I'm moving

Hello Friends,

Today I want to share some big news with you...

Yes, I will be leaving Kuwait in one month ....

If you ask why ...here is the answer

I LOVE CHANGE (S) ...

Over the years I have realised that if I stay in one place or environment, I become resentful. I crave change ...

As many of you know , I'm an expat in Kuwait which means I live here on a work visa. My husband & I moved here for getting exposure of working outside my home country India and also some personal reasons. Since last few months, work has been stressful. Though I haven't written much about how living in Kuwait is like (mostly shared the good part) , I can sum it up in few words -Kuwait is one of the most expat unfriendly country . As work is major reason of us staying here, stress at work meant unhappy life here.

So in December 2018 , we started thinking of moving out, explored our options and resigned in January end .

I truly believe that if things are not so good at some point of one's life  , it is an indication that a change is required. After we have made the change and are happier , we realise that it was God's way up of telling us -get up and make a change . It can be a change in life style, job, attitude , physical location..it can be anything.

We are moving out of Kuwait for growth in professional as well as personal life...As much as I enjoyed my time in Kuwait, I'm ready for new adventures.

Now if you are curious where I'm moving ..I'm moving to India.

Most of the people I know here are saying "Oh you are moving back to India ?"

Well physically I'm moving to my home country but I personally believe -In life you never move back ..life only moves forward.

I can't describe how excited I'm about this new innings of my life. I know life in Kuwait was too comfortable, I may not be able to have some of the comforts in India but I want to challenge myself.

Most of the people I have shared the news with, have been supportive and understand my desire to move but there are people who have passed judgmental remarks on why they think it's so easy for me to move.So for the people who think its easy for me to move from one country to another because I don't have a kid or have enough bank balance...here is what I feel.

I know you may be thinking , what is this whole fuss about challenges, she is moving to her home country.. I will share about this in my post when I settle down in my new house 😉.

I understand that things are not gonna change between my blog friends and me as we met thru blog which is a virtual land . But I'm sure you are gonna miss my life updates in Kuwait ..aren't you?

Well I'm not going anywhere, I will keep posting, just the desk, chair and laptop from where I post will change.

So wish me luck friends ...

Kuwait National & Liberation day celebrations

Hello everyone,

As promised , I'm sharing pictures of this year's Kuwait National & Liberation day celebrations . 
I would like to share very interesting fact about Kuwait National day. Normally most countries celebrate their national day on the same date they gained independence. In Kuwait, this would have meant National Day would be on 19th June, marking the date of independence in 1961. On 19 June 1961, Kuwait became independent with the end of the British protectorate and Sheikh Abdullah Al-Salim Al-Sabah became the Emir.
However, it was felt that the holiday should be moved due to the extreme heat in June, and so from 1963, the National Day was moved to 25th February, marking the date that the Sheikh Abdullah Al-Salem Al-Sabah came to power in 1950.
Kuwait Liberation Day is celebrated on 26 February. This holiday marks the day when Kuwait was liberated from Iraqi occupation in 1991.

Liberation Tower as seen from Souk Mubarakiya

The month of February is celebrated as Hala Feb. There are concerts, cultural shows , exhibitions throughout the month. The most beautiful part is use of electric lights to beautify the country , most of the installations/decorations are using colors of the flag .

Al-Sief Palace

Every year, I visit two areas famous for its light art.
The Ahmadi lights (light art in Ahmadi) are decorations put up by Kuwait oldest and biggest oil company KOC. Ahmadi is a governorate south of Kuwait city , here are some pictures.

The celebrations of Hala Feb won't be complete if one doesn't visit Souq Mubarakiya. Souq is a arabic term for bazaars , most of them are covered with wooden roofs with carvings . If you ever want to see what life in Middle east was before oil was discovered, visit a souk. Souq Mubarakiya is one of my favourite places in Kuwait.Here are some pictures.

Most souks will have multiple entrances , with  cobbled streets , selling everything from fruits to electronics.

This year as we were exploring the souk, we ended up in a part where we saw this monument. 

A little roaming around and after reading the plaques we gathered that the square is called Safat Square. It is a  historical commercial square  where the seafarers of Kuwait would gather and trade goods with businessmen coming from Persia, India and other sea routes .Read more  about it here .

February is my favourite month to explore Kuwait , you can see why...
I hope you like this picture tour of National & Liberation day celebrations in Kuwait.

One Saturday morning when I stepped out of the house :)

Hello Friends,

Today I want to share with you some pictures of Saturday which was well spent catching up with my craft group and exploring Kuwait.

Last few months have been very busy at work front and I have been working most weekends. This led to missing my craft meetings which is the last thing I like to do. Weather has been pleasant (and cold) since December and working on weekends led to frustration of not being able to be out in open. Every year I look forward to winter season so that I can attend all the craft bazaars, fairs, open markets and this is what helps me get thru the horrid summer here.

Thursday I decided not to work on weekend and explore some new places . Saturday morning I attended my craft group meet up at Luna & Beau . Its a pet friendly cafe where one can bring their pets , hang out for coffee, play with the resident cats and use the grooming services.

Here are some pics:

After the meetup , we took a quick stop at new to me park -Yarmouk Public Garden which has some recycled art. Its a small park , nicely maintained . We enjoyed a stroll thru the park ,I love how the pics turned out with overcast sky.It has been raining here regularly , with temperatures dipping but high humidity.

Next stop was Kuwait Marine Museum ,also called Al Heshami Marine Muesum. This museum is built next to "Al Hashemi II " which is world's largest dhow with its name entered in Guinness World Records. 

Al Hashemi II

Al Hashemi II is a Baghlah, which is is a large deep-sea dhow, a traditional Arabic sailing vessel. 

The Pearling Boom

The museum houses replicas of traditional Kuwaiti boats like the Boom of different kind , trading boats used in Arabic peninsula,a viking boat and pictorial journey of how the Al Hashemi II was built.

Details on a Vikings boat

Details on a Vikings boat

Mohammedi II- Kuwaiti boom style boat

The museum is small , one of the main reasons people think it would be boring. However, big or small , I'm yet to find a museum where I didn't learn something new.

For people in Kuwait , please use following information:
Location: Inside Radisson Blu , however you can enter the museum without entering the hotel. Ask for direction once you reach the hotel.
Entrance Fees:  Free
Opening hours: Everyday 10 am to 5 pm
Photography: Allowed

If you fancy a luxurious meal, you can dine at the Al Boom or Al Heshami Ball room :)

We came back home after making memories ...a beautiful morning well spent exploring around. I hope you enjoy the pics as much as I enjoyed visiting these places.

IHSW April Check-in

Hello dear friends,

It's time to show what I stitched for International Hermit & Stitch weekend . If you don't know what  IHSW is, its a SAL which was started by Joysze at Random Ramblings .Here is how she describes it "International Hermit and Stitch Weekend takes place every 3rd full weekend of each month, from Friday till Sunday. In our very busy and hectic lives, IHSW is a chance for us to squirrel some time away for ourselves and "Hermit and Stitch." It is a time set aside to take care of us and our love for stitching."

Weekend in my part of the world is on Friday & Saturday, so I will be stitching from Thursday to Saturday and post on Sundays whenever I participate in IHSW.

I extended my IHSW to Sunday this time as my current WIP fitted the theme for Earth Day SAL on Stitch Maynia . I don't have a before picture , here are the progress pics on Friday and Sunday. Rosey here is a picture of  Twitch in the background.

I guess you can very well tell now that these are vases. I know it looked like a blue penguin(is that possible?) when I last showed you the pic for my GG post. Jo correctly guessed that it was a vase, I don't know how.

Not much progress because we went for 2 roof top movie screenings over the weekend. We are trying to make the most before we are hit by summer. For the uninitiated , while the western world waits for summer , we in Middle east run and hide from the summer heat. 
I downloaded few memes to help you understand whats summer like here 

Summer in Middle east

While in the UK or USA

Is this how your Summer looks like?

Its going to be 50 deg C (122 F ) soon and we will be stuck indoors. Even getting out in night will be tough. Don't worry everything here is air conditioned :houses, shops, offices but it can be as depressing to be indoors all the time due to heat as it can be due to snow.

So while enjoy last days of sitting outside , I hope you guys enjoy the spring or end of snow in your part of the world.

IHSW February Check-in

Hello dear friends,

It's time to show what I stitched for International Hermit & Stitch weekend . If you don't know what  IHSW is, its a SAL which was started by Joysze at Random Ramblings .Here is how she describes it "International Hermit and Stitch Weekend takes place every 3rd full weekend of each month, from Friday till Sunday. In our very busy and hectic lives, IHSW is a chance for us to squirrel some time away for ourselves and "Hermit and Stitch." It is a time set aside to take care of us and our love for stitching."

Weekend in my part of the world is on Friday & Saturday, so I will be stitching from Thursday to Saturday and post on Sundays whenever I participate in IHSW.

Very happy to be showing you a new WIP for this post, I'm sure everyone was bored to see the same project -my nemesis project for 2 years now.

I picked up my new year new start for 2017 on Tuesday after stitching some smalls . This was also my project for Work That WIP 2018 - February SAL on Stitch Maynia. Here is how the project looked like on Wednesday 

Progress over the weekend

After working on 25 count evenweave for last few months, it feels different to work on Aida, the squares on fabric look so big , working with two threads is clumsy as the threads keep twisting and have to railroad for the stitches to lie flat. But then there is progress which is visible.I'm trying to do one color at a time, which I find very satisfying.

If you are wondering why the progress is less for a full weekend of stitching , its because Murphy's law came into play. You see I rarely go out on weekends or have any social life apart from my bi monthly craft gatherings. But I have observed that for IHSW , I will have social visits or will have to go out.This Friday we had a distant family member come over for dinner , on Saturday I met a bunch of expat ladies for breakfast whom I met thru Instagram.
Here a few pictures of the arabic food we had at Ayyame, all delicious.

Cheese & herbed Tabliya

Falafel with arabic bread

Gerse Ogaily

Though I must confess I'm not complaining about lack of stitching time , I love cooking , meeting new people and trying new food ☺.

I would like to thank you all for the comments on my last post, it felt like we all were celebrating my finish together. 

4 Years Today

Four years ago today , I started my journey to a land unknown...Kuwait. I landed here at the airport at night, the drive to the temporary accommodation seemed long. I was so excited for the new adventure.Would you believe that I only asked two questions before moving to Kuwait:will I be able to work in my field of education? Will I have to wear a burqa?(no offense to anyone here).

I see expats ready to move here and they have 100s of questions, using every forum available to ask . Sometimes I think may be I should have inquired more about moving a country about which me,my family and friends knew nothing.But then I think that as I came here without presumptions ,the journey has been more about learning new culture, news ways of living and mostly about rediscovering myself rather than being full of fear about middle east.

Thank you to all those people who I have met in these 4 years for making the journey a memorable one.

P.S. Kuwait towers is the first image I get in my mind whenever I want to post a picture about Kuwait.

This is what I posted on my Instagram account today(with slight changes made) and thought of sharing this post/milestone with my blogging friends who have been important part of life in these years.

Sharing some of the interesting pictures of my life in Kuwait, these are the recent ones I had in my phone.

 Picture of one the panels of exhibited in Weaving stories - a contemporary interactive exhibition and outreach initiative honoring the textile arts of Kuwait , Dated Nov 10,2016

First visit to  Al Shaheed park,Dated Nov 10,2016

Picture of Souq Mubarakiya decorated for Hala feb celebrations,Dated Feb 17,2017

  

Picture taken during our visit to Bayan Botanical garden when my brother was visiting us, Dated Feb 23,2017

Pictures of Kuwait towers decorated for Hala feb celebrations, when my brother was visiting us, Dated Feb 23,2017

  

                             Me, my brother and my husband having some fun on the beach

A picture of Secret Garden, a community project where everything right from the wooden gate to desk to plants have been donated by public.Dated March 4,2017

A replica of Dhow as exhibited at Failaka Island,Dated March 10,2017

Antiquities of Failaka Island,Dated March 10,2017

 Food is an important part of our life here, Kuwait offers cuisines of dozens of countries due to a large expat population. Dated March 14,2017

  This is the picture of the second bloom of Mums since I bought it.Dated March 31,2017

Grand Mosque,Dated April 15,2017

               That's me helping the kids in a cross stitch workshop, Dated Dec 16,2017

                   An abandoned hanger in the Shumaymah Desert,Dated Dec 31,2017

                           Abandoned building projects at Shumaymah Desert,Dated Dec 31,2017

If you notice, most of the pictures here are from Dec-March . This is because these months have temperatures pleasant enough for us to roam around , other months life is limited to house and office.

If you are interested in details of any picture or my life in kuwait in general, leave a comment and I will try to post about my experience of living in Kuwait.