Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Holidays

Not too much longer, then everything will be back to normal. [Normal, being a relative term.] There has been very little - of interest to me - in the papers lately. Today is National Day and that is a holiday. Next week Ramadan ends and Eid begins - and that will be celebrated with a two or three-day holiday. On October 7th, it will finally be both productive and safe to go downtown. I can get the paint samples I want, I can see about getting some cornices made, and some lampshades, too.

Our shipment should arrive at that point - I believe it is in the Sandbox, but I'm doubting we will see it until after the holidays. Customs will need to inspect it - and that might involve work. I am dreading what "they" are going to do to 120 pounds of food for my Kids from The Honest Kitchen, after what "they" did to the last food I shipped in. And, I only hope that as "they" slash my twenty-four boxes open that they don't shred my new towels or puncture the industrial-size containers of Tide. I'm guessing that the two cases of canned crab meat are going to make it through, along with a case of canned potatoes - although there must be some sort of ban on those products as they've not been seen on any grocery store's shelves in a year. Who knows why... With the many cartons of cigarettes that I have had shipped over in the last six years, only a few packs have gone "missing." The men in customs must not like menthol... And, any books in my shipment are fairly innocuous - questionable titles get hand-carried back - so the books should make it through customs without a problem. I always remove the dust-covers - no need drawing any attention to my books. Customs will be surprised to find a box of empty CD and DVD cases. I know better than to ship the actual discs - they would all be confiscated so that they could be "reviewed." I hand carry the discs back and put the cases in the shipment, empty. I doubt "they" would actually keep season three of Monk, but the music CD's might be deemed "offensive," especially Tim Buckley...

Speaking of offensive... If this isn't offensive, I don't know what is. How many eight-year olds are going to have to be married and divorced before someone puts their foot down and says, "no more." There was an article in one of the papers last week that said something about how both parties would have to consent to marriage before it could be deemed legal. There is NO eight or nine or ten or eleven or fifteen year-old girl capable of making that kind of life-altering decision! Just stop it. You are portraying yourselves in an incredibly negative light with this kind of insanity.*

Insanity... Just par for the course. I mean why else would two young men sneak into a mosque to watch women praying?*

*Thanks to WZ who "scours the bowels of the internet" so I don't have to...

8 comments:

  1. Any chance of suggesting a good shipping company? I'm feeling the need to send over some furniture...

    ReplyDelete
  2. You are going to ship furniture, L_O? It IS going to cost you a fortune! Our furniture got shipped over when we moved here - it was done by slow boat [very, very slow boat!] and arrived in January - we'd already been here for four months. The moving company took care of everything but it was East-West Cargo services that delivered it to us, here.

    Namma [sp?] Cargo arranges receipt of our DHL shipment and delivers it to us every year - the air freight we ship. I shipped 230 kgs. and do not know how much it is going to cost, yet. It is a couple thousand dollars - every year.

    I've never been to Oman, so don't know what your furniture store selection is. Can you get to Bahrain? Great furniture shopping, there! The One, IDesign, a fabulous store in Seef Mall - something Trading - the name escapes me.

    If you are going to ship furniture, I'd call one of the big, nationwide, moving companies in the States for starters...

    ReplyDelete
  3. When we came here 6 years ago, we shipped our stuff in a mondo huge container by sea and it took about 6 weeks back then.

    I have a hard time finding furniture I really like here, apart from Marina and it's pricey. The price of mattresses (serta) are ridiculous. For just the top of a king, it's gonna run us over $2k - without a boxspring.

    The shipping company we used I cannot remember the name of for the life of me and I can't find any of the documents. Shows how organized I am, eh? We didn't use a big named place - those costed probably double than the one we used. It was a risk, but not even a screw was missing or broken from our shipment and we even sent over two aquariums so we got lucky! :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. 2K for a mattress, L_O? Youch!!! Had no idea. Ours better last another ten years, here, then!

    I have my documents from six years ago, L_O, and will dig them out later to find out the name of the company. Don't know that I'd recommend them - we did have broken and missing stuff [although the missing stuff had to do with customs, here, who took all sorts of things they didn't think we should have!].

    Do you have a "The One" there? Yes, Marina - I'm pretty sure that is the store at Seef Mall - is a bit pricey, but is it any more expensive than having stuff shipped?

    I have had numerous pieces [five] custom made at Craftland in Bahrain. They do a FABULOUS job! Would highly recommend them to anyone. Not only do they do excellent work, but the cost is incredibly reasonable. I couldn't have any of the stuff I have - that they have done for me - custom made in the States for anywhere near the price.

    ReplyDelete
  5. L- I wouldn't suggest shipping either from the US. Why not to a trip to Dubai or another Gulf state that has more furniture choices?

    marina is expensive and not for gals like us who have loads of kids :)

    There are a couple of furniture stores here that have American furniture but pricey. And I'm not spending that until my kiddos have moved out. I also paid nearly 2000 USD for a bed, love it. UAE puts out some decent mattresses that are a fraction of the cost, got mine w/ a bedroom set I just got. I really have to take a pic and upload I'm so in love w/ this set.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I saw the story about that little girl yesterday. How sad.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Nzingha - Isn't there a mattress store in downtown Khobar right - mattress factory maybe? Doesn't matter since you and L_O have already paid a small fortune for one...

    Do hear you though about buying expensive furniture while kids are small. I made the mistake of buying an off-white couch years ago with a young son and DH... First there were rules - no eating or drinking on the couch but after a while the rules just didn't matter. The off-white couch was not off-white long!

    ReplyDelete
  8. It is beyond sad, Freddie! How old is Sunshine? Can you even possibly imagine?!?

    ReplyDelete

 
Site Meter