A breeze has arrived in Dubai and the dust clouds have finally moved on so the air is a bit clearer now. The temperature is around 40 degrees every day and you only need to run the cold tap when you have a shower as the water from the cold tap comes out warm.
It seems that the days of Dubai being a great shopping destination are gone. . I haven't done the trip out to Karama to look at the knockoff bags yet but I'm told the prices have rocketed since last year. A cup of coffee costs around $3.50AUD and prices in the supermarkets are pretty close to what I'd pay in Aus. Rents are nearly equivalent to Sydney prices too. I did get a good deal on my new camera though. With Jess on the mobile giving instructions I got a Canon A530 with 512 thingies of memory for $308AUD. They threw in the memory card for free because I was a "nice lady". Thank you, I can hear the laughter from here.
On Saturday Sabine and I went to the "Beauty Saloon" (yes that's the way it's spelt) through the doors which are closely watched by the beauticians to ensure that no man should darken the doors of the inner sanctum, perish the thought. The local ladies come in, take off their burqas (face coverings) and hang them up with their abayas. After that it could be any hairdresser in Aus or NZ.
We went to the party at the Mina Seyahi on Saturday night, very nice, free champagne, free food, free champagne, oh sorry did I say that already?
I went for a mooch around the computer area yesterday (Peter you'd be in heaven there). At one shop which gloried in the name of "Moist Flower Electronics"...hehehe oh control yourselves.I was offered a great deal on a 'Lompaq' computer, yes Lompaq, which I turned down.
I've moved into my temporary apartment which is just around the corner from S&H. It has a mosque across the road so it's "just like home". It's a nice little place with everything I need except a damn phone connection for the laptop, the bloody thing is wired directly into the wall. All technical suggestions gratefully received. I have to confess that I've been using any unsecured wireless network I can get into to send my emails so far.
Thank God there's a gym in the building and now that I've figured out the vagaries of the "Fitness Art 6910 treadmill with Personal Cardio Advisor" with its operating instructions in Hindi I am a happy camper. All the instructions for the washing machine in my apartment are in Spanish so there's a theme here.
Everyone seems to smoke here. They're puffing away on the streets, in the malls, in the bars, even in restaurants, not the local ladies though, well certainly not in public. It's like a return to the bad old days in NZ and Aus. I even found a half empty packet of Marlboro Lites hidden at the back of the top shelf in the wardrobe. On the topic of smoking and in an exercise in double standards I intend to buy a sheesha/nagile so I can sit on my balcony in the cool of the evening (that's when the temperature plummets to 35 degrees) to have a puff on some fine apple tobacco. Hisham is going to show me how to operate the sheesha, I know it involves hot water, lengths of hose and red hot coals, things most right thinking people would not normally allow me anywhere near.
It seems that the days of Dubai being a great shopping destination are gone. . I haven't done the trip out to Karama to look at the knockoff bags yet but I'm told the prices have rocketed since last year. A cup of coffee costs around $3.50AUD and prices in the supermarkets are pretty close to what I'd pay in Aus. Rents are nearly equivalent to Sydney prices too. I did get a good deal on my new camera though. With Jess on the mobile giving instructions I got a Canon A530 with 512 thingies of memory for $308AUD. They threw in the memory card for free because I was a "nice lady". Thank you, I can hear the laughter from here.
On Saturday Sabine and I went to the "Beauty Saloon" (yes that's the way it's spelt) through the doors which are closely watched by the beauticians to ensure that no man should darken the doors of the inner sanctum, perish the thought. The local ladies come in, take off their burqas (face coverings) and hang them up with their abayas. After that it could be any hairdresser in Aus or NZ.
We went to the party at the Mina Seyahi on Saturday night, very nice, free champagne, free food, free champagne, oh sorry did I say that already?
I went for a mooch around the computer area yesterday (Peter you'd be in heaven there). At one shop which gloried in the name of "Moist Flower Electronics"...hehehe oh control yourselves.I was offered a great deal on a 'Lompaq' computer, yes Lompaq, which I turned down.
I've moved into my temporary apartment which is just around the corner from S&H. It has a mosque across the road so it's "just like home". It's a nice little place with everything I need except a damn phone connection for the laptop, the bloody thing is wired directly into the wall. All technical suggestions gratefully received. I have to confess that I've been using any unsecured wireless network I can get into to send my emails so far.
Thank God there's a gym in the building and now that I've figured out the vagaries of the "Fitness Art 6910 treadmill with Personal Cardio Advisor" with its operating instructions in Hindi I am a happy camper. All the instructions for the washing machine in my apartment are in Spanish so there's a theme here.
Everyone seems to smoke here. They're puffing away on the streets, in the malls, in the bars, even in restaurants, not the local ladies though, well certainly not in public. It's like a return to the bad old days in NZ and Aus. I even found a half empty packet of Marlboro Lites hidden at the back of the top shelf in the wardrobe. On the topic of smoking and in an exercise in double standards I intend to buy a sheesha/nagile so I can sit on my balcony in the cool of the evening (that's when the temperature plummets to 35 degrees) to have a puff on some fine apple tobacco. Hisham is going to show me how to operate the sheesha, I know it involves hot water, lengths of hose and red hot coals, things most right thinking people would not normally allow me anywhere near.
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