Ramadan is over and shock, horror I'm back to working 8:30 - 6. Bit of a shock after a month of working 9 - 3:30.
I bought a shisha (nargile/hookah) a couple of weeks ago and last night when I went to visit some friends I fired it up for the first time. I know some people find the thought of me being let loose with red hot coals and lengths of hose to be a frightening scenario but such is the way of the world hehehe! The Jordanian lawyer from work gave me lots of tips on the best way to set it up and also gave me his mobile number in case I needed to call him for instant advice during the evening. I managed it fine though. I learnt that the water level is important; not too much, not too little and keeping the charcoal hot all the time is crucial and I'm told that putting a couple of ice cubes in the water gives a smoother smoke. Since coming to Dubai I've become a big fan of shisha which is a bit odd I guess as usually I'm a rabid non-smoker. The tobacco used in shisha is soaked in fruit essence which gives it a distinctive taste and smell. I like apple, strawberry and grape/mango mix but there are all sorts of other flavours even a coca-cola mix which quite honestly sounds revolting.
My friend Ellie who works at King Faisal Hospital in Saudi Arabia was in Dubai last week in her role as co-ordinator of a major conference for neurosurgeons. She earns her money that girl! They held their black tie gala dinner at one of the big hotels here last Thursday night and I was lucky enough to be able to go along. Black tie meant 'long dress for ladies' and as all my good gear is in a storage unit in Chatswood, I had to go out Wednesday night and buy one (note the use of the word “had”). On the day of the dinner I completely forgot to order a taxi and by the time I needed to leave home the cab company wouldn’t take phone bookings so I had to stand out on the street in full evening dress to hail a passing cab. While I was waiting I had a number of interesting and potentially lucrative offers but not a single one that involved a ride to the Al Bustan Rotana Hotel. Once I got to the hotel though I had a fantastic night – thanks Ellie.
Sabina arrived here from Sydney the next day (Friday the first day of the Dubai weekend). Sabine and I were out at the airport at 5:35am to pick her up (tough work after the gala dinner the night before). It was just wonderful to see her and for the three of us to be together again. The last time we were together we were all far, far too committed to partaking in the Happy Hour at the Piano Bar at the Swissotel in Market Street and ended up demanding that the pianist play “Tulips from Amsterdam” while we sang along. Since that night, the staff smile at us although the pianist looks slightly terrified.
Back to the story, Sabina stopped off in Dubai on her way back to Bosnia to see her Mum who hasn’t been well. We went out to Madinat Jumeirah for breakfast (Donna, this is next to where we went for drinks when you were here) and in the evening we went down to the Creek and had dinner with Sabine and her husband Hisham. The next day Sabina and I went on the abra over to the gold souq where she bought some beautiful jewellery at ridiculously cheap prices by Australian standards. We crossed back to the Bur Dubai side of the Creek on the abra again. Abra touch parking means the driver slams the abra into the wharf a sufficient number of times until it stops long enough for the passengers to hurl themselves off the abra and onto the relative safety of the wharf. There’s a real art to this!
Sabine drove round to get us and we went to a restaurant that cooks Emirati food where we bought take aways including my favourite local food which is called Haries. Haries is made from mutton and wheat which is cooked to within an inch of its life and then mashed into a congealed mess that looks like………nothing good………..maybe a bit like cold porridge with suspicious lumps in it, but the taste is divine! We drove down to Hatta which is on the road to Oman and had a picnic. We walked round the Hatta Heritage Village which was very interesting and then drove back to Dubai (at less than 180kph – I wasn’t driving). In the evening Sabina and I met up with friends at the Irish Village. The IV is an outdoor pub where, early in my stay, I learnt why a person should avoid beer with bits of lemon in it served in glasses as big as buckets.
Sheik Mohamed the ruler of Dubai (known to all as Sheik Mo) has decreed that traffic safety is a major issue and that ‘recklessness’ is going to be stopped. Nooooo! Several truck drivers have already been deported for running red lights. The problem is that Dubai highways are made for speed. There are long stretches of straight, wide, empty highway here where a person can, sorry, “could”, this is all hypothetical, drive comfortably at 180+kph. What’s a lifelong hoon to do? The corners here curve gently, the camber is perfect and unlike NZ roads there are no nasty surprises like sharp corners that just appear out of nowhere or slight rises in the road that are followed by a 90 degree turn that you don’t see until its too late. You can do speeds here that you would never consider doing in NZ or Aus but of course the road toll reflects that and there are some terrible crashes involving the big trucks.
Well that's it for the moment. I'll get to work on getting some more photos on the web.
Take care everybody
Carolynn
PS -
James - I finally bought a CD by Killswitch Engage (The end of heartache) and I’m sitting here listening to Howard Jones doing inhuman things to his vocal chords. Most of it’s really good but other bits are so much like Sepultura that I’m waiting for someone to start screaming “Roots, bloody roots!”
I bought a shisha (nargile/hookah) a couple of weeks ago and last night when I went to visit some friends I fired it up for the first time. I know some people find the thought of me being let loose with red hot coals and lengths of hose to be a frightening scenario but such is the way of the world hehehe! The Jordanian lawyer from work gave me lots of tips on the best way to set it up and also gave me his mobile number in case I needed to call him for instant advice during the evening. I managed it fine though. I learnt that the water level is important; not too much, not too little and keeping the charcoal hot all the time is crucial and I'm told that putting a couple of ice cubes in the water gives a smoother smoke. Since coming to Dubai I've become a big fan of shisha which is a bit odd I guess as usually I'm a rabid non-smoker. The tobacco used in shisha is soaked in fruit essence which gives it a distinctive taste and smell. I like apple, strawberry and grape/mango mix but there are all sorts of other flavours even a coca-cola mix which quite honestly sounds revolting.
My friend Ellie who works at King Faisal Hospital in Saudi Arabia was in Dubai last week in her role as co-ordinator of a major conference for neurosurgeons. She earns her money that girl! They held their black tie gala dinner at one of the big hotels here last Thursday night and I was lucky enough to be able to go along. Black tie meant 'long dress for ladies' and as all my good gear is in a storage unit in Chatswood, I had to go out Wednesday night and buy one (note the use of the word “had”). On the day of the dinner I completely forgot to order a taxi and by the time I needed to leave home the cab company wouldn’t take phone bookings so I had to stand out on the street in full evening dress to hail a passing cab. While I was waiting I had a number of interesting and potentially lucrative offers but not a single one that involved a ride to the Al Bustan Rotana Hotel. Once I got to the hotel though I had a fantastic night – thanks Ellie.
Sabina arrived here from Sydney the next day (Friday the first day of the Dubai weekend). Sabine and I were out at the airport at 5:35am to pick her up (tough work after the gala dinner the night before). It was just wonderful to see her and for the three of us to be together again. The last time we were together we were all far, far too committed to partaking in the Happy Hour at the Piano Bar at the Swissotel in Market Street and ended up demanding that the pianist play “Tulips from Amsterdam” while we sang along. Since that night, the staff smile at us although the pianist looks slightly terrified.
Back to the story, Sabina stopped off in Dubai on her way back to Bosnia to see her Mum who hasn’t been well. We went out to Madinat Jumeirah for breakfast (Donna, this is next to where we went for drinks when you were here) and in the evening we went down to the Creek and had dinner with Sabine and her husband Hisham. The next day Sabina and I went on the abra over to the gold souq where she bought some beautiful jewellery at ridiculously cheap prices by Australian standards. We crossed back to the Bur Dubai side of the Creek on the abra again. Abra touch parking means the driver slams the abra into the wharf a sufficient number of times until it stops long enough for the passengers to hurl themselves off the abra and onto the relative safety of the wharf. There’s a real art to this!
Sabine drove round to get us and we went to a restaurant that cooks Emirati food where we bought take aways including my favourite local food which is called Haries. Haries is made from mutton and wheat which is cooked to within an inch of its life and then mashed into a congealed mess that looks like………nothing good………..maybe a bit like cold porridge with suspicious lumps in it, but the taste is divine! We drove down to Hatta which is on the road to Oman and had a picnic. We walked round the Hatta Heritage Village which was very interesting and then drove back to Dubai (at less than 180kph – I wasn’t driving). In the evening Sabina and I met up with friends at the Irish Village. The IV is an outdoor pub where, early in my stay, I learnt why a person should avoid beer with bits of lemon in it served in glasses as big as buckets.
Sheik Mohamed the ruler of Dubai (known to all as Sheik Mo) has decreed that traffic safety is a major issue and that ‘recklessness’ is going to be stopped. Nooooo! Several truck drivers have already been deported for running red lights. The problem is that Dubai highways are made for speed. There are long stretches of straight, wide, empty highway here where a person can, sorry, “could”, this is all hypothetical, drive comfortably at 180+kph. What’s a lifelong hoon to do? The corners here curve gently, the camber is perfect and unlike NZ roads there are no nasty surprises like sharp corners that just appear out of nowhere or slight rises in the road that are followed by a 90 degree turn that you don’t see until its too late. You can do speeds here that you would never consider doing in NZ or Aus but of course the road toll reflects that and there are some terrible crashes involving the big trucks.
Well that's it for the moment. I'll get to work on getting some more photos on the web.
Take care everybody
Carolynn
PS -
James - I finally bought a CD by Killswitch Engage (The end of heartache) and I’m sitting here listening to Howard Jones doing inhuman things to his vocal chords. Most of it’s really good but other bits are so much like Sepultura that I’m waiting for someone to start screaming “Roots, bloody roots!”
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