Creative Meanderings

It is still weird to think of Sunday as the start of the work week, so I pretended it was still the weekend and decided to do nothing in particular. In fact, I have learned to sleep in a bit (though still up by 7am). After a short hour and a half at the pool side, I did a full sweep of the house and tried to do some household things that I…

I just realized I cut Day 9’s events a bit short. I was so excited and long-winded about the alcohol purchasing that I forgot the evening activities! oops! Day 9 Evening After getting back mid-afternoon, we relaxed before heading out to The Boardwalk, which is a nice restaurant at the Dubai Creek Golf and Yacht Club. It is shaped like a boat. So, we had a couple of very tasty appetizers and a…

Weekends in the UAE are generally Friday and Saturday. This sort of throws me off in my Western mentality that all work weeks start on Monday. Since I am on vacation, it is definitely easier for me to take it in stride, but many of the new people I have met say Friday when they mean Thursday because it is the last working day. It is humorous in a weird way. 🙂 So,…

I am a little behind…oops! Day 8 was suppose to be the best and most relaxing day ever with my day-long spa treatment at Cleopatra’s Spa. However, I woke up with chills from a fever and a bit of a headache. Still, I went in hopes that it would do some kind of detox to rid my body of whatever bug was taking over. The treatment was as follows: Step 1: Enter and…

I’m thinking about changing my nationality to Chinese or at least just saying “Yes” when people ask me if I am. On Day 7, my morning pool plans were foiled when the telephone/internet guy decided to take about three hours to get the job done. So far, most the technicians or people who do grunt work in Dubai seem to be the Pakistani. It seems they really don’t make much money. Some are…

I think I am going to have to stop counting the days as I do have three weeks here…. Hm… Anyway, Day 6 found me at the pool in the morning after doing a bit of work. Then, I headed to the Wafi Center again to check out the mall, find the Arabic Souk and check prices for a massage at the Cleopatra Spa. The mall itself wasn’t so fantastic for me as…

Today was a relax-at-the-pool day. I may have found the best schedule. Get at 6:30, have coffee, water and breakfast. Do some studying/work from 7:30 to 9. Hit the pool from 9 to 11. Shop, relax or whatever until about 3pm when the temperature starts to cool down. Sit back at the pool from 3 to 5pm. Have dinner around 6 or 6:30 and then relax the rest of the evening. This could…

Since the sun rises around 5 or so, I was awake at 6am trying to decide what to do with myself for the day. So, I determined to read a bit, go to the Starbucks in the nearby Lamsy Plaza, come back, work out and then get ready to make a visit to the Deira City Centre Mall. Well, waking at 6am makes for a bit of a slow passing of time especially…

After waking up to construction work, I realized that yesterday there was no noise in the morning. Friday is the holy day in Dubai, so there were hardly any cars on the streets, few people out and mercifully no construction work at the crack of dawn. It gets light here around 5ish, much like Japan. So, I have been awaking a bit earlier than usual on vacation. With a leisurely start to the…

My second day in Dubai was pretty quiet as Allan felt the need to clean his entire apartment floor and some of the outside windows despite the insane heat outside. So, I relaxed and did some homework. In the evening, we went to happy hour in the MovenPick hotel nearby. No pictures there, but it was basically and ex-pat’s type bar where we could see some Olympics and he could enjoy a few…