One good deed deserves another!

You may never know what results come from your action. But if you do nothing, there will be no result."
– Mahatma Gandhi-

It's been a busy weekend in the sandbox! Friday had us on our friend Steve's boat (our boat is in the shop :) for some nice wake boarding. Then it's been cleaning and sorting of Aidan's room. It was successful. Two full boxes of clothes, art things, and just STUFF, all packed and ready to ship once we know the destination. While he is fighting possums Down Under, his family has been Up Over, and we have made his room our home office - what a dream come through - we can now get all the misc paperwork into closets and drawers, instead of piles everywhere.

This means the Maid's room, which had previously been my [small] office, can now actually be used for a maid. It just so happens that our cleaning lady, Nilan (from Sri Lanka) has been unhappy with the family she is staying with. Just across the street in fact, at a Dutch family, where she has not been allowed to live/stay while they are away in Europe for 7 weeks. What were they thinking? If it wasn't for her sister, and the English family she lives with,taking her in for the summer, Nilan would have been homeless.

We have talked to her and agreed that she can move in permanently. She is so excited, we have been to Ikea and got her a bath curtain and little stuff for her room. She already has her own bed and table.

We really don't need her every day, nor for any child care (OK Hunter could use a personal cook....but...) she at least has a place to stay, she can get to her other cleaning jobs with no worries and she is treated better than across the street. She hasn't told the family yet - they are still away, so we are in anticipation of how they will react. But she says she still wants to babysit for them, so hopefully the mother will be OK with the new arrangement. It's not like we planned this maid poaching, but if it works out, everyone is happy.

While we go to Nepal, Slim will actually have a friend watching him - he likes Nilan :)

We sense some other changes in the air. Fall is coming - if you can call it that! There is a light cloud cover coming in and cooling things off (from 105 to 97 F)
but not until we get the very dense fog rolling in around the city, will we know that winter is upon us. That won't be until late October, early November. In the meantime, people are arriving back in their sandboxes and the area is filling up again with people, dogs, kids and cars on the road. My herb garden is idle until we return from Nepal. I've produced two red chilies while away in Denmark. Not only did they grow and mature in to two great looking chilies, but in the heat they became sun-dried on their own....now that's what I call a production! So I'm keen to plant new stuff when it cools off.

My friend Uzma brought back a Sari from India for me. I had asked her to buy me one, but she gave me one as a gift - what a deed. She collects fridge magnets, so I hope I can find one in Nepal (I don't even know if they have fridges in Nepal, I may be in trouble finding her a magnet) Yikes!!

The Sari is needed for a Bollywood style wedding we are going to October 1st. The bride, Meena, is a British friend from work who is originally Indian, and the groom, Darryl - also a Cisco friend, is from the Ceychelles, so culturally, we have a few choices of what to wear. I'm embracing the whole Indian theme with great excitement and wearing a Sari (basically 20 feet of fabric wrapped around you and then throw the end over the shoulder) with lots of jewelry and bangles. I figure I have 6 weeks to learn how to wrap it - how difficult can it be? Hold one end and spin....then put in a safety pin!

Coming soon to a PC near you....

As all good sitcoms and TV soaps - they tend to branch off and spin into another popular show. No difference with good blogs.... For those of you who want to follow the adventures of our lovely and slightly odd son, Aidan, you can tune into this channel for his antics.

Like his latest stand-off with a possum....

http://aidans-trip.blogspot.com/

Work Life Balance...or imbalance?

After a stressful trip home from Miami, I thought "Home-Sweet-Home" and really looked forward to getting back into our routine. This is not to be the case...

Just to wrap up the Blackberry and watch left behind case, I was instructed to head to 'lost and found' to pick up Aric's things. When I mentioned I had 50 minutes to spare before my next flight to Copenhagen and that 'lost and found' was not open until 8am, and my flight got in at 6.40am, the guy told me to instead go to undbunsteinfarvegnugen-stelle (or something German like that)....I just got "stelle" - so when I arrived, I went to Information and asked them to guide me to bla bla bla stelle. They had no idea. Neither did Lufthansa. So already having wasted 20 minutes, I went into the airport police office. Tired, jetlagged, and overly frustrated that the German guy did not send a mail as promised, with the proper instructions, I now in my sad state managed to ask the police for help in finding this 'stelle' . The policeman was overly helpful - 5 phone calls to various departments yileded zip, nada nothing. We then started to walk...and walk...and walk...Frankfurt airport is frigging BIG! I must have seen all the back areas where civilians never go. After 1.5 hours, and missing my flight of course - we headed upstairs to the Airport Duty Manager / security office. Gunther, at the front desk, knew nothing about any Blackberry or Omega watch. So as it was now 8am, and the 'lost and found' office was open, we headed downstairs to check. Sure enough - the items were there and I had the satisfaction of paying 50 euros to get them back from Hermann. The final stop, still escorted by the airport's finest, was at the first class Lufthansa counter, to plead with them to change my ticket so I could get back. I was put on a flight 9.30am but only as standby. Of course it was over-sold, so I was pushed to a flight 2.30pm. It was a long wait on a bench at Gate 51....

Now finally back in Dubai (43 C) and ghost town as people are still out for Ramadan. We had planned to head to Nepal this Friday, to avoid the heat until school starts Sept 14, a 7 day trekking trip around Kathmandu valley and peaks. Well, Aric has been working hard for 2 years to repair the relationship with his customer, Dubai Airport, after previous management had issues. Go figure that this non-rewarding effort now finally resulted in an order coming in this week, of all times. Couldn't have come last fiscal year....couldn't come in two weeks from now....NO, must be placed this week and demands that Aric stays and sees through the whole scenario. It is a pretty big order, so his managers are keen to have him close by to manage the process.

We've therefore pushed our trip to Sept 3. And because of Eid, we gain another 4 days. So, we will be trekking up 4-5 different peaks for 8 days, staying in tea houses and local people's private huts; we get a day in Kahtmandu and one in Pokhara, as well as a Mt. Everest 'fly by peak viewing' - which is going to be an experience of a life time. I cannot even imagine how stunning it will be to fly over and around the highest mountain in the world! It will put our Ying-Yang right and surely improve our karma!

FBIs least wanted

They say "Crime Doesn't Pay". Those wisemen were right. My sortid and revolutionary past has finally caught up with me. I speak not of the speeding ticket I got in Mississippi in 1988, which I never paid, (I really tried, I called the States Attorney to see if I could get court supervision, but apparently that state had no such person in 1988). No, apparently this unfortunate moment in history stems from a slight "misunderstanding" in Chicago in 1991, where I promptly told a Chicago cop to "f*** off" - something which we now teach Aidan and Hunter never to do!

It was with great joy and excitement, I met Aric in Frankfurt airport 2 weeks ago, on our way to Miami and on to Mexico. In fact, we were so happy to see each other after 4 weeks apart, that Aric left his Blackberry and watch behind in the security tray - but that's a story for the next blog. So off to Miami we went and I happily slapped my fingers down on the scanner for finger print and picture records. A few stamps in the passport and off we went. While frolicking in the Mexican gulf with our friends Brandi and Brian, Homeland Security was busy sending my details through their mega database.

As we returned to Miami from Cancun, and lined up in the "resident and citizen" lane, we were still being silly with vacation excitement, because we would soon arrive at our Sanibel home where friends and family awaited. The immigration officer looked at our passports, then us, then our passports, then me, then our customs form, then Aric - and said in a grave voice "is this your home?" Aric replied, yes we are just here for 4 days of golf before returning to the Middle East! Just then he asked me - "Have you ever been arrested?" "No". "Never?" "NO"! (quizzing look at Aric, as if he understood that question). At that point, a red light went off above my head and the officer took my passport and stuffed in a red folder, which he handed to another officer, who then escorted us to a back office. Personally I was baffled, but didn't get any answers by the escorting officer. Once inside the door - and one quick look around - I knew this was serious! 30-40 people of mostly Haitian or S. American descent filled a 15' x 15' room. Kids crying and faces full of fear. Aric said there must have been a mistake, he was a US citizen and what were we hauled in there for? "Just have a seat until your name is called"!

Well, after 30 minutes I had sussed out our surroundings and spoken to a couple across the bench from us. He was also a US citizen and had a wife from Antiqua. They had waited nearly two and a half hours. Shucks man - we had a 3 hour drive to Sanibel and it was already 9pm! I was really getting irritated and no calls were allowed, to let anyone know we were detained.
One by one, the suspicious people were called up to a counter. I took comfort in the fact that there was another blonde woman, until they called - "Katinka Slanovitz, from Ukraine" - oh boy, she was either a former olympic gymnast, a prostitute or a spy, I deducted. Aric was quietly brewing and we spent half an hour discussing whether we were detained because he said the words "Middle East"...it could be a codeword and once you say it out loud, the light goes on. I was convinced it had to do with this and it was all Aric's fault.

Finally, nearly 3 hours later, they called me: "Pia Charlotte Leismann Ault" (you think they could have cooled it on my middle names, like there would have been other Pia's in a room full of dark skinned men?) - not from the counter, but from yet another back area....must have been where the more serious suspects were hauled in....Aric and I got up and the officer told Aric he was not needed, just me. Christ, it was like entering the CIA or NSA room with men staring at goats, back there.

Officer D. Flynt asked me to take a seat, while commenting that "your husband sure is upset" - Doah, ya think? 3 hours of no knowledge of why we were there. "It's classified mam...we aren't allowed to tell you why you're being detained" - gee whiz you don't say! Then the serious interrogation started. "Have you ever been arrested?" NO. "Never?" NO. "Ever been to Chicago?" Yes, I lived there for 16 years, but then you have that info in front of you on the screen!! "Nothing ever happened in Chicago?" Define 'happened' - "you ever get in trouble where the police was called?" Suddenly from way back in my distant memory bank, a dim light started to flicker. He must have been trained in psycho analysis because he started to grin, and when I asked him, what I supposedly was arrested for, he replied with a big smile: "Criminal damage to property.....ring a bell?"

"OH, that old story....well the guy was a jerk and the case was dismissed". There is no reason to dwell on the details here - suffice it to say, for my dear readers, that my Danish friend Mette, and I got a little happy at happy hour after work on a Friday, and when we went to get her car, it had been towed. One thing led to another and the guy working at the towing place and I got in an argument. When I decided to call the police, he wrestled the phone out of my hand and the handset broke. Cheap phone! Of course I got blamed.....classic set-up, 'The blonde did it'-scenario! When the cop showed up and I tried to explain, he acted real tough and told me to shut up and sit down, to which I blurted "f*** you". Chicago cops apparently don't like that. The rest is a blur ;-)

I told Flynt it was really silly and that I wasn't really arrested....he patiently said: "were you finger printed?" Yes. "Was your picture taken, perhaps from several angles, while holding a sign with numbers?" Uhmm yes. "Were you handcuffed?" Oh, yes I remember now, I think I was, but I was never read my rights! Flynt replied "I think we can safely deduct that you were arrested, not convicted sweetheart, but arrested - and that means that every time you enter the US from now on, you have to come and see "us" !!

Buggers.
Fast forward from 1991 to 2010 and the record of my finger prints had made it from the Illinois state police computer, to the FBI files, to Homeland Security, to D. Flynt - talk about taxpayers money at work - all while I had entered, exited and re-entered the US inside a week. 20 years to update a file that was fairly benign.

Flynt shared with me I now even had an FBI file number...I'm so proud! And not until I become a resident again, or a US citizen, would this be erased. I told Flynt that was not likely to happen, with the way they treated visitors here. I then told him that I would blog this whole affair! He said "good idea, but make sure you don't write that you spent two f***ng hours in this shit place" - I couldn't believe he swore in front of me. He was very young - like right out of the academy - but still, I should report him for swearing. So, he then took my passport to his supervisor, who quickly determined that my crime was not a threat to national security and I was then sent on my way, with my fuming husband.

Next time I visit the US, I must remember to wear a shirt with my FBI number for faster expediting!