Toast

Whilst I love a bit of toast – especially with Marmite – this post isn’t really about crispy, burned bread. Although thinking about it now, I could really go a munch on some buttery toast, perhaps with a bit of cheese….

I digress. I’m talking about the kind of toast one has with champagne – as in raising one’s glass.

My toast goes to Dubai; more specifically, to our apartment in Dubai. The apartment was successfully launched last weekend when we invited a few friends over before hitting the town. We’d planned a few drinks, some nibbles and some polite chit-chat. Instead we got through gallons of booze, the nibbles went ignored and the chat was seriously on the wrong side of decorous…

It was also the first time since moving to the UAE that I truly felt that I live here and actually have a life here. After being unhappy for quite a while, then gradually getting used to the place, I hadn’t realised that’s all it was for me at the time – I was just used to it, not necessarily enjoying it. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t hate it any more - it was fine - but last weekend reminded me how much I used to love the life I had in London and I felt for the first time, in a long time, that I was having that same kind of life here, now that we’ve moved to Dubai.

I reckon part of it was also having a house full of people. When we first moved to this country we had a very small circle of friends which was unusual, for me at least. I was lucky as one of those friends is my oldest friend and having her here was an enormous help. Without her and TOH I’d have probably packed my bags and moved home within a couple of months. Since we moved to Dubai, we’ve made more friends in a few weeks than we did in our 8 months of Abu Dhabi life. I guess it’s because there are more chaps of ‘lavender persuasion’ in Dubai and those we have met have been so welcoming and inclusive that we already feel kinda warm and fuzzy about the place. Last weekend we met even more people – friends bring friends etc - there were some new faces that I definitely hope we’ll see again and become good friends with. It’s always nice to have someone to meet up with for a cup of coffee and a biscuit. Or maybe a hulking huge piece of cake. Hmmm… actually, I haven’t found anyone to eat cake with yet. Everyone we’ve met in Dubai is super-toned and buff. I felt a bit like Hagrid when stood next to Dubai’s cute, young things. If I can’t find anyone, I shall corrupt one of the more vulnerable guys. Alternatively, I could find a lady – they’re always up for some sinful eating and usually don’t suffer as much guilt as the beach-body boys that Jumeirah proudly presents.

***stop press*** The lovely George has offered to be my partner-in-cake. Thank you George - although I want to see you demolish some serious amounts of cake and I want to see a spare tyre building up within 3 months or you'll be sacked.

Whilst I’m on the subject of the beach, I was down at Jumeirah Beach last weekend. Again, I felt like Hagrid - this time in shorts - when sprawled next to strapping hotties. Even the sea offered no escape as it’s so warm it’s like stepping into a jacuzzi. It was actually cooler leaving the sea into 40 degree heated air, I almost felt relieved.
I like Jumeirah Beach – it’s busy in a fun way and the potential for people watching is enormous. I spent most of the time sat, like a meerkat in sunglasses, observing beach life. I love it!

Already the weekend is here again. We have no plans. I quite fancy some more lively entertainment but we’ll see how things pan out. If nothing else, I could just drink wine and watch the world drift by on the marina. It’s better than telly!!

btw the pics are of our apartment and the view in one direction from our balcony.

Pfftt...

I'm out of excuses. I'm just slack at blogging these days.

This morning whilst going out for breakfast I decided I'd take my camera along to get some neighbourhood pics to use as a post. It was a lovely morning - 34 degrees - with a bit of a breeze to keep the burn at bay. We landed at an Italian cafe at the beach and ordered coffee and breakfast, I decided it was time to whip out my camera and take a few snaps. I got one under my belt - a bit of a warmer upper I guess you could call it - then there was a gentle buzz, a small click and my camera tidied itself away for a battery depleted nap. Bugger! The pic here isn't mine. It's Jumeirah Beach, just in front of where I had breakfast.

I had plans of a fruity, oaty, cereal based breakfast with perhaps a cheeky helping of yoghurt, however I caved in and had an aubergine, mozarella and mushroom panini instead. I did have a skimmed latte though, as a respectful nod in the direction of healthy eating.

The gentlemen passing the cafe today were as yummy as my breakfast. It was a good job I was wearing sunglasses as my meerkat impersonation was absolutely shameless. TOH was pretending to read the newspaper but I could tell he was paying attention as he read the same page for ages before I challenged him about it!

The pleasant morning suddenly got scorching hot so we made a run for it and since then I've been wrestling with my iTunes which has gone totally crackers and is unable to find the folders for any of my music. The advice from the world's geeks has been helpful but also useless - something they honestly advised that I should be prepared for.

Another battle we're having right now is with a large army of the UAE's most intelilgent ants. How the heck they're getting in to our kitchen is a secret we've yet to discover but they've maintained a constant presence near the teabags for about a week now. Who knew? Ants like a brew in the afternoon like the rest of us. Perhaps they're also quite smart in assuming that where there's tea, there's quite possibly a good chance that there'll be biscuits. Foolish ants!! Don't they realise that biscuits go stale in seconds here if they're not kept in the fridge? Maybe this is just a diversionary tactic and whilst we're watching their small-time investigations, there's an enormous squadron of them making off with the contents of the freezer and the booze cupboard. Note to self... check booze cupboard.

We've settled in to our neighbourhood now and we're getting the hang of where everything is. On Thursday evening we went to Buddha Bar for dinner - it's just across the Marina from where we live so it's kind of one of our local restaurants. It's very cool and the food was great. TOH and I got far too tipsy on cocktails and wine but it was a great evening.

We're a little sad that the summer is more or less here which means that we won't be able to make much use of our huge terrace. It gets far too hot in summer - temperatures last week were up to 47 degrees but the humidity in August and September is immense; breathing outside is like trying to breath under water.

TOH has just returned home with a massive bush for the terrace. Apparently it's quite happy to live in the heat but requires watering every day. I'll give it 3 weeks before we're having some kind of plant removal...

FREE FOOD!!

OK. I haven't posted for a while. I've been packing. Well. Not true. I've been thinking about packing to move house but in the end I hired someone else to do it. They packed in a fraction of the time it would have taken me, it was all done tidily, without damage and they did it all with such good humoured high spirits that it was almost pleasurable moving home. Again. For the 4th time in 8 months.

I now live in Dubai. I love it. I love it. There's just one thing though. I can't stop loving it. My neighbourhood is just too marvellous to cope with. My internet isn't yet connected so I'm sat in the coffee shop across the road and they have a happy hour every weekday evening between 6-9pm when they serve free food! Could anyone believe just how ecstatic this makes me feel? And it's not just a few crisps and dry old nuts (no comments please). It's full on sandwiches, canapes (v swanky I tell ya) and cake-tastic cakery!! I'm considering a profiterole. I know! I KNOW!! Free profiteroles. Paradise.

OK. Back to my new home. Not sure if I've mentioned it yet but I love it. It has a vast wraparound balcony that I could possibly convert into a fully functional 10 pin bowling alley with snack and drinks service at one end. The view is of the marina, the beach/sea, and in one direction the Palm Jumeirah. I can't wait to leave work each day to get home and sit and gaze out at my view. I don't think I'll tire of it.

As soon as the internet is up and running later this week I'll post some pics.

I'm just fizzing with contentment. Right. Time for a bit of cake.

Light Snack

Yet again my blog posting performance is dismal. But I have been doing stuff – honest! Work has been surprisingly quiet but other things have been hectic. I had my parents come to stay which was great. They really loved the place and it was weird seeing the city (which has caused me tons of stress) through their eyes. They thought it was an awesome place to visit. I’m not sure how they’d feel if they lived here but they certainly enjoyed their holiday.

The bed in the spare room wasn’t even cold before our next house guest arrived. One of our good friends came to stay to get some longed for sunshine, after the grim, snowy cold of the UK winter. Alas… Mother Nature had a whole different set of plans set aside. I went to the airport to collect him and parked my car on a balmy, warm evening. He landed, collected his bags and we walked outside and into a savage sandstorm, the likes of which I’d never seen here before. By the time we’d dashed to the car and loaded it up, I felt like I’d spent weeks on a beach. If I’d much hair left it would have looked like a surfer’s after a few days of serious saltwater treatment. I was tipping sand out of my ears for days afterwards. Don't even mention exfoliation...

The weather continued to misbehave; the sandstorms were cleared away by torrential rain and amazing thunderstorms. All fairly unusual for a desert climate in March. In the week that he stayed here, our sun-seeking guest had only 2 mornings of sunshine. Ironically, as soon as he left the sun returned and the heat hit us like a sledge-hammer.

We’ve been traipsing backward and forward to Dubai so often at weekends - to take visitors and to meet friends - that we decided we might as well just give in and move there. The last few weekends have been spent exploring apartments and we’ve found one we really like. There are a few minor hurdles to be cleared with our current apartment – hopefully they won’t become major ones and prevent us from moving. I can’t wait. I’ve always liked Dubai. It’s lively, brassy and has more going on. Someone described it as Las Vegas on steroids. It kind of is. Hopefully we’ll be living at the marina which means we’ll be by the sea and I’ll be able to see it from every window. That alone will make me incredibly happy.

We just need a big van and someone to help lug our stuff about so that we can move for the fourth time in 7 months. Sheesh…

p.s. the pic is how the marina and the Palm Jumeira looked a few years ago before work really started. It's nearly finished now. The building I'll be living in isn't even on the picture but is on the far right of the marina where there are some boats. We'll have views of the sea, the palm and the marina. Opinion is divided on the whole project. Whatever you think, you can't deny that it's a major feat of engineering. None of it is natural. I love a bit of tat so I'm very much looking forward to living in a area of such hilarious campery!

a few crumbs..

OK... It's been a while again. Sorry. I've been a busy chap. The weather has been glorious, I've had my parents visiting (which was great), we have another visitor arriving this week which will be fun and we've been to Dubai a few weekends of late having a brilliant time with our new friends there.

I really haven't had a moment to sit and blog. Until today. I intended to laze around the apartment doing very little apart from grazing through the piles of biccies that mum and dad left for us and play on my x-box.

I was just settling down for my scheduled mid-morning nap when my phone rang. My friend, who lives around the corner, sounded a bit panic-stricken. She was doing a spot of spring cleaning and whilst bending down to pick up some detritus that had gathered in her corners (she's not the most house-proud of ladies...) her back gave out and left her on all fours in her hallway. She had to crawl to her phone to seek assistance. We have a key to her place so we dashed 'round with painkillers and deep-heat in hand. We found her face down, beached on her bed, flailing uselessly for a pillow. I had to stifle a guffaw. She was in pain but in good spirits. Her main concern was that she was wearing her 'cleaning outfit'. On assisting her to manouvre on to her back I realised 'cleaning outfits' apparently don't include a bra. Fortunately, her extremely curvy feminine curves were swathed in a voluminous yellow t-shirt. We made sure she was propped up appropriately and promised to return with a selection of dvd's, food and medical supplies.

On return to our apartment, I sat down with a drink and a book, intending to get through a couple of chapters. I woke up 90 minutes later (some nap!). What a shockingly bad friend! I called her and she had found solace in our other friend who lives a few floors down in her building (we'd left the door on the latch - here's one of the few places left on earth that you can still do that) and they were awaiting their KFC delivery. Yes! KFC deliver here. Mmmm.... chicken. I switched on my x-box for some guilt-free gaming.

Anyway. I must blog more constructively so I'll think about a post over the next day or two, I'll get some pics of the city on here as well. Now, where did I leave my book...

Another Slice of Petra

My 40th birthday dawned, bright and clear. The forecast had been for rain but when we peered out of the window it was a sunny day with an amazing blue sky. We raced down to breakfast, then out of the hotel to the gates of the National Park. It was bloody cold! It's strange - living here in the UAE, I haven't experienced cold ears for 6 months.

We walked off down the pathway towards the Siq. It was quite a contrast to the night before. The place was buzzing with Jordanian horsemen galloping up and down, offering rides to The Siq or a donkey to The Treasury. Most of the donkeys were tiny and I felt that if I were to get on one, my feet would drag on the ground. Poor little donkeys. For some reason that I can't explain, I'm a huge donkey fan. Bizarre. They have such a rubbish lot in life don't they? All that toil and burden. Yet they plod on and on with such calm docility, with the occasional bout of cranky, stubborn refusal, but who wouldn't in their situation? Before I move on to the rest of the day I need to make a note about the Jordanian horsemen... Yowsers! Those boys were seriously worth watching for a bit. So we did... Apart from their obvious skill at handling such noble beasts, they were HOT! Maybe it was just the manly and commanding way that they controlled their horses - a lot of them riding bareback - we felt giddy each time one of them romped up to us and offered a ride.

Anyway, after regaining our composure we continued our walk to The Siq. The following were some sights along the way.

This is the entrance to a tomb. There are lots of them carved into the sandstone hills surrounding Petra.

This building really reminds of something from The Flintstones.

This is the entrance to The Siq. It used to have an enormous arch between the two cliffs. It looks fairly unimposing, which was the point. For centuries after the city was abandoned it was kept a secret; Bedouins used to defend it and deter strangers from discovering it.

This is me in The Siq. Some of it has large cobbles, other parts has just sand. It's uneven and at times quite narrow. As you can see, it was almost empty because it's winter.

This is part way along The Siq. It's unusual as it's one of the few tombs in The Siq itself.

At last! The end of The Siq and The Treasury is almost in view.

It's an amazing, magical kind of place. This is only one tiny part of it. The ravine opens up to an enormous vallley surrounded on all sides by cliffs and mountains, all carved with buildings and tombs. Most of them aren't as well preserved as The Treasury but the detail and work in the carving is stunning.

Now that I'm home, it all seems like a dream. It's worth a visit. Do it now before it all turns to dust. Apparently, in summer it's now so popular that it has the same amount of visitors as the Pyramids in Cairo. In winter the place feels like it's all yours. Special.

Cake...with far too many candles

Ok. My life has, according to ancient lore, officially started. I wasn't sure how I'd feel about it so I avoided thinking about it until it actually happened. Now that I'm here at this age, the view isn't any different. Phew!

To celebrate my monumental coming of age I decided that, as my friends were all so far away (see previous post), I would sneak off somewhere fabulous to contemplate what being 40 really means. I chose Petra as a perfect spot for such thoughts.

Did I choose right? Well, no, not really. Why? It's just too stunning to have anything else in your head. Really. It's mind-blowing.

Many - oh heck! MANY - years ago whilst watching Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade I thought "what a cool location - where did they build that?" When I found out it's a real place I was determined that I'd get there eventually.

Last weekend, I packed my hat, my whip and my passport and headed to Amman, Jordan. We arrived in a sandstorm and could hardly see beyond the bonnet of the car that collected us to drive the 2.5 hour journey to Petra. The driver explained that the highway was closed so we'd have to drive a more circuitous route, which would take approx. 4 hours. We both groaned. Not only because a 4 hour car journey with deafening Jordanian music is enough to weaken the toughest resolve but because we (well.. I) had our hearts set on seeing Petra by night - more on this later.

Anyway, the driver zoomed off at terrifying speed through the shifting walls of sand whilst chatting to friends and family on his mobile - heaven only knows how they could hear each other. After 20 minutes of driving we stopped for some better mobile reception and the driver announced that the highway 'might' be open so we'd risk it but take it slow. He slowed down to the snail-like pace of 140kph and we plunged on into the red-brown dust. The driving was worthy of stunt car status and the road unworthy to be called 'road'. However, we pulled up at the hotel at 6pm - two and a half hours before the Petra by Night walk. Hurray! The driver even called ahead to hold some tickets - he had a space between calls.

We checked out the hotel - Arabian, tiles, fountains, lamps, palm trees - and then walked to the entrance of the national park. It was a chilly night, I'd had beer to celebrate our arrival, I needed to pee...

Our guide explained we should walk single file, follow the candles and don't leave the trail ("wish I'd brought my whip" I thought...)

The walk to Petra is a couple of miles long, most of which is through the 'Siq' a large natural ravine cutting through the desert. There were candles set out along the whole route and we walked in silence until we got to the entrance of the ravine, where we were held for a few minutes whilst the guide flashed his torch ahead to another guide to make sure the candles were lit so we could find our way. The ravine is quite narrow in places and the footing uneven. The whiff of donkey poo was quite apparent too - during the day, you can ride a donkey to save your weary legs. There was some very careful walking...

It was so dark as there was no moon so we only had the candlelight to follow. The ravine ends quite abruptly, unexpectedly, and we tumbled out into the opening right in front of The Treasury bathed in a hazy, ghostly glow of candles and mist. I was so excited, it was so beautiful, I felt a bit emotional - what a girl! But really! It literally took my breath away. Entertainingly, the only sound to be heard was a grumpy feral cat that had been disturbed by our arrival. It set up a right din but it all added to the atmosphere.

This picture is the only one that I could get with any detail. It was so dark, I was too excited and my camera obviously wasn't up to the task. You get the idea anyway.

We were invited to sit on reed mats and given mint tea whilst a local Bedouin played his flute, then our guide told us a local folk story. Then it was time to go. I didn't want to. The only thing that made it ok to leave was the knowledge I'd be back the next day, my birthday, to see it in broad daylight. I was also absolutely bursting to pee. The walk back seemed like an eternity. What with dodging donkey dung and walking carefully so I didn't pee my pants! Yowsers.

I'll post about the next day soon as this one is already a bit of a ramble.