What a Trip - Part 1

Camel Meat (before being trimed)

Camel Meat Stew with roasted potatoes and bread stuffing

My neighbors and friends - Liz & Graham - from Scotland, Suzanna and Chris ( Finn and Londoner) and Tom, Liz and Graham's son - age 6

I made stuffed grape leaves for Noora as a thank you for the camel meat - she said she had to fight her kids to get even one - I was pleased.

Hi All,

Tuesday 15 September 2009, 12:30p

Well as most of you know, I made a surprise trip back to Corydon over the Labor Day weekend. It was a glorious time which I shall attempt to relate. But first other news.

As I mentioned earlier , this is Ramadan and one of the customs is to share food / gifts with others. One of my staff members Noora Al Mansouri ( Mansouri is a BIG name here in the UAE) but then again there are probably 100,000 or more Mansouri's and they are all related to each other by blood or marriage. Well evidently their family celebrates Ramadan with the slaughtering of a young camel and then roasting it for the Iftar. The Iftar is the first meal after prayers which breaks the day long fast. Well Noora shared some camel meat with me which I then shared with my friends here. Chris - the Londoner and his Finn wife Susanna invited me over for dinner - so I opted to have him cook the camel which he did in a stew. The texture was different from lamb of beef but the flavor was more on a lamb side. I enjoyed it - Chris said he'd pass next time. Well anyway it was a first for me and I was thankful to have had the opportunity to try it out.

Well about 2 months ago, I got this urge to come home for Beer Fest. I mulled it over for a few days then made my reservations online. I thought I was coming home Thursday night but made a mistake as it was 2am Thursday ( Wednesday night /Thursday morning) - this is important because I went to my boss with my vacation request for 5 days and he denied it! I was stunned I have never had a request denied before and couldn't for the life of me understand why he would refuse it - he said we have lots of work to do and when I told him I had booked the flight he still wouldn't relent. So it took 10 more minutes of me groveling and telling him it wouldn't happen again as now I know the "rules" for asking for time off ( btw - it's a 2 month notice minimum). So he finally relents and I hustle out of there. Well about a month later, I wake up in the middle of the night and why I was thinking about the ticket I have no idea - but something bothered me about it - so I get up and look at it and sure enough I'm leaving a day earlier than I thought . OK -Geez do I go back and ask for another day , sneak out of town or what? So I ask a friend and he tells me to wait until the week I'm supposed to leave then approach him. So for a whole month I'm dying not knowing if he will blow up again and deny my 1 extra day or approve it. So that Sunday ( work week Sunday - Thursday ) I go to him and first words out of his mouth was a compliment - I looked at him with the "Where is my boss and what have you done with him" look - I couldn't believe it - a compliment ! will wonders never cease - then another one on top of that for another project. So I roll the dice telling him how I messed up on the a.m. thing and and he says no problem. Ah my fears were unfounded so like before I quickly got out of there and got on with my day relieved to know that I wouldn't have to sneak away. Of course he kept me extremely busy that week with other issues up to the moment of quiting time ( and quiting time for him is when ever he says it's quiting time - no set time be available 24 x 7 type of attitude. I'm da boss here on Tara and I be say'n when it's quit'n time - Quit'n Time !

Well Wednesday comes and I'm all psyched up to go, I'm up at 3:30a unable to sleep, work the whole day then come home and do the final pack, thermostat down, trash out stuff in prep for my flight. Well since it's at 2:30a Thursday morning flight, I have time to kill - but I want to remain awake so that I can ease into the trip sleeping on board etc to minimize the jet lag. My neighbor Chris takes me to the airport at 11p and I get through security etc and to the gate with PLENTY of time to spare. Well the trip was good, I had a exit row with lots of leg room but the guy who sat next to me was another matter - we will call him Prayer Bag Boy.

Prayer Bag Boy ( PBB) is a Indian Muslim who has his prayer beads ( similar to Rosary beads) in this felt bag - similar to Crown Royal bag. He ties this bag around his wrist with only his pointer finger outside the bag - he manipulates the beads saying the Koran in a low humming chant - for 6 freek'n hours - if he was awake he's humming ( I asked him why the bag and he tells me so that the beads do not touch the ground and become defiled) Luckily I was able to tune him out most times and with the video screens and headphones, the chant meter didn't go too high.

We landed in London and if you have ever been there - it's monstrous. After I made it through security - yes security to get between planes, I headed for the food court where I knew I'd find a beer. Changed some Dhirams into Pounds and got myself a cold Becks then a cold Guinness before they finally announced my gate. Off I go to the gate - it's a healthy 10 - 15 minute walk to get there and we board quickly and I land in Chicago 8 hours later with my butt aching tremendously. I did do a few cat naps on the way but was able to stay up the entire time . - Yes I was pumped to get back home. I change planes in Chicago and land in Louisville about 5p after a 50 min delay on the ground in Chicago - I was crawling out of my skin to get out of there.

The only person I had told I was coming was Wes. He and Erica were there waiting for me. We beat Christine home by only a few minutes. GG came to see me first and she was so excite that she had a spell and lost control of her legs and went into her trance like state ( She's 11 1/2 years old with a bad heart so we try to keep her excitement level down to avoid this problem) needless to say I was saddened to see her in this condition but she quickly rallied and was making a fuss over her "Daddy" Well we heard Christine coming down the road so I went upstairs to hide and surprise her. Wes and Erica greeted her outside and they came up to the kitchen. Christine walked right past the living room and didn't see me sitting there. Wes said something to her and she said "Well you'll need to tell you father about that ' I came around the corner saying " No you won't I'm here" Well she screamed , then took off her belt and hit me with it saying You SOB You SOB . We all laughed. Christine had a premonition that I might come home - or it was more of a "I wouldn't put it past him" that I would . So her intuition was correct. We decided to all go out to eat Mexican so as not to hassle with dinner. Well during dinner I talked about my Dad who was at my brothers house near Chicago who would then be coming to my sisters house in Indy. I wanted Dad to be at Beer Fest too but both Ann and Christine had Pooh-Pooed the idea from the start , Well I went and told him he should go and when I told the girls about this I suffered their anger (now to be fair the girls didn't want Dad to come for only one reason - would he feel out of place and would I want my Dad to see me all beered up ) Well of course now it was revealed to Christine as to why I had not followed her wishes -But Ann didn't know. Dad was still on the fence about coming and we tried to call him but had a bad number so Christine calls Ann for the number and tells her that she wants Dad to come - because Alex specifically requested it. Well Ann is NOT happy with Christine and actually speaks sharply to her (later she calls and apologizes and I'm laughing all this time) So Christine calls Dad , convinces him to come and the plan is all set. After dinner, Christine and I decide to go surprise Ann and Dave our close friends and Beer Fest hosts. SO we get down there, Christine leaves the door to the van open and I get ready to pop out at the appropriate time. Well Dave sees my leg and says to Christine - is there someone in the van - she answers I hope not - well he keeps glancing over at the van and Ann comes out of the house - he's momentarily misdirected so I pop out and surprise Ann who screams then starts to cry. We all get in to a big hug fest and enjoyed the evening. Well I'm going to end here and post some pictures and will then start up with the next day. The next post will alert those to start on this post and read up.

Until my next post.

Love Scott