andiamo!

Stu and I had the most delicious meal last night at Andiamo!, which is at the Grand Hyatt. All I can say is BELLISIMO (and I mean beautiful, and not how they mean it here)!

[our starters]

I started with a caprese salad, and Stu had a melanzane. This was accompanied by a very delicious bottle of Italian wine, namely a Villa Antinori Toscana 2004. The story on the restaurant wine-list is that the family have owned the farm for 27 generations, and it is now run by 3 of the ladies of the family. Checking this on the web today I see it is in fact true, they have been involved since 1385 or something. Amazing! And very very drinkable. I followed my salad with a spaghetti carbonara (which for some reason I have been wanting to eat all week) and Stu had a rack of lamb in a sun-dried tomato crust with ribbon veg and potatoes. Of course I could not leave a good thing alone and had to have a pudding, which was rather disappointing and I didn’t finish. Stu had two grappas, from the same estate as the wine earlier, with an espresso, and we headed home, very full and happy.

[stunning light fittings in the restaurant]

This morning we headed off to the ‘Cuda, yes, I mentioned that we would have to do this after I discovered the prices of the whiskey at the a+e earlier this week. Anyway, on the way back we met some friends for breakfast at the Boardwalk restaurant, which is on the Deira side of the Creek overlooking Creek Park, and has a lovely view of the Yacht Club. As it was rather chilly this morning, cloudy and windy, we sat inside, and all dreamt our dreamy dreams of owning one of the lovely boats out there on display.

I am beginning to think that we are running a halfway house for stray cats. When we got home from breakfast we were greeted by our mob; and peering in the window, desperate to say HI, was a green-eyed grey tabby in the garden. “Not again” was my first thought, as much as I love cats I felt the rising despair of having to find another home for this little lamb. She was basically trapped in our garden as she couldn’t seem to jump the wall to get out. Friendly in a skittish way, but definitely not wild, she shunned our offer of food and water and hid under the tarp covering the outside table. Stu went to sit with her for a bit and managed to coax her out. Happily whilst out there he heard a lady calling “angel” up and down the road outside the main wall, which turned out to be her mom, and lives 4 houses down. It seems she managed to get out of their garden for the first time but then could not get back. I have to say I am VERY relieved indeed.

Strange Dubai fact #7 in the paper today: despite a 12% drop in road accidents in 2008 the police have asked RTA to monitor driving schools better as a majority of drivers are unqualified. Deaths on the road last year numbered 294! After hearing about the road death toll back in SA being in the thousands every year this is certainly sad, but not earth shattering.

The 5 main reasons behind these road deaths are (in order): lack of consideration for road users, excessive speeding, sudden swerve (WTF), entering road without making sure it is clear (probably the reason they have blocked u-turning at intersections without traffic lights) and not leaving enough distance (ie tailgating). I have seen most of these behaviours exhibited on the roads, pretty much every day, I am just not really sure how they measure these violations in reality.

Enjoy your weekend dear reader.