camp ka champ
This year I watched the TV show “American Idol” all the way through – from the amusing first rounds (complete with horrendous singing and blindness inducing outfits) to the somewhat disappointing finale (my favourite was out of the running so I wasn’t that interested by then). Despite the fact that the show has now had it’s TWELFTH season it is the first time I have persisted with watching it (no judgements please!) I think I mostly enjoyed Keith Urban’s presence as eye-candy, and the continual bitchiness between Maria Carey and Nicki Minaj. I can’t imagine what it must be like to go from nobody to a household name over a period of a few months. Scary, and exciting, I would imagine.
Camp Ka Champ 2013 kicks off
Herbie to the rescue
There is an 11 year old British boy living in the UAE that has developed an acute fear of flying. Despite hypnotherapy he flatly refuses to step foot on a plane. No one is entirely sure why he suddenly feels this way as he has flown, without incident, several times in the past.
[Herbie. Photo credit: Richard Cartwright]
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an oily anniversary
When you think about the Middle East you probably also think about oil, crude oil that is – black gold that gushes out of the ground. People visiting us are often surprised to find out that less than 10% of Dubai’s GDP comes from oil. This is not the case however for Abu Dhabi where oil contributes a lot more to their wealth and economy, and to the UAE overall.
Today marks the 50th anniversary of the first tanker of crude oil to leave Abu Dhabi and the beginning of the rapid growth and development that has been seen in the Emirate and the UAE alike. Efforts have subsequently been made to diversify into other industries leading to investments in sectors like football and space tourism, all fuelling a modern economy.
NOT all its cracked up to be
Unless you live in a cave you probably heard about, or even experienced, the Blackberry outage this week, which lasted a couple of days in some places.
I have a Blackberry, and yes I have to admit that I am rather addicted to it, and felt like I was missing a limb during this outage (although it was somewhat liberating not feeling like I constantly needed to check my emails). I am a recent convert to the madness however, have been using BB for just over a year after inheriting Stu’s old one when he got a new one from work. And trust me, before I had one of my own I HATED them! And now I am one of those people who is always fiddling with my phone! Ooops.
[source: rimarkable.com]
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a shift-free zone
No that’s not a typo. And it’s not a subtle way of not swearing. I really mean a shift-free zone. For those of you that don’t live in Dubai you may wonder what the hell? Well for the uninitiated, shifting = moving (as in house). And happily this year, for the first time in 3 years, we are NOT SHIFTING. Woooohoooo. Yes it is exciting, not least of all because the average daytime temp is about 45 degrees Celsius right now. And that makes moving anything extremely un-fun, well unless it’s moving your body into a nicely chilled swimming pool that is. That’s about the only moving that I could bear to imagine. Also as we have moved 4 times in 3 years, I think we have earned a year off, at least.
[brunch-time!!]
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