Rean's birthday and other thoughts

Rean's Birthday

Yesteday was Rean's birthday. It was hard for him not to be able to take the day off. Infact, his special day actually started with an unpleasant bang, in the form of a fender bender on the way to work. It is really quite hazardous to stop at a traffic light before it has turned dark red. I don't know what value they attach to an amber light, but stopping is definitely an unexpected thing to do! So the poor man had to spend hours in the sun waiting to be rescued. My big concern (of course after hearing that he was fine and hadn't been hurt) was the 5 carrot cakes that were in the back of the car at the time of the accident. I had spent the previous week baking these cakes so that every one of Rean's colleagues could get a piece.

I have never tried my hand at serious baking, but I must say that these cakes (the first carrot cakes that I have ever baked) turned out deliciously! The guys at the office seemed to be suitably impressed, although it sounds as though they don't associate carrots with cakes, and might have been a bit sceptical at first (I'll include the recipe at the bottom of the post). The ladies of the compound (now there is a topic for discussion!) advised me that the thing to get Rean for his birthday was a massage from Marilyn. That sounds a lot more fun than I meant it to! Marilyn is one of the hairdressers on the compound and she also does nails, facials and massages. I popped into her shop to ask for a gift voucher, and the small chinese lady looked up all our birthdays in a pocket book and determined our Chinese horoscope. I am a dragon and since this is the year of the dragon she said it will be a lucky year for me.So there you go! Mieke is a rabbit baby. At this Marilyn just smiled and nodded, 'strong' she said.

Little Rabbit

Our little rabbit now has four teeth, and the next two are just about peeking out. She manages little walks of about 6 steps on her own before she grabs for support, or gets picked up and directs the route she wants to be taken in. Yesterday the restaurant manager phoned me to say the ladies were all playing Bingo, I must come! So we went to check out Bingo and in the dining hall Mieke held onto my pants and walked very confidently, quite far, not realizing that she was really walking on her own as my pants didn't really support her at all.

She does very well with the interaction with other kids around. We go to the playground every day. At the moment it is freezing cold (about 5 degrees celsius in the mornings), so we often play by ourselves, but in the afternoons we regularly visit with other ladies and kids, and Mieke loves it!

Playing Dress Up with Rowana

 Rowana is a Philipine girl who comes to our house three times a week. She plays with Mieke and helps me with the ironing and cleaning.This lets me get on with work (Limosella is much busier than I expected!), studies and some personal computer time. It is a wonderful solution to just about all my stress. This brings me to another Thought:

My womanliness

A friend recently emailed and asked how I was coping in this inhospitable country and how I was managing to hang on to my 'womanliness'. That is really a bad translation of the Afrikaans 'vrouwees', but I want to talk about more than just femininity. Clarissa Pinkola Estes wrote a book called 'Women Who Run With Wolves'. It is a very complex book but one of the points I thought she was trying to bring across is that a woman's feminine power, or magic, or deep 'womanliness' doesn't have to do with her biological abilities. It is rather a nurturing essence which we can express in our careers, gardening, housekeeping, parenting, partnering etc.In this country I am not allowed to drive and I have to cover my clothes with an Abaya when I leave the compound and to some women this may be felt to be an infringement on their Women's Liberty. What I am experienceing is a feeling that space and time have brought me to a place where I can focus on a more primal womanliness. Now I have the time to watch my baby fall asleep every single day, I can grow a garden in pots and have time to water them every evening. I start cooking a nice supper early on in the day (sometimes it actually does turn out nice, and sometimes it is actually finished by dinnertime!). I have time to keep tabs on my business, and study. I have tea with a lady friend at least once a day, although every now and again I don't feel like going out and stay in my little house. Not being able to wear revealing clothes in public doesn't dent my womanliness right now! Not being able to get around on my own is not so convenient, but it's not the end of the world.

Marilyn might be right, I do think this is a lucky year for me!

Carrot Cake Recipe

This was the first recipe I found on the internet and I can really recommend it (http://allrecipes.com/recipe/carrot-cake-iii/)

Ingredients

• 4 eggs
• 1 1/4 cups vegetable oil
• 2 cups white sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 3 cups grated carrots
• 1 cup chopped pecans (I used finely chopped almonds, walnuts and raw unsalted pistachios)
•  
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 8  ( 225g) ounces cream cheese, softened
• 4 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup chopped pecans

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 175 degrees C. 
2. In a large bowl, beat together eggs, oil, white sugar and 2 teaspoons vanilla. Mix in flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Stir in carrots. Fold in pecans. Pour into prepared pan.
3. Bake in the preheated oven for 40 to 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely.
4. To Make Frosting: In a medium bowl, combine butter, cream cheese, confectioners' sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Beat until the mixture is smooth and creamy. Stir in chopped pecans. Frost the cooled cake.

A week-end in Oman

Our Iquama (work premit) is not finalised yet which means that every 30 days we have to get our passports stamped outside of the KSA (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia). We left things a bit late in organising a week-end away and ended up scrambling for a destination close by that didn't require a prior visa application. Oman turned out to be that destination. On wednesday evening at about 9:30pm we departed on Oman Air for Muscat, and arrived at a very crowded, humid Muscat at about midnight. The airport shuttle that Rean had taken very great pains to arrange didn't materialise, so we had to stand around and wait for them to come and fetch us. Fortunately Mieke slept through most of it! When we got to our hotel she woke up and had a great time of bouncing around the bed, hopping alternately on dad and then on mom. We were exhausted!

The next morning we had a late breakfast and then a long nap since the places we wanted to visit only opened after 4pm. We grabbed a taxi which dropped me off at Muttrah Souq, and took Rean to the airport where he rented a car. I had wanted to visit the souq (or market) because I don't get out much at home, and this was a chance to feast my eyes on glorious trinkets, carpets, scarves, jewellery, silver, incence, so many many beautiful things! Al Dhalam (Darkness in Arabic) Souq is the local name for the Muttrah Souq. It is claimed to be one of the oldest marketplaces in the Arab world, owing to the fact that Muscat is the world's largest natural harbor and has seen immense trade in the age of sail, being strategically located on the way toIndia and China. It has been named after darkness because of the crowded stalls and lanes where the sunrays do not infiltrate during the day and the shoppers need lamps to know their destinations (Wipipedia). It is not a cheap place to shop, but it was an incredible adventure!

Abayas can be so very elegant and feminine!

 

Beautiful silk carpet

Mieke loved this green scarf

 Our last day in Oman, we took our rental car and drove to the town of Nakhal where we wanted to visit an old fort dating from the 17th century. Named after the nearby date palm groves, Nakhal Fort, sitting one hundred feet high on its rocky promontory, has a commanding view of all that surrounds it. Embedded on top of large slabs of tawny yellow rock, the structure sits like a great architectural boulder carved into towers, windows and walls. The fort is fully suited to its purpose and in perfect harmony with its environment. The interior is characterised by plain, balanced spaces, open stairways, arched recesses, a multitude of accessible rooms with windows shuttered by beautiful wooden carvings and ceilings of latticed palm matting supported by polished mangrove and palm timbers . From its early history until as late as 1980, the Fort was the residence of the Wali who held his barza, wherein he heard pleas, petitions or complaints; and, with his council, sat in judgement. And, in fact, though the Wali no longer lives in the fort, he does, to this day, hold his barza there once a month every winter season.(http://www.newsbriefsoman.info/item/2006/04/nakhal-fort).

 

On our way back to the airport in Muscat, we took a long stoll along the arabian sea, on a warm coffee coloured beach. I must say that Oman and its gracious inhabitants stole my heart. It is a place I never even thought to visit, but I am so glad to have had the chance!

Chrome Crescent 25, 4A

We moved into our house in the compound on new years day. It is tiny, the furniture they provided is all white, but it is absolutely wonderful! We go for at least one walk every day, there is a huge pool, baby splash pool and play area with jungle gyms and a gym for big people (that's us). The only bad things are the dust and the small cement backyard which dsperately needs a shade structure of some sort from which I can hang pots of geraniums. Apart from that I feel as though I could happily settle in here for a few years! O yes, and arabic plumbing is something which might get me down. If you use, for any situation whatsoever, more than two sqares of toilet paper, the toilet will block up. I have tested this!

Chrome Crescent

Mieke loves DIY!

Our bedroom complete with sleeping baby (under the blanket)

Cozy dining and living room

Kitchen

Spare room and study

Soon to be back yard

I'm reading a terrible book, just before giving it up as a bad job, I read this piece which was something I had been thinking about alot. "In a way, everyone became what they chose to be defined by: their manhood, an act of shame, of heroism, kindness, a humiliation, their mother's country, the unfairness of their lives, an illness, their faith, an accident. In every person's past and present and future, so many patchwork pieces were presented. As people chose to keep some things and discard others, they set in motion a sorting process that gradually created their identities" Why is it so hard to let go the bad things that happen in our lives? If only we could always chose the good things to define us wouldn't we all be happy and content?

That's what I am going to try this year, to be content. I am also going to paint my toenails regularly, wear nice hairclips, exercise regularly and eat more healthy. I really am!

Best wishes for the year that lies before you!