Idol Gives Back

I must say...I really am not a big fan of American Idol. I've just never really gotten into all of the hype.

But tonight was different.

What a great program. Good music. (If you minus the Idol Contestant bits. Again, not a fan...Oh...and Ben Stiller, keep your day job! I must say, Jack Black - Hil-arious!) And an incredible cause.

AFRICA: Uh...my heart breaks. I want to sell everything I have and just go and help. We MUST do more. We MUST do something. How can we exist in such a consumeristic culture and not be aware of people dying every three seconds. This is ridiculous. We need to pull our heads out of our asses and actually CARE about the less fortunate. We need to be LOVE to those who have never known it. We need to ACT...NOW.

So whoever you are. Join the fight. Get involved.

And give, give, give.

From your heart. With your time. And your wallet.

But most importantly, your voice.

Join ONE now. Let us BE the generation that makes poverty history!

DAY EIGHT: 28 March, Heaven on Earth

Awake at 8:00AM. Impressed I got up so early!

Leave for La Fontaine.

Unspeakable.

Unbelievable.

Glorious.

A Worship experience of all 5 senses.

This IS what Heaven will be like.

It was the home of an old pearl merchant in Bahrain. Jean Marc Sinan restored and reinvented the place making it feel like you are in paradise in the middle of a bustling city. For some history of the place click here.

The whole experience was a work of art.

And the best part was it was like we rented out the whole complex. We didn't see one other person the whole time we were there. (Except for the staff people who were waiting on us hand and foot.)

We started with a hour long full body massage.

Then rested out by the pool. It started to sprinkle - which is unheard of for Bahrain in March. I took a nap by the pool under a wooden canopy.

Then to the restaurant for an amazing beef fillet. We had the place to ourselves. Georgous! And then it started to downpour. The sound was so relaxing! Heaven, I swear will be like this! I would move to Bahrain just for La Fontaine! And the prices will astound you for food and services compared to the west. I would go weekly if I lived here!

The food experience was right up there with Ortolan (except for the lack of alcohol.)

Then we wandered through the facility and spent time in the art gallery viewing Beyond Words , Calligraphy by the Iranian artist, Golnaz Fahti. Quite moving.

Breathe...

Ok, back to reality...picked up kids.

RAIN.

Esku make Ethopian food for dinner. Really good stuff, and ANOTHER great cultural experience.

Rest.

Kids to bed.

Out with Dan & Nicole to Seef Mall.

The GAP and Banana Republic just opened up. It was hilarious in a mall full of barely anyone in stores, and no one with shopping bags (because their house help carry them back to the car many times) to see like 50 women in Abiyahs crowded around the check-out at The Gap waiting to buy the new Spring line. (for full price -Yikes! And everything there was like 1/3 more expensive than at our Gap. However it was cheaper than Gap in London.) And then is was cool to be seen with your Gap bag. Just funny.

Out for smoothies at Waterlemon. When we go out for drinks, it's cocktails. When they go out for drinks, it's smoothies or coffee. Bean would miss her Appletinis!

Ran in to some friends.

Home and to bed.

Whatta day!

DAY SEVEN: 27 March, Bahrain

Awake at 10:30AM. FINALLY sleeping through the 4AM prayer call. (I wouldn't make a good Muslim...for me sleep is better that prayer at 4AM.)

Shower and dress.

Muffins with Francois & Amber.

(Really loving hanging out with and getting to know such GREAT people!)

Good talks.

Went over to see their new flat. Very beautiful. With a balcony with ocean view. Totally great!

Went to visit the Sheik Isa House (King Jesus House, literally) with "Ferrah-zanna's" family. It was funny because it was my 2nd time their...but their first and they had lived in Bahrain all their lives. (And believe me...it's a SMALL island!)

Back home.

Out to meet Dan at Cafe Lilou for dinner. A-mazing food! And really cheap for great food. Only wish you could enjoy it with a nice glass of wine...but that would be "haram" or taboo. Oh well. NC2 would hate it here. Great food...but no alchohol.

Good talks. Time to pray.

Rode home with my bro.

Reminicising.

Stayed up til 1AM looking at old photos.

Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders in Bahrain

Italy and our Christmas trip to Florence and Pisa

Summers in San Diego

Mickey & me at Disneyland.

So many memories!

Great night!

DAY SIX: 26 March, Bahrain

Woke up at 10AM.
Went out to Al-Anwar for cheap souveniers. (It's like our local Q Bargain, or a multi-cultural Dollar Store.)
Cool wooden trays and carved peices from India.
Loads of Hookah supplies.
Tons of crap.
Bought cute Easter pails for the kids.
Got Sophie and girl cousins the "Fulla" doll. She the Middle-Eastern equivalent of Barbie. Dressed in the full Abaiyah.
Strolled through Geant - the French version of Super Wal-mart...but MUCH cooler!
Bought my kids European candy.


J. got this picture right outside of Geant. It says so much of the clash of what we saw and felt the whole time we were there. Tides are changing. The West is influencing. Wanting to "change with the times" and yet "hold on to tradition". But somebody's buying the stuff...So who know's what's under the covering???

Picked up my niece and nephews from school.
Home for Dinner (?) at 3:30PM. (I am so screwed up from when people eat in this country...every day is a different time, and the "big meal" is in the -not quite- middle of the day.)
Out with Sami to CHAOSS to watch gymnastics.
Again soaking in the ex-pat culture and loving that S.A. accent!
Sami is an amazing gymnast. Totally top of the class and I'm not just saying that 'cause I'm a cool Aunt!
Home again. Skyped our kids.
Spent time with the nephews making fun of their insturctor, James, accent and all.
Dressed up a bit - out for "Girl's Night". Picked up "Ip-ta-hodge" (NO idea how to spell that!) and "Ferrah-zanna" and went to Le Chocolat. A-mazing! Good Italian pizza. Gelato. And beautiful desserts!
The whole night was hilarious and weird all at the same time.

One Bahraini dressed in full conservative Abaiyah. One Bahraini dressed conservatively, but modern. One American speaking Arabic, and me.

But all of us chatting it up, laughing, and talking loudly like it had been a reunion of my old college suite-mates. We deffinitaly got some stares! But it was one of the great high-lights of my trip. Great ladies. Such high-quality girls.
And sadly, being that I don't really keep up with American day-time television I had no input on what was currently going on on Oprah. Apparently, Oprah and Dr. Phil are big globally. Go figure. All in all it was a great light hearted and fun night!

DAY FIVE: 25 March, Bahrain

Awoke at 4AM from the morning prayer call. Goodness...that is early to be expected to be up praying. Wow! Couldn't fall right back to sleep until 5:15AM.
Slept til 12PM.
Ate leftovers, visited with Esku the live-in house-maid/nanny.
Picked up the kids from school.
Went by the Korean Bakery to buy European breads sold by Bahraini women. (Confusing!)
Went to CHAOSS (Children's Health Academy of Specialized Sports).
Saw Steven take his gymnastics class. (Open house week)
LOVE the accent of his South African instructor, James.

Went to Bahrain Fort. Had fun with the kids!
Took kids home to bed. Out for coffee with Nicole. Went to the local market to shop for spices. Lemon Salt - Hello? Where have you been all my life?

Took a late night request to get Ice Cream for a pregnant friend of Nicole's. Met Francois and Amber at their appartment and quickly became friends. Such great people. Interesting to hear a bit of their story and how they wound up moving from South Africa to Bahrain. Great people and hope to spend more time with them!Home to bed!

DAY FOUR: 24 March, Bahrain

Wake up at 1PM - YIKES!!! (Hey, we're on vacation!)

So SLEEPY still! Lunch of Hummus and Cashmere Chicken

Went to Crown Plaza (formerly Holiday Inn) for an awesomely extravagant birthday party for the kids of some family friends. Thank God for the COFFEE!!! I was so out of it. But it was the beginning of the week of cultural experiences! East meets west...but kids are kids and it was a lot of fun!

Memories of staying in that smae hotel 17 years prior with the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders.

First time I ever painted my fingernails red. (Hey, it was a big statement for me as a 16 year old.)

Insane Scooby-Doo birthday cake from Lilou's

I learnes that the Brits call "cotton candy" "Candy Floss" - cute.

Popcorn

Bouncy

Moving Train

Great Food - Bahrainy kids eat chicken nuggets and hamburgers too. With hummus on the side!

Met a guy who's name is literally translated "Jesus the Christ".

After the party the kids went home.
We stopped by another mall (Bahrain has like 16 malls and are building like 32 more!) (BTW it'sa very small island - that's A LOT of shopping!)

Getting Steven's eye glasses fixed

Went to the Carpet shop.

GREAT EXPERIENCE!

The Carpet guy buys fruit juice, diet coke and tea for us - What hospitality!

Bought a great carpet for the living room. My one souvenier!

Stopped by a Tailor shop. Another weird cultural experience!

Went to New York Coffee!

Talk with my bro.

Home

Call Kids...Carter was sad. :(

SO TIRED!

Tylenol PM and to Bed!

DAY THREE: 23 March, London to Bahrain

Wake at 6AM. Thank God I took the PM!

Shower, dress, talk to J.

Starbuck - and I thought coffee was expensive in the US.

Tube

Heathrow

So sleepy!

Got on the flight.

Sat in the emergency exit - LEGROOM!!!

Really nice Bahrain gentleman sitting next to us.

But it turned out he had really bad breath.

I MEAN REALLY BAD BREATH!

Poor J. sat next to him!

Then as the flight took off R.N.B.G. (really nice Bahrain guy) started barfing into air sickness bags...and kept barfing the ENTIRE 6 hour flight!

I am NOT kidding!

We tried to switch seats but the BA flight attendant was a bit of a stickler to the rules and wouldn't upgrade us. (Uh...someone in customer relations is gonna hear about this one!)

Watched Bobby. Great movie. (But, Frodo gets shot.)

Saw some Happy Feet (Frodo as a penguin)

S-L-E-E-P!

Woke up and watched Breaking & Entering.

(I could listen to Jude Law all day long - LOVE the accent!)

Afternoon Tea on the flight at like 8PM

ARRIVAL - finally!

It was so great to see the cousins. (And when I say the cousins I mean my kid's cousins.)

Great to see their world. Again.

It's been 17 years since I was there. Man, that makes me feel OLD!

So TIRED! But Nicole had an agenda!

So at 9PM we headed to the SEEF MALL

Checked out the Formula 1 station - they are hosting a big race this week.

Did some video game racing with the boys...I won!

Went out for Australian Crepes - go figure.

Ran into "Uncle Russell"

Got home around 11PM

Unpacking

Called home and tracked down the older boys at the Bowling Alley with Grandpa.

All's good ont he homefront. What a relief!

To Bed...SLEEP!!!!!

DAY TWO: 22 March, London

Arrived off the flight to a brisk morning! Man, London was C-O-L-D!

Were able to leave our luggage "In trasit" so we just had our carry-ons (which were still HEAVY!)

Began to learn to manuver our way around the Underground.

Did some people watching. Beautiful.

Piccadilly Line

Got directions to the Hotel from 2 old guys from Chicago. Gave them tube directions.

Kennsington High Street. Really cool.

Everything in London is twice as much.

Kennsington Gardens

Thistle Kensington Park - nice hotel.

TOTALLY JETLAGGED! My feet were killing me!!!

Change clothes. Get comfy and WARM...

(Had to dress like the Stay-Puff Marshmallow Man with like 5 layers to stay warm!)

Gotta keep moving!

Lunch at Wagamama (Way cool experience!)

Warmth at Starbucks

Tube

Piccadily Circus

Walk walk walk

Leicester Square

Covenant Garden

Charing Cross (Looked for Diagon Alley)

St. James Park

Buckingham Palace (waved to the Queen)

Wesminster Abbey

Big Ben at Sunset- marvelous!

(Look kids, Parliment!)

Waterloo

London Eye

Trying to find a trashcan! The don't exist in London.

Walk walk walk

Tube

King's Cross Station

Platform 9 3/4 (We HAD to go for the boys! Harry Potter fans.)

Back to Piccadily Circus

Kennsington High Street

Dinner at Giraffe ($18 Hamburger)

Walk to Hotel

Huge blisters on my feet...OUCH!

Tylenol PM

SLEEP!!!!!!!!!!!!!

DAY ONE: 21 March, Los Angeles

Packing, packing, packing (brand new suitcases!)
Gave kids stuffed Boynton animals - something to cuddle while we are away.
Hung up goody-bags for the kids to open each morning we are gone.
Dad took us to the airport.
Check-in.
I had sotten dressed up for the flight. Weird feeling to be kid free in the airport.
Saw a really BIG, FAT guy flying Aeroflot (Flashbacks!) with this bright white, brand new Adidas tack suit and bright white trainers. Had to be Russian Mafia by the look. Funny.
Quick snack at McDonalds.
Good flight. Extra legroom int he bag of the plane.
Old guy with an Irish accent sat behind us. Brilliant!
2 Tylenol Pms.
Tried to watch Deja Vu...totally fell asleep.
7 hours later woke up.
Breakfast on the flight and landed in London.

Excuse number 42-48

Why I haven't blogged my trip:

42. Jetlag
43. Springbreak - trips to the pool.
44. Reading the last few chapters of Harry Potter: Order of the Phoenix
45. Gardening
46. Pulled muscle in my leg while Gardening
47. We hung a new swing in the back yard and I am constantly pushing kids
48. What can I say, I'm lazy!

But it IS coming!!!

Jetlag

They say it takes one day to recover for every hour difference between where you live and where you travel. I think "they" are right. Bahrain is 10 hours ahead. Tomorrow will be 10 days since we landed. I think I am FINALLY coming out of the fog. I even stayed awake until 10:30PM last night. Woo-0ooo!

It took me three different attempts to make it through a viewing of "The Good Shepherd" this week. Good, but slow movie. It was so hard to stay awake for.

So to those "inquiring minds" that are harassing me :) I got the photos transfered to my computer and so the daily play-by-play will be coming shortly!

Luggage: Pt. 3

The carpet arrived on Friday... but like this:

BA is sending me a check for my ripped bag and lost razor.

This is how the carpet looks in our home. It was still in great shape and looks fabulous!

What an adventure.

Luggage: Pt. 2

So we had three of our bags delivered last night. I unpacked them this morning. My electric razor is gone, and one of the handles of my bag was ripped off. I have expected SO MUCH MORE from British Airways....

So much more....the upgrade was appreciated...but please. It's just one thing after another...this is a bit ridiculous.

Cheers!

Luggage

Well, I just spoke to a British Airways agent in London and they found our fourth bag. (With our $800 Carpet!) YIKES! So apparently, the bag had been stripped of any tags that showed who the bag belonged to except for half a write-on tag with our phone nuber and "USA". So kudos to BA for tracking us down.

They said they would ship it out on a flight tomorrow and hopefully we could receive it by tomorrow night.

The saga continues...

While we were gone...

...Apparently there was some excitement at our church.

Too LA!

We're Back

Safe and Sound...however, our luggage is STILL MISSING!!!! Ug!

We are recovering from Jetlag and trying to dive back in to life as we know it. Kids, work, etc...

I will be blogging about the day to day play-by-play in the upcoming days.

Un-believable trip. Really.