goats. we were home in time to take jenny to art group and enjoy a few hours chatting in the lounge. that night we visited javed and mariam, friends of ours, who made us some form of lip smacking curry, punctuated (as if it needed it) with a can of genuine creaming soda.
the next day, matthew and i drove up to oman to meet friends and go on a boat. the boat was a dhow. we had a drink at the golden tulip hotel in khasab before our half day putt around the islands sitting on top of the mussandam penisular. we had a swim, saw a dozen or so dolphins and really enjoyed chatting with each other. after returning to shore, matthew and i drove around the town of khasab looking at fascinatingly characteristic buildings and people. on the way back to the uae we stopped at another town called bhaka. the kids in the street greeted us with 'allo! allo!'. there was a fort like thing on top of a hill which lent itself to be being photographed as did the barren but tremendous mountains backdropping this town. through the border again and home to jenny. ahhh...
also during the week we ate at the golf club, followed by more moroccan tea at the rak hotel. Also, carly (our mate) had invited us over to have a curry and drink beer. so we went. a day in dubai to show matthew the burj al arab, the mall of the emirates (including a peek at ski dubai) and the creek confirmed that my condfidence when driving is not always indictitive of my ability. still, we didn't crash and saw most of what we planned to see. except the karama markets cos they were shut. we tried to get to the gold markets but there was no where to park. after not finding a place to eat we decided to head back to rak and return earlier on sunday and eat before matthew flew off. in rak we gave ourselves a 10 dirham budget each and had a great picnic tea from the supermarket.
i was at school on saturday so matthew sat on the beach at the hilton beach club. he says that he also read and got a little burnt too. that night we drove one hour out of town and back again with some of my friends, jono, mustaq, owen and phil. we needn't have because the hot pools we wanted to sit in in khatt were closed. still it was a nice drive. actually, the roadworks made it made it less appealing and I was reaady for bed long before we got home.
on sunday night we took matthew down to the airport in dubai along the newish E311 emirates road. before we dropped him off we enjoyed a beautiful couple of hours on board a old style boat that served a great 4* buffet and cruised up and down the creek for a couple of hours. jenny and i look at dubai a little more favourably as we have seen more of it and also gotten off the roads and had some nice experiences. having made sure that matthews flight to singapore was on time we left him to kill a few hours while we sped back to rak and into bed for one am. the time flew by (like we did on quad bikes at awafi desert on matthews first day). sadly. thank you matthew for coming and sharing a memorable week with us. November 14 tiredthanks for checking back. its been a busy week or so at the bucksmiths house. we have just shared our apartment with my brother, matthew. he brought his usual jokes, relaxed ways and generousity. it was a real pleasure to have him here and my first feeling this morning was of disappointment, remembering that we'd dropped him off at dubai airport at midnight last night. i'll write later in more detail about what we got up to.
jenny is well. she often feels tired and uncomfortable. entering the ninth month of pregnancy the other day, this is not surprising. i do feel like i can't help much, but i'm endeavouring to be as nice and helpful as i can be. we simply cannot wait until we can hold our baby in our hands and see her or his face. what a day that will be.
we are enjoying cooler weather these days. its possible to walk around at most times of the day. there may even be some rain on the horizon. it had rained by this time last year, if my memory serves me correctly. jenny has yet another birthday on friday. it rained on her 30th last year. i have the photos to prove it.
i continue to enjoy my life at rakess. the children are enthusiatic and well behaved. sometimes i wonder if they are revolting or planning to. i work with a couple of british teachers who are a great laugh and cover my back when needs be. i am also tutoring two boys after school each day. this has been making me quite tired although it is enjoyable and requires little preperation.
i must finish now. i've been writing about being tired and now it's 11pm. do keep in touch. November 05 worth the waitso, we drove to dubai to find a certain supermarket. bought some gluten free flour and 2 packets of bacon that seem to have expired but i reckon they'll be alright. we then drove back up the new road to ajman and to the hospital for another check up. we paid our 60 dirham fee and went and took a seat. i was a little disturbed that our usual seat had been physically removed from the room. why? so we sat somewhere different. actually we sat and sat and sat. after 90 minutes or so a few 'asma?', 'basma?' and 'olga?' calls from the nurses (known locally as sisters) i went and brought 2 packet of chippies, salt 'n' vinegar. not intentionally. i wanted salted and asked for salted. nevermind. at 1.5 dirham each, just 50c in nz, i suffered the vinegar, as did jenny, and judging by the speed that i finished my bag, i seemed to enjoy them very much. wow, a new seat and a new flavour of chippies. i made my way, feeling slightly parched, to the water vending machine, inserted my dirham coin and pressed the button for water. sold out. still after my adventures with the seating arrangements and deceptively marketed snacks, i ventured right up the buttons to mountain dew. i pulled the ring tab off and settled down to an unusual beverage. we figured it would be a long wait, so i encouraged jenny to go for a stroll. she did, cheerfully. after a good 15 feet, one of the sisters called out 'jenny? jenny? bucksmith?' ahh. our wait was over. we must have been waiting nigh on two and a half hours. we went in, sat down and spoke to the gynob. she spoke to us. jenny lay down, they found the heartbeat. i skipped one at the thought of my baby in there. the conclusion: baby is well, see you in ten days. wow, the seats were hard, the chippies were strange, the drinks glow in the dark, but hearing that my baby is okay was the best news i could hope for. well worth the wait. November 04 holy dayswell, term one has ripped by. we spent yesterday with friends who celebrate eid. had a wonderful picnic at the base of a dry river known as wadi bih. i spent a couple of early hours down by the mosque watching an incredible site. thousands gathered to pray. not in a way i've ever enjoyed, but down on their knees then onto their faces. men, women, children, indians, emiratis, saudis, british, pakistanians, afghans, bangladeshis, malayasians, omanis, and more. it fascinated me. i took a few pictures but mostly enjoyed the serenity, really. later on we took the bumpy ride to the hajja mountains and to wadi bih. you'd love it there. quiet, beautiful and isolated. i'm very excited about matthew's arrival on sunday. we should have a blast., maybe visit the quarry. next term is a short one, up till christmas only. baby will be with us before then as will sue. its too easy to live here and i can't help but think of more destinations i'd like to set up camp in. saying that, just when i think i've taken all the photos possible in this country, i find new corners and will surely continue to do so. please check our photos to the right. |
|
|
