{"id":2406,"date":"2013-02-02T09:46:43","date_gmt":"2013-02-02T15:46:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/?p=2406"},"modified":"2014-12-29T20:35:55","modified_gmt":"2014-12-30T02:35:55","slug":"playing-chicken","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/?p=2406","title":{"rendered":"Playing chicken"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n
\"\"<\/a>

Man with chicken, Said Pur Village<\/p><\/div>\n

Last Sunday I went to lunch and shopping with Kellee and Carla. We had a nice lunch at Polo Lounge in Said Pur Village, then ventured out into unknown territory in town to find a marble place. They make lovely marble tables with inlaid designs – after a few missed turns, we found it. It was so strange because there were lots of men out and about on the street, but absolutely no women. That’s the case usually, but I guess it seemed more so because we were in an unfamiliar part of town.<\/p>\n

At any rate, we found the factory. It’s a small place, and OSHA would have a fit if they walked in. No protective gear for eyes, ears or hands, and they are cutting marble with huge saws.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Marble factory<\/p><\/div>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I was fascinated with the owner’s chickens and pigeons. He had a pigeon coop on the roof, and he competes in competition with them. The pigeon who flies the longest wins – he said he had won a competition because his pigeon stayed up for 13 hours.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Rooftop pigeon coop<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Then he had this beautiful rooster and hen – I’ve never seen such a feathery chicken. The rooster was big, and the hen had so many feathers, it looked like she was trying to cover herself a la a Middle Eastern woman – so cute!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Marble factory chickens<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Inquisitive rooster<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

From there we went by the leather store to pick up Carla’s red leather jacket she’d had made, then we went to a couple of art\/framing stores. It was a fun day.<\/p>\n

The week was pretty exhausting at work. We had a person out sick, so I helped on the interview line some. We had to stay late Wednesday night for a training class with Washington, so it was almost 9PM before I got home.<\/p>\n

We finished the week on a good note, though – \u00a0we went to the French Club for lunch, which is always nice for a change. At the end of the day, we had a private happy hour in Carla’s office, then stopped by the Club’s happy hour on the way out. The people here really make this a fun place to be.<\/p>\n

Today we went tried a different spa for massages and a mani-pedi for me. It was much nicer that the other place we’ve been going – it was really nice and relaxing. We came home and watched “Zero Dark Thirty,” which was interesting. It was shot in India, not Pakistan, and parts were supposed to be in the Embassy here, so it made it even more interesting. After that, we watched a documentary called “Helvetica,” about the popular Helvetica font – John just read a book about fonts. It reminded me of my friend Mike – I think he’d enjoy it.<\/p>\n

The weather here has been so nice this week. Still chilly in the morning, but pleasant and sunny at lunch for the most part. We’re enjoying it while we can, before the triple digit summer hits again.<\/p>\n

Here’s a parting shot of a typcial scene in traffic – a whole family on a motorcycle. Mom sits side-saddle, and she is often holding a baby in her arms. I don’t know how they do it! Click for more photos from Sunday’s outing<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Four on a motorbike, and Mom's riding side-saddle<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last Sunday I went to lunch and shopping with Kellee and Carla. We had a nice lunch at Polo Lounge in Said Pur Village, then ventured out into unknown territory in town to find a marble place. They make lovely marble tables with inlaid designs – after a few missed turns, we found it. It […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2406"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2406"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2406\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2431,"href":"https:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2406\/revisions\/2431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.criplomats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}