criplomats

With Buttercup in Costa Rica, circa 1998

Brrrr – it’s cold outside here in Islamabad. Last week had some of the lowest temperatures they’ve had in 40+ years. We’re so lucky to have hot water, heat in our house, and usually enough gas to cook – Pakistan is now “load shedding” gas in addition to electricity. It’s sort of hit or miss if you can muster up enough gas to cook with these days.  Don’t worry, though, we are certainly not starving by any means!

We had a fun New Year’s Eve. We technically got off from work two hours early, but by the time I finished my work and made the rounds to be sure all of our cat feeding stations were full, it was six or so before I got home. I also ran over during my lunch hour to pick up the Black Mama cat and brought her back to the compound.

John and I had NYE dinner with a nice group of folks from OBO (Overseas Building Operations) – he works a lot with them in his job. We had a good steak dinner, then went to one couple’s house for dessert (yummy key lime pie for me). Then we moved on to a dance party – a small group of folks with two fun guys playing guitar and keyboard. They played a lot of oldies and got everyone dancing. I was impressed that I could stay up past midnight!

New Years Day we stayed home all day to study Spanish. It was a good day, topped off by pizza for dinner.

We had fun Friday night at Konstantin and Carolyn’s – we had dinner up on their roof around their fire pit. Great food and fun! Carolyn has grown mustard greens in their yard – not sure how Konstantin cooked them, but they were delish.

We watched a good movie last night (good cast), “The Oranges.” Kind of a disturbing topic, but great acting.

John had our new treadmill delivered this week – it’s great. A fancy Nordic Track – it’s quite comfortable…and big! I told him when I step up on it, I feel like I am behind a big podium and should give a speech or something. I think we will enjoy having it. We’ve been sticking to our exercise regime – it’s great to have a workout done before starting work each day, but heavens, it’s hard to get up when it’s so dark and cold! Hopefully it will pay off in the end!

This morning, an acquaintance on Facebook posted a photo of herself with Buttercup, the famous sloth at Aviarios in Costa Rica – she is still alive and living at the sanctuary. It made me very nostalgic for the great times we had there, so I am posting this old photo to enjoy the memory of being there!

Christmas morning mimosas

This has been a good holiday week. We’ve kept busy with parties and work – last Sunday after the coffee roasting, we went to a chili supper at Joe and Julie’s house.

Festivities continued Monday after work when we went to a fun happy hour at Peter and Lizanne’s house.

We worked half a day on Tuesday, Christmas Eve. My cat buddy Jeff and I visited all of the cat feeding stations to be sure they were full before leaving for the day. Jeff is a retired Seebee on TDY to Islamabad and has been a godsend with this cat project. He built all six of our fancy feeding stations in his spare time – without the stations, we really would not be as far along in this project as we are.

Christmas Day we went to a very nice brunch at Nina’s house, then on to Carolyn and Konstantin’s for Chinese food. Lots of folks at both parties, as well as good food and conversation. That evening, we curled up in our recliners and watched “Love Actually” – our favorite Christmas movie.

Thursday and Friday were regular work days. John and I went to “staff meeting” Friday afternoon with the IT gang (aka happy hour). Afterwards he treated me to a nice steak dinner out.

During the day Friday, I got an emergency cat call – one of our favorite kittens was drooling and obviously in distress. A friend and I scooped him up and ran him to the vet. He has some sort of gum infection that the vet is treating. Sounds like he’ll be fine, but the vet is still keeping him. Saturday, Mike, Jeff and I caught the black mama cat and ran her to the vet to be spayed. I think we’re up to nine cats who have been spayed or neutered on the compound! The cats are using their feeding stations and the Embassy is no longer getting complaints about them. The ones who have been spayed/neutered appear to be thriving – fat with good winter coats. Distressingly, two favorite kittens disappeared – brother and sister orange tabbies named Monet and Van Gogh (the little girl had only one ear!) – we hope someone has adopted them, but we’re not sure. There are also mongoose on the compound, so they may have been eaten – I hope not!

I received a great email this morning from one of the Marines at the Embassy who told me they have set up a cat house for some of the cats to sleep in near the Marine House. They were all worried because the sick kitten didn’t come “home” Friday night. She was happy to learn he was at the vet – the Marines are chipping in for the vet care, too. She went on to say how much they all enjoyed having the cats around, that it was a big morale booster for them while they are so far from home.

I saw this link for great photos of 2013 – there are some neat shots in it. Click here to see them.

Happy birthday to Miss Pamela on the 28th! Hope it was a good one!

Thailand Piña Colada

We spent last Sunday relaxing with a trip to the spa and an outing to one of my favorite jewelry stores, followed by watching the first episode of “Boardwalk Empire.” And with that, R&R was over.

Monday it was back to the salt mines of work. I love my job, so it actually wasn’t too bad. The week went by quickly with a couple of highlights.

Monday after work, I went to a gallery opening for some young Pakistani artists, then stopped by Nomad Gallery on the way home to see some of their art and other arts and craft items.

Tuesday, we went to a going-away happy hour at the Club for a colleague – John and I had a blast talking to the teen-aged kids who were visiting their (lovely) parents here in Islamabad. They were smart, articulate and fun to be around – and, not a one of them had an iPhone or other electronic device to piddle with. They were sweet and fully engaged in the conversation – so nice. They had been posted in Costa Rica and we discovered a lot of mutual San Jose friends – small world!

Wednesday night I had a school board meeting after work. I’ve grown to enjoy them as I get to know the other board members better. One lady on the board is named “Romana,” so we like to confuse the secretary by teaming up to make motions and second them together. It’s a really nice group of folks.

Friday night we went to another happy hour, then went  out for sushi (yes, it’s great here).

Saturday I spent at the office most of the day, then off shopping with a girlfriend to hit some of my favorite spots. Success!

Today we spent the afternoon at the DCM’s house along with some of our co-workers. The DCM is an avid coffee roaster like John, so he roasted coffee for us to enjoy. Nice to sit around and visit. I got caught up in conversation with our Defense Attaché, who is a fellow Arkansan and a very interesting guy.

While on vacation, I read a book recommended by a friend, “Younger Next Year.” It’s got John and me on an exercise kick. I did very well this week and made it to the gym every morning before work. Some days are cardio and some are strength training – it’s great to get done before work, although it means getting up a little earlier than usual. And, it’s pretty chilly here now, so it’s even tougher to get up early when it’s cold and dark – but boy, does it feel good when I get finished!

As we head into the Christmas holidays, John and I have been reminded of how many of our good, good friends have left post and how very much we miss them! Jim and Kellee, Rick, Scott and Laura, and Michael quickly come to mind. While we have other good friends here, we do miss the old crowd and just hope we can all be together again someday!

Bangkok pay phones - not sure why the flash turned them blue but I kind of like it.

As much as I love R&R, I also love coming home! Flavie met us on the stairway, talking to us as if to scold us for being gone too long. She firmly planted herself on me all week, when she wasn’t in her favorite spot underneath the heater.

Most of the week we just layed low and didn’t do a lot. We made a couple of trips out for shopping and to go to the spa, but otherwise we were homebodies. I made a pot of chili since it’s kind of cold here – actually it’s colder inside the house than outside. I had a school board meeting on Tuesday night.

We watched the first season of “House of Cards” – we’ve sure enjoyed it. Kevin Spacey is great in it. We also watched a good movie with Paul Giamotti called “Win Win” and we saw the new Sandra Bullock movie, “Gravity.”

Thursday night we finished our long distance Spanish class. Our instructor had us both on Skype and we did a mock test – a great exercise.

This has been a great R&R! A couple of parting shots below.

Singha time!

Enjoying a night on the town!

Heleconia, Ko Samui

I’m at the Bangkok airport at the moment, waiting for our flight back to Islamabad. We’ve had an excellent vacation! Much of that is thanks to my fabulous co-workers and staff back at the Embassy. I’ve only done a tiny bit of work while I’ve been gone, I haven’t fretted about work, and have barely checked my email – epic success for me! Usually I’m a mother hen but not this vacation.

We left Ko Samui Saturday morning after a fabulous two weeks. We were uber relaxed and had no shortage of lazy days. We spent most mornings lingering over breakfast, then going to the gym. Afternoons were naps, studying Spanish or going to the spa. Rinse, soap, repeat. Lovely.

The last night there we did a BBQ with a fun urban fire show. The guys were pretty cool.

Fire show, Ko Samui

On the way to the airport in Ko Samui, we saw these monkeys on their way to work picking coconuts. They looked like they were having fun hanging on the side of the truck!

Three monkeys

The scenery changed quickly in Bangkok. We stayed at the ultra-funky Sofitel So – wow – what a great hotel. Just lovely. The staff was young and hip, the rooftop bar was gorgeous, the infinity pool overlooking the park was out of this world. Here’s our view:

Bangkok, view from our room

Saturday night we ventured out – we had a blast just walking around and taking in the sites.

Sunday we headed via Sky Train to the weekend market. I could only take about 30 minutes of it – just too much and too overwhelming! We went back into town, shopped a bit, then found a movie theatre so we could see the new Hunger Games. After a full day of walking, I took advantage of a nice Thai massage at the hotel right before bed time.

This morning we took our time with breakfast, then hit the gym. While John got a massage, I took a walk around the hotel’s neighborhood. I was happy to find an interesting shady street to poke along. We had a good Thai lunch at a  little cafe, then took the train to the airport. (There were demonstrations downtown, and although we saw no evidence of any problems while we were in Bangkok, we were afraid traffic might be bad.)

Click to see all of our photos.

Tuk Tuk at rest