Creative Meanderings

Ah, the time is flying. Yesterday was my Ski Dubai day. It is an amazing experience to ski/snowboard in the middle of the desert. I almost forgot that it was actually hot outside. The Ski Dubai slope is located in the Mall of the Emirates, which is a 40 dirham taxi ride from Allan’s apartment. (Can we say incentive to rent/buy a car??). To ensure that I had the freedom to ski as…

🙁 Only 5 more days left…. Today was a lazy day of sleeping in, cleaning house, doing laundry and watching James Bond on the TV. I was quite tired after yesterday, so I took an afternoon nap. Finally in the late afternoon, we made it out of the house. Allan was in search of a barber and so we walked to the Lamcy Plaza area – yes another shopping mall – and I…

Once upon a time, a dude named Juha and his friend Sinbad got stranded on an island and the beautiful location seemed a great place to make an entertainment zone for people to come and enjoy the water rides they had created. Thus, is the condensed legend of Wild Wadi – Dubai’s famous water park! If it is too hot to do anything outside and the beach is still a bit too warm,…

Sadly, I have no idea what I did all day. I did not leave the apartment, not even for the pool. I did shower around 1pm. I did watch Li Na beat Venus Williams in the quarterfinals of the Olympic tennis match with Arabic commentary. I did make spaghetti sauce. I did talk to J for a while. I did not work. I did not read. Oh, I did finish postcards that need…

Today was my biggest day out and probably the last for the trip, but it was a good one. After my run-in with the Emirati fellow the other day, I decided that doing a tour might not be a bad idea since it is $36 for a four hour tour. So, they arrived and two of us were taken around in a mini-van to see bits of Dubai. We started with a stop…

True to the pattern I have been keeping, Tuesday was a pool/work day. The morning was a bit lazy, I admit and I spent the usual working time before the pool updating my blog, emailing, etc. Sometimes these things must be done! I enjoyed the pool and realized I am getting a good tan without having burned myself yet, so that is a bonus. Probably doesn’t matter for the eventual skin cancer possibilities,…

It seems that every other day I get out and try to do something…. Monday, I made up my mind to see some souks (markets) on my own. Not too far away from Oud Metha Rd, where I am staying, is an area of town called Karama. The travel book mentioned a section of town with lots of shops for tourists and locals, so I thought it sounded like an interesting venture out.…

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…