sandCat in Dubai

Author: Cat Russell

  • spring from pillar to post

    spring
    [ouch!]
    September started this week, and as well as being the first day of Ramadan it was also the first day of Spring in the Southern Hemisphere. My “happy spring day” SMS message to friends generated various answers, most of them included some swearing and derision, as spring had definitely not sprung, at least not in South Africa. The flip-side of this coin is of course that the summer here has now been declared over, well at least according to the DJ on Radio 2 this week. And while some days did feel cooler we aren’t out of the sand yet (haha) judging by the temp reported by Stu’s car this week (see pic).

    Unfortunately things were not all sunny skies and Chevrolet this week, I managed to bash my car on a pillar on Tuesday when I fetched it from the dealership after it had had it’s first 1000km service. The sneaky pillar, painted grey I might add, was lurking in my blindspot and I reversed straight into it. The damage wasn’t that significant, a crack near the taillight and a slightly crumpled bumper, but I was rather upset to have spoilt my lovely new toy.

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  • bracing for ramadan, the wafi mall & more food

    Friday, sorry I mean Thursday, was undeniably the hottest day I have experienced here so far. Stu picked me up to go for lunch, and the walk from the office to the car (probably only a couple hundred meters) was literally hell. I could feel the heat radiating off the paving and tar, and baking down on my head all at once. When I got into the car, happily very air-conditioned, the dash read 47!! Thats a record, well for me at least. We went to the Wafi Mall, which is part of Wafi City (an Egyptian themed complex) for a bite to eat at Wafi Gourmet. What an exquisite shop. Its a large deli-style restaurant laid out around a central counter laden with pre-prepared meals, cheeses and various meat dishes; and around the perimeter are baskets of fresh fruit and veg, olives, nuts, dates and other counters displaying sweets and pastries galore! Its a treasure trove.. Sadly I was not allowed to take a picture of the inside of the shop so you will just have to imagine the nicest deli you can and you will be close.

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  • flat-pack fiasco

    I honestly can’t believe that another weekend is ending. For some reason the fact that friday is a day off here doesn’t seem to compute, mostly it just feels like a day you have bunked off work and so it passes in a flash and before you know it, its Saturday and you finally feel like its weekend, but then Saturday evening you realise that you have now had your weekend and it’s work tomorrow. I have been here now just short of a month and it’s really flown by. And this weekend of course was no exception.

    To begin with Friday was a BIG day – the day we had decided to let the cats out for the first time. Having collared and tagged them the night before we were all prepared for the event. If your cat gets lost here and doesn’t have a municipal tag it gets destroyed, however if it is tagged then you will (should?) get it back. Seems the microchip doesn’t really feature at all. Happily the pet relocation service included this registration. The cats were rather hesitant at first at the idea of all this space and the great outdoors, but eventually they all ventured outside and spent about an hour exploring the garden. William finally headed up the tree and then onto the wall. This was our cue to bring them in, we felt rather nervous that he was going to head over the wall.

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  • the meat co., and fossil rock

    Burj Dubai
    [Burj Dubai]
    So it may seem that we are red meat mad from this blog but finding a good steak here is harder than you may think. Anyway we met up with some MORE South African friends, who were here escaping from Iran for some R&R, on Thursday night last week at the Meat Co in the Souk Al Bahar, which is near the Burj Dubai tower (at 1km when complete it will be the tallest building in the world apparently). This Souk (or shopping mall if you like) has been designed to look old fashioned and almost Moroccan, although not having been to Morocco this is only a guess you understand. Unfortunately the metro and road construction all around the Old Town Island, where this development is located, made it rather a challenging place to a) find and b) get into, but we made it in the end.

    SA waiters
    [South African waiters]
    The nice thing about the Meat Co, apart from the SA meat of course, is that the waiters are all imported too, so it’s a real home away from home, with them singing “shozaloza” with the happy birthday song. The meal was delicious, as designated driver I did not have any wine sadly but nonetheless the evening was lovely. Yes drunk driving is not a national sport here like it is in South Africa so you really do have to plan your evening a bit better than you did at home; luckily there are toot-and-scoot type services if you get into a pickle (ha-ha!)

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  • happy days, SA meat!

    SA Meat
    [SA meat]

    (42°): We finally found the South African butcher, Nils & Robby, and they just delivered the best meat we have seen in a while. A taste of home at last.

    Amusing fact about Dubai #1: 18% of the woman here will have used their husbands credit cards today!