Once again the week has flown, and the weekend is almost over. I realised on Thursday evening that I had reached the 6 month anniversary of my leaving Johannesburg, in some ways it feels like I have been here a lot longer, like a few years, but in other ways it feels like I just arrived. The thought of a five year stay here was rather daunting to begin with, but it seems that the time will pass quite quickly after all.
On Tuesday I met the girls for a pizza at Ibn Battuta mall, which is now the closest mall to my new office. Its a large mall, split into differently themed sections, which are all rather over the top but that is the way things are done here. The parking lot was packed when I arrived after work, but inside the mall itself it was like a ghost town. Apparently most of the cars belong to people going to the gym, not very good news for the quiet shops inside, even with the shopping festival on it seems people aren’t buying. In fact when I bought myself a new handbag the week before (yes I needed it) the lady in the store had said it has been the worst shopping festival ever.
So we had finished our pizzas and juices, and decided to end off with a cappuccino each, which I ordered from the waiter. The conversation went something like this
(me) “could we have 3 cappuccinos please”
(him) “sorry ma’am, we have no milk for cappuccino, I may offer you filter coffee or latte”
(me, confused) “doesn’t a latte need milk also?”
(him) “yes ma’am but its different milk. the milk for the cappuccino is low fat, the milk for the latte is another one”
(me) “well ok then, may we have 3 lattes”
(him) “yes ma’am”
By now we were all looking at each other in a rather bemused fashion. Sometimes in Dubai its best not to apply common sense or logic to these things as you will blow a gasket. Happily the lattes were pretty good after all that!
On Thursday evening we went out for dinner to the Aquarium restaurant which is at the Dubai Creek golf and yacht club. Lovely view of the creek and floating bridge, but the most amazing thing is the giant aquarium in the centre of the restaurant. As you probably guessed the place serves mainly seafood, but the prices (for Dubai anyhow) are surprisingly reasonable indeed. I had a lobster bisque followed by sea bass with couscous, Stu had crab cakes followed by grilled plaice. We had a bottle of wine and a large bottle of water, and Stu had a double whiskey. And it was less than 600 dirhams. Now that is pretty good, we have become accustomed to paying at least 800 dirhams when we have a meal out that includes wine. And the food was delicious. The only negative was overly attentive waiting staff that made you feel a bit rushed.
Part of my conversation with Stu at the beginning was that I wanted us to make an itinerary for 2009 of places and things we wanted to see in the area, mainly so that we don’t fritter away every weekend on doing not a whole lot, and miss out on experiencing another side to life here. So on Friday morning Stu suggested we take a drive out towards Ras Al Khaimah and find the Ghaf forest mentioned in the UAE Explorer off-road book. I found out this morning when I googled it that Ghaf is the name of the tree; it is also known as the umbrella tree or the tree of the dunes. This is only the second time we have used this off-road book. The first time was the trip to Fossil rock we made last year, and this time, like then, we got lost. It seems that the guy who wrote the guide has his own strange logic, the orientation of the map on each page of the route is not consistent. On some pages you are facing north and others you are not, and being a girl I cannot compensate for this. So we got close (I think), but in the end gave up and stopped to eat our packed sandwiches under some trees along the route instead.
Friday evening I met up with the girls to see The Woman in Black at the Madinat theatre. Its advertised as being “totally gripping” but I can’t say that I agree. The acting was good, but the story itself was a little slow, being a bit of a horror movie addict I didn’t find it scary to be honest. It was also very distracting when they changed the scene around in the background, even though it was in the dark behind the main act I could still see stuff moving around and people passing behind the curtain. Nevertheless it was fun to go out to the theatre again, and to do something different.
Speaking of different Stu and I have also bought our tickets to see Cirque du Soleil in March, we are very excited about that.
image 1: from the Dubai Creek Club website
Comments
One response to “a minor ghaf”
Five years – really? I thought it was more like two or three. It does sounds like a long time when you say it like that. But if the first six months have gone quickly, then I guess the rest will just fly by!
It’s a bit scary how fast time goes when you’re an adult…
love, Fiona